155 replies to this topic

[Shiro Matsumoto]

Id recommend a Catapult, was the first Mech i brought with the cadet Bonus Money.. if inclined a Hunchback, or if you liike twitchiness, a Jenner.

[bishop]

What's this cadet bonus? Would I be better off starting a new profile so I can get it?

[Hauser]

bishop, on 10 June 2013 - 01:46 AM, said:

What's this cadet bonus? Would I be better off starting a new profile so I can get it?

You get a ton of extra cbills on your first 50 matches or so. If you've been a member before the Bonus was instituted you'll have been credited with it already.

[bishop]

Damn, yeah I've already bought a bunch of mechs before this....that sucks.

[Bishop113]

WELP! Of course someone took uppercase Bishop already, oh well.

[Cervantes88]

I've started playing Atlas recently, as I was waiting for the Orion and was ignominously deprived of my fun, so I decided to just buy a fat version of the Orion.

They are good mechs, but nothing special you would expect from a 100 tons behemoth. I get 300-500 damage on all games where I actually get a chance at doing anything, with some few really good 600-700+ dmg games. My KDR is above 2.5, in about 120 pug games so far, with an Atlas D and a DDC (saving for the RS as third). I feel like I'm less overall impacting the game than I would be in a Stalker or a Jagermech.

More than with any other mech, I feel like I'm rolling the dice every game. You are so slow and a big easy target that you just walk to one place at the beginning of the game, try to stick with your team, and if it happens to be a good place to be you'll do well, if it's a bad place to be you'll get wrecked, but that you yourself do not do much in changing the outcome of the situation, because you can't get out of a sticky situation and try a different approach.

So yeah, they're tough for beginners because you have to know each map well enough to be able to somehow anticipate what your team and the enemy will do, so that you are in the right place at the right time, that's the main challenge for an Atlas, they're quite unforgiving for that matter.

Playing with LRMs or sniping weapons can really make it easier for you, a brawler Atlas can do good but it exacerbates the random part of your placement+enemies+allies+how is the game going, because once you're in the brawl you can't get out, so it can either go really well or really bad. The problem with sniper Atlas is that you can't make any effective use of cover like a Stalker or a Jagermech, so you have to favor open space with slow covers. Still going long range is way better, because that way you will be less dependant on your placement and on the map (try playing a full brawling Atlas on Alpine, you'll understand the very concept of pain.)

Also, they're not that expensive, as they come with a good STD300 stock, and they generally don't need any upgrades besides DHS. Not counting the weapons that you may already own, it's 10-11 millions for just the mech fully upgraded and armored with an engine.

They're probably not the best first mechs that's for sure though. I would advise going someting easier like Stalker if you want to go assault.

[edit] For example this would be a pretty good and cheap build : http://mwo.smurfy-ne...8660a1872a002b2

Edited by Cervantes88, 10 June 2013 - 02:10 AM.

[Bishop113]

Well are there any good faster Atlas builds? I know what you mean constantly being behind but for me the only mech in this game I like is the Atlas, I grew up on MW3 and 4 where I had my Madcat and Vulture so all these older designs really aren't my thing except for the Atlas.

[Lege]

Stay with a wingman always. Your faster team mates will probably bail on you the instant the fire fight starts in a pick up group. I don't like running assaults with out my normal 3-4 man group. My best k/d ratio is in a Jenner, mostly because you can run away from any encounter that doesn't have lights left alive on the enemy team afterwards. Many games go like this, the big brawl happens, soon as I get shot up I bail and try to cap. Either the brawl takes a long time and we win on cap or they finish the brawl and win or lose at the brawl we win because they can't cap or get back to cap in time. I'll stay in the fight as long as I can and I'll try to kill the enemies lights so they can't chase me. Conquest is different, as a light I always try to keep 3-4 cap going as long as possible and choosing when to jump into a fight.

[Modo44]

There is no really fast Atlas, since even a slow Hunchie will run in front of you. That being said, I do run my Atlas K at 60.2kph. It swaps the DDC's ECM for 2 AMS, and its SRMs for a more precise CT LPLAS.

[Bishop113]

I purchased the hunchback that comes with the AC/20, having a good experience with it following some of your guys' tips and you're totally right about Atlas's receiving the brunt of the fire, everyone ignores me entirely as long as I stay behind a bit it's a cool dynamic, I would think it would be the other way around because people want to get rid of the little guys first but I guess not.

Going to buy an Atlas or Centurion after this, I'll try your build Modo when I get an Atlas.

[Modo44]

Most people will tell you that the K is bad because of the reduced missile hardpoints. I would go with the DDC as my first Atlas. It will allow you to try a wider variety of builds, and ECM will keep you safer than double AMS would. You can also make it fast(ish) without sacrificing too much, for example like so.

[scJazz]

Bishop113 who is also Bishop I presume...

Your first 25 matches are bonused for an additional earning of 8m CBills along with added XP Boosts. To maximize this effect please run around locking targets for spotting bonuses and shoot every enemy at least one time. Do not sell anything that you buy but decide you do not like. You will need that stuff shortly.

I will be more or less on constantly and will watch this thread intently in case you have questions if it appears that you are playing today.

Good Luck
More later just wanted to write this part fast.

[Buckminster]

bishop, on 09 June 2013 - 06:48 PM, said:

Looking at my profile my stats are abysmal in my opinion, 70/90 win loss ratio, 1:1 Kill death ratio.

Wow, I must be terrible then - 353/436 win/loss, and a .61 KDR. Oddly enough, it's still fun - maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment.

Two traps that a lot of people fall in to - "assault mechs are huge and well armed and armored and must be easy to get lots of kills with" and "light mechs are small and fast and easy to play". Neither could be further from the truth.

Assault mechs are easy targets. It's very easy for people to hit them because they are slow and ponderous, and pinpoint aiming makes it easy to avoid a lot of that armor.

Light mechs are fragile. And while they are fast, it is very hard to handle that speed well.

There's also a third fallacy - that trial mechs are any good. In the hands of a good pilot they are still good mechs, but they are intrinsically handicapped by their lack of upgrades. They are also handicapped by the fact that most pilots using trial mechs won't have many of the pilot skills unlocked. It's a double whammy of suck.

I just bought a new Centurion-AL last week. I needed the 1.5 million to add DHS to it, and running it (with no basic skills) compared to my Yen Lo Wang (with all basic skills), the AL is noticeably gimped by that lack of skill.

[oldradagast]

The Atlas is not an easy mech to pilot. It has staggering firepower and armor, but is as slow as a mountain and is a priority target (sometimes even when far more deadly mechs are lurking nearby.) As with all assaults, you have to chose your battles wisely, realize that retreat is impossible, and do your best to distribute damage all over your mech to take full advantage of your huge amount of armor.

A solid medium or heavy mech (Hunchback, Centurion, Cataphract, etc.) is a better starting point. You won't be the biggest target on your team and you'll have more mobility.

[Aym]

I believe the single best bit of advice is to find a team/group on Team Speak and play with them. You'll be able to stay with the group, get some protection while you learn to play, and also get live feedback from your team mates. If you do not own a microphone that is ok, you can still hear your team mates which is very valuable.

[scJazz]

Bishop,
I kept an EditPad open for you today as I browsed the forums. Here are 3 links you might want to review

HBK-4G Builds
http://www.mechspecs...y.php?54-HBK-4G

Hit Box Locations
http://mwomercs.com/...x-localisation/

Various TS Servers
http://mwomercs.com/...e-chat-servers/

[Bishop113]

Thanks Jazz, I'm getting 500k each match still.

I haven't done poorly in the hunchback yet so it's all good at this point, I'll reiterate, if anyone out there plays semi-casually without voice I'd be happy to play with you.

I'll save up and buy a DDC next, still want that Atlas love.

[scJazz]

Bishop113, on 10 June 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

Thanks Jazz, I'm getting 500k each match still.

I haven't done poorly in the hunchback yet so it's all good at this point, I'll reiterate, if anyone out there plays semi-casually without voice I'd be happy to play with you.

I'll save up and buy a DDC next, still want that Atlas love.

OK if you are really that into Atlai go right ahead. Just understand that you will need to buy 3 of them at ohhhh I'm guessing 13m a piece. Keep this sorta thing in mind as your Cadet Bonus is only 8m CBills.

[TheFlyingScotsman]

bishop, on 09 June 2013 - 06:48 PM, said:

Hey guys, I made a thread quite a while ago asking for help and pointers and was greeted with a lot of helpful advice, that was several months ago. I don't play MWO on a regular basis but I do occasionally get into it and play several matches a day for a short period of time, but I'm still having a really hard time enjoying the time I spend with MWO.

Most of my problem right now seems to center around my ping, it's always above 150, every single match I've played the last two days I've had 150 ping. I don't know if this high ping is going to cause major problems for me or if I really am just a horrible player but I've been running the trial atlas in every match and I just get destroyed every time.

Now I am trying to use the tips I've gotten before, I try to turn to plant enemy shots on different parts of my armor and such, I try to focus all my fire on one point on my enemy but nothing seems to do any significant damage ever. I recall a match I played a few hours ago, I walked over a hill, took one barrage of LRM's from a single mech, walked around some more, and the next barrage from that same mech instantly killed my Atlas. I don't know about you but I would think a giant slow armored beast would last longer than two rounds of missiles.

At any rate, I can't tell anymore if the game is just a sorry mess or if I'm still horrible at it, my damage count at the end of every round is always very low, my death and loss rate are both very high. It just doesn't feel like any amount of skill or accuracy plays any role in this game, it all feels random to me.

Looking at my profile my stats are abysmal in my opinion, 70/90 win loss ratio, 1:1 Kill death ratio.

I don't know, this is just really frustrating, not having bot matches, a single player or at the very least a game mode with respawns and repairing, every match is just me walking, fighting for 5 minutes and then watching as everyone else plays when I get my *** handed to me. I stick with my team as best as possible, I focus fire as best as I can and my end result is always disappointing.

Firstly, yes. A lot of problems stem from the game code and server overload. This is at the very least intended to be fixed.

Otherwise, keep in mind that Trial mechs have signifigantly less armor on many occasions, and will die much more quickly and overheat more often than purchased and modified mechs.

The current meta is focused on maximixing weight and weapon FP. The reason for this is that tonnage affects how much you are able to perform, and there are few effective weight limitations. Especially if you are using an Assault, in doing so you raise the entire weighting of the match. The more Assaults that are in any game (regardless of side), the harder it is for smaller mechs and trial mechs to have any competitive role or survive through combat.

The long and short of it is that trials suck, and Assaults have much, much more power than other mechs per pilot. This means that more players choose assaults than the other weight tiers, making this game very, very difficult for trial players and smaller mechs which simple do not have the battlefield presence of larger mechs. When larger mechs stack, the smaller and newer mechs are the first to die hard.

My reccomendation is learning to play using Heavies, and buying your own mech ASAP.

[Bishop113]

I'm doing extremely well in my Hunchback, 3.0 K/D in it so far, my base K/D is up to 1.30.

My damage output is about the same as using the Cataphract so far, though I occasionally hit below 200 dmg.