24 replies to this topic

[The Boz]

Heya, folks! I'm The Boz, and I'm quite new at this.
Played my way up to 10m C-bills today, decided I'd get a mech of my own, as the lack of focus on the trial builds bothers me greatly. Since I noticed that my survivability and combat effectiveness skyrockets when I'm either tailing an assault, or was playing an assault with someone covering me, I figured that this type of mech is a great team backbone. I grabbed an Atlas AS7-RS because it was inside my price range, was the heaviest mech in the game, and it carried four energy hardpoints, which I needed.
See, I like me some medium-to-close range action. My current loadout is a mech with maxed out armor in all zones, carryingan AC2 with three tons of ammo, four large lasers, and an antimissile system with a ton of ammo, with the rest of the mech covered in standard heat sinks.
What I'm looking for are tips, both for gameplay and building the mech. My next step, after grinding out the C-bills, is to grab the double heat sinks. I'm not sure if upgrading the structural material would be a wise choice, as it would take up a LOT of room, precious room for heat dissipation. What about the engine? Are XLs worth it? I'm kinda scared by the increased risk of core KO associated with those, and my build and playstyle is definitely focused on both taking and delivering a beating.

[Royalewithcheese]

XLs are really bad in Atlases. You have huge side torsos that are often the first thing your opponents target.

You should go the double heatsink route - keep in mind that the 10 free heatsinks in your engine count as 2 normal heatsinks, so this is almost always the way to stay cooler. Gun-wise, the laserfists are a good call, but it's important to have trigger discipline to avoid ghost heat. You will probably want something bigger and cooler in your ballistic torso - the Gauss is good for now, might want to switch it out for something different once the Gauss gets the nerfbat.

[JigglyMoobs]

I run my build like this:

3xLL AC/20 AMS STD 350 AS7-RS

One of the standard builds people used to run is this:

AS7-RS 4xLL Gauss AMS STD 325

But this build is problematic due to the heat scaling and the vulnerability of the Gauss. With 3xLL, heat is more manageable, and you get the extra punch with the AC/20 when you need it. The speed of the STD 350 engine is valuable for 2 reasons:

1. you can get over rough terrain better.
2. you have very good torso twist, allowing you to shoot light mechs easily

With either mech your role is to kill the enemy with well placed shots to the face or the center torso. Hitting rear CT is even better. Fire the LLs together in one group, and the ballistics in a second group. Don't chain the LLs unless there's pressing need. Instead, fire them simultaneously at the CT, then shoot your ballistics. You can do this 3x before need to to "rest" for your heat to recover. The best place to rest is behind a rock or some similarly impenetrable obstacle.

With this build you're very very dangerous to enemies with yellow and red CTs. You are also very very dangerous to light mechs because of your torso twist and instant hit weapons. However, due to the heat issues, try to avoid fights against multiple enemies in open terrain or against another assault mech in close proximity. You can win the latter, but it will cost you dearly.

Setup wise it's best to have low enough mouse sensitivity to hold your targeting reticle very steadily on a single enemy component while both of you are moving. You must unlock arms.

Most helpful modules:
By far: advanced seismic
Secondary: Target info gathering

If you aim well, use terrain, play smart, and have a good team, you should do very well in PUGs.

A few of the more successful games from the last week:

http://imgur.com/a/rWOcg#0

My firing groups:

Left mouse: All LLs on chain fire
Right mouse: AC/20 or Gauss
Space bar: All LLs simultaneous fire (preferred)
Button 4: Alpha (almost never used when equipped with AC/20)

Edited by JigglyMoobs, 01 September 2013 - 07:41 PM.

[The Boz]

My fire groups right now are:
1. AC 2.
2. Large Lasers
The lasers are set to bank fire, I rarely use chain because I want that one perfectly aligned shot to count. On a few maps, I'll switch out to chain if they're hot, or if the fight lasts a while or gets really close.
I carry both the AC and AMS ammo in my left breast, in a CASE, and my legs have heat sinks on them. I remember leg sinks being a good idea in prior MW titles due to puddles, but I haven't noticed a dramatic effect on those yet.
What I really, really hate right now are two things: the firing points and hot maps. Firing the laser bank twice shuts me down in warm areas, and it's literally impossible to use cover effectively because the fire points for the arms are so low and so far apart.

[Modo44]

JigglyMoobs, on 01 September 2013 - 07:37 PM, said:

3xLL AC/20 AMS STD 350 AS7-RS

That is a standard build for the Atlas K. Taking the RS without missiles or 4 energy weapons seems like a waste. If you're going to do that, why not have dual AMS at least?

Edited by Modo44, 02 September 2013 - 04:53 AM.

[Spheroid]

One AC-2 is worthless. Upgrade your heatsinks and install an AC-10, LBX-10, ultra-5 or a gauss.

[TheCrazySteve]

First off, you pretty much have to split your large lasers into two firing groups. Alternate them and do not fire within half a second otherwise you get a nasty heat penalty when firing more then 2 large lasers. The added benefit is the atlas is huge and often times only one of your arms will be able to shoot at a mech.

Endo-steel is also a must. It may appear to get rid of too many slots, but the tonnage that it frees up will allow you to put in a bigger engine which can then hold more heatsinks.

Here is what I run currently on my RS, hopefully this combined with the other builds that people link will give you a good idea of where you want to go with your mech. Mine pretty far on the hot side, the missiles could easily be swapped out for a ballistic weapon.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...cac4b3444352229

Edited by TheCrazySteve, 02 September 2013 - 08:57 AM.

[The Boz]

TheCrazySteve, on 02 September 2013 - 08:56 AM, said:

First off, you pretty much have to split your large lasers into two firing groups. Alternate them and do not fire within half a second otherwise you get a nasty heat penalty when firing more then 2 large lasers.

What the hell? ADDED heat penalty!? How the hell was I supposed to know this!? Why is this in the game!?


EDIT:
OK, so, I grabbed the double heat sinks. My build now looks like this: AS7-RS QLL AC10. (Ingame tip says heat efficiency is 1.28, but smurfy says it's 41%, don't know why the discrepancy.)
I also redid the weapon groups so that the lasers fire in banks of two instead of four, with the autocannon firing independently. The effect of that alone was BRUTAL, I couldn't believe how much more staying power I got by just separating the lasers that way. Currently experimenting with linking the AC to one of the laser banks...
But seriously, why is that even in the game? Aren't the random hot maps enough of a hardcore nerf to energy weapons?

Edited by The Boz, 02 September 2013 - 10:31 AM.

[JigglyMoobs]

Modo44, on 02 September 2013 - 04:51 AM, said:

That is a standard build for the Atlas K. Taking the RS without missiles or 4 energy weapons seems like a waste. If you're going to do that, why not have dual AMS at least?

It's a combination of reasons. I've been playing the RS for months and I've found that this loadout best suits my style of play in the current meta.

Yes, you lose one LL.

However, in a lot of maps that buys you enough headroom with your heat that you can alpha one more consecutive time before overheating and dropping down to your sustained DPS.

Versus firing 4LLs in 2LL groups, your peak DPS is a lot higher, and your more likely to get that damage into the same component. You also need to expose yourself less to deliver your max damage.

The 5 pounds and extra slots from the one LL buys you a larger engine, more heatsinks, and the ability to carry an AC/20 with sufficient ammo in an endosteel chassis.

The larger engine let's you have better mobility over terrain, keep up with your heavy mech group, and take out lights easily with the better torso twist.

If you trade all that for missiles what do you get? You get spread damage that can only be used within 275 m if you go for SRMs, and you have to carry the extra ammo. If you go for streaks you get minimal damage output, plus the heat and extra ammo. Neither is going to be more effective against heavy enemies then another alpha with your 3xLLs and AC/20. Neither is needed against light mechs because your bigger engine, 3LL on your arm already lets you take them out with ease.

Dual ams? It doesn't give you any more tactical options unless you happen to be facing an Atlas shooting out lrm 20s in 5 missile groups. You can use your extra speed to compensate.

At the end of the day I found that 47 point damage in one alpha strike and being able to sustain that 3 or 4 times consecutively already gives you enough killing power to take on anything else in the battlefield. The rest of the weight and slots are better spent on mobility and heat management, which, while not sexy, give you better tactical flexibility.

[Modo44]

I'd probably take some streaks or LRMs on the RS. My K currently has one LRM15 launcher in its slow config (2xLL, 2xMPL, LRM15, AC20, STD325).

Dual AMS is quite severe vs missiles. You get to laugh at streaks and low-tube LRMs. I recommend actually trying it for anyone thinking it is a minor upgrade.

[JigglyMoobs]

Modo44, on 02 September 2013 - 12:24 PM, said:

I'd probably take some streaks or LRMs on the RS. My K currently has one LRM15 launcher in its slow config (2xLL, 2xMPL, LRM15, AC20, STD325).

Dual AMS is quite severe vs missiles. You get to laugh at streaks and low-tube LRMs. I recommend actually trying it for anyone thinking it is a minor upgrade.

Dual AMS is nice in some situations (eg. against LRM boat heavy team or providing anti LRM umbrella to your own team) but if you are facing the LRMs you are often facing other weapons as well. Whether you use them effectively really depends on the style you like to play. So to each his own.

For defense against lights I really recommend giving STD 350 a try. In combination with LLs and AC/20 (and good aim) it'll make your RS or K build absolutely lethal vs. light mechs. Once you give it a whirl you won't want to go back!

[Modo44]

My original point was, your fast RS config translates directly to the K. I ran exactly that thing with one less heatsink for more ammo and the second AMS. The CT laser is also nice to have, since no amount of twisting will save the AC20 in longer brawls.

[JigglyMoobs]

Modo44, on 02 September 2013 - 01:50 PM, said:

My original point was, your fast RS config translates directly to the K. I ran exactly that thing with one less heatsink for more ammo and the second AMS. The CT laser is also nice to have, since no amount of twisting will save the AC20 in longer brawls.

Yep you could do the K, but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome with the RS!

Plus you don't have to pay for the expensive and useless XL engine. And also having the LLs all on the arm is very useful, as you can hit target much faster using the arms than using CT. Pretty much any enemy that poptart out of cover, fly over head, or appear on the horizon will receive three giant glowing sticks of love from my RS within about a second. A bit harder to do that with the K, though I guess 2 glowing sticks of Atlas love is nothing to sneeze at either.

Edited by JigglyMoobs, 02 September 2013 - 03:13 PM.

[Modo44]

Yeah, I agree about the silly engine in the K. It was OK for me, because I wanted it for my Dragon, and I didn't want to elite the DDC's stupid cousin (the D).

Edited by Modo44, 03 September 2013 - 03:49 AM.

[The Boz]

I am thinking of buying this AS7-RS future? as my next loadout. I don't know how the heat efficiency in smurfy translates into the game, and carrying only 2 tons of AC 10 ammo worries me. Thoughts?

[The Boz]

So.
New patch.
SRM4s got buffed.
Possible new build: AS7-RS QLL DSRM4
Still don't know which way to go... What are some of the other engines that I should be looking at for a brawling setup? Should I switch out the large lasers for large pulse lasers?

Edited by The Boz, 03 September 2013 - 02:00 PM.

[Spheroid]

Boz, try this. I have been removing all the gauss rifles from my mechs. This build absolutely dominates. I just finished a round with over 900 damage and 160,000 C-bills. Quad large laser runs hot, I prefer constant alpha using three cooling with an AC-10. If you want to push the heat a little higher you could substutute some ER Large. I used a surplus 320 from my Victors which otherwise is not the best of engines. You could easily use a 325 if you have one on hand by dropping a ton of ammo.
　
　
AS7-RS (3 LLAS + AC-10 + TAG)

Edited by Spheroid, 05 September 2013 - 06:12 PM.

[1e0n]

Here is my RS which gives me a LOT of fun lately.
STD 360 / FF / ES / 2xMPL / 2xLPL / AC20
The Pulser

Of course you can swap LPL for PPC but where is the fun?
Bring your CS 9by9

[1e0n]

...got tempted to play one more when writing the post above...so here is the result (not the best but funnnn)



An now...good night.

[Scav3ng3r]

My favorite RS build.