38 replies to this topic

[aniviron]

tib3r, on 07 October 2013 - 09:31 PM, said:

I am kinda torn between the atlas and the highlander looking it over. I am getting used to the atlas fairly quickly, its a pain in the neck though because of how slow moving it is and the trial mech includes my least favorite weapon in the game (gauss) so right now its interesting for me to say the least learning to play it.

I will assure you that as you unlock pilot efficiencies, the mech becomes much more responsive and turns, accelerates, and twists much more quickly. When you get three and master the tree, it makes a huuuuuge difference; it's easily the difference between being able to kill the lights circling you without much trouble and dying without landing a shot.

[Void Angel]

tib3r, on 07 October 2013 - 09:31 PM, said:

I am kinda torn between the atlas and the highlander looking it over. I am getting used to the atlas fairly quickly, its a pain in the neck though because of how slow moving it is and the trial mech includes my least favorite weapon in the game (gauss) so right now its interesting for me to say the least learning to play it.

Master the Atlas first - like the guy above me says, it's important. Once you get through the Elite skills, it's almost like piloting another 'mech, since the basic skills double. Plus if you're like me, you're running out of mech bays; and you won't be able to advance your pilot skills for any variant unless it is sitting in your 'mech bay at the time. I sold one of my Atlases without knowing this, and now I'm stuck at Elite until my Phoenix package comes in.

[tib3r]

VTR-9B

I thought long and hard about it, whats nice too is that it would carry over to the other two victor platforms, pack a nasty punch up close and move decently.

Would play a lot like the orions I enjoy.

[Mahws]

Some suggestions:
1. Move the ammo to your legs/head. Ammo explosions are (very) rare, but they do happen, so no point in risking it in your side torso.
2. Large Pulses aren't very good at the moment. They put out too much heat for what they offer. You'd do better with either PPC or Large Lasers. Both would give you better range without sacrificing short range ability. I'd suggest the 2xLL with the extra tonnage going to heatsinks or an upgrade to an AC20.
3. The second jumpjet isn't really necessary, I'd suggest dropping it for an extra tonne of LBX10 ammo. Two jumpjets aren't twice as good as one, it's more like a 20% or so increase.
4. You could stand to move a little more armor up front on the CT. 20 is generally enough on the back, especially on a Victor which is maneuverable enough to avoid getting hit there.

Edited by Mahws, 08 October 2013 - 04:23 AM.

[Tremendous Upside]

tib3r, on 08 October 2013 - 01:36 AM, said:

VTR-9B

I thought long and hard about it, whats nice too is that it would carry over to the other two victor platforms, pack a nasty punch up close and move decently.

Would play a lot like the orions I enjoy.

Prolly a little too slow to run an XL engine in comfortably (and what you're running is essentially a pt-blank brawler). On the plus side though, if you wanted to get a first assault mech - the Victor is probably the best all-arounder of the bunch. A great choice for sure... Here's the build I run on mine. Solid damage potential at mid ranges, decent speed, and a good CQ punch as well. It's not a mech you'll want to run "point" in - but it'll play a lot like a bigger heavy mech once you get it tweaked out.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...ad19848c0236626

[rdmgraziel]

If you like Orions, the Atlas is a very similar beast (because it was based on the Orion in the first place). But with 25 more tons to work with. Keep in mind all the chassis and variants also have variable torso and arm movement (it's one of the few boons of the Awesome, after all).

Awesomes - A good Awesome pilot is a ******* nightmare, but they are generally considered "meh" in ordinary circumstances since they require tons of skill to use. Hitbox issues and a massive front/back profile but a super slim side profile. Plays kinda like an oversized Heavy, and not so much an Assault.

Victors - They're good, their primary advantage is mobility mixed with good hitboxes, but if you want to go really fast you're going to be tossing in an XL which will make them easier to core out.

Stalkers - It's a boat! Expect to run hot, should be treated as a Support 'Mech, just like the Jager. Can mount super high firepower.

Highlander - Pilots in a similar way to the Atlas but with less armor, more missiles, arm ballistic and jumpjets. Two variants of note are the 733C(AC20 friendly brawler) and 733P(drops ballistics to make it an energy/missile boat, LRM friendlier as a result).

Atlas - Limited in effective build options, but one of the best slow-brawlers in game. Learn to torso twist and they're really good. Never use an XL or LRMs.

[Stingray Productions]

tib3r, on 07 October 2013 - 04:50 PM, said:

I wanted to start an assault mech, trouble is I can't really decide on one.

I have been playing Jagers for a while, I enjoyed playing an Orion, so I kinda figured I might be a good fit playing the Awesome.

Does that sound logical?

most people actually don't like the awesome. Me personally, i love my awesome 8Q, but that's only because of looks...in fact, a lot of my mech purchases are based on how they look, not how good they are. Anyway, as far as actually being good, you can't go wrong with the atlas D-DC. Very good mech to buy (has ECM). If you're wanting a little smaller I would suggest the victor; 80 tons, can go pretty fast (with a good XL engine), has good weapon layout and can have jumpjets....oh, and of course it looks cool too!

[tib3r]

I honestly don't get into too much of a twist about being cored out. Usually when it gets to that point anyways I don't care, kill me, I hate having a degraded mech anyhow.

I cannot describe to you how much I hate AC20s, they fire too slow for my tastes, and I have always liked the nasty shot gun effect of the LBX.

[tib3r]

Basically, I took the Orion build I had and made into a flying mech haha.

VTR-9B

ON1-VA

[Mao of DC]

Why do people {Scrap} on Atlases using LRMs. I use them to great effect as a way to soften up targets as I close or support my faster moving teammates

[Mahws]

It's the second part of your sentence. There was a period where atlas LRM boating was a fairly common thing, which understandably annoyed quite a few players. Between the low speed and the missile tubes they're not exactly suited for boating and it deprives your team of a mech that would be more use on the front line. Thankfully they seem to have gone the way of the Hexa-PPC Stalker though.

There's nothing wrong with LRM's on a balanced Atlas, I think people just have trauma from watching one too many team mates trying to back off from advancing enemies at 20kp/h with nothing but a handful of medium lasers as backup to their LRM.

Edited by Mahws, 09 October 2013 - 12:16 AM.

[Void Angel]

Eh, as an Atlas pilot who used to love his balanced LRM build, I somewhat disagree. There are several related problems with using LRMs in Atlases:

• Anti-Missile System defenses are more effective against smaller volleys, especially when AMS is massed. Smaller volleys can be completely destroyed by the massed fire of multiple AMS.
  
• If you fire larger numbers of missiles, your tubes cannot support all of them at once, giving your enemy more time to run to cover, and AMS more time to destroy your barrage. I have watched three AMS destroy all 35 of my missiles before they even hit a 'mech ( this is the maximum with Artemis and ECM for my DDC, by the way. )
  
• Gaining and maintaining missile lock channelizes your attention, reducing situational awareness and making defensive maneuvers such as torso twisting more difficult.

For these reasons, among others, I'm very hesitant to field LRMs on my Atlases. If it's working for you, by all means keep it up - but chances are, other systems are more effective for that chassis.

[tib3r]

VTR-9B What do you guys think?

[Mordin Ashe]

Would you take advice from someone who focuses on assaults? Good assaults are made of two things.
First: speed. Thats it. That is what you want when playing assault mechs. While extra tonnage gives you access to powerful engines, your are generaly slow. Cliché, I know, but please realise that when droping solo you depend heavily on your team and players around you to cover you and provide both fire support and more targets for the enemy to shoot at. The worst thing is lone assault. Too slow to run away, too big to be missed. And at speed below 60 kmph, your tam will simply run away from you. You can shine and put your extra tonnage to good use, but you need people around you so that you can do your job. 60 kmph is minimum you should aim for, perhaps some 57 kmph for atlas, but don't go lower because you would need a group of friends to stick with you and that simply doesn't happen in random battles.

Second: weapons. This is your strength. Not armor, weapons. You need hardpoints to have both boomsticks and suistainable DPS.

Atlases can be relatively fast and pack incredible punch, and Stalkers with some sacrifices (arms) even more so. Highlanders are very close to Atlases with some serious advantages (JJs mostly), and Victors are very agile while still packing quite a punch and also have some incredible builds (1k dmg with 3x AC2 Victor today, yay!). Awesome is the biggest problem here. If you look at the armaments, this mech has some role issues. It has speed, but its punch is lacking. You can pack it with the most cheesy stuff you can find, but it will still be barely competitive.

I didn't mention the armor so far. The truth is assaults have as much armor just to stay competitive, it is not their strength. In real battle assaults are huge, slow, hard to miss. He who decides to core you will manage simply due to you sheer size. In some cases assaults are more vulnerable to damage than mediums due to lack of their ability to escape and avoid fire. Allways have your torso armor maxed, but don't depend on it to save you when things get ugly. You have guns and you must be in place to use them, nothing more, nothing less. With that in mind, I would recommend the Victor mechs. They can be fast, brawlish, sniping, jump sniping, LRM boating machines. While Victor can't compete with Stalker in the weaponry department, it doesn't even have to. You will have enough versatility to customize your assault in any way you like while still having all qualities to make your mech a good assault. On the other hand if you wish to really know what assaults are about and don't mind lacking ballistics, go for stalkers. All disadvantages like subpar agility are only matter or time to get used to your mech. Either way, you will need a lot of time to get used to this rather specific class. These mechs will reward you with a lot of fun, but you have to learn how to treat them.

Edited by Mordin Ashe, 09 October 2013 - 12:43 PM.

[Void Angel]

As a primary Atlas driver, I somewhat disagree; it's true that the Victor is agile to a degree that other assaults can't match. it's also far more fragile. Superior toughness is one of the advantages assaults bring to the table - even the Victor. Like the Dragon before him, what the Victor does with his superior speed is act a lot like a Heavy with more armor, and a bit more firepower. Compare this (which is my recommended version of the above build by tib3r) to this. Roughly equivalent firepower and maneuverability, but the Victor is literally ten tons tougher - and with an edge on dps as well. His toughness doesn't stack up well against an Atlas or Highlander brawler (partly because of weight, and partly because of the XL,) but he has nearly the same firepower in compensation.

So what I'd say instead of the above on this point is that the advantages of the Assault class in general is just having more. With the Stalker, it's weapons; with the Victor, it's maneuverability. The Atlas has armor (and often weapons,) the Highlander has jump jets (and armor) - and the Awesome has tears. Seriously, stay away from the Awesome for now - its large CT hitboxes make it hard for people to use. If you pick the Assault that fits the playstyle you want to focus on, you can have more of everything than your competition in lower weight classes.

Edited by Void Angel, 09 October 2013 - 01:21 PM.

[Void Angel]

tib3r, on 09 October 2013 - 11:50 AM, said:

VTR-9B What do you guys think?

As I pointed out above, I'd actually recommend this build for that kind of Victor. You're more fragile with the XL, but you have the firepower to make up for it - your build frankly is armed much like a fast heavy, or a slow medium. =)

[tib3r]

I've been enjoying the jump so far, except for the fact that I have noticed that the medium/heavy players are really bad about supporting assault mechs and kinda play like chickens, so when I think I am being supported or what ever I find myself running to my death

[Void Angel]

It's because of 12-mans. They were finally getting better once the (ER)PPC was nerfed back into the general neighborhood of sanity, but when 12-mans rolled out, they'd suddenly find themselves smashed into smoking ruin if they made a mistake and got caught in the open. It's lead to an overabundance of caution.

[MisterPlanetarian]

Atlas:
D-DC > RS > D >Boar's > K (Don't buy it)

D-DC has gret long range potential with 2xAC5 and 2x Large Laser. ECM anchor. RS is the best brawler because it relies less on SRM's. The others are nothing impressive but your third can be a D or a Boars head if you want to buy it on a sale sometime. Don't expect to do alot of damage as a competitive atlas pilot. You are there to die so the rest of your team can do damage instead. In comp play your firepower is basically a bullet magnet as is your ECM so don't go overboard with ammo and so on. Never skimp out on arm armor.

Stalker:
3F > Misery > 5M > Rest (3H for LRM20 Builds)

Best Firesupport Assault. Can do decent in 1v1 with its narrow profile and high firepower. Very vulnurable to talented light mechs and flank attacks. Stalkers require 4/4 elite and basic X2 to be competitive. Can be played without but Don't expect to melt mechs left and right without proper mastery.

Victor: Don't own one. But the only ones I see are 2x PPC/2x AC5 or 2xPPC/AC20 fits. Large Pulse/Large Lasers are options to the PPC's. SRM's are garbage right now and if you fit them on your victor you are bad. They can be nasty as hell in the right hands. Great mech for conquest.


Battlemaster will play like a really fast stalker or a Victor without Jump Jets. High mounted torso weapons instead of arms and much better torso twist than a stalker. Also some ballistic options to boot. Awesome will be garbage untill It gets hitbox fixes and an exemption from ghost heat. The Battlemaster completely obsoletes the Awesome.