Posted 08 October 2013 - 08:09 AM
IMHO, the Atlas is meant to brawl. It's fine to have medium range weapons to hammer foes as you close the gap, but if you're standing in the back like a fencepost, chucking LRM's at targets 500+ meters away, you're missing the point of the mech. A Stalker or Awesome - or probably a Catapult or Orion - can do the LRM thing just as well and be faster and less weight to boot.
1) Make sure you're using the ballistics slot. Every Atlas can mount at least 1 ballistic weapon, so pick a big one - or a pair of medium size ones on the D-series - and hammer away.
2) Use your energy weapons. The Atlas has great arm mobility - use the arm lasers to sweep away lights.
3) Don't try to be what you're not. An Atlas is poor for LRM's since it can only put up 10 at a time, max, which is not impressive. An Atlas is also a lousy sniper since all the weapons are mounted low on the frame. You're role is to lead the attack and be the best brawler out there, IMHO.