166 replies to this topic

[Blissful Negligence]

I have noticed that since the hit boxes have been "adjusted" the Atlas arms fall off quicker than Obamas approval ratings.

[East Indy]

Even though I'm best in a medium or fast heavy, and have very streaky performance with Atlases, I like the 'Mech. The tension between leveraging firepower/armor and going Pickett's Charge is cool, even if it's frustrating and sometimes embarassing. It's worth waiting out the current pecking order.

[nemesis271989]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 February 2014 - 10:50 AM, said:

30 points of armor out of 64 frontal on a side give or take. Its the convergence that make our Mechs seem fragile. On TT a 30 point alpha from a Warhawk was a scary thing thanks to the CTC. Here we don't need to give up that 5-7 tons to have pin point fire.

The Alas is fine convergence needs work though.

Convergence or not the fact remains that the ATLAS is a trash on a battlefield.
Secondly partial damage that is being transferred on internals in most cases cripples an ATLAS in first 2-3 minutes of a battle.

[Joseph Mallan]

nemesis271989, on 19 February 2014 - 11:02 AM, said:

Convergence or not the fact remains that the ATLAS is a trash on a battlefield.
Secondly partial damage that is being transferred on internals in most cases cripples an ATLAS in first 2-3 minutes of a battle.

Trash would imply that nobody could get good numbers with it. I am better with an Atlas than with a Meta Highlander or Victor as I showed above.

[FactorlanP]

I used to drive an Atlas almost exclusively.

Now, almost never.

The Atlas, even with all of its armor, simply cannot stand up to the huge pinpoint alphas that are all the rage these days.

It's a shame too. The Atlas was a lot of fun back in Closed Beta.

[nemesis271989]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 February 2014 - 11:06 AM, said:

Trash would imply that nobody could get good numbers with it. I am better with an Atlas than with a Meta Highlander or Victor as I showed above.

Are you here to discuss your own skill or the current mech's problems?
I've been piloting ATLAii from day 1 of closed beta. I would love to confirm that there is SUPER noticeable change with that mech. It used to be a suicide fighting an ATLAS face to face. NOW? Anyone can do it!!! Anyone can cripple an ATLAS!!! Does it feel right? I think NO!!! Bottom Line... Something needs to be done!!!

[Joseph Mallan]

FactorlanP, on 19 February 2014 - 11:08 AM, said:

I used to drive an Atlas almost exclusively.

Now, almost never.

The Atlas, even with all of its armor, simply cannot stand up to the huge pinpoint alphas that are all the rage these days.

It's a shame too. The Atlas was a lot of fun back in Closed Beta.

I have driven an Atlas since closed Beta, I moved up to a brawler build D-DC Thanksgiving 2012... I have gone through a few redesigns, but I have nothing bad t say about Atlases. I have two meta builds I like the Jager40 & my old Archer (F)Atlas(2 LRM20 and 4 Medium lasers). The Jager build fails at Joe's Elo but still holds it's own at Anton's.

[FactorlanP]

Joseph Mallan, on 19 February 2014 - 11:14 AM, said:

I have driven an Atlas since closed Beta, I moved up to a brawler build D-DC Thanksgiving 2012... I have gone through a few redesigns, but I have nothing bad t say about Atlases. I have two meta builds I like the Jager40 & my old Archer (F)Atlas(2 LRM20 and 4 Medium lasers). The Jager build fails at Joe's Elo but still holds it's own at Anton's.

I should point out that while I have played with one of the "competitive" groups for awhile in the past, I have been pugging it for quite awhile now.

An Atlas might be more viable in a situation where I know better what to expect from my team mates.

Your mileage may vary...

[Joseph Mallan]

nemesis271989, on 19 February 2014 - 11:13 AM, said:

Are you here to discuss your own skill or the current mech's problems?
I've been piloting ATLAii from day 1 of closed beta. I would love to confirm that there is SUPER noticeable change with that mech. It used to be a suicide fighting an ATLAS face to face. NOW? Anyone can do it!!! Anyone can cripple an ATLAS!!! Does it feel right? I think NO!!! Bottom Line... Something needs to be done!!!

Closed Beta I use to take on other Atlas in a Centurion, The Atlas is only as good as the pilot as I have sorta been saying. If you have not had success in an Atlas presently then maybe it is your build template and not the Atlas over all.

Just saying. If I judged Mechs my my performance or by how well I kill them, then I would be laughing at Cataphract pilots for being so squishy in front of my Atlas and rage against the nimble lil jenners who seem to chew me up and spit me out. Instead I Look in the mirror and face the one responsible for my success and failure.

FactorlanP, on 19 February 2014 - 11:16 AM, said:

I should point out that while I have played with one of the "competitive" groups for awhile in the past, I have been pugging it for quite awhile now.

An Atlas might be more viable in a situation where I know better what to expect from my team mates.

Your mileage may vary...

Oh indeed. But my Atlas serves me well in PUG as well as along side of fellow Lawmen.

And of course our mileage will vary.

Its why I don't blame the mechs.

Edited by Joseph Mallan, 19 February 2014 - 11:22 AM.

[Xmith]

I have had a few people try to go 1v1 against me and my D-DC with bad results on their part. I'm hoping people will read threads like this on how bad an Atlas is and come across me 1v1. I like easy kills myself.

An Atlas is not easy to master. First of all, you have to dedicate the majority of your time in an Atlas. You can not use it for a few matches and then quit on it when you did not get your 3 kills per match.
I have no proof but my best match, 8 kills and 1300 damage. Everyday I will have a match or two where I will do at least 800.

When I check end game results, I rarely see a Highlander or Victor with tops scores.

[Trauglodyte]

Steel your Life, on 19 February 2014 - 03:08 AM, said:

The atlas sucks compared to the victor and highlander. Its just really not that great of a mech at all.

why?

My simple answer lies in the nature of this game. This game was based off table top so what they did was double all the hitpoints and keep weapon damage the same. This is an aim based game.
Because when you can easily do 20-30 damage per cycle what good is 60 armor vs 30 if your an easy target? That's why highlanders do so much better than any other mech. It is their ability to distribute damage because they are hard to hit.

Simply its a sad truth armor does not scale with the Atlas to mitigate how easy it is to be hit. It is far better to have a more mobile mech that distributes damage or gets a high percentage of enemy misses then have an easy to hit mech with lots of weapons. If the Atlas had 100 armor in each part center and side torsos maybe just maybe that would make it viable. But it gets 100 center and 60 sides that's nothing 1 mech can easily put 30 damage per cycle where they want when they want on an atlas. Get 2 mechs shooting and an Atlas lasts a few seconds.


To noob scout players the atlas is good because noob scout players cant bring it down fast because they are moving so much they just randomly shoot the atlas. but to those in the know who have a grasp on diff mechs and can control their fire the Atlas is a joke.

The Atlas doesn't suck. You either aren't good at it, which is ok because we all have that one or two mechs that we just don't get (I suck at my Centurion and my Shadowhawk) or the people with whom you play aren't supporting you properly. I have an Atlas D-DC and, even when I'm with merc friends, if the team doesn't come with me when I push a point, I'm hosed. As my fellow CI Merc, Nooee, told me last night: When you drive an Atlas, you have to resign yourself to already being dead. You're either going to be left out to hang as people speed away from you or you're going to be the #1 target on the enemy's list cause you're the biggest, slowest, and sometimes meanest thing on the map. So, again, it isn't about the mech being bad but rather the circumstances upon which it is being used. Get better or get better friends. Eithe way works.

[KharnZor]

Xmith, on 19 February 2014 - 12:04 PM, said:

I have had a few people try to go 1v1 against me and my D-DC with bad results on their part. I'm hoping people will read threads like this on how bad an Atlas is and come across me 1v1. I like easy kills myself.

An Atlas is not easy to master. First of all, you have to dedicate the majority of your time in an Atlas. You can not use it for a few matches and then quit on it when you did not get your 3 kills per match.
I have no proof but my best match, 8 kills and 1300 damage. Everyday I will have a match or two where I will do at least 800.

When I check end game results, I rarely see a Highlander or Victor with tops scores.

Pretty funny. My VTR-9S would like a word with you

[Trauglodyte]

KharnZor, on 19 February 2014 - 01:55 PM, said:

Pretty funny. My VTR-9S would like a word with you

I'll second that. While the Atlas is trodding through the much getting hit by everything and losing torso left and right (pun - bazinga!), the Victor is floating through the air and spreading damage about while popping off 30 point alphas at range every 40s. Well, mine used to and then I hopped off of the meta train and am doing something different. But, the point remains.

[Cerberias]

Joseph, you have very little knowledge building mechs, that Atlas build from the other forum shows that. 1.3 KDR in it? Thats terrible, you're obviously an average pilot at best. Please stop attempting to put other people down for legitimate points. The Atlas (apart from perhaps the DDC) is a trash mech, the DDC is only useful for ECM coverage. It has no JJ's, no high mounted hardpoints, bad hitboxes and is easily the biggest target in the game. If you don't understand why these things make it a bad mech, sucks for you, but it's not really debatable.

Edit: I mean ffs, I have 3.28 after 230 games in my spider.

Edited by Cerberias, 19 February 2014 - 03:18 PM.

[nemesis271989]

Cerberias, on 19 February 2014 - 02:17 PM, said:

Joseph, you have very little knowledge building mechs, that Atlas build from the other forum shows that. 1.3 KDR in it? Thats terrible, you're obviously an average pilot at best. Please stop attempting to put other people down for legitimate points. The Atlas (apart from perhaps the DDC) is a trash mech, the DDC is only useful for ECM coverage. It has no JJ's, no high mounted hardpoints, bad hitboxes and is easily the biggest target in the game. If you don't understand why these things make it a bad mech, sucks for you, but it's not really debatable.

This!!!
Dude, I was about to claim that someone is a troll here, but you did it nicely and before me XD!!!!

[Goose Igaly]

Steel your Life, on 19 February 2014 - 04:08 AM, said:

Im sorry that you have no grasp on logic or concept of scalability. But the fact of the reality in which you live is that your win record has as little to do with Atlas balance as my typing has to do with the earths rotation around the sun.

Games are made up of 12 people the mech you pick and your ability to pilot it has 1/12 to do with if you win a game or not.

Since the laws of mathematics do not seem to be on your side I can only hope the invisible friend you consult before posting your arguments still is.

I personally love the Atlas and perform well with it, though with the onset of the ballistic metas it gets chewed up easily if you over-extend yourself. I was interested in hearing and opposing point of view until I reached your post here. You may not agree, but I personally find that bringing personal insults into an arguement nullifies your point and says little for your own ability to carry on a debate.

In the future, if you want your opinion taken seriously, avoid degrading someone personally over their view. It puts people into a defensive mode where they are very unlikely to listen to anything else you have to say.

Play Victoriously!

[Goose Igaly]

Cerberias, on 19 February 2014 - 02:17 PM, said:

Joseph, you have very little knowledge building mechs, that Atlas build from the other forum shows that. 1.3 KDR in it? Thats terrible, you're obviously an average pilot at best. Please stop attempting to put other people down for legitimate points. The Atlas (apart from perhaps the DDC) is a trash mech, the DDC is only useful for ECM coverage. It has no JJ's, no high mounted hardpoints, bad hitboxes and is easily the biggest target in the game. If you don't understand why these things make it a bad mech, sucks for you, but it's not really debatable.

To this I would like to point out that everyone is entitled to an opinion. The very fact that you are debating with him makes both your and his opinions debatable. Just because there are more people in this thread that support your position than oppose does not make your point correct; the same would be true if you were in the minority opinion.

[Lyoto Machida]

Satan n stuff, on 19 February 2014 - 06:52 AM, said:

The biggest problem with the Atlas is that all of it's weapons are mounted low. Many players don't understand this and try to attack over hills and ridges where they'll take several seconds of focused fire before they even have a chance to fight back. Another problem is that it's the biggest scariest looking mech around so whenever one shows up people will prioritize killing it. This can be an advantage if the enemy was shooting at someone else, but if they're not and you go in first you'd better have heavy firepower backing you up because most of the time you will die. Unless I forgot something, pretty much everything else is pilot error.

This could be alleviated by letting mechs with the proper arm actuators have the option to raise their arms mummy-style at the expense of shielding their torso less effectively. A toggle switch for this would be great and make the Atlas more effective (hill-humping, etc).

[Trauglodyte]

The Atlas is no more a trash mech than anything else. It's status in game is simply the result of broken mechanics. If it had JJs, nobody would drive anything else. But it doesn't so people call it garbage because the Highlander and Victor are better. Neither of those two mechs have anything special about them that the Atlas doesn't have (all three have a combination of ballistic, energy, and missiles) with the exception of JJs. Get over yourself and the bullshit jump sniping meta and get a grip on the reality that not everything plays like a stupid prairie dog.

[Cerberias]

When something is measurable, it becomes less of an opinion, and carries more weight. Atlas hardpoints are fairly low down, especially arms, they are the largest chassis by measurement. They have no jumpjet capabilities, all of these things are measurable. The debate is whether these things are meaningful - my opinion is that they are all very large downfalls of the chassis.

Larger target makes you easier to hit, harder to hide, and usually more of a target for enemy fire.

Low hardpoints mean you expose more chassis before you can fire, which heavily limits your role as a sniper/fire support except against a heavily distracted foe.

No jumpjets stifles mobility both short and long term. Short term you turn slower, you lose the third dimension of dodging (i.e. vertical plane is only really possible with jumpjets), long term you find it harder to go across certain terrain types and shortcuts are harder to use, lowering overall move speed around the map in certain areas. Hills are harder to climb,and maps like canyon are a nightmare.