mogs01gt, on 11 June 2014 - 12:21 PM, said:
If you are torso twisting in Cents properly, you should be losing ST's. However since Cents lost a lot of their tanking ability, firepower is more important.
Centurions can run XLs decently well because of small STs and also the left-over arm hitbox when the arm is destroyed is enormous, and even a destroyed left arm can continue protecting the LT, reducing damage by 50%.
The missile bay doors on the LT, if left closed, is another 10% damage reduction. I am not sure if the damage reduction is additive or multiplicative? Anyone knows?
Even in the worst case, though, if you can shield with the left arm stump, you reduce damage to 45% hitting your ST. With like 40 front LT armor and 24 internals for 64 hitpoints, that 55% damage reduction essentially makes it the equivalent of 142 hitpoints... which is more hitpoints than in the ST of *any* mech. The Atlas has a total of 126 hitpoints in the ST, and that's if it frontloads all the armor in that location.
The tough part is, of course, reacting in time to enemy fire to twist in time and tank the hit on the shoulder.