19 replies to this topic

[Toonen1988]

To be honest, i'm not a new player but Mechwarrior Online was still in beta when i played it for last time. So yeah, that's a long time ago!

I backed Mechwarrior Online back then and recieved a nice Atlas Mech AS7-D(f) and AS7-S(l) and some other mechs but i liked the Atlas and AS7-S(l) the most.

This game has changed a lot and many more new mechs has been added. So my qeustion is, is my Atlas still worth it or should i invest in a new Mech? My Atlas was shot down in a few seconds in my last match, so i've got a concern that my Atlas is kinda useless.

Normally it would take some time to kill an Atlas. But right now, it only takes a few seconds. I couldnt aim or shoot properly. I saw things flying towards me, and right after a message "you have been killed by....". So, is my Atlas still worth it or should i invest in a new Mech with more firepower and or armor?

Or i just sucks in playing this game!

Edited by DeAdSeYe, 29 May 2015 - 05:46 PM.

[mailin]

r u running an XL? Otherwise, your Atlas, while not being the premiere battlefield mech any longer, is still one tough cookie.

Maybe go to smurfy and post your build.

[Toonen1988]

Here is my build! Or should i go for another Atlas or Mech?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a4ee705bd8b4544

Edited by DeAdSeYe, 29 May 2015 - 06:46 PM.

[RagingOyster]

DeAdSeYe, on 29 May 2015 - 06:25 PM, said:

Here is my build! Or should i go for another Atlas or Mech?

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...a4ee705bd8b4544

Focus on only one type of missile (either all SRM or all SSRM). Don't put LRMs on an Atlas, they are useless at med/short range (where you should be)

From your first post, it sounds like your going straight towards the enemy. Stay with your team. Your job is to use all that armor to protect them and spit out some decent damage while your at it. Twist your torso to spread damage around, don't just stand there and facetank the whole enemy team.

I would never run an XL engine on an Atlas. Your side torsos are very easy to destroy and it makes you much much flimsier. You're a tank, not a high-speed fighter so don't fuss too much about being slow. I think I have a STD 330 on my Atlas.

Don't be discouraged! The problem is rarely the mech, sometimes you just have to adjust your build or your play a bit. If you want to be an even bigger help to your team, get an Atlas D-DC and equip ECM to protect them.

Edited by RagingOyster, 29 May 2015 - 07:01 PM.

[Toonen1988]

Thank you!

I will remove the LRM's.

Should i change it to

2x SRM 6, 2x Streak SRM 2

or

3x SRM 6 and 1x Streak SRM

or

4x SRM 6 (maybe split them in 2 weapon groups, because heat spike)

I could also change the engine, but i don't have any XL engine fitted so that should be okay.

I've also putted another double heat sink on the right arm.

I've found this build and it looks interesting, or should i stick with only medium lasers and more armor?
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...48cdd93e0961874

Edited by DeAdSeYe, 29 May 2015 - 08:25 PM.

[Leone]

So, lrms, SRM and Steaks are all valid options. It depends on what you want to do. Some atlas pilots like to throw a few cheap lrm 5s just to suppress the enemy and give em something to do while they waddle towards the enemy. Others like the SRMs for thier punch inna brawl. (those mechs tend to look for a brawl, cuz you know, atlas.) and then the streak 2s are pretty much for light hunting. But who knows, mebbe you hate lights?

Figure out what you want, and gear up accordingly. Also, that mech looks like it runs hot. If you plan to brawl, know what you can get away with constantly firing. Anyways, good luck.

~Leone, Raid Leader of the Crimson Hand.

[RiceCop]

Try something like this-

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...b20ef9a6ade4e05

or if you're good with heat management and run a couple cool shots, you could do this-

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...35b1977c5a77cd3

[mailin]

a couple of suggestions for you.

If you want streaks, include a BAP and you'll need more than just a single streak to be somewhat effective. Also, if you put ammo in your side torsos, include a case. Otherwise, lose the side torso, your ammo explodes and any extra damage goes to your center torso.

Lower the armor on you head so that you can max out the armor everywhere else.

Transfer some armor from your rear to your front. Start at about 8-10 on your rear and adjust from there. When you die, take note of where your armor was the most depleted. Some good assault drivers go to 0 or 1 armor on their backs.

Edited by mailin, 30 May 2015 - 04:43 AM.

[Kyynele]

DeAdSeYe, on 29 May 2015 - 05:14 PM, said:

So, is my Atlas still worth it or should i invest in a new Mech with more firepower and or armor?

Just to make it clear, firepower and armor are just numbers. And they're not even the most important numbers there are if you want to measure how effective your mech is.

While having a maxed or nearly maxed armor is always preferable, as you're naturally likely to stay alive longer with more armor, the amount of armor you can have on a mech is directly proportionate to how heavy your mech is. And that means, the mechs that can have the most armor, are the biggest and slowest ones, so they will be hit A. LOT. MORE. AND. HARDER. than most other mechs. All the time. Being slow also means you don't get second chances, if you make a bad call and push to a bad position in a bad time, your game is ruined and you die with your bad call, whereas a fast mech with much less armor will likely be able to run away and keep on fighting.

Firepower instead is basically a trap for new players. Firepower only tells how much damage an alpha strike, shooting all your weapons at the same time, would do. Having a big number here might not mean anything in the actual game. For example, you might not be able to shoot all your weapons at the same ranges, or your heat efficiency can just be so low that you can't keep dealing damage very long in actual battle. Having a firepower of 80 isn't that great if you can only shoot a couple times, and then get killed while you cool down.

I'd suggest looking more into the max DPS and especially max sustained DPS in Smurfy, that's typically a much better indicator of your mech's true firepower than the actual "firepower" stat in the game.

For example this Nova, while only half the weight of your Atlas, and with a significantly lower firepower stat than your Atlas, has both higher maximum DPS and higher sustained DPS than your Atlas. It's also much faster and more manouverable. It's not a mech that's considered especially awesome, I just used it as an example because I had it handy.

For another example, because of quirks, the Dragon 1N with 2x AC5 has one of the highest DPS, and probably the highest sustained DPS in the game. Period. Smurfy doesn't display the quirked values. But the game will show the firepower for a 2x AC5 Dragon to be 10. Because that is how much damage one alpha from those two autocannons will do damage. In actual game, that 10 firepower will deal more damage in 10 seconds than your 80+ firepower Atlas will in optimal conditions.

My point is, in MWO, the mechs with the most armor and firepower often aren't the absolute greatest mechs. By far. Especially Atlas is honestly a pretty hard mech to pilot well. My respect to those that manage to do that. I'm personally pretty bad in it.

If you feel you aren't doing well in a mech, looking for more armor and firepower might not be what you truly need. Most people don't play 100t assaults, and that isn't because they can't afford them or want extra challenge or something. They play those because they do better in them, because mobility is just, if not even more valuable in MWO than armor and high alphas.

For many people, heavy mechs are the easiest weight class to play effectively. They have almost as much armor and weapons as assault mechs, but the significantly increased mobility makes them much less unforgiving to play.

All this said, if you want to play an Atlas, by all means do so. Just making sure you're on the same page with everyone else, that the assault mechs aren't the end of the road, that you don't play an Atlas because you think it's the end game mech. Assaults are not something that pilots specifically strive towards. They're just mechs for those that like their mechs really tanky and slow.

/$0.02

[actionking]

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...575f6a9eddeb7f2
I would recommend this one, it's fast for a 100t Mech and has very high firepower. An Atlas is made for leading the push tanking and dealing much damage in short time. This helps your team and it's fun to breach the enemy lines and kill some of them on the way

[RagingOyster]

DeAdSeYe, on 29 May 2015 - 07:26 PM, said:

Thank you!

I will remove the LRM's.

Should i change it to

2x SRM 6, 2x Streak SRM 2

or

3x SRM 6 and 1x Streak SRM

or

4x SRM 6 (maybe split them in 2 weapon groups, because heat spike)

I could also change the engine, but i don't have any XL engine fitted so that should be okay.

I've also putted another double heat sink on the right arm.

I've found this build and it looks interesting, or should i stick with only medium lasers and more armor?
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...48cdd93e0961874

I would go with all SRMs or all SSRMs, don't mix and match. I run 4x SRM6 on my AS7-S(L) and chain fire them

[kosmos1214]

i will say an lrm 10 with some ammo can be useful on on atlas i wouldn't run more then that at least the way i play them but if you dont want lrms id try some thing along these lines
http://mwo.smurfy-ne...6fef39002f3fc73
i normally run 50 armor on my assaults and have literally never been legged

[mailin]

I agree that having an lrm 10 isn't the worst thing on an Atlas. If you do this, only take about 1 ton of lrm ammo. You want to use it as something you can damage the enemy with to soften them up until they get into brawling range.

[Levi Porphyrogenitus]

Here are some suggestions:

1 - Don't put ammo in the STs unless you have CASE (or not at all if you run an XL). They get popped pretty often for Atlases, which amplifies the risk of ammo explosions. The main exception would be if you have a rapid fire weapon group that will burn through the torso ammo fast enough that the risk of an explosion is minimal.

2 - Try to focus your build on a role. Your S build looks like it wants to be a brawler, but it packs an inefficient LRM20 and some SSRMs (better for keeping lights off of you than for doing real work), and there's no BAP to protect your lock-on payload from ECM.

3 - Don't shave armor from your CT. An extra point from each leg will let you max the CT. Also, consider front-loading more heavily, assuming your Smurfy proportions are accurate (a lot of players post with default allocations to hide their personalized distributions).

Consider the following:

AS7-S

It runs hot, but it has good ammo supplies for both the missiles and the AC20.

I also find that the -D can be a great ride:

AS7-D

This is a little less hot than most Atlas builds, but it packs a solid, sustained punch. 3 LPLs can fire together without triggering Ghost Heat, and push 33 damage. The LPL in the CT makes it a potent zombie, too.

Back to your -S, if you really want a mixed missile loadout, here's a potential option:

AS7-S

Again, it runs really hot, but if you manage your weapon groups correctly it can be pretty beastly. Use the LRM15 (the second most efficient launcher, after the LRM5) for long-range support as you move into position. Try to run your ammo dry on that thing as fast as you can. Reserve the SSRMs for lights and mediums that try to get frisky, and use your AC20 and MPLs to murder anything big that decides to try its luck with you.

[kosmos1214]

mailin, on 30 May 2015 - 11:14 PM, said:

I agree that having an lrm 10 isn't the worst thing on an Atlas. If you do this, only take about 1 ton of lrm ammo. You want to use it as something you can damage the enemy with to soften them up until they get into brawling range.

yah i actually use 2/3 tons my self but i tend to use it all up before the fight is over and im not hanging back ether

[bad arcade kitty]

streakatlas sounds as a really bad idea imo

[TheCaptainJZ]

If you are mixing missile types because you are worried about the ghost heat indicator in the mechlab, don't be. The penalty only occurs if you fire all 4 SRMs within 0.5 seconds of each other (essentially simultaneously). If you use chain fire (backspace key--fires one at a time in a weapon group), those launchers will fire one at a time in 0.5 second intervals without adding the heat penalty. Or you can set up weapon groups so that you can fire 2 and 2 at a time. Or deal with the heat penalty by firing all 4 (check smurphy for how much of a penalty that would be.)

I never see Atlases running streaks just because ECM shuts it down and a BAP can only counter 1 ECM so if you are up against an enemy RVN 3L and HBR, they are useless. Fast mechs tend to be the only ones with streaks. Learn to use normal SRMs, probably with Artemis for tight grouping (recommend you play without until you get a feel for leading your targets). LRMs don't sound like a bad idea to me on an Atlas, so long as that's only a supplemental weapon for when you are out of range. Atlases are brawling Assaults. They don't have weapon mounts high and they are too slow to do the peeking around cover and sniping thing. If you want a weapon to hit medium range, you might consider an AC5 in the torso. An AC20 there instead gives you a great punch for brawling so it really depends on how you want to design it and how you're gonna play it.

Edited by TheCaptainJZ, 01 June 2015 - 10:50 AM.

[dragnier1]

Streaks...i've been wondering if i should swap those for other things on my atlas...haven't touched it in months

Too busy with my latest shiny (and more to come...GRASSHOPPER!!)

Grasshopper i ENDORSE! (edit : for cbills of cause)

Edited by dragnier1, 02 June 2015 - 05:09 AM.

[The Basilisk]

I found the AC20, despite the quirks and modules out there, to be too slow, imprecise, quickly out of ammo, too hot and too large.
In addition most maps provide ample opportunity for shots at medium range ( 300 - 500m )
So I came to use this for AS7-S

The only thing I liked about the AS7-D while leveling my Atlases where his two balisic slots so...put them to use.

Edited by The Basilisk, 02 June 2015 - 06:09 AM.

[ProfessorD]

My recommended AS7-S brawling build.

Technique:
1. Stay patient at the beginning of the match. As unfortunate as this is, you cannot count on random teammates in the general queue to support you in an aggressive early push.

2. Watch your map and target indicators.

3. Find a path you can follow to get close to the enemy with minimum exposure.

4. Fire alpha strikes at a target once you are in range. Always aim center-of-mass with that mixed AC20 / SRM strike.

5. Twist to point your arms toward the enemy while your weapons cool down. You will live longer if the enemy has to destroy your components first.

6. Be patient. Atlas technique is very fickle, and in some matches, it just won't be possible to get close enough to the enemy for effective brawling the way I've described here.


If you want to buy new mechs that are more effective at mid-range peek-and-poke engagements (the most favored style in the general queue right now), I recommend the Thunderbolt (especially TDR-5SS), Hellbringer, and Timberwolf.