23 replies to this topic

[Gyrok]

If you run a DDC, there are some rules as to what that mech does:

1.) You NEVER run a DDC without ECM

2.) You NEVER run more than 15-30 tubes of LRMs

3.) You NEVER run LRMs as a primary weapon system...ever...ever...ever...ever...ever

4.) You NEVER run a DDC without ECM (it is necessary to repeat this rule)

5.) If you bring ONE ballistic AC20 is best, a Gauss is not really a good weapon for an Atlas, but can be made to work. Nothing else is worth bringing on an Atlas unless you run 2 UAC5s or 2 LBX10s.

6.) You NEVER run an XL engine in an Atlas.

That is all.

Edited by Gyrok, 23 July 2015 - 06:23 PM.

[Nightshade24]

I think running an LRM 15 or 20 can work well on an atlas. (or as it seems you are counting by tube count, also 4 x LRM 5?)
But it goes with your 3rd rule of it not being a primary.

Also Gauss is still decent on an atlas. Quite useful for it's lower heat and higher velocity and can hit people afar when you can... not primary a sniper tool as some mechs with gauss is.
Also singular AC 10 works if the trade off is much more powerful lasers/ missile weapons. But it's a bit of an if. Everything else should be in twos excluding mg's... just don't MG on an atlas.


DDC with no ECM would be an odd situation, but it can work in some ways if you are looking for an atlas with duel ballistics (say 2 LBX 10's), 3 missiles (say 3 SRM 6+A). and do not want the penalties involved in the S or the lack of missiles in the other variants. Also the upcoming changes to EW> I think mentioning ECM a lot will confuse the newer players as for all we know in a few weeks it would be worth it to use a command console instead of a ECM....


You also forgot....

7.) Never wounder off by yourself

8.) don't chase squirrel.

[Boulangerie]

I'd like to add these points.

Don't try to poke in an Atlas. You are great at rounding corners and brawling, but hill humping and poking are weak tactics with an atlas due to slow accel/decel and low hard point locations.

If you are having trouble getting "up to weight" consider upgrading your STD engine to a 350. It helps you stay with team and twist faster as well

[Gyrok]

Yes, the Atlas is a FRONTLINE battlemech.

It has tons of armor, and the low mounts for EVERYTHING are terrible for peeking/poking. You need to be in the face of something and firing a brawler alpha, then torso twist away to shield.

The ONLY semi long range weapon I encourage on the Atlas is LLs. LLs are ok to give you some poking range, while you close to brawl range on a target.

As for Gauss rifles...the reason(s) I discourage it in the Atlas is because:

1.) The ballistic is low mounted

2.) The Atlas should be front and center leading a charge, not in the back poking, Atlas is effectively the closest thing to a tank in MWO...so draw fire for your team mates.

3.) Gauss rifle is very prone to getting crit. This causes you to lose an entire ST, while AC20 will not.

4.) Gauss rifle requires charge up, not a big hindrance, but does make syncing fire in a single volley more complex in brawl range.

5.) Difficult to fill the entire ST with enough things to crit pad for the Gauss rifle on the Atlas.

[Boulangerie]

I've never actually used a Gauss rifle in an atlas. I usually run AC20, but have an AC10 on my -RS with 2LL and it works better than I thought it would. Still useful in mid to close range as well.

[Palor]

I used to run a Gauss, 2x ERLL, and a LRM 20, with ECM of course. Was a very effective build for me.

I prefer to brawl however and have been running the typical everyone uses it build lately. AC/20, 2 mpls. 3 srm 6 and ECM. This build however can be annoying, sometimes by the time i get to the fight, it is basically over.

[Unnatural Growth]

LRM's on an Atlas makes me sad.

[Alekzander Smirnoff]

For the majority of my atlas builds I'll load a single LRM-20 rack to provide fire support to front line mechs while I'm closing to brawl range. Sometimes the two volley blast hurts the number hitting but it still does damage, so I find it worthwhile while closing and more useful than hill humping with such low weapons.

[loopala]

yep for newbes these are great. now once you get a few fights under your belt some of this becomes player preference.

Specialty rules for the Boars Head

Do not buy a Boars Head until you learn how to twist.
Do not buy a Boars Head if you believe there no exception to the "No XL Atlas" rule
Do not buy a Boars Head till you can lock the throttle wide open and engage 2 or 3 targets on the run
Do not buy a Boars Head until you can read the min map
Do not buy a Boars Head if you can not pin the throttle and charge at the front of a push
Do not buy a Boars Head if you can not come to terms with your inner berserker and learn when to slip him loose

to me an atlas is a field superiority mech. Designed to dominate the field with it's ability to deal damage at all engagement ranges while taking damage that would kill other mechs. Atlas pilots are patient, watching for the moment to step up and turn the tide with overwhelming fire power or to plug the hole with large amount of armor while making the reds pay dearly for every point.

oh you will get focused fired down and die a lot when leveling an atlas (heck you die a lot when you have a mastered chassis under you) just make sure when you do go down, you were the most expensive mech they killed

and remember the only reason for reverse on most atlases is for parking in a mech bay

[Void Angel]

The Boar's Head is the exception that proves the rule - you can use an XL 400 on a Boar's head for a very specialized superheavy striker build. However, there is a reason you don't see a lot of Boar's Heads.

As for being an all-range 'mech? Uhm... no. Heck no. FRACK, NO. [Insert Expletive] no! Just, no.

Leaving aside the very pertinent argument about whether a multi-role 'mech is ever optimal, the Atlas is simply not such a 'mech. You have a lot of tons, but your missile and ballistic hardpoints are crammed into one torso each. This means that while you have a lot of tonnage to play with, you are paradoxically space- and hardpoint-limited. The Atlas doesn't have the extra guns, or the extra space, to try and be a jack of all trades, despite its tonnage.

For example, you cannot put a throw weight of more than 45 missiles onto any Atlas - unless you lose your mind and forgo ECM. That's without Artemis, too; max salvo is 35 with Artemis - and since you're throwing those missiles through one 10x and two 6x hardpoints, your salvos are going to be ragged and vulnerable to AMS. In addition to being anemic to start. And then you've got the problem of how to defend yourself in a brawl...

If you try to do everything with an Atlas, you're going to fail: you'll just end up with something like This Monstrosity (I am not making that build up.) You'll be a second-rate Catapult with your LRMs, and an overweight Hunchback with your brawling armament - all the while suffering at least one critical deficiency in firepower, combat endurance, heat generation, or mobility.

[purplewasabi]

Regarding Rule no. 1, I would like to add that a freshly bought DDC does not come with ECM. ECM sold separately.

Once you get the basics down, some of these rules can be waived. Personally, I don't abide to rules 2,3,5 and 6.

[The Basilisk]

Gyrok, on 24 July 2015 - 04:37 PM, said:

Yes, the Atlas is a FRONTLINE battlemech.

It has tons of armor, and the low mounts for EVERYTHING are terrible for peeking/poking. You need to be in the face of something and firing a brawler alpha, then torso twist away to shield.

The ONLY semi long range weapon I encourage on the Atlas is LLs. LLs are ok to give you some poking range, while you close to brawl range on a target.

As for Gauss rifles...the reason(s) I discourage it in the Atlas is because:

1.) The ballistic is low mounted

2.) The Atlas should be front and center leading a charge, not in the back poking, Atlas is effectively the closest thing to a tank in MWO...so draw fire for your team mates.

3.) Gauss rifle is very prone to getting crit. This causes you to lose an entire ST, while AC20 will not.

4.) Gauss rifle requires charge up, not a big hindrance, but does make syncing fire in a single volley more complex in brawl range.

5.) Difficult to fill the entire ST with enough things to crit pad for the Gauss rifle on the Atlas.

Since this was said by a Clan Wolf loyalist you all should take this with a grain of salt
An Atlas DDC is no frontline Battlemech, its an electronic carrier / support / command Battlemech.

No realy...brawling in Assaults is a waste of heavy weapons, and firepower.

No Assault, regardless of how many armor it can bring is realy more durable than most mediums or heavys of the lower half of their tonnage class ( Stalker may be an exception )

No Assault is nimble or maneuverable enough ( at least not after the hitreg and hsr fix ) to effectively distribute damage through movement and torsotwisting at close ranges.

There will be ppl who claim they are perfectly fine in doing so.
Nice for them.
Either they are extremely experienced and top tier players or quite talented and still playing in very low elo ranges of this game.

While the Atlas chassis can pack an absolutely horrific amount of close range punch, doing so negates the usefullness of your ECM for your team.
Also when you commit yourself to battle, you won't be able to draw back in most cases so you better win the battle or you will just die.
This requires a hell of a lot of battlefield awareness and a LAAAAAARGE portion of dumb luck and in the end a lot EXPERIENCE.

All things a new player does not have.

So... TLDR:

NEW PLAYER ?
DON'T USE ATLAS OR BETTER DON'T PILOT ASSAULTS

Edited by The Basilisk, 26 July 2015 - 11:30 PM.

[Elizander]

Gyrok, on 23 July 2015 - 06:11 PM, said:

If you run a DDC, there are some rules as to what that mech does:

1.) You NEVER run a DDC without ECM

2.) You NEVER run more than 15-30 tubes of LRMs

3.) You NEVER run LRMs as a primary weapon system...ever...ever...ever...ever...ever

4.) You NEVER run a DDC without ECM (it is necessary to repeat this rule)

5.) If you bring ONE ballistic AC20 is best, a Gauss is not really a good weapon for an Atlas, but can be made to work. Nothing else is worth bringing on an Atlas unless you run 2 UAC5s or 2 LBX10s.

6.) You NEVER run an XL engine in an Atlas.

That is all.

u cant tell mi wat 2 do! imma run my mek my way!

AS7-D-DC

[Speedy Plysitkos]

I saw DDC, broke rule 1. It wasnt funny, not at all.

Also, you could summarize, NEVER equip LRMs on ANY atlas.

And 7) NEVER in YOUR LIFE, stay behind atlas. (put this with 200 font pls)

[dragnier1]

You will hardly ever see atlas in pug queue because "slow and crap at lrms".

I suspect 1. They don't read forums and 2. They decide they want to play the atlas their own way, being the reason why they suck.

Plus, who buys a DDC and runs it without ECM? If you dislike ECM or want to be different just don't buy the DDC. There are 3-4 other atlas variants out there...

(Just remembered i saw 1-2 atlas players bringing ac20 and srm6. Not too shabby)

Edited by dragnier1, 27 July 2015 - 07:53 AM.

[Repasy Cooper]

I would say you can simplify this list of rules down to one guideline: When modifying an Atlas loadout, simply augment the strength of the stock loadout and do not try to make the Atlas something that doesn't resemble typical Atlas loadout. Basically, don't 'reinvent the wheel,' so to speak. I'd say that the primary weapon systems of any Atlas should be AC20(or Gauss), a single LRM rack (10, 15, or 20 tube), and an SRM6 rack, and you can then modify the # & type of medium lasers, add additional SRM or Streak racks, and equip some electronic equipment if possible.

[Tesunie]

Void Angel, on 26 July 2015 - 09:35 PM, said:

If you try to do everything with an Atlas, you're going to fail: you'll just end up with something like This Monstrosity (I am not making that build up.) You'll be a second-rate Catapult with your LRMs, and an overweight Hunchback with your brawling armament - all the while suffering at least one critical deficiency in firepower, combat endurance, heat generation, or mobility.

That build I'd reduce (massively) the LRMs on it, and remove the TAG for a Medium Laser. I'd be more tempted to place SRMs in accompaniment with the LRMs. This still provides "some" muilti-role engagement, while keeping a strong focus for closer ranges. (Similar to my Atlas S, which I've had rather good results for myself, probably with less LRMs for the DDC considering it's hard points, and lack of extra energy slots.)

I've been told similar things about my Stalker 3F (I'm sure you've heard me say this before), where I was basically merging the weapons of a Jenner with a Catapult, and thus they said I could never preform any role as well as just taking the two separate mechs instead. It's worked fine for me with it's multi-range engagement payload.

I think it depends upon the pilot, but I do agree that the Atlas really isn't a mech designed for heavy LRM use. It's alright to place a few on for while you close for engagement, but it's focus should be stronger on other direct fire weapons.

[Repasy Cooper]

Tesunie, on 27 July 2015 - 08:18 AM, said:

That build I'd reduce (massively) the LRMs on it, and remove the TAG for a Medium Laser. I'd be more tempted to place SRMs in accompaniment with the LRMs. This still provides "some" muilti-role engagement, while keeping a strong focus for closer ranges. (Similar to my Atlas S, which I've had rather good results for myself, probably with less LRMs for the DDC considering it's hard points, and lack of extra energy slots.)

I've been told similar things about my Stalker 3F (I'm sure you've heard me say this before), where I was basically merging the weapons of a Jenner with a Catapult, and thus they said I could never preform any role as well as just taking the two separate mechs instead. It's worked fine for me with it's multi-range engagement payload.

I think it depends upon the pilot, but I do agree that the Atlas really isn't a mech designed for heavy LRM use. It's alright to place a few on for while you close for engagement, but it's focus should be stronger on other direct fire weapons.

Honestly, I would swap the streaks for a pair of SRM-6. Would do you better damage wise, unless ping is an issue.

[Tesunie]

Repasy, on 27 July 2015 - 08:31 AM, said:

Honestly, I would swap the streaks for a pair of SRM-6. Would do you better damage wise, unless ping is an issue.

Or the exrtra weight from Artemis...

I had streaks on the Stalker from back when hit reg with SRMs was near impossible. It also gains the increase to lock on speeds from Artemis for no weight costs, and helps at swatting those pesky light mechs. The BAP also increases sensor ranges (a minor bonus) but can also keep an ECM mech from just dancing around my mech and preventing me from getting lock ons with LRMs if I have a priority of another target farther away with my LRMs. (I also like my LRMs, and I seem to only be decent with SRMs so far. Hit reg for them with me still seems spotty I find.)

Each proposed build has it's merits. Depends upon what the user is looking for their mechs to do. (In this case, my Stalker is designed as a guard mech, which is why I have the SSRMs as well.)

Edited by Tesunie, 27 July 2015 - 09:07 AM.

[Maver0ick]

I've been piloting an Atlas, long before anyone paid me to.