pattonesque, on 20 November 2015 - 04:53 PM, said:
Atlas needs more than just structure quirks to be viable in the current environment.
Right now the chassis has too many weaknesses -- huge, slow, low mounts, can't boat weapons -- to be viable in the post-clan world. Atlases excel as brawlers, but most engagements at higher tiers take place at mid-long range, where the Atlas cannot compete. Even if it does make it to brawling range, it'll probably already be pretty beat-up, and laser/gauss vomit mechs will be able to out-brawl it.
All these problems are bad enough in the regular queue, but in CW they're much worse. Taking an Atlas in CW is a waste of a 'mech pretty much every time.
Seeing an Atlas come around the corner should be a problem for you, but right now it's easily mitigated by either staying at range or running away. What the chassis needs is (at very least) massive armor AND structure quirks, agility quirks, and possibly reductions in critical chance and brawling weapon bonuses. That'll return it to its original role of facesmasher, change up the meta a bit, and maybe cause people to stop taking LRMs on them as a way to make them feel semi-viable.
The Atlas variants on the PTS have (on average save for the DDC) faster acceleration and twist speed. A little loss on turning (moderate, about 5% less turning speed) and they do lose out on Twist range. Overall a big gain. Twist range can be compensated for by turning a bit if needed.
I still don't think they have the heat reduction quirks to be in your face for too long though some variants did get some in small amounts of 5% to 10%.
They are looking better overall. I'm hoping the acceleration/deceleration increase (15%-25% more compared to now) will allow the long-range atlas builds to be better at peek and shoot around corners. Not gonna be meta but I'll take what I can.