42 replies to this topic

[InspectorG]

Rogue Jedi, on 14 February 2016 - 04:49 AM, said:

just bear in mind if you do not take AMS and end up on Polar Highlands or Caustic valley, cannot find cover and get demolished by LRMs it is your fault for not taking AMS.

Plenty of cover on Polar, if you dont run along ridge-lines.

If you are getting LRM'd in a light on Caustic, you are doing something very wrong, there are plenty of outcroppings alone the caldera.

It comes down to piloting error. If my potato was better i would make a tutorial on how to evade LRMs in T5-3 because this skill carries over to better piloting in general.

AMS teaches beginners to rely on an external condition instead of an internal one to cope with the worst weapon system in the game(aside from MG/Flamers).

Better play is exposing yourself the least amount needed in order to fire as well as moving from cover to cover. This counters both LRMs and direct fire. It is THE hard counter to LRMs. ECM/Radar Dep is icing on that cake.

Rogue Jedi, on 14 February 2016 - 04:49 AM, said:

when Polar was first released I saw a lot of complaints that LRMs ruled on that map, if people had just fitted AMS and stuck together they would not have had a problem.

Not gonna happen in a Pug. Thats like saying, 'if they all only used efficient builds - or - if they only focused fire better...'

It comes down to the skill learning-curve and the faster the AMS-protection-myth dies, the faster beginners can learn the real counters and how MWO play works.

[Douglas grizzly]

before i figured out how to get the lrm 5 going and then chain fire them i was using the lrm 20 and had to learn about ebing in defilade andpop ups. now i am getting kills even on losing matches by using that and making the opposing force figure out where i am. love targeting a mech by a ally's sensors and kill them that way. i did that on this imgur pic on a timber wolf where i got the solo kill on it. http://imgur.com/Z1h6gPQ

[Void Angel]

Particularly to start, LRMs are brutal against slow learners. As you and your enemies progress in skill, you'll find that LRMs become harder and harder to use; not that you should not be using them (some players say it cripples your skill development) - just don't mistake them for a FOO Strategy.

---

WARNING: EDUCATIONAL RANT INCOMING!

---

As for AMS, don't expect it to be a hard counter for LRMS. If you have ONE LRM boat, a team full of AMS (realistically, say 8 systems in the vicinity of the target) will utterly murder the output of any single launcher, and make even a full-bore Assault-class boat feel like he's lobbing water grenades at you. But if you have several boats on a team, they can get through any amount of AMS. So, why take AMS with you? Math, padawan; math: Because if every AMS system takes out ~5 missiles (this figure was quoted to me by an AMS-truther [extending the metaphor],) you're taking a huge toll on the missiles that hit you - even if they have a lot of launchers. As a random example, let's pretend the enemy team is alpha striking enough launchers (which is optimal for defeating AMS) to put a throw weight of 200 missiles in the air - this is an absurd amount, equivalent to 110 tons of metal even before ammo (Clans are more vulnerable to AMS, but could use as little as 66 tons, but let's suppose. Even if all those LRMs hit their target, your AMS amount to a full 10% damage reduction of incoming fire - for 12 tons invested, including ammo. That's a favorable exchange in tonnage right there!

And this is supposing that all of those launchers fire at once, from the same range, with robotic precision and absent any targets getting to cover; that's obviously not going to happen in most matches. Organized teams can pull it off, but we're not talking team comps here; we're talking Solo Queue. So realistically, you're going to be dealing with maybe half of that throw weight, coming at you staggered and at different targets, based on the firing unit's preferences and positioning. Since AMS kills missiles at a fixed rate (plus any modules and quirks,) they become more and more proportionally effective as incoming volleys get smaller - as long as there's enough missiles to kill, AMS gives you the same benefit. And that benefit is only 1.5 tons a 'mech, typically; that's a significant difference on a Locust - but Marauders? Not so much.

The long and the short of it is that while some builds are just too tight to fit AMS (and many optimized Clan builds literally cannot use it,) most builds can afford the system - and should. The number of times where the outrageous investment of 1.5 tons will really hamper you is by far outweighed by the beneficial effects for both you and your teammates. You still have to use cover; you still have to play the game - but the armor you save might be your own.

Edited by Void Angel, 14 February 2016 - 08:03 PM.