Otto Cannon, on 07 March 2016 - 10:22 AM, said:
The people demanding that you die so that they can get some free shots in before hiding again wouldn't do the same for you, so don't be guilt tripped into early pointless suicide. You certainly should be a spearhead that the enemy find hard to kill quickly- but at the critical turning point in the match rather than too early when you'll be focused to death in seconds and completely waste your armour advantage.
Judge the moment for yourself as the experienced Atlas pilot, and make the most of your tonnage for you and your team. If the heavy pilots want to decide when the Atlas charges in, they should bring one themselves.
This, right here.
I'm primarily an Atlas pilot, and have been for going-on 4 years. I still run my Founder's Atlas as my primary mech.
As Otto said above, the Atlas's function is to turn the tide of the fight. That doesn't always mean four-digit damage; it can be done in a number of ways.
The key to being a good Atlas pilot is
patience. You need to pick your battles, you need to watch the whole fight unfold (I sometimes spend as much time watching my map as I do shooting), and you need to WAIT until you have the right opportunity to do the most good. This means not caving in to the other pilots who want to Leeeeroy Jenkins and are adamant that you come with them, or, as Otto said above, not getting guilt tripped into a pointless death.
You can be the tip of the spear. Sure. But if your lancemates depend on you to be a damage sponge, or don't flank you, or lose their nerve and wimp out, you're dead. Very quickly.
Avoid open terrain. Just avoid it. This is that patience thing, again. Hug walls, stay in valleys and behind rocks. Take the long way around and use cover, because you are a primary target the minute you pop up on someone's HUD. (Pro tip: You actually can hide an Atlas, and it's easier than you think.) Learn to read a map so that you can plot your routes to avoid fields of fire. The maps in MWO are excellent. Using terrain takes time, and patience. Being a good Atlas pilot takes maturity, finesse, relentless focus, the ability to think several moves ahead, and patience. Did I mention patience?
Given proper cover and defillade, you can flank an enemy group, drawing their fire (EVERYBODY shoots at a solo Atlas!) and letting your teammates rush their backs in a coordinated charge; this will get you killed with a lousy match score but it may win the match. This is part of being an Atlas pilot. Some games you're the bat, some games you're the ball.
You can move as the center of gravity for a lance of Assaults and Heavies. This is primarily how I play. The trick is convincing the others to slow down and move AROUND you; not behind you, not way out in front of you expecting supporting fire from 400 meters back. If they work with your limitations, you can lend them your strengths, and that's where the Atlas does best. I'm in an org for vets and current military, so we all understand this concept innately.
The Atlas D-DC is a hunter-killer without parallel. (Hellbringer pilots will argue this point, but compared to a fully-uparmored Atlas the Hellbringer, with its 320 points of armor, might as well be made of spun glass.) With a D-DC you can sneak up on the enemy in an urban environment and unload a 75-80 point alpha strike into his back; or better yet, use the ECM and terrain to move a 400-ton Assault lance into nut-kicking range without the badguys even noticing. The D-DC is the only Atlas that can operate solo and survive. I often run my D-DC with the
Jaws theme playing in the background.
Lastly, the Atlas is most effective in a brawl, and excels at damaging other mechs even if it doesn't destroy them. In the middle of a furball, you should be shifting fire and pivoting and backpedaling (and hitting that Cool Shot button!), stripping components and armor from every enemy in sight, just moving from one to another. BLAM -- shift fire -- BLAM -- shift fire -- BLAM.... If you concentrate on one enemy in a fight for too long -- and it's easy to do when you're beating the bejeezus out of him -- the others will gang up on you. Like I said, everybody shoots at an Atlas. You may not get many (or sometimes any!) kills doing this, but you'll get a ton of assists, and by the time you go down in a smoking heap the little guys on your team should be able to coordinate fire on the most damaged enemy mechs and mop them up in order. The trick here is getting the team to communicate, triage, and focus fire. Again, in my unit this isn't a problem. In a PUG match, well, good luck.
Have fun. Welcome to the big leagues.
Edited by Pierce Rossignol, 07 March 2016 - 01:57 PM.