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The AMS weakness lies in it's design mechanic, which is OVERWHELMED/OVERPOWERED by the simple chain fire mechanic.
Despite however it was originally released, the current AMS works decent against 1 wave of 5-10LRM BUT IF a second LRM salvo enters it's range while the first salvo is still in transit the AMS system wil REMAIN targeting ONLY the first LRM wave effectively IGNORING the hole of the second wave.
Since there have been so many changes to its base mechanics since it's launch and reinforced by the latest patch changes, we had to test it under several different circumstances.
This not only showed that some old bugs are still around (firing trough terrain, AMS detection blindspots, etc) BUT it also demonstrated that chain fire, ALWAYS overwhelms the AMS detection and target acquisition.
Simplest example is that even IF a missile is about to impact the AMS will shoot at it while the next volley will pass 90% of the distance without even being targeted, when the AMS changes target to the second volley it usually is firing at an angle of 30º or less, which significantly reduces it's effectiveness.
In practicality the current AMS works like a 'cone of fire' weapon, which is why it is so much more effective against the CLAN stream of missiles, as it ONLY aims at a single missile every time. Also the AMS system doesn't shoot only the necessary amount of bullets per missile (ence it's greatest downfall) but a non-stop stream aimed at the position a single missile will traverse.
So this means that against CLAN stream missiles there's a bigger chance of the stray bullets hitting non-targeted missiles BUT it is heavily affected by the angle and spread of the same stream. In the case of IS volleys the fact that the AMS only aims at one nearly guarantees that only 1 or 2 nearby missiles may get hit by a stray bullet since they converge on the target in a near 80º angle.
Simple fact is that the speed and movement vector of the target and the launcher have a very big impact in the performance of any AMS, which is why most decent ligh/mediums pilots do not require AMS.
Although multiple AMS do speed up the destruction of incoming LRMs they are still nerfed HEAVILY by that same mechanic, as they all shoot at the same missile and WILL ONLY change target AFTER the destruction of said missile, so effectively until the AMS recognizes the destruction of the initial missile it keeps wasting ammo on the same trajectory vector ON ALL AMS at the same time.
This is why it is ALWAYS better to have 3 mechs with 1 AMS each in the same vicinity than having triple AMS on a single mech. The crossfire for different ranges will target different missiles while the triple AMS will always focus the same individual missile.
Do keep in mind that the missile thrust vectors are also different between CLAN and IS.
All this to say that LRMs aren't as bad as people label them BUT they are harder to master than most consider, both sides have pros and cons.
Last note, even on other missiles types the AMS can help a bit BUT since there are 2 current harmful mechanics (lack of detection under a certain threshold and AMS detection blind spots), it is not viable UNLESS you can move at +130KM/h and can keep your IDEAL engagement range.
I recommend anyone that wishes to witness/learn more about it to forget the testing grounds and to use private matches. If you wish whisper me here or in-game to further debate the subject.
I may have unstructured sentences or meanings if so inform me so I attempt the proper translation.
EDITED for grammar errors
Edited by WildVector, 18 May 2016 - 06:37 AM.
