9 replies to this topic

[hordes1ayer2]

I would like some overall helpfull knowledge on playing the D-DC. It is my first asult and i am using 3SRM 6, Ac20 and 2 med laz

[Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky]

Use terrain to hide your mech as you close the distance. Try your best to stay with the team. If they leave you behind- use comms to tell them they are leaving you behind.

When the close range battle starts- charge at them- but make sure your torso twisted so your arm is infront and your looking sideways! This is important!!!

When your target is close enough to spooge on their face- center your torso- alpha money shoot him and then torso twist again to shield.

Make sure to coolshot before you over heat!

Also, if you manage to get behind a target- walk point blank into his rear and manwitch him!

[Ingga Raokai]

hordes1ayer2, on 27 June 2016 - 07:02 PM, said:

I would like some overall helpfull knowledge on playing the D-DC. It is my first asult and i am using 3SRM 6, Ac20 and 2 med laz

As above, plus if you are hovering around high heat (70~90%) heat, try to not use the lasers. At least the way I learnt your main weapons the SRMs and the Cannon.
Again, commit is the keyword. You can decide to move reverse, but most of the time either your armor/arm blown of already or your teammate blocked your rear. UAV is definietly a help before committing the charge, or more Coolant if you still try to manage your heat/shot.

[Zombie Gandhi]

I recently decided to use this current event to elite/master out some chassis, and I too finally decided to pick up a DDC. I'll share my current loadout, and what little knowledge I've gleaned from running assaults as brawlers (which isn't terrible much as of late).

Loadout:
2x Medium Laser
3x SRM 4 Artemis 3/4 tons (can't remember off the top of my head)
1x AC/20 3 tons of ammo

Double heat sinks
Endo Steel
Largest Standard engine I can fit (I believe I have a 300 in there)
With Speed Tweak, it runs around 55-60KPH.

With the SRMs, I have them all linked to the same fire group, and I use the Backspace key on said group, so they fire staggered. To dump all three takes maybe a second. So I save quite a bit of the ghost heat, while all missiles launch in a very small window. With Artemis, the grouping is nice and tight, which means they'll go basically where I point them. As memory serves, SRM4 is better than 6, due to the DPS per Heat, is in favor of the SRM4. While you will have a great Alpha with 3x SRM6 over the 3x SRM4, overall DPS and heat build up, should be in your favor with the SRM4.

Expect your AC/20 to be shot at, a lot. It's a nasty damage dealer, and a lot of pilots by this point know quite well where it sits.

Assaults, especially as Brawlers (close range getting in the scrum), are very much a high risk/high reward, due to their lack of mobility. I think we've all seen what happens to an Assault mech when it's caught away from the group, or moving in open ground; the opposing team will fall in on it, and it dies a very quick and disappointing death. So always do your best to keep with your team.

In my experience, Assault Brawlers need good communication the most, out of really any other role. You don't have speed to run away. You don't have size to hide. Not only do you need to have good coordination with your team, as to when and where to punch in, you yourself need to be mindful of your own positioning. I myself am still working on this, as my preferred mechs tend to be in the mediums/lights, and faster heavies, as I ascribe to 'Speed is life'. The Fatlas is anything but nimble and quick.

The Atlas is a cudgel. Your job, while being supported by your allies, is to find the enemy ranks, and smash through them. You are a bettering ram. When spotted, you will be primarily focused. This is actually good for you and your team. You have the armor to survive. If you coordinate well, you'll bust through the enemy lines, and while the enemy mechs fall in on you, their attention is turned away from your allies, giving them all the time in the world to tear those red triangles to shreds.
When all this works well, your results may look something like this:


The worst thing you can do in an Atlas, is stop. Once you start that assault into their lines, Do. Not. Stop. Keep moving. Move through. Then turn around, and move through again. If communication with your team is good, and you learn to know where and when to move, you should find yourself some pretty good results.

[BP Raven]

Zombie Gandhi, on 27 June 2016 - 08:56 PM, said:

With the SRMs, I have them all linked to the same fire group, and I use the Backspace key on said group, so they fire staggered. To dump all three takes maybe a second. So I save quite a bit of the ghost heat, while all missiles launch in a very small window.

Have to take issue with this ... for starters ghost heat doesn't kick in until you fire off 5 or more SRM 4/6s at once, and second you increase the time you have to look at the target (not twisting) so more chance of taking damage to your core, and finally you increase the chance of spreading the damage all across a moving target.

Quote

Wow, how on earth can you aim at anything with your FoV set that high? The atlas is worse than most for cockpit visibility, and that really shows it up.

[Kimberm1911]

The Atlas DDC, as well as the other Atlai variants, is a beast. However, a lot of people play the atlas completely incorrectly, and as such get the perception that it's a terrible mech. Loads of people think that the Atlas is this amazing front line assault mech, which it is, but only kind of. The problem with the Atlas is that your primary goal must be to stay out of your enemies line of sight until you are within butt kicking distance. This means being patient and waiting for your team to move out of the trading phase. You can not sit and take shots for your teammates while the enemy is anywhere greater then 300-400 meters. If you don't stay out of sight, you'll be picked apart little by little until you are no longer an effective meat shield in the brawling phase. In addition, the Atlas isn't exactly good at leading charges, oddly enough. I've played enough games with the beast to confirm that is true. What the Atlas is really good at, is leading pushes once your team is close to the enemy. I personally choose to make a distinction between pushing and charging. A charge, which is best left to heavy mechs occurs, at ranges greater then 300 meters, and involves a decisive move from cover towards the enemy. A push, is exactly what is sounds like. If you're at all familiar with MMA, the Atlas is kind of a clinch fighter, he has to use good footwork to make his way close enough to the opponent to get into the clinch, and that's where he really shines. Once your team is on top of the enemy, that's when you emerge. All guns will be focused on you, but due to your ridiculous armor and heavy punch, you can survive since your team is right behind you gunning down the enemies as they back up terrified by your incredible bulk.

One of the important things to realize about the Atlas, and lots of assault mechs save the Kodiaks, is that you will have frustrating matches were you do little damage. Due to the nature of the mech, it's not entirely your fault if you entire team leaves you to the mercy of 4 timber wolves. It's important to communicate, but sometimes PUGs are borderline terribad, and unfortunately the Atlas, unlike the quad UAC 10 Kodiak, is not a mech that can carry a team. It's just too much of a niche design to turn the tide all the time. That being said, in certain situations it can be an amazing mech. But often it is not. I've had way too many games where I kill 5-6 enemies early on, only to have terribad PUGs snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. However, if your team is doing poorly throughout the game, sometimes it's entertaining to go out in a blaze of glory taking out many of the wounded enemy teams as you burst forth from your own lines trying, in vain, to inspire one last fruitless charge.

Anyways, the Atlas is one of my favorite mechs, it's just hard to play right. And yes, you will always win a fight against a Kodiak in a brawl. ATLAS MASTER RACE!!!!!!!!

Oh, and SRM 6's plus artemis are the only way to go. SRM 4's are almost as bad as putting on an AC 10.


Peace, and have fun.

[Void Angel]

hordes1ayer2, on 27 June 2016 - 07:02 PM, said:

I would like some overall helpfull knowledge on playing the D-DC. It is my first asult and i am using 3SRM 6, Ac20 and 2 med laz

First, that's exactly the right build. The only brawling alternative is a Hillbilly Shotgun build (dual UAC/5s can work for midrange,) but that's a bit more difficult to master, and plays roughly the same as the AC/20 brawler. Do not use LRMs on an Atlas, particularly a D-DC.

Other people have really covered most of what I'd say, but I feel they've left out a critical element - the Maxim of Motion. Now, I'm a longtime Atlas driver. I've played an Atlas in more pug matches than I care to count, and in 12v12 team play as well (back before Faction Play even existed.) So believe me when I say that I know how slow that chassis moves; but also believe me when I tell you that most of the time an assault is "left behind" by their team - it's their fault.

This doesn't mean that there are times that you simply get caught by a light wolfpack, or some fast mediums, or what-have-you. But the greater majority of the time, that Assault could have avoided being isolated and destroyed if they had moved well. This is the greatest, hidden skill that you need to develop - not only for assaults, but for competitive play. The difference between a top-level player and one who is merely technically excellent at shooting and maneuvering is positioning. With assaults, positioning is vitally important, and many pilots (particularly those with long-range builds) fail with this skill by failing to understand how they need to move.

This is the Maxim of Motion: Plan to be where you need to be, when you need to be there - and don't stop moving until you are. What those self-isolating Assault pilots usually do is stop and try to fight as soon as someone shoots them. They may have poor piloting skills (or too slow of an engine) that make Lights a lethal distraction for them, or they may simply be secure in their superior firepower, but the result is the same: they try to fight back - and stop moving forward.

In every map, there are critical terrain features that need to be held by your team (in some maps, like Polar Highlands, which features are critical changes over time, but I digress.) The rest of your team needs to reach those critical points, whether it be visibility over important fields of fire, possession of key pieces of cover, etc. They really cannot afford to lumber along at the pace of your Atlas, so you need to move with the mindset of playing catch-up. Any time you stop moving short of where you need to be, you're effectively moving away from the team - and that makes you vulnerable. So you must plan where you want to go (and why,) then keep moving until you get there. This does not meanwalking over open terrain past six snipers - you still need to use cover in order to survive. Just remember that when you do get caught out (and it'll happen,) your only real choice is to keep moving and get to where you need to go. Remember that unless you are in the position you want, you have someplace to be - and you're late.Remember the Maxim of Motion.

Aside from that, be patient, try to gauge how agressive your team is feeling, and if when you accidentally walk around the corner into the entire enemy team, do your best to make an Atlas-shaped hole in their ranks. Nothing takes a licking and keeps on kicking like the Atlas, and that's what makes the chassis so much fun!

PS: This is very important:

[Void Angel]

PPS: Seriously, though - get a microphone headset! Their cost is minuscule compared to the price of a PC, and they are the most powerful tactical coordination tool ever developed. Get one - a headset because no one really needs to hear that techno you have pumping in the background every time you key up - and learn to communicate politely and effectively to your teammates. Just don't be that jerk who only has a mic to complain.

[B L O O D W I T C H]

The plural of atlas is a topic on it's own.
Last time it came up, civil war errupted in the inner sphere and drove it to the brink of destruction.

[Void Angel]

I blame the education system.