adamts01, on 23 December 2016 - 09:43 AM, said:
Well that's not reality is it? I'll math you, how about that? Atlas, deals 71 spread damage at brawling range for 21 heat, actually a little more due to Ghost Heat on those 4xASRM6s, with a **** hair more HP. K3 and the marauder deal 60 pinpoint damage at sniper range for 30 heat from high mounts on a faster and more maneuverable chassis. If you can't see the clear winners then you need to lay off the paint chips. It's not a matter of playing it right, or working as a piece of the puzzle. The Atlas is flat out inferior, and statistics unarguably back that up. I don't go crazy over the Clan vs IS debate, but there are some fundamental problems with this game at this point. You can dance around the issue, humming and plugging your ears in denial, but that doesn't help anyone. Power creep is real, PGI uses it so sell mechs, and they don't even bother to throw newspaper on the floor after they **** on it. It's ****** up.
There is no ghost heat at four IS SRMs, and the atlas has a significant advantage in brawls against the kodiak because of its weapons (hopefully anyone running an AS7S is running AC20/ASRM6s) being synced up and front loaded, which allows it to fire and then twist. The K3 has to keep its guns trained onto the enemy mech to get their damage out. It CAN still twist, but the atlas is able to distribute damage from UAC10s and UAC5s. Kodiaks aren't very good at torso twisting, so even if they're trying to twist you can just belt them in the CT while you can fully block almost all damage with your arms.
I won't debate with you that the KDK3 is very clearly the better overall assault, but the atlas is still king **** at brawling and can really tear into kodiaks if it manages to get into brawling range (which is usually the big problem.) The onus is definitely on the atlas pilot to outdo the kodiak pilot when it comes to positioning, but if you can force the kodiak to abandon its cover just by approaching it you have to depend on the rest of your team to capitalize on that repositioning. If it doesn't abandon its cover and allows you to engage, it will almost certainly be killed if the two pilots are equally skilled at their mechs.
Part of good atlas piloting is closing in on the enemy team without taking damage on your STs or CT. Minimizing damage on the arms is secondary to that, because keeping those in tact will extend your side torso's lifespan in the brawl you're jockeying for. If for whatever reason you have been identified and you have to cross open ground to engage you should lose both arms before taking appreciable damage on your torso sections.
If you are scouted out or roll into a fight with more than 5% damage on your atlas then you have failed to engage properly with the mech.
If you die without losing both side torsos and arms, then you've failed to twist properly during the brawl.
If you die alone then you are either using too small of an engine and got left behind, which is totally your fault, or ran off on your own without the rest of your team, which is a place where the atlas is at its weakest.
The atlas is still great when used properly and it's still a good mech, but if we have to benchmark mechs to the KDK3's performance then power creep is going to be one helluva thing. It'd be healthier for the game for them to continue to hedge back the KDK3's performance, which I think is going to happen pretty drastically with the skill system replacement. If they give the KDK3 zero or very few skill pips to place, it's going to be losing modules and all the skills from the old skill tree. It'll still be a damn good mech, but it'll be brought more into the fold as far as being reasonably balanced out.
DoctorDetroit, on 23 December 2016 - 09:46 AM, said:
How many atlas's do you see in competitive matches or even on halfway descent CW teams? None would be the correct answer.
How many dedicated brawling drops do you see in competitive matches or in FW teams? Brawling just isn't in vogue, and that is the only role that the atlas performs better than its counterparts. Brawling just isn't consistent enough to be used in the competitive scene when compared to the poking meta, and dedicated brawlers in general don't have a big enough advantage against pokers by the time they are tumbling in the fight to make up for the lost armor and mechs on the way in.
The atlas in particular is suffering because brawling is almost totally out of the meta, and any of the mechs that it would normally lean on to back up its big push aren't being fielded in favor of mechs that can poke, reposition, and avoid engaging in brawling like the plague. Brawling is a team activity that fails horribly if the entire team doesn't play into it.
Edited by Commoners, 23 December 2016 - 10:37 AM.
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