0
Heavy Lasers: Non-unique colors and sounds aside, they have some trouble getting enough bang for the buck. One thing in particular that I noticed was that they are a real pain to fit into an omnimech (since we cannot customize the armor, internal, engine, etc). That is of course on top of the record face time and heat.
Light and Heavy MG's: The lights are interesting and will provide some options (though it could use an ammo amount per ton boost), but the heavies (as much as I hate to admit it) may be a bit too good. I have been seeing a lot of HMG's today. Granted it is mainly close in and very short fighting on the PTS, so we have to take that into account as well. Leastwise, I doubt that we will be seeing a lot of HMG's in Invasion where they would soon find themselves running out of their very limited ammo.
Micro ER and Pulse Lasers: They are good. I like them. The ER Micro seemed a bit under-powered, but overall good.
LAMS: Too damn hot. I did some experimenting with one of my guys earlier and after just a couple minutes of him walking around with his triple LAMS Nova while I fired missiles at him, he shut down. Never fired his weapons once, but he still shut down. That should not happen. We should not have to worry about our own LAMS shutting us down or killing us in the middle of an intense firefight. That fortunately, is an easy fix.
ATM's: They are $hit! The one weapon system I was looking forward to the most, and it is $hit! Sure it has great range and all, but with the way the damage is set up, it is insane. One point of damage for the second half of the the max range (roughly), two points for the second quarter of the first half (roughly), and three for the spot between 180 and 270 meters since within 180 meters they are completely useless. So, wheres LRM's have a 720 meter sweet spot (180-900 (and still actually do damage within 180 meters)) ATM's have a 90 meter sweet spot (this would be such a great drop the mic moment, if only I was actually done). To make things even better, according to our testing (duel LRM 20's vs duel ATM 12's), even in the ATM's sweet spot, LRM's were clearly the superior weapon. I fired both at a triple LAMS Nova who not only took more damage from the LRM's since it is much easier to shoot down an ATM 24 than a LRM 40, but with LRM's, he overheated and shut down at about 50% armor while with the ATM's I was the one that shut down, twice! Even then, he was still around 60-70% armor. As a LRM specialist, I can pull off 1k+ damage in pub matches. During ATM testing however, I never got out of double digit damage.
Conclusion:
1. They are too damn hot! Their heat is 150% of LRM's (LRM 20 is 6 heat while the ATM 12 is 9) and that really needs to be fixed. I can lurm all day as long as I have the ammo for it. But ATM's? I would be overheating every couple minutes. Not fun.
2. The minimum range needs to go. Lore aside, how can anyone effectively use a weapon with a paltry 90 meter sweet spot? (flamers do not count in this discussion)
3. The ranges seriously need to be reworked. No minimum damage for half of your range. Three nice and even damage phases is all it takes.
4. The ATM missiles need to be a bit tougher and little faster. Otherwise they will only serve as a light snack for AMS since they fire only 60% of the rounds that LRM's fire.
5. The extra weight was a pain, but still nowhere near the worst thing.
6. Doing the same spread as LRM's despite Artemis being built into them (as stated in the Lore) seems a bit messed up, especially with the 40% fewer rounds being fired when compared to LRM's.
7. It seems that the only Lore accurate thing about the ATM is the ammo: 72 rounds per ton. For MWO, that is definitely a bit on the light side (my Mad Dogs can hold three times as much LRM ammo compared to the ATM).
8. I noticed that (everything else aside) it basically functions the same as LRM's even though it is not supposed to. I (personally) would be fine if LOS was required for a lock-on to fire (though it should still track the target if he dips down a hill), but the other issues desperately NEED to get fixed first.
Forget DOA, as is, ATM's are a complete non-starter for everyone, plain and simple.
Everything else for the Clan side: Meh.
For the IS'ers:
From the ones I talked to, they gave me their assessments.
Gauss: Okay.
PPC: They like them.
MG's: Same assessment as mine.
ER Lasers: They like them.
MRM"s: They really like them. The spread is a bit big for most, but still workable, especially with the ammo per ton.
Rocket Launchers: Okay.
RAC's: A bit warm.
LFE: They like them.
(The other IS weapons I did not get any feedback on).
Anyone else want to put in their two cents?
Unrelated question: What is with nerfing the TComps? The laser range boost is gone!
Edited by Jep Jorgensson, 30 June 2017 - 07:03 PM.
