16 replies to this topic

[Joshua Obrien]

It's not that they're a bad weapon, it's the fact that there are so few missiles that any form of ams chews them apart leaving you with no damage.

I only ask for 2 things.


1. More ammo per ton
2. A nudge is health per missile to make them alittle beefier than lrms.

[El Bandito]

Yes, currently ATMs are just not worth it. Firing at sub 250 meters with LoS means nothing against AMS. Better off with lurms.

[Paigan]

Since they moved a lot of omni mech quirks to the set bonus, there a missing a lot of AMS hardpoints in omni mechs to begin with.
Every lousy Battlemech variant has an AMS hardpoint, why don't the omni mech variants (at least those with set bonus quirks)?

[El Bandito]

Paigan, on 06 August 2017 - 12:14 AM, said:

Since they moved a lot of omni mech quirks to the set bonus, there a missing a lot of AMS hardpoints in omni mechs to begin with.
Every lousy Battlemech variant has an AMS hardpoint, why don't the omni mech variants (at least those with set bonus quirks)?

I personally regard the set of 8 quirks for omnis as just bonus. They are meant to prop up the stock variant, not the chassis itself.

[Brain Cancer]

The one weak point of ATM's are AMS, but good grief do they chew things up when those aren't around if you can be sensible and fight in that 500m or less range. Thanks to AMS now, you've generally got to launch in a 1-2 wave with something with more tubes to soak up the AMS, but it's definitely effective.

[Dr Hobo]

Brain Cancer, on 06 August 2017 - 02:04 AM, said:

The one weak point of ATM's are AMS, but good grief do they chew things up when those aren't around if you can be sensible and fight in that 500m or less range. Thanks to AMS now, you've generally got to launch in a 1-2 wave with something with more tubes to soak up the AMS, but it's definitely effective.

That team damage! Ouch did someone walk into your arty strike?

ATMS take some finesse to use. They're not LRMs. I like to use them with HMLAS as the optimal is close enough for both and I won't fire at mechs with AMS. With ATMs youee better off ignoring aMS mechs.

[Wildstreak]

Joshua Obrien, on 05 August 2017 - 11:14 PM, said:

It's not that they're a bad weapon, it's the fact that there are so few missiles that any form of ams chews them apart leaving you with no damage.

You can thank the June AMS buff.
If you have a problem with AMS, ask for that buff to be rolled back.
Reason behind it was silly anyway.

[Escef]

I mostly use ATMs in muliples. I have a Timby mounting a 3 and 6 pack combo in each side torso. I prefer to chain fire them, but if there's too much AMS I just throw them all at once, and if there's only 1 or 2 AMS active near the flight path it's enough to overwhelm them.

[Fox With A Shotgun]

Step 1. Get a Comstar bank account.
Step 2. Get a Comstar Credit Card.
Step 3. Find your favourite ATM-loaded mech.
Step 4. Print CBills.

In all seriousness, though, ATM missiles are horribly, horribly weak. Right now, they don't have the health or speed to penetrate AMS (especially since AMS got much more popular). They don't even have the volume of fire of LRMs to overwhelm AMS either. I think they need to bump up the health of ATMs to NARC levels so that people actually have a reason to use them over the more dedicated launchers. Because right now, they're a jack of no trades weapon. They simply don't fit the bill for either short or long ranged combat.

[Brain Cancer]

Dr Hobo, on 06 August 2017 - 02:30 AM, said:

That team damage! Ouch did someone walk into your arty strike?

ATMS take some finesse to use. They're not LRMs. I like to use them with HMLAS as the optimal is close enough for both and I won't fire at mechs with AMS. With ATMs youee better off ignoring aMS mechs.

No strikes used.

People do occasionally like to walk into my salvos, though. ATMs are direct-fire, so even glancing a few missiles off someone up close will do some real damage. I've even ended up with cases where someone decided to step in front of my missiles to steal a kill, ate an alpha, and keeled over. Once the missiles are on the way, I can't stop them. You can only be smart and not walk in front of them.

No tears were shed.



But seriously, they need more missile health. The largest non-penalized by ghost heat ATM salvo is under 30 missiles, which is easily neutered by any significant effort with AMS. I had a game on Caustic where by blind luck, the enemy team had -two- triple AMS Kitfox, plus two or so others.

I got one kill and 80 damage out of 75% of my ammo load before dying, and that was basically with my lasers, since even dumping 50+ missiles in the air got zero results with 6-8 AMS pecking at them. An ATM 12 is 7 tons of launcher, which is basically 30 LRMs worth of missile hard point. It can be canceled completely by one anti-missile boater. Completely. 2 AMS will do the trick. At least 30 LRMs, something might get through...

Edited by Brain Cancer, 06 August 2017 - 10:16 AM.

[FireStoat]

I've grown to like ATM's when I mix them with medium pulse lasers. It gives me a mindset of zeroing in on the best range for both weapons out of habit and firing off max-damage alphas. The medium pulse are simply a great clan energy weapon choice at the moment as it is when you're needing a point blank range solution where the missiles are no good.

The Kit Fox and Huntsman have been very good for ATM use due to their mobility and jump jets. The Timber Wolf's raw speed for its tonnage actually works to is advantage for ATM packing as well, but boating them would be a mistake. It's a great supplementary weapon for the mech.

Edit - I think the missiles need an increase in health as well vs AMS. Whatever value is between an SRM and an LRM, the ATM should be set at that number (or substantially better if the 90 missiles / ton number is going to be adhered to).

Edited by FireStoat, 06 August 2017 - 04:40 PM.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Yeah I manage to get good use out of ATMs about 1 in every 5 matches. The other 4 AMS chews them up so bad that they aren't even close to worth the tonnage it takes to mount them. What is worse, is trying to mount a pair of ATM3s or even ATM6s is generally worthless.

[Fiona Marshe]

I prefer pairing with cERmLasers, lets you poke out further while closing the range and pick off UAVs

[LT. HARDCASE]

Brain Cancer, on 06 August 2017 - 02:04 AM, said:

The one weak point of ATM's are AMS, but good grief do they chew things up when those aren't around if you can be sensible and fight in that 500m or less range. Thanks to AMS now, you've generally got to launch in a 1-2 wave with something with more tubes to soak up the AMS, but it's definitely effective.

Share the mech and build maybe?

[Shifty McSwift]

Spectated a guy using them just recently, 3 sets of ATM 9 at optimal range, and it was depressing to watch, the enemy just treated them like LRMs, twisting off most of the damage to vitals, and twisting back to laser vomit the poor ATM guy into dust...

Did I mention it was at the optimal range for the ATMs too? Even MRMs make them look average. If someone is doing well with them, then more power to you, but they look horrid to play with as a main weapon.. The guy would have been much better off with SRMs and pushing a little bit closer, or LRMs and backing away quickly.

[Snowbluff]

I carry them as a backup weapon on my MCII. 2 Gauss, 4 ERML, 2 ATM6. I use to use 2 ERML and 2 Heavy LL instead, but this has way less heat. The damage is alright up close.

I wouldn't use them as a main weapon, however.

[Brain Cancer]

LT. HARDCASE, on 06 August 2017 - 06:23 PM, said:

Share the mech and build maybe?

Humble ol' Orion IIC-A, built thusly.

http://mwo.smurfy-ne...c4ccadcb9ea7275

Unless you're trying to drown AMS, it's more heat efficient to alternate LRM and ATM fire (though it'll certainly handle a few missile alphas as needed, even with ghost heat). I've got full ammo magazine node boosts (effectively 1512 LRM, 648 ATM) and pile on some range along with the usual LRM skills to give the ATMs a bigger sweet spot and effective range- this one can hit ATMs out to 1210m, LRMs to 990m (but that's a wasted shot), 3 damage to 297m, 2 damage to 550m.

Until they up ATM missile health, they're not going to be as effective alone as they could be, but they're very useful combined with other launchers.

I pulled about 1200 of that damage on the eight players I hit, with the rest being VIP damage. It's never going to be a comp-level build, but it's a very comfy missile boat for me that performs consistently.