44 replies to this topic

[Disposablejunk]

I am fairly new to the game and as such I don't have any assaults in my mech bay's. I tend to stick to heavies and mediums and occasionally I take out my locust and harass the assaults. I have some MC laying around and can afford the Boar's Head Atlas.

My question is as the title states... Is it worth it? If so, what are some great builds for it. I know I would already have to swap out the XL engine which would cost a few million C-Bills. Switch it to double heat sinks, probably change the armor. I have the money laying around, but I don't want to spend it all, if it is not worth it.

Let me know your thoughts!

[Nightbird]

If you're new, don't get it. Try a Sleipnir instead if you want an assault hero.

Edited by Nightbird, 07 February 2019 - 07:51 AM.

[Shanrak]

Its not a great mech, I'd save your MC for better heros when they go on sale.

[Bombast]

Not having one myself, the impression I get is that it's a mech maybe worth goofing around with if you already have a large stable of heroes, but if you don't have many already there's better things to get.

Edited by Bombast, 07 February 2019 - 07:54 AM.

[Disposablejunk]

I have the Virago as my go to hero mech. I think Nightbird is right about the Sleipnir, I hear nothing but greatness on it. Time to save my MC!

*edit* spelling is hard

Edited by Disposablejunk, 07 February 2019 - 08:02 AM.

[Bud Crue]

I believe it is thee most expensive single mech purchase PGI offers ($30).

In that sense, it is most certainly not worth it.

That said, it has its charms. The old 6MPL AC20 build can still do some work or even a a dead side build with snubs or LPLs on one arm, if you are into that sort of thing. If you have a ton of excess MC with nothing to spend it on, then sure, give it a go, but as a newer player I cannot recommend an Atlas, especially this Atlas.

[Bombast]

Bud Crue, on 07 February 2019 - 08:04 AM, said:

I believe it is thee most expensive single mech purchase PGI offers ($30).

In that sense, it is most certainly not worth it.

Currently 50% off.

[RickySpanish]

It isn't worth it in the long term as its low slung arm mounted weapons will make it difficult for you to trade with players in the higher tiers. You will see more 'Mechs with high torso mounted weapons which are both easier to shield with arms, and will expose less of the 'Mech when fired. If you are intent on something futureproof in the Assault class, I would recommend the Mad Cat MK2 Death Strike.

However if you don't care about viability in upper tiers or are exceptional at closing the gap, the Boar's Head will do fine. Up close it will easily put out 900 damage plus games thanks to its ability to mount ridiculous pulse laser builds like 4x mplas + 2x lplas and a million heat sinks.

[Darian DelFord]

Its great at dying!!

[Bud Crue]

Almost forgot...

Best reason to buy an Atlas these days is you can do a Cthulhu head camo pattern (works on Urban, Night Gyr and other mechs with round heads, but it’s best on an Atlas because, well its Cthulhu on an Atlas):

Atlas head decal, then use the letters I and J inverted and angled around the jaw line (you can also use the dropping bombs decal on either side of the chin...props to Zeph for suggesting this). Put your eyes of choice on over the skull and color to tase, and he who waits dreaming can be a part of your game. On the Boar’s Head if you place two of the letter “I”s just right on either side and then color the secondary color of the camo to match, the “tentacles” will look like they extend all over the mech (if I was at home I’d post a screen shot).

[MayTag]

I purchased mine way back in 2013 and have had a lot of fun and sucess with it. Most recently I've been running 6xMPL and a UAC20 with an LE 390. I would say if you have the extra MC then at 50% off I would say go for it. That being said, I also have a Sleipnir.

[Mumuharra]

If you like to start with assaults I would recommend a Mad Cat MK2 or a Marauder CII.
Both among the best mechs, meta or non meta and a fun to play.
And do yours3lfe a favour and skip the boars head. It is waste of money fo4 the most of us.

[Brizna]

Yeah, definitely Boar's Head is not a newbie friendly mech. If you are still curious about it buy one of the C-Bill variants (AS7-S is my suggestion) and play it a bit, AS7-S combines a big cannon with SRM/MRM while boar's head does big cannon with small energy weapons, but both are not all that different when it come to play style.

[Antares102]

My answer no not even when its on sale, because the weapon mounts are too low and too far apart and the mech is too immobile and not agile enough.
As said earlier if you look for an IS hero buy the Sleipner.

[Angel of Annihilation]

An Atlas, any Atlas is overall a relatively good mech so if you have the MC to spare sure but I will say that the Boar's head isn't my favorite variant.

The Pros are the fact you can run up to a 400 size engine so you can make it isn't a very fast 100 ton mech which can technically get up to around 70 kph with speed tweak. The downside is that the Atlas is not XL friendly and the 400 LFE and STD is really too heavy.

The disadvantages are the hard point locations on the Boar's head which are all waist height. Additionally it is really lacking the versatility of most other Atlas in that it only has one ST Ballistic and one ST Missile while the remaining 6 energy are in the arms. The last thing I don't like about the Boar's Head is the durability quirks are all structure related and with MGs in general usage today structure quirks aren't what they used to be.

My recommendation is even at 50% off, pass. Wait for something better to come on sale.

[JediPanther]

The atlas R plays nearly identical without the c bill bonus and minus a few energy hard points in the arms. I use it as a psudo-boar-head. spend c bills on the R and if you really like it and get it to work for you go for the boar.

[Prototelis]

Its almost meta in Solaris. It has a stupid amount of structure.

[Kaeb Odellas]

It's okay. I ran mine with Heavy Gauss and 6 MPLs and did pretty well with it for the 3 rounds it took to finish the event.

[Variant1]

what i dont get about the boars head is why so many people mount xl engines on it. The speed aint worth it because its negligable and they always end up dying to a side torso shot because of it.

[RickySpanish]

Variant1, on 07 February 2019 - 12:38 PM, said:

what i dont get about the boars head is why so many people mount xl engines on it. The speed aint worth it because its negligable and they always end up dying to a side torso shot because of it.

Yup people see the novelty and build it around that, even though it's a big liability. The BH like all Atlai has a weakness in that killing its right torso will almost always destroy at least half of its firepower, and usually the big ballistic mount as well. Therefore just about everyone tries to take that out first, since the left side often only mounts backup weapons.

Edited by RickySpanish, 07 February 2019 - 01:01 PM.