104 replies to this topic

[Heavy Money]

1453 R, on 09 July 2021 - 09:48 AM, said:

So. Wild proposal.

Cut the minimum range off of ATMs altogether. If Piranha absolutely flat refuses to do that? Use the long-range damage number inside that minimum, whatever that number is now. ATMs are stonking heavy as hell by Clan standards, they spread damage all over, they require intense facetime, they don't benefit from TAG or NARC (reasonably sure, at least), they have exactly zero indirect fire capability, and everybody knows that simply getting within 120 meters of an ATM machine turns it off entirely - so that's exactly what everybody does.

Stop that. ATMs are supposed to be Advanced Tactical Missiles, all-range weapons that serve the warrior no matter what. Piranha's made them exceedingly vulnerable to enemy AMS? All right, fine. Piranha's made them slow-cycling and hot? Okay, sure. Whatevs. Piranha's imposed an unpleasantly low Spooky Heat limit on them to stop them from applying damage? Whatever. Piranha does that, it's just how MWO is. Piranha's made them almost strictly worse than LRMs? Fine. Whatever.

At least, let them be what they're supposed to be and FREAKING STOP turning my missiles off until they reach 120 meters. Even LRMs don't have a hard minimum - why the bloody goose farts do ATMs? They're already pointless at their otherwise-quite-nice long range, and they're mediocre at best in their medium range bracket. They have something like a ninety freaking meter band of space where they're not a waste of time. Let me have the first hundred and twenty meters, too.

Tag and NARC do work with them, same as LRMs. Its just not quite as noticeable because you don't indirect fire them.

[Leone]

The narc is useful for pre locking before the target exposes. Which really just makes it as useful as it is for normal pokey mechs who love narc for the extra situational awareness.

~Leone.

[Hiten Bongz]

ATMs are pretty much trash tier with face time required, the amount of buffed AMS prevalent on the field, the nerfed damage, inability to indirect fire, and the pitifully small optimal zone. Combine that with a huge dead zone and pretty much anything else is better choice.

I’ve literally stripped ATMs off of every single one of my mechs that had them.

[Anomalocaris]

Hiten Bongz, on 12 July 2021 - 12:59 PM, said:

ATMs are pretty much trash tier with face time required, the amount of buffed AMS prevalent on the field, the nerfed damage, inability to indirect fire, and the pitifully small optimal zone. Combine that with a huge dead zone and pretty much anything else is better choice.

I’ve literally stripped ATMs off of every single one of my mechs that had them.

Cauldron says "mission accomplished!"

Seriously, I think most of the Cauldron stuff was pretty good, but the lock-on weapon nerfs were B.S. and hypocritical when you look at their stated purposes. And they've been radio silent on ATMs ever since the nerf.

[Thorqemada]

And that outcome was obvious given the consistent critique on the low skill requirements of this kind of weapons out of that "Sphere" compared to amassed point and click hitscan weapons for example that maximize the gain of skillgap and hardware/infrastructure-gap instead of bridging at least one of the gaps.

Edited by Thorqemada, 12 July 2021 - 10:04 PM.