7 replies to this topic

[Hellkyte]

I bought an atlas a while ago and could never really bring myself to use it that much. I greatly preferred my Hunchback 4P and Gausscat. Part of this was because I am a stickler for having only 2 weapon groups if possible due to having a sub par mouse, but also managing heat and cycle times on 3+ weapon groups is difficult IMHO and leaves you using less firepower than you actually should be able to bring to bear.

So I built this:

Standard engine 300
DHS (18 I think jus put in as many as you can)

4xLarge Laser (weapon group 1)
1x gauss rifle 20 ammo (weapon group 2)

Depending on the map and the situation you can set the LL to cycle fire. Their cool downs are times almost perfectly for cycling 4 of them which can make life hell against light/medium mechs. If you Alpha fire them you will get about 3-4 volleys.

This mech is designed for fighting other heavies. The gauss and the lasers require a slower moving target which you can focus your fire on. That said the nice thing about this mech is its versatility. It can operate at long to medium to close range quite effectively without sacrificing a weapon group (like SRMs). You aren't ammo dependant on your main weapon. You are best against heavy mechs, but even against light and medium mechs your constant stream of LL fire coming from your arms will run them off or kill them.

Against heavier mechs like catapults/atlases you can aim center torso and will likely core them before they get close to coring you. The gauss rifle with its limited ammo is specifically for these mechs (or for one off long shot snipes agains other gauss cats or LRM boats). On a full alpha you can do ~51 damage, so within 2 volleys (8s) you will be through armor on an atlas and will likely have already cored a heavy. I have yet to go toe to toe with another mech that can core me first. Staring down a Gausscat is a fun thin in this mech.

A lot of this is due to the range versatility. This mech is as effective at 450 meters as at is a 90. While your enemy needs you outside of 180 or inside 250 for LRMs and AC20s/SRMs respectively you can maintain focused and accurate fire through the entire range.

Now, if you are a ****** and like to ball hard there is an upgraded version of this. Drop the standard 300 for an XL 350. You loose 2 DHS in your torso but it comes back in your engine. This brings you to a healthy 65iah kph delivering hot death across the map, and also frees up enough tonnage for more gauss ammo and an AMS. The downside is that it hurts your survivability and also brings your repair bill up to a rough 110k. I have not yet decided if that's the way I will go or not yet.

The only other change I would consider would be to drop one DHS and add 2 streaks with 1 ton of ammo. This would require the XL engine, and would probably hurt you in the heat department. As well as increasing your repair cost substantially.

Anyways. With this build I can regularly top 1k damage and core multiple heavy mechs.

[Staplebeater]

I am running my RS with 4 LL and 2 Streaks w/ a standard 340. I was running into heat issues too often to put in the gauss. My view is cycling that many LL is not not efficient, as you can't fire all 4 due to heat. Better to cut one and be able to fire them non stop.

[Redshift2k5]

4xLL with LRMs (2xlrm10 or 15+5) or 4xLL with 2xSRM6 is also nice

[Hellkyte]

The problem with Streaks or LRMs is that you are range limited in either case, limiting your real damage ober the course of a fight. This mech has full combat potential from 450 yards down to zero yards.

[RabbidFerret]

Whenever I play with at Atlas in a premade and he is running a setup similar to this (sometimes 3LL to save heat), he absolutely wrecks. If I had to buy at atlas right now, this is the build I would take.

[Hellkyte]

I wish I had recorded it but in a recent match I killed 6 mechs with this. The best part was dropping on two gauss cats a bit off guard and watching them scramble as I proceeded to murder both of them in shorts succession.

You shouldn't need to drop to 3 LL if you have DHS and you're chain firing. Oh yeah, and another added advantage of chain firing the LL is that it makes it MUCH easier to focus your fire on a single body part. You always have this constant blue line pointing straight at the mech. This makes headshot kills a lot more likely, with very little damage wasted missing or hitting the wrong spot.

Edited by Hellkyte, 21 November 2012 - 09:28 AM.

[Thrak]

I don't get this obsession with never overheating - I've seen it written somewhere that the most efficient kill 1v1 is when you overheat on the final shot and I agree with that!

If you're running just 4 LLAS you're sacrificing so much damage to me it seems crazy. Here's what I run:

4 LLAS
Gauss
2 SRM 4
Endo, DHS, I think a 325 standard? about 54kph with elite skills.

This gives me a massive alpha of 36+15+20.

The Gauss + LLAS combo means I can put 51 damage out to 400M, and infact because LLAS still deal damage out to 900M I can reliable put serious damage down out to 800M, and this is augmented by the Gauss. This really gives you the ability to force guasscats etc into cover.

In close combat the LLAS become an opportunity shot, I can fire 2 alphas then either wait for a third or switch to chain fire and 'add on' shots while I continue to fire the SRM4s and Gauss for a combined total of 35 damage.

I mean 2xSRM4 and gauss only give 7 heat combined which is the same as 1 LLAS - but nearly 4 times the damage. It's a no brainer.

Is this build crazy on heat management? YES.
Do I overheat more than I would like? YES
Do I suffer from that? I think NO.

Along with timing and positioning, heat management is what I see as the main skill in running a big brawler.

If we compare a standard 4 LLAS build to this build, let's watch the damage accumulate over 4 second ticks for 28 seconds (being generous, I doubt any 4 LLAS build can fire 100% constantly, for my build I have assumed after the first 2 alpahs, I can fire an alpha every other 4 seconds, this is more less correct - I don't, I often chain fire, but this should average the same ignoring chain fire heat discount)

4 LLAS

• 36
  
• 72
  
• 108
  
• 144
  
• 180
  
• 216
  
• 252

4 LLAS + Gauss + 2 SRM4

• 71
  
• 142
  
• 177
  
• 248
  
• 283
  
• 354
  
• 389

Now if that doesn't convince you to start juggling heat I don't know what will! My build almost reaches your damage output after 16 seconds, and beats it by 137 over 28 seconds.


People are obsessed with the build being heat efficient rather than playing heat efficient!

Edit: Maybe I should call this build the thermal lance?

Edited by Thrak, 22 November 2012 - 02:57 AM.

[Flapdrol]

I run my atlas RS with 4 large lasers only. Brawls the same way a medium does, only with more range and damage. works agianst anything, if you want to kill the lights faster you can install streaks and cool down a bit slower.