3 replies to this topic

[Mercworks]

I'm not a big LRM person (give me the mighty boomsticks!), but I was working a chasis up to Elite, and used a missile mark. I noticed that LRMs in indirect fire did very little damage compared to the volume of outgoing fire, and in direct-fire mode, they were significant, but less than I would expect from other weapons. When I added ARTEMIS, and used it in direct fire mode, I got two to three times as much damage, and a few kills.

The only problem with ARTEMIS is that the reloads cost 80k or so, making it really difficult to build up C-Bills.

What is your experience with LRMs, and is ARTEMIS worth it?

[p4r4g0n]

Artemis increases accuracy i.e. tightens the spread so you get more hits = more damage.

To avoid the lrm reload cost, what some people do is have 20% more ammo than they typically use and then rely on the auto 75% free refill at the end of game to avoid rearming costs. Many call it an exploit but far as I know it is an intended feature at this time.

When firing in indirect fire mode, do bear in mind that the target may have sought cover when they got the "Incoming Missiles" warning so a lot of the missiles may have missed.

Edit: Forgot to mention that for best effect, you should drop with others as part of a group and get on voice comms.

Edited by p4r4g0n, 03 December 2012 - 10:12 AM.

[Baed]

I found it can be useful in certain circumstances. You just need to bring along enough missles to use it to it's full potential. anything less than about 30 LRMs makes it pretty worthless, too much money and added weight at that point for to little return.

I do like Artemis however and I'll put it on my long range support cat. If you have someone with TAG also targeting the opponent it does even more damage. It's worth it on a dedicated LRM boat in my opinion especially if you already have a decent amount of money.

[SteelPaladin]

Indirect fire LRMs are "eh" unless boated, and even then only really "ok." They only become a real pain if you've got multiple missile boats on a team focus firing. Then, they'll ruin folks days if they can't shake that lock.

Artemis boosts the missile clustering (making them bunch up tighter on impact), which is why you're seeing more damage and some kills. You get less complete misses and more concentrate damage rather than peppering a whole mech. It is massively worth it if you are planning to use LRMs as direct-fire weapons (which is really what Artemis is for in the original game). I offset the cost by carrying less ammo, since each volley is more effective than non-Artemis LRMs (my CN9-AL carries only 1 ton of A4LRMs, vs. the 2 tons of standard LRMs it carries stock).

Artemis indirect fire is basically hurling C-Bills at your opponent, though.