Pierce Rossignol, on 15 December 2012 - 11:43 AM, said:
I'll say it again. And again. And again.
ECM only highlights the lack of skill of players who apparently thought that left-clicking their way to victory made them good pilots. If you can't win without LRM spam, you don't play very well. Similarly, if you can't - or won't - communicate and coordinate with others on your team, you don't play very well. This is a team game. If you won't play the game the way it was designed to be played, then you have no right to complain.
ECM marks the first time that the Atlas is truly the most feared mech on the field. As an Atlas pilot, I can't wait for a netcode fix and the reinstatement of knockdowns so that we can get busy rightfully crumpling the cockpits of inferior pilots who count on lagshield and the suspension of all laws of physics to sustain them in a battle against an opponent three times their size packing ten times the ordnance.
As for ECM, it allows the Atlas to make it to the fight without half of the mech hanging off due to LRM spam. A fresh Atlas is scary. As it should be.
I've been piloting Atlases almost exclusively since the beginning, working on my patience and my piloting skills, waiting for the day when something like ECM -- and the eventual netcode fixes, and knockdowns, and collision damage -- make the Atlas once again, rightfully, the scariest thing on the field. There is no reason -- NONE -- that a Jenner or Commando should stay in the vicinity of an Atlas, nor should any but the craziest and most competent pilots be able to. An alpha strike from an Atlas at point blank range should blow a Commando off its feet and send it skidding away. A Jenner tangling with an Atlas should resemble a Pug fighting a Bullmastiff, and should last about as long. Your best bet against the Atlas, as a scout, should be to run like a rabbit and come back with friends and fire support. That day is coming. The days of "Forward-Back-Forward-Back-Really-Fast-So-He-Can't-Hit-Me-Even-Point-Blank" are ending. I'm grinding my teeth in anticipation. I will grin and smite you like the fist of an angry god.
Back to ECM.
The main reason ECM works so well is that teams with ECM tend to stay in a tight formation. A team of mechs is really hard to counter. That's the whole point of the game.
And on LRM's, I want to point out that ECM doesn't negate LRMs. I run a pair of 20's on my Founder's Atlas sometimes, and coordinate with a Light pilot to TAG or disrupt ECM mechs, at which point I hammer them with their own weight in warheads from several hundred yards before engaging. Which is how big mechs are supposed to work.
So I'm sorry that your cheats don't work anymore. ECM is fine. It makes the game hard. Cope.
So the Atlas needed ECM to make it feared..get real. The Atlas not being feared was not due to the lack of ECM, it was due to the lack of all its massive armament dealing such pitiful damage against mechs that barely registered a hit from it. Firing pointblank at a jenner with 2 large lasers and a guass and getting sollid hits from all 3 on its CT should do more than just turn its icon yellow. It should have cored the ******.
Prior to ECM introduction and after the lrm damage buff to 1.8, I vary rarely saw LRM slugfests. There were perhaps 2 LTM designated "Boats" per side. You all foreget that when it went open beta, 3 of the 4 trial mechs had LRMs, thats why there were a lot. Now those players have either left or moved into Laserboats / ECMstreak boats or D-DC.
Oh and I've played LRM cats almost exclusively and moved onto an LRM Atlas, and you know what. LRMs are a waste of tonnage when no other weapon system requires the need of a 3rd party to spot and HOLD target LOS for you at a range outside 750m.
I've also taken out 2 Atlas's circle straffing with an ECM commando, thats how scary you guys are even with ECM. I just counter and fire my Streaks away, and pretty soon your a pile of scrap on the field foe salvage.
Lasers and ballistics can fire on a heat signature, LRM's cant.
Edited by Kaziganthi, 15 December 2012 - 12:22 PM.