i dont think an analysis based on 2 mechs facing each other shooting is correct. thats how it plays out most of the time because pilots are bad, but in my experience stalkers are pretty terrible because they're lucky to get through an arm before my atlas neuters them.
the problem with the stalker is that every location has a bunch of weapons and its really easy to RT/LT one since the arms are tiny. so there's very little you can do to prevent losing half your weapons in a couple broadside hits especially when you also consider it cant turn very far and its slow (it is not faster than the atlas. atlas can mount up to a 360, the stalker is limited to a 310. the weight of the engine is mostly irrelevant because in a 350 engine atlas, you can mount the same weapons as in 300 engine so there is no tradeoff)
compared to the atlas, on the arms all you have is one puny medium laser. so you can shield all day with that thing while waiting for the torso weapons to reload, and if you lose the arm, who cares? and especially with srms and laser weapons, you will not be getting much torso damage through to an atlas facing you with his arm. with a ballistic you might be able to sneak a shot through to the torso but that's not an option with stalkers.
so what i'm saying is if anyone's evidence on how good the stalker is is based on CTing some atlas, it was probably just a bad pilot. against a good pilot the atlas is near unbeatable 1v1 because they'll make you go through a lot of useless armor before you actually do meaningful damage, and all the while you have to avoid a series of potentially devastating alpha strikes.
Edited by Broceratops, 20 December 2012 - 09:02 AM.