ATMs - Thoughts?

I love ATMs for their high damage output midrange, their ballistic-like trajectory and the ability to dumbfire them even without a lock. The latter is something a lot of players seem to be missing when using ATMs. Maybe they're trying to use them the same way they did with LRMs?

For me they are a perfect weapon system to create versatile, flexible loadouts, which I happen to enjoy quite a bit. There are times where you need to use full meta, but the added flexibility of the ATMs is great for my tastes in PUG or CW matches. Compare my most used builds on the MCII-1:





AMS is very strong against the relatively low amount of missiles you're sending on their way to the target, but there are several possibilities to work around this. My preferred way to do this is to combine them either with LRMs (beware of ghost heat, though) or - for a brawly or short range approach - with SRMs. Examples:

 

I see them as the Clan equivalent of MRMs. Arc is so low you can only use them as 'direct fire', and LRMs and SRMs are superior at their respective ranges. ATMs do really well between 120-450m with great damage per missile, though very heavy weapons.

 

Like other weapon systems, they take some getting used to. They don't arc like LRMs and they don't track as well as Streaks so you have to learn how to use them before they become effective. My first few times out, I was terrible using them.

You can us the low arc to get them over the crest of hills and they have high velocity so they are hard to dodge. The spread isn't nearly as bad as Streaks so they do much better against heavier targets.

I was running something close to this last night and had a very good series of drops.

 

You should buy the new CBill variant coming with the Aug 2017 patch (this evening for me), which comes with -30% missile CD when using 8/8 pods...

 

Strong in some situations and weak in others makes for a more interesting weapon than "average all the time." It's how you do balance without being boring. Of course, it's much harder to achieve that balance and can lead to widely varying opinions on the effectiveness of the weapon depending on player preference and how the weapon is encountered.

 

According to Smurfy "ATM systems have three different damage stages depending on distance traveled."

Range for max damage is 120-270m.

EXAMPLE: An ATM3 hits a target at 200m. Each missile deals 2 damage, for a total of 6 damage.

Max range for any damage with the ATMs is 1,100m. It won't be doing a lot of damage, but I do not know the damage dealt at this range.

As far as I know, there is no minimum range. Just an "optimal" range, which seems to be between 120-270m.

EDIT: turns out, in the July patch notes, it shows the min range for ATMs is 120m.

I will be doing a bit of research on this weapon, but I will not be using in game data, only that supplied by out of game sources.

 

Your example is off. At 200m, each missile does 3 damage.

120-270m = 3/msl
270-500m = 2/msl
500m+ = 1/msl

 

Streaks and SRMs do 2 damage per missile, LRMs do 1 damage per missile. Just check Smurfy.

It's also the same damage stack that @Remover of Obstacles mentioned for EVERY ATMs. That means an ATM12s can do up to 36 damage in the max damage zone.

 

Removing the minimum range would be too strong though in the current state.
I'd like to see maybe an effect of the multiple missile stages like the multi-stage rockets used for space travel. First, the missiles travel slowly to 270m. Then at each 'stage' the engine flares and the missile accelerates and turn rate decreases.

The advantages:
1. Clear distinction between damage stages, making the ATMs much easier to use.
2. Slow traveling 3-damage rounds makes SRMs still viable, due to SRMs having a much lower weight and much higher velocity (400 vs 150). This means minimum range can be removed on the ATMs (and they become easier to use) without completely screwing SRMs over.
3. Fast traveling 1-damage rounds gives the ATM a long range advantage over LRMs due to velocity, making them harder to dodge while keeping the disadvantage of the low arc and overall still average missile velocity (people still similar time to reach cover).
3.1 The 2-damage stage and versatility is already a clear advantage over LRMs until you equip the same weapon weight. Combined with the fact that less missiles are fired by the ATM, thus it's countered easier by AMS, I think that even with the 1-damage slight advantage, it would be balanced.

Maybe a velocity of 150/300/450 at the respective stages would be a good start.
(reference: base values are SRM:400, MRM:425, LRM:160 ; ATM: 200, SSRM:250 (230 for clan))

 

Yep, they're too 'niche' for the fluid battlefield which is funny as they're supposed to be the most flexible weapon system out there.

I like using them, but they could be implemented much better without becoming OP.