The AS7-S is being awarded to players who have purchased any tier of Founders, Phoenix, Clan Wave 1 or Wave 2 pre-order package in their MWO career. For more info, please refer to: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/171445-anniversary-faq/.
So with 4M, 4E, and 1B, I think the K and RS variants have become even more redundant than they were before, and with the 30% bonus this will also nudge out people running their Founders Atlases.
Yeah it makes the DDC look... strangely anemic. Not sure on the AMS - I'd be tempted by more AC20 ammo personally.
D-DC will never die...ECM will keep that chasis run As for Founders, since they upped its bonus TO 30%, I don't think we'll stop seeing it either...the trade-off looks to be the option to mount one ballistics vs two launchers. Each will keep certain build options the other won't have, but yeah, if you're planning on mounting a dakka 10 or 20, the S takes the cake and runs with it. A slow, lumbering victory run that still can't be caught. So...I'm going to name mine William Perry.
I have to disagree... My founder runs a Dual LBX10 on it and has Zero reason to not be fielded as much as this new variant.
Hmm. this looks nice for a Brawler. It has almost twice the firing speed as the AC20+SRM6 versions. With lvl5 cooldown modules ( and any quirks they give it ) we are looking at ~2.6 seconds between firing the AC10+SRM4 instead of the minimum ~4.2 seconds for the AC20+SRM6. In theory this means you can torso twist, absorb a few shots for 2 seconds, then face and alpha, then torso twist to the other side, rinse and repeat. Might work, might not. Will have to test.
I didn't mean to say that the Founders is obsolete, as I agree that the Dual LBX10 or dual UAC5 builds are still very viable, but the S will replace it for a good chunk of the people who want to run an Atlas as an AC20 brawler.