Aphid Patton Still Viable?

1)  I use this setup in tt.  I promise you won't kill me in whatever plasma rig you're using because I won't be alone. If you're using your ancile bot of any stripe or flavor solo you're doing it wrong. Period.

2) Any aphid bot gets its payload slipped from time to time. This point is irrelevant.  As for the 40 kph bots, see point number 1.

3) with the proliferation of tridents, it would be foolhardy to run assault bots in general, unless you have an ancile. Which it does. But people run assault bots anyway. Pothead isn't assault to begin with, it's attrition,  so the point is moot.

4) stationary or inexperienced is not a requirement of any sort. Just skill. So, if you SUCK with aphids in general, or need them on a jump platform to do anything, then maybe aphids aren't the weapon for you. But, I can assure you, as a pothead enthusiast, I find none of your points credible. It sounds to me like you don't know how to use one effectively.

Now, the real downside of pothead is damage. You aren't going to always do the most damage on your team. And you aren't going toe to toe with much of anything worth noting, except maybe stalkers and gepards and other light bots and hybrid griffins. But you're not doing any of that with a quad aphid patton either. When the other team gets tired of me, I die. Yup. I get hunted down with extreme prejudice. 

What you will do is protect your team.
A LOT.
And you'll soften up the opponent.
A LOT.
If you use cover effectively, griffins will die by the truckload. Lancelots will lose 1/1 -1/2 health before your teams Lancelots mow them down. You will do a truckload of damage to energy shields so your team can finish them off. You'll suppress enemy aphid fire. You'll make center beacon runs not only possible, but plausible.

So I'd recommend tossing any preconceived notions you may have and actually try one. Yes, the Gold cost can be prohibitive, so the build isn't for everyone. But for anyone who is a team player, and wants the team to win, pothead fills the bill nicely.

I might get an Ancile Aphid Leo and mount the Ancile on a Lancelot and Aphids on an Orkan Griff when I have the gold for the Lancelot.

I don't know about you guys, but I tried so hard last event to get an Aphid Jesse. I've got 4x LVL 10 Aphids, but I hate Patton and I don't really like Griffins. I really wanted a Jesse and a Butch, since I'm actually using Butch as my first sniper bot with 4x Trebuchets. I know Jesse is even more squishy, but the speed is equal to Gareth, and both are slightly below Stalker. I love light robots, and so far only Gareth and Jesse carry enough firepower to justify their high speed/low HP nature.

Why am I standing next to a fury in my pothead? This makes no sense. And sure, if the pothead pilot is stupid enough to shoot aphids at lateral moving targets, then ya, a lot miss. But I assure you, if you're pairing properly, the things you are trying to say occur, don't. Because I'm covering the Lancelot, or making the ancilot unkillable,  while adding my DPS into the fray.  If it's the beginning of the match, you're going to think I'm a carnage, because I'm using cover all day long. So you won't be moving laterally to me, you'll be coming right at me. My aphids aren't going to have a 50% miss rate. I'm NAILING you, HARD.
I'm not speaking to you about hypotheticals, as you are to me. I'm telling you what I do every night. I orchestrate this. I make it happen on purpose. I manipulate my opponents into bad positions and then my team capitalises on it.
And finally, while my buddy is certainly covering me, more to the point, I'm covering him.  Are you seriously going to let me dump apids into you ove r and over? I think not. There are so many orkans/pins/tridents on android, I make life liveable longer for my squad, at least until the other team gets sick of me or I want to kill something dead with a Lancelot.

Edit: Yes, on canyon I'll sometimes stand next to furys to cover them a bit if there are stupid numbers of tridents on the other team.