I'd avoid the ATG pass.

I cant do ATG at all, for the same reason. It just ruins my skin, and in fact a master barber at Trumpers told me never to shave ATG as it will damage the skin and give you razor burn and possibly spots.

I can get a BBS shave with a mix of WTG and XTG passes.

Dont use cold water, use plenty of hot water and lather, and re-lather between passes. If you go back to an area to touch it up, add more lather. Basically, whenever you put blade to skin make sure theres lather there as well..!

Something else to try; Have your shower and all the usual prep but add two lots of lather with a hot towel in between. So what you do is lather up, stick a hot towel over the top, wipe off all the old lather, re-apply more and then start shaving.

You could also try using Trumpers skin food as an AS balm, it works very well for me! The other option is to use a pre-shave oil or apply a little olive oil to the skin before the lather to add glide and further soften the beard.

Good luck!