Dealing with Harassers

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by P4NJ, Jul 2, 2013.

  1. P4NJ

    Well guys, time to stop whining about dying to something and learn to deal with the harasser. And it's not that difficult! Here's a few ways to deal with those buggies.

    -Tank mines, tank mines tank mines.
    Wherever you think a harasser might pass trough, put down some tank mines. NOBODY uses mineguard on their harasser! If there's a bottleneck somewhere near a battle, no reason not to tank mine it. For example, if you're NC and are advancing from East Canyon to the Palisade. You have a sundy on the road. Put down some tank mines on the road to prevent a harasser pass that would decimate your infantry. Or in Amp stations, put them down in random locations!

    -Tank support
    The Harasser has only one weapon, and it can only be AI, AV or AA (some AV weapons are semi effective against infantry, but they are not as much of a threat). Having a tank nearby, especially a fully manned tank, will give your infantry some cover and will scare away or take out the harasser.

    -Man the turrets!
    If you see a tank nearby and there are harassers around, man the turret! Basilisk is very good against harassers and if you have several basilisks manned by decent gunners a Harasser will have a very hard time staying alive. Since most sundys have a basilisk or two, and there is always a sundy around, this is the cheapest way to handle them. Even a Kobalt firing at a harasser can be very effective.

    -Shoot at them
    Yeah, pretty obvious, but too often do I see large groups of infantry just sitting around getting Fury farmed. Get your LMG, Carbine, AR, even a pistol and fire at the harasser! A single guy isn't very effective, but a large group of infantry will do heavy damage to the harasser. Also, hitting a harasser with a dumbfire isn't difficult, you just have to learn to lead a bit and position yourself in a good spot.


    If everybody followed these 4 easy steps, the amount of harasser farming would be reduced to zero.
    Also, if you have any other ideas on taking our harassers, share them!
    • Up x 9
  2. TothAval

    Reminds me of yesterday were i dumbfired a rocket in a direction, the 3/3 harasser evaded with some S curves and drove
    into my straight flying rocket, giving me three kills :D

    I always shoot at them, best way to scare them away for some time - or at least die trying :)
    • Up x 2
  3. Dvine

    Shooting them makes a lot of difference, if you plink away 10% of its health it will either burn or blow up after the 2nd MBT/Lightning/G2G shot.

    Unless you have a striker.. Then dont bother, you will blow it up in one reload regardless and they cant get away
    • Up x 1
  4. Xasapis

    The repair on the move needs to go. Period.
    • Up x 24
  5. Thrustin

    Nope.


    And I agree, Harassers are very easily taken down with Basilisks.
    • Up x 4
  6. Morti

    I will make a counter argument as I am bored.

    #1 AT mines are dead. It takes two to take a harasser from 100% to zero, one will only put it into critical. Due to the static terrain of planetside, AT mines are glaringly obvious in the middle of a road and thermal vision on the fury/marauder highlights any hidden AT mines. In large, open terrain you can forget it. Your 3-4 AT mines aren't going to do squat to a harasser that has enough room maneuver and evade easily. 3-4 AT mines don't have enough area denial in those situations. Around tech plants, AMP stations and some bio labs, sure. You can sometimes gib some harassers who get bottlenecked into taking a narrow road. But then, I rarely ever see them used there.

    #2 you're not always in a position to pull a MBT, nor are other players. And as it is with harassers, that MBT may carry weapons to deal with infantry(HE + kobalt ect). Lets not forget that even if you did have an AP vanguard, even if you landed two shots the harasser would still drive away quickly, break your LoS with terrain and repair back to full without ever having to stop. Then there's the issue of hitting the small, fast target at all. Not hard for me, but I watch other people fail at judging projectile speed, direction ect all the time.

    #3 see #2

    #4 people don't shoot at them for the same reason people don't shoot at ESF's. They fly away and repair before you even come close to killing them and it's distracting you from what's going on around you. Harassers are much worse as they can be repaired while fleeing. I also haven't checked yet, but I'm sure the harasser with maxed composite can take some serious punishment from small arms fire.
    • Up x 11
  7. Xasapis

    Any particular reason for the denial? For every other vehicle, that particular behavior was considered an bannable exploit. It makes zero sense for a harasser to be able to repair on the move, basically extended its life well beyond any other vehicle in the game right now.

    A vehicle that can be pulled from any other base, has already better survivability than a lightning, more speed than a flash and the best weapon of a MBT. Being able to repair on the move just makes the whole package absurd.

    Something has to give. The vehicle is obviously broken right now and can't remain as is. Nerfing fury or other weapons attached are just band aids to the main issue which is too much survivability for the firepower available. The developers are trying to cut down firepower. Wouldn't you rather have a bit less survivability instead?
    • Up x 2
  8. The King

    no it doesn't...
    Learn to not get scared, then you can kill em without dying.
  9. TeknoBug

    You can repair the Flash while sitting in the rumble seat, everyone complains about that too.... right? right?
  10. Xasapis

    Noone complains about a vehicle that gets one-shotted by pretty much anything. A full composite armor harasser rivals a MBT in survivability and easily surpasses it with the repair on the move.
    • Up x 11
  11. Morti

    Wish they'd turn seat 3 of liberators into a rumble seat then.

    Cause clearly there's nothing wrong with being able to repair on the move.
    • Up x 10
  12. TeknoBug

    Yes that's what I'm getting at, the armor should be reduced some.
    • Up x 4
  13. Bine

    You cant shoot the driver off the top of a harasser. The engy in the back seat has some measure of cover and will thus be able to survive much longer than the driver on an ATV. Plus the ATV doesnt have a giant rocket launcher on top of it.

    EDIT: Just trying to point out their viewpoint. I would say either lower harasser armor OR just make engy tool less effective during rumble-seat riding.
    • Up x 1
  14. tastyBerryPunch

    BASILISK. People forget about it and it's very effective against harassers. Most of the time there is a basilisk sundy or tank around. Jump in it and gun. You probably won't kill it, but you will get a assist when another guy uses a lock-on or a tank hits it.
    Edit: Even with composite armor.
  15. Booface

    Shooting them actually does some serious damage. Less with Composite, of course, but even a few infantry shooting at a Harasser will scare it off. If it takes AV damage, it'll probably be destroyed.

    At the very least, it means that you'll force those Harassers to do quick drive-bys and then repair, rather than farming you with impunity.
    • Up x 1
  16. Staticsilver

    Two Vanguard ap rounds and one round from an enforcer will murder a harasser, its not hard at all for a vanguard with infantry support keep most all vehicles away from his team, just don't get greedy and go in for farm etc, stay back and watch your approaches and listen for your squad mates call outs over in game viop or mumble etc., and then unload, people argue a harraser is hard to hit, and those people would be dumb, 1.75X zoom on a AP gun will create a no vehicle zone for your infantry to operate in, its a combined arms game still , no matter how many people argue against it, and if your one of those people saying the harasser has replaced the MBT, well then, have fun shooting up 1/2 stock magriders and claiming a new age has dawned
  17. IamDH

    You cant really kill a harasser tbh but all it does is hit and run (aka harass) . If it stays long enough to kill your tank thats your fault
  18. deggy

    So... You can tell me with a straight face that you can land two AP rounds on a vehicle that moves 100kph without afterburners? Your damage values are also without Composite armor, a Harasser can take 3 AP rounds with full composite and only be burning.
    • Up x 5
  19. DreamlessLiberty

    One of the most enjoyable experiences in the game happens when a harasser stops for a few seconds to shoot something and you get a few seconds to line up the crosshair of your sniper rifle on the engineer in the back seat who looks like a moron and headshot them :).

    Lightening tanks only take one person to man. A harasser can take up to three. The machine gun and auto grenade launcher on something that moves that fast is a bit ridiculous. If not for that I wouldn't care much about them or the fact they can repair on the move. If you can shoot rockets with a decent amount of accuracy you can turn them into a hit and run unit which fits the name of the vehicle. But with the auto grenade launcher and machine gun they are more of a massacre and run unit. But that is PS2 game balance. Release op weapon; story follows about how weapon is op; people quit game; weapon is nerfed; new op weapon is released; story follows about how weapon is op; people quit game; weapon is nerfed, and so on until no one is left. Then they release Planetside 3.
  20. Staticsilver

    Yes i can reliably land 2/3 shoots, AND my enforcer gunner is top notch is laying onto them to, he usually can hit 8/10 ish enforcer rounds on the harrasser, let alone them come back to kill us, also we usually have the drop on them bc we stay away from the fight destroying derpy vehicle drivers, at the very worst what usually happens is that the harraser survives barley, then comes back and we blow him up, and they can't even whittle us down, bc in between the shots they manage to land, my nanites repair of the dmage. Now a major problem i can see is while you have to deal with Enforcer harassers, i don't, you have to maneuver your whole magrider, i have a turret and i am dam good and driving while aiming, and i have rival 3 PLUS my vanguard shield so it is easy to keep my front pointed towards them ot soak up most of the damage while i have vanguard shield to ruin their element of surprise, plus we are putting constant shells on them, and if they are in the ffective range of the vulcan, well they are screwed, and if they are far away, they aren't gunna be able to hit me with a halberd unless they sit still, again = dead. And don't even forget that it is alot easier for a MBT to ignore outside factors than a vulnerable harraser