Striker owners, your opinion please

The striker IMO is an unfortunate case. It is good at what it does, so good that it overshadows my G2A, G2G, and Annihilator. (All of which I have purchased over the levels). Other ESRL's offer users a niche role that they can use to compliment their own lock on's and dumbfires. For TR, its simply a replacement. It is a straight upgrade to the annihilator, and while it lacks the versatility of the G2A (being able to dumbfire + lock air) most players are smart enough to simply change their kits when infantry becomes a bigger threat than vehicles or when they are simply close enough to a base to dumbfire.

While I appreciate the power of the striker and its general ease of use, I find that access to the lancer (and to lesser extent the phoenix) leaves my heavies on other factions much more versatile in what they can do. (Having access to all launchers)

I'll suggest no dumbfiring and very low splash damage.

I don't like the Striker, 9/10 I will pull my Annihilator instead. The Striker gives away your position too easily, leaves you a sitting duck and unless you are on the flat, snowy fields of Easmair, you are going to lose LOS.

I only suggested the guidance system be changed with the thought in mind that the Dev's already have a good working knowledge of damage per rocket to different types of targets, splash damage etc.etc.

Sorry, but I don't share your thought. I bought the Phoenix and I regret a lot this purchase. It's sometimes funny, but it has no utility. My lock-on launchers are better.
A revision of the Striker should be tested a lot because there's the risk of people enraging.

I understand the angst that people have against a certain weapon type... especially if they feel it impacts their game results.

Whether it's the Scat maxes awhile back, the Striker or the ZOE max, shotguns or lolpods. Everyone has an opinion usually framed by frustration.

What I don't understand is why so many would want to make everything so generic.

I would rather have every faction with a distinct combat flavor and not just purple, red and blue teams.

While I play TR on occasion and I do own a striker, I play my VS far more often and rarely get my Magrider taken out by one. Usually it's my fault when I do, charging headlong without thought to tactics. When I use a striker, it's only the idiots or the jaded that get caught and destroyed. Like most lock-ons the terrain of PS2 for the most part allows a conscientious driver to get away and hide fairly easily.

Knowing the TR have strikers alters my gameplay. I like to have my game play altered when I play a different faction. It doesn't make it more difficult necessarily, just different.

I can see how Harasser and ESF pilots wouldn't like it as it prevents lolpodding and the Harasser has some difficulty getting away after running up and mowing people down. Things those vehicles do in spades out of all proportion as compared to other vehicles.

I don't know, but I think there could other solutions than making everything generic or continuously nerfing something because it prevents your play style from being successful.

I'm sure there would and should be testing done, I don't have any illusions that there wouldn't be, in fact I would welcome it!

Nerf'd is the operative word here. Now you'd need, what 1.5x as many annihilator users to do the same damage as striker users?

One of my Alts has it, the skill ceiling sits around most people's toes, that is what makes it OP.

If they made it so that the you could fire immediately on tracking a target but had to hold over the target to guide missiles then it would be more enjoyable to use and more like how it was in planetside 1 I think.

But then are we saying that flares no longer work on it, there is is no lockon warning and vehicles start taking damage much more quickly? Being a lockon weapon itself itself is a balancing feature on the weapon. If they took away the lockon limitations they would probably have to reduce the damage or something. If they changed the weapon so it wasn't a fire and forget but you still had delays and could be blocked by flares it would just be a stupid weapon.

I also use the GTA lockon launcher. It's almost as good against ESF, which is to say it's mostly a waste of time to use against ESF, but the dumb fire mode is what I want most of the time.

Just for the record, the G2G launchers are NOT getting the guidance change. Just the G2A.

What I don't understand is WHY the OP thought Striker owners would have an opinion...

I have better SPM/KMP/KDR with the phoenix.

Some get the point: TR just get classic dumbfire only useful at close range (ML-7 or deci) or lock-ons (G2G/G2A/Annhi/Striker) so every (or almost) guys thay play HA unlocked the striker.
Add to its numbers the striker/annhi broken guidance.

Yes it's an upgrade from the annhi with few drawbacks, but there is no reason to buy the decimator if you own the Phoenix and no reason to buy the hades if you own the Lancer too.

Keeping LOS until shots hits is what was needed since the launch to balance its important damages per volley by slowing the fire cycles, makes it more dodgeable and giving more risks to its users.

It doesn't matter what we (infantry) use. I could be using an anit-vehicle hippo, but if it's effective at scaring away air threats and keeping tanks on the move, the complaints will continue.

Guess he hasn't got the memo about the striker user's demographic yet...

Wait to see what untold horrors await beyond the upcoming lock on nerfs before continuing to harp on about your striker butt hurt.

If strikers deserve a damage nerf due to the ability to deal "huge unavoidable damage" then surely lancers need their attack range limited to the inside of infantry render distance and a projectile speed nerf too. But I wouldn't expect this kind of logic from the one eyed butt fairy VS army.

Also inB4 "bit lancers take skill". If you derps are under the impression that point and shoot is hard or leading a target is a challenge then I hate to imagine the menial oxygen thievery that is your day to day lives.

As an ESF player the true problem of Striker is its damage. It needs 6 rockets to put an ESF on fire and 7 rockets to put an ESF on fire and explode a second later. So approximately every rocket does 13%-14% damage to ESF, which means that 1 salvo (5 rockets) does around 70% damage. The second thing is that normal G2A Lock-on launchers wont kill after second launch, but Striker will which means that everytime you hear a lock-on alert on TR continet, you have to flee if you havent flares ready. Well that is a case normally anyway, but against Strikers you havent even a chance to stay alive like against other lock-on launchers.
And somehow TR players have fallen in love with Striker. They probably would sleep with it too if it would be real.

Its very OP compared to other lock-on launchers but its not OP against ESF's because they are enough fast to fly away. Im pretty cool with Striker as in ESF patch you will be informed which kind of missile is behind you and you will see missiles on minimap. So flying over TR isn't "gambling" like; is it a Striker or mmm normal RL?

Still, a skill ceiling around ones lungs is still a lot higher than one around ones toes...

This is the response to this thread I was trying to avoid by specifically asking for "Striker owners" opinions. If you would read the entire original post you would see that I acknowledged and agree that the Striker has balance issues. We've seen this type of complaint on thousands of threads.
The fact is there are many TR players out there that take exception to the Striker being a lock-on launcher. The question is: WOULD those who have purchased this launcher like to see it fundamentally changed or would there be a backlash of customers demanding their money back if it happened.
You have to remember there are thousands of Strikers sold and not just to "Hardcore" TR players but to many who play all three factions.

Striker is just a fire and forget weapon that can be countered by a lot of things and has no dumbfire, effective and boring.
But... the change for lock on mechanic are coming, brace yourselves.

TR is my main. Striker against aircraft is extremely OP. A VS guy sent me a tell complaining in general after I shot him down and I replied "yeah, I feel dirty now". It really feels like a cheat gun.

Where the Striker is utterly useless that the other factions don't suffer is dumbfire. If I come across a MAX and I'm carrying a Striker, I'm screwed. In PS1, Striker had dumbfire. In PS2, I think it is a tradeoff until they nerf it, at which point I'd like to see dumbfire be implemented.