if we want to talk about fairness, let's talk about how the NC can use the phoenix to do recon and kill sunderes all without needing to leave their spawn room. because the thing has a range of 350 m and can fly around corners... if anything the projectiles should just instantly explode when used within 2 m of the spawn shack
LOL, the Lancer is much more OP than the Phoenix. However, both the Phoenix and Lancer must seem OP when compared to the broken Striker. Hopefully Higgles fixes that thing soon. Yes, I own all the ESAV and the Striker is by far the most useless.
300m* as the crow flies .. So taking into account turns and adjustments etc it normal has an effective range of 290m.
The Lancer can be OP too. It's the only ESAV that can near insta-kill enemy armor from the front at 700m. A coordinated Lancer squad can decimate most armor columns before they can retreat to cover, from beyond render range.
There are 4 types of weapons in this game: 1) Balanced Weapons 2) Under powered weapons 3) Over powered weapons 4) Fun weapons (these weapons are usually balanced) NC 15 Phoenix goes under the fourth category, its only a fun weapon, isnt a battle changing weapon unless used in groups (which is true for nearly all weapons). To be honest i loved my NC15 Phoenix till the silver medal, after that i just felt its a drag. 7 seconds of projecting + 4.7 seconds of reloading = me feeling like i'm not getting anywhere But it always has been fun to kill maxes killing vehicles from the airpad. If you like to play 'FUN' things i think you should play the VS. Their stuff is the most unique. (not OP)
At least a phoenix can be shot without requiring a lock on. At least a phoenix can actually kill infantry. though they have to either have no shields or be weakened. At least a phoenix can kill AV and AI turrets and ESFs in one shot. At least you don't have to worry about all your shots acting like drunks on stairs as soon as a tree branch breaks your line of sight. Out of the three, I prefer the phoenix by far though I have a thing about not wanting to play as VS so i haven't played with the Lancer. The Striker is god awful in comparison to either of those guns. I terms of the empire specific launchers, i'd say the Phoenix is by far the best. But again, I haven't played much with the lancer. The thing about the lancer is it range and speed so therefore it may be better than the Phoenix.
A lot of miss information in this post 1. One engineer can almost out repair 2 the phoenix user at distance because of the flight time + reload. 2. The max range is not 350 meters but 300 meters and it vanishes afterwards 3. The turning angle is more close to 50 ish degree, you cannot do sharp turns 90 degree with it around corners. 4. The missile is slow and can be fire down 5. Shooting the phoenix from the spawn room has a huge chance of blowing up inside the spawn room (buggy when hitting the shield) 6. It takes 2 phoenix rockets to kill an infantry and there is barely any splash damage. Point is that all the ES Launchers are not great individually but they are force multiplier in groups. The phoenix is extremely situational, most cases a regular launcher is much better and has faster TTK If you place sundy behind coverage against a wall or any tall object it cant be hit by the phoenix because of the turning angle. If you place your sundy far out behind the wall and if the there is enough distance to angle the missile than yes you can hit it. To say that the phoenix is op is the same as saying all ES launcher are op if used in the right situation and in group. 90% of the time a decimator is better or the standard launcher of each faction. If I recall it is still the less used launcher from all factions because its non versatile nature. Using it close range is suicidal on armor or infantry.
Try it out....and make a kill-montage as proof first. Otherwise I think you're going to discover it's woefully inadequate due partly to its yaw angles being so slow and mostly to its collision hull being way too small to actually make contact with anything. (half the time you will literally pass THROUGH a MAX like you were phases shifted or something) -- And even when you do make contact, it deals like half the damage of a Shrike**. (which everyone stopped using as soon as the Decimator came out). ** - results based on killing most players with a single Body shot using Shrike, versus dozens of perfect headshots with the Phoenix now only taking 75% of their shields+HP
If you like the Phoenix, then play NC, if you fancy snipping ESFs might as well use the Lancer, and wel... if you want to stand still for 5 seconds to shoot 2 balls at some ESF then... The striker might be the... who am I kidding /seppuku
I found out that i can get out of my tank and shoot it with my carbine LOL. You can even hop in the gunner seat and shoot it with a basilisk, its awfully easy. The only OP thing about the phoenix is the deafening sound it makes
the best thing about the phoenix is wiping out engineer turrets no turret is safe I'm closing in on the auraxium for the phoenix and I like it a good bit, but for general use I think the lancer is probably better. Longer range, just as accurate, and better at threatening aircraft. The phoenix can one shot an ESF but you'll only hit the absolute dumbest/laziest pilots with it
Phoenix oneshot kills ESFs. Like it or not but it is a direct upgrade from the decimator unless you want to peek out for 0.1 sec to shoot.
FTFY. Any ESF that eats a Phoenix deserves it, because they were hovering in one place for a good ten seconds.
Well, doesn't one-shot. Needs a couple seconds to burn that last HP. Anyone with fire suppression equipped can eat a phoenix missile and live provided they didn't take damage beforehand. The people who hover perfectly are easy targets. Anybody constantly shifting up and down is much harder to hit.
There was a thread either earlier this week or last week in which a whole group of infiltrators (like a full squad or more) were going around and gibbing tanks with the crossbow's explosive bolts.