Constructive Feed back for the Striker

Lockdown with Pounders is disgusting. Try it sometime.

You'll need a pocket engie of course, but it's awesome. (PS: Take Flak armor with it)

NC shield is also quite useful, just has an unfortunate bug with moving forward which makes it not do what it should as well as it should.

ZOE on the other hand is a straight up self nerf of 30% HP. I don't want old ZOE back, but current ZOE is worse than bad, it's actually worse to use than using nothing at all.

Change damage from 100 to 150 , splash from 50 to 75 and reduce mag size from 5 to 4. Fix the cone of fire. That's my opinion , right now I would never even consider using it in the state it is in.

Alright. After extensive use of the T2 Striker (both on the battle field & VR) I have broken down the strengths and weaknesses of the launcher. This post will be lengthy and informative but will have a "TL,DR" for those that want a quick summary of my findings.

As you all know the striker's rework was designed to give the weapon more versatility on the battle field by removing the lock on /wire guided mechanics and adding a dumb fire / heat seeking anti air launcher. Brief run down of the stats are as follows:

Damage: 100
Indirect Damage: 50 / 2m & 1 / 3m
Ammunition: 5/25

Having said that my heavy assault is geared to carry 4 additional magazines/rockets for the launcher I have selected. This gives me a total of 45 rounds for the striker. In my opinion that should be more than enough to destroy multiple enemy vehicles and it fits my play style.

On Aircraft

The initial live testing on aircraft was basically the flip of a coin. I had troubles hitting low flying targets (unless they where head on engagements) and a harder time hitting high altitude targets. Frustrated I went into VR to see what the deal is. First the rockets must be within 10 meters of the aircraft to lock on. Second it takes 12 rockets (3 reloads) to down a vanilla (non armored) ESF. I didn't even bother testing it on larger more beefy aircraft.

On Ground Targets

Against opposing factions on the ground I had much better results when it came to hits. While I realize this launcher is designed to take down enemy aircraft I still wanted to utilize it's dumb-fire ability. While my damage overall was abysmal I still managed to take out an enemy sunder with a crew of zero and also got the upper hand on an abandon enemy flash. Satisfied with my guerrilla tactics on non manned enemy vehicles I decided to hit the VR for some hard numbers.

Main Battle Tanks (no armor upgrades) = 27 shots
Sunderer (No armor upgrades & not deployed) = 25 shots
Light Aircraft (No armor upgrades) = 12 shots
Infiltrator = 5 shots

Arguments

Many people will bring up the pointless argument of "Strength in numbers". Let's get real here. Anything in numbers would wreak havoc, however a nest of strikers would be a lot less effective compared to a group of grounders. In planet side it's all about time to kill and the more things that factor into it make the weapon in question less and less practical.

Buffing the damage will make it over powered. False. Increasing the damage will make it a viable choice when it comes to your choice of rocket launchers. If the striker's total payload was 1125 (225 per rocket) people would consider using it as an alternative to other anti air launchers. Other launchers do 1000 damage to enemy aircraft which has the ability to countered compared to a launcher that does 500 damage to enemy aircraft and has a chance of missing. Which would be the logical choice?

Conclusions

In it's current state the striker is a poor choice for battle. The damage is way too low and it's effectiveness at it's intended role is over shadowed by more reliable counterparts. If the soldier hasn't been killed by his target in the first salvo he will spend the rest of his time reloading while the target either kills him or leaves. Truth be told I don't think people would use this if it was the only anti air launcher in the game. I personally don't see a problem with velocity, but it must have a damage buff.

TL,DR

The striker needs a damage buff that allows it to become a competitive part of Planet Side 2. If it can't compete with other launchers then no one is going to use it. I personally think it needs a minimum of 225 damage per rocket because it rewards you with extra damage for the risk of using it.

You missed my point. You also probably didnt read what i quoted to get the context.

ZOE got refunded because it was getting butchered. Nobody at the time was under the impression that it was going to good for anything afterwards. The rest is history.

I also said nothing about other MAX abilities. And Lockdown, if anything, has at least one useful niche for boosting the range and RoF of Pounders for AV duty.

Couldn't stop laughing while using the JOKER.

Constructive feed back:

Old niche: lock-on zone denial.
Proposed niche: Run and gun.

The concept I was hoping for the reworked striker was something that could complement the infantry AA/AV while on the move covering short and mid range combat. I view the Prowler as a siege tank there by providing the long range AV support needed. In order to achieve these are my proposed changes/modification.

- AV lock-on (Coyote style) like the reworked AA lock-on (Coyote style).
- Increased flight speed (250-300m/s)
- no change in damage/accuracy/clip size.

How this would affect the game for me: As a run and gun heavy on the TR (I strongly believe TR HA weapon models favor this type of play, even though LA is the class designed for this play style.) To be honest I dislike the current dumb-fire RL model being used, it feels too NC'ish (Hit hard or Miss hard) For me TR has always been death by a "Thousand Cuts" kind a thing and I believe this proposed model would let me run and gun and contributing to the "Thousand" in the "Thousand Cuts" theme.

Question you might have:

Why do I want AV lock-on?
Honestly, it the run and gun ideology. I really don't want to stop and ADS, ADS on RL over done. I am looking for an Empire Specific RL that brings its own flavor. I'm sure all of you will agree with me when I say the Lance and Phoenix have their own feel, I want the Striker to have its own feel. With the AV Coyote style lock-on I hope ADS with the Striker will be more for visibility rather than accuracy.

Why do I what increased flight speed?
Mainly to ensure that the rockets fired actually have an increased chance to hit/lock-on. At 100m/s seconds the margin for error is too big, as the distance grows the margin grows wider. While advantage of a 100% hit while in range and in line of sight with the Striker is gone, at 250-300m/s might make the Striker more consistent but not 100%, inclusive of skill and maybe even luck. TR military doctrine has emphasized strong AA capability irrespective of the wielder, perhaps a 250-300m/s Striker will be more ain-line to TR military doctrine.

Why no change in damage/accuracy/clip size ?
To be frank I don't want the Striker to be the gun Rambo uses. Rambo can either go use the default RL or Deci. The low damage along with the proposed changes will however still fulfill the role of "Cut" in the "Thousand Cuts" theme.
No change in accuracy, well the lancer is the "Accurate" RL, I don't want to encroach on the VS mojo, after all with the proposed weapon system you don't need to be very accurate.
As to answer why no change in clip size, lets just say 5 per clip is tradition. Seriously, with the proposed changes I'm afraid an increase in clip size might destabilize the whole scheme.

In Conclusion:
As an ESRL the Striker needs it own niche. The niche that strike could possible cover is the "Running and gunning." These proposed changes could possibly give the Striker the niche it been trying to find.

Things to fix with the striker.

1: it needs to have a longer range than at least my under slung grenade launcher.
2: Should not be worse than the anti tank grenade against tanks.
3: Have automated feeding system instead of the old Pump action mechanic which looks ridiculous to be honest.
4: If keeping the current style. Up magazines to around 15-20 rockets each and 3-4 magazines standard change it to a bulkier shape AKA just add a new bloody rocket launcher instead <.<


Just make it laser guided with two firing options.
Short range - fire 8 rockets at once towards a target.
fire one by one with auto feed. Longer range and faster but bigger recoil

I noticed that it tries to do well in too many roles without doing well in any. It is bad AV, horrible AI (intentional I know but of the 3 it is the worst off) and very bad at AA.

The grounder or annihilator would do better at it AA because it shines when there's a LoLpodder just hovering. A dumbfire shines when an esf is just hovering. Its completely outclassed and quite frankly in a bad spot.

I would rather have a gimped fracture which was decent in a nest than a bad coyote which is a complete downgrade to every other launcher in every other situation.

What I am REALLY hoping for:
They buff the Striker and leave the Lancer alone.

Practically every other rocket launcher in the game is a direct upgrade to the striker. It's not even worth using. It needs a serious velocity increase, a magsize increase...anything. Even the fractures are better than this now. At least with them, you can lockdown and have the velocity increase. (Still a tank tickler, though.)



I'm not sure what SOE was trying to do here with it. Releasing it in a state like this just makes me want to throw it away and never use it again. I feel like they're asking me to stop maining TR and just play another faction. It's really tempting.

the old striker's only good point was that if you landed all 5 rockets you deal the most damage compared to any other launcher... but unfortunately the lock on was horrible to the point of uselessness. it became a lone wolf thing, you needed to find a safe spot to aim from and lock, and your reward was to make almost any vehicle start smoking. or it was something to spam from safety behind lines.

the new striker? no longer boasts the alpha damage but has potential to be something special when used in mass like the other ES launchers. by itself it is pretty much crap.

i actually dont mind the new role, but i don't like that it only locks on to air.... you should be able to spam the rockets above a land vehicle and have the rockets come down like javelin launchers but the rockets only start seeking after travelling a certain distance and make wide arcing turns so you would have to aim really high up to compensate... i dont know but it just seems like a horrible AV option as it is now when you do less than half the damage by landing 5 rockets compared to a single rocket with anything else... so since the damage is so weak maybe it should be easier to hit things with to make up for it.

My constructive input. Return the Striker back to the way it was but with an added dumb fire mode feature.

Well, thought the striker would be bad... but not this bad, especially against AA. Expected a coyote like lock on and fire rate + rocket speed and velocity. With the current striker i can expect to get more hits/kills vs AA with a Decimator because ESF have to be in the same near range to hit like i need it with the striker now.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what is the definition of constructive feedback

I think we're being really constructive here. Given the situation I can't blame anyone for flaming and spamming really. Well, except your useless post.

A damage buff would be too much for it that isn't very creative imo. It needs different actions applied other than just a straight up 'damage buff' it doesn't need it, for one: it could use a little bigger mag cap. you should also be able to carry slightly more rockets too. and maybe MAYBE a velocity buff, then open up the lock-on a little more. That can be an alt to just buffing the damage.

I'm appreciated an attempt to making this gun can be used skillfully, but currently it too weak and very hard to use.

While I love how it can fire without lock-on. It has many downside.

- It's hard to hit a moving target, both air and ground target.
- The rocket is too slow and drop by distance, for ground target, slightly movement can evade this rocket.
- It's hard to hit air target, short heat seeking radius.
- Low damage, you need to land all rockets to make it worthwhile using this gun, but with problem above, landing all the shots is quite difficult.

I'm not sure what, is an effective range for this gun now. It seem you can hit any target you can see as long as you can compensate for rocket speed and trajectory, which is nice, but currently it hardly hit anything beyond 100 meter.

I think we all know how bad the striker is. However we dont know when or how the Devs are going to fix it. It should be fixed within 1-3 days since its so bad in my opinion. Not a whole month to 3 months the devs originally planed. Heres my viewpoints on it:

Striker

(Current state as of 10/2/2014)

Only viable vs hover-bombing esfs, esf/air coming straight at you, and in groups of 3-5+ players to make a kill on a single target.

What are the problems?:

1. The 10m radius detection is great for a esf that can chase aircraft and keep on target. Terrible for infantry that are stuck on the ground and can not keep up with any air. The lead is soo long and aircraft can turn on a dime and even gals can avoid the shots.
2. The Aim Accuracy is a bad balance decision. 0.5/1/0.5/1/2 for Striker vs 0.1/1/0.1/1/2 for every other rocket/missile launcher.
3. The dmg per missile (100) and total dmg possible (500) is not affective enough to out-way the risk of being everyone favorite heavy target while using it.

So what needs to be done?

-Increase missile heat detection from 10m radius to 30m radius.
Striker missile will actually hit moving aircraft not hovering or coming straight at you. Especially helpful vs stealthed air vehicles.
-Change Aim Accuracy from 0.5/1/0.5/1/2 to 0.25/1/0.25/1/2.
While it does need to be less accurate than the other launcher do to multiple firings. However making it 5x less accurate is terrible balancing.
-Increase DMG per Missile from 100dmg to 240dmg, 1200dmg total.
Even when all the missile hits the target, it does not do enough dmg to warrant the risk of focusing on a target and becoming the best sniper target for every enemy to shoot! By making the missiles do 240dmg each, 1200dmg total, gives enough dmg reward to warrant the risks of using the Striker. At the same time 1200dmg sound like a lot, however thats if the Striker user hits every shot which is unlikely most of the time. Even with the 30m radius increase to detection, probably most of the time will hit 3-4 missiles on a target on average per clip.
-Decrease indirect dmg if the purpose changes are too powerful from 50dmg at 2m to 20dmg.
The Strikeer vs Infantry is a valid concern since its the only multi-fire missile launcher. However its more effective with dumfires vs infantry for an instant kill. Vs the striker even with 240dmg can and will miss in close range and have a slow RoF. Making them not good to use indoors or close range. Reducing the Indirect dmg would decrease multi-kills/dmg of infantry targets.

I do know the devs are watching but have said nothing so far about the striker other than on Higby pls on the 10/1. Its making us TR confused and angry with no response to resolving the striker to at least work as intended. Not to mention making it actually viable to use.

I do not understand how the Planetside 2 balance team could look at us with a straight face and tell us that THIS was their intention. Did they find the pre 10/2 striker overpowered? Did they even take 10 seconds to go into the VR and test these changes out? It is almost impossible to kill anything with it now and why shouldn't I use a single fire, lock on launcher (or even a dumbfire for that matter) which is guaranteed to do at least 1000 damage? A single clip of this weak, pitiful weapon does HALF of the damage of a single fire, lock on launcher. Can anyone tell me that this is logical? You have to land 5 shots in order to do HALF (or less than half) of the damage of a SINGLE lock on (or dumbfire) launcher.

This is about the last (utterly and completely nonsensical) TR nerf I really feel like dealing with. I am either going to create a new VS or NC character or just drop it all together.

Well if its worse than the Lancer it must be the newest worst weapon in the game?

I would argue that it IS the worst weapon in the game.