I'm no longer playing the game. It's getting worse, not better

It shows how they intend to "fix it". Which is another way of saying they aren't. This whole mess began when they correctly fixed the G2A tracking. Which should have been done long ago.

But then they added the range buff that turned HA from personal free AV deterrents into full fledged anti-everything defeating rocker snipe Gods. If they are trying to properly balance it with adjusting the irrelvant lock-on time then we already know they have no clue or no desire to really fix the imbalance. They just want to sell more easy mode lock on launchers.

I've never been a fan of the kill all rocket launcher and it should be removed, HA's should be either on or the other and personally i use the default starter unit. Game was broken the day they released the Aniliator

I agree OP, Air used to be superior, to the point that it was starting to be called ESFSide2. They (Understandably) dumbed air down abit, and made it so it wasn't so dominating (Reduced damage of Pods, Reduced damage against Turrets, Etc.)

However, they BUFFED ther other side.

It would have been fine with the nerfs, as they were starting to be somewhat balanced. But there is a big difference between Moving oneside down the imaginary line of power, and also moving the other side Up. It creates a huge gap.

I feel like my ADD brain can't explain this quite right. Heres how I envision it:

This is my "Line of Power"
| - Over Powered
|
|
_ - Balanced
|
|
| - Under Powered

- Before they nerfed anything
|
| - A2G
|
_ - G2A
|
|
|

- This was After they nerfed air.
|
|
|
_ - A2G, G2A
|
|
|

- This is now, With air nerfed and G2A buffed
|
| - G2A
|
_
| - A2G
|
|

As you can see from my really bad demonstration, Right now air doesn't stand much of a chance Vrs. ground.

I may just be a really bad pilot, but before GU1 I could fly for around 8min before being shot down or colliding with something.
Now I can't survive for more than 2. Again, could be me, But I doubt it. My clanmates have been saying the same thing

That's another assumption. They are making small nerfs, not just large ones that would cause everybody who purchased one to flood these forums with complaints overnight. Remember when they talked about removing dumbfire from the lock on weapons? Yeah this forum was fun for about 2 weeks of people constantly whining that their gun as changed and is now useless, asking for refunds and all of that.

Can't just nerf something into oblivion because people are whining about it on the forums. If a weapon is being overused, nerfing it to the point of ineffectiveness would affect every person who uses it which is probably more than people who are complaining about it.

Well I said long ago that lock ons alone were a problem. =/
Even if you are limited to ground or air, they're free to switch any time you're near a terminal. You'd still have people sitting in clumps, just around a sunderer then, switching launchers to attack the different targets.
If it was a vehicle only weapon, like a ground-to-air missile launcher on the Lightning, that MIGHT be okay, and not as bad, especially since the Lightning is a bigger target and renders far away. But really, just plain lock-ons alone on heavies, especially with the mechanics of how they are now, just don't work.

They didn't work when they missed a lot, and didn't work when they were split between ground and air. They're only working now because everyone finally bought them.
It's not just annihilator spam going on. Lots of people are using the air lock on only ones too since those were on sale and in packs.

The problem exists either way, it's just the nature of a super easy to use lock on launcher when you can potentially have dozens of people with them in a n area.

That is a valid point. One that I am so very very sad to see SOE put into play. They've been playing spin-the-OP-weapon since launch and for the most part they've been able to ease off the hatred and focus it on something else. (To then sell again of course)

With this however. They cannot just baby kisses away the problem. They peedled the wrong weapon and now it is in teh hands of everyone. Uncoordinated and few in number. HA can already deny entire hexes from Air. Also significant wound or even kill armor. Which is bad enough. I've seen what happens when the HA count increases to the level of a zerg or super zergs when you get entire factions focusing their populations within 3 hexes. The lock-on obliterates every single vehicle. Instantly. Without a moment of effective use. Just humping GONE.

Last night there was a massive clash between VS and TR and that one particular group was present. They turned every single VS vehicle to nanite goop and piled on so many bodies that render distances were less then 10m

At that point we were outnumber but should have been able to use vehicles and defensive posturing to help even the odds. Instead every thing that left the vehicle bay was disintegrated before manuel control was even assigned. It is just impossible to balance lock-on weaponry when it is given to free fast respawning infantry.

The problem lies within scaling, A single HA can make a ESF nervous enough to bug a hex. 60 will pop a vehicle with every volley. Considering it takes 10 minutes for that vehicle to get pulled again that is an extremely unfair metric. Long distance and 100% hit rating have universally been horrible combinations. It allows a relatively small group to focus one after another after another after another from a distance the enemy has no chance to retaliate from. It is why a group of 12 HA on a rock can kill an armor zerg. No stall it. Not combat it. Straight up murder it. 12 HA can kill 20 tanks without any risk or effort because the ability to put damage on a target from a distance, even low damage, and having numbers trumps everything else.

The lock-on range would have to be so drastically reduced to make a real difference that everyone who bought the annie would put the torch to SOE HQ. Except that is the only way to possibly salavage this game. They have a hard choice to make but if they don't bite the bullet and fix the annie now it will forever kill any chance at proper balance in this game until it dies a premature death from lack of interest. Who wants to play a game about massive scale combat with armor and air combined with infantry when armor and air are worthless and the infantry combat isn't all that great to begin with?

True story! I want to have fun, but it's pretty hard nowadays.

Well I see a great big wall of text that is complaining about just two things introduced into the game; The Annihilator and G30's on the Sunderer. You state that you don't like the idea of either and, therefore, you're leaving PS2. A translation of your OP would be something along the lines of "SOE will not make PS2 the way I think they should and therefore I quit!"

To be completely honest. I'm thinking of quitting myself. We went for a fresh start like 2 days before the patch. A lot of very ambitious and experienced people gathered in a new outfit in order to make big plays. Then the patch came out and we have like almost everyone in a big depression caused by UPDATE 2.
Maybe i should add that this are all BR 50+ palyers who have spent ****loads of time in this game. All of em are TOP100 on our server. But who cares about the people who actually play the game instead of sit on top of the crown with Annihilators playing LOCKONSIDE 2 all day.
**** IT! You made some bad bad bad decisions SOE!

I have to agree when you say it's all about scale. On an individual basis a lock-on weapon isn't OP. I don't think SoE realized how popular the lock-on weapons were going to be and that kind of threw off the balance they want.

Personally I think lock on-range should be nerfed as well. An increase on a lock timer is a start, but definitively not enough. I just feel they need to take baby steps rather than leaps to what I believe is needed. There are too many other factors than just the weapons. It's a player mentality as well. As time goes on the player mentality changes and we see different varieties of weapons being used which change the entire battlefield. This makes balance extremely difficult.

I've also thought that maybe lock-on rockets should require resources. If you cannot afford the resources, you would just get standard dumb fire rockets. I thought that ammo types could be an interesting mechanic to add a bit of depth. You could split your loadout between the more advanced ordinance you had to construct with your resources and the standard stuff that came with your empire for that loadout.

I think there are a lot of potential things here that could not only reduce the useage of lock-on weapons (as I personally hate them as well), but also add a little depth that isn't difficult for an average player to understand.

All of that said, it is nice having a good counter to a lot of vehicles. So I guess it all balances out in the end.

You have 19 total days played with the character in your signature. Take a break from the game. It's F2P, there is nothing keeping you here. Diversify what you play.

Let them patch in some more content and do some further balancing.

THANKS MATE, I wanted to test tera, even played it a little bit on priv server. Now it goes f2p, might as well test it, downloading now 1h later game will be on hdd XD.
Though I'm gonna play on EU server as it went f2p in february.
http://tera-europe.com/en/home.html

If you read better, you'd see those are two examples as part of a greater issue.

If I went over every single change for the past 6 weeks, it'd be an even bigger wall of text. =]

And it's not that they won't make it how I want. The thing is, 6 weeks ago the game wasn't too bad except for all the rocket pods and zephyrs. It's, for the most part, been getting much worse and worse since then every patch since then. It's not that they aren't making it how I want, it's that they're going in the completely wrong direction when they had a decent start.

So, of course, the concern is that it's going to keep getting worse instead of them just fixing the problems we had to start with.
At this point, the game basically needs a roll back on the balance changes and new additions of weapons, with air-to-ground nerfed, and then starting over and being careful about what's then readded or not.

The only real improvement we've gotten on balance since launch was the base changes. Best to throw those other changes things away.

Indeed. They should have just ripped off the band-aid at once instead of chipping away at the problem for the next month.

As for infantry having a good counter... I am still insistent that it is a matter of using the resources available to pull counters to whatever vehicle is pressing your position. Tanks should be out there fighting tanks. ESF flying around chasing each other like the final scenes of Independence Day. Infantry, because of their scaling. Need to have weapons that are short ranged OR require skilled aiming. Since their advantage is being Legion. Their AV weapons must also be scaled back so they can only be used to gank their targets with their numbers advantage at more Infantry reasonable ranges.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/08/sony-shares-drop-by-10-percent/ =[

Doubt this has much to do with SoE though.
Have to wonder if they're pressured to make more short term revenue for the company though, eh?

I've pointed this out on more than one occasion myself - make a problem - make a buck or, make something OP so everyone buys it then nerf it lol.

In 6 months time it will be a completely different game I'm betting.

Yes, there is a lot of new things they're implementing. Yes, there are a lot of old things that are yet to be resolved. You make a very good example of that with the G40 being better than a Skyguard. It is, and I was a tad bit upset that SOE decided against allowing placement of these on Sunderers. Particularly when it would cost $7 a pop for front and rear gunning positions. In essence, sunderers suddenly become mobile AA platforms capable of owning the sky in current and adjacent hex.

Unfortunately, that is the definition of overpowered. Just as well we don't have a lock-on launcher capable of locking on 1.5 hexs away and with the patch that would mean a confirmed air/ground kill with the rocket trajectory. (sarcasm)

I truely hope SOE have a look at the air situation, or lack there of, because the AA buff and then following up with an air nerf, without letting the dust settle from the AA buff, is beyond rational thought. Air is redundant. I felt balance had been achieved at the AA buff patch, but the following nerf was overkill, and insult to injury was a secondary MBT AA MAX strapped ontop (G40).

The triangle of warfare is now gone and its down to infantry only gameplay, MBTs are kept in check thanks to poor render range and infinite lock on launchers.

Even I am having to take a break and immerse myself in other games whilst this in balance plays itself out in the statistics.

It's all good for SOE to plan for the future, but they need to check the current state of things, very, very soon.

this game is a lot better for infantry.

seems like everyone complaining are the ones who LIVE in vehicles.

How would you encourage people to play the other classes? Or to equip the dumbfire rocket instead of a guided weapon as an HA?

When I get my Lancer back I probably will stop using my Annihilator or my other guided weapons. But considering the paucity of options...what should I use?

They could give ESFs double the hp, and they'd still be completely worthless in some situations while still being OP in others.

All they had to do was nerf air-to-ground but they made a whole mess of new problems that differ from server to server and time of day instead.

I mostly play infantry but I have fun playing as an infantry working together with vehicles in a nice fun battle, instead of Biolabside even when not in a biolab.

I personally think that all classes should be able to equip AV weapons other than c4.
People play HA because it's both the only real AV, and it's the best against infantry on top of that.

Like a single use recoilless rifle that replaces your pistol. Having a single use revive syringe to replace your pistol would also be nice.
If an ESF is hovering and farming, anyone should be able to punish him with a well aimed recoilless rifle shot. But they shouldn't be able to get a battle period because of so much flak and lock on missiles, regardless of how they're flying and what they're doing.

Single use as in only refil at terminal, or possibly at supply packs but with a one minute cooldown between resupplies.

Lock on missiles would have worked a lot better if they behaved more like C4 too.