Striker owners, your opinion please

What in the blue hell are you talking about? The TR have access to the same group of lock on launchers as the other factions. You have launchers that can lock on to either air or ground targets and can also be dumbfired. You have access to Decimators and Annihilators, of course nobody uses the Anni 'cause you'd have to be crazy to use it over a Striker.

So what exactly is the TR missing that justifies them having exclusive access to the Striker? nothing. Not a damn thing. The only launcher capabilities you don't have are from the other ESRLs and we can all agree the Striker is better than both. Sure is fun to use the Phoenix... for about 5 minutes, then you realize you can't hit any aircraft, you can't kill infantry unless they're already half dead when you hit them, and it's nowhere near as effective against ground vehicles as the Striker is. After about 5 minutes you'll switch back to lock ons or Decimators and never use it again.

You must be the worlds greatest anti-ESF Pheonix user, seriously.

Since tons of groud vehicles I hit bails or are repairing, ESF and sometimes lib crew havn't that chance.

Had to find a way to fit your pic in here somehow huh?
Well, every time we fight TR platoons you see ESFs having to run away or get blown up in no time from all the Strikers. It's funny to me when playing my TR alt and I hear the platoon leaders calling for Strikers to get rid of enemy aircraft. No, they don't say we need AA, they say we need more Strikers specifically. I wonder why that is... Why not call for Annihilators? or the G2A launcher with dumbfire mode that TR has? hmm? oh that's right, because the Striker is better than both.

You don't hear TR pilots going "AHMAGAD! I can't fly against the NC! so many Phoenix launchers taking out aircraft left and right! we can't get anywhere near their vehicles 'cause we get locked on and blown up in a few seconds." TR tank drivers don't complain about Phoenixes either.
I have to wait for my flares CD to cycle so I can spend no more than 5 seconds shooting at something otherwise I get locked on again and destroyed before I can fly away.

Nobody is complaining about the Phoenix or Lancers, well not anymore over the Phoenix since it was nerfed into the ground at lightning fast speed. Yet everyday we see tons and tons of threads about the Striker. Where have I seen a similar scenario before... let me think, hold on, hmmm oh yeah! the NC Max million^3 threads crying for nerfs. Face it, the Striker has the highest potential damage out of all the launchers, and it requires the intelligence of a 3 year old to use it. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's way better than what the NC and VS have access to. Want to stop the complaints? give the other factions something similar or nerf the Striker.

Great idea, i wouldn't mind if it could dumb fire with a massively long refire rate. This would make it kind of like a pheonix only less power per shot due to the lack of risk in comparison and the dumb fire ability. I own the striker on my TR alts btw.

Don't you remember that when the Annihilator was introduced, there were threads about it being OP everywhere on Forumside ?

Make the Striker available to everybody won't stop the whining. You'll just add the TR vehicle users to the choir.

Nerf the Striker and it will become as useless as the Annihilator is. But hey, isn't it exactly what NC and VS want ?

People flock to things that are good, and then they find creative ways to exploit those good things (in fair use) that the designers never imagined. Just look at all those people running around saying ZOE is utter crap yet use it nigh upon exclusively*. The Striker is good in my opinion because it has a low reload timer, has high potential damage and locks onto both. Its easily defeated by a smart player, but a lot of players don't tend to be smart, and decided running against TR without flares or IR smoke a good idea, or simply overextending and getting punished because of it.

The actual mechanics of the lock-on effect can be replicated with any other lock-on from either faction. Just that ours is bundled into one, and thats the strength. You don't dick around at a sundy getting the right weapon, just set it to a class and off you go jimmy boy. That said, i still don't understand why more VS players don't pick up the Lancer. Just like the Striker, utterly devastating when used in numbers, and i'd support a small damage buff to get more people using it. Phoenix in my opinion definitely needs a buff, its fundamentally broken at its most basic level.

Its a delicate situation really. You can't have air pummeling all infantry into the ground just because they're air, and you can't simply have no air at all. Thats no fun for anyone, but behavioral problems also exist on the part of dedicated ESF pilots where they simply expect to be able to kill anything and everything just because.

Hypothetically, so don't jump down my throat because you may not like the idea, but since the ESF is essentially a fighter, how would removing the hover ability entirely effect air engagements by turning them into proper dogfights where you don't simply hang in the same area standing still practically begging to be shot down by a lock on? Would this perhaps increase ESF in a ground role where they can surprise ground vehicles with swift ground attacks? I'm not a dedicated ESF user, just throwing an idea out there.


*I have since found this problem to be offset rather magnificently simply by having more Mercy maxes, even if the "problem" shouldn't exist in the first place. Its not so bad anymore, but still scummy.

You're saying it's not used more than the other ESRLs I'm proving to you that it is. At no stage did I attempt to compare them.

I believe THIS is the point. Aiming locking and hitting with a Striker is easier than just using a Lancer or Phoenix. It requires 0 skill that's why it's so common in TR loadouts. But it's not really an amazing weapon, it's just effective because it's spammed.
I've been playing with the Lancer on the PTS and I believe it could be an excellent destructive weapons if VS just decided to roll 4-5 of them at the same time. But they decided their rocket launcher sucks and they quit using it like they used to do with their Max Units until ZOE has been implemented (remember Higby saying they don't seem to use their weapons unless they're obviously OP?).

My hit rate on ground vehicles is near 100% (maybe 70-80% on infantry), my hit rate on ESFs would be lucky to be 10%, as I said I dunno how you do it.

clear troll post to add to the hopes of a nerf.

funny you get more "kills" with a striker. take it from someone who actually plays TR and uses a stryker......it needs a buff if anything. yes i said it. its great at scaring people away. it has a great psych effect. but the raw damage rarely lands aall its potential. look up the raw data on the stryker and you will see 3k+ shots fired with averages of under 200 kills in that many shots.

it simply scares nc and vs. thats why they scream for nerfs. its the trs terror weapon.

unless you have a squad of 5 strikers focus firing something like a vanguard, it isnt all that good.

The Striker is nice and should stay nice. That said, I didn't want it to be lock-on weapon, but it is and then I wanna keep playing like this or totally chance it. The first Striker appearance in PlanetSide 2 was the best one. I think you guys remember about it, when you'd be a death machine shooting in open area and would have a hard time destroying ESFs when they used to go behind buildings and hills. The rockets were really dumb, you just needed to break, go straight to the ground if you had rockets following your ESF and you could avoid it without using flares.
Then, they made the rockets super-duper-smart and also the bug when the rockets started to ignore the ground and even buildings. But, again, I didn't want it to be a lock-on weapon. They said they would add a "swarm rocket launcher" for TR, but didn't explain it. I thought it would be Crysis swarm launcher on steroids. I could feel the happiness of shooting lots of tiny missiles on a tank or a bunch of NC/VS players. The damage could be 2500 (the total damage of Striker as it is), would be fair enough. That would be freaking hard to hit every missile, so why not? Better than a lock-on which will probably land the five missiles, dealing 2500 damage for sure when you don't have cover.

too add to my post, we tr also give up the ability to kill infantry with our launchers......thats what we give up. op? i think not, but keep on trollin, luckily nobody is listening. oh and from day one i have kept targets in my sights as i shot, so the lock on fix wont affect us

Lets just replace the Striker with this and call it a day, heck it could actually be fun!

Ps. Sorry for image spam.

Ok, just so we are straight...

We can't make the striker available to all 3 factions, because it wont stop the complaints only increase them, because it will just add TR Air and ground vehicle users into the mix and that is unacceptable, because it would be just like when the annihilator was introduced.
We can't nerf it because the NC & VS can't possibly have a legitimate complaint about a weapon that is nearly identical in performance to the pre-nerf annihilator, which has already been deemed OP by the Dev's and the community, but the striker is somehow different, because its only the NC & VS complaining.

The Striker like the pre-nerf Annihilator on paper and in individual statistics is a modest looking weapon system. However, the problem is when this type of weapon is used en-mass, it has an exponential impact on the battle field.

While I think the changes to lock-on weapons, will help, it is not going to solve the problem. We already have 3 lock-on weapons systems and they have good limitations to keep them in check. I would rather see the Striker remove its lock-on feature and then operate as guided rocklets.

Opinion... striker is OP ... and that's OK with me, all factions should get some OP stuff... TR enjoy... till the forumfolk take em... at least. Shooting through mountains and stuff thou... that's gotta get fixed.

Very nice...wire-guided hippo is still on my wish list.
You're right though. The reason TR use the Striker the most is because it is the best weapon in the game at scaring away enemy aircraft...period.
Phoenix and Lancer will never be in the same category because they're not lock-on AA weapons, and the only kind of infantry weapon that can actually work effectively against enemy aircraft is a lock-on.

My highest BR soldier is NC, and my go-to rocket launcher for that heavy is the Hawk, a 1500 damage AA lock-on that I can also dumb fire against ground vehicles and infantry. If the Striker is ever altered to remove its ability to lock-on to aircraft, I'll switch to the TR version of the Hawk.

Here's the thing about lock ons-- there are no more lock ons from the TR than there are from the VS and NC. The Striker is a faction replacement for the single rocket lock on launcher... if you're not facing a lock on from a Striker, you're facing a lock on from its alternative in other factions. The Striker may fire 5 weaker missiles that do more damage cumulatively, but it's only ONE lock on-- the same number of lock ons you would get playing against any other faction. And I know, because I fly-- a lot-- in all factions. I get the same number of lock ons regardless of who I fly against.

I know there's hate for the Striker... but, I really hate the Lancer more than the Striker. Why? Because when you face a Lancer, there's no warning at all... it's aim and zap instantly... you can direct hit targets several times within a second. But, while I hate the Lancer... it's also my favorite AV weapon when playing VS.

But, do you know what I hate even more; the Phoenix. Why? Because you can't escape the damn thing, it can be fired over walls, around rocks, and from many convenient places. But, while I hate the Phoenix... it's also my favorite AV weapon playing NC. It also does uber damage to aircraft, particularly hovering Liberators and ESFs; better than any other AA weapon.

With the Lancer and Phoenix you face 'additional' threats in combat that no other faction has; with the Striker, there is no additional threat, it's just a lock on replacement for the already existing AA lock on. So, you don't face MORE lock ons, you just face a different kind of lock on. And even though I own a Striker as a TR, I generally prefer the Annihilator because it does a lot more damage in a single rocket which gives me time to reload and fire a 2nd rocket rocket; by which time with a Striker, I would only be getting to the reload point because of the delay in firing five rockets. Annhilator > Striker... the only situation the Striker is superior is an open field, and that's it.... and at that point, all faction weapons are equally as deadly.

You know I might actually agree if it was a niche weapon, or was incredibly situational. BUT... that is not the case with the striker it is a very versatile Lock on ANTI-AIR & ANTI-VEHICLE Weapon.

Absolutely right. The complaints will continue as long as the Striker is effective against aircraft and tanks, regardless of whose hands it's in. Therefore, making the Striker ineffective is the only way to stop the crying...and THAT is unacceptable.