Do you prefer HEAT or HE for AI work?

Tank or Lightning pilots what do you like?

AP. Easier to direct hit, and unless you are lolfarming a spawnroom, the infantry you are most threatened by are the ones who only peek their heads over the top of a hill or the C4 fairies who will be airborne and immune to ground splash.

sigh...


For strictly strictly anti-infantry you should use HE, not HEAT.

it seems whenever i run my vanguard ap..not many vehicles show up, lol

HEAT have a lower reload time and higher damage. HE have a larger splash radius. If you're decent at aiming, and there isn't a ton of infantry stacked up, HEAT is superior.

And threads like this are why there needs to be a massive nerf in XP gained for killing infantry in a tank. It's not like it's a challenge, after all.

And this is where the games developers have gone wrong yet again. HEAT is a mix of both HE and AT and should not excel at either. They are suppose to be the mid ground. HE should be better at killing infantry , not HEAT

HE is not worth it, only adds 0,5 meters to splash radious. Heat is better choice and can do some damage to armour.
I find viper perfect for AI.

AP/HEAT, especially as during effective AI work (by effective AI work I mean no "spawn spam/camp") I mostly kill with direct hits and because these two canons allow you effectively engaging vehicles too, which are your main threat especially if you are not zerging.

The main vocation of HE is, IMO, suppressive fire (spawn spam is not a vocation).

Specifically in the case of lightning, with the recent buff of the Viper I use it rather than the HEAT for AI duties : OHK on direct hit, effective splash damage (5 shells in clip) and effective against vehicles too. Moreover the fact that you have 5 shells in the clip allow you killing moving AI at range as you can adjust your aim and quickly repeat fire so that you can kill with splash damage if you cannot land a direct hit.

always heat. i actually regret purchasing HE for mag and lightning as it isnt superior enough to heat regarding anti-infantry potency to make it worth having less damage against vehicles

It's really not about the challenge involved.

It's about punishing mistakes. There is no resource benefit given to a Starcraft player who makes the mistake of all-in Zealots when his opponent switches to Roaches. Similarly there is no XP penalty for killing a PS2 player who made the mistake of bringing a sniper rifle to a CQC fight.

So if a player makes the mistake of being infantry outdoors, and makes the bigger mistake of being seen by a tank, that tank deserves full XP for punishing the infantry player's mistakes.

HEAT is overall the best, but AP works and is more satisfying.

Viper for Lightnings. Rate of fire is important.

For main guns, I suppose I go for HEAT, but really if there is a high infantry presence I end up relying a bit more on a Basilisk or Kobalt.

In an open fight where infantry can use elevated cover you have to be able to regularly go for direct hits. That means high velocity and fast fire rate. HE is, oddly enough, the absolute worst choice for anti infantry work a lot of the time.

The splash damage will help you if you are blind firing into buildings or get that one good flanking angle but then again you have the long reload. If you get a HE cannon you will find it the easiest to auraxium but only if you only pull it for specific jobs and never pull it if for general use. People will also think you are a scumbag.

Lightning Driver here.

I prefer HE for Tower battles. Its best when you can maximize the effectiveness of splash damage. If Im not in a position to do so, AP. I do a lot of AP sniping, plus you arent at a major disadvantage when other tanks show up. Any time I tag along with The Zerg I go with HE if my goal is Infantry. AP is best for the nomadic Lone Wolf, which I play more often.

If you want to kill infantry, go play infantry.

Lightning here

It depends
Are you alone ?
Yes: Heat so you can deal with everything
No: HE so i have a better setup for this one thing.

Make sure you have AP tank or other vehicles around you for HE as 1 harasser or another light will destroy you.

Probably best to go out with HEAT. The splash area is so small on the HE that it makes little difference. With either weapon you really want a direct hit. Both are just a little more forgiving of inaccuracy than the AP. If you can get direct hits much of the time use AP against infantry.

I've started liking HE more, as even though the splash is only marginally larger, it's enough to reset shield recharge delays on infantry that you might not have hit with a HEAT splash. It's much more annoying to fight against when on foot.

Handy against vehicles too as you can find yourself killing repairing engineers with the splash damage where as AP can be repaired through (shelling an AMS blockade sundy with HE is great)