[TR] Harasser advice needed

I'd like to hear your opinion on what is the best loadout for a TR Harasser.
I've been playing around in the VR Training and so far I've come up with the following:

Utility slot: NFI-2000 Turbo, for the added speed and hill climbing (or rather hill jumping) ability.

Defense slot: Probably Vehicle Stealth?

Performance slot: After some testing it seems like the Surger Power Chassis is the better option. I've tried Scrapper Combat Chassis but the vehicle doesn't seem to be able to handle the turning speed and it just slides all over the place, making it almost impossible to control on rough terrain.

As for the weapon, I have 3 candidates: the Fury, the Marauder and the Vulcan.
What are your thoughts on the matter?

First off, only spend on the harr if you have nothing else to waste it on, the current harasser blow up if someone in the next room sneeze too hard and its weapon deal just slightly more damage than a cotton wad hurled vigorously.

That said, Turbo and Stealth sounds good, chassis is really whatever you feel most comfy with; could mention that many good drivers preferred racer back when the har had its days of glory.

The weapons you have listed are all junk atm. For AV the halberd is the only viable option (using the vulcan was always tricky, with the massive defense nerf its suicidal) , AI would likely work best with bulldog or kobalt atm. If it has to be one of above, i guess Fury takes the cake as it can do a bit of both.

Harassers were overnerfed to death a few patches back and are a complete waste of certs at the moment. The only semi-viable AV weapons are the halberd (for all factions), enforcer (NC) and sauron (VS). Both models of the Vulcan were overnerfed to uselessness.

I personally favored the scrapper chassis with turbo for my runs though after a time when I got more used to the limitations of racer I adapted to that route (power skid for the win!). Stealth might buy you a few more seconds before people lock on and hunt you down but after you start firing it does nothing for you. Composite used to be favorite but it (recite macro) got overnerfed and is now pointless. Nanites are the only feasible alternative to stealth really, mostly because the (recite macro) repairs were overnerfed 70% so anything that can add a few ticks of health is a benefit.

At this point you would be a fool to spend any certs on any harasser, IMO. Just look how few you see rolling around for confirmation.

Good luck,

Jim

Good news is, they plan on re-buffing the harasser a bit in the near future (probably this month, if I recall correctly...) so you may want to hold your certs until then and just see how it turns out.

There is also a pretty big TR rebalance coming so hopefully some of our overnerfed weapons (namely vulcan and striker) will get some love.

If they do it right the vulcan or halberd harasser may be a nice option to go for.

Mh... I see.... Actually I do see very few Harassers around, but I hoped it was only because of the more immediate benefits in taking a Lightning or a MBT, I have been away from the game for some time and I didn't know about the nerfs.

The thing is, I liked the idea of playing TR and really focusing on their supposed faction trait, speed and bullet spamming, so a Harasser with a full auto weapon seemed like a good choice. I have to ask, is there any role the Harasser might perform as of now?
I'd really like to pull off some hit and run ground tactics, possibly with a few friends, for which the Harasser sounded perfect, as opposed to camping and long range fighting.

Friday Night Ops this week will have a discussion about Harassers with myself and a couple other Harasser drivers, and hopefully the lead vehicle dev can make it too.

Utility: Turbo (ideally rank 5, 1&2 are frustrating IMO, the fun starts to open up at ranks 3-5). I'd recommend one level of Gate-Diffuser, just to have it. I've used FS on very specific loadouts, but FS and IRSmoke are pretty lack-luster on a Harasser.

Defense: There are real options here now that composite armor is dead and buried. I have all of the Defense options minus prox maxed on my main (TR), and this is my own personal opinion:

1) Stealth: This line is the go-to for AV, or long-range AI (ie, shelling a Sundy w/ a Bulldog). It works well with hit and run, giving you the element of surprise. Additionally, you don't have to run as far to make a sneaky repair stop. Finally, the increased lock timer does seem to help, though it's hard to quantify the benefit.
We primarily pull stealth on AV setups, and long-range AI (just the Bulldog, currently). We also use it with the PPA, because I've found that being able to sneak into closer range with a PPA yields better results.

2) Nanite Auto Repair: With the nerfs to CompArmor and back-seat repairs, NAR is significantly more attractive than usual. Like every other vehicle, it pairs well with FS, if you can afford to surrender your turbo at the current location. We like it in my group because it lets 2-man crews repair on the run while maintaining full situational awareness, and it lets you top off that 20-40% damage (ie, more than you could rep in one cooling cycle from the backseat) you took from small arms without actually getting out.
We run NAR on short range AI (fury/kobalt), AA (ranger/walker), and AV (Halberd/ES/Basilisk) if we have the numbers/don't have terrain to hide in.

3) Composite Armor: Hate it, never should have existed, still useful for pure AI work. If you don't have to worry about enemy tanks, and you want to stay mobile, this is still the best for close-quarters vs infantry.

4) Mineguard: I certed it as a joke originally, and it's actually saved our lives almost every time we pull it. If the numbers are the same, instead of taking 1 mine to critical, you can now take 3 without catching fire. There aren't a lot of utility belt combat engineers out there, being able to take 3 mines means you never have to worry about mines. Additionally, if you take one or two, you aren't on fire (so you can turbo out of there), and you have enough health left for other incidentals. If I'm driving through a tower or large (bio/amp/tech) base, or moving & farming an active Sundy, I still pull mineguard on occasion. It isn't the best/most useful, but I do appreciate having it when I want it.

5) Prox Radar: Never used it, never certed it. I see people using it on AI loadouts, I'd personally take stealth or NAR anywhere I'd consider running prox. If you're in a squad of 3+ Harassers, let one guy bring it maybe? No point.

Performance:
I haven't tested them head to head since Harassers came out, but I came to the same conclusion: Surger or bust. The acceleration difference on inclines alone is worth it. I like getting the most from my chassis on all sorts of terrain, so I can use my turbo for maneuvering or jumping. Scrapper is too squirrely, I know two guys that like it, though. Since you're using turbo, racer will only help your baseline speed, it adds 2KPH to top end while using turbo last I checked = no point. Besides the performance on hills, the seller for me on Surger is that you can do a continuous fishtail up a (modest) hill, without turbo, at 65kph. Why would you want to do that? You're forcing whoever is shooting you to guess which way you're actually going to go, and leaving yourself the ability to change that direction ever second or so as the tail swings around. Drives tankers nuts, most of them won't figure out to just aim for the middle until you're already safe.

Weapons:
I have all of the Harasser weapons, across all 3 factions. I'm sure some will disagree, but just use the Basilisk until we see what's going to happen when the Harasser gets 'fixed.' Anyways, here's my opinion on the rest:

(I wrote a long dissertation that I knew no one wanted to read, so I deleted it and added this summary. If anyone actually cares why or wants more info, just ask me or PM me, I'd be happy to explain).

You said you were interested in the Fury, Marauder, and Vulcan. Let me be blunt: don't bother with any of them.

Cert out your Basilisk FIRST. This serves two purposes. One, the Basilisk is default (free), viable against everything (AV/AI/AA), and in a pretty good spot right now. It also is not adjust between regular and -H variants. This means your Basi is just as effective as a Sundy or MBT one. Second, it lets you learn the vehicle better and get some of your passive options upgraded before you invest to heavily.

After that, go for the Halberd, Bulldog, or Kobalt. Figure out what would be the best compliment to the Basilisk, which gives you the most options for how you like to play. These three guns represent very different options, about as different as people's opinions of each one, haha.

The Halberd is great at AV, the standard against which others are judged. For TR, the big advantage here is range. The Halberd has a massive potential range, I recommend zoom optics with it. It lets you pixel hunt from a safe range, which is important in the current Harasser.

The Bulldog is the unsung hero, arguably my favorite Harasser turret. Relatively lackluster on other platforms, the Bulldog excels on the Harasser. I think of the Bulldog like a mortar: you get in a good vantage point, and you make it rain HE fun until they drive you off. The kicker is, it does (did, need to reevaluate) decent AV damage, as well. The caveat is that you shouldn't bother taking it out until you have Thermal Optics and MagCap 2+. You need that extended mag to up your burst DPS, since you're going to want to disengage on reload if under fire.

Lastly, the Kobalt. The Kobalt used to be the 1/3 Harasser Driver's weapon of choice. A long range, laser-accurate pea-shooter. The Kobalt and the Vulcan went under the same knife, it no longer has the massive range or absurdly small CoF it once had. That said, it's still a decent short/medium AI weapon, and pairs nicely with Thermals. You can cert it out for a 150 round magazine, which comes close to PPA-grade suppresive fire. It adds 100 rounds per AmmoCap cert, so 91 certs gives you 100 (magazine) +500 (base reserve) +400 (4 ranks) = 1000 rounds. It is worth noting this weapon requires a 2/3 team now, there is no situation you want to be in range for this gun and by yourself, lol.

The final point, is that the first two options are going to leave you pretty vulnerable to planes. The Kobalt performs admirably against ESFs, with a large magazine, high RoF/muzzle velocity, and quick reload. It doesn't damage Libs or Gals, however. So, if you want pure AI, the Kobalt offers some defense against ESFs. It's also dirt cheap at 100 certs.

I think the Walker makes a good substitute for the Kobalt, letting you damage all planes in exchange for a larger CoF increasing the challenge of AI work. I just don't know how the price differential works out, and I was trying to present some cheaper options.

Huh, that got pretty long again. Oh well, I hope it helps. I always add this, almost no one takes me up on it, but if you want to try a Turbo5/Max Defense/Surger 3 with whatever gun, send me a PM and make a TR on Waterson. You can borrow mine ;-)

I'm happy y'all are going to be on. Sadly, I have little to no faith or competence in this crew of devs. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if y'all are just wasting your time.

I've made my feelings and idea known to one panelists. Nothing different than what I've said on the forums.

Hopefully y'all keep focused on adjustments to what is already apart of the vehicle. Not new options for the future. We don't need that right now, not only that, don't have much faith that anything new wouldn't screw things up worst.

Please. Harassers are bad, and... what's most disappointing... harassers Were bad before the nerf. You worked so much harder to kill enemy vehicles than you could in any tank or liberator. It was pathetic. I thought I was amazing at harasser... then I realized that I did more in a tank, and far more in a liberator, than I ever did in a harasser.

Play in a vehicle where you can get **** done, and let it go.

The thing is, you had to work slightly harder to kill enemy vehicles, but remain viable vs other targets like infantry or air. Even better than just viable in many cases, since the driver could do things like plow a line of meatbags and turbo away before people realized 10 of their friends just ended up as smears on the ground. Plus the harasser being sturdy and the ability to repair meant actions like that had less risk.

And let's not get into how good the halberd was on that platform. Yeah it doesn't have the dps of an MBT, but on a platform that's sturdier than a lightning, and faster...Well, you get the idea.

But then.... you ran into my tank.



Harassers lose everytime to good tanks. I don't think I ever lost to a harasser one versus one while in a Magrider, pre-nerf.

The only times I've ever lost my harasser to an MBT was me getting greedy and trying to do vulcan shenanigans with it. Mounting a halberd changed it to be one sided in my favor in many cases, or at least stop that MBT from doing anything other than being forced to deal with me.

Though yes, you are right, as on the opposite end, I found most harassers to be a minor annoyance in general. It was only the ones that came with additional support (be it lightning or MBT) that were truly threatening.

To me Vulcan harassers, versus either Magrider or my Halberd Harasser, were always free kills regardless of how many.

Chassis: Wait until the balance patch.
Higby has already stated that not only are they going to be "Restoring some harrasser survivability", but there's an upcoming physics patch as well, targetting specifically the Flash and the Harrasser. Judging by how many of their physics patches have affected other things unintentionally, I would say "Wait and see." My 10k certs harrasser is happy with all 3 chassis, they just handle differently. All are useful in the proper conditions.

Defense: I still like my armor. I'm guessing it will stack well with the improved resistances, but this is another wait and see type deal.

Utility: Turbo. They made it suck more then a handheld hoover on a 5% battery charge, but it's nice for hitting top speed quickly, especially when you arent using racer.

Arms: Get out and bludgeon your target with your own. Try to get in some elbow hits, it'll do more then most harrasser weapons these days. Seriously though, for TR... Kobalt is underrated, even after the nerfs. Paired with proxy radar, it's nice for finding snipers, warding off C4-ers, etc. Thermal Fury / Bulldog is nice as well, but requires good gunners. Honestly, you are best off with the Halbred. Even post nerf, you can get in a few nice hits, although the need for a good gunner is even greater due to the pitiful damage vs infantry. The harrasser's low profile makes the Walker surprisingly good. You can hit most infantry targets on level ground, and air always surprised by a harrasser with a walker.

In the event that you encounter an enormous canyon of nachos, the Vulcan is still amazing - post nerf harrasser mounted one fires vast quantities of innacurate strings of glowing cheese-substitute paste.



TLR
I mispelled harrasser every time I mentioned it, and I still dont care. Also, nachos.
There's harrasser balancing coming soon - Resistances are being improved, weapons are being rebalanced, and physics for it are being redone. Wait and see, whatever you blow certs on now will change soon.

It's why I switched to the halberd, even when the vulcan was "overpowered". Too many risks for a slight gain.

Just wait for the upcoming harasser buff to come out to see what they do to fix it.
My pre-nerf build:
full turbo, full composite armor, full scrapper, halberd w/ full zoom, reload, lvl 9 ammo.

Currently, don't bother certing into it. Better off putting certs into another vehicle

i don't know if it is the "best build" but my harasser is designed for breaking and entering.

-stealth at rank 4 (only because rank 5 is 1000 certs and i can't stomach the cost while there are other things to invest in, rank 5 would be ideal though)
-gate shield diffuser rank 1 (because upping the rank only extends the duration and in my experience the default 8 seconds is plenty)
-racer high speed chassis rank ??? (i can't remember where i left off with that one, but of course more speed is better)
-proton II PPA (any grenade launcher would do well also)
-----thermal optics


i have used this build for getting my heavy in to take out sunderers in the vehicle deployment area of biolabs before and it has worked well, but really any situation where you need to get a group of people into a base rapidly this build could be very useful.

That's still a great build man. At least you didn't buy a Vulcan like I did and now have this nice chassis... with a trash gun on top.

Almost everything is OP when it comes out, just to up the sales
Then a month later they "found out" that it were OP and nerfed it to uselessness
I rarely see anyone use harrassers to anything but transporting themself
Vulcan is extinct
Striker is barely used
Then a few months later they make a 2nd pass on them and adjust them so they loook better, but might not be..

I play solely VS, but a build like that was the best competition TR could give. The enforcer if they had a good gunner could sometimes be scary also.