Air Hammer is a perfectly balanced anti infantry only weapon.

why don't you cut you video?
and it's VR, with moving targets, every shot counts.

Are you people saying airhammer has become popular?

I don't think you've ever used the banshee, good sir.

I posted this on the last AH thread and i post it here too, this is the AH problem(against infantry).. it doesn't instagib half of the time even when you'r aim is dead on, pellet spread is too random like on every shotgun.

They should make AH more spammable, auto fire,faster fire rate, ALOT more ammo and less damage like Banshee is.

Or, people that want a Banshee could just play TR rather than pushing this game a bit more into NSside 2.

I don´t like Banshee, was thinking more like Hacksaw with explosive shots and more ammo per magazine .. less damage per shot cos the fire rate will go up.

So last night I made an Racer/Stealth/AB/Banshee loadout to try and mimic the AH playstyle with the Mossie. Nightbird came over to fly with us and try it out as well, but Nimnax ram killed him twice since that's what Scythes do. Here's a clip of a couple of the Banshee runs against Libs and Scythes:



Or if you want 60FPS, watch here.

Using this loadout, the Banshee is pretty decent at killing large aircraft, though you eat through a significant portion of your ammo reserve and have to RTB and rearm frequently. It loses out the AH in that regard.

Against ESF's, the Banshee falls far behind the AH, but I don't think that's a surprise to anyone. Hopefully Nightbird got some good Banshee time in after I logged off, I'd like to hear his experience.

The Air Hammer is probably the most ridiculous weapons in this game, and one of the few reasons Reavers are pulled beyond ESF dogfighting.

Is it powerful? Hell yes, but it suffers the same issues as shotguns on teh ground. Limited range, fast mag dumps, longish reload times. Very high risk vs reward since you're close enough regular infantry shotguns can get good shots on you.

When I pull Reavers with AH - it's very easy to pick off infantry as 1-2 shots is all you need (only if you miss the first) but it doesn't really suppress the same way a PPA does. Unlike the PPA or Banshee, you've got to get within dumbfire distance/small arms to use it effectively. Otherwise you're spraying a large area with not so powerful bullets instead of focusing high firepower on a smaller point.

It's my favorite weapon in the game, and yes, it does do damage to everything more or less equally well. I'd expect that of a weapon I have to SLAP you with.

As far as an infantry farming weapon, it's not actually that great like teh PPA can be. More often then not i'll forgo shooting and just try and run them over with the REaver so I can save the shots for Libs and Gals

Is the Air Hammer overpowered and broken? No, but it's sure as hell effective in teh right hands - the same way anything can be effective in teh right hands.

He flies around a lot with 1mBehindYou using airhammers. The few times I have managed to play the last few weeks I ran into them. They did a lot of hit and run, and would only engage/stick around if they had the upper hand just like he said earlier.

But yeah, the airhammer is all kinds of messed up. The simple fact is it is supposed to be an anti-infantry weapon. Currently it is lacking in that department and is much better than it should be against vehicles. Versatility is good to an extent, but in this case the weapon simply dosnt fit the role it is supposed to fill. Now if it was supposed to fill the role it currently does I would be perfectly okay with it.

I agree with Rak in that the PPA is where the Banshee and Airhammer should be in terms of overall effectiveness.

You killed me last night with the Banshee and it definitely hurt. Wasn't quite the same as air hammer burst chunks of HP falling away but it did hurt. Seemed faster then other noseguns up front but we were getting hit from multiple sources so it could have been that and lag as well.

I plan to put more time into the Banshee but the first thing I noticed was that it takes longer to empty a clip and the reload is shorter. Both hurts against a lib, as with an airhammer emptying quickly means less time soaking damage from tailgun and for the belly gun to line up, and the long reload time I use to do a fancy maneuver that let me empty my next clip safely. You can say the burstiness of the AH allows me to fight much closer to the lib than the Banshee DESPITE the airframe size. (Could also be because I suck at flying a mossie) I also don't like the drop, is it higher than the AH despite velocity being higher?

Will post more when I have more experience with it, the CD is killing me lol. Haven't tried farming infantry yet.

Compare the velocity of the Air Hammer to the PPA, then tell me things are balanced...

There's nothing I like more thank coming to the forums and reading posts from people who know what they are talking about not only with knowledge of the #'s but hundreds if not over 1000 hours spent in that role they're talking about.

Well said Rak.

As much as I wanna punch Gujana in the mouth on a regular basis, the guy knows this aspect of the game. He's arguably one of the best Dalton gunners on Mattherson which easily puts him in the top Dalton gunners in the game. When you spend THAT much time in the liberator you know what hurts. You know how long you can stick around AA, how it feels to get hit by every weapon in the game and you can tell by the sound and how fast you're taking damage exactly what weapon is hitting you.

The Air Hammer is the most noticeable of all the ESF weapons due to its sound and the amount of damage you take when being hit by it.

That line of Weapons for the ESF were meant to be anti-infantry, like the Banshee and the PPA. However, the Air Hammer does insane damage to aircraft and it's much more noticeable than the other two Empire weapons. Look at the different velocities and how the weapon fires. The air hammer shoots like a shotgun and you don't have to continuously hold the crosshair on your target like you're firing the rotary. The functionality is much different making the Air Hammer easier and more powerful.

When you spend the kind of time in the Liberator that many of us do, you know what's balanced and what isn't. No one is saying that Liberators should be unkillable, what people are saying is, "Bring the Air Hammer in line with the Banshee as it is the most balanced of the secondary weapons".

So, need to make it not a shotgun? Confused

I don't remember where any explicitly stated that the AH is supposed to be used exclusively against infantry, and should no have any anti-air/anti-armor capability what so ever.
Also, people who are crying for a nerf, show me your AH auraxium medal.

Oh you're just being silly. Just make it shoot Duster rounds. Problem solved and it'll be as good as the C85 on the ground vehicles.

BALANCE CHECK, DONE!.

lower vehicle damage, increase mag size so it actually becomes as usefull vs infantry as the other 2 ES AI noseguns

I could get behind that idea. Maybe 10 shot magazine when maxed, but doing less vehicle damage with 10 than it does now with 7.

Need to make it do less damage to aircraft than it does now, it doesn't match up with the other 2 faction weapons of the same category. The Banshee and the PPA can't come close to the dmg output.

People always run tests in the VR where they just put the nose of the ESF a couple of meters from a Liberator and say, "Well the TTK is only 1 second faster with the Air Hammer, why are you complaining?!???" When was the last time anyone with a PPA did to a Liberator what the Air Hammer can? People don't take into account the actual use of the weapon, the velocity, ease of use, etc etc. The Air Hammer is MUCH better at killing Libs/Gals than the Banshee/PPA

I know you don't like this the idea of this being changed, as you have over 8,000 kills with the Air Hammer, almost 3,000 of those with the Air Hammer. You also know how easy it is to kill Libs with one, I know this all too well =)

Congrats on being #5 on the list of all time killers with the Air Hammer tho