inability to kill infantry? lol lancer is hilariously good at AI once you hit a certain range and land your shots. i ALWAYS use lancer because it complements orion/lasher so well and is godly with 2+ buddies. don't use phoenix though because too expensive for rather inactive NC character
I use the lancer for long range. If I'm close enough to compensate for drop(which I suck at) than I'll use the decimator, simply because of it's stopping power. I like the lancer because it's well complimented by munitions pouch, over 100 shots. It's also very effective against Phalanx turrets. And 2 fully charged shots won't set an esf on fire.
I got all 3 ESRLs w/ the Anniversary bundle. I only use the Striker in groups, on terrain with a low flight ceiling (like central Amerish, SW Indar). I like the Phoenix for close-range against Libs and Harassers, but I don't play HA on NC much. My VS actually has the widest array of launchers (S1, Deci, Nemesis, Lancer), and I find myself using all of them. The Lancer was my go-to until I got the Nemesis, now I find I mix it up more. I still love the Lancer, and if you're friends are reasonably accurate, they are a true force in small numbers.
I believe that damage is only done to light armor (lightnings, harassers, Flashes, ESFs, and Liberators) but the flight time and fact that you're a stationary target more than offsets that enough to make it very situational most of the time. Don't get me wrong, it is situationally more useful than other rocket launchers at times, because you can fly the rocket past terrain, but all other launchers are more effective once LoS has been acquired.
With the Phoenix in play, the NC can effectively deny virtually all sundy locations within ~250 meters of spawn that arent in line of sight, and do so from complete safety. (-50 meters for navigation taking the extra flight time) The lancer is just freaking awesome, I use it above all else unless targets are in easy range of non-lock capable dumbfires. To those claiming to use it effectively vs infantry, i'd love a video link. I've never been able to make it work well as AI vs anything that wasnt stationary. It IS rather wonderful vs AV turrets, though.
I don't use the Phoenix because it can be easily avoided, can be shot down, leaves me vulnerable, and has low DPS because you have to guide the missile for multiple seconds in addition to reloading.
I still use the Phoenix. Despite it not being good vs Infantry, the ability to go around cover (or snipe some ESF's) is priceless. It hits hard vs vehicles and despite losing out on DPS, if you can find a good cover spot you can easily kill some vehicles.
And when and how did you not understand the term "ground armor"? It actually does +200% or more against ESFs, Liberators and normal vehicles.
That... that is exactly what I was explaining. There are vehicles, in both the air and on the ground, that it does not do extra damage to, so generalizing it as "ground armor" doesn't tell the whole story.
There are two armor types, light, and heavy. ESF, Harasser, Flash, and MAX use light armor type, the pheonix is quite devastating to these vehicles. Heavy armor is used by galaxies, sunderers, liberators, MBT's, and lightnings, which the pheonix does fairly average damage against. Its the fact that you expose yourself, the rocket can get shot, and the distance of the rocket is limited. Its a fun weapon though. The Lancer probably isn't often used because people prefer to equip their MAX's with the similar vortex AV weapons, which they can use two and are more durable than a heavy assault.
I don't use Phoenix cuz of the camera mode. All the guiding and boxes makes my head dizzy. I might use it if they made it laser guided, and allowed it to reload while guiding (like AV mana turrets).
Be glad they don't if more people used the phoenix and lancer they would be nerfed in a heartbeat. 4 people with a phoenix can create a 300m no vehicle zone. 6 people with a lancer can make a much larger one that also wrecks air o.o
The phoenix in large numbers could be pretty devastating/ Potentially. Part of the problem is that its use is very limited. A 300m range and the unimpressive damage just doesn't cut it for the price. Generally, the few times i've trialed it was to annoy the enemy by shooting and guiding it around corners.
Lancer is the the same way. Grab 5 people with a phoenix and 5 with lancers, both groups will kill anything. Vanu get a huge range for theirs, we can turns ours for less range.
not acurate. There are no armor typs, there are damage types. Each vehicle has its own individual resistances to diferent damage types. But the resistance of a MBT is different than that of a sunder is different than a lightning is different from a esf, etc. The pheonix in general hits land vehicles for decimator damage, and hits air vehicles for shrike damage.
I dont use lancer much because that is an offensive weapon. I use S1 because I only need to shoot armor that is a threat to me. That means close range. If I want to seek out armor, I pull my magrider. Lancer up close is bad, its only good because of insane range. Also the S1 is versatile, lancer sucks vs infantry and maxes.
