Anti-Air Question

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Sunflash, Dec 9, 2014.

  1. Sunflash

    For various reasons, I'm curious what forumside feels is the best vehicle-mounted anti-air? Walkers? Rangers? a crack-shot with an AP round?

    Ideally I'd like to hear your thoughts on A) Single-turret options(Just a walker beats just a ranger?), and B)Group turret options(Will a collection of rangers overpower a collection of rangers?).
  2. SerasVic


    Walker all the way

    can be 1 or 10 doesn't matter it's still the best

    Ranger has only one purpose : make your ennemy think it's a burster Max / skyguard
    • Up x 1
  3. Tommyp2006

    Ap rounds if your good. Walkers otherwise. Dual walker sundys are a hell of an aa platform. Better than a skyguard.
    • Up x 1
  4. Leftconsin

    Walker for sure.
  5. Sunflash

    Huh, better than a Skyguard? Seriously? Even though a Skyguard is pretty much a dedicated AA platform? o.o
  6. FBVanu

    G30 Walker it actually kills air

    Ranger just makes a lot of noise on impact... good pilots know the difference and come gunning for you, now that you told them where you are...
    • Up x 1
  7. DirArtillerySupport

    Judging by the way over half of the people that come at me fly....the ranger seems to confuse the heck out of them. That or it drops their FPS so low they can't fly and end up eating a second magazine of 40mm. I'm willing to bet it's the latter so I never leave home without it. Flak is fun.
  8. Shatteredstar

    1-2 walker mounted sunderers in a battle bus brigade will make any air avoid you. Although Kobalts can kinda deter by volume of lead in the air hitting them they are after all AI weapons so don't exactly kill.
  9. DrBash00

    Sooo, Mountet AA weapon

    Walker > Ranger

    Ap AA:

    VS ESF.s: Vaynguard > Magrider > Prowler
    VS Lib Galaxys: Prowler > Vaynguard > Magrider
    (Specal here, magrider can position himself better/ faster so he can shoot on aircrafts in position where other tanks can´t, but really dangerous is only the Vaynguard VS ESF´s and Prowler vs. Libs)

    Btw. If you go pure AA i recomend you the skyguard! If you have a friend and you go together (perform some focus fire) you can make the enemy air fear you.
  10. z1967

    Skyguard if you are running Solo. Double Walker blockade sunderer when working with 1-2 gunners. I like the Skyguard mainly for aesthetic reasons (and sapping the frame rates out of farmers) but it is still an effective platform and works really well in groups of 2-3 with a supply sunderer trailing behind (ammo is best, usually).
  11. Alarox

    Walker > Ranger. Walker is really nice on Sunderers.

    It also works well on a Harasser since you can actually chase down air and run away from ground threats. The problem on an MBT is that you're giving up a lot of power against infantry and other ground vehicles, so it is only good for solo or very specific situations.

    My favorite AA weapon is Titan-150 AP though. It's dependent on aircraft giving the angle however.
    • Up x 2
  12. Ronin Oni

    A dual walker sunderer is a dedicated AA platform with 2 guns and takes 3 people (you can do it with 1 gunner, and swap to the other gun when you need to as driver). Damn right it's better.

    More toughtness too.

    You can also take Repair or Ammo module and provide even more support to the armor column you roll with.
  13. Sunflash

    Personally, I'm only really surprised by the nearly overwhelming viewpoints. I can understand why a walker is considered better than a ranger(never had much luck with the few rangers I've tried and its far easier to lead with the walker), but usually I'm an outlier.

    Nice to know I'm not COMPLETELY crazy. Now to go run some tests and see what vehicle's mounted walker will beat which in an apples to apples view.
  14. Demigan

    I'm surprised at so many people going for the walker. I've met a few, but rarely and they don't usually kill me unless I got beat up by ESF or flak before. They seem much easier to escape from as well, so I don't see how people think it's such a good weapon.
  15. AlCohonez

    Skyguard (because 1 person) > Dual walker sundy (because 2/3 people) > Max standing on a tank > Ranger




    It's easy to escape from any AA, but ranger flak is all effects and poor damage.
    • Up x 1
  16. Xenoraptor

    How about... ESF?
    Although i pretty much suck as a pilot.
  17. Sunflash

    So I just finished some basic tests. All times are rough and non-exact. The target is an NC Reaver in VR.

    At roughly 100 meters:

    Sunderer Ranger: Time to kill was 7 seconds.
    Sunderer Walker: Time to kill was 4 seconds.
    Sunderer Kobalt: Tme to kill was 10 seconds.
    Sunderer Basilik: Time to kill as 7 seconds.
    Lighting Skyguard: Time to kill was 5 seconds.

    With those times in hand I tossed out the kobalt and basilik for the 200 Meter tests.

    At roughly 200 meters:

    Sunderer Ranger: Time to kill was 8 seconds.
    Sunderer Walker: Time to kill was 5 seconds.
    Lighting Skyguard: Time to kill was 5 seconds.


    Of special note: God LORD the Ranger has a horrible cone of fire. At 200 meters I was missing maybe a quarter of my shots when the crosshair wasn't moving. o_O
    Also of note: Wow the Skyguard has a hell of a kick to it compared to the Ranger. Huh.


    If I get some time over the weekend I'll probably see if I can manage even further ranges and see how that works out. My gut suggests the data will agree with Walkers being the best for several reasons, if only because its so much easier to lead and target with the low-kick and smaller cone of fire. A Ranger may have higher straight damage, but when the shots naturally go so wide you couldn't hit a galaxy at 300 meters, there's little point to them.


    Thoughts?
  18. NoctD

    Walker is the best but the Ranger will be more effective if you've got crap gunners. A good Walker gunner must know how to lead their targets - ESF pilots actually make for the best Walker gunners IMO.
  19. DFDelta

    The Walker damage bottoms out at 400m.
    At this range it still outdamages the Ranger by a rather huge margin in both damage per second and damage per minute stats, has much less spread, a larger magazine, reloads faster and is much easier to lead with (even taking Ranger proximity fuse into account) due to the much higher velocity. And the Walker even deals some surprisingly good damage against ground targets as well if you can get the weapon angled on them.
    The shorter the range gets the better the Walker becomes compared to the Ranger, inside 100m (the Walkers highest damage range) a single Walker is pretty much as good as two Rangers.

    That is against ESF, for which Ranger gains a 60% damage boost while the Walker is actually being resisted by a small amount.
    Against galaxies, liberators and valks the Ranger damage drops by a very significant margin (resist values go from -60% for ESF to something like +30% for the others) while Walker stays almost the same. (those aircraft have a little higher resist against Walkers then ESF do, but it is not such a huge difference as it is for the Ranger)

    There is no single reason to ever use a Ranger, against ESF and Valks you're probably better off if you exit the vehicle and shoot with your carbine.
    • Up x 3
  20. Sunflash

    And now I'm curious where station-mounted AA turrets rank...(the Phalanx versions).

    My gut tells me somewhere in the middle, but then again my logic is boggled by the Walker > Ranger aspect so ya never know.