So yesterday I was rolling along in a vanguard in a tank column leaving the NC warpgate (we were warpgated on one side by the might of the spandex rainbow marines). I looked away from the screen for 1 second or maybe 1.5 seconds. Then I looked back and saw my debris and the 100% tank buster damage for the kill. This isn't a nerf or complaint thread because how that lib pilot was able to pull right behind me when i was part of a large tank column is just a testament to NC intelligence. Yeah and I get that the van is weak in the rear but is the tank buster really as good as it seems? I have been killed by it like 6 times in the 15 days of game time I have on ps2 so I have no idea about it. I don't fly liberators.
Most people with any certs to spare and more than just a curious interest in the lib will have extended mags on. Which means there can be up towards 44 shots there.
Is the tank buster as good as it seems? It's a shotgun esque high damage low capacity nosegun on the lib that at best can one clip a tank in the back, and at worst do some top armor damage, leaving the kill for your dalton gunner. It is only ever going to be as good as the opposition wants it to be - given the size of the lib.
Personally they should remove rear armor damage from all aircraft weapons and make it so you can't swap from the pilot seat to a gunner seat in a liberator unless you are swapping seats with another player or the liberator is on the ground. would cut down solo libs using tankbuster quite a bit.
Yes, I have also been the victim of that infernal gun. Not only while in a tank but also while in aircraft. No time to react - just RRRRRRRRRR *BOOM*
hmm I just had the thought... there is no point complaining about it while there are a dozen other things that for all intents and purposes one shot or kill in a second in this game. Not that I was calling for nerfs in the first place.
I don't fly liberators. This is the problem with 99% of the players in this game. THEY DON'T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT WHAT THEY DON"T PLAY OR USE. There is not enough accountability for players who make insinuations about guns and have never used them,yeah long range AV/AI and some forms of AA weapons are bad for the game due to the scale and distance between players but shotguns and the tank buster are in a totally different situation altogether. You can see the people using these weapons just fine and they are extremely situational but for some reason people still get frustrated when they get killed by them. Trust me I use the Tank buster and the vektor (yes),very rarely do you ever get to use the tank buster without putting yourself at a huge risk and probably dying in a big battle. Also it would be dumb if it couldn't quickly kill a tank because if not then you would have just put yourself low to the ground in the worst possible position and be a sitting duck. #1 Go get a tank buster #2 find a lone tank with ABSOLUTELY no support #probablynotgoingtohappen come back and tell me how easy it was.
Tankbuster has been this good since release, well it used to be better against AA turrets. It has always been the highest DPS weapon.
The Tankbuster is fine... it's perfectly okay that a Liberator should be able to chew up armor. However the vehicle on which the Tankbuster is mounted, the Liberator, is not fine. The Liberator has far too much HP (25% more than an MBT) and armor for a "glass cannon" type vehicle. Reducing the HP and armor of the Liberator so that dedicated AA is actually a threat to it would be the right way to go, not nerfing the Tankbuster.
This is part of why van shields are so awesome. If you pop it at the right moment, you just screwed over a tb lib that probably spent half a min lining up the perfect gank.
Yup, Lib = instant death... unless you yank around and go towards the lib, (if close enough), that makes most pilots overshoot or hit the ground... Where is the Liberator's weak spot?
TL;DR high pop zones or at least 5 sources of focused fire. the weakness is in the scale of the conflict. while any 1 or even 3 sources of damage are usually not enough to take out a (well piloted) lib without a lot of either skill or luck, 5+ sources will almost always take it out so fast that there is no way to evade. even with afterburners or fire suppression, the time you can linger over heavy damage is extremely minimal, and it isn't really safe to linger at all under 50% HP because of the omnipresent danger of a lucky dumbfire or sneaky AP shell. here is a quick list of things i consider to be serious threats: one of the ten or so top tier lib teams in the game one of the maybe 5 lib pilots that are really dangerous with a tankbuster (often piloting above teams, but not always) one of the twelve or so top tier ESF pilots in the game any two of the hundred or so pretty good pilots, using a bait and switch strategy more than 4 bad ESFs 4 or more Basilisks 2 or more Walkers 3 or more Skyguards 3 or more G2A locks (hiding in spawn) 3 or more Burster MAX (dual arm; hiding in spawn) 3 or more Aspis (AA) Phalanx Turrets (Amp Stations) some of the things listed are on the lower end of the threat scale, for example one extremely good ESF may not be a threat to some lib setups at all, and to others may only represent an equal challenge. however, it is important to note that because of population and scaling, it is very rare that any of these threats come alone. so while one of those ten teams i mentioned may not even feel threatened by 4 bad ESFs, there will often be 4 baddies, 1 G2A lock-on, 1 spawnMAX, and 2 random stock Basilisks in a given area. and so i've made this list not especially for any of those top level teams, but to speak more accurately to a wider range of lib players. suffice it to say that combinations of the above represent escalating levels of threat, and are easily found in most 96+ conflicts. it is still possible to farm in and around 96+ areas, but it represents a lot of risk and usually relies on a high level of terrain knowledge in planning approaches and egresses. as for the OP and the Tankbuster, yeah it is just that good when you know when and how to use it. you aren't going to get much out of it beyond 100m. it's best used for opportunistic ganks, against obviously unaware targets, or as the opening volley of an airstrike. typically the pilot leads with the tankbuster in a dive against a sunderer, then pulls up sharply and allows the belly and tail to unload for maximum combined DPS from the three weapons. the only other use is in the opening phase of a lib duel, where pilots trade TB while lining up for the first pass before circling, and sometimes to finish a duel if one of the libs breaks off in a flat run (as opposed to an inverted run.)
I hate dying to tankbusters, it's almost instant death when done correctly. I admit my first thought was 'tankbuster is OP' but having tried it myself in VR training last night, I can only give kudos to those who do it well, because it's not easy to do. You have to get close, behind a tank, and aim the thing so it actually hits. I am not that great a pilot, I hardly fly, but I now realise that this 'OP' weapon requires a fair amount of skill to kill tanks so quickly.
Nice answer to the OPs question......no wait you didnt answer it and went on some crazed rant about something totaly unrelated. Post of the week this 1.
Its probably the hardest weapon to get rounds hitting target. Miss and its a good few seconds for your reload. You may have to stop for the reload making you a sitting duck or do another pass that makes you a slow moving duck. It has got a 300m/s bullet velocity, that is very, very slow. You better not miss that ESF. From my experience tank buster rounds that miss make the ESF very angry, tankbuster rounds that hit make the ESF respawn.
My main problem is that certain lib teams in the game specifically look for me in game... Because my aurax'd stealth prowler is pretty good at shooting them down if they get low enough... So I have the issue with libs hunting my poor tank to death. Howevever, I think that tanks should be able to have a higher firing angle. I also think the walker/ranger should be viable AA to get these guys away but the walker doesn't do enough dmg and the ranger is like trying to tickle a tiger.
I don't fly Libs either, but I unlocked magazine size on my tankbuster, and find it super easy, most of my attempts succeed in a dead tank, except maybe magriders on the road, because they can strafe. This one 48v48+ fight, where the enemy tanks were darting in and out of the base shield, I repeatedly flew low and fast, instantly ganking a tank each run. I think I got 5 runs off before finally dying. They stood no chance I *do* however, fly GALs a ton, and love pestering people with them. Tankbuster is one of the few hardcounters to annoying GALs, and I believe everything should have somewhat of a counter, so I'm not looking for it to be nerfed, though I wouldn't complain about an adjustment to rear armor resistance to all weapons. Tanks die fast as is. (I'm also not a fan of driving tanks)
