How do you justify 800m range on the Lancer & Vortex?

800m


Do you guys have any idea how crazy of a range that is?


Did no one think about this...... and say "This might be a bad idea"?

They had to buff the lancer when it came out. I imagine they were timid because they knew a long range weapon could be very game breaking. It was the only ESRL that didn't need to be nerfed when it rolled out.

Lancer is probably the best thing ES item VS has, yet most of them(VS players) don't even realize it.

Take a step back from Empire bias for 1 second and just think about this.



800m of range.


Compare that to all other Infantry AV sources ranges.

Yep. I also think the same thing about the NC ESRL. They both kinda suck alone though. Get a small group and all the disadvantages fade away.

It sounds like its a unique weapon. I think thats what they were aiming for with those.

Because air

It isn't that bad.

Besides, the Lancer shoots a bright laser. Now you know where to shoot.

I don't think its really that effective as it sounds. I was looking at some alert stats where the VS won. But the Lancer only had 36 kills, NC's Pheonix had 66. Striker had 1. Decimator had 34 (+ more for different versions) and Mana Turret had 31.

Shrike had 76, ML-7 had 90, and S1 had 130. So the default launchers are getting way way more kills.

To be honest, my personal experience with Lancers is... annoyance at best. The MAX version is a little more scary. But to call them OP... nah.. they aren't near that IMO.

Not calling the weapon itself OP, but pointing out the range is insane.

What can hit a small target 800m out?

That excuse doesn't fly because unless the targets a galaxy or someone hovering where they shouldn't be Lancers are not good against moving air targets.

I think you answered your own question.

Not many VS are going to be able to hit a moving/turning Vanguard at 800m (if it even renders, no render means no damage), much less any other faster ground vehicle.

If they're hitting consistently. They're either good (congrats they deserve the hit) or cheating. But even then, the long cooldown and dozens of hiding places at that distance means the damage will be mitigated by auto repair. If you're not running auto repair.. think about it when fighting VS. I love it.

The only difficult target to hit is the ESF. The lib and the galaxy are easy to hit once you start doing it. The valk is somewhat easy to hit as well. It hits as hard as a lock on does as well, except you get 2 rockets in the mag and 3 second lock on time at all ranges.

Holy **** somone got a kill with a striker hats off to him

As for the lancer, if you're dying to a lancer at that range I don't know what to tell you, you need to move more...since the zoom on it isn't that great for THAT kind of range, and if you're in anything but a sundy or MBT you're facing a good solid aimer given the charge up and all (or you need to use more terrain?)

Vortexes...that is even worse since those don't even have zoom? If a vortex max is able to pick you off consistently at 800m, that max is either a god of aiming, you're standing still ignoring the bright glowies in the sky, or I'd call hax.

Lancer is really a "teamwork is OP" thing, just like a gaggle of galaxies could be, alone they are annoying/minorly troublesome (barring a gal drop but thats again, teamwork!), but get a group of them and things get ridiculous fast.

Lancers also kinda suck giant goats if anything is near them, since the charge up limits their ability to react to a surprise harasser or even lightning, and doesn't really have the ammo capacity to threaten spamming shots before dead at closer distances.

Vortex max suffers from the inability to even mildly menace infantry...like at all. Sure he might be standing back, but he is better off punching at infantry then shooting them if they are able to start responding.

The range is really the main benefit of the lancer overall, you get higher outright single shot damage from rockets, can't lock on, and become sniper bait while charging for the benefit of being able to poke at someone at long range.

Now if it was like PS1's lancer before the nerf to its infantry damage, I'd be on board the nerf train (god it was sexy back then, but the inventory system hurt so bad =p)

This explains the Engie AV turret buff. I've noticed I've been able to engage targets further than 400m now. Finally balance.

The Lancer is very underutilized and underappreciated for how good it is. I think part of the problem is a lot of people look at the tooltip damage and assume its DPS is crap, since the game doesn't make any effort at all to tell you about resistances.

It's one of the few rocket launchers that carries enough ammo to let you kill an MBT or a Sundy by yourself without having to take the ammo suit slot. It seems to have recently been stealth-nerfed against Harassers since I haven't been able to two-shot those recently, but sniping Harassers with the Lancer is still a lot of fun.

A lot of the time me and a friend will take a couple Lancers and a Sunderer, set up in a spot with a good view, and just the two of us can pretty much create a no-vehicle zone. It's not as bad as the old MANA AV that let you do that all by yourself with no Sunderer, but it's still pretty effective with just two people who know what they're doing.

The Lancer definitely seems to be an odd case of a sleeper. Maybe managing those long-range shots with the charge mechanic is more difficult for other people than I realize, it feels easy to me though. I think if large VS outfits ever started abusing the Lancer the same way they did ZOE and the old PPA, there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But for now, it's still flying under the radar.

We do technically have another AV weapon now that can match its range though, the Archer. The drawback is the Archer seems to have about half the ammo efficiency of a charged Lancer. It's pretty comparable to an uncharged Lancer in terms of hits to kill I think, except that the Archer fires much more slowly than it. Which means that overall, the Archer's DPS is much, much lower.

That may be for the best though. I have a feeling that if the Archer actually had turned out as an NS Lancer, we would be going through the AV MANA debacle all over again.

1) its 700m, get it right
2) damage degradation after 400m
3) dumb fire
4) charge up lasts how many seconds?
5) no zoom, take the short range bolt rifle, put the lowest zoom level, now try to snipe long range targets, easy isn't it...

Its balanced in other ways. Range isnt the only thing that matters.

Its a good weapon but not OP, otherwise everyone would obviously use the Lancer, and everyone doesent use the Lancer.

Yeah, I'm fine with the VS AV lasers of doom because they've been actually designed with their team-centric distance sniping feature in mind, therefore actually handle it in sensible ways, e.g., damage degradation.