Question about Lancer

Hello, i am about to get Lancer and i just wanted to ask one thing about it (i know a lot already from youtube commentaries but this is what i never learned)

Does Lancer

Do same damage if i charge it to 3 and let off as if i fully charge it
or
Do more damage if i fully charge it instead of getting only 3 charges
????

Triple Charged Shot does way more damage than three 1 charge shots. Something like 150 per shot vs 750 for fully charge shot, or something like that.

not what the OP is asking.

this is the correct action of the gun, it has no progressive charge beyond the 3 stages of charge. letting the lancer shoot the instant it hits 3 charges does the same damage as if you let the gun fire itself.

Yep - best charge to level 3 before you let it go, but even then the default RL causes a lot more damage.

Have you tried it in VR ? If you are a lone ranger player using it, it feels pretty weak - takes an age to destroy anything.

But like so many other things in PS2 it becomes brutal when multiple Lancers coordinate. Lancer squads are rare (and good job too - oh the tears)..

Team up with other Lancers or Vortex Maxes to actually kill stuff.

Quick shooting has shorter TTK on sunderer.

Lancer is a really fun weapon and decent too. Definitely easier to hit Air with than a regular dumb-fire launcher.

That is pretty much what i intent to do, teaming up with lancer squad if i can find any ( btw i would not have bought it if it wasn't for the directives shiny armor, if i am not shooting lancer for directives better love me some decimator! )

also thank all of you for answering! (if any moderator wishes to end this thread go ahead, i have gotten my answer)

not really. a charged lancer beam does more damage to sunderers than a regular lock-on launcher, even if it ends up killing it in the same numbers of shots. lancer 1hkoes flashes, 2hkoes MAX units etc, it has very similar damage model when compared to lock-ons, but has more ammo (a standard RL has 5 rockets, a lancer has 8 charged beams available), 400 meters of full damage range (like 25% more than any other non-phoenix rocket launcher), no drop and very much fast bullet travel speed.
so use it. it is not a team weapon, it is a very strong rocket launcher - if not the best of them all in terms of AV - that becomes amazing if the ppl that are already using it in a battle (just because, you kno, it's awesome) start picking the same target.

You can fire the weapon at any time once you have your three charges holding the shot does not increase damage. The delay in firing was put in (it wasn't always there) as a QOL upgrade to give the user time to aim if the user charges it in cover then pop up for a shot.

It's actually only 6 fully charged shots, or 18 single charge shots.

^this guy understood what OP was asking, and has the correct answer.

The extra charge time after hitting charge 3, before it automatically fires, is only extra time to line up your shot.

Also, charging to 3 level is generally preferred, however clip dumping all 6 shots individually at max RoF at barn door distance has a higher DPS output... the accuracy is total crap for this, but if you're 10-20m from a deployed sundy, you want to kick out dmg and reload.

Isn't it 6/18? 24 beams are 8 lvl 3 charged lazers

You are correct. 6 charges in the battery, 18 in reserve.

Level 4 Munitions Pouch gives you 42 in reserve.

Generally,the lancer is good at stealing kills

and killing vehicles and maxes even if you'r alone, having almost same damage per bullet, almost double the bullets, 30% more effective range and no need to compensate for bullet speed nor drop. yeah.

Spamming out the shots before the charge leads makes the shots (combined) considerably weaker than if they were charged up. It kind of needs to be like this otherwise it would almost always be faster and more efficient to just spam out fast shots than to take the time to charge.

Doing a full-charge shot followed up by some quick ones can be a good idea to create very bursty damage though.

-Stigma

You can't take vehicles and maxes alone with lancer unless their health is critical

why? lancer does pretty much same damage to vehicles as common pool RLs do, it 2hkos MAX units and it's a lot easier to kill them with lancer, unless they'r at 5 meters and behind a corner.

Munitions pouch is the only suit slot I use for HA