The T2 Striker rocket launcher unique to the TR Heavy Assault has been through I think more stat changes and received more nerfs than any other of the faction specific launchers, starting out as a lock-on launcher then being changed to fire heat seeking rockets that track aircraft, it use to be a true menace to the NC and VS aircraft, especially when the TR would bring in our iconic Striker Valks. It has received quite a few nerfs during Wrel's time to a point it's now basically trash compared to some other launchers and with heat seeking being bugged has made it even worse, the old proximity fuse to make the rockets explode near aircraft like flak is now gone and that's when it really became almost useless to a point you don't see it used nearly as much by TR Heavies as compared to the NC Phoenix and VS Lancer. One simplest method of improving its use on the battlefield is buffing its damage a bit and making it a lock-on launcher again that can lock onto both air and land vehicles, its use against armor may not be as practical as it is against aircraft but it will improve its versatility more and still be effective against aircraft. Or it needs some of its nerfs reverted from the Wrel era as some of these were more a response to bias against the TR arsenal simply being good and relatively balanced before CAI came in, like make the heat seeking range farther and bring back the aerial bursts. On a side note: It should receive some updates to its animations to where the rockets in the clip drop down as it fires and empties it and gets replaced with a full clip on reload, give a bit more realism to the launcher.
I agree, one of the reason I don't play my empire specific armed HA is that the striker is so bad compared to lancer and phoenix. lancer especially is just better against both air and ground vehicles
TR has bigger issues. It is by design the losers faction. The game is designed against them. TR neither has the air, nor ground armor superiority. Their tanks will always be subpar no matter what you do due to factors outside your control. Therefore, will never really have the area dominance. Without area control, air defenses will not be good, so ultimately you could say that their air force is generally at a disadvantage as well, with no clear advantages in air-to-air combat even. TR's only strength can be infantry but to actually excel TR currently would need coordination to such an extent that it would form its own weapons arsenal by merging and coordinating all outfits into one and creating their own comps, which is not going to happen. NC and VS receive the correct weapons arsenal by design, and they do not need to modify it, they can just customize it to their liking. TR gets the Prowler MBT, which is not an MBT or assault weapon, but more so a light reconnaissance tank due to its design. It is deceitful and I very well noticed it is the primary cause of tank battle losses due to incorrect use. Lightening is the MBT. They get default small arms which are not reliable weapons, due to unpredictable recoil patterns (a lot of their weapons move in diagonal direction). They are unreliable for the more experienced player and substantially harder to use than other faction's weapons to make them defaults causing a handicap in infantry-on-infantry combat. TR gets the MAX lockdown which is equivalent to either the use of Engineer MANA turret (AI MAX) or Heavy Assault NSX Masamune (AT MAX). (The Lockdown could have been a uniquely good anti-Max crash ability, but due to heavy MAX nerfs it is no longer a standard strategy, so Lockdown is overall useless) Basically, TR is issues, after issues after issues. Might as well just make it the AI faction and make the human factions VS and NC to make it a human 1v1 where the 3rd TR AI faction would be used for balance and extra objectives purposes. Like there are ways of improving TR but what would be the proper way?
Please no. The weapon is overpowered by far more than any other infantry weapon. Dumbfire proxy seek on a heavy? cmon... OPAF. The amount of damage and range alone is absurd. No other faction has anything remotely similar or comparable in damage, utility, and effectiveness.
The prowler is the single most lethal MBT in the entire game. No other MBT can dish out the damage, have the utility, and range. A kingsnake has no scatter, even though it should... do you know how much damage that is per volley?
It has the damage but no defensive capabilities and additionally its hull is very easy to hit, its profile is somehow larger than the 2 other MBTs. Real easy to focus down, the bonus 1k HP when compared to Lightening doesn't help because size indirectly impacts defensive capabilities.... So, it's not a good assault breakthrough weapon. But the high DPS allows you to use this tank by itself and possibly allow to win tank duels on the outskirts. That is why the meta was AP/Flak AA solo Prowler for some time. Giving it more proper strategical uses based on its design. I believe in OW I heard of people using the tank to lockdown areas and push back armored assaults, and to do so they most likely used its very small turret, to be incredibly hard to hit by hiding their hull. But in the real game the scenario is different. It is like a flow of water and whoever has the larger volume wins. Kingsnake supports the Prowlers suicide capabilities but again that is the primary reason for tank battle losses. AP is better in all ways. So, once again it more so plays like a light, reconnaissance tank. Rather than a main battle tank.
I'm not a huge expert on launchers. Tho out of those 3. The Striker is the only one that get used by more than 1 person. The only one used for Valk runs, not that that happens often. To chase off my harasser or do decent dmg to a sunderer. I don't even remember the last time I died to a Lancer? 2 times per 6 years of gameplay. The phoenix is only good if 2+ people are using it at the same time. Which you barely even see 1 person use them. Magriders are able to just strafe to the side to dodge the Phoenix. HA Striker with lockons, reminds me of how the NSO max has AV Lockons. Tho the AV NSO Max is worst. One NSO max standing on top of a hill, facing the Oshur Excavation Lake seapost. The NSO Lockons Max is able to kill every allied sunderer solo, who tries to drive from the mid lake seapost vehi term to the beach sand. Your sunderer is dead before you even swim half way to the beach sand. Had 6 sunderers die that way from one nso max, yesterday. No one was able to pull sunderers from mid lake.
valk striker is a meme, I mean do you really see them often? while on the other hand, you almost always find some HA spamming phoenix rounds from the spawn room where NC is losing a base, and bringing a second one and follow the trails of his rocket is not hard at all. only if you have 2 or more engineers repairing what you are shooting at. you can exit the rocket view by pressing E and the rocket will still travel (with heavy drop) and damage stuff. this lets you start the reload giving you more dps. phoenix literally kills vehicle fights where there is blind turns. you fire from cover and there's almost always some HA doing that. good luck hitting moving ground targets with a full round of striker missiles. phoenix is jusy better, whenever I use it versus TR tanks camping a base I 100% get the tank to move away, unless if there are 2 or more engies repairing it (almost never happens)
Low profile, gunner has 360 attack, gunner has a lot of high DPS and utility options... The kingsnake is the supreme MBT. If it isn't the kingsnake loadout, the prowler has a siege mode with shield, or an overcharge... It just doesn't get better. You should play in a chimera a few games and get your tail handed to you by a flash, give you perspective.
Sir IDK how much you play or what faction you main but the Striker is nothing compared to what it use to be, if you think its overpowered now you clearly didn't play against it pre-2018. Nowadays you have to aim right at an aircraft to get the rockets to even track and the range that they are able to lock is far less to a point its nearly useless. Use to be able to fire in the general direction of an ESF and the rockets would lock on, now sometimes only half of them lock. It is not overpowered it wasn't even overpowered 4 years ago, it was just easy to use even for new players and therefore made it a menace to even veteran pilots. As a TR main I can verify it needs a rework or some buffs made, if you are getting taken out by it to a point you think it's "OPAF" that is a personal skill related issue not a weapon stat issue.
Another case of showing lack of knowledge in the TR arsenal and its effectiveness, the Rampart Projector is in fact one of the worst modules for the Prowler in its current state and only good for like anti-infantry HESH loadouts. The shield is only good for covering infantry from incoming fire as the Rampart Projector while providing protection at the front for the tank the tank is still damaged when the shield is hit making it literally a big red target. This defense perk is barely used because of these factors and it is in desperate need of a rework too or just be removed. The Prowler back in the day of having its old Anchor Mode that gave it unlimited reload speed and firing speed increase was far more effective, the barrage is the only main thing about the Prowler along with its increased DPS due to having 2 cannons and the Kingsnake is what makes it a danger, other than that the Vanguard is superior by its higher HP or perks like the Nimitz Reactor preventing it from even taking damage while also having a high damage outpit, the Magrider can easily boost away and go up terrain other tanks can't to escape then quickly repair and come back to fight again.
Flash is a counter to all ground units pretty much. Prowler has 0 defensive capabilities. The Lightening or Harasser is indirectly tougher than the Prowler. Therefore, cannot be used as a breakthrough weapon. It must play as a light tank. The deployable shield doubles your oversized hitbox. That is why nobody uses it. I hate the PS2 forums. I hope this won't turn into pages of nonsense. ___ Striker I find to be OK. It is like a rapid response close range AA (though ppl don't really use it, why, I don't know), and doubles as a shock weapon for suppressing ground armor. But yeah, VS Lancer is just better. As I described earlier, the TR is by design the clown faction, the loser's faction. From small arms, standardized weapons, armor, air. The game is designed against them in all accounts. It's not just the launcher, the issue is their design. (NSX Masamune is better in anti-armor duty with approx. 300m max range. It has laser guided decimator type damage. I don't know where I am going with this, just wanted to bring it up)
The striker isn't bad though. For G2A it's absolutely better than the lancer and the phoenix is a meme that's only used to annoy sundies from the spawn room.
you know whats funny, striker nerfed, but the chimeras Anti air missiles, siren work exactly like pre striker nerf. used to sit ontop of hills and just wait for ESF ****ters to pass by to shoot them down. difference is its on a vehicle compared to infantry who can mass spam it just by playing Heavy assault.
A small example of the hypocrisy of Wrel's team and the choices he made, removed something from one thing cause "Too OP" yet kept it elsewhere. All about the TR not having anything noticeably better than the other 2 which is what got us screwed so many times. The Striker why still pretty decent deserves better and should be given some proper buffs and changes to keep it up there with the other 2 faction specific launchers. Making it lock-on again will at least improve its use as an anti-air launcher.
Please no, the Striker got nerfed because it was hitting planes like 2 Hexes away and you could put it on Valkyries. Was Cancer because you couldn't detect it until it was too late as infantry do not render on Valkyries. A Lock-on is even worse.
Hey your VS victim complex is showing, may wanna cover up. TR Striker Valkyries are an iconic part of TR air power, may as well get use to it. It was nerfed because a person who mained VS and was bias against the TR was in charge for nearly 8 years not cause it was bad for the game. Sure some range nerfs of being able to hit aircraft sometimes out of render distance were justified but the performance with it now is uncalled for and makes it nowhere near as popular as it use to be to where many TR heavies now use either the Grounder or other AA launchers, all nerfs after 2017 to the Striker were more due to complaints by poor ESF players and people that just hated the TR.Also anything to better deal with the A2G from NC and Liberators bascally sniping you from heights out of lock-on range is a positive for the game right now.
