~ 90-Second Review of the Empire-Specific HA Launchers ~

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by belthazor3457, Apr 5, 2015.

  1. belthazor3457

    *Yawns* Exactly what the title says. Happy Easter.



    ~ Summary ~

    The lancer essentially offers you double-rockets, concealment of your firing position, and better hit-secure at long range - which is useful v ground vehicles as well as that 500m-high liberator that's flying around - the price is reduced utility v infantry and depending on your personal preferences a reduction in AA power.

    The other launchers are kinda crap. I couldn't find any redeeming qualities to the Striker that were of sufficient value to merit advising a person to purchase one as opposed to other HA upgrades or another launcher. The Phoenix for the NC is in the same boat, though it has a couple contrivance cases where someone may use it as demonstrated in the footage and specified in the final verdict, and I personally feel they both require balancing attention.

    Also apparently you can cancel the Phoenix TVG with your vehicle/terminal interaction button.
    • Up x 5
  2. DashRendar

    Awesome. Yeah the Phoenix is situational alright. It's probably not good that anytime I really feel like I did well with the weapon is a time where I got lucky or stole a kill. How would we fix it though?
  3. Pikachu

    Cancel phoenix missile by 'e'. A note about shooting phoenix at ESF is that the damage is not enough to kill. With fire suppression they will survive and escape fine. Also the limit is both time and distance. If you fly in circles it will still end. If you fire from moving harasser it will end faster than usual.

    Restore infantry damage first f- yeah. But make it blocked by spawn shields.
  4. CursoryRaptor

    God I wish I could get a Lancer. >_<
  5. Liberty

    I think the only (and probably one of the more important things) you missed was scaling with teamwork.

    The Striker is still kind of trash tier. It sort of represents an all rounder in that you can dumbfire and semi lock stuff with high damage per mag but for practical purposes the Annihilator is still a better "Team" AV weapon.

    The Lancer gets a 11 out of 10 for team scaling as the projectile speed makes insta-death scenarios of Air and Ground possible and you can do it from so far away that you have very little to worry about when it comes to retaliation.

    The Phoenix is "okay" at best. You can still do the instagib thing with little to no actual warning and you can do it from cover without requiring direct LoS. But being limited to 300 M and the difficulty of coordinating strikes against targets you can't see until you actually see them is much more tricky. I'd give it maybe a 4 out of 10 in groups and that may be generous.
    • Up x 3
  6. Mythologicus

    I wish I had a HA launcher. Stand by a Sundie outside a base and start fountaining faction-coloured jellybeans over the walls to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting normal people below.


    I wouldn't say the Lancer's AA capabilities are limited - quite the opposite, actually. I believe it has more freedom than an actual G2A lock-on, and also substantially more range if you can aim it. An ESF has no way of knowing if they're about to get hit by a plasma bolt or not, and depending on their current health levels can quite quickly get knocked out of the sky by follow-up low-power shots. If a G2A sets an ESF on fire, you have to pray they either burn to death or crash to get the kill. With the Lancer you can simply plink with one more low-power shot. A full-charge shot also does the same amount of damage to aircraft as a lock-on.

    It's also the be-all and end-all of mid-range anti-MAX tools (providing your shots don't fly between their legs, god damn).
  7. Jawarisin

    Strikers are surprisingly effective against liberators.
  8. The Rogue Wolf

    The Phoenix's one saving grace is that it will one-shot Engineer turrets.
  9. Konstantinn

    Phoenix is pretty decent in situations where you can guide rockets from safety. Like defending your base, shooting at deployed enemy sunderer and armor safely from near your spawn. Single phoenix can be easily outrepaired, but 2-3+ people doing it at same time is devastating to any enemy armor standoff.

    Striker, was and is garbage. Agreed there.
    • Up x 1
  10. wrenched

    so another popular class weapon that has faction traits that heavy favour one dominant faction over the others...

    sweet..
  11. Pikachu

  12. CursoryRaptor

    That's one of the things about forumside that bothers me.

    Every now and then I'll come across a thread that proposes something simple but interesting. Everybody contributes to the conversation, and eventually we find that almost all of us are in agreement...

    ...then nothing. Nothing happens. No message from Radar or mods saying something along the lines of "Hey, it's been a few days, and so since nobody has said anything disagreeing with the compromise you've all reached, we're going to pass your proposal on to development and see what they think and we'll get back to you once we hear back from them."

    Hell, we don't even get an achievement message.
    [IMG]
    • Up x 1
  13. Ronin Oni

    As a pilot, I must say I'm quite relieved more people don't use Strikers.

    As an occasional TR player (original main) and Striker owner and user, I'm sad, because solo they're about as good as a solo Lancer (that is, decent at making target get to cover, but almost impossible to kill).

    Packs of Phoenixs are also terrifying. You can set up a 250 no armor zone around you and not even give them a chance to shoot you. Also insanely rare to see.

    Everyone knows packs of Lancers are deadly. Takes more of them to instagib, but they have a lot more range too. A full platoon abusing them is disgusting. Still rare, but unlike the other 2 ESRL's, everyone has seen them abused at least once.
  14. DxAdder

    Lancer = Best AV RL in the game ( I could care less about how much damage it does to infantry)
    Phoenix = Dangerous in groups and a spawn room warriors best friend.
    Striker a.k.a the "Stinker" = Nerfed so badly that is only purpose is to annoy ESF's at point blank range (although a Deci can almost do the same job and do way more damage), useless vs Armor.
    • Up x 1
  15. CapEnTrade



    Ha, hahaha...

    Remember when they made the striker come out of the PTS after being there a while and HEAVILY detested by EVERYONE with ONLY 100 damage, bad bloom, fire rate, and even worse lock on? It's still not good enough either, could EASILY use a bit more velocity, lock on range, and damage.

    Shows you how ******* detached the balance team is from reality.

    I mean COME ******* ON! Not only were its statistics CLEARLY B.A.D. BAD, but there was a LOT of backlash from anyone who saw or used it across all fractions WHILE it was on the PTS saying it was total crap! sorry for the language, but some things must be emphasized.