[Suggestion] Allowing the Annihilator to be dumb fired.

The Annihilator is the weakest of the available AV (anti-vehicle) weapons in the game in terms of damage. The Annihilator also has the longest lock-on time of any other lock-on weapon in the game.
These two disadvantages alone make up for it's ability to fire at both air and ground vehicles and the inability to dumb-fire is both annoying and clumsy. Right now in PS2 the game is dominated by vehicles and this weapon has the potential to give the infantryman a fighting chance yet a lot of people are put off to purchasing it due to its various disadvantages.
Not being able to dumb-fire means you can't engage enemy MAX suits, you can't engage turrets, and you can't engage a close enemy vehicle. Why? This weapon doesn't do nearly enough damage to kill something before it gets close to you. It's power only comes from being used in groups. Why does it not allow dumb-fire?
My suggestion? Keep the weak damage and long lock-on time and give it the ability to be dumb-fired.

Many time I've used the Annihilator at close range, only to have the enemy back up 3 feet and have my lock-on broke, it would be better if i could have just dumb fired at that range.

Clearly you can see that the Annihalator is unbalanced.
The disadvantages do NOT make up for it's capabilities.

One of my most recent deaths was when I was using the Annihilator as a trial weapon. I ran with it for almost 2.5 hours at crown, engaging both air and vehicle targets at range, but getting very few kills. It seemed to be much more accurate than my skep or grounder, and have a longer range.

The thing I remember most though, is turning around and running back for more ammo, and seeing a vanu moving behind me-I was literally unarmed due to the fact I was holding the annihilator. It just never dawned on me that you should never be moving with this thing out, always switch to a weapon you can fire if your not trying to get a lock on with it, or else you are completely defenseless. Like a lamb to the slaughter. A bag of free XP. Whoops.

Thats too big a penalty.

Needs dumbfire. The poor damage-few kills more than makes up for the dual lock on ability.
The lack of dumbfire means I won't be buying it. Too many minuses, not enough pluses.

They just don't want people ambushing Maxes and infantry with it with it's fast projectile speed. With the other ones it's easy enough to dodge the rocket. Still, it's a crappy reason to keep it lock-on only since there's too much vehicle zerg ridiculousness going on right now as it is.

I've hit ESF with 2+ annihilator rockets and not killed it whilst 1 default hit will destroy it. Allow me to make you a graph with made up numbers?

I hate your lib farming cowardess, or rather, just getting my **** blown up by you, but I entirely agree with you. The weapon has too many downsides.

100% agree.

The weapon currently has way too many negative side effects to balance it out. It only does 76% of the damage of a AA/AV launcher. With how long the lock on time is as well as how low the damage is it's more than enough time for any vehicle to pop a counter measure and simply leave the area. Even if they don't the same factors mean it'll take forever for a single Annhilator to kill anything.

Giving back dumbfire would be a huge quality of life improvement and would not really detract from the other options' considerably higher damage.

They underestimated what a large downside no-dumb fire is. It should do the same damage as the other lock-on rockets.

Nemesis: Air and dumb fire.
Hades: Ground and dumb fire.
Annihilator: Air and Ground.

I'd consider using it if it did the same damage as the other two. Less damage? Not a side grade anymore.

And the worst part about it is you cant shoot dumb-*** friendly magmowers who strafe over you =p

Good point. This is important.

It takes roughly 6 shots to kill a tank with the Annihilator. A guild mate and I tested this on a Tank that was abandoned by a TR player. He fired three of his missiles and I fired three of mine. Granted, we don't know what Loadout the player had, but it took us 6 shots to destroy the Prowler.

You may have able to take out a Lightening with three, but that's going to depend on the Lightening Loadout. I'm not sure how many it takes to shoot down a ESF, Lib or Gal, but I would imagine that you probably can't take one down with three rockets unless the ESF or Tank is receiving supporting damage.

Its kind of ironic because I was confronted by the OP last night on Mattherson and when I saw BuzzCut on the hill I had my Annihilator on my shoulder. If the Annihilator had dumb fire I may have been able to take him out, but BuzzCut is no slouch so he may have found some way to have survived it.

I really don't think it needs dumbfire honestly. The ability to lockon to any vehicle is already incredibly powerful, and probably more than makes up for the loss of damage.

I would rather see it doing more damage. It should be as powerful as the other two lock on launchers. Then I wouldn't mind the lack of dumbfire. I bought it for long to mid range use anyway. At medium to short range, the decimator is my weapon of choice. Unless it's close quarter combat, then I'll just pick the free launcher for the extra rocket.

Absolutely not, if it could dumb fire it would just be a general all around upgrade that 90% of people would use. The lower damage would NOT deter people from using it all the time for the versatility it provides.

Buff the damage/reduce the lockon times, don't make it the ultimate RL.

If it absolutely has to get a dumbfire, at least make it a fire select option so it has some real downside.

Unsure how buffing the damage and reducing the lock-on time would not be OP as opposed to allowing it to dumb fire. What if you had to cert into it to make it dumb fire?

Buffing the damage would not make it OP since it would be as powerful as the other two lock on launchers. What you give up compared to them is the ability to dumb fire and I think it has a slightly longer lock on time. That would make it good on long range as a deterrent, right now it does slightly too little damage to actually deter anyone. It is also completely useless at short range so when a tank comes to mow you down, all you can do is run and hope you get away.

Your nice little chart fails to acknowledge values such as the velocity - The Annihilator will actually hit enemy aircraft quite often unlike it's dumbfire cousin. Try equipping 4-5 guys with these and have them launch these at aircraft and see how incredibly frightening they are - or even tanks. Now they have to think about buying flares too.

Yes it would.

2-3 guys with with an AA launcher is good enough.
Even better, 1-2 burster maxes can scare away 5-10 ESF easy mode.
The annihilator's damage is nothing to be afraid of, it's quite pathetic actually.

The thing is, "it's dumbfire cousin" can easily on-shot infantry, and everyone knows you get more XP from infantry then aircraft.