I will admit i have not played as much as i thought i would since beta so i do not have as much experience playing Planetside 2, and it has been a very long time since Planetside 1 which had in some cases different mechanics in regards to launchers so with that being said the reason i am here. I am trying to get more kills using launchers thus get more cert points under directives and so on, but aside from the Shrike, Crow and Phoenix, i have the most problems with the hawk getting kills, anyone have some good tips for using this? With the reload speed and of course the number of shots required for even a mosquito or scythe its hard to get the kill.
Try to aim at ESF's that are already damaged. Though honestly, even though I usually run with a Hawk on my HA char I only killed a few ESF's with it. However, you are aware of the fact that you can also dumbfire it like the Shrike, right?
Considering the way missiles behave right now, it is (as you've no doubt already noticed) very easy to have your shot hit a wall less than ten meters away from you on a regular basis. I'm not sure what advice to give on this issue besides 'practice' - short of getting a feel for when to continue locking on and take the shot and when to abandon the target in favour of a different one, there is not much that can help you with that. If there are a bunch of enemy air above you and you don't see any smoking targets among them, it is usually better to aim at Liberators first. They are more dangerous, fly slower than ESF and give more exp on both assists and kills. But either way, unless you happen to land that last hit on an already banged up aircraft (or manage to land a hit with either Phoenix, Shrike or Decimator), you are not going to do much against them by your lonesome. Being in a voicechat-coordinated squad and using these launchers in concert with other players would usually net a much better result - in both aircraft chased away / killed and personal xp and kill score gain - than anything you could do just by yourself.
If you want to get kills for directive purposes, just use the hawk like a standard launcher on infantry (remember it can be dumbfired). G2A lock-ons are designed to be deterrents, so you won't get many kills on full-health ESFs without help. As for tips on how to use the Hawk against ESFs, there's not too much skill to it (low skill floor, low skill cap), but you do want to try to find a good vantage point, where you can get a lock and the missile won't immediately crash into the hillside. Prioritize smoking targets. Enhanced targeting might be good to make sure it's in the one-missile kill range. Sometimes you can be a bit of a jerk and hold your fire until someone else puts your target in the killzone for you, but if you overdo it they might just kill the target before you can land a shot. Above all, keep in mind you're not "supposed" to get a lot of kills. If you scare away the ESFs, you've done your job, and any kills are a satisfying bonus.
One of the first guns i bought was the air lock on because i was tired of being rocket podded, so i am going to give you a tip, if you are near trees buildings or terrain that can block that can make the missile crash and you have the rocket launcher locked wait until the plane makes a movement up or the other towards the other direction the building is, the rocked will be shot in the direction the plane would be supposed to be and do not hit the nearby building or mountain. It paid itself for me, and if you just get the esf to leave it is something and it can be dumb fired so i usually use this one excerpt for interiors.
The things I watch out for (on all G2A launchers) are: 1) don't shoot at aircraft that are descending - waste of a rocket as it ploughs into the ground in front of you 2) ditto for aircraft about to put a building or hill between you and them - remember the rocket anticipates where the target will be by the time it arrives it right from when it leaves the barrel - I've had rockets fly off behind me when shooting at aircraft overflying my firing position from front to back 3) Try to avoid standing inside a building when you fire even if you just pop out, shoot and then retreat back inside. Hitting the door jam can hurt you and allies as well as being another wasted shot and it will sometimes explode against the entrance shield if there is one 4) remember you don't have to fire as soon as you get lock - track target past likely obstacles if you can, then .... boom 5) persevere! I've launched countless air deterrence attacks - got the directives to prove it and by dint of much effort I also have accumulated a shed-load of pilot kills and multi kills 6) defending towers is often a good source of air targets to hit from the upper platform 7) smokers of any sort and ESFs for more kill probability and gunships for more XP and multi kill chances are my preference. 8) Valks can be surprisingly vulnerable, I guess because they are low level, infantry support flyers and more likely to take damage from others as well as you. But the other posts are right - you are more likely to get air deterrence marks, kill assists and vehicle kills than player kills. Dumbfiring against deployables also gets you directive points and is quite satisfying, as well as increased chance of player kills of the gunners on turrets. Gibbing infantry with a launcher is cheesy but no one said war has to be fair and lobbing rockets into defended buildings is better than hosing doorways with bullets in my view. Don't ignore tanks - I've killed a few engineers trying to repair them (by accident) although the tanks themselves don't die as easily as they used to. In other words, just use it a lot in all roles and the kills will mount up. It goes whoosh and then bang, what's not to like? I hope this isn't all simplistic guff that you already know anyway.
