Balance Pass Post 1: Vehicle Weapons and the Harasser

Josh, please explain how this is not an indirect nerf to the Magrider. As people have discussed, the Magrider must engage other MBT's at distance or it is toast. While this change will reduce all MBT's DPS at distance, it's only the Magrider that needs to engage this way.

This change also does not bode well for the Saron. Experienced VS players have already abandoned it in favor of the Halberd as it's not a good weapon for distance shots due to the COF. Reducing the already small damage it does at range will only make the decision to use the Halberd even more obvious.

OMG another NERF Vehicles vs ( non rendering ) Infantery OMFG ...

"More noticeable damage falloff is being added to vehicle secondary weapons, similar to infantry but with the range extended much further out."

Kobalt nerf???

I thought that were for the AV secondaries! So in fact they are nerfing the ranged capability of the already underpowered AI secondaries in favor of some minor close range buff. D**n it these weapons should get straight buffs! Buff kobalt damage, buff ROF.

sounded to me like it was only going to apply to AV but can't tell for sure. Halberd was pretty clearly outperforming just about everything so it kind of needs it.

If they somehow make the Vulcan on the Prowler worse than it already is with this change expect to see even more Halberd Prowlers.

The Halberd isn't OP, and certainly doesn't need any kind of nerf, it's just a very well rounded weapon and thus people liked it over the ES AV secondaries that were not as well rounded.

Says Sir Joshua.

Maybe not all of us know...

1. As I said however, that would effectively make it a single-use vehicle unless near a bio lab with friendly shields up as everyone within 500m radius wants to kill the harasser.
2. Infantry weapons do next to nothing already.
3. This would have to be an extreme buff for it to be of any use, and would be an effective nerf to MBTs.

You've obviously never had to fight halberd harassers. Taking the time to lead a shot or acquire a lock on results in a halberd to the face. It's an AV weapon that also wrecks infantry.

I don't know about you, but I've only ever flipped a handful of sunnderers. Harassers however, are closer to the endless amount of flashes that flip instantly. They are far from stable in any case.

Lock-ons, ESFs of a questionable degree of power. (Sounds familiar. )

Harassers certainly have very good survivability, but largely because of the third seat. It is not self-repairing either. (Unless equipped with the Nanite Auto Repair System --chosen over composite armour, a fair necessity of the harasser-- of course.) As I stated, it requires the harasser to become temporarily immobile, or temporarily defenseless.

Let's not forget either that harassers take almost no splash damage from Liberators and rocket pod weapons because their hitbox is physically smaller than the vehicle itself.

Please consider expanding the harasser hitbox just a little bit so that the wheels and other extremities actually count and register damage... it's very frustrating to be a seasoned liberator gunner and have a harasser take 9-10 Dalton splash hits and survive.

"General Vehicle Weapons Balance Pass
In addition to everything listed above, we’re taking a pass at all vehicle weapons in order to even out the performance and the various tradeoffs between the different faction weapons."

sounds like C85 Modified might actually become useful!

also from that list i saw Prox radar is going to defensive slot, would that include scout radar for flash?
because that would be AMAZING for those of us with maxed out fury, wraith and scout radar XD
invisible hunters

Give me high ground and 2 clips of Striker ammo (8 rockets will do it) and that Harasser is dead meat.

Heck, they're one of the main reasons my TR toon on Mattherson has over 300 kills with the Striker.

Its for infantry. Skyguard is pointing up in the air, you don't have time to look around and you dont have a secondary gunner. Your defense to sneaky infantry is prox radar.

Sunderers seems to have their center of gravity below the vehicle somewhere in the ground. They are so freaking stable, which is great. Flashes flip all the time but harassers much less so. Still baffled that they removed the ability for the flash to turn itself back up again.

Any chance that this balance pass includes looking at the relative effectiveness of the empire specific anti armor harasser weapons or will the nerf be the same across the board?

So, infantry is to be the counter to Harassers?
Infantry with C4 at that?

Strongly disagree. The natural counter to Harassers and other ground vehicles should be the things that are designed to directly combat and destroy ground vehicles.

In short - tanks.

Harassers could use their mobility to avoid tanks, or use their mobility to try to sneak up on them (they should retain their firepower- Humvees can carry TOW missiles), but in an open field battle they should be just as useful as an HE lightning going against an AP Prowler.

well, they are reducing the overall effectiveness of composite armor in addition to removing the reduced c4 damage that no one has any idea why it is part of their composite armor to begin with so it should take less than the 5 tank shells it takes to kill composite 4 harassers, atm. Hopefully the nerf to composite armor will be substantial but I doubt they want to nerf the new OP smedbucks toy too much to begin with.

Some post's here makes me puke. Good harraser crews will dominate and you need to play good to counter them. The same with any decent esf,or mbt out there. Why people is using them ? Becouse of fast and fun gameplay. They perform well because mobility is king in ps2. Should soe nerf em because they punish mediocre players? probably yes. But I expect them to do the same with esf overpower ability vs ground, mana turrets, zoe maxes etc etc. Whatever they decide I hope they will make the game better..

Yes, let the balancing begin!

Somebody probably blew up hibgy during the testing phase.