Lancer is supposed to be a long range RL, but CAI killed its effectiveness at long range. Currently lancer deal 700@150m - 350@300m and have a hardcap range at 450m. Do you think lancer need a buff ? If yes, what will you buff ?
If you played other factions you'd have nightmares about lancer nests on mountains. No, i don't want that happening again, and i think none playing NC and TR does.
Can NC actually get a long-range something if the Lancer returns to the Laser at massive range.. Or some manner of protection? As VS has the massive prowler & vanguard to hit with the Lancer. (Easy targets) NC & TR have the small Magrider to hit. Hell, TR is also screwed hard with if the Lancer returns fully.
Actually, the magrider is the largest tank, it's only advantage are strafing and hovering (I can't count the number of shell that passed between an enemy maggy and the ground). I don't ask for the complete Lancer return, just a buff to its effective range. IMO all lancer need is more punch at long range without making it insane at extreme range. 700@250m - 350@350m will be enough. For the maximum range, I just hope it was extended a bit so I can shot at immobile galaxy on the sky.
You ever see a Magrider compared to the Prowler's front end? Prowler has the widest front. Vanguard's side is longer than the Magrider. And only the Magrider has curved edges. So.. No, the magrider isn't the largest. The magrider's curved hull, and ability to move in any direction at will without any signal is quite a boon. If the tank didn't have a shell velocity problem, it would be excessively potent at long range. A buff to the Lancer's effective range. When no other AV past the Anti-max Archer can even touch the present range. No one else could match the AV power of the Lancer... at the range you want. Yeah, and consider the tactical advantage of that shot. TR's AA might hit that: But your AV can hit an galaxy in the sky past all other AA outside of TR maybe.. but with focused power. What can match the tactical power of a universal long-range weapon like that?
so much wrongness in a single post. The Magrider is the biggest tank in width, height and length. Prowler and Vanguard are about equal in width, prowler has less height and length The Masamune has the same 450m range as the Lancer, a very similar rate of fire (6,5 seconds for the lancer to the Masamunes 4 to 8 seconds scaling range) with the Masamune dealing 740 damage against vehicles at all ranges and the ability to dumpfire at close range. so not only does every faction have a similar weapon, every faction has a better weapon. At 300m it will deal 2.5x the damage per shot at the same rate of fire... And the flight ceiling over all bases except maybe the ascent is more than 450m above the ground which means only TR with the 800m Striker can hurt it while every other faction has to pull Air.
You forgot a small detail, the masamune is a meme weapon none uses that doesn't deall all the damage in burst and is not as easy to aim as the lancer.
No thats the Lancer. i've used the masmune exclusively the past 2 weeks and it's an excellent weapon that is: 1) absolutely devestating against MAXes,at range you can ADS them and deal the damage of default dumbfire, at close range you can dumbfire and due to the spread there is the risk of not dealing full damage,but also the chance to deal damage when your aim was off 2) Incredibly easy to use against vehicles, the only ones that are hard to hit are flashes and harrassers and it's just hilarious to send a burst after a fleeing tank and just deal 30% damage at a range no other launcher but the Lancer could have touched, but 2 to 3 seconds sooner as you don't have to charge first. even hitting vehicles behind cover is possible, tho pretty much impossible to have all 4 rockets hit. 3) Against Air it's more than servicable, basically extending the range where you can "dumbfire" esf by about 50 to 100 meter. It's only weak spot is between 20 to 70 meters against infantry where you are too far away to dumbfire but too close to expose yourself for the 0.75 seconds it takes to fire the rockets in ADS. There is literally nothing about the Masamune that makes it hard to use. It's an incredibly simple and accurate G2G Launcher that only has to concede to the G2A Lockon launchers in the field of Long Range AA but outperforms everywhere else.
The day i'll see masamune nests i will stop calling it a meme weapon. Also its dumb fire is not as servicable as you say on air, it may work on stationary people farming infantry, or low hanging libs but even default rocket launchers work on those. The lancer is just piss easy to use, it's like shooting high powered bullets which are hard to miss. You don't really care about the low damage per shot if you can call some dudes in your squad and instagib a chosen target from afar with no chance to miss or telegraph your attack like other rocket launchers.
noone will ever use it cause everyone calls it a meme weapon and what you are claiming is literally impossible cause the amount of Lancers needed to instagib is about 20 which requires half a platoon,not just "some dudes in your squad" The effective range for the Lancer is exactly 150m,anything beyond that and you are suffering greatly. for comparision: hitting 2 of the 4 rockets of a masamune burst at 300m deals 320 damage to a vehicle, after about 3 seconds flight time, followed by a 4 second reload. the Lancer does 300 every 6.5 seconds. So even if you are not using the masamune to it's fullest potential you are still outperforming the Lancer, with no chance to miss (cause if your target moves you just track them) and with no telegraph (cause there is no lockon warning) But it is very clear from your comments about both the Lancer and the Masamune that you have never used either of the 2,so maybe you should give them a try before trying to discuss them.
Then here's an idea. Get a picture showing the size differences. That's the best showing of your claim, and puts an end to it. And think about why VS is keen on getting their Lancer back, why a thread was made about the Archer not the Masamune having the range of it, and why VS's Lancer nests are replaced by Masamunes or Archers. Glorious. What's NC's range advantage if the Lancer returns? Seriously.
The Lancer nerf was right, but compensation was wrong: With CAI up, the Lancer lost range and damage on range for sure, but it was way to strong in the first place. ALL RLs should be hardcapped at 450m. However, the devs missed out a critical point for the Lancer. While damage went down, like all RLs, the ROF was not buffed, unlike other RLs. Instead, the lancer was giving 3 extra rounds, or, a 3rd charge up. However, the DPS of the lancer is hardcapped by the chargetime (unchanged). Basically, the lancer was nerfed in: Damage profile, absolute range, and DPS Return back to a 6 round magazine, but improve charge speed to get it on par again, since there is no reason, why it should be lacking dps on top of the other nerfs. PS: Reload speed is app. the same as a charge, maybe remove reloading to have more consistant dps?
Even the old Lancer wasn't powerful by itself - but - get a few together and they were devastating. With the previous extreme range, this would lead to people feeling they didn't stand a chance (therefore not fair) - the same is true of any render range weapons. Gatekeeper mk1 anyone ? BUT as it stands today, the Lancer is poor. NC have the laugh-a-minute Phoenix (my personal favorite of all) and TR have the pleasantly effective Striker, there's just no reason for any VS to pull the Lancer.
There are faction traits and there are emergent traits - one of which, for the VS, seems to be they are good at long range. The Lancer is good at range. The Magrider is **** when it goes toe to toe but is good if it's a long way away. The problem is being far away is pointless. You cannot take a base if you are 500KM away from it. It's like the NC defending the Scatmax back in the day. "Yes it is absolutely devastating at close range but it cannot hurt long range targets!". Well cap points are pretty much all in buildings so what does it matter if you cannot kill troops who are at long range.
biggest in width and length Prowler is highest and second widest apparently, and Mag and Vannie are very similar. and as i already said, if VS ever gets a long range AV weapon back, NC and TR still have access to the masamune and their own ES Launcher on top of that.
as an NC main i say yep, reducing lancers range completely destroyed the reason to use lancer. if it was performing to well at those ranges then do something else! increase charge time, lower damage or something, but reducing the range completely destroyed the weapon. but hey, recently DBG are all about making terrible changes and refusing to revert them, no matter how much money they lose.
About lancer Damage per minute, don't forget it was improved a bit by the increased magazine size. That said, it still have the lowest DPS of all the RL. 2100 damage every 14,5sec (3 x 3sec for full charge, 3 x 0,5sec for refire time [120ROF] and 4 sec reload) Lancer deal 145 damage per minute Decimator deal 162 damage per minute (5,7 sec reload 0,3 sec refire time) Default RL deal 194 damage per minute (3,73 sec reload 0,3 sec refire time) If Lancer keep its damage degradation then it will need a DPS buff (+10% to +15% will be enough IMO), but keep its DPS low and have an extended effective range because 150m is ridiculous for a long range RL.
I'd like to see the Lancer get back some of its lost velocity. IMO 600m/s would be a good compromise between the current 400m/s and the old 800m/s (for a full charge shot). They could then reduce the projectile lifetime by a proportionate amount so it doesn't gain back any of its old range.
I just feel very sad to see the Lancer get nerfed this way, been on a long break from the game and return to find it almost useless. I still use it as a middle finger to ESFs but while it was a challenge and skill to hit them before now its just either because they are waaaaaaay too close where even normal launchers would be a danger or pure luck. I even tried the Archer rifle, not sure why Lancer needed a nerf when this is available for all factions, its almost as good as the Lancer was at long range and it doesnt even have the charge up mechanic... comes packaged with a engineer so it has unlimited ammo, deals decent damage against infantry and can be paired up with either a AI or AV turret. That seems way more OP than the Lancer ever was. Since I have been away for a long time im a bit out of touch with the game but I still havent seen any Lancer nests and the last one I saw or even heard of ACTUALLY happening was when the Lancer was new and outfits actually did it, something which feels like it was 25 years ago. Outside of that and long long loooong after it was very rare to even see another player use it, it was rare enough that both I and others who used it would start to talk with each other and group up like: "Wow! another Lancer user! great!". Im not even exaggerating when I say it could be days or even a week between ever seeing another Lancer, because at that time it was "common knowledge" that the Lancer was BAD unless you were part of a outfit that used it, so people didnt get it. So now im both sad that the Lancer is nerfed but also because apparently I missed the recent period when Lancer nests were a thing and lots of people were using it... or are people being silly when they talk about Lancer nests like they are when they keep bringing up the pre-nerf ZOE and are still referencing things that happened years ago? +1000 to bring back Lancer velocity, its what the whole weapon is based on.
