Can AA rocket launchers get a buff?

My first two unlocks were the skyguard and the HA G2A rocket. Which I bought nearly instantly.

The skyguard flat out sucks and was a complete waste, I don't even use it anymore.

The HA G2A rockets on the other hand were useful, that was until pilots learned 2 things. Firstly flak based attacks suck so there is no real reason to run armor. And secondly flares are useful since the only real threat to ESF's right now are guided missiles. Then after abit more pilots learned you can literally just fly in tight circles and you CANNOT be hit by a guided missile since they are too dumb to follow you or something and eventually just lose target, combine this with flares and ESF's can go practically immune to G2A rockets, Libs can fly out of range of G2A rockets, and Galaxies have enough half you literally need an army of G2A rockets to even consider downing it in time and if they have stealth they will probably be able to get in range and drop there troops before they can be taken down.

G2A currently only affects bad pilots, or pilots who commit themselves to killing something even if they know they will die in the process. Right now an ESF NEVER has to die so long as they are semi decent fliers unless OTHER ESF's show up then there is real risks involved. I really dislike that ESF's take this whole rock paper scissors and turn into nukes that demolish the nice little game and can only be realistically killed by other nukes.

Fair enough.

How about this:

G2A rocket launchers involve two parts:
1) You get a hit-scan "marker" you have to fire at the plane. If you hit it, it provides the tracking signal for your rocket.
2) The rocket launcher.

Now it suddenly involves as much skill as an ESF pilot needs to rocket-spam the **** out of ground troops.

Or exchange the G2A rocket launcher for a railgun that punches holes the size of an infant's head into an airplane's fuselage. Two to three hits and the plane goes down.

In any case, this game needs SOME means of effective air counter for ground troops. The current state is ridiculous.

I think the solution lies with fixing Flak.

Or..how about a light assault cert that gives access to a tracking module. Light assault "lights up" the target, making it easier to hit for heavies and bursters.

They may just need to introduce a second fighter type that is nearly pure air superiority and much less effective at ground support, and make the strike fighters more like helicopters: heavier armor, slower, and very very susceptible to other airborne attacks.

Both of your ideas are much better than what we have currently. AA should be powerful but also require skill to use. Good stuff

Didn't read but the AA launcher has the lowest DMG but you can still use it against vehicles and troops if not locked-on. It has ZERO drop also, so you can pretty much snipe. If the buffed the damage, then there would be no advantage to using the Dumb Fire (default) launcher, which has the highest DMG. The AV Launcher is second. People would just use the AA Launcher for every situation. That is not balance.

The HA launcher fails terribly at its intended role and I get more ground kills and infantry kills using it than air. I don't even bother launching at air unless I have nothing better to do since I'd rather save the rockets for ground targets. I'd say it misses 80% of the time on ESF since they either flare, or the missile just misses whenever the plane makes any significant change in direction (biggest facepalm moment was when it missed a scythe that was hovering stationary and all it had to do was hit vertical thrust and the missile flew right past)

Only reason I don't use the g2g missile is because the velocity sucks and it has significant drop when dumbfired so the AA launcher is better for rocket sniping infantry and MAX.

The skill arguement is a tried one. People dont like lock ons because they get killed by them. Crying about skill is a waste of thread space as its not like farming with pods takes all that much skill. It was MUCH MUCH easier for me to land shots in ps1 with vs rail gun which most would say takes skill as opposed to using the Ha g2a missles.

Was it harder to hit? Yes

Did it hit when you aimed and fired it properly (which took about half the time allowing you to fire 2-3 shots in the time a lock on fires one) Yeah , it hit every time you moved your cursor over your target and pushed your mouse button.

Wasnt any harder to move my mouse cursor over a plane with that weapon than it is with this weapon. Main difference is I have to keep my cursor over your for 2-3 seconds before I can even fire a shot with this thing.

ps1 had 5x as many things that locked on to you, please stop crying about the few that do in this game when you can now cert countermeasures like smoke or flares. I know its better on your ego to pretend that everything that shoots you down is just a skilless instafire instagib weapon but reality should eventually set in to some of you guys.

I could see a case for a projectile speed increase, but that's all.

HA is still infantry, what we need is for other forms of AA (Skyguard & AA turrets) to be as good as their AV counterparts.

Better yet, how about combining your forces and not being a full ground group?

Nice try though, slick.

Ever notice what happens when a bunch of HA all start locking on aircraft at once...

NO MORE AIRCRAFT!!!!

Ever notice how little xp you get with an G2A launcher when there's no aircraft?

sense...am I making it?

AA, both flak and AA rockets are broken. Neither work very well. I dont know why they dont want us to be able to kill aircraft. you set up 10 duel bursters and you still cant take down one of those aircraft in the 40 aircraft zerg. Its broken and there is currently no way to kill any aircraft when they are all zerged together. In planetside 1 i would be damned if you would zerg 40 aircraft and we couldnt kill even one.. but planetside 2 you wont even get one kill, 40 aircraft pwns the server. FIX AA so it works. range on flak is down to about 150 meters < your not hitting anything at range> and even if you happen to hit they with all 56 shots in your burster max they still have 75% health and just fly off and all your friends try and help missing 95% of burster shots at range....FIX AA .. Air is to OP right now when grouped.

I love the Hawk for NC...I kill ESF's all the time, not only is it a fantastic deterrent for making air back off, but it does a fair amount if damage to ground vehicles . Trick is to wait for them to pop their flairs, then reacquire lock and send that rocket screaming to them for an easy kill if they are damaged or at worst you've just forced them to retreat for a few minutes while they land and repair.

What you really should be complaining about is the infrared and thermal scopes on air craft, wait till more people have those unlocked, then there is no more hiding in the terrain. I think the infantry based AA is fine for now, but I do have serious concerns about the infrared scopes, which should be removed from aircraft.

I agree that Lock on missile's do need some fine tuning along with other AA defenses.

AA rockets sucks thats for sure but some tips that I found useful
-Use them as area of denial weapons. Shoot them and pilots run away scared. Your pilots should do their job too.
-Lock on targets that have lower health. Don't bother locking on to Gals
-Lock on when they are coming down at an angle for bombing run. They are usually flying in straight line so it is easier to lock on. Now when you shoot, a pilot will either have to runaway or keep shooting but get hit. Either way HA wins

Some suggestion to make AA rockets useful (non of them have to be inclusive):
-Reduce the reload speed.
-Libs should not be able to evade rockets easily
-Reduce the lock on time
-Increase the damage

You know that you can shake missiles from other ESF but infantry rockets follow you flies of stink right? It's the least skillful weapon in the game. I find it honestly ******** when the thing follows me like a fat kid running for cake and the only thing that will stop it is boost away and try to duck behind a mountain, pop flairs, or just let the thing hit you.

At least with the ESF rockets you can out maneuver them.