I find not a lot of pilots don't use them, Even though they provide some defense to Counter lock on launcher's Is it the long cool down period between uses that deters pilots from using them? What would be the best way to go about balancing them so people can't bait rockets but can still have a counter to lock on launchers???? currently Cert level 1 flares can be used every 40 seconds while fully certed flares can be used every 25 seconds. Should the cool down timer be reduced to make Flares more appealing?
Here's the actual problem: 1- It gives no real benefit over fire suppression 2- It's not as versatile and here's the important part too: 3- It's good against ground locks - better than fire suppression - but useless against tomcats. 4- it's also useless against coyotes Fire suppression is useful all the time, flares only sometimes, and even then, if it's against tomcats, they still are mostly useless.
Well against tomcats, yeah especially if that player just so happens to have the Lock on timer reduction. Next patch flying a lib is gonna be difficult since A2AM's will be more suited to dealing with Gals and libs, and not as suited against ESF's. Now if only there was a counter to Coyotes.
ESFs should be able to keep tomcat users away. Coyotes will be the problem for esfs. Tomcats aren't really a problem at all, the problem for libs will be the high capacity no damage bullet drop-off noseguns.
Despite never using them, flares are fine. At max rank, they're actually quite useful for ground pounding, so long as you're receiving a lot of lock ons and are not getting focus fired by flak. Yeah, they're niche, and I'd never recommend them as a part of any default load out, but if you do happen to know the composition of your enemy, it can be better than fire suppression.
It is kinda stupid how they don't work on all lock weaponry when the idea should be the same. Coyotes are probably the only weapon that should only be mitigated by it instead of full countered, since coyotes are a niche weapon that are supposed to be effective to air it's a weird toss up between counter verses counter, like how aegis can block a C4 or tankmine when it's supposed to kill maxes.
Part of the problem is that while they are better than fire suppression vs say the Annihilator, without the ability to heal you become much less resilient. Stealth offers similar protection to tomcats, has other benefits, and gives you more time to evade ground locks. So while flares are better if your only threat is lockons, that's not often the case. It is competitive and worth using, especially at the first rank compared to fire suppression, but beyond that the versatility is limiting. Stealth is almost always enough lockon protection. The other thing is that fire suppression is always valuable. Even if the first use doesn't fully repair you, the second may, while it's not guaranteed that you'll be locked a second time. Flare main use is protecting you from being ganked by multiple locks at once, but you can't take the same risks you can with fire suppression and survive.
The only good flares have over fire supressionn is you won't die if 4+ lockons (excluding Swarm) come at you at once. Other than that, Fire Suppression is better in all situations. I suspect the 25% heal will be nerfed to 12.5% like every other vehicle, at some point in the future.
