G2A Lockons are a Joke

I was looking at my weapon stats recently, and I saw some numbers which confirm what I already felt was true: G2A rocket launchers have almost no kill potential.
Take the NS Swarm, for example. The Swarm is one of the best options available for infantry-based AA. The curving guidance system of the rockets tends to make them less likely to run into terrain on their way to the target, in my experience.

According to the player site, I've launched 4704 rockets, with 3108 hits, and have gotten a grand total of 77 kills. Four thousand, seven-hundred and four rockets, for 77 kills. That's over 61 rockets per kill.
It has taken me 824 hours of play in order to achieve this.

And people wonder why no one wants to pull AA duty.

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ShadowInsignus, Fylkyr, Connery

I agree that G2A launchers are a joke, but here are some things to consider. Firstly, The swarm fires missiles in a salvo of three, so 60 rockets per kill is comparable to 20 shots per kill, so those numbers are a little inflated. The Swarm is also the weakest and least threatening G2A launcher. Excluding fire suppression, it takes 3 salvos to kill, instead of 2 from an Annihilator. Also, Swarm missiles are the only missiles which can reliably be dodged, just by reverse manoeuvring at a 90 degree angle till their timer runs out. Don't use the Swarm.

Now that that's out of the way, G2A lock-ons are still messed up. They don't kill A2G ESF, because A2G planes don't give you a long enough window to get a shot. Most A2G players don't even run flares because lock-ons are such a small threat. They're really only good against A2A ESF that aren't moving cover to cover to farm infantry, are too far from the ground to break the lock, and are probably already engaged with another ESF so they don't have the option of running. The whole mechanic is faulty and should be replaced with something more like the Striker.

That's true, but 20 magazines per kill is still insanely unrewarding.

Also, I was under the impression that a Swarm salvo did 1125 damage, versus Annihilator's 1000 damage?

And then you remember that resistance groups exist.

With the ease of lock-on use, and the fact that rockets are free, they'll always be pathetic and unrewarding. Let each rocket cost nanites, make them require skill, then making them lethal will be balanced.

They're a complete joke. I just learned that the Dalton is considered a tank cannon against Lib composite armor. And that's after a year of playing and a tricked out Lib on every faction. It's because I always went armor hunting and not Lib hunting, but still.

The Dalton is also Heresy.

Are you talking about player kill or vehicle kill? Because quite often I get ESF kills without pilot, cuz they probably bailed.

I don't see an "NS Swarm" category in there.

Not all weapons are given literal weapon name categories. That's typically only done when some aspect of the weapon can't be resolved with an existing category. The Combined Arms update will jumble the known list a bit; but, for now, you're looking for "Medium Anti-Armor Ordinance" because, as its tooltip lists, it includes lock-on rocket launchers.

Categories are also not perfectly defined. Swarm may very well be its own category that's not listed or fall into some other category because of reasons of insanity. You'll want to doublecheck the math to make certain it belongs to that category, usually by comparing actual shots to kill against calculated shots to kill. If it doesn't fit the expected category, we can still figure out what its resistances are for a target using the real TTK and someone watching the health meter.

Turning the percentages in the tables into decimals, the formula for modified damage per shot of a weapon against a target is:
DAM (base) x (1 - Damage Type) x (1 - Directional Armor Resistance) = DAM (mod) (rounded down)
Flying targets don't have directional resistance except the Valkyrie bottom.
You then find the calculated shots to kill with:
Health (target) / DAM (mod) = STK (rounded up)

For the Swarm, the wiki states each rocket does 375 damage and we will assume all three always hit. Against a stock ESF, the type modifier is -0.275 and there is no directional modifier.
375 x (1 + 0.275) x (1 - 0) = 478.125 ~ 478
3000 / 478 = 6.27 ~ 7
Three salvos or seven rockets.

The Swarm (like other G2A launchers) is a SUPPORT weapon, not a PAD KDR weapon: it lacks the punch to kill a ESF/Walkyrie or (God forbid) a LIberator or a Galaxy. I use the Swarm as well, I get a lots of assists and not so many kills.

If you want one shot one kill I am afraid you'll have to go personal with C-4, power knifes, shotguns, sidearms and other high-risk/high gain weapons.

However, I agree with your statement: Nobody who is KDR centric want to play support roles. Another reason why tactics in PS2 does not extend beyond the Zerg.

I use the ES G2A launchers now, after having some fun with the Annihilator but missing the dumb fire ability eventually.

They are good for chasing away healthy aircraft and downing damaged aircraft, even at some quite long range. Close range lock-on time is pretty good too. The rockets are free and overall I have no complaints about their effectiveness because of that.

When I feel like a change I revert to the "specials" - Striker, Phoenix and Lancer. Never been tempted by the Swarm tbh. Steering a Phoenix rocket into an esf (if you can do it) appears to be particularly damaging. It could be my imagination but aircraft seem to have less resistance to a Phoenix.

If you can lead a target to any reasonable degree you can also rely on hits with the Striker's coyote mechanic and it i just a great feeling to pump out those six packs of hurt and fright.

Phoenix has a special damage model (to disappear after the CAI rolling in), it damages more than the stats say.

G2A missile does thirty percent damage.

This is a team game. Bring friends.

I'm aware that not all weapons have their own resistance type. But I see no indication that the Swarm uses a different type than the typical lock-ons. Not saying you're wrong, but where is this indicated?

The Wiki also claims that the Annihilator requires 3 shots to kill an ESF.

it takes 3 shots to kill an ESF running fire suppression.
locking takes around 3 seconds which the ESF can easy break using LoS
the missile takes a while to reach the target, which the ESF can easily avoid by moving behind terrain (missiles go in mostly straight lines.)
yep, lock-ons are a joke and should NEVER be the cause of death for an ESF.

factoring in the 3 second lock ons and 5 second reloads it takes atleast 20 seconds of warnings and screwups for the ESF to allow you to kill him.

at any moment he could choose to simply fly away and repair.

Painting G2A efficacy with a single weapon's stats ignores the realities of AA-Air dynamics. As an ESF pilot, I face an ecosystem of threats in the form of multiple HA rocket launcher sources, G40 Ranger, G30 Walker, Base AA Turrets, Constructible AA Turrets, small arms, AP shells, and Pelters/Daltons. (This does not include enemy ESF patrols - which actually explains your low NS Swarm kill ratio as friendly ESFs will tend to pursue damaged enemy Air to claim kill credit).

I agree that the NS Swarm is weak and it should be buffed to mimic the resistances checks of Masasune (large damage bonus against Galaxies and a smaller damage bonus against Liberators).

Ultimately, if you want effective AA, use the not-so-long-ago buffed G40 Ranger gun on a ground vehicle.

A2G is ineffective, if you compare it 1vs1. In low scale, air will be much stronger. But scaling is a thing here:

Get 3 ppl with lock on launcher and coordinate allowing to scoring many one-hit-kills on ESF. That pilot is out for around 5-7 minutes. And the infantry can continue on their task. Hell, even small arms fire is fine, as long as 3-5 ppl focus fire, but no one does it, as well as no one camps with G2A lockon. With the CAI update this will change, lockontime and reload are super quick, but damge is lowered.
Hopefully this encourages more heavys to quick lock a ESF...

Sure the solo kill potential is underwhelming ... BUT
Keep in mind that this weapon is meant to trade it's dmg potential in for ease of use.

So let's take a look ...
The numbers you mention indicate that you have a 66% hit rate ... AND it's only 66% because the other times the pilot was able to evade.

What do i mean with this?

Well you basically have close to 100% success rate at forcing the pilot to react to your lockon and 66% of the time they take damage regardless.

Those stats alone outshine any other weapon in those regards ... meaning if you want actuall 1on1 kill power with it too then you have to trade in some of the other aspects at least to some degree.


Tldr.:
Yeah killing with lockons sucks, but they are pretty much the only weapon system that guarantees that your opponent has to spend a considerable time (compared to usual time spent in any single engagement in this game) reacting to you pressing the fire button successfully once.

Lockons simply can't be what you want them to be ... the lack of a more specialised and "effective" weaponsystem is a different issue tough. (and one that needs solving)