Hey there! I just wanted to hear everyone's opinions on the best defense slot choice for harassers...make sure to give your reasoning behind your choice!
Stealth is generally the best. Not being on the mini-map is a huge advantage. Composite Armour is good for places with few cover, like northern indar or Esamir ice-lakes Mineguard is useful for driving in bases. Nanite Auto Repair is only decent on AA rassers. Radar is for plebs.
If you are running a setup that requires that you get the jump on your enemy (i.e. Vulcan, Aphelion), stealth is the best option. Otherwise, composite armour would probably be your next best option.
Depends on what you intend to do. But if you're not sure you can't go wrong with stealth. Auto repair is bad but, like in ANY vehicle it makes the game a little less boring. The rest is just not worth over stealth but many may disagree saying composite is good. Mine guard would only be worth using if it denied 90%+ damage, otherwise you still have to look out for mines and they still kill you so, why bother?
You HAVE to run mineguard 24/7, and this is from a lot of experience with the vehicle. Once the enemy knows you're out and about all the ******* mines come out, they put that **** everywhere oftentimes inside rocks or bushes so you can't see em. Mine guard takes a lot off your mind when you're zipping around rocks and trees avoiding return fire, if you're with composite armor and taking bullets like a champ then you're not playing the harasser right. Max ranked mine guard requires 5 mines to insta-gib you, that's one engineer with maxed utility belt putting every mine he has in one spot. Not a lot of those running around and it allows you to fly through defensive zones with impunity. I found little use for stealth to be honest, the speed of the harasser ment I could change firing lanes really quickly and my presence was only known when I actually fired on them. Not because I was spotted on the minimap, people actually tunnel vision a lot in this game and you only have like 50meters around you with your minimap. Usually not worth it. I also don't run nanite repair or composite armor because they don't fit the harasser play style, it is a hit and run vehicle. Which is you roll up on a target and start peppering them, once they notice you and return fire you're supposed to book it. If you're sticking around long enough for composite to matter then you're playing the harasser wrong, and nanite repair shaves like 2 seconds off from when you should be fixing it yourself behind a rock out of the danger zone. It's between mine guard and stealth. People seem to think they're not noticed because they're running stealth but in my experience I'm never noticed until I'm actually firing on them. Then mine guard just reduces the amount of stress while driving a harasser, you're a fast in-and-out attack vehicle with no time to avoid mines even if you spot them. Mine guard has saved my life 10 times more than anything else, don't just discard it's usefulness in a fast paced play style which is the harasser.
I've got over a month of harasser time, plus I've maxed everything. Here are my recommendations. Proxy radar + cqc ai gun = a cert farming tractor that can protect friendly armor from c4 fairies or spot cloakers (highly recommended) Stealth + long range av gun = for dueling rival harassers / surprising and escaping Composite + fury/halberd = when there's lots of infantry shooting at you Auto-repair + Kobalt (+ racer chassis) = ideal for Northern Indar where there's lots of room run and spray bullets at infantry Mine guard = when there's a good chance you won't be able to see mines before it's too late (harasser moves too fast for lower levels of mine detection implant) I like all of them, but composite and radar are what I use most.
Mine guard is for clearing roads ahead of a push and suicide runs at deployed sunderers, I find it handy, just not something you'd use as a hunting harasser. Can usually take about 3 mines I think before setting on fire.
Press H to expand the minimap, then press the [ and ] keys to zoom it in and out. The minimap is one of your best tools when hunting for vehicles, zoomed out properly you'll know where every spotted and unstealthed vehicle is in the entire hex. Stealth is key for getting ambushes on skilled vehicle users who know how to use the minimap to full potential. Mineguard's my number two slot if I'm running into lots of mines that session, but I've stopped using it as much now that I'm using EOD hud. Composite is not bad for anti-infantry work, or anti-vehicle work in areas where stealth and maneuvering just won't cut it (but you shouldn't really be pulling a Harasser in this terrain). Radar is terrible and shouldn't be used, in a busy fight there will be plenty of friendlies spotting targets as well as valks and esf with scout radar. Auto repair is marginally useful if you aren't driving as Engineer which is a terrible idea.
