Has anyone seen or heard a Pheonix rocket lately?

It needs some improvements. An afterburner feature and range based on distance to player rather than time. I think the counter displayed is actually based on distance because if you make really sharp turns it slows down to almost 0 increase yet the missile ends before it has reached 300, sometimes it doesn't even go into red. Anyway those 2 features are a no brainer.

A small brainer is to reduce turning radius.

A big brainer is to turn it into a sticky missile on hard surfaces to increase it's usefulness against infantry by increasing it's splash damage.

Either afterburners or better turning would do, i think both would be too much, on the plus side once the lock-on changes come into play the loss of reload time during tracking will be a non issue.

Oh yeah, I saw it whizzing by to the useless weapon departament, you should look there

I use the Phoenix as a scouting tool.

Its good only vs noobs and other slowpokes that stay at place 24/7

You were very lucky then, and found a bunch of tankers AFK. The TTK on the Phoenix is so high that its damage is counteracted by one engineer repair gun. And as for the ESFs, I can only conclude they were asleep at the keyboard to be taken out by a Phoenix.

The Pheonix is a very situational and effective weapon when used correctly, but those situations rarely occur. I found that they are most useful when supporting a Zerg of friendly tanks.

You might not get nearly as many kills as you would like, but as a Vanguard driver I smile every time I see or hear the freedom berries flying overhead, knowing that they are making my upcoming fight that much easier. If you land a hit it does excellent damage, if you don't, the armor is likely to retreat from the area anyway.

I find it funny but all that it needs is a slight buff to either speed, distance, or maneuverability. Just one of those being buffed will make them a much more commonly used weapon.

Did a trail for the Phoenix about 2 weeks ago, give or take. It was great fun to use, but useless none the less. When i compare it to the Striker and Lancer it is somewhat underpowered (oohh the blasphemy) and for its current stats quite overpriced.

Striker:

400RPM

100m/s Velocity

5 Rounds (total 20 rounds)

500 damage

5s reload

Lock-on/Rapid-fire

1000 certs

Lancer:

200RPM

600m/s Velocity

6 Rounds (total 24 rounds)

150 Damage (at 400m)

5s reload

Unguided/Charge

1000 certs

Phoenix:

200RPM

42m/s Velocity

1 Round (total 5 rounds)

750 damage

5.2s reload

Guided

1000 certs

Wich would bring the following.

The Striker can bring a total of 10.000 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 100m/s.
The Lancer can bring a total of 3600 damage (at 400m) with all missiles together whilst flying at 600m/s.
The Phoenix can bring a total of 3750 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 42m/s.

Both the Lancer and Phoenix lose in damage, but at the same time these two are close enough on damage to be called more or less equal. The Phoenix loses to the Lancer and Striker on the speed, the Striker also loses there to the Lancer.
Overall, the Phoenix loses in the flight speed, reload speed and damage when compared to the other two factions, thus making the Phoenix a poor investment for 1000 certs (or 700sc). And then theres the other side of its guided missiles as others have stated before: it leaves you sittin' there looking pretty in an enemy's scope for several seconds.

The NS rockets are not worth the cost either if you ask me, improvement on damage per round for the decimator when compared to the Shrike but loss on overall damage, and loss on damage for the annihilator when compared to the Hawk and/or Crow just so you can lock both ground and air, so that leaves 3 options for us NC.

Shrike:

200RPM

115m/s

1 Round (total 5 rounds)

1700 damage

5.2 reload

Dumbfire

Default weapon

Crow:

200RPM

115m/s

1 Round (total 5 rounds)

1500 damage

5.2 reload

Lock-on (ground)

250 certs

Hawk:

200RPM

100m/s

1 Round (total 5 rounds)

1500 damage

5.2 reload

Lock-on (air)

250 certs

As said above, the Phoenix can bring a total of 3750 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 42m/s.
The Shrike can bring a total of 8500 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 115m/s.
The Crow can bring a total of 7500 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 115m/s.
The Hawk can bring a total of 7500 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 100m/s.

So the phoenix loses here aswell just so it can have its fun but "dubble-edged knife" guided option. The reload speeds are all the same, but the flight speed and damage of the Shrike, Crow and Hawk leave the phoenix far far behind.

Conclusion?
Yes the phoenix has its merrits like bypassing shields by flying over them when shooting but poor damage, slow flight speed, low ammo and high buy price makes it a unintresting investment when you got better things to buy for other classes/vehicles.

As for me i'll stick with the Shrike, Crow and Hawk for now because they are the most viable rocket launchers available for the NC HA. Yes it requires alot of switching arround, but in most fights there is usualy a focus on one thing in particulair and i decide wich launcher to use on that factor. And usualy im in a platoon aswell wich can be directed to bring either AV, AA or both when needed. Dumbfire has its own uses.

P.s
When you got certs left to waste on crap because you bought everything you needed, you could replace the Shrike with the Decimator for its higher damage per round, but overall it still loses on total damage when you account for all rounds.

Info from here http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Launchers

All of the above is just my take on it, decide for yourselfs wether or not the phoenix is viable enough to be called a good weapon.

Forgot to post one thing, and found out when i coudn't edit my old post.
Anyways i thought of putting the Raven in here aswell.

Raven:

48RPM

85m/s

5 Rounds (total 70 rounds)

490 damage

1.5 reload

Automatic

1000 certs

As stated in my other post, the Phoenix can bring a total of 3750 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 42m/s.

The Raven can bring a total of 34.300 damage with all missiles together whilst flying at 85m/s.

The Phoenix realy just sucks when you look at these numbers, especialy if you account for equiping two Ravens at the same time. Way lower damage, way longer reload time, half the flight speed, tons less ammo and only faster RPM.

Yup, phoenix is realy not worth investing in right now.

I hear them often.

I rarely see them because of rendering issues, when i do, the explode 20 meters away from me but damage my tank.

Every goddamn time. And certainly yes when I play NC myself. The only real problem with them is that the thing forces you to uncrouch every time for whatever reason.

Regarding numbers, the game is a bit silly and in the case of Phoenix, the data shows damage versus infantry. Or something.

The actual damage against vehicles (in general, before particular resistances) is something like twice the displayed amount at any rate. It definitely hits harder than the Annihilator, for example. I seem to recall it was about the same damage as the Shrike, but it might have been exactly same as Crow.

The Lancer stats also don't show the damage of a fully charged shot (though some reports I've read recently say the dps of fully charging is the same as spamming (can't verify).. the ammo consumption is not).

Phoenix is great in the right situation, but those right situations are rare.. and even in those ideal situations you usually can, with a little extra effort, use a different launcher instead and have almost as good effect.

What you can hit with any reliability with a Pheonix:

(1) a deployed Sunderer
(2) a deployed Prowler
(3) a Lightning being repaired by its driver
(4) a turret

What you cannot hit with any reliability with a Pheonix:

(1) everything else

Phoenix has a damage multiplier against vehicles that seems to result in the same damage as decimator, 2000. 1 hit sets an ESF on fire and destroys it 2 seconds later. 2 is either enough to destroy a harasser or set it on fire. The slow velocity an lack of afterburner is the really bad thing for the phoenix.

The Phoenix and Lancer both have damage multipliers against certain targets. Against ground vehicles the Phoenix has a multiplier of 2.67X and the Lancer a multiplier of 2X. Against aircraft (excluding the galaxy) the Phoenix has a multiplier of 2X and the Lancer a multiplier of 1.5X. A charge 3 Lancer also flies at 800 meters per second, not 600 meter per second. I will fix your post accordingly. Also, despite what everybody says, I use the Phoenix all of the time. Mainly because I can do just as well with it up close against vehicles (press 'E' right after you fire and it will be as if you dumbfired). The Phoenix could definitely use some semi-big buffs and the Lancer could use some small ones as well, but the Striker has always came out on top. If I had a choice of any of the 3 ESRL's I would choose the Lancer however, since it is not limited in range, is a very fun to use weapon, and it is a f*cking Laser!

If you are standing in front of a tank, you deal damage from the front, regardless of where you actually hit it. Allow me to demonstrate with beautiful art:


Green lines are "rear" hits according to the engine.
Yellow lines are "side" hits according to the engine.
Red lines are "front" hits according to the engine.

It doesn't include top armor, but the line is drawn from where the shooter is standing, not where the projectile came from.

okay so totally skirted around my question but nice graphic.

it was stated by i believe higby when it was first added that the pheonix is treated like a vehicle that basically rams, so that considered then the shooter would be the cameras view point when factored in to damage, sounds like ill need to hop in to VR to check it out but if so the pheonix would be considerably stronger when approaching from above due to the weaker armour on the top of most vehicles

lol well tried to test it, and even if it does the rocket is either too fast or not manueverable enough to make it possible for it to really be used that way, the current mechanics seem to make them unreliable and sort of in between a dumbfire and a lock on but crappier than both, now i know why i dont see them in the field

i think if possible this would be a much better way for them to be used, being able to arc them up and the come down on top of their targets top armour would make them much more useful (and having them raining down would jive well with Flak guns being their counter)

Apologies for the late reply, I didn't know you answered.

I think the Phoenix is treated like any other guided weapon in that it draws its attack vector from the muzzle of the gun. Which means that the damage it does is based on where you're standing, not the angle you tweak it to hit.

It seems like it'd be simple to test the Phoenix directional damage.. but then I remember its maneuverability and wonder..

I too have noticed that top-down attacks are the hardest to pull off. The FOV is so narrow that you're mostly firing blind, except for the last second when you finally get the target into sights. At least on somewhat even altitudes for you and target.. having to aim up to get the rocket high for the top down attack means you have to turn the rocket a lot - attacks on the same plane can generally be aimed much more towards the target, thus less need to steer.