My thoughts on why the striker is the highest skill floor weapon in the game. Now, there are a lot of different kinds of 'skill' in this game. Map knowledge, map awareness, positioning, timing, reflexes, aiming, trigger control, leading targets and compensating for bullet drop. Some weapons in this game require at least moderate skill in at least one of these areas but often allow a user to lack some skill in other areas. For example, shotguns require good positioning, reflexes, timing and map awareness but don't really need you to be good at aiming. Conversely, sniper rifles require better aiming, leading targets and compensating for bullet drop at long range but less map awareness and reflexes. Both of the examples above reward you for being skilled in one way or another and if your skill-set matches the weapon well, you will be rewarded. Generally, the more skills the weapon needs, the more rewarding the weapon will be to use. When it comes to rocket launchers the same principles exist. Decimator: If you're good at getting behind vehicles and timing your shots between MBT cannon fire the Decimator will reward you with larger burst damage. BUT, if you mess up your timing or positioning, you're going to be eating a tank round for breakfast or get flanked by infantry during a reload cycle. Standard launcher: If you have half decent aim and can lead targets and compensate drop well with a moderate velocity projectile. This will reward you with the highest DPS of all launchers. BUT, if you're bad at aiming, leading or compensating for drop you'll miss a lot of your shots. Ground locks: If you have good map knowledge, timing and good awareness of enemy sniper locations. You are rewarded with 100% damage application at long ranges. Air locks: Whilst these require a similar skill-set to that of the ground lock launchers they do vary. With air lock launchers, you need to not only time your shot, but time your lock. You don't want to lock the target ASAP... you want to lull pilots into a false sense of security until you know with certainty that you can complete a lock and get a hit before they either run or dodge your rocket behind cover. Lancer: If you have good map knowledge, aim and good trigger control the Lancer shines. The weapon has a fast projectile, but it's not hitscan so hitting harassers and ESFs at range will need some leading skill but if you know a handful of good places to use it from it rewards you with instant and unavoidable damage. BUT, if you don't know the maps very well finding good angles/ranges to attack from might prove to be difficult. Pheonix: This is the antitheses of the Striker. It is the launcher with the lowest skill floor. BUT, it's also the launcher that rewards the user the least. It can't OHK infantry like other dumbfire launchers and it also does anemic amounts of damage to vehicles even when used with 100% efficiency. The real strength of this weapon is evident when used in large numbers. Striker: This weapon requires all of the skills of the other launchers combined. It requires good map knowledge and positioning to find areas where you will be safe from snipers but have good vision of enemy armor because you'll need to be exposed for 2+ seconds to empty a magazine while completely immobile if you actually want to hit your target. It requires patience and picking the right target because the strikers long reload cycle and time to release the entire magazine makes it one of the lower DPS launchers in the game which means you need to focus a target that's already taken damage or apply as much damage as possible to a tank if you see they are about to be engaged by other friendly forces. It requires good map awareness because a trail of 6 bright red rockets will instantly give your position away so you'll need to know when it's time to leave or when it's time to switch to pistol/other defensive firearm. You need good reflexes if you see the target you're firing on mid-magazine has taken a dislike to your multiple red suppositories. You need good aiming, leading and compensating skills because the acceleration of the rocket gives it a very bizarre flight trajectory. You need good trigger control because if you don't your shots will bloom uncontrollably. AND if you get any ONE of these things wrong... you're either dead, or applying very little damage. BUT, if you get all of these things right... you are rewarded with the highest alpha damage of all RLs and the highest overall damage output per life assuming no ammo packs. If anyone can think of a higher skill floor weapon. Please post your nomination and why. Keeping in mind that we're talking about skill floor, not skill ceiling. ie what weapons are the least noob friendly and punish you the most for making even a small mistake.
You may be right. I forgot how hard it was to be a beginner pilot so, so long ago. I do remember it being quite frustrating. But even as a beginner pilot you can unlock rocket pods and still get a tonne of kills.
Well, you used to at release, but after 3 years, a ton of kills means more something like 3^^. Air is pretty balanced now for good pilots, so bad/new ones get very, very hard times. My 2 cents on this is that they should make the roof of the map twice as high, to help create an air only game (just as there is an infantry only game inside buildings) This way, you can hone your skills against one type of threat only at first, and then try yourself in heavy danger areas like 10 meters above ground. About RL though, is the phoenix that bad at damaging vehicles?
Akashar, the flight ceiling is already high enough that you can have air only fights. Also, I think ESF v ESF fights are probably the hardest thing to get good at as a beginner. Especially now with so many experienced pilots in the sky.
This. All 3 semi auto rifles (Battle Rifles, SA Scouts, SA Snipers) are at the top of the Skill Floor list. I'd put Battle rifles slightly above the other two tho because of the lack of cloak and the paltry 2-headshot kill range (8m, the other 2 can 2HsK at any range).
I would like to say that striker is a fairly easy weapon to use ... its pretty much point and shoot xD
For automatic guns, I'm fairly certain the Gauss Saw is pretty high up there, trigger discipline and all.
The semi snipers 2 shot HS at any range, the scout rifles loose that at about 20'ish meters. (to lazy/tired to actually crunch numbers.)
No they don't. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?key=0AuOojvNLMApVdEtIU1NKenEzNzZOSWNaanFqSUVxLWc&type=view&gid=92&f=true&colid0=2&filterstr0=SCOUT RIFLE&colid1=5&filterstr1=Semi&sortcolid=1&sortasc=true&rowsperpage=250 Their minimum damage is 280. That's still a 2-headshot kill. (280 * 2 HSM) * 2 shots = 1120.
Scout rifles are pretty ok imho for a class that has cloaking. But battle rifles outside the long range niche are very hard mode.
+1 for ESF's I keep having a practice in readyness for my sucide run to get my begineers directive. And at BR86 im still nowwhere near ready to go out in the real world with my esf! Ill add most of the TR lmgs, lol! They are horrible to use as a beginner. That said id rather take my chances with a carv than an esf
I disagree. In fact I think semi-auto snipers are better for complete noobs to FPS games because they don't require the same degree of accuracy.
Just quietly, you can complete the beginners directive in VR training. Just grab an airhammer/banshee/light-PPA ESF and kill some infantry in VR if you're struggling.
It's worth pointing out that SASRs and scout rifles are totally different animals. In terms of practical use, the scout rifles have more in common with something like a burst-fire carbine, IMO. I'd consider them easier to use and largely better than SASRs, due to the feasibility of strafing and/or spamming the trigger outside point blank range. SASRs in this game have a ton of little issues to work around or compensate for that make them hard for newbies to use: Scope sway on the TR/VS default (and NC equivalent) means you're racing the clock to get every kill, as well as racing your target as he runs for cover. You can buy your way out of this problem, but it's a big deal since most players' first semi-auto experience will be with the 6x+ SASR. Semi-autos work best at much closer ranges than newbies expect. You can't hit anything if you spam the trigger due to CoF bloom, so you have to learn to pace your shots, which is not intuitive for newbies. Since you can't hit anything with these guns while strafing, you have to either sit in one place of a couple seconds while you shoot (risky at best, frequently suicidal) or stutter step (another counter-intuitive skill to master, still risky in big fights) Landing 3-4 body shots with a SASR requires consistent accuracy, on top of managing the above mechanics, which is hard. Newbies usually have to start by shooting at stationary targets, and a bolt-action is by far better against those. In any situation, a lucky BASR headshot results in a kill, while a lucky SASR hit still requires follow-up shots.
The GOD SAW is right in there if you're comparing it with the Gauss SAW fully certed out (as the GOD SAW only has a standard foregrip, as opposed to the much needed adv. grip 100% of all other 200 damage tier weapons get).
