How do you counter the Ravens?

If there was one thing I could nerf in Planetside currently it would be the Ravens. They just seem too good. If they weren't wire guided they would be fine. But they are.

I tried them out in VR Training too and they were badass, slaughtering everything. I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone complaining about them. Stick one NC Max on top of a hill, enough that we can't shoot back, and you can severely impede, if not halt altogether, a tank convey of 10 or more.

However, haven't used them in a competitive environment, so I'm not just gunna cry that they should be nerfed. Instead I'm going to ask, what should I do when this scenario happens? Am I resigned to losing my 450 mechanized resources? Or is there someway I can get at them?

They're really slow, and go "SCREEE", making them hilariously easy to avoid. Any nerf would make them useless.

EDIT; avoid tight confines with your vehicle, and their limited speed and human reaction time will be trumped by your vehicle's maneuvering.

But they slaughter EVERYTHING!

Enough with the nerfs already! The Ravens *work*, as in You can kill with them without swearing left and right...

What..I..
::shudder::

Well yeah, they did. Way better than my pounders, seemed like they had a way better TTK, not to mention Pounders have the exact opposite effect in that I actually have to shoot a few times before I can even work out where they're going to hit. No need to be a dick about it

Dual Pounders? Worse than something?


lolololololololol

Dual pounders slaughter everyone and everything!

By slaughter I meant I expected them to be really weak against infantry too, which they really weren't. You might not get many kills with them, but you can't really push your tank when you're under constant fire from those things, can you? That's what I meant.

And that's why I didn't ask for them to be nerfed. I asked what I should do when they're shooting at my tank and I can't shoot back

I invite you to try them out, they aren't as great as you think. You're either too far to be able to effectively aim them or so close you have to duck your head when they swing their tank barrel around. You tend not to survive either situation

Why couldn't you shoot back?

Ok, ill make the serious post since no one else seems to have done that yet.

First up, Ravens are intended as long range AV, and as such Falcons are superior up close.

Second, a Raven user cant hit you if they cant see you.

Third, because of the bloody obvious screech you will know immeadiately when you are being targeted by a Raven user, and the damage direction indicator will give you all the info you need to break LoS for repairs.

A tank can pretty easily shrug off the damage if they move quickly, they just need a plan. Really, the weapon is only useful so long as the MAX can maintain sights on target, which makes them a sitting(dead) duck. Point your cannon at them and wreck them.

I misread the OP, my mistake.

Honestly, every single time I've fought a Raven ********* in a vehicle I've either A) Run them over because they were standing in the open B) Shot them in the face with my big plasma cannon or C) Went a different direction and flanked them. I've never been in a position where the Ravens have been able to used against me to their full extent.

Your problem is probably you're not conditioned yet to suspect AV around every corner, which is always the assumption you should take. That's what I can offer to you; don't put yourself in situations where the low-damage, high-accuracy weapons can beat your ability to avoid them. Avoid tight spaces and perfectly flat areas.

Also ravens require you to be exposed until your missiles hit. No peekaboo play style.

Maybe they were out of my render distance, but all I could see was blue streaks and hear SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE THUD SKREEEEEEEEEEEE THUD x lots.

It was a fairly large battle, and the NC had tanks of their own. When I say this guy was on a hill, i mean he was on a ******* hill, it was one of those massive ones where a road runs through the canyon. He was miles away too. Granted, I'd expect him to have the advantage given his superior positioning, but not an unbeatable advantage, and I couldn't see a way to beat it

Does make sense. Was unfortunately just one of those situations where you can't help it.

Who's idea was it to have long range weapons on a target that you'll have to pixel hunt to actually hit, and can eat several tank shells to the face?

Wait til you see a Lancer nest, entire armor pushes can be wiped out in minutes and there's not much you can do about it.

FYI, the Ravens have a maximum straight travel distance of about 420 meters, if I recall correctly from the tests I've done. They can hit from outside render distance, but not by a ton.

Anyway, like you say, he had superior positioning. The way to counter it would be to overwhelm his position with infantry or to make it unsafe with air support. There isn't really a way for you to effectively counter him with your tank in that very specific situation, and to be honest, you shouldn't be able to.

Also, let's be clear about this - any of the 2nd generation MAX AV weapons would be quite powerful in that situation. The Ravens just happen to have perhaps the biggest upside (or at least the most reliability) when you can fire constantly from a safe position. The problem with that is these kinds of scenarios aren't that common, you rarely can bombard vehicles without them having any way to fire back or without being at risk of being attacked by the rest of their team, and Ravens require you to remain open while firing on anything, so they have the downside of putting the user at a lot of risk any time circumstances are less than ideal.

It does sound to me like you just found yourself in a situation that couldn't be overcome without additional elements supporting you on your side, or just enough tanks that a single Raven MAX wouldn't be able to do much.