[Vehicle] Liberator Tank Buster - TOO MUCH DAMAGE

The liberator has been nerfed a million times, how much more do you guys want it to be nerfed? Honestly, at this rate let's just ask SOE to remove every OP thing in the game. First it starts with the Liberators, then VANU and NC tanks, then NC maxes. Soon enough, you just removed half the game.

Can't we just play and enjoy the game without saying everything is overpowered.

Also if you guys are saying how OP it is why don't you just start using it instead of asking for a nerf. Hope onto the bandwagon.
If you can't use the tankbuster, these reasons listed below might be why.
1) You can't pilot a Lib
2) You can't aim
3) Didn't cert the Lib
4) Not enough experience flying a Lib


All 4 of these problems can be fixed over time as you gain experience. But you can only do so by playing the game so instead of asking SOE to solve your problems, take initiative and learn the game.

Making it more accurate and less dmg would make it even more "overpowered" as everyone keeps saying. Oh looks its so accuracy let's use it as a shredder, genius.

There's a reason why its so high damage, you literally need to be within 10m to land all 44 shots. The time it takes for you to line the target up, the guy should be already shooting at you.

i lol'd. AP shells are the spinfusor of this game. watch some videos
The real issue with the TankBuster is how easily it devours Skyguards which are supposed to deter Libs.
Nope, it's backwards. Good AP users deter Libs instead, while TB just encourages them to A2G farm skyguards

I always live way longer as a MAX when "deterring" libs than as an ESF or Skyguard....I think that's backwards too BTW.
Or that Valks should get Cloaking, let them fill that niche against ground AA b/c they totes suck at everything else

To the point it has an actual counter.

I have no issues scaring away Libs when i am using a skyguard. Maybe if you're missing your first couple of shots it sends a message to the lib pilot that your a terrible gunner so he goes for the tankbuster kill. For me personally, if the skyguard isn't doing significant damage to me i'm going to kill him or else i just run.

If a skyguard shoots and drops the lib to 3/4, nope i won't screw with him unless i have the jump on him. Even if i kill him i won't live to see another day because clearly there is more stuff than just that lightning.

And for those who die to Libs when using a skyguard, stop going alone, find a squad and roll out with them. It's a MMO for a reason, this ain't your typical "campaign mode".

It does have a counter, 1 AA max with extended mag can kill a Liberator or at least scare it away. 2 AA Maxes, the Lib isn't going to mess with you.

You know why you say it can't be countered cause NOBODY wants to run AA maxes. I play TR and every time we are on the move i don't see ONE single AA max ESFs/Libs roam freely. When TR is defending tech plants and amp stations, NO ONE mans the AA turrets. They are there for a reason and clearly people aren't using AA designed to kill aircrafts. People in Liberators shouldn't suffer just cause people can't be competent enough to roll AA.

Next time you think about complaining about Liberators, go AA max or man an AA turret, see if the Liberator can mess with you. Also 1 AA max with a full clip can't kill a lib best to coordinate someone else to hit the Lib at the same time to be most effective, the more the merrier. Oh snap i just gave away tactics to kill a Liberator, at least now people won't have to start QQing about Libs.

Also next time there is a big fight 96+ vs 96+ fly in there with a lib(not TR tho cause we don't go AA) if your facing NC or VS you're going to get shot down instantly. Then look at what is really killing it, most likely 3-6 AA maxes, that's really just a squad.

not even gonna read your point if that's your first impulse. Go mansplain someone else.

Sure do what ever you want, if you don't like constructive criticism then i guess you will just be stomped on again and again.

I can tell that TR never go AA, or you'd know that Libs can face-tank AA turrets, AA MAXs and Skyguards.

Well, I suppose if you never use one this sentence is technically true.

Fair enough. I suppose getting an entire platoon together would probably work to counter a Lib.

Does it seem a bit odd to your that all your counters to the Lib involve getting a 2x the people to spend 5x the Nanites on dedicated weaponry?

Thanks, you just answered the question about Liberators being too OP. I don't think it is a waste because i stand next to a sundy, have my pounders ready to kill vehicles. When i see an aircraft in the sky, i either change into my AA max or just use my pounders(still pretty effective).

Liberators are nerfed to a point where render distance for the NV and Thermal is roughly 300-400m but most Lib kill infantry at a lower altitude.

When ever i travel in a sundy and on land with no cover, i usually bring AA max or pounders. I can't remember the last time a Liberator shot me down while in a squad or platoon. I am not scared to get down and fight dirty, if it requires me to go full time AA max, so be it. Someone has to do it because i can't count on TR(Emerald servers) to go AA even if their lives depends on it. Plus Liberators and Esfs are very good exp better than killing infantry.

I am a decent Lib pilot and a good Lib gunner. I am not biased towards Libs because when i don't have a good gunner or a good lib pilot i go infantry. Yes i said it, and i don't have a problem with Libs and Esfs until 3+ roams freely then clearly your faction isn't doing what it can do to protect itself from air.


Just want to share my view with others. I've been gunning a lib for awhile and to be honest, Liberators are a joke now. You can't even go into large fights anymore. You have to pick your battles, usually facing only a squad or a platoon at max. Going up against a platoon forget it, you'll lose half your health before landing your first shot, lining up to tankbuster? Impossible period.

Let's look at it this way, what if one day you want to Lib with a bunch of friends? Well forget it cause Liberators are useless now, scratch that off your list. You might have already gotten bored of going infantry/tanks and want to try something new. So really nerfing the Liberator has a downside which basically makes it harder for beginners to use it.

Eventually Liberators will be buffed again, its inevitable. The pilots and gunners that fight through the nerf will come out victorious. The weak will just die and the strong will live. The Liberator can't be nerfed forever, SOE has to make money somehow. Gotta rebuff the nerfed stuff to get people buying it again.

TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAILS!
Loyalty Until Death~ TR

I don't agree with this. When i solo lib i am heavily TB biased, and i routinely wreck full libs with manned guns. I often find that lib pilots rely too heavily on their belly guns when they could have gone in for a tankbust that would have destroyed the enemy. It isn't just a weapon to be used on unaware targets. I use it in head on encounters with libs, esfs, and even tanks sometimes when i can get away with it. The reason most pilots let their gunners do all the work is because they dont know how to use the tankbuster at all.

Let me break this down from my experience as a lib pilot. Who...is usually the one the nose gunning your Skyguard.

Max costs = 450nanite Skyguard cost = 350

Skyguard has more ammo, larger clip, and is more agile and has more hp. (At a lower nanite cost!)

Max can hide easier(and sit in a spawn room or building) and does slightly more damage.


THAT said...skyguards are actually a greater deterrence than a MAX. *GASP* Yes you heard me.....it hurts. If you are doing your job as a skyguard a single lib should NEVER kill you unless you are wounded or some how below 2/3rds of your hp. Knowing your adversary is the BEST way to learn how to defeat them. When I play skyguard...I usually die to a harasser or a enemy MBT. But almost NEVER get caught by an aircraft.

In order for a liberator to kill a skyguard with one clip, you have to remember they have to take you on the same way they take a MBT. Sneak behind you, line up a rear armor shot (Even harder than a MBT as you are much smaller, have a smaller hitbox, and are more maneuverable) THen again land nearly the full clip (42 rounds or so ) Now in order for this to happen to a skyguard it has to be in the situation that
A) It is sitting someplace where a lib can approach with out being seen.
B) It is generally by it self or on a hill with it's rear armor up in the air or exposed
C) It isn't paying attention at the real threats and is generally firing at some ESF so far away it has a 0% chance it's going to get the kill.
D) There isn't another AA vehicle/Tank/MAX/Infantry with a rocket launcher around.

If you go down that check list the most important one...is the rear armor exposed. I can't tell you how many skyguards I find think getting ontop of a hill and aiming down I find. They think this is a "Good perch" But in reality....they now create a massive hole in their firing line below and behind them. Second it gives a lib someplace to hide...*the other side of the hill!* then pop up on their rear armor! When driving your skyguard it's important to keep that armor WELL away from anyplace an enemy will likely come from. Find a building and back against it....find a hill and park rear down on some of the lowest terrain you can find. AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T RUN AROUND BY YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!

Remember the word your used....the skyguard is an AIR DETERRENCE VEHICLE not a "SWEEP THE SKYS CLEAN AND KILL ALL COMERS weapon."

The skyguard is 350 nanites which is generally on par, or less than the cost of most the things in the sky. They are and deserve to be just as dangerous and shouldn't be taken lightly. Just remember, when you are in a skyguard....if you count the total number of friendlies around you less than ten...you are prolly lib bait. *unless they are also skyguards/max units*

Who said that? I didn't say that. I said the TB just makes it a lot easier than it should. It's the dalton that does the other half of my health after I dodged half of the TB pellets and the lead-in Dalton shot. Also I'm fighting 2 people. If you're only talking about fighting one person Lib, then you need to clarify that first before getting all TheoryCrafty up in here

Next you mega pros are gonna tell me you can dodge every pellet a TB fires in a tank that only goes two directions?? Don't bother, I'd know you're lying or cherry picking bad pilot encounters. K just stop and admit that AP > Flak when it comes to huge hitbox-having Libs. Hell, when the libs are sweeping in close enough, I run Ravens instead of Bursters against them, much better DPS.

Well, let me put it this way...should a lighting outclass a MBT with two gunners? So why should a 1 man lighting that cost less nanites out class a 2/3 vehicles that costs more nanites?

The liberator is an ANTI -TANK vehicle....and the Skyguard is an air DETERRENCE tank. One is designed to keep aircraft away...the other is designed to kill tanks. So one can make the argument...they are in fact both doing their job just fine. Now let me ask you another question. What happens when you put two skyguards next to each other ? Nothing that can fly get's with in bombing range! I've seen it in action. Two skyguards are generally enough to clear the sky or at the very least keep all things that fly WELL out of reach of any thing in sight of the skyguards.


I'm going to say as a Lib pilot...the ONLY time I worry about AP tanks...is when I'm trying to TB a skyguard or MBT. If all skyguards were instead AP lightings...I would just sit in the sky with my Shredder and Dalton and laugh at all the certs I start rolling in. If you really think that AP lighting/MBT is better AA than skyguards then you are really being ignorant of how much Skyguard/AA maxs make a difference.

Do I think I can dodge all of a TB...nope. But I can likely make sure he only hits me with about half at best. My skyguard runs top armor..and depending on the lib crew ( Which really depends on alot in this game. A really good skyguard usually doesn't die to air...and a really good lib crew can do things most can't. Player skill is a huge wild card. In which case don't blame the tool blame the user ) But the crew I was fighting around Tarwich last night came close to killing me two or three times. But never got my lighting into the red. Each time they limped away from the encounter with less than half HP and I even got some assist exp when some scythes swooped in to pick off the lib with a big smoke trail after they dived behind a moutain and out of my field of fire. But...i got plenty of exp and did my job knowing well enough they spent more time trying to kill me than they did blunting the friendly army taking the TR base around me.

As for running Ravens over Flak guns I think that speaks more to the overly powerful Raven's as opposed to the uselessness of of flak. The truth in the matter is....Flak WAY out classes the other empire's anti vehicle maxes. And if you really believe AV weapons are better AA than flak...you are lying worse then you suggested I would be if I told you I could dodge everything out of a liberator. Again...the only reason liberators fly low enough for you to even consider using AV weapons against them is because they are AFRAID of getting flaked out of the sky....again proving the point that your flak weapons are in fact GAME changingly effective in their roll by forcing planes to change their normal play style to adjust for your presence.

Ever since the skyguards came out and flak dmg was increased, Liberators has been so squishy to a point where I don't want to mess with a skyguard. Unless it's in a spot where I have cover or and get away easily.

When I enter a huge fight I try to look for skyguards and AA turrets first. I can't even run composite armor on my liberator anymore that's how much flak damage hurts. I run stealth because I know I need to sneak into the fight without being seen or else I'm pretty much dead before I land any shots.

Most of my kills are from people that are oblivious to being hit by a Dalton and its too late to counter it because I took down half it's hp before he/she realizes. Then again I don't shoot until I have a clear shot or know I can hit him, this part comes with experience gunning. Another great advantage of waiting for the perfect shot is to see if he is aware of the liberator coming at him,so I can communicate to the pilot whether to engage or come back around.


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Breakdown of the belly gun weapons
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Just a heads up for people who never Lib

Dalton has no splash damage ever since the nerf so killing infantry is harder than ever. But i am still not butt hurt about that because I use it to snipe infantry when there is no AA shooting at me. I do like challenges and when Dalton get revamped sooner or later, i will have the last laugh.

Zephy complete trash after the nerf, absolute no blast radius. I thought it was supposed to be an infantry weapon. I rather use the Dalton than the Zephy because i am still sniping infantry with the zephy, makes no difference to me. SOE just wanted people to buy the dusters so they nerfed Zephy to a point where its useless.

Let's talk about Dusters(belly gun) now, it's like the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, where are the shots going to land?? Complete randomness, if there was a set pattern then i can get use to it but the uncertainty of the shots is just a killer, how am i suppose to shoot down ESFs with a duster?

In the end, although you have to snipe infantry with the Dalton, it is still the best belly gun out there. It is an all around weapon whether you are killing tanks, 1 shotting ESFs or want to snipe infantry(gets the most satisfaction).

Oh I get that part and support it completely. The problem where one cannot say .... however, is in the Skyguard being able to actually LIVE long enough to do its specific job of outputting that slower DPS. It's not at all like a MAX that you can always find the perfect "AA placement" for. It's very Adhoc and even if you know how to Glitch it up Amerish cliffs like I do /w Rival rocking etc for maximum "sky space"... you're still going to be completely exposed to atleast 2 main angles of pure full magazine TankBuster hell that aren't as easy to "dodge" as most LibChavs claim they are. I've been hit by full mags while not just under a very low bridge and overpasses, but while backed up a staircase INSIDE A TOWER and here's the kicker on that one: That Lib didn't even have to touch the ground when he almost 1-clipped that trick shot. Oh sure his landing gear came down but he seemed oddly unaffected by the usual targeting stiffness & momentum that everyone else experiences when hovering that low.

So we're not just talking about some newb who's having their first day in a flimsy tank out in the middle of a field and people who continue to address any of my posts that way like that last guy (who doesn't even have enough Skyguard kills for the weapon to show up under his Lightning stats in D.A.) will be told to get off their trojan horses. We're talking every trick in the book here and every Turtling tactic too like hiding in the base Biolab & Techplant shields popping in and out when you have visual confirmation that there's no possible way they could turn in time to get a full Mag into any part of ya. ....nope... Reread my first post. The only 2 things I said need to change, is Mag total upgraded capacity but buff the base count *(read: nerf the upg. GRIND!!!)... and normalizing Lib turn vectors so they don't Pitch/Roll so fast in trade for being able to Yaw at a reasonable speed to help out newer pilots. Then they won't be able to do all this MLG trick flying like that Druzinko ******* and all them Redtails do to just obliterate whole squads of newby ESFs too. And even when they do have ridiculous over-certed piloting, there won't be 60 pellets coating every inch of your sides or front.

Lol, no... they're flying low so they can maintain the element of surprise and pop out of the local geometry like a LOL jungler to savage whatever's directly in front of them with TB spam. Remember, it's a shotgun basically, and using it from higher up makes about as much sense as a lightassult with Drifters using a shotgun the same way

And the reason they need an element of surprise is.....just so they can pop out and say SURPRISE WE WANT TO KILL YOU!!?!?

NO as a LIB PILOT I'm telling you I rarely, if ever want to risk nose gunning anything unless I have to. I'm more than happy to stay 500 meters high and drop bombs all over the enemy. Which will be JUST AS MUCH OF A SURPRISE because tanks..generally just can't look up that high.

Up High I won't bother to use the TB...you seem to have this idea in your head that lib pilots only go for TB kills. The truth of the matter is...they don't. More libs spend time bombing then they do nose gunning. Nose gunning is generally the last resort. At least it is for me. I would muuuuch rather sit high in the sky and let my bomber kill you. I still get the EXP for the kills. *Shrugs*

Ok, again...you have failed to really read any of the previous posts. I can tell already you have a chip on your shoulder. You are telling me...that a lib had to ALMOST LAND to kill you. And he...took two clips to kill you....and he lived? So either you were in a tower by yourself...in a field by yourself....or you are lying. Because one tank...any tank...even viper lighting...or a heavy with a rocket laucher, would have killed that lib. Hell. YOU COULD HAVE RAMMED HIM WITH YOUR SKYGUARD AND FLIPPED HIM...he would have crashed. It just shows yet again...a skyguard not being used correctly. If you put yourself in a situation to go 1v1 with a Lib you have already failed as a Skyguard.

Um i'm not sure what zepher you are using, but the one i use is still very good. It wlrks best for clumps of infantry, but when they clump up you can kill a dozen people with one clip. Comparing it to the dalton is idiotic since it has zero splash damage.

Also you shouldn't need to run stealth to avoid things. I have never run stealth on a lib. I don't even have it unlocked. However. I still oneclip other libs, mbt's and lightnings all the time because most people don't pay attention.

L100 AP vs VPC + PPA.

Lightnings are 350 Nanites/crew, Libs are 225 Nanites/crew.

Is a horrible concept. When you 'win' your enemy goes to repair. When they win, you die in a ball of wreckage.

They get TB'd.

So it was only out of an abundance of caution that they didn't just outright kill you?

Not compared to anything else you could have been doing with your time.

"I didn't get anything done, but at least I prevented some other players from doing anything either." is a sentiment usually associated with griefing.

Let's remember that the 'normal play style' you're referring to is 'bombing a base into dust with complete impunity', and all you can do with flak is make them stop periodically to repair.

Now where would they get that idea?

Fair point...but it is still a MBT and it will prolly lose to you. Because it is completely unequipped for that fight. A liberator with the default nose gun and a zepher isn't a threat to your skyguard...so the point you made is moot.

*LAUGH* WHAT!? Sir...you need to check those prices again when you no longer have the cont lock benifit that halfs the price of air vehicles. The default price is 450.

Actually like I said I drove away happy and with confidence that with out me...the lib would have killed my fellow Vanu players taking the base beside me and put us back on the defensive. Instead...with out the harassment of the libs and skeeters we were able to take the base. Was it all me? No no likely not...but because of me they had an easier time. So at least I feel I played a part in capping the base. Sure my name isn't glowing on the wall but it lifted my enjoyment of the moment.

I'm sorry the only way you derive any enjoyment from the game is having to kill everyone all the time. But always winning flawlessly is boring to me.

Actually he tried to TB me three different times. And failed at killing me, his gunner missed as well. I backed down a valley forcing him to come at me face first or not at all.

I enjoyed my time...which was my goal when i play a game. It isn't to win...though I try to win...I tend to just try to have fun. Trying really hard all day is what I do at work. I play games to relax. And my 385 score per minute says I do just fine.

So...preventing the enemy from mass killing my team...getting EXP and capturing a base is what you see to the equivalent of griefing? I feel bad for your friends...and family. But look up at a previous comment...I accomplished what the skyguard was designed for. Killing skeeters and and Liberators...I might not have gotten the direct kill on the lib. But After dropping him to 1/3rd hp he got killed by scythes shortly after and I got a nice 800 exp for it. Sounds like I kept that feared unstopable murder machine you hate so much from being OP and ruining the game. Which is apparently more than you can achive by the way you make it sound.

Yea...exactly. So.....I guess it's effective in stopping them from .... "bombing a base into dust with complete impunity'" Huh...strange. In an MMO game I might not do everything by myself...someone else may have to finish off someone I wounded! OH THE HUMANITY QUICK THIS GAME IS BROKEN I DIDN'T KILL EVERYONE BY MYSELF!