20 meters. Dont use spotters, darts are better because a spotter will get destroyed and you have to drop it at your feet. you can launch darts and theyll almost never get destroyed because small hitbox, and they can cover an entire tower around and going up/down
Spotters: - give a more accurate information - work against cloaked infiltrators - last longer - earn more xp Sure, they can be destroyed... oh, wait, it means they are also usable as bait to ambush people. Not saying spotters are always better than darts, but saying "don't use spotters" is a huge mistake. All good infiltrators use both darts or spotters, depending of the situation, once they have certed the two tools at max. Most of them seems to tell that they use spotter slightly more often, however...
Just dropping by to make some corrections: - Darts work against cloaked infiltrators too. In fact, there is no difference in what motion spotters and darts can and cannot detect. And that's anything moving not crouched. What they CAN'T detect are crouch walking and immobile enemies, as well as enemies moving faster while using one of the various levels of sensor shield (at the highest level, they will even be invisible while sprinting, and will only show up when jumping and/or when sprinting within less than 20 meters of the dart/motion spotter). - You can fire as many darts on the map as you want, and they'll stay here, so even with only your 5 base darts, you'll cover a lot more ground than you would with a motion spotter (as the previous motion spotter gets destroyed when you drop a second one), albeit for less time. If you are sitting on an ammo pack, you can cover the entire map with darts, and sustain them indefinitely. - So while I'm not sure if it's true that an enemy killed within the range of a spotter gives more XP than an enemy killed within range of a dart (will have to check that next time I'm in game, as you made me curious), the sheer amount of ground you can cover with darts mean that, if xp is your only concern, you'll definitely make a lot more with those so long as the battle is big enough and you have an easy access to ammo. Source: I use both, maxed both. In my experience, darts are good when sniping, because you can be away from the thick of the fight and still support your team by covering said fight with darts from afar. They are also nice to have in big, spread out battles where even a maxed out spotter wouldn't cover everything. Spotters really shine with close quarters builds, especially in defensive situation where you know the fight will stay in the same place for some time (so, typically, point hold). Also, while the "only at your feat" makes it somewhat more dangerous, the spotter is less annoying to use as you don't need to constantly be replacing it unless the fight moves away or it has been destroyed. Lastly, the real-time info on enemy facing is indeed very useful in small, concentrated fights. So, yeah, two tools with different uses. I think currently the power balance is somewhat in favour of the spotter (and by that I mean I more often find myself in situations where I'd rather use it over darts), but I still end up darting on a regular basis too.
Scenario Generator room Go to overload Stop, you dont know if someones in there. Launch a motion dart over there See "Oh ****, theres two or three people moving in there." They do not know where the dart came from just that there is a dart. Alternate Drop motion spotter. They now know an infiltrator is close enough to drop a motion spotter. By the time the darts ping twice which will be sooner than you see the target usually you know which way theyre going. You can launch technically 22.5 recon darts, lets just say 22, at once. Theoretically infinite but at max rank 45 seconds asting and only one sent out every two seconds because reload if youre tied to an ammo box you can survey 1100 meters. If you have max darts and are not on an ammo box you can survey 400 meters. Thats a hell of a lot more, and a hell of a lot safer, and a hell of a lot less destructible than spotters. They have their place, but that place is very situational, and i only use spotters on my stalker loadout when im in a fairly decent sized squad during small battles.
Ballto you just need to learn to use the spotter correctly. - There is only one thing that can destroy a well placed spotter: an EMP grenade. - The intel from the spotter is 2 times more useful than the intel given by a dart (doesn't ignore infiltrator, give more accurate position info, don't get tricked by decoy grenades, differentiate MAX from regular soliders) - Even if someone notice the spotter as soon you land it, if you play well, you'll be gone for long before they reach that place - If you know to play with a team, the most often, you don't need more to cover more than ONE area, making the dart spam useless - Spotter is a marvelous decoy. There is no end to the trick you can play with it.
Yeah, you're ignoring a lot of critical benefits of the motion spotter. For one thing, it lasts much, much longer, so you're not tied to an ammo box if you want to maintain or reposition your radar coverage. The most important benefit, though, is that it gives you real-time info on the enemy's position and facing. You can use that info to ensure you attack from behind the enemy, whereas with the darts you only know the general area of the enemy and need LoS to do that sort of planning. Personally, I use the motion spotter in most of my loadouts. It's better for calculated ambushes or point defense with stalker/smg loadouts, and it's better for personal defense as a sniper. I would prefer darts for quickly scanning a base for enemies or sniping from a very safe location.
- motion spotters are great baits and you can kill the guys who try to destroy the spotter. - the darts only live for 35 seconds (or 45?) on full level while the spotters will last for 4mins (you can carry 5 on full level - so 20mins) - the spotter does not only show some dots, it will show the direction were the enemy is looking at so its easier to sneak up on them. - both can be destroyed but the darts can be placed on any surface everywhere, so its harder to find them and they are smaller --> so harder to hit. - both are very usefull and as it is said up above: darts are good for attack and spotters for defenders. but my final verdict: the spotters are a lot more worthy (i maxed out both but the spotters first) because they last longer and will give you more precise informations.
motion spotters are superior hands down. There is a skill in placing them. After some time of losing them one after another in a highly contested area you learn to put them in the no mans land but more to the side you control, in a place where the enemy would have to overextend hard in order to get to it, pretty much putting themselves in front of the firing squad (and that's assuming they know about it) When you approach a cap point building or a generator, you get a distance reading next to the icon. Drop the dildar at ~35-40m from the target. There is a big chance enemies won't see it on their minimaps while you get to see everything that matters.
I leave a motion spotter under my bus whenever it's parked. It's a marriage made in heaven. No one sneaks up on you plus you can fire at the enemy before they emerge from cover. Farming made easy.
