Rangers are broken OP

Especially on Harassers. Daybreak, fix this **** already. This has been going on for way too long.

I'm not advocating for broken or unbalanced things, but personally I've been quietly enjoying the Ranger from the infantry sidelines.

They can take their sweet time with this one.

I'll once again offer my idea for all flak weaponry: high damage, very short mag size, very long reload as the main characteristics. The current sustained fire is deterrence which is a terrible and unbalanceable mechanic. Placing its damage output into "waves" gives opportunities for air to evade and retaliate, creating more competitive exchanges.

Other attributes include: tighter CoF and smaller detonation radius to make it more skill-based, but keep its low velocity so as not to extend the range too far while still having enough accuracy to punish faraway hovering targets.

While ESFs can tank one point blank like this?

I think not.

Bit upsetting that video doesn't work for me. I wanted to see an ESF "tank" a ranger. Everytime I get a ranger on me is move FAST or die FAST. Wanted to see this magically esf.

I support Sazukata's idea : make flak a skillful weapon that is able to kill air.

I can't see that video neither, but I assume he's speaking about the minimal distance for flak weapon to arm : if you are at less than 8-12m from the airplane with your ranger, it will only do direct damage (a damage type that is useless at everything past killing terminals).

This is what buffers of AA wanted, a skill-less over-powered way of getting rid of air-craft with little effort. It probably won't change since it benefits infantry-side far more than pilot-side.

It's a hard counter against unskilled air so there is nothing OP about it plus it renders the Harasser an easy kill when facing other ground vehicles and Infantry. Besides it's always amusing watching a skilled Gal pilot make short work of a Ranger Harasser with a good old fashion stomp.

Making assertions without evidence doesn't carry credibility.

If you don't talk about in-game counters to weapons (such as combined arms tactics), then you will forever seek your nerf.

In vain.

You can have 3 ranger-harasser for the same price as a burster-MAX and 2 ranger-harasser for the price of a skyguard.
The ranger-harsser is more resistant than the MAX and will have far more change to survive from ground threat than the skyguard because the latter is too slow to escape hostiles.
The combined low nanite cost and high survivability against ground is want make ranger-harasser OP. (hard to kill and come back 15 sec later after you have destroyed it)

ehm no
the gal got nerfed so hard over the past years that battlegals aren't really a thing anymore. from it's HP to it's anemic weapons you won't manage to hunt down anything. as a result galaxies are now solely relegated to a dropship role and you do NOT go screaming down towards a single harrasser to flatten it while you have 12 players in it and are getting targeted by half a dozen other sources of AA.

As soon as they fix the Banshee.......

Anything that brings down OP A2G ESFS is not broken. Buff the Ranger!!

wouldn't be so bad if the Harasser wasn't so fast and agile... If you're too close when the Ranger fire begins to hit you, you're not very likely to be able to break away and run fast enough due to the Harasser's agility and speed it can stay in range much longer than other AA options. Its not like the Skyguard is a negligible threat but since it is mounted to a much slower and less agile vehicle it can be avoided with greater ease than the Ranger mounted on an extremely mobile vehicle.

Would be nice to have a better flak armor option but say one with a trade off... Increased flak resistance (plus half this value versus small arms for the esf) at the expense of say decreased resistance to direct fire, i.e. rockets, tank guns, nose guns, lib/gal/valk guns... This would support the give and take that helps to balance PS2. Coordinated use of flak armor equiped air vehicles could be used as a counter to overwhelming AA but wouldn't be a dominant option if the enemy shifted tactics to counter.

However the way the Ranger is on the harasser now allows it to outperform most other AA options by a wide margin. I'd much rather have 6 ranger harassers each with a driver and gunner (both engineer of course) over 12 skyguards any day... The 3rd seat reps allowing slow repairs while moving and overall superior mobility just make the harasser the clearly better option.

Fix it how? Make the anti-infantry gun not work against infantry? What are you even doing in a combined arms game?

rangers do a lot of damage at CLOSE TO MEDIUM RANGE

any further and your shooting so wide nothing hits, it's really not accurate

and, (my personal but extremely educated, professional and qualified opinion) ESF should not be hanging around at CLOSE RANGE to the ground

wtf is wrong with you,

PS buff the other one, walker, yeah, the one that used to be good but is a complete piece of trash except in certain limited and exceptional circumstances. Yeah, the one that got nerfed to oblivion because wanabe pilots like to hover 5 meters above ground and nuke everything with impunity

Ranger was absolutely terrible for so very very long (it was the least used secondary of all - by a country mile) it should enjoy it's current "actually pretty decent" rating for a good while longer IMO.

Most pilots want a Walker buff. Aim should be rewarded in a fps. I'm a great shot with a ground Walker and it's pathetic that it does a fraction of the damage as a Ranger. I'm fine with ESF being pushed out of the A2G role. As a Lib/Valk enthusiast I'm actually very happy with that change. But the Ranger is equally broken against those as well. Area denial just shouldn't be a thing in this game, not when coordinating with ground to take it out doesn't matter, because they can just pull them endlessly. The truth is that most pilots are very familiar with using AA options, and you can't say the same about ground, which is why you get ignorant comments like the following, as even you admit that CAS ESF are a thing of the past.

Fun fact, it's the only weapon I've ever asked Daybreak for a refund for, after buying 2 for my Sundy, before I could fly. The fact that it was weak for so long doesn't excuse its current OP state, just as the once OP Gatekeeper doesn't deserve its current state. I make an effort to play ground-based AA and every vehicle on all 3 factions. I just want competitive balance, and the Ranger just isn't right.