[Suggestion] So about the Harasser

I envy you. If I could go back to a time when I didn't know what the harasser was, than I think I'd be less frustrated by the changes and how it effects my day-to-day harassing.

It depends, largely, on how reckless I'm feeling. If it's just me, I spend a fair amount of time driving around to find a friendly base under attack and then locate the enemy sunderer. Unless everyone's particularly inattentive, I won't bother with the sunderer itself, but just set myself up to attack the infantry when they've left line-of-sight from the sundy and before they get to a building in the outpost.

If I'm feeling froggy and I've got a buddy or two online, there's a specific kind of circumstance I try to look for. You know how when there's a really stiff defense, they push the attackers out of the base itself, but then sometimes the fighting comes to a stalemate as the defenders are trying to blow up the attacker's sundy (or sundies)? I noticed it tends to leave this sort of no-mans land between the two forces, and doubly so if there's any manner of gently rolling hill or a ridgeline that the other side is trying to use for cover. If I find a fight where this is happening, I try to pick an area of the enemy line that isn't being pushed as hard (or looks a bit less like instant death) and then I rip as close to it as I dare (the margin of error is large, but again, I'm running mostly stock and I'm a relatively new driver to this vehicle). If it really IS a weak point in their line, I'll probably risk trying to just drive through it. At best, we make it behind their primary firing line; failing that, the debris might get somebody; or at the very least, dying costs exactly nothing except a new Harasser once my timer resets. It's not an exact science, though, and I'm still not quite confident in my ability as a driver so I've only tried this twice. I actually wasn't punished for this as badly as I expected, which I guess I'll chalk up to people not being used to shooting at Harassers anymore. More often, I will try to drive more or less parallel to the front of the enemy line for as long as I feel bold and try to give my gunner as much time as I can to fire on the enemy before pulling back behind our line for repairs. It helps that the guy that usually guns for me is a damn sight better as a gunner than I am. Even if we pick off one or two people per pass I'm pleased. If we don't, I'm content to just wing a handful of people and draw attention.

If at any point I see armor, I bug out. If it seems like the part of the line I'm bearing down on is prepared for me, I pull back and try to find another section that is less ready for me. It's not foolproof by any means, and I've overestimated the vehicles ability to take damage on several occasions, but it's something I'm working with, and it's usually great fun. I've already had a couple instances where my gunner and I are both surprised we made it out; each is its own little thrill.

The last thing I've done is, if I'm moving with a zerg, I have no compunction about pumping basi rounds into the air if our AA is lacking. We're not as mobile as an aircraft, but we're less of a target than a Skyguard; our damage is probably negligible, but we've brought down an ESF or two and even got the kill on a Lib who was... probably a newer pilot, or just had bad gunners (in all honesty) and who had been too preoccupied blasting the heavier vehicles nearby. Do note that I'm not saying "Harasser is the Lib-killer!" but that basi's are pretty decent when you're trying to add to the weight of fire against one.

So far, I'm going to chalk half of the performance up to the fact that Harassers have been kind of forgotten about by most people, a quarter to the fact that I work well together with the guy who usually guns for me, and the last quarter up to the basic qualities of the Harasser. I assume it only gets better from here.

Thanks for your post, it was very interesting to read. What i take out of it: Being a relatively new player you use this vehicle for fun and for some special situations where it can farm some infantry. And you are satisfied with a certain outcome that i won't be. The thing is that i compare it to the other vehicles i can use and i still feel that the Harasser performs the worst.

You know i used to gun a lot for Ceres' best Harasser driver i know (and with 19d by far the most time in this vehicle). We had a fair amount of fun, the Harasser being very strong and all that. Inspired by this thread i asked him today if we could just do it one more time today to test if we are still able to perform any good in this vehicle. Okay, i admit, we went way behind enemy lines due to a lack of good fights but what followed made me just sad. we attacked a Prowler from behind. few shots in the back, Prowler backs off behind cover. Then we eat a lock-on rocket by a heavy, bringing us down to like 65%, we repair. We try to finish the prowler or at least some Infantry, but we were hit by some dumbfire, av-turret or whatever, bringing us down to ~60%. We had to back off again but the rumble seat repair was to slow. So he stopped, helped me rapair.. and an ESF damaged us - i don#t remember if it was the nosegun or lolpods. We tried to back off but the ESF finished us easily - and that with the friggin' nosegun.

So we basically were not able to finish a tank which we shot in the back, we took a crazy amount of damage from a stupid lock-on and we were not able to dodge the ESF because we just took too much damage per bullet and the rumble seat repair is too slow. I know that tanks go down by ESFs too but my point being is that everything damages the harasser so hard than any other source of damage will finish it off. I repeat: it is too weak.

Oh an of course his Harasser was absolutely fully certed... FS, Composite, Nitro, reload...

Perhaps it is a case of diminishing returns? A nearly-stock harasser seems to perform well (for what it is, anyway), whereas upgrades don't hold as much weight as they should? Or perhaps I just have low standards.

Well, i don't want to make you look bad or anything but i just have the impression that indeed your standards are lower. i might be wrong and of course someone can always say that i as an experienced player should perform even better in this vehicle but as i said: I just compare it to the other vehicles and my experiences in it.

No offense taken, man. I'll be the first to admit that I'm usually pretty terrible at most things that don't involve pointing my repair gun at stuff, so I'm very easily satisfied when there's an aspect of actual combat that I can do better at than my average. Actually, given the margin of difference between most of my experiences and the amount of luck that I seem to have had so far with that harasser, I'm probably going to end up using it more. I'm sure that with more experiences in the driver's seat, I'll have a better picture all around of how it ACTUALLY performs rather than just how I perceive it to perform.

He's right. When I run with basilisk (the trolling buggy is fun to play ), I was surprise how much this gun is effective on the harasser. Maybe it's just me, but I found it more effective than the dedicated AI harasser because you can still kill infantry and do enough damage to deter vehicle / airplane that want to chase you.

I think the harasser don't need work only for it's resistance, but it's weapon need some work too : most of them are too few versatile ATM).

Haha, let's hope you will have enough luck in the future and improve.

Oh i am totally fine with the weapons itself... they are just too weak, just like the 'rasser itself. I wonder a bit about the Basilisk. They buffed and nerfed it a couple of times now and i still think it could perform better at longer ranges.

Was being a ********.

I could...would help us take on the wolf pack when NCing.

Really? When I see a skyguard, I think fresh meat.

Just like here. Basilisk harasser, fresh meat.

Well, honestly, y'all need to keep at it. Don't use one day to judge how effective or ineffective it is in those circumstances.

What you describe, me and my gunner do everyday. A lot of times all day, no matter whether we are on NC or TR. I would estimate about 80% of our time is spent on non-ally fronts/fights. I personally look for fights where we are the only friendly around. More targets, everyone around us is a juicy cert. We target vehicles first, then infantry second if we have to.

It can be as frustrating as beating one's head on a wall. But most of the time it's high risk, but high reward. Currently doing just over 400 spm driving a buggy. Not sure what my gunner's is, he seems to average about 30% or so more certs than I do.

Just have to be patience, pick your fights wisely and if something doesn't feel right...it's probably going to go badly.

Few things here.

First, just because one doesn't have a ton of time in a vehicle doesn't mean ones doesn't know a thing or two about them. It's called talking and/or working with other top players in those vehicles.

Secondly, the role of a harasser is to kill ****. Like alabammer said, don't look to what a harasser was, look to what the harasser is now and work around it. It's a effective AV, AI and AA platform, one just has to use it right. The right is a vast combination of things, which just takes exp.

Thirdly, anyone new to a vehicle, whether in certs or time, will always perform lower than otherwise.

Fourth. Don't lecture people about lecturing! He knows what he is talking about when comes to a harasser. Period, end of story.

Fifth. I've never asked. But ask the vehicle community on Waterson what they think of the harasser opposition. I guarantee you, more than not will say, we are more than a nuisance, we are a threat!

I DO NOT fear them period.

When I am in a vanguard they are either quick certs or never to be seen again, if i get a single hit they can't risk a second and have to back off.

My AP lightning 3 hits them, but admittedly could die in some cases.

My reaver murders them with he M20 mustang (air hammer seems to suck at this) in 50 hits.

On foot, well there is one good weapon and only VS have it, and honestly it isn't that great either. All other AI weapons should be at least as good as the PPA if not better.

Yeah, please make them good again, vulcan harassers were cool on release. If you nerfed the backseat rep and made it crap against infantry then I would have been fine with them (vulcan should not be good vs everything).

PS undo the nerfs to the saron and enforcer, that was silly. Also buff the kobalt (accuracy), basilisk (damage), walker (all), ranger (all - it's ok but too specialized so needs to be better than ok), C85 (either a large mag increase, more damage over range or some mini splash) and marauder (I don't play TR).

Outside of a tiny armor resistance buff, i feel like its fine. Out of all the vehicles MBTs need a huge overhaul (NO THIS DOES NOT MEAN NERFS!!!!)

First of all: you dont need lectures, but then you typed this and tried to give me one... and btw verbal debate is what a forum is, or did you think that if you posted something that everyone would magically agree with you.

Second: Ive state several times you can farm infantry when planned right; ie backseat repper, driver w/ triage, good AI weapon such as Fury, smoke and comp equipped. Just dont go running into 10 heavies and your golden. It doesnt go down so fast that you cant escape and reset and come back in under those conditions. Its called driving defensively.

Third: Im sorry but if im really at 40d, D as in DAYS, all of which was from pretty much the nerf til now, is not enough to have a fairly good opinion on something that you yourself stated I do almost nothing else of then I dont know who else can really help you. I could give 2 shytes how much time you've spent in tanks and how many auraxiums you have. I only get in tanks with the top three vanguard AP gunners on the waterson server, Alarox, Klypto, and Ihearcolors, granted I dont put in many hours because it feels too OP to me, killing the hapless with a vanguard is too easy, i like a challenge. Ive also driven or flown a max'd out version of every vehicle in this game, just because I choose not to spend time in them doesnt mean I dont know their general strengths/weakness. All this leads to you saying would you tell less experienced people to not pull a harasser. Id say the opposite, because they could probably do some Jean Claude VanDammage with it. My one caveat, thats if they certed it out over time. Why because like everyone else if they enjoy and get good at it, they will cert it out and they will own up the roads with it.

Fourth: when I spend the day doing nothing but harassers, hunting tanks and sunderers, and other shyte, I generally end up in the top 10 for empire and top 20 overall, maybe I dont beat some hardcore lib crews, but I damnsure make more than most people, and I have LOADS more fun doing it because as you claim most people think of the buggy as weak. My favorite moment, the day I finished first for empire and my driver finished 4th and had 10 kills, 10 in like 8 hours, he was like the only person in the top 10 that had less than 100 hundred kills, it was beautiful.

Fifth: probably the I only thing I agree with you on, yes the harasser is a cert dump, needs at least 5k to be right around competitive with anything worth killing. Why in god's name would I dump those certs into a buggy instead of a tank, I personally take more satisfaction in killing stuff with my harasser than I do my tank, you have way more speed and maneuverability than mbts (except maybe a fully certed Mag). You make a good point, I cringe when people pull stock harassers, but I made an alt and had several fun and actually rewarding runs with a stock harasser for the hell of it the other day so I can say with certainty, again. You can succeed in this game when you play smart and defensively. PS rewarding being, I took out several lightnings and 3-4 magriders during a Quartz ridge defense. I did have 2 other harassers there, and a general push of vehicles, but my buddy and I were able to weave in and get kills, and I straight up duel'd with a lightning and won w/ the basi, you'd think viper gunners would aim better since they fire 7 at a time.

Last, does the description on a mbt say "destroys everything on the ground", or is "destroys everything" next to the spawn button on a Lib. No, it doesnt/isnt. There arent roles in this game, theres just stuff you excel at more than the other. As Ive stated, pretty much everything can take on everything. I think you spend too much time thinking about the conventional and I spend more time thinking about the unconventional. Like watching a buddy strap a Ranger on his harasser and chase a Lib back to the warpgate from Peris Eastern/Vanu Arch area, and thinking that the lib probably thought it would be him doing all the chasing when he pulled it.

All of that being said the HARASSER, just from a buggy standpoint, when fully certed out, is close to balanced. Sure some people would like it to take more damage, but it can take I'd say a competitive amount right now. Its not meant to be able to take on MBT's in a one on one fight, and Ill say from experience that if you have a competent driver and you have good aim, you can take on and kill anything one on one except for maybe a 2/2 MBT and 3/12 Battle bus with just you, your driver/gunner, and your wits. Id argue that 3 harassers can kill anything and everything in this game. I mean, the stories about harassers taking out armor columns, I live it when my friends and outfit members get on. I feel from a purely chassis, defense, and utility position the harasser has choices/options for a variety of playstyles. Do I wish they hadnt nerfed Nanite auto repair, a little, but I didnt use it before so it doesnt affect me much now. I run full Stealth and love it, but Comp armor has its uses in infantry farming, and Fire Sup./Smoke both have their uses and I have to say theyre about equal, they can both save your *** in a fight. People forget that the buggy is still the only vehicle you can rep on the move, and when I say move, I mean youre turboing your *** outta there! Noone else can do that. Lightings either have to move to cover or rep on the spot, same with air. Buses/MBTs are the only ones who can sit still and still put up a fight, but they lose firepower and they arent moving. Thats BALANCED.

The only thing I wish for atm, is a revert back to the 1k damage halberd shot instead of 800, and maybe a slight boost to the backseat rep speed, not much, just maybe 1/4 faster so I can actually get 25% repped per cycle on a maxed out repair tool. Oh and I dont consider this a buff or a nerf but revert back to the physics before the last patch. The new physics make it way too easy to flip over and harder to right yourself while turboing.

If a Skyguard is running about like it should (With a buddy) a pair of Skyguard cannons can easily either deter or outright kill a Harasser in medium or close range.

Very true. Hopefully the harasser doesn't allow it to happen to them.

Even two, I wouldn't be worried. Honestly, lightnings of any type don't worry me. Unless the gunner/driver is a super shot.

pre-nerf my driver and I shredded armor columns one by one. Lightnings were free xp, mbts engagements was in our favor since we could sit there at 150m ish and plink at them with the halberd/saron. Our biggest threat was enemy halberd or enforcer harassers and air.

1. It is understandable that you try to defend yourself here, but there is a difference between disagreeing with me or basically saying that i am just too dumb to adapt my playstyle. That is why i stated again and again that i know the vehicles in this game and that is because i answered like this. If someone comes me with polemic i see no reason to not answer this way. because then i have the feeling that i need to make things pretty clear. And the other guy with 9,5h playtime was just a joke.

2. Yea, "it's called driving defensively". I am maybe one of the most defensive drivers when it comes to situations like that. The thing is that infantry farms are not the regular thing plus it shouldn't be plus it is done way easier in other vehicles. That is what i am talking abou: balance. Something being strong or weak is always compared to the other vehicles and that is why i still call the Harasser weak.

3. Oh, you can have an opinion. You just should stop expressing it like you are my PS2 teacher. I don't like this, i get piss3d when someone comes at me like this because i have way much experience than you, not the other way around. I understand that there are different PoV in this game. What is crap for me is fine for another player. When i fly an ESF and go down after 5 kills i am not satisfied, others are glad when they take out 2 enemies. That is why i repeatedly stated from what perspective i am discussing: I am not a "whiner". I waited months for this thread (as already stated), i admitted that the Harasser was a little bit op and - i need to say this agin, do i? - i am pretty well able to farm certs in any other vehicle, except the flash maybe. So if someone says i just want my easy-mode farming machine back.. it is just bollocks, because if i want to farm i have enough possibilities to do so.

4. Good old leaderboard... When i play all day i usually have no problem reaching Top10, but i stopped playing that aggressive since i am very bored sometimes because of the lack of good fights, but that is another story. i admit that underestimating this vehicle can do some harm but the fact that it is weak and farming is easier done in any other vehicle is stll true. Post-nerf i maybe died less than 5 times to Harassers. i did today as Mag gunner, actually... because we had 2 Vanguards upfront and a Lib above. And the question is not only what place you are on the board but are you a member, do you have boosters, how much playtime, how many times did you die, how many Harassers did you need to pull? I mean of course you can harass all day, but this still does not prove any opinion about the Harasser being balanced because put that time and efford in tanking or flying... you might end No.1 on the board.

5. You know i read this and just have to believe you... but i never ever got killed by a stock Harasser in any vehicle or even as infantry. They just explode as they come.

6. I know pretty well about the fun stuff n this game, you can take my word for it. But this does still not say that the Harasser is balanced. Yes, it is a challenge and it might be fun, but it is - i repeat - not balanced. it is a nice challenge for me to fight a Scythe when i am in a Reaver? Yes, because teh Scythe is stronger in dogfighting. Does the fact that i enjoy this challange change anything about it being not balanced? No, it doesn't. So do i like these harasser-challenges as you like them? Just partly, i want to be able to do some harm without having to back off every 3 seconds. i just don't like the fact that a Harasser starts to smoke after one friggin' rocket, call it challenge or not. In the end you are very limited for picking your fights and the lack of good fights makes it even harder.