i was responding to mr. herp who doesn't think outside the box, but to you: Strikers scale VERY well against aircraft. Aircraft do not scale well against Strikers. 1 Striker can cause ONE Liberator to run (I hate that *whack whack whack whack whack* sound...) 2 Strikers can cause ONE Liberator to run fast (...and maybe die if they don't have flares) 3 Strikers can cause ONE Liberator to die Liberators are not at all worried about Phoenix or Lancer teams on the ground. Strikers make it so as a Liberator pilot you HAVE to run Flares. There is no option here. If you don't, you die. There's no reason to cert into Afterburner because it is now useless. That right there is enough for me to think the idea of the Striker isn't the best idea. When you get locked on in this game, you can't ever tell WHERE you are getting locked on from. I think fixing that might help pilots a lot. That makes flying very difficult, especially a Liberator that travels so slowly. Flares start out at 40 seconds between pops, and that gives you about 5 seconds before they lock onto you again. It very well may take all of 5 seconds or more to spin a 180 in a Liberator...So with enough strikers, you can't run, you just die. The VS and the NC do not have this ability with their new weapon. That's where I believe people believe the Striker is overpowered. You don't even need skilled aiming to hit with the Striker. The Lancer requires aim, so does the Phoenix. A Liberator can outrun a Phoenix as I do all the time. I don't believe on my TR character I've ever been worried about a squad of Lancers. I've encountered a few and they don't all hit, a lot miss so it was fairly easy to get away. Strikers can hit you from incredible range, and if they see you coming, you'll have to turn around before you even get close to them. They are better than the pre-nerf Annihilator. 5 Strikers can hold off 5+ Liberators with ease. So a crew of 5 on the ground can hold off 15 guys in the air, without any skill at all. It takes zero effort to wield a Striker. Can the NC or VS do this with the Phoenix or the Lancer? Not even close... Did I mention Strikers can also do this to armor at the same time? I can't even fathom why anyone at SOE thought adding another lock on weapon in the game would be a good idea. It was a horrible idea before they ever even released it. Annihilators were atrocious, they knew how bad those were and how much the community hated the idea of them, then they made the Strike. Unbelievable... I really wish the Striker was different and not a lock-on weapon. When I die, I want to know someone did it with skill not the server killing me with auto guided projectiles. I don't know how I'd redesign the Striker, but it really should have been something different. I'd have to give that a lot of thought to make something on par with the Phoenix and Lancer. The striker creates more problems than just affecting enemy aircraft. it changes the way the game is played, it forces tanks to sit back farther and hide and forces air to suicide in to get kills or for most people it just causes them to quit flying altogether, which causes the TR to have a perpetual strong Air Force which then further perpetuates the problem by TR liberators and mossies pounding vs and nc ground forces to death with very little deterent.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...OSWNaanFqSUVxLWc&f=true&noheader=false&gid=75 The striker has the the best lock on time of 2.5 seconds which is 1.5 seconds less than the annihil, it has multiple clips of five rockets which do 500 dmg each. The phoenix as a basis for comparison only has 750 dmg and a 300 meter range, so even when we could kill infantry it had to be a head shot. Look at the damage and lock on time, I cannot kill a vehicle solo with my phoenix but a TR heavy can solo a vehicle with JUST his striker. My phoenix has 100 splash damage making the total possible per rocket at 850 where as the striker has 500 direct damage and 500 splash making it 1000 damage effectively per rocket. Oh the Striker also has the best reload time of all AV weapons aside from the Lancer. Look at the stats, the striker can put out more damage than either of the faction specific rockets, it does more damage than all the others for that matter aside from the decimator. It is funny the prowler buff was insane where you just get gibbed anywhere you go by prowlers, and it stayed like that for a month. The phoenix creates the same problem, and it gets fixed in a weekend. I personally think the striker should share the down sides of the annihilator because giving a better annhil to only the TR is OP, nerf the striker to be on par or better yet leave it as is and buff the annhil to be on par with it for the NC and VS. Make the Striker take some skill as the Lancer and Phoenix do, don't have it be lock on, make it guided by the lock on, meaning the striker user has to keep the target painted while the missles are in flight.
SOE has stated in the past that faction specific weapons will usually (always) be better then their NS equivalents. For example if SOE introduced a NS camera guided launcher, it would be inferior to the phoenix, but appeal to TR and VS players. That is what the Annihilator is/was, but it suffered from a nerf.
Deal with it. Just like TR has to deal with side strafing/jumping heavy tanks or behind-the-hill sniping rocket launchers. This game is not built or balanced so that everyone can have their nice 1vs1 duels. Furthermore, as others have repeatedly said, Strikers are ridiculously easy to dodge. In fact, the only pilots I repeatedly down with it a the "herp" ones, who think they're flying a tank and can take flak like big boys. Oh, those two mossies on your tail are a problem? Are you saying two enemy ESF's and G2A simultaneously attacking you shouldn't be? Please. Learn to fly and learn what your job as as a flyer in this game is. No, it's not to have dogfights and honor duels. Oh, and finally, I think the ratio of striker users is probably one out of eight HA. Why? Because the weapon is goddamn bugged and it is damn difficult to land AA hits with it against anyone with half a brain when it does work. So I'd be kinda ashamed to complain about it in fact. It's like complaining knives are OP because someone stabbed you while you were AFK.
LOL the phoenix was easy to dodge, slightly move back and forth and look suddenly you don't die to phoenix sniping yet you guys cried so hard it got nerfed in the first week.
No no. "We" did not cry. The same whiners that are asking for Striker nerf in this thread cried. Talk to them. It can also be argued that the Phoenix was easy to dodge if you knew it was coming. Which you didn't, most of the time. With the Striker, you have ample warning someone is trying to lock you. In fact, that beeping sound can be used to nicely time your dive or flares (hint: don't pop flares as soon as you hear it). Also, the Striker damage is split into five rockets. Meaning you have to hit with all five to do full damage. Chances of which are much less than having to hit with just one. This also gives you time to pop flares after you're hit with the first one. Can't remember how many times I wasted an entire clip like that. Bottom line is, the only people who get "held back" by strikers are pilots who seem to want to be able to just hover there and pod infantry all day. I instantly recognize an easy kill when I start locking an enemy ESF and they just keep sitting there. So, ESFs - move. Liberators - fly high and get a decent gunner. Galaxies - are you kidding me? Striker is just fine. Well, no, it is bugged and wonky and doesn't work half the time, but the idea is fine.
Only if the rockets no longer slam into the ground as soon as the flyer dives. So yeah, I wouldn't mind having to "paint" the target... if the rockets get a 2-3x travel speed buff and lose the ridiculous "predictive" tracking so that having to stand still in the open painting your target actually works. However, I think we would hear 10X more crying on the forums then... because right now people are crying about a broken weapon that doesn't work 50% of the time. Imagine the wailing if it worked all the time and had decent tracking.
Agreed, the Range is fine especially considering how unreliable the damage out put is and the tighter influence to lock. All of the launchers have set roles... The Striker - When coming up against the Striker you know what to expect, constant locking and the need for countermeasures or cover. At long range you are safe since it cannot lock, as you get closer the threat gets stronger until you get very close at which point the long lock time and need for the user to be visible to lock results in them being killed. You can easily lead the rockets into the ground by either flying towards the ground or even driving down the smallest of bumps. The Lancer - When faced with a Lancer you know that it has no need to lock and counter measures have no effect. The weapon itself has huge range so the further you are the more of a pain its going to be since you will have more difficulty hitting the user at long range, Close the gap asap don't bother attacking at range and use cover on the approach. Once up close watch your back for flankers. The Phoenix - When dealing with the the extremes are everything, The further away the better, if you have to get close get as close as you can and it has difficulty navigating to you. At medium range if you are precise the rocket can be shot down.( even by Tank rounds). Cover will not help and neither will counter measures. A good phoenix user simple changes angles to get around the cover. Since they do not need to expose themselves you need to get in close and get them whilst they are tracking.
I sniped a few phoenixes the first few weekends Before the nerf/buff. That was fun lol. Also. I use the striker on my HA usually, but I use it as a *last resort* with my dumbfire launcher, I could attack a tank and they wouldn't know I am coming. Unfortunately, If I sneak up behind a tank now, that doesnt happen. That really loud beeping goes off, and they look for me ASAP. The only time I managed to surprise a tank with the striker in the rear (much less an ESF) was when I drop podded behind a zerg, killed a few Infantry, then took out a lightning and an MBT that were busy hammering my buds in the tower. I also use it ONLY against ESFs that are 1. really close to me (>100m) and 2. either at my altitude or (preferably) below it. Otherwise, they can avoid my rockets way too easily if they have half a brain. Libs and gals I leave alone, unless they dont have flares.
wow.... If a heavy manages to solo your MBT with a striker you are doing something drastically wrong.. Also the striker has the same lock time as the annihilator with a slightly shorter range and tighter radius to lock the target (which is why it cannot lock a moving flash) Look at the mechanics, the Striker is the only one that relies on a lack of ability from the target, the lack of countermeasures and lack of cover for the rockets to impact with. It offers plenty of warning and even provides a little more time to get to cover since the damage is split between 5 shots. Meanwhile the lancers and the phoenix are based on the users skill and have no hard reliable counter which can be activated. The targets skill makes no difference and instead the users skill is considered they also provide no warning at all of the incoming damage. Stats are all well and good on paper but it comes down to performance in game...What looks good on paper often ends up being way to powerful or pretty abysmal, The stiker has the highest DPS on paper but in reality it is very rare that it gets the DPS out.
You guys realize that this game is run by platoons not single players there isn't one heavy assault verses one efc it's 15 to 20 heavy assaults per aircraft and when a vs or nc pilot are fighting nearly anywhere there is a battle they will be locked on at all times, so how do the other two factions besides TR get air support? As of right now Vanu and nc do not get air support because of the high numbers of TR aircraft and TR heavy assaults with strikers. Pilots can't just sit and dive behind cover every battle, there is very little need for TR heavies to get any other launcher than the striker and that's exactly how it is, granted a few of you take a dumb fire launcher once in a while, but the majority of TR heavies use a striker
They get air support by having someone on the ground worth supporting. A dead HA won't be hitting anything with the Striker. Also, get better pilots. As it is, when I run out of missiles, I frequently just scare enemy flyers out of the area with lock alone. I can get the nervous ones to pop flares as soon as I start locking. On the other hand, I can only stare helplessly at a liberator hovering at 500+ meters above the outpost bombarding the **** out of us... now that's air support. Lolpodding hovering noobs are not supporting anything but their own inflated K/D ratios.
How do dates change anything? It would make no difference if SOE introduced a NS Anti-Material Rifle for HA to suck up the SC, then released the Lancer for VS. The Lancer would still be superior, but forumside would be angrier.
How it works with the lancer- decimates stupid liberators and lolpodders, is incredibly difficult to use against skilled air(but rewarding), and is mediocre vs ground vehicles. How it works with the striker- decimates stupid liberators and lolpodders, scares away skilled air or kills them, and is decent against ground vehicles(now that lock rockets will fly straight for a while and then vector to targets). How it works with the phoenix- decimates (really really)stupid liberators and lolpodders, is impossible to use against skilled air, and is pretty good against ground vehicles. lancer requires alot of skill and practice to use effectively-high skill ceiling . striker is a pick-up and go weapon-low skill ceiling. phoenix has a medium required skill rate with the potential for skill to pull off really good shots-medium-high skill ceiling. this is where all the complaints come from striker squads are basically all the same effectiveness no matter the users skill level, BUT forumside members with experience say it sucks because there is a hard cap on how effective it is.
I think i never killed any aircraft with my striker. But it's the only AA rocket launcher i have. And as a pilot i never had to face a striker but i never get killed by lock on rockets anyway.
It might be abetter Anni, but reality thats all it is, its useless outside wide open areas or aircraft. The striker can be changed as much as people want so its less extreme in open area's but it has to be better outside those open areas, if its to be nerfed. Forexample after the nerf to lockons vs turrets tr litterally have NOTHING to use against wall turrets beyond 100-150m range. (we can use tanks but they can't win outside large engagements.) So the grasser isn't that much greener on our side.
I'm a vanu and I don't find that striker that annoying... Find it pretty balanced tbh. That pheonix on the other hand... that thing is just ridiculous. Makes it impossible to hoover since it's OHK and most of the time you don't see it coming. Also the design of this game makes it impossible for SOE to really add more damage to the striker, or any other lock-on weapon for that matter. It gets way too strong when outfit/platoons start to use it. You should still be able to kill a lot of vehicles with the striker if you use it well with teamwork though.
