Outer Blast Radius reduced from 5 meters to 4 meters Inner Blast Radius reduced from 0.5 meters to 0.35 meters. These nerfs were totally uncalled for, the Hornets were already not great vs infantry and considering rocketpods kill vehicles faster than them and have the benefit of killing infantry reliably I do not see why this nerf was implemented. ^ Rocketpods already kill faster, Coyotes are now fine but Hornets are still underperforming, the projectiles at least need to move faster
Um, you missed the hornet direct damage being increased. This was a buff to hornets against vehicles, too bad they still do worse than lolpods.
I know, I am not talking about all of the changes, just the weird ones made against infantry, I don't see why they couldn't have just buffed its direct damage and left its radius alone
I really don't know what they want to do with this weapon. Actually, I guess I do, but I don't know what they think will make it viable without making it OP, spammable, or both.
It's longer range AV Rocket pods you have to get a lot closer (particularly with the Scythe. Plasma pods are inaccurate as hell) and you can guide it into a moving target. Also better for using against Libs, as again, you can fire them into a lib from farther away than rocket pods. I think the only thing I'd do is give them free-look guidance back. Free-look guidance already has the downside of meaning you won't be increasing DPS with nosegun, but would open up for non-direct approach attacks which would be worth the drop in DPS.
I don't think they do either. One cool mechanic which would make it more interesting would be have it travel at the same speed as your ESF when you launched it, so it's a weapon which promotes strafing runs over hovering. They could also remove the range cap, making it more snipery. Or bring back freelook aiming. It should be like the lancer: long range, good in groups; I sort of think it should be like the SC2 banshee in its A2G role (with less explosiveness). Vulnerable to AA because of slow speed, but powerful in groups, and capable of outranging enemies. Problem is, rocketpods already are powerful in organized groups. They lack range; however, everyone has them. Until they have more of a role and are competitive, the cost isn't worth it for many, so it's hard for people to get hornet groups together on live. Other random idea: make it so hornets has a higher explosive radius when it detonates on armor (good for clearing out support).
Of course rocketpods should out-DPS the hornets. Hornet missiles offer more single target burst damage. You can't have burst and DPS! It's one or the other. I'm sorry Ned but I disagree on all points and I personally feel the changes were buffs.
I think someone said it was capped around 450m, but either way, still not a much higher effective range than rocketpods, especially since rocketpods (even with spread) have no range limit.
Except using long-range AV just puts you susceptible to more AA. The hornets are a joke, who even uses them.
Well then you cherry-picked your facts to spin a certain conclusion, and it hurts your credibility. I read your OP, thought it was a pure nerf, and now I feel tricked. Had you presented a more complete picture I might have agreed with you overall.
I think that's probably what they should be as it makes the most sense to give you range to allow you to safely guide missiles to target. The problem is that they fizzle before you can put any real range on your target. So rocket pods are still better for engaging from extreme ranges.
yah... and? Can you reliably strike at tanks with pods at 300m? (well, then again... you DO have Hellfires )
AA reaches out to render range, plus A2G craft are very vulnerable to A2A vehicles. There's also few areas any map where you're not within range of AA turrets from adjacent hexes. Standing still 800m from a fight still leaves you very vulnerable to flak,, liberators, and other ESF's, especially since the latter two can cross that distance in a few seconds.
