i don't think my general disdain for this weapon is a secret. so instead of complaining about it i will offer a couple of potential solutions. 1. remove the autofire function from it and allow us to hold a charge (NOT charge up more) indefinitely as long as we have the weapon out and hold down the trigger. this is obviously the much simpler solution of the two i am offering. 2. remove the charge function entirely, reduce the reload time, eliminate any recoil / accuracy reduction, give us a 4x scope built into the launcher, and keep ALL OTHER STATS THE SAME (NO increased damage). basically turn it into a six shot semi auto anti material rifle. it should fire and reload quickly and accurately but individual shots should be weak. this would be ideal for taking out light vehicles (an area where vanu is somewhat deficient) and still sufficient to worry heavy armor.
#2 is what the lancer originally was then higby got his hands on it and turned it into a piece of ****
I really don't understand why all you VS complain about the Lancer. I would pick the Lancer over any other launcher any day. 1) If I want accuracy against enemy armor, I could ether use a lock on that gives my enemy a warning or I could charge up my lancer and give them no warning. 2) If I am getting rocket podded by an ESF. I could ether use lock on air that gives it a warning and it can pop flares. Or I can go dumb fire that critically injures but is hard to aim and easy to dodge. Or I could use the lancer when he is hovering and do the same damage as a lock on without having to worry about flares and I don't have to worry about him dodging. 3) If I am getting pounded by a liberator. I could get a lock on that get a lock on that requires 8 shots to kill the lib, and will force me stay in line of sight of that big belly gun until I get the lock while telling him hey your being locked. Or I could use a dumb fire that take 3 shots to kill but is hard to aim and possibly to dodge. Or I can use the lancer, still requires 8 shots to kill, but I can charge while be hide behind cover then when it is almost fully charge come out of cover and shoot before the lancer auto shoots, also as soon as I shoot the first one I am charging the second shot, so I can do double the damage of a lock on with one magazine. Not to mention you can still easily hit a fleeing lib with a lancer. 4) If I want to do heavy damage to close range armor. I could use dumb fire that does about 1700 damage to armor (yes I know the stat says 1135, there are resist values that increase damage of launcher against vehicles by 50%). Or I could use the decimator that does 2000 damage to armor, but it has a slower reload, has one less rocket, and has a slow projectile speed. Or I could use a lock on rocket that does only 1500 damage but has the same stats as the dumb fire. Or I could use the lancer that I have to charge to do full damage, it does only 1500 damage a shot, but as soon as I shoot the first shot I can charge the second and shoot it way before dumb fires could reload, and that is 3000 damage per mag, and I can hold the same amount of magazines as the decimator so that means you can carry 50% more damage on you than the decimator. Really don't understand why you complain about your lancer. While I wouldn't think giving the Lancer a longer time before it auto shoot is going to make it stronger, just easier to use, thus I wouldn't be against give the lancer a longer time before it auto shoots. I just don't understand why I hear so many of you complaining about your lancer auto shooting when it is capable of what I said in my four points. It is the strongest Rocket launcher in the game for most situation, and you guys complain about it. Like what about the lancer says weak. 1) It is dumb fire, but it has a crazy fast projectile speed! 2) It does low damage, but that is the same damage as the other lock on rocket launchers. 3) It has a charge up time, but lock on rockets have a lock time. 4) It has lower damage than the other dumb fires, but you have two rounds in a magazine and it is easier to aim. So other than it only holds charge for a two seconds after you reach max charge. WHAT DOWNSIDES DOES YOUR SUPER WEAPON HAVE. I can show that the NC phoenix is weak if I under mine its effectiveness of the camera. By saying it is very loud and be shot down. I really don't believe the NC phoenix is weak but I can still debate it is. I can very easily show that the TR striker is underpowered after the nerf that forced you to wait for your rockets to hit. Doesn't sound like much unless you are waiting 3 seconds longer than what you needed before the nerf and you have to stand in the open, then your target moves behind a rock you lose lock and you do zero damage. All you VS can complain about is that your launcher doesn't tell you what is capable of unless you test it out.
All of the ES weapons are rather lackluster. Their reception was poorly received, and they damaged the balance of the game for months. All 3 sides think their launcher is terrible and insist that the other ES launchers are great, but really, they are all very situational weapons. I'm not saying they are bad weapons, but you won't find yourself using them beyond certain specific situations. In this, they are balanced, and the lancer is fine. Can't buff the lancer without buffing the pheonix and striker as well.
1) yes it is probably good at annoying targets at long range. 2) first problem, if you are being rocket podded by any sort of competent pilot then you will not live the full 3 seconds (i just tested this in VR) it takes to reach full charge with ONE shot and one charge shot is not enough to kill anything. if he is hovering he is stupid and i kill those with my decimator (just got a mossy a few minutes ago), the ONLY case where the lancer is better is when they are hovering a long distance away and as soon as he moves you are screwed because the lancer does not have the rate of fire (especially when charged) to find how much you need to lead a target. 3) 8 shots. not counting reloads that is 24 seconds AT LEAST of charging shots. with reloads included that now becomes at least 36 seconds. how many aircraft are going to linger around for more than half a minute to let you kill them? i don't know of many. lock on launchers do take just as long BUT you don't have to lead targets. the lancer shots are very fast but any aircraft that isn't stationary will require some lead and the scope is far too narrow for that to happen on any but the slowest of targets. add in the fact that you only have a short window to take your shot and leading becomes almost impossible. 3 shots to kill with my decimator is 11.4 seconds, yeah it is difficult to hit with but you are still talking about hitting slow moving or stationary aircraft which aren't any harder than the moving tanks that i hunt. 4) why do you need to lock on to a close range target? ALL of the vehicles are big targets. so big in fact that in close quarters you most likely don't even need to lead your shots because they will hit the back end anyway. the only vehicle i ever need to lead a significant amount at close range is harassers (this is all with respect to my decimator). how often do you hit harassers with a fully charged shot? 1)and an incredibly slow refire rate. 2)other lock on launchers can accurately hit moving targets. 3)again lock on rockets gain the ability to track moving targets from the time spent. 4)two rounds that take 3 seconds to charge along with 4 seconds to reload making it an average of 5 seconds per shot which is only slightly better than the decimator at 5.7 now for your numbers. according to the planetside Wiki: http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Rocket_Launchers#NS_Decimator which seems to be up to date with the in game stats i am looking at right now the lancer has a top damage of 750 (this is with full charge at under 400m) the VS lock on launchers do 1000 damage. the VS lock on launchers also take about 2 seconds to lock a target which is much quicker than the lancer. so quicker "charge up", more damage, and they follow moving targets (when was the last time you got a moving harasser with a charge up shot?). the overall rate of fire for lock on rockets is significantly slower but again they hit harder and can track moving targets. the targets you talk about the lancer being "good for" are the lowest common denominator. they are the vehicles that i easily cull from the herd while i am hunting real threats. if you get 8 of them i suppose you could surprise a stationary liberator off in the distance, but then you are dedicating 8 people to killing ONE aircraft and two scythes could easily do that job. you are trying to compare it to the worst aspects of all the launchers, and when you do that yes, it is better than a dumbfire launcher that takes 2 seconds to charge, has a flight speed of 60m/s, get's jammed by smoke / flares, and only does 1000 points of damage. that would be because the launcher i described would be an unusable pile of crap. so let's do this one by one then: lock on launchers vs. lancer: ROF: lancer wins time to lock target or charge shot: lock on launcher wins damage per shot: lock on launcher wins ability to hit fast targets: lock on launcher wins long range shots: lancer wins ability to surprise target: lancer wins vs. flares / smoke: lancer wins looks like the lancer won more than it lost, but let's look at what those wins add up to ROF is very good and does a lot for the lancer BUT is negated by it's low damage. long range would also be very good if it could reliably hit anything that moves, as is it will just annoy targets until they back into cover, leave, or hunt down the nuisance. the ability to surprise a target would be an outright bonus if the lancer were capable of doing anything significant with the surprise. now for flares and smoke, this would be good EXCEPT when people pop flares or smoke this means they feel threatened and as a result they also move which the lancer has issues with so you will likely miss anyway. now for dumbfire launchers: ROF: lancer win (but the difference is is between 0.2 and 0.7 seconds so the lancer just barely squeaks by) time to charge: dumbfire launchers win damage per shot: dumbfire launchers win ability to hit fast targets: dumbfire launcher wins (slower shots but you don't have to zoom in and charge, so you can estimate lead and hip fire it) long range shots: lancer wins ability to surprise target: lancer wins vs. flares / smoke: neither suffer against the dumbfire rocket launchers the lancer is even more thoroughly screwed. it's ability to surprise a target is only marginally better because it requires 3 seconds to charge and even with that it only does slightly more than half damage and it has absolutely no hope of maintaining the DPS of any dumbfire launcher. in this case the only thing it has is the ability to pester stationary targets at long range but if you learn the shot drop dumbfire rockets can do that, in fact today i was standing on a cliff on top of the crown dropping rockets on tanks that were sitting down at TI Alloys. the ONLY thing a lancer can reliably do better than any of the dumbfire launchers is hit stationary aircraft that are off at a distance, such aircraft are unlikely to be a threat.
You clearly don't know the resist on the lancer and lock on rockets. If you keep up with rockets before they change the damage you would know that lock on do 1500 damage, dumb fire does 1700, decimator does 2000. They lower the damage to make flak armor more viable for surviving direct hits as heavies. They kept the effectiveness of the rockets against armor. So that 1000 really does 50% more damage than what it says and thus 1500. Oh guess what 1135 times 1.5 is, about 1700, damage of dumb fire. What is 1335 times 1.5, 2000, damage of decimator. And the Lancer was originally had different resist so they left it alone. Lancer at charge 3 does 750 damage to infantry but to armor it does double damage, 750 times 2, 1500, guess what the same damage as lock on. Oh what is the health of a MBT 4000, but all sides have armor, rear armor is the weakest and is the same for all factions, 30% reduction in damage. What is 1500 times 0.7, 1050, a four shot kill. What is 2000 times .7, 1400, a three shot kill. ESF have 3000 health. They take 75% more damage from heavy ordnances like dumb fires. Default dumb fire does 1700 times 1.75 is 2975, almost a guarantied kill. Decimators does 2000 time 1.75, 3500, over kill. ESF take 15% less damage from medium ordnances like lock on, AV turrets, Max AV weapons. Lock on does 15% percent less damage, so 1500 times .85 is 1275, two shots leaves the ESF with 450 health or 15% percent of their health, enough to put it on fire. Lancer only does 70% more damage to ESF instead of double damage it does to tanks, so 750 time 1.7 is 1275, huh the same as a lock on. Liberators have 5000 health they use to take bonus damage to heavy ordnances but I don't know if they still do after the update since the decimator no longer two shots them. I am fairly sure lock on rockets do same damage. Liberators have a 55% resist to medium ordnances. Lock on launcher does 1500 times 0.45 which is 675, an 8 shot kill. The lancer ends up doing 675 too. The data I got the resistance from http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Vehicle_armor_and_damage_resistance, it isn't up to date but if you kept up from the updates you would know what you need to know. I guess I didn't explain myself enough when it comes to ESF, there is a big difference between how easy it is to hit an ESF with the lancer over the dumb fire. If he is hovering like an idiot then he can die from a dumb fire if he doesn't dodge it. If he is slowing down for a strafe, you can easily hit him with the lancer over dumb fire. Are you going to hit a speeding ESF with the Lancer, no. But you can hit ESF with lancer much more often than a dumb fire. And if the ESF doesn't see you, he doesn't get a warning he is going to take the same damage as a lock on. Another thing you fail to realize is that you don't have to look at your target for those 3 second charge. And you are likely to die to rocket pods from needing the two second lock on ESF that you can't charge behind cover and that you give the ESF the big fat warning of lock on. When I get in an ESF, I don't fear lock on rockets unless there are multiple sources of damage, if I see that I am getting locked and I after burner away, if they were using the lancer then I wouldn't get a warning, good thing you VS think it is useless. Liberators are easy targets to lancer since they are big and slow, but a moving liberator is still hard to hit with dumb fire. Of course sitting still liberators are easy to hit, but any liberator that has eaten a dumb fire rocket isn't going to staying still. And your argument of it taking a very long time to kill a lib is pointless because rarely is a single heavy every going to take out a lib with any launcher because lock on take for ever and dumb fires are too random. Now when I was talking about the lock on rocket at close range, the lock on doesn't matter, you end up dumb firing the lock on. If you have a lock on and there is a tank drives right next to you, you aren't going to go run all the way to a terminal to switch up to dumb fire rockets. Your going to just going to dumb fire the lock on rocket on you even if it does less damage. Also in case you didn't know, lancer doesn't need to zoom it to charge. And you say that you can easily lead fast moving targets with the dumb fires, I guess you never had a harasser or tank dodge you dumb fires, I have so I can say from that happening that dumb fires are not good for fast moving targets. And apparently you say it is hard to lead an vehicle with a projectile that travel 800 meter per second when fully charged. And easy to lead a vehicle with a projectile that on goes 115 meters a second. Do I have to say that doesn't make sense. Also you failed to look at the reserve ammunition of the Lancer verses other rockets, you literal carry twice as many rockets as the decimator, and while those rockets do less damage than the decimator, you carry two of them so you end up carrying 50% more damage with you than the decimator. I think you also fail to realize how overpowered the lancer can become if used in groups. 4 heavies could kill a heavy tank from the side with the heavy tank having only 3 seconds to react. It took the 4 heavies actually 6 seconds to kill because it was three seconds before the first charge. You waste one magazine in process. Lock on rockets also give the one two punch to tanks when in groups of 4, but they take two seconds to lock giving the tank 2 seconds to react (of course the tanker will underestimate the danger of a lock). And then they have to reload taking 5.2 seconds. And then they have to lock again taking two seconds to lock again and at this point the tank knows that if those hit he is dead. You shoot and then have to wait for the rockets to hit the target before it dies. You also use two magazines. So what do we have here. 4 Lancers- 3 seconds of warning. 6 seconds to kill. Use one magazine. 4 ground lock on- (9.2 seconds plus time it takes rockets to hit target) warning and time to kill. Uses two magazines. Him which one is stronger for teamwork against a zerg. Now lets say you have the kings of aiming decimators. You shoot, and immediately reload. Taking 5.7 seconds. Then you fire again and wait for the rockets to hit. Two magazines used. Time to kill and time of warning-5.7+ (distance/60) seconds. Any distance longer than 18 meters would have a longer time to kill than the lancer. Now it really only would take 6 decimators to kill those tanks so you only needed 3 heavies with godlike aim and assuming the enemy tank didn't dodge the painfully slow projectile. Even though you need less shots to kill you still used 50% more ammo than the lancer. Also keep in mind this is from the side, you would insta-gib a tank if it was the rear. So 4 lock ones to the rear giving only a lock on warning for 2 seconds plus time it takes rockets to hit. Or 4 lancers that give no warning and take 3 seconds to kill. So the lock on loses even at time to kill at ranges beyond 100 meters. Another thing you probably don't know is that there is a limit to lock on range. Ground lock on max range was decrease to 300 meters in PU02. Any range beyond that and your lancer clearly is best. Air lock on range was change to 450 meters so the lancer is also better than lock on air rockets at those ranges.
take a moment and look at my stats. you don't get over 1700 vehicles killed by only firing on stationary targets. at close range the Decimator is far better for hitting fast targets because you don't have to watch them escape while you spend 3 seconds charging your shot. if they are moving at high speed lock on launchers beat both because they take less time to lock than the lancer AND they follow the target so the targets speed doesn't matter. the vehicle resistance was an oversight on my part. i also outright admitted that the lancer generally outdoes everyone on stationary or slow (in other words stuff that probably isn't going to threaten you) ranged targets this was specifically because i tested in the VR room and noted how short lock ranges are. as far as your weapon switching BS there is an NS launcher that locks both air and ground targets the only thing it won't do is dumbfire so it won't help with MAX suits. so that argument is null and void. lock on launchers are by nature the worst for high damage rapid strikes so stop wasting time using them as a comparison point. they are for high speed targets that are difficult to hit like harassers (the stuff lancers are not likely to hit). now for faction aircraft. how many of those are going to sit around and wait for that second shot? in my experience as soon as they take significant damage they hit the throttle and probably pull into a high G turn. so what happens after you spend your next 3 seconds charging? they don't need to pop flares (which take time to recharge) they just need to throttle up for a bit (which they can do as much as they want). number of hits required is all that matters and if the lancer requires more than one but can't ever get more than one it is a fail weapon. so lock on weapons win with high speed craft (because they can still hit) and dumbfire win against low speed craft (because they can do the job in one shot). LIBERATORS! from what i am reading in your posts it looks like you are only firing at the libs that i would take shots at with my decimator because THEY ARE SLOW. now for you hiding in cover while you charge, it is a good tactic i do the same thing when i reload my decimator, BUT if they are really pounding on you then any competent gunner will get you with splash damage at some point during your 36 second battle or the pilot will notice that he is taking damage 20 seconds in and fly away to repair with 16 seconds to spare. again you aren't killing anything, just like the ESF. where a decimator can do the job in 11.4 seconds so they will either leave sooner or die in less than a third of the time it took your lancer. we could look at herds of heavies again. i will even give you the 3 to 4 handicap. 3 decimators, oh look the lib exploded. 4 lancers, spend 3 seconds charging, pop out and fire heavily injuring the liberator, the lancers go back to cover to charge for another 3 seconds giving the pilot a chance to fly away, the gunner a chance to pick off some of the heavies, or the lib could do both. as soon as the liberator is actually moving it belongs to the lock on launchers. now for your best case scenario a stationary max altitude liberator: after the first couple shots he begins moving in slow circles and since you have to aim the shot more than a second ahead to account for lead you spend several seconds trying to correct your shots without knowing if you are shooting ahead of or behind him. all this time if he has a fire suppression or nanite repair he can easily fix the liberator entirely. then you connect another shot by luck, effort, or skill aaand he changes his flight path or speed slightly requiring you to start over entirely. even if you are the ultimate lancer master after around 20 seconds he leaves to go repair and comes back, which i will admit is more than most launchers can accomplish but still an incredible waste of time. now for your herd of heavy assaults attacking tanks. why do the lancers get 4 but the Decimators only get 3? second why are these morons fighting tanks from the front? heavies that willingly attack tanks from the front are morons. but let's go ahead and take your numbers and instead apply them to the rear arc of a tank (where a proper ambush should be). wow they BOTH kill the tank and the decimator did it with a smaller group and the shot speed doesn't matter because IT WAS AN AMBUSH and the target wasn't aware until the attackers were ready. what would happen if there were only 3 lancers in the rear arc? what would happen if the tanks decided to press 'W' or 'S'? like i said the lancer does have long range (even if damage diminishes after 400 meters), but it is a very poor choice for any moving target because you have to entirely guess on the lead since the rate of fire is not nearly high enough to guide shots in PLUS past a certain range you won't be able to see where the shot went (in front of or behind the target). my decimator tells me exactly how much i missed by so that i can make proper corrections even at extreme ranges where blast effects don't render. now imagine one of the launchers that does have a little bit of flight speed. the lancer might have the potential for more damage, but it doesn't matter because most of the time you can't hit with that damage and it is so spread out over time that any competent vehicle driver will kill you first. my decimator can kill a harasser that is actively attacking me or someone near me in around 6 seconds. how would the lancer fair? an ESF catches me in the open with a rocket barrage i snap off one quick shot before i die, i might kill him. does the lancer have that possibility? i am being hunted through cover by a MBT if i time my shots properly and guide the tank well i can take him out in 11.4 seconds. how long would a lancer have to survive assuming he was able to land only rear aspect shots?
With your complaint of the 4 lancer users and the 3 decimators users hitting a tank from the front. I will give you 2 lancer users and two decimator users hitting it from the rear. Lancer- 3 second charge, fire (you do 50% of tanks health), 3 second charge, fire ( tank is dead) Decimator- fire (you do 67% of tanks health), 5.7 second reload, fire (you kill it after waiting for the rounds to hit) Lancer wins time to kill if target is more than 18 meters away. Now you may complain that projectile speed doesn't matter because the tank doesn't know the rocket is coming because it is an ambush, I could use the same argument for the first charge. So here are your choices, use time to kill in which your decimator loses if your farther than 18 meters away, or use how long the tank knows it has been ambush which is 5.7 seconds with decimator verses 3 seconds with lancer. I really don't understand how you find shooting a moving target easier with some thing that goes 60 meters per second over the 800 meters per second. If you have a target fast moving target like a harasser 60 meters away (I would call this medium range). It would take you one second of lead to hit with decimator, and only .075 seconds to hit with the Lancer. Your reason for being able to use the decimator over the lancer is because your decimator tell you how much you missed by. You also said you can't lead the lancer because rate of fire is too low. So let me get this strait, you prefer the decimator because when you miss you can see how far off your shot was while you are going through the long 5.7 second reload. While you SHOULD BE less likely to miss your first shot on the lancer because your projectile speed is 13.34 times faster than the decimator. Also you get 3 seconds till you make your second shot with the lancer when it would be 5.7 seconds for the second shot on the decimator. Now how do you complain about it being hard to lead with a 800 meter per second projectile speed when that is far faster than all sniper rifles other than the rail jack. And yet you claim you can lead well with a 60 meter per second rocket. Only explanation is that you are so good at leading a slow weapon that you can't lead a fast one. Now how you never had an enemy dodge decimator shots I have no idea. I use the faster flying default dumber fire and I still have hovering ace pilots dodge them. Now apparently you play in a server where no one tries to dodge the slowest projectile and you are the king at aiming with your decimator. Now I guess I can't explain the usefulness of 800 meters per second speed to someone who is so used to leading a decimator with 100% accuracy, and never had someone see this slow moving rocket and dodge it or have them dodge it on accident. Now since that projectile speed means nothing to you then I also can't explain why the lancer is useful against air targets. If you had a need for projectile speed then I could tell you can hit targets moving at far faster speeds compared to dumb fire. Now since you don't have to worry about liberators doing circle around you dodging your slow firing rockets. And since you know just how much to lead with 100% accuracy. Then I can't be able to tell that the lancer rounds can't be dodge, and that they are much more easy to lead with high accuracy, but since you never have liberators dodging shots or miss lead your decimator. So what I am saying is that you are so good at using decimators and you never ran into it downsides that you are INCAPABLE of understanding why would anyone use the lancer over a dumb fire.
no not 100%, i am currently at 61% with over 1,000 shots fired on the decimator and 56% with over 3200 shots fired on the S1 (go ahead and look at my stats, the link is right in the top of my signature). all of my rocket launchers are around the 60% accuracy range. this all includes shots fired at flying liberators and ESF (generally i only fire at low hovering ESF, but it is hilarious to watch them pop in the air from a single shot) you like numbers right? you were off by around 40%. your attempts to discredit me aren't as effective as you expected now are they, you ended up being too close to the truth with your sarcasm. so again yup you can hit liberators, and any liberator pilot with more than two braincells to rub together is going to walk away or kill you 20 seconds into your 36 second battle. so yes you can hit a liberator with spit wads, way to put the "suck" into success. 11.4 seconds leaves the liberator much less time to respond and if he is moving at significant speed use a lock on launcher and make his ability to dodge irrelevant. harassers! yup i have to lead him about a second ahead and your shot has generally negligible lead but how about we add the 3 second charge time to your 0.075 seconds, NOW in reality the 1 second flight time is substantially better than 3.075 seconds. i can hit a harasser that is simply driving by with almost no warning and i have, but again lock on launchers beat both hands down because they follow the target and completely ignore any required lead AND they do it faster than the lancer. i stuck to the decimator mostly because it is what i know best. yes the trail on the decimator tells me exactly how much the shot missed by and 5.7 seconds isn't a problem because 99.9999% of players only change their maneuvers when they feel threatened. this means that until they take a hit they will continue on their path so i can very easily rely on the information i acquired 5.7 seconds ago. where the lancer hits them with a spit wad and then they know to change tactics or it misses and you have no cue whether it went short or long. and again if they can be used lock on launchers beat both hands down because they don't have to guess lead. yes if i am firing directly at the face of a target from a decent range then yes they can dodge, but do know what else is on the front of tanks THE HEAVIEST PORTION OF THE ARMOR, and targets that are staring at you probably also have GUNS pointed at you. so if my targets see my shots that means they have most likely seen me because they were looking in my direction.
Was I trying to discredit you, no. I just guess from your comments that you had high accuracy with the decimator thus you wouldn't understand why someone would use the lancer. I of coarse I didn't think you had 100% accuracy, but 60% is enough to make almost any lock on worthless since the dumb fire does more damage. Considering you said that you reliably put decimator rounds into liberators basically explains why you don't think the lancer is a good tool. If you are that accurate with the decimator and you never really have liberators dodge your shots (I have had libs dodge my shots, and it wasn't the slow decimator ether) then it makes sense that you think the lancer worthless. Now your comment on the travel time on the decimator at 60 meters being better than the lancer because the lancer has to charge. I don't know if you really understand that you can still follow your target when your charging so that lead is still only .075 seconds, I find the NC have a similar time failing to realize the strength of the rail jack. But I did that comparison at only 60 meters. Now if I did the same test but at 180 meters (long range but not extremely long range) you would find that lead time on the decimator is 3 seconds, the same time as the lancer charge time. 180 meters is where I typically find liberators circling at if they are not dumb enough to hover. Any good situational aware liberator pilot would be looking for those slow flying rockets because of the threat they pose if ignored. Also any good liberator pilot should be able to dodge your decimator in the three seconds it takes to land a shot. Now since you never had this problem, I guess you rarely go up against a situational aware Lib crew. Funny thing is that even level 100's are not always situational aware thus fall prey to your decimator, what I don't understand is why they don't just fly away since you just took a third of their health. 11.4 seconds is more than enough time for a lib to flee. Now I am not surprised at your ability to hit hovering ESF, only problem is that if the ESF is a good situational aware pilot then (s)he should be able to dodge all of the decimators you shoot at him/her. I have hit a lot of ESF with the default dumb fire rocket that has a far faster travel speed than the decimator. But even with that I have ESF literally moving casually out of the way of the rocket. I just don't understand why you never ran into that problem. Now the lancer is very unique and I find it best to compare to lock on launcher because it shares their damage and if you practice with them enough then you would find their accuracy near the same as a lock on. Now you apparently didn't master the lancer so you don't view it as accurate as a lock on. The only targets you should miss with the lancer is fast flying ESF that are not ground pounding. Everything else doesn't move as fast as the ESF and at such range with such a small profile. Liberators move a lot slower, are less mobile, and a lot bigger target, so you really shouldn't miss them with some thing that moves faster than all but rail jack bullets. Harassers move considerably slower than ESFs but carry the same size profile, but are typically not at the huge ranges of the ESFs. I really don't understand why you have trouble leading with the lancer, maybe the three seconds to charge just messes you up. Since the lancer if properly used should be as accurate as a lock on, I think it is fitting to compare it to lock on. So three second charge time loses to 2 second lock time, but if the lock on takes longer than one second in flight then the lancer wins in the time between aim and damage. Now lock on rockets get to reload as soon as they fire, so the seconds per rocket for lock on is 7.2 seconds. Now if I compare the lancer that is 3 seconds per rocket and one reload per two rockets, meaning the lancer seconds per rocket is 3-8 seconds, the average is thus 5.5 seconds. The lancer also doesn't get affected by vehicle stealth, flares, IR smoke, or the lock on warning. Another advantage of the lancer compare to locking on ground rockets is that it can target targets farther than 300 meters, you can't lock on to ground targets beyond 300 meters, so for the ranges between 300 and 400 meters the lancer will do full damage and is the most accurate launcher at those ranges. Now we both believe there is a damage drop between 400 and 500 meters, but I really don't know what is the damage of the lancer beyond 500 meters, I don't render targets that far so I can't test. I wonder if you know? Also the lancer has one advantage that I think should be nerfed and that is its reserve ammunition. Carrying 50% more damage on your heavy than the decimator is a big advantage and if you say that doesn't matter then why is there an ammunition pouch cert line if extra rockets is so useless. Also the ammunition pouch even stacks with the lancers crazy ammo amount.
i don't use the ammo pouch. i stick to the grenade bandolier, because hitting hard and fast is far more important when attacking heavy armor. grenades can be thrown far faster than any launcher can be reloaded. when fighting ground targets any time ANY other weapon works i will use that before i will spend time reloading my decimator or any launcher. so the order of operations is rocket first, then all 4 grenades, finally the hunter crossbow with explosive bolts, and then i will reload the launcher to fire again. if the target is stationary C4 gets planted before all of the other attacks and the rocket is aimed so that the blast will catch the charges and set them off. also like i said before the lancer always wins the range game, but it can't do enough damage to kill anything in a timely manner so all they have to do is move behind cover or advance on you. the same is also true for liberators. and yes after the first hit from the decimator they do usually run, which means they have been removed from the fight in a very timely manner. my statements may have been misleading. i do regularly hit liberators, but i almost never kill them with the decimator because they run away, which like i said still means they are no longer offering fire support. i prefer to close the gap and end ground targets quickly and decisively. far more risky but also many times more likely to get the job done. i see lock on launchers as tools for destroying vehicles that are moving too fast to lead by standard means. in general for ground targets i have little or no desire for any lock on launcher either, i don't think anyone in my outfit uses them. lock on launchers are, in my opinion, for aircraft (in general against aircraft i stick to my skyguard because it is far better at the job and isn't limited by flares, range, or speed of the target [ok high speed targets do take a moment to find lead on]). in short the lancer may be functional if you properly manage to master it but there are many other ways to do the job that are far easier.
I find lock on ground rocket useful when attacking moving tanks 100 or so meters away, 100 meters really is that far in tank battles. I find that the tanks typically dodge my dumb fire rockets, especially the Magrider dodge them by strafing. I really wouldn't need the lock on ground launcher if I had the lancer. I find lock on and the lancer useful when you need really high accuracy and something that can't be dodge. If you think about it, 4 lock on ground heavies from the rear could insta-gib tanks with only one lock, and that would have near 100% success, most tanks would not expect to die to only one lock. The lancer could do the same thing except it gives no warning, and you can kill the second tank 3 seconds after you kill the first one, the lancer also has a faster fire rate average of 5.5 seconds per rocket verses the 7.2 second of the lock on. Now I think the reason your outfit doesn't use lock on ground thus would use lancer, is because your outfit is too good with dumb fires to need them. Now even a perfectly place shot of a dumb fire can miss because it was dodge, but not many in planet side 2 have good situational awareness, thus you never run into people dodging your dumb fires (It could also be because you never have to fight a strafing tank because you are vanu). Now you suggested use of grenade bandolier with AV grenades, and to combine that with rockets and explosive crossbow, to extreme damage quickly. Typical the tank can move just a little bit and avoid the grenades all together, but if you run into a sitting tank, your strategy works well. I just might never use it because if I can get it with AV grenades I could probably get it with my c4 drifter light assault. Both are great for killing people not paying attention, and both take up a lot of infantry resources. Now you said munitions pouch wasn't as useful as grenade bandolier. Apparently you never have been by your self trying to take on a tank that won't show you its rear. The rocket launchers don't have enough reserve ammo to take on only on tank from the front. Now I know you are going to say go to the rear, but there are situations where you can always get the rear of tank. I personally don't use ammunition pouch because I didn't buy it yet. I typically don't use my heavy against tank unless there are several heavies with me, otherwise I only use heavy to deter air with the lock on air, or have a chance to kill aircraft with dumb fire if the aircraft doesn't dodge. I also use my heavy to take on max and sundies. This has been a really nice conversation (other than some miss communications that were my fault).
Lancer is good actually, it don't need a buff. It deal nearly the same damage per shot as the anihilator but : -No warring/flares -Can be charged from cover -More alpha strike -More range [~700m] -Can shot infantery/MAXes That's not the thread, but if one ES RL have to be changed, I think it's the striker. (because of its silly gameplay/lock on ability.)
The only issue with the lancer... is it isn't obvious about it's awesome... (which in my book is a win) The drawbacks of the weapon are great, overcome by skill, and incredibly useful for masking the sheer disco capability of the object. People complaining about the lancer, just need a little guidance and some teammates. Actually... Lasher kind of falls in the same category of awesome. Great in groups, horrible if solo.
i suppose. i do use a lasher and agree on that point. i guess the best description for my play style is a stealth/ambush heavy which generally requires me to be alone or only with 1 or 2 out of my outfit (any redshirts that follow me either get used as a distraction while i do the real work or get me killed because they drew attention to me). regardless something like the lancer has no hope of fitting my play style, also the lancer has no blast radius, so it can't be used to touch off my C4 like other launchers. 2x C4 + 1x Rocket = one obliterated sunderer with no time to repair, armored sunderers take a little more effort. the lancer just takes far too long to dish out damage and requires timing that is far too precise.
