Phoenix was a reasonable weapon before the MBT armour increase. Now its just sad. They need to increase its damage again. Yes - increase it again.
NCPhoenix seams fine to me. You can shot targets that can't see you..so used in an organised group there frickin deadly. Just like how a MBT is screwed if it is out in the open against a group of heavys with strikers a well positioned sundy can be easily destroyed by skilled Phoenix users
Ignoring the lack of damage the weapon does they could use a velocity and maneuverability buff. Its so slow you are stuck standing there giving snipers and everyone else all the time in the world to do you in, with the the striker and lancer you can adadad all you want as you prepare to fire (but then again you need to be looking directly at the target). If it goes faster you would spend less time standing still like a VR room dummy, you could hit lightnings ESFs and harassers that get close enough and the skill ceiling for using the weapon would go up since the player would have less time to aim.
As Naithe mentioned, bringing other weapons in line with the range of the Phoenix would be preferable. Range of lock ons is too far, and the lock time is often too long to be useful at close ranges (like when an ESF is buzzing around your spawn room) where infantry based AV/AA options should shine. Lock ons can already often defend a base from the next base over because they have so much range. We need less of that, not more. If there's several NC using Phoenixes at a fight, it completely changes how armor has to engage to not die. Its presence actually changes the valid gameplay options, which is kind of cool. Unlike a Striker, it's not overly rage inducing to fight against either.
Phoenix is a fantastic weapon, it can shoot around corners, this is huge. Sure, its pretty ****** for a solo player to use but a group of 4+ players with these can wreck face. A team working together with Phoenix's can remove a well placed Sunderer in a way no other launcher can with one volley, potentially ending an entire base assault.
You guys should seriously be using the Hawk 100% of the time. We've got no AA and a ******** of AV options. Pull a goddamned Hawk I'm sick of getting strafed by Scythes that are untouched except for my AR fire! Phoenix is a joke and only good for taking out engie turrets and the engies manning them which, to be fair, it does excel at. Ten people using them in a coordinated fashion could MAYBE do as much damage as 3 LAs with rank 3 drifter jets and C4. Decimator damage with 4x the reload? Hahahaha. Oh and hop in the back of a moving flash/harasser and fire one off. By the time the projectile hits 300m you're a good 600m+ away from the point of impact and no loading screen! It was a technical limitation then but not anymore, give us some range SOE! Or better yet, give us a rail gun ESRL.
I don't get the technical limitation argument.. why would they even say this? Its like openly admitting there game engine is awful lol The problem with people (mainly TR trying to defend the striker) saying that its great in organised groups is it doesn't matter if there are 100 NC with Phoenix launchers if the enemy is 400m away over open terrain. How can we engage targets over open range with this launcher if the space between cover is more than 300m? Most of the area surrounding Suarva bio lab down to the excavation site is open terrain over a vast space, NC will know what im talking about as we currently have the top wargate. Attacking the data storage from our end if TR have it is impossible with lockdown prowlers and striker spam, nothing can approach and we have nothing to hit you with.
You are incorrect, fire a shrike, Phoenix, Decimator at a mossie in the VR and watch as the shrike and phoenix both set the mossie on fire but the decimator blows it up instantly.
Different damage multipliers against aircraft. Against ground based vehicles the Phoenix does as much damage as a Decimator, this is where the damage per shot actually counts cause you cannot 1HKO or almost 1HKO tanks with any infantry based rocket. The way the Phoenix works is the base damage is 750, so if you hit infantry it does not 1HKO. Against all vehicles except for the galaxy the Phoenix has a damage multiplier. Against ground based vehicles, to find the Phoenix's damage you mutliply 750 x 2.67. Against Aircraft (excluding the galaxy), to find the Phoenix's damage you multiply 750 x 2. This results in setting ESF's on fire, a 3HKO for Liberators, and the Phoenix only does 750 damage to a galaxy so you will not do much against that. Against tanks the Phoenix has the same amount of shots to kill tanks as the Decimator, but it is a better AV option because it has 1 more rocket in reserve, is camera guided (therefore more range and accuracy, and has the same reload speed as the Shrike (about .5 seconds faster than the Decimator). Still, the Phoenix could use some very well deserve buffs, particularly involving damage per shot (meaning they increase the damage multiplier), allow it to reload Mid-Flight so that once your rocket reaches maximum range or hits a target then you can immediately fire another rocket, assuming that your Phoenix's travel time was equivalent to or longer than the reload speed. Hopefully they can get pass the limitation on the engine and possibly extend the range of the Phoenix, because the most annoying thing about it is when the target is just 20 meters outside of your range and the rocket burns out.
People don't like using them in organized groups. The main trouble is the rockets have a high tendency to collide mid flight. This would be an easy fix, if SOE were inclined to allow it a wider FOV while in flight. Another limitation that kills it's use is that it's turning speed is that of a Galaxy. It needs to handle more like an ESF, rather than handling like a flying whale. It's a 3 pound tiny little missile, not a 4 ton steel air-boat. I would be perfectly okay with having to sit through a waiting screen if it meant meaning I could use it against air. As is you have to get REALLY lucky and find a poor pilot, sitting still for far too long firing unguided pod missiles if you want the tiniest of chances to hit an ESF. If they wanted to make this thing useful: -It needs to be able to control it's speed like an ESF, but allowing between a minimum of 150 KPH (A bit slower than the current), and a max of 250 KPH (Just fast enough that you can fire and hit an ESF before it takes off). -Additionally, it requires at least a +25% boost in turning speed. -Lastly, it needs a 2x damage bonus against Infiltrators and it needs a headshot multiplier (Even the Halberd has a headshot multiplier!). Honestly, Infiltrators are soft, fleshy, thin guys with an utter lack of body armor. How does this not make sense? And it's not like they won't see it coming from a half mile away. Its a shiny blue missile screaming like a banshee and leaving a smoke trail like a 1940's diesel engine needing a tune-up.
Yes, the rocket should go into dumbfire mode when you loose the camera connection. It needs at least a 25% boost in turning speed, and a way to speed up or slow down, to allow you to catch a target before they escape it's range. Additionally, it should get headshot multipliers, and should OPK an Infiltrator. Even the halberd has a headshot multiplier. And Infiltrators are by far the softest, squishiest of infantry (Plus, if they see it coming they can shoot down the missle with the pistol, making follow up shots near-impossible.) If an infil cloaks, and moves just a little bit, he can entirely aviod getting hit (Tough to spot a cloaked guy in that camera's view.
Excuse my ignorance because I haven't even tested it and I'm at work, but is there not a fire mode? In PS1 you had guided fire mode and dumb fire mode. I always use the decimator because I sacrifice difficulty for damage, so I haven't even looked at the Phoenix knowing it does damage.
It has dumbfire in that if you fire, then cancel out of the camera using "E", the rocket will carry on until it has traveled a total of ~280 meters from the firing point, provided it doesn't hit something. This takes a while to do (about 0.1-0.2 seconds, which in battle is a fair amount of time), and the Phoenix rockets are the only ones that can be shot out of the air. In dumbfire, if there are any infantry around on the enemy side that know that, there is little to no chance of the rocket hitting it's target. Given how far out the targets the phoenix is intended for, if the vehicle (ESPECIALLY Sunderers!) isn't unattended, it will be repaired by the time your next shot is half way to it's target. This is why the Phoenix is very much an Anti Air only type of launcher. If it's mid air, it's pretty tough to repair, no? As for ESFs, it's Nearly a one hit kill. if they're at full armor, they're set on fire (And only the very few that have the extinguisher survive the flames), if they're below 95% they die on impact. For as much time as each shot from this launcher takes to reach it's destination, OPKing is an absolute necessity. It's ridiculously tough to get an air hit, and as is you can rack up at least 3x the XP if you just run around doing anything else in a battle. If they re-add the boost it originally had, it would still be shy of the striker's level of death causing, but at least it would be decent. Not the laughing stock it is now. When they nerfed it to ****, they should have renamed it The Clown, because it's nothing but a joke. The only anti infantry use this launcher has is against Engineer turrets, as the turret takes decimator damage, and kills the engie if he's in it at the time. The Phoenix used to have a boost, so that it could actually be used against ESFs. Now that that is gone, you have to get DAMN lucky. I get about one ESF per +20 (Sometimes 30-40 or more) shots I fire at them. The Phoenix has one other use, if you know an enemy armor column is outmatched, you aim for the vehicle you think will die before the damage you do is repaired. Essentially, you're either going for a lucky kill (Rare, but not unheard of), or the far more likely, you're going for as many assists as you can bring to bare. You get a fair amount of XP for farming assists, but few if any kills. Don't be fooled though, it takes more than skill to get a decent run with this thing, it takes pure luck. The only thing that makes this a viable option, is that there are always lightnings running too far ahead for their own good.
The Pheonix should NOT be used as an AA weapon and should be used only on ground vehicles. If it moved any faster it would become overpowered and unavoidable, since you can fire it from complete safety.
I think if it will 1 shot ESFs then it needs to be much harder to control and thus a higher skill is required. Also if you get the old NC max ability from PS1 then I want the VS old ability back, you can have ZOE if you want.
Just went to retest this because the last time i used it, as soon as you exited the camera view the missile fell down like a brick. It is still the same. While it seems it flies a bit longer, you still can't get more then 50m and due to the drop you can't really hit anything unless you get lucky. And the people that say "hitting a well placed sunderer". No, you can't hit a well placed sunderer. You can hit a poorly placed sunderer that you have no los to. If it's more then half a matter behind cover your not hitting it unless you narrow down the angle a lot by flanking it (and then, like i said in my previous post, there are better options). The missile, while small handles worse then a galaxy.
I think every ES Rocket launcher is supposed to have its weaknesses. 3 bullets(maybe 1 mag) to a critical state mossy or reaver = kill.
