The game has a lot of balance issues, but one stands out.It's how the Striker is blatantly and unjustifiably overpowered against all that flies. So much so that it's shifting the whole air superiority situation on the maps and with that gives the TR an overall advantage, and because nobody wants to fight against it I get that ES weapons may and should not be equal but at the same time the differences between them must not be extreme. One weapon can not be extremely good at something the other empires cannot match. That however does happen to be the situation with Striker. It's also obvious from the past: Annihilator got nerfed because there was no end to its spam, but then a weapon is added which is nothing but annihilator on steroids? Whoever came up with it should be fired. But that's for another place and time. There's basically two reasons the Striker is so much power shifting than the other weapons: - It's EXTREMELY easy to use (i.e. it's popular, i.e. everyone has it i.e. the empire thrives from it) - It's universal (just like annihilator, only better) The same cannot be said for the other two ESRL: They are both far worse against air and at the same time far less universal. Using them might be fun at times, but that's all. The Striker is everywhere. The Striker must be nerfed. If not overall, then at least against air. I suggest these options, or combination thereof: - Make it not fire and forget. Like in PS1. - Shorten the lock-on range and-or the effective range (max flight time). They must not keep hitting 2 hexes away. - Make the rockets less magically smart. Currently it's impossible to hide from them, which makes no sense. - Drastically lengthen lock-on time (like twice or trice), and/or have separate time for air and for ground vehicles (air should take longer) - Nerf damage against air, so that the 5 rockets do the same damage 1 annihilator rocket does. They all hit every time anyway, so it will still not be worse than annihilator. I'm pretty sure the statistics of utility usage will show overabundance of flares and smoke. This in itself should be an indication that something is wrong. I'm writing from the position of a Scythe pilot that used to use radar until recently. It's impossible now to use anything but flares when fighting TR. Same goes for ground vehicles ofc but there it has been true since ages ago.
Sure. As long as SOE removes rocket pods from ESF's. Or did you mean "lolpodding infantry all day with impunity" with the "air game"?
Striker is only 1 faction. How does that make it the counter to rocket pods? How are rocket pods even relevant to this conversation?
Also fix the bug that makes the Striker ignore flares. Not funny when you make a run, get out with 50% health with no lockon warning due to flares and then you get popped out of the nothing from, tada, Strikers....
First off: Ever tried flying low to the ground or high in the sky instead of flying at 200 or 300m? Because Lockons just DONT WORK at those altitudes. Also, flares. If you dont want to run flares, learn how to run from lockons/ avoid them. Its not hard. My many striker kills over the past few days, were all on idiots who didnt run flares or didnt stay low or fly high. I toast to those pilots, since thats the only thing that strikers can kill that flies. Any pilot with brains laughs at my striker, and hit me while reloading.....or realize that it takes 9 rockets to kill them and just rip me up while im standing in plain sight shooting 5 rockets in 7 seconds (ish)
Remember how the TR was the most vocal and up in arms on the forums about demanding the Annihilator be nerfed? Notice how they went silent when they got the Annihilator 2.0 Deluxe Extreme edition? Suddenly, the majority of the TR is silent on the subject of "no skill" lockon weapons and their response to complaints about the Striker is L2PNoob. Go figure. I haven't encountered the Striker enough personally to classify it as OP or not but I just find the situation funny.
Every single AA launcher reaches 500m in lock-on range. Every AA specific launcher deals 1500 damage. The annihilator deals 1200. The striker deals 2500. Facts are facts. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...OSWNaanFqSUVxLWc&f=true&noheader=false&gid=75 Read this before you spread false information.
Striker deals 500 damage per rocket with 5 rockets. If you can break the lock before more than 3 rockets are fired, it is equal to other launchers.
Also, If you noticed, I simply put in generalizations for a reason I understand this: I researched this before I even bought the Striker. And its not false information. I want you to try to lock on to an aircraft flying laterally to you at less than 50 meters above your position when you are within 75 m of the ground. Only in certain parts of Esamir and Indar will you get a lock that lets you fire all five rockets. And too high means 500m ABOVE the Striker's position....where it cant lock on. Duh. Balance is more than just numbers m8. Its about practicality and how it is utilized on the battlefield. The Annihilator was considered OP because it required a lock on time of 2.5 (ish, I dont remember the exact number) seconds, and that was it. WIth the Striker, you have to stay locked in to fire all the rockets, and chances are, if the vehicle you are firing at breaks your lock, there is a good chance they are behind a mountain or something at that point, which means ZERO damage. (or 500. Sometimes you get lucky) If you dont have massive lag or a similarly handicapped brain processing speed, you should be able to avoid the Striker if you choose when and where to fight it. If they surprise you, you'll need to be a pretty darn good pilot to survive.......but you put yourself in that situation. They didn't force you to fly close to their camping spot.
It's not that Striker is overpowered against air... ...but the Striker can lock on ground too. So it's like every TR packing the striker as their G2G, which is by the way BETTER than the Skep against tanks, also has anti-air abilities
What pisses me off is when I take cover behind a mountain and I still get tagged by striker rounds. I swear they go through terrain. It's not like I see them coming after me either, I just take damage.
Sigh another one... Join a outfit that does something more than farm a biolab while you lonewolf helpless infantry. run in squads with other esf's Co-ordinate with your ground forces to help take out the Heavy's. Aiming strikers makes Heavy's very vulnerable to ground fire. Fly fast and low trees and rock formations screw up lockon tracking guidance. All lockon launchers should be used in a squad setting it's not that one guy nailed you it's was more like 12 did. you would have the same problem if squads carried any other type of lockon. If you got nailed by 1 Heavy alone before then you're a bad pilot. I am not paying another penny to SOE for guns every gun I have bought has been nerfed meanwhile Scatmaxes are still op, pheonix's are still being used as sniper rifles, VS guns are like laser pointers scythes are the best close support esf in the game. will I get any nerf's out this nope because I'm TR and my opinions don't matter.
If your "air game" consists of hitting me in the back with your rockets, my "ground game" consists of turning your *** into a pile of flaming scrap with the Striker. Doesn't matter that it is TR only - in my opinion, as long as the ESFs retain the rocket pods, ALL lockon launchers should have the same lethality. If you want ANY nerfs to the AA options in this game implemented, first we should start by nerfing the air-to-ground capabilities of the ESF - which is the single reason why current AA is so strong. Otherwise PS2 would be nothing but a giant lolpodding farm.
This. The only times I get actual kills with the Striker is: a) if I work with other AA b) if I target the oblivious hoverpodder, who regularly seem to think that *thunk* *thunk* *thunk* sound is people shooting them slingshots or something c) greedy pilots who don't run away to repair and instead trail that nice plume of smoke behind their damaged ESF screaming "HIT ME, FREE CERTS!" Against a half competent pilot, alone I can only drive them away for a little while. If there are several working in a team, I can't do a thing before they turn me into a crater.
Remove Lolpods and then tone down AA. This guy gets it Rocketpods are the reason why all Esf's must be quickly destroyed.
My highest BR account it over BR80 NC and the striker while better then the other rocket launchers is nothing compared to an AA max or even the lighting with sky-guard. I'm also TR and use the striker and it's situational and not something you're going to rake in quick air kills with. You'll get a huge increase in score per minute switching to AA max. Fly over two AA max's without a very quick way out and you can get destroyed. Same situation with two strikers and you just trigger your flares. I don't even use flares and strikers are low on the list on why my plane was destroyed.
You can take our "OP-against-aircraft" Striker off if the "OP-against-ground-vehicle" Phoenix follow. Note that I said "OP", because neither Phoenix or Striker are OP. Phoenix is powerful and useful against ground vehicles, it's just about that. Plus it does damage to infantry (and you can hit them easy). Plus you can stay on your cover. Guess what? Striker can't dumb-fire, Striker can't lock-on to turrets, Striker is not useful against ground-vehicles (unless it's a Striker squad), Striker's rockets can be easily avoided when you notice they no longer only follows the target, and that, instead, they're leaded by it, etc., etc. Stop the nerf calls, please. You're helping to kill this game. Also, I can't do anything but laugh when I read things like "oh, it does 2500 damage". That's an insult for everyone's intelligence when you can't comprehend things like what [HH]Mered4 and gggg said. I want you to tell me why most of TR players are using default rocket launchers or the Decimator when they're not working in a group of Striker users. I'm almost thinking you're one of the guys who fly low, facing Strikers, and then say they're OP because you used the flares too early, didn't get away to prevent new lock-on, died and came here to call for nerfs.
It's important to keep in mind that due to the Striker's ability to lock on to both air and ground, many of your arguments are no longer valid. Without that extremely important disadvantage, many comparisons are unable to be made to mitigate the strength of the OP's argument. Saying that "you would have the same problem if squads carried any other type of lockon." is an example of someone missing a core concept in this discussion. Any VS and NC squads equipped with G2A or G2G lock-on launchers would not have a tenth of the versatility the Striker provides. Is a squad of HA's equipped with all Hades really that scary, without any ability to deal with armor? nope While I'm not going to say anything further on if the Striker is OP or not, it's really important that you not make stupid arguments about other things when talking about if the Striker is OP or not. Complaining about rocket pods or the phoenix just looks like you're a balance whiner.
Hah a balance whiner I suppose is a person which would like to play a game that is balanced? I guess I am one then. Unlike flying clowns who think farming defenseless infantry is fun. Take away the Striker and we'll use the Grounder, deal with air just as easily and quickly AND deal with armor AND also shoot MAXes in the face and blow up turrets, something that is not an option with the Striker and the reason why most people actually use the Grounder instead. So don't talk about versatility when you clearly haven't fired a single round from the weapon.
