Flares work vs. multiple lock-ons, giving you a 5 second period that all those HAs can't do a thing. The only reason people get killed is because they don't take into account there could be someone else or the same HA locking on to them again after those 5 seconds... ie. move away/reposition yourself/etc. Also few peoples seem to watch their Flares properly, after using them up, go away, wait for them to recharge, then come back for the next pass. But who cares about lock-ons anyway... you're already dead if there's dual Bursters down on the ground... by the time the HA locks-on with the Striker, a couple of dual Bursters would have already melted your ESF. Bursters need a hard nerf to them. And they have no hard counter unlike lock-ons. Bad pilots don't do well vs. lock-ons, but good pilots almost always get away. Good pilots still get shredded and killed by Bursters though. Btw - SOE needs to fix the NS Annihilator already... its utterly stupidly broken. It would actually matter and make a difference for VS/NC forces using it, even in its nerfed state... but not when its firing blanks 2/3 or more of the time. I have no idea why I even bother trying to use it, but dozens and dozens of vapor fumes later, and months later, its still broken.
I just want to clear this up now for those who believe the bold. With GU08, all lock-ons were made much smarter when it comes to avoid terrain. I've watched my Striker rockets do a 90 degree turn after passing a building to hit a tank behind cover. Rockets are NOT going through terrain, they are just pretty damn smart right now. They are practically cruise missiles right now. Personally hope it stays this way, because the Striker has never been better than it is right now because of this. I would not be all that surprised if it gets nerfed though. And yes Im a TR player.
Tar let's face it. Now you're tossing out negative connotations to cover up low game skill levels and abysmal reading comprehension. You completely missed the four weapons that are available to every faction that I detailed. Bursters, Sky-guards, Annihilators and Manta Turrets. They are superior to the striker when it comes to quickly destroying ESF's. I have 3 TR characters and the striker is low on the list when it comes to quickly taking out tanks or ESF's, The problem isn't strikers as they are VERY EASY to avoid in my Reaver and I don't even use flares 90% of the time. I think in the last 200 kills in the Reaver I've been striker killed once. Until you grasp the strikers vast limitations you're going to get shot down by approaching at bad altitudes, angles and having crappy escape plans and you probably don't know how to juke. Just face the facts. You have a plethora of nerf this, nerf that threads. If you have zero time with firing a Striker then you are also clueless on their weaknesses and equally unskilled at avoiding them. The problem is not with the striker. I can avoid them all day. The problem is with your lack of understanding on their limitations and inabilities. When you use them you will quickly catch on that they are very situational and not nearly as effective as other weapons available to all factions. Whenever I use my Striker I can see exactly which pilots can shake the missiles off. That's probably 50-60% of pilots and I save my ammo for less experienced pilots that fly too slow too close or rely on flares. Watch other pilots. Some of them can trick strikers all day long. Running around a mountain usually does not help but understanding path prediction tracking does. They will overcompensate for any turn so just make a small turn towards the mountains and they'll generally hit it. Or the easier option is just sudden jukes or diving and watching them all hit the ground. They are predicting your path and cannot turn as quickly as you can so you simply out wiggle them and give them a solid object to hit on their wider arc.
Also, this way the Striker does not get nerfed. It just gives advanced pilots a chance to have some fun again, with a bit of cert investment, this way everyone his happy.
This is just a flying skill level issue. The better you get the less lock-ons affect you. I've gone hours in the air without flares because their are many better ways of avoiding them. Check your teams BEST pilots and tag along with one of them. Watch where, how high and how they fly. One way to fly twice as much is to make two accounts and rotate when you die. Doubles your flying time until you get good then the timeout wait is rarely an issue. Also fly in a less population continent until you get better As for strikers. I would rather run into 10 striker heavy's then 5 burster max's, or 5 sky-gaurds any day. Saying Strikers are overpowered when a burster max is 2-3 times more damaging (with zero ability to use flares) seems odd. I wouldn't care if all factions could buy strikers as they aren't the most damaging item against air.
The TR are so enthralled with this weapon that there is no way to be rational with them because they severely love their advantage over the other empires. Thats why on the waterson server both nc and vs have been coming together to fight the TR together, and a lot of the strength of the TR comes from their higher population and the overuse of the striker. I think ths is a major reason that people are migrating to play TR.
Except I never compared striker to flak. However the problem is that flak damages the plane, and the infallible striker rockets finish it. That is game breaking and makes no sense, because it magically turns the defender into attacker. In that clearly there's more Strikers than there is anything else. The rest of the statistics says nothing about AA. What you personally play for isn't really all that relevant I'm just saying that from Striker Apologist point of view, it's "we TR". It might be annoying to you but clearly lot of people use it.
Uh... no. You got it all wrong. The exact opposite is true. Bursters can be outmaneuvered and ultimately escaped from. Not so Strikers.
If you were truly concerned about balance between empires, you would listen to what players from all empires have to say. I'm not holding on to hope that you will actually read anything any TR player has to say. You are simply a forum warrior demanding nerfs so your own play experience (hoverfarm) will be made easier. I know we're all just feeding a troll here, but I will post anyway in the off chance reasonable minds are also following this thread. Let's breakdown what each launcher can and can't do, with the advantages and disadvantages of each. Striker: -Damage Infantry? No -Effective vs Infantry? No -Damage Armor? Yes -Effective vs Armor? Yes, within 400m over open terrain -Damage Air? Yes -Effective vs Air? Yes, against targets hovering or traveling at 100-300m altitude -Damage Turrets? No -Effective vs Turrets? No Advantages: -Ease of use, it's easy to hold a cross hair on a target and wait for a green light -Versatile vs vehicles, in stand off situations can target all vehicles -High DPS if all missiles hit Disadvantages: -Countermeasures (smoke and flares) completely nullify damage -Stealth (when not bugged) increases time to lock on, increasing exposure time -Requires ~5seconds to lock and fire payload -Requires center mass of a vehicle to be in LOS to obtain a lock -Lock is broken if anything comes between you and target (including friendly soldiers, which happens ALOT) -Low DPS if missles miss or are flared/smoked -Lock on gives target warning of impending damage Phoenix: -Damage Infantry? Yes -Effective vs Infantry? If the target has already taken damage, yes. If not, no. -Damage Armor? Yes -Effective vs Armor? Very -Damage Air? Yes -Effective vs Air? Depends on skill level of user and how much the target is hovering -Damage Turrets? Yes -Effective vs Turrets? Yes, especially AV mana turrets. Using one against the NC is suicide. Advantages: -Can shoot and guide ordinance from behind cover or through shields (effectively setting up a 300m null zone that enemy vehicles can not operate in, regardless of cover) -Does the damage of a Decimator -Just plain fun (increase in 4th factioners leading to population advantage on most servers) Disadvantages: -"short" range of 300m -Leaves you as sniper bait while guiding the rocket -Can be shot down (this one doesn't count until they fix the missle render issue where it flies off in a completely different direction and then magically hits you) Lancer: -Damage Infantry? Yes -Effective vs Infantry? Not really -Damage Armor? Yes -Effective vs Armor? Very -Damage Air? Yes -Effective vs Air? Depends on skill level of user and how much the target is hovering -Damage Turrets? Yes -Effective vs Turrets? Yes Advantages: -Hit scan weapon. You point, click, and target takes damage in the blink of an eye. Very hard to evade. -Long range. You can hit anything that renders. -Can charge up shots behind cover, then pop out to shoot. Disadvantages: -"Low damage" dissuades use by lone wolfers. Find a few friends with lancers, coordinate fire, and watch all targets melt before you. -Leaves a white trail to the location you fired from. All said an done, they are all balanced. Yes getting locked on to sucks. I would rather they gave TR a laser guided missle akin to the AV mana turret, but they gave that to the NC max instead. It gives faction flavor to the empires. I'm sure there are plenty of games out there for you that give you exactly the same tools no matter which team you play. Perhaps a game like that would be better for you? Oh, and I would really love to trade the Striker for the Lancer. I'm just glad most VS haven't caught on to how devastating it is.
Interesting, for me it went the other way around. I was flying with radar for ages, but recently I had to cert (and start heavily using) the flares. Does it mean I got worse at flying over time? A sound theory! Comparing with flak is irrelevant, as has been said again and again, because all empires have flak. Only TR have Striker. It's quite a simple concept really, how do people still keep repeating this nonsense as if it was an actual argument?
Since the topic is all about air, your post can be shortened quite a bit. So... You're saying you agree with me actually, correct? Striker is easiest to use (other two "depend on skill level") and ideal against air. "100-300m", right. Keep repeating that, maybe it becomes true and/or relevant. Had to laugh at the "Low damage" part. As if the parens made it less serious. "You think your weapon has low damage? doesn't matter, just get a few friends!"
Radar and Flares both create bad flying habits that you should try and break away from once in awhile. Flares give you a button to push to temporarily remove a threat but that same threat could have been diverted by tricking the rocket in flight. One trick is to only use flares after you've been hit once. This gives you practice juking them and saves your butt as using flares too early usually gets you killed as people tend to trigger them before even knowing what the threat is and identifying it Radar ties you close to the ground for long periods of time making you a predictable missile target. It also ends up being a crutch if you don't break away from it once and awhile to re-learn quick visual target acquisition. As for comparing flak it's not really irrelevant. If half of TR switched from max bursters or sky guards to strikers the air would be a safer place for me as strikers are easier to deal with. The point is that if you mass sell a faction a less useful weapon, with use that faction becomes less of a threat. Strikers might seem overpowered but in reality their use reduces the use of other forms of better anti air as one infantry can only use one weapon at a time. All the anti-air running around using strikers helps reduce the use of max bursters and sky-guards. Your thinking the zone is filled with OP strikers but you're not noticing the reduction in burster max's and sky-guards.
This is a complete fallacy. Heavies are not anti air on vs and nc, they are mainly all ground pounders. TR have the advantage of having a universal launcher that they can take wherever they go for general use. It's too versatile and too easy to use. And any pilot with their head on straight would rather deal with bursters and skygaurds over a striker because that involves user error. It takes skill to use a burster and as a pilot you can avoid it with better maneuvers and getting out of there or getting low to the ground. However when nearly every heavy in the entire combat zone has a striker there is ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE TO SAFELY FIGHT EITHER IN THE SKY OR NEAR THE GROUND. People don't just put a burster or skyguard in their back pocket. When people use a burster or skyguard they MEAN to use them for a specific purpose and that does not change between factions. The TR use just as many bursters and skyguards as everyone else AND ON TOP OF THAT THEY USE STRIKERS.
Oh ok, also TR fly noobs may be a pain in the *** for the other empires and the others dont? The bigger problem for the other two empires is, all the dual bursters and skyguards are there for them too, additional to the strikers! It seems almost every TR Heavy uses nowadays the striker. Believe it or not it is a HUGE difference now if u fly as TR or not! When i fly as TR i must almost never use my flares and if i fly with my main char (Vanu) after a couple seconds over TR territory the first lock on warning shows up......
Your server must not have AA lock on launchers, because mine sure does. Any fight of over 30 people that I fly over on matherson in my mossie, I get locked onto. Its a pain. The NC are notorious for using lock ons, and sending in some phoenixs to chase me down after I flare. In general, lock ons are a pain. When I fly VS and NC I dont fly flares, And I think I do just fine.
It's not about removing an overall ability to fight air. The problem is that the other 2 factions dont have such an effective and universal RL as TR, and thats what makes it unbalanced. Yet one possibility is that VS and NC both would get Lock-on AA MAXes - then it would be balanced again.
+1, I created a thread about the same subject a few days ago. Like you said, the Striker is so obviously effective that it has become literally universal amongst TR, what really cannot be said for NC's Phoenix and especially not for VS's Lancer. When attacking TR, there is actually SO much lock-on, that you cannot flare it out. My proposal was to remove the Air lock-on from the striker and give it dumb fire instead - this way it'll be on par with the other two ESRLs - or to give VS and NC better flaring abilities. But now another thought came into my mind. How about VS and NC get lock-on AA MAxes, like in PS1? That would kinda balance it out, wouldnt it?
