Tips for dealing with Harrassers?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Nehlis, May 5, 2020.

  1. Nehlis

    This isn't a "Waaah OP" whine post, literally just asking for tips on how to deal with harrassers as either infantry or as a non harasser vehicle. I don't have G2G lockons on my heavy yet, and I have a hard time hitting them with AV engie turrets or dumbfires. I don't have a good track record with hornet missiles on ESF or landing tank shots at anything past close range.
    Before the inevitable and obvious git gud, any tactics or strategies anyone can share?
    The only reason I don't use a harasser myself is I don't have anyone to roll with.
    • Up x 1
  2. Johannes Kaiser

    Put tank mines near your feet while standing out in the open. Harry drivers with a minimum of respect for fellow players and some awareness as to potential dangers will have you shot by the gunners. Most of them lack both and will try to roadkill you. Enjoy ensuing BOOM and the suicide notice in the knowledge that the driver who just dies to that will almost break their keyboard in rage (Harrasser mass-roadkillers are generally the kind of people who are not used to not getting their way).
    • Up x 6
  3. Liewec123

    the secondary crossbow (with explosive bolts) actually deals pretty awesome damage to harassers,
    i always have it as a secondary so i can deal some av damage on any class,
    but its really good for helping to take out harassers!

    also if anyone is playing TR i find MCG absolutely melts harassers :)
    • Up x 4
  4. Trebb

    Are you using Vanu Hornets? Those are waaay easier to hit with, especially at close range compared to the other 2 factions (don't ask).

    AV turret takes practice, keep at it. I think it's RIDICULOUS that I hit a harasser the other day with 4 turret missles and it didn't die with seat repairs only. Thing is just a tad too tanky. Default lib gun works as well, try to sneak up on them when they're damaged.

    Saving my favorite for last. Invis ANT. Go where you know the harassers retreat to repair, ram them head on while invis to ruin their day. It's always a one hit kill if they're even near full speed. The rage tells these entitled players send make your day worthwhile.
    • Up x 2
  5. TRspy007



    hornets are ns, it's the laser guided missiles that wreck mbts and stuff.



    Honestly, the lol-pods are more versatile, so as air you should be using that to deal with threats. The A2A noseguns or A2G if you are TR/NC works fine too.


    The ant is big cheese, you can pretty much destroy everything in the game by ramming into it, and since it becomes invisible....yeah, definitely something to invest in, if you're that type of guy lol.
  6. NotziMad


    (these are just my personal tips, I don't mean to say that these are 100% true, valid, effective and absolutely awesome)



    (although I think they are !:p)




    In order of priority / importance.


    1. (most important)

    Adapt your weapon to the situation and in particular to the distance between you and the harrasser and its movement (or lack of movement).



    Anything that does damage, anything at all, anything, will damage a Harrasser. Dealing effectively with a Hararasser is first and foremost a matter of choice of weapons.


    That means, you don't just run after it shooting your infantry gun.

    or

    You don't just fly over with your LA hoping to drop some c4.

    or

    You don't simply sit in your vehicle (sundy?) gun and shoot.

    All those things and more can work, but you don't "just" do that.





    2. "intel"


    Who are you fighting? And I don't mean whether it's a communist terrorist, a drug addict long haired anarchist or s short, fat, spotted kid with 200 kilograms of gel on his hair..

    I mean who's in the Harrasser? Is it one guy? Just one guy? or does he have a gunner? are they 3?

    Cause that changes everything, literally, it's not the same figh depending on how many players are riding it.




    3. Playing chicken.


    Most noobs feel over confident in a Harrasser. They will sit 5 meters from you and shoot and shoot no matter what. They only start panicking when it starts to burn (that's when they usually boost away fast as they can while very often crashing into a tree and dying).

    Some noobs will be suicidal, so this won't work.

    More experienced players will decide whether to "go all the way" or "play it more safe" depending on the situation.

    For example, if they are attacking a damaged sundy in a fight that only has that sundy, they will want to kill that sundy at all costs even if it means dying and losing the Harasser, what matters to them is that their target dies.


    So there are different situations which each have better "strats";

    -> play chicken, ie, hes shooting , your shooting, first one to give in loses. Harrassers can dish out a lot of damage, but at the same time they are "pretty" (though I don't think there's anything pretty about it) squishy. Very often, a Harasser driver and/or gunner will be focusing on his target, not really noticing the damage he's taking until the green icon becomes "red" and he's like "oh **** oh ****".

    That means that in a game of chicken, if the dps / HP are more or less even, you'll tend to win and worst case scenario, he'll **** off somewhere and go repair. What often happens is they only realise that they are going to die when it's too late.


    -> the suicidal ones have to die, whatever it takes, because if you ingore them they will damage you or your vehicle but at the same time, they will be easier to kill. go all out on them, the best is c4 because of the instant high (surprising) damage

    With this kind of players. If you're in a tank and its low, never mind, keep shooting. If you're in ja sundy, don't waste time repairing, shoot, c4, rocket, whatever, but either he dies or you do (and he should die because of being so reckless).



    Experienced players who wana kill you at all costs, same as the suicidal ones, kill them ASAP and if you're in a sundy, be read, once the Harrasser is destroyed or simply burning, to take down the LA that will fly over and try finish the job.



    4. More relevant, specific "hands on" advice


    1. Like I said, anything that causes damage in the game will damage a Harrasser. That includes infantry small guns (which don't damage lbierators, sundies, MBT, turrets etc)

    However, infantry guns don't do a lot of damage. Use these when there are no other options, even if it doesn't do much damage, do it anyway, every little bit helps, especially if you got one or two allies in the area also shooting. I did some testing a while back, but my memory is hazy so this just an estimation, but basically, you could say that :

    1. Shooting a rocket (any rocket) and then reloading your launcher is (more or less the same) as shooting an LMG (any LMG) and then reloading).

    What I mean by this is that the Time To Kill is (more or less) the same whatever weapon you use; in the time it takes you to shoot and hit with a decimator and then reload, you will have emptied an LMG magazine and reloaded. (more or less). and the damage done to the Harrasser will have been (more or less) the same.

    Basically, I pulled a Harrasser, started shooting it at with a rocket launcher, and timed how long it took for me to destroy it. Then I did the same with other weapons (in particular LMGs). What I found is, assuming you're hitting it equally, as a matter of Time to Kill, it's more or less the same.

    Which is why using one weapon over another is more situational than a question of which one is more effective. 3 main factors come into play :;

    a) accuracy
    b) sustainablity
    c) damage

    the more accurate the weapon, the easier it will be to hit the Harrasser with especially at long range. The more sustainable, the more you can keep doing damage to it as time passes and the damage well, that one's obvious.

    If you can hit it with a decimator, by all means, hit it, if you can stick a c4 on its ***, then by all means, do it, that's the best way to kill a harrasser, but most of the time, you'll miss or you won't be able to (for example if it's driving around in the distance)


    2. other tips.

    A.
    I wasn't expecting this post to be so long and I haven't even said half of what I wanted to say but I'll try wrap it up here.

    If you are defending a sunderer and you are using a slow reload rocket launcher, there's a trick (which some call an exploit, but my opinion is that it isn't an exploit and never ever ever has DBG or Rogue Games ever said anything about this and it's been used by players for years) where you stand close to where you press E at your sundy to change loadout, and then (in this order):


    a. Shoot rocket launcher
    b) swap weapons (I use hand guns but knife should or 4th one should work too)
    c) AFTER having swapped weapons, go to sundy loadout thingy and press e to select a new class
    d) select the same class (heavy)
    e) your "new" heavy will be stocked up in ammo, but more importantly, all its weapons will be reloaded instantly.
    f) shoot rocket launcher
    g) repeat

    This greatly reduces the reload time and on launchers like the decimator (that do a lot of damage but have a long reload time), this makes you pretty much over powered, I'd guess you're DPS if you're doing this is higher than a MBT.


    B. Spot the harrasser

    You wouldn't believe how usefull spotting a target is, and then, you wouldnt believe how little people do it.

    Even if you're alone against it it helps to follow him on the minimap, but the other big thing about this is that anyone in the vecinity (like a ESF flying past) will see it on their minimap and will likely engage. Chances are, if you hadn't spotted it, whoever joined in the fight wouldn't have. It really makes a big difference, it's free of charge, and on top of that, is easy to do, takes a one button press, that's it..



    C/ Burst damage.

    This is true in pretty much any pvp situation in pretty much any pvp game, and is one of the things that is very very different to PVE (it's one of the things that seperates, along with target focus and other things, PVE players from PVP players)

    Because you're fighting another "human being" and not some AI script, a lot of their behaviour will be unpredictable, since it will change from one player to another, but at the same time, many things concerning their behaviour will be even more predictable than a PVE NPC.

    In this example, if a player is at 50% health, and has been fighting for a while, he'll think to himself "I'm damaged but I'm ok, no need to panic".

    If you hit that player with a steady stream but not a very high level of damage, at one point he'll be like "ok, I need to get to safety" or something like that.

    Imagine you're in a boxing ring, and you're fighting a squishy, mobile, volaitle, high dps opponent (the harrasser, but a boxing version of it :))

    What you want to do is knock him out, and not with a steady constant stream of damage,not with a series of jabs and body blow, you're going for the head.

    The most perfect way of doing it is to place to C4 on his ***, get out of the way, and hten boom.

    C4 asside, that means you usually want to be using high impact, high damage weapons that will either kill or scare him away before he realises what hit him.

    Most commonly, just as many other pvp situations, you don't start with this, first you weaken him a bit so that the big "blow" knocks him out.


    There's tons of stuff already but this post is super long and I know no one reads long posts (including me lol) so I'll stop there.


    Last tip :

    I'm a sundy driver, and i've had to kill a million Hararssers in order to defend my sundy.

    In general, while defending a sunderer, the guns are useless. 3 exceptions : 1. for killing infantry it may sometimes be more effective to use the sundy guns.... 2. against air (if you got anti air guns), against targets, in particular vehiciles (like Harrassers) that are far away (which you won't hit with a rocket launcher).

    That said, there's something you might be interesting in knowing :


    Imagine a scenario where your in your sundy (SHIELD SUNDY), manning one of the guns (basilik) and a Harrasser with one person inside drives up.

    If you both start shooting at the same time, even if you haven't leveled up your guns' reload time, you will win.

    This is true in most situations. There are of course exceptions, but generally speaking, know that in a 1 vs 1, if you're on a basilisk and hes only one player, whatever gun he uses, you win.


    Bonus : c4 trap

    You might have seen some youtube videos, but this is the most stylish "cool" way of killing a Harrasser ;

    You place one or two c4 on the ground.
    You shoot a couplel shots at the Harrasser to "aggro him" (like a NPC mob).
    As he rushes towards you guns blazzing and honking his horn, you blow the c4 just as he runs over it.

    This trick is not that easy to pull off, but when you do, boy or boy does it make your day :)
    • Up x 1
  7. RegionLockEmerald