I'm aware that this will be receiving some changes in the near future, and look forward to seeing how much it impacts the weapon. Let me know what you all think!
Excellent video, and unless I'm mistaken I see you're using the Jackhammer a lot as well. Any tips and tricks to get some usefulness out of that gun? I've played around with it, but mostly it just feels like a bad shotgun up close and a bad SMG between 10-15m. I didn't see a video for it on your site so I'll ask here
Honestly. I wish it was a better weapon... I've been trying and trying and trying to find a use for it, but you're really just playing at a disadvantage. The niche is supposed to be at ranges slightly beyond standard shotgun range, like you mentioned... but you're still getting outclassed by every other weapon in the game there. So while the premise makes sense, the execution is flawed. The best advice I can give is to use it while ADS, and pace yourself. Keep a round chambered for the short reload time (2 seconds,) because the long reload time is going to get you killed every time (3.5 seconds.)
I think they need to change the size of the hitbox for the Phoenix for two reasons: a) it makes it way too easy to hit infantry which are moving, and b) you will frequently collide with an object which you clearly passed I don't know how many times I've thought "oh damn I missed" but still gotten a kill. Its almost too easy. They shouldn't reduce its damage against infantry but if they increase the accuracy needed to kill infantry at least we'll see a few less complaints. The biggest annoyance about the oversized hitbox is the fact that I keep managing to shoot friendlies whilst guiding missiles over them.
Yeah, same experiences here. With the changes to flinch the SAW even outclasses it close up now if your aim is good. I like the idea of an alternate fire mode that switches to slugs, after all the rounds are smaller and the magazine is gigantic. There's room for them in there too The issue there isn't the large hitbox, it's the fact that the camera is offset. It's a foot or two above where the actual missile is, so you can overshoot someone from your point of view but it's a perfect headshot in reality. Or guide it perfectly into the torso of someone standing on the edge of a building and only hit cement. Thankfully it's easy to adjust for as long as you know it's there.
Are you sure about that? I'm certain that on multiple occasions, I have missed my target on the horizontal axis, and still scored a hit.
In my experience with it, I've never found this. It's very forgiving for me along the vertical axis, but absolutely brutal along the horziontal. And falcon-level splash means it's pretty much all or nothing. That's not bad, but I'll test out some horizontal near misses in the VR later to see if I'm just missing by too much.
VR seems a little dodgy at the moment. I've had certain hits multiple times and still missed. I don't know if they've fixed that with the latest patch or not.
Hate that the speed burst is gone as of the latest patch. I consider that a major nerf to this weapon, as it was the only way to reliably take on (close range) ESF, or even moving vehicles, for that matter.
Excellent video going over the strenghts and weaknesses of the Phoenix. Treat the Jackhammer like any other shotgun with slightly longer range. Switch to burst mode for maxes. With a 10 shot mag (extended ammo) burst mode leaves you with 1 round which is nice for short reloads.
Switch to a piston for MAXes, or whip out your rocket launcher. Nothing about the jackhammer makes up for the fact that every time it fires you'd be doing, at the very least, 250 more damage by using any other shotgun. It's not the damage falloff that kills shotguns at range (JH does min of 90, every other shotgun does min of 60), it's the spread. Tighten the COF on the JH to the point of having minimal spread even at 15-20m and you're looking at a fun weapon with a purpose. Right now it's just the best choice among the worst class of weapons to use at medium distances (where a whole crapload of weapons are good, from LMGs to Carbines) to the worst choice of the best class of weapons to use in CQC. Sure, you can get kills with it by prepping a room with a conc grenade and gunning them down from the flank, but I could do that with a mag shot or a knife. And anyway, now the pump actions are better at "range" through sheer volume of buckshot. I could go on and on about the JH but suffice to say there's no justifying using it in any situation at all anymore, unless you want to train yourself to be better at other shotguns by using the worst one. It's also the only shotgun with no defense against smoke, which is irritating because stalking through a giant smoke cloud like an IRNV tiger mowing people down is just so much fun. I kind of like it - the range is unaffected so tracking down vehicles take a bit of finesse but is still just as possible, and it's not like hitting aircraft with regularity was ever A Thing That's Going To Happen so it's not like a loss in that department. I use it a lot while running toward an enemy position on foot. Fire off a rocket, swing it around the battlefield spotting things and maybe even killing people. By the time I get to the front lines from the sundy or whatever, I've got a great awareness of the situation and probably a few kills under my belt. Then the SAW comes out...
