I've had a good deal of fun with the S1, but I'm looking to acquire a launcher that specializes in anti-armor. The Hades or the Decimator seem like the best options. Decimator does more damage than the S1, but it's dumbfire only. The Hades does less damage but it locks on. I'm reasonably good at hitting my S1 shots, so I'm not sure how much the lock-on is worth. I've tried out the Lancer and it really seems terrible. so, would you recommend the Hades, Decimator, or another launcher for a focused AV build?
Have you trialed the lancer? It is by far the best as it leaves you much less vulnerable than the others, despite doing less damage. It means you can charge it in cover, pop out for a second or two to fire, and go back into cover. You can also do this from hundreds of meters away. If you're looking for certs, it's the best option in launchers because it lets you finish off vehicles that are low on health very quickly and easily, even at a distance.
I did trial it (twice over ~3 days), but I felt that my ability to actually kill vehicles was very low with it. With the S1 I have a reasonable chance to 1v1 a lightning tank if it positions itself by exploitable cover. With the lancer I found that I was more of a vehicle deterrent; able to put some damage on them, but not able to finish the job when they go to retreat. While I do agree this can be useful, from the perspective of a solo player I don't really have any way to capitalize on that. I imagine a couple of people using lancers could annihilate armor with teamwork, however. Also, as for building up charges, does that benefit your dps at all? From the wiki page it seems that it just compresses 3 shots into 1 (i.e. no bonus damage per ammo used). It does get a bit faster travel speed, but does it affect how quickly you can empty a magazine? I'd love to be wrong about the Lancer since it is a cool idea, but my shot time with it did not give a good impression.
A bit, yeah. If you use nothing but fully charged shots, then you get double the ammo over any other VS Launcher with some extra damage put on as a bonus for the entire clip: 750*2 > 1135. If you're wanting to do pure Anti-Vehicle and don't care about those 'OH **** THAT'S A MAX' moments, the Annihilator's probably your go-to for range, And with it being a rocket instead of homing plasma, it can still confuse enemies and allies alike as to who's firing. For Close Range, I would stick with your default launcher or the Decimator (Or the Kraken if you feel like completing all the chalenges to get an awesome explosion) purely because they can dumbfire and have even more damage onto them. The newer NS Launcher looks neat, but I haven't been able to test it out yet.
The Lancer is not terrible. In fact, it's arguably the best Launcher in the game out of any faction. You always want to use a Level3 charged shots if you can. The main exception being if you can only expose yourself for a second or two before getting killed, then you want to charge up a level3 shot from behind cover, pop out, fire the level3 shot followed by three level1 shots as fast a you can, and then dive back behind cover. Level1 damage - 150 Level2 damage - 375, equal to 2.5 Level1 shots Level3 damage - 750, equal to 5 Level1 shots The three launchers that fulfill 99% of the VS's needs are the S1, the Lancer, and the Nemesis (AA). I wouldn't bother with the Deci or Annihilator unless you have certs burning a hole in your pocket. And the Hades..... just don't bother... Lancer is better.
Nemesis will lock on to air but let you dumbfire at everything else. And it soes splash damage I think. It's also relatively cheap. I find Lancer weak if used solo though good at driving vehicles away and killing the odd, damaged vehicle
I prefer the S1 for my AV build. Projectile velocity is much lower on the Decimator making it much harder to land those long range shots. Best thing i would think to do is focus on getting your munitions pack up, or if you don't have it get a lock on AA launcher.
