BGoat
The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar
DARKSTAR ARMY
100
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Posted - 2013.08.23 19:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
A lot of people seem to be freaking out about the Swarm Launcher changes announced in the 1.4 patch notes, so I decided to take a look at the numbers and look at how this will change things:
Note: These timelines assume SL Operation 5 and no rapid reload skills
Current Swarm Launcher Timeline
1.2 seconds: 1st volley launched
3.2 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
4.4 seconds: 2nd volley launched
6.4 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
7.6 seconds: 3rd volley launched
9.6 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
10.8 seconds: 4th volley launched (SL Operation 5 increases clip size to 4)
15.3 seconds: Finished reloading (4.5 second reload time)
16.5 seconds: 5th volley launched
18.5 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
19.7 seconds: 6th volley launched
Uprising 1.4 Swarm Launcher Timeline
1.4 seconds: 1st volley launched
1.7 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
3.1 seconds: 2nd volley launched
3.4 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
4.8 seconds: 3rd volley launched
9.3 seconds: Finished reloading (SL Operation no longer increases clip size, 4.5 second reload time)
10.7 seconds: 4th volley launched
11 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
12.4 seconds: 5th volley launched
12.7 seconds: Fire interval delay finished
14.1 seconds: 6th volley launched
If you compare the timelines, you can see that it will take approximately the same amount of time to launch 4 Swarm Launcher volleys in 1.4 as it does currently (10.7 seconds and 10.8 seconds respectively). If a good tank with full health can be reasonably expected to survive 3 volleys from a Proto SL, they should still have about the same amount of time to turn on reppers and modules and bug out after the alpha volley, but they better get to cover quick.
However, things get progressively worse for tankers past the 4th volley. As you can see from the timeline, in 1.4 it will only take 14.1 seconds to launch 6 Swarm Launcher volleys, whereas it currently would take 19.7 seconds. So it will take 5.7 seconds less time to unload 2 full Swarm Launcher clips once 1.4 is release.
At first, I thought people may be overreacting to the SL changes coming up in 1.4, without taking the time to really understand how they will impact things. However, after doing this analysis, it looks like vehicle users (and tankers especially) are being dealt another blow, with the vehicle-rebalancing 1.5 patch still more than a month away. |