Pokey Dravon
OSG Planetary Operations
Covert Intervention
1225
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Posted - 2013.12.15 23:49:00 -
[1] - Quote
Swarms are a really nice way to get a vehicle to turn on their hardener, which means that when that hardener is up, the vehicle is going to to have diminished defenses. See AV guys are confused, and it's not their fault because they've been conditioned to believe otherwise. Not every AV weapon is supposed to be able to kill HAVs, especially LIGHT AV weapons. The forge is still very much capable of killing HAVs and I've seen it used to great effectiveness post 1.7. Swarms on the other hand are good at a could of things.
1. Duping the tanker to turn a hardener on. HAV pilots know they cant take a hit with that hardener off, but they'll avoid using it til they have to because cooldowns are long and they dont want to get caught with their pants down. Doing damage to an HAV is going to spook them into flipping that hardener on early, meaning they're going to be weak later.
2. Negating Armor Reps. This is particularly important, as while swarms are generally not enough DPS to break the tank's effective tanking rate, it does nowever negate much of that repping. This means that additional burst damage such as a forge will be able to cut through the tank's reps because the incoming swarm damage is effectively reducing the rep rate.
3. Pushing HAVs out. This somewhat goes hand in hand with number 1, but if a HAV is taking up a static position, swarms will be able to force the hardener on. Because tankers know that any swarmer worth his salt is going to have a nanohive and thus nearly limitless ammo, that tanker also knows that he will not be able to take sustained fire for long and will eventually be forced to vacate the area once his hardener are up.
All of these roles are useful and important but as you can see, flat out killing HAVs is NOT one of them. You have been conditioned to believe that you are entitled to be able to solo HAVs with a light AV weapon because that's how its been for a very long time. However, because you are using lighter weapons against a heavier target, as a Swarmer you are a SUPPORT AV role, not a primary, that job belongs to the HEAVY AV weapon, aka The Forge Gun.
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