Hobo on Fire
Goonfeet
Special Planetary Emergency Response Group
94
   |
Posted - 2013.12.24 19:44:00 -
[1] - Quote
Regular proto swarms are the only ones still effective against anything; splitting your fire between two targets just makes them even more ineffectual. The suppression argument was valid when they had 400 meter lock on range, but now that swarms are effectively a short to mid range AV weapon, they can't even be used for that.
They should change the effect somehow; I don't think swarms will be getting their range back anytime soon, but perhaps giving assault swarms extra damage for reduced rate of fire(high alpha damage to make them a threat to HAVs), or less damage but a larger clip (suppressive weapon against dropships/LAVs ) would make them a viable option. |
Hobo on Fire
Goonfeet
Special Planetary Emergency Response Group
95
|
Posted - 2013.12.24 22:51:00 -
[2] - Quote
Atiim wrote:
I agree.
However I don't think an Assault variant should be a slow locking weapon with a higher damage output. That would be best suited on a Breach Swarm Launcher variant.
You're right, a breach variant would make more sense for a high damage swarm. Of course, if CCP released such a variant tomorrow, it would have have to have a ridiculously slow rate of fire (or extremely high fitting costs) to keep it from overshadowing all the other swarm variants. Like I said, standard and advanced swarms are pretty much useless against anything but LAVs right now; they just don't do enough damage.
Flix Keptick wrote:I would see the assault variant having more range (ex: 75m) and faster missiles and perhaps a slightly faster fire rate, all characteristics of "assault" variants.
At the cost of a *slightly* higher fitting cost and lower agility for the missiles (logically, if they are going faster then they shouldn't be turning as fast).
I'm still convinced that the range nerf was a temporary workaround until CCP figures out how to correct the rendering issues with the missiles when fired at range; a few of my friends trying out tanks lately have stated that invisible missiles are still occasionally a thing. Eventually, all swarms may get their 400m lock on range back. I hope.
As for the performance of the missiles in flight, they absolutely should be faster on all variants of the swarm; it's far too easy for dropships and LAVs to just run away from the missiles. Outrunning them with a speed boost active is one thing, but drop ships don't even need that to get away if they're already flying away from the swarm user. Lowering my ability to shoot around corners is a fair trade for being able to hit the targets I still have a line of sight on. |