Airborne Army
Pure Evil.
Capital Punishment.
0
   |
Posted - 2014.10.14 16:06:00 -
[1] - Quote
Having consulted with all the ads pilots I know and being an advocate of forge/swarm level 5 prof 3 use I digress that i don't speak for only myself when I say that the ADS is in a much worse position than any other play style right now. It simply doesn't have much going for it at all....
As a regular PC pilot I have to say, my role in pc is nothing more than a glorified lav now.
I transport troops, drop uplinks and clear uplinks...
I am unable to kill all rep madrugars and have trouble taking down any shield tanks without proper av support as they can simply use cover, get out and fire swarms or retreat.
Every time someone pulls out swarms against an ads we have no warning of imminent impact, I understand tanks have a proximity explosive beeping warning, that is why I believe one simple and incredibly useful countermeasure that does not affect ads stats would be the introduction of a "lock warning" similar to most if not all modern aircraft. The swarm is not a random fire weapon and therefore it's lock should be detected as a precursor to impact.
This would also in fact help get rid of the problem of swarms not rendering as not only will swarmers be unable to have 2 volleys in the air before a pilot realises he is in for certain death, but also it will highlight potentially dangerous areas to pilots, allowing for more tactical gameplay between the av deterrent and the ads threat. Forge guns do not have a proximity warning as they are skilful and player targeted weapons. Having swarms that deal lethal damage without warning is similar to a heat seeking bolt pistol... A bolt pistol needs only 3 rounds to kill most medium tank frames, why would you allow such a ludicrously easy weapon to exist...
My second point is about ads manouverability, having conferred with a lot of pilots, sadly most of which have stopped flying since there is really nothing an ads can do once a swarm launcher gets the first shot off from some obscure position where he doesn't even render, is that without the afterburner it feels like damage causes the same "stunlock" effect that hmgs were so notorious for, without the afterburner a drop ship really doesn't have the ability to escape at all, it's a sitting duck. Personally I feel this shouldn't be the case, it should be risky flying without the afterburner but not to the point that it feels like a brick without it. I feel some climb factor aspect of drop ships was covertly nerfed in delta which means even a large blaster turret poses a huge threat even over 100M.
Lastly I feel that swarms need a slight tone down in terms of either maximum flight range or manouverability/speed aspects... The afterburner claims to provide a 150% thrust increase yet swarms still catch up rather easily with an afterburner on in a dropship speeding away as fast as possible. I remember rattati published a graph showing that the third volley of swarms would not impact unless the pilot lingered yet I fear this is not the case, most of the time the third volley hits causing the pilot to lose his/her respective ship unless it is a clumsy over tanked fit in which case it lacks in manouverability and recharge times.
All in all I feel that av is currently too easy, since my rof was nerfed so I can't deal with tanks anymore I have specced into a prof 3 commando swarmer which really chews up tanks, let alone the significantly weaker drop ships which don't have a chance to counter me. The forge is in a good strong position however I feel swarms are maybe too high damage for their simplistic nature, they are often fired from supply depots, wielded by commandos or high uplink squatters who are unable to be attacked due to the strength and ferocity of their weapons. In addition the introduction of significantly more powerful sidearms has nullified the excuse that swarmers in medium suits sacrifice anti infantry potential as the sidearms are hugely effective, being more popular than some light weapons such as scr and laser in particular. However that is another matter, I hope you look upon the feedback I provide as the opinion of most ads pilots, some claim to be immune but I put that down to their inflated egos rather than a genuine field performance.
Regards,
Airborne army |
Airborne Army
Pure Evil.
Capital Punishment.
1
|
Posted - 2014.10.14 22:22:00 -
[2] - Quote
I mean the description is misleading halla, judge spoke to me about this over 2 months ago yet ccp blatantly lead people to assume something that isn't true through the ambiguity of their linguistic choices. What I meant was that a dropship accelerating to top speed that fast should theoretically be able to outrun swarms as the swarms have a marginal speed increase on paper, and the dropship gets a head start, however this is not the case and swarms catch up to drop ships rather easily. As such the presentation of the afterburner as an escape/counter measure module is deliberately misleading on CCPs part and this ambiguity is what lead to the nerf of speed/afterburners/manouverability in the first place arguably to some degree. |