Kallas Hallytyr
Skullbreakers
920
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Posted - 2014.11.09 14:29:00 -
[1] - Quote
I second pretty much everything Tesfa has said.
I've been piloting properly since about 1.0 or slightly before. We've been through some pretty horrendous times (1.4 and before where we had 600m range Railguns or 400m lock-on more powerful Swarms) and we've had times where we've been OP (1.7 Hardeners, 7.5s cooldown Afterburners.)
Currently, the main role of an ADS is to provide fire support/suppression and to insert/extract small teams to important locations. These are the reasons that these roles don't play out properly:
- we can only really provide fire support against uncoordinated non-AV infantry: the power of infantry-based AV means that our window of retaliation is miniscule; they will almost always hit you once when you are unaware and the follow up shots are fast on their heels meaning you are forced to run immediately (and no longer assist your team) or stay (and likely die.)
- with small turrets as they are, you can kill an infantrymerc pretty effectively at 50-70m, but with the small splash radius (missiles/blasters) and/or low ROF (pretty much all of them) and the incredibly lacklustre ADS racial bonuses, your suppression is minimal. What is needed is small turrets more akin to the Large Missile: rapid firing, high visual impact and generally intimidating. Blasters are simply terrible at suppression due to a number of factors (inability to kill being the foremost) and small rails are simply too precise to hit infantry reliably at standard A/DS engagement ranges,:though small rails are effective at suppressing tanks (which is perfectly reasonable.)
- the ability to insert troops is relatively simple, since a fast pass and a good pilot can drop troops almost anywhere larger than twenty square feet. Extracting, however, is nigh impossible when enemies are looking askance at you: the power of AV means that you rarely have enough time to even slow down before you need to run (or die as a result) meaning that you are unable to extract friendlies from a hot zone - which is stated as a purpose of the DS.
ADSs are useable and can have a great impact, most notably when you have a full squad including scans and another vehicle allowing you to pinpoint where you are needed. DSs are in a pretty good spot: with mCRUs they can recoup a healthy WP amount for the pilot and provide a solid point for your team (particularly in Domination) and have enough tank to resist uncoordinated AV before retreating. DSs still have the issue of extraction non-viability, but are otherwise very solid.
Generally, Dropships are in a slightly below-par situation: against infantry, infantry kill better for the most part (exception being a very coordinated and high SP-invested ADS: 1-2 gunners using proto modules/turrets) and against vehicles, infantry based AV is far superior to a dropship's firepower (even a maxed out Incubus is inferior to most Swarm users.)
What the ADS needs is a more defined ability to perform its role of harassment and area suppression: small missiles/blasters that operate in a similar fashion to a large missile turret, allowing you to perform sweeping passes and saturate an area.
The DS needs to be able to resist more firepower when coming in to extract infantry; something like a specific 'Bastion' or 'Siege'-esque module to allow greater resistances/reduced impulse effects when dropping down.
Alt of Halla Murr. Sentinel.
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Kallas Hallytyr
Skullbreakers
930
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Posted - 2014.11.09 16:27:00 -
[2] - Quote
Jack McReady wrote:my armor tanked dropship can take 3 swarm volleys and get out alive, I dont see any issues here.
thus the general consensus is that most dropship pilots are terrible, maybe gitgud?
Personally, the issue is not surviving or not its that the majority of the time there is not fight: it's AV hitting you and either flight or death. I just would like to have a fight with Swarmers instead of get attacked; immediately flee or die.
I'm fine with being fragile, I just want to have something other than: I stomp non-AV infantry, then AV is pulled out and I immediately run or die.
Alt of Halla Murr. Sentinel.
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