Which TR Rocket Launcher?

[KURO]

Ive researched on them already but many discussions are outdated and doesnt fully explain things.

1) Im looking at either the grounder, annihilator, Swarm or striker...what would you recommend for different playstyles? 2) What is so bad about not being able to dumb fire? Often times I find myself quite a distance away from enemy vehicles anyway and dumbfire is hard to hit at such ranges. 3) Aside from dumbfire being good in CQC, what other advantages are there?

4)Lastly, are MAXes way more effective at taking down vehicles/planes? As a newbie at BR 16, should I start buying guns for MAXes?

[Murgen]

4. I would not start buying anything for MAXes at BR 16 unless you're dead set on playing a MAX. MAXes in general are not a newbie friendly due to the 450 nanite cost. As a high priority target your MAX is likely to get killed fast, but it will take time to learn how/why it happened as a new player, and to adapt your playstyle accordingly.

My advice is to cert out and learn one or two of the other classes first, so you can get a basic feel for the game. Medics and Engineers have the highest cert gain, but choose a class you like to play. Once you're comfortable with those classes and basic gameplay then it's time to start looking at MAXes.

[KURO]

Originally posted by Murgen:

4. I would not start buying anything for MAXes at BR 16 unless you're dead set on playing a MAX. MAXes in general are not a newbie friendly due to the 450 nanite cost. As a high priority target your MAX is likely to get killed fast, but it will take time to learn how/why it happened as a new player, and to adapt your playstyle accordingly.

My advice is to cert out and learn one or two of the other classes first, so you can get a basic feel for the game. Medics and Engineers have the highest cert gain, but choose a class you like to play. Once you're comfortable with those classes and basic gameplay then it's time to start looking at MAXes.

Problem with me is that I always sit on 750 nanites since Id rather hop onto an upgraded vehicle as a gunner than use my clean vehicle lol. Would that justify looking at MAXes?

[KURO]

Originally posted by Hinsonator:

1. Personally i'd go with the striker as it can dumb fire and lock on targets independently of one another without the need for a pre-fire lock on which can be easy if you're blind firing.

2. The lack of a dumb fire feature means you have to lock onto a target to fire a rocket unlike for example the GEP Gun from Deus Ex which can lock on but can be dumb fired aswell.

3. Dumbfire rockets generally have higher damage per shot than their lock-on counterparts.

4. That really depends on what they have equiped, as of the time this was posted the only AA MAX weapon is the was-TR-only-now-common-pool Burster. Although you only start with one of these and it can be a worthwhile investment if you enjoy AA MAX.

Thanks that helped quite a bit. For the striker though, is it much harder to hit at long ranges compared to lock ons?

[Nokta]

Originally posted by JustEliminate:

Ive researched on them already but many discussions are outdated and doesnt fully explain things.

1) Im looking at either the grounder, annihilator, Swarm or striker...what would you recommend for different playstyles? 2) What is so bad about not being able to dumb fire? Often times I find myself quite a distance away from enemy vehicles anyway and dumbfire is hard to hit at such ranges. 3) Aside from dumbfire being good in CQC, what other advantages are there?

4)Lastly, are MAXes way more effective at taking down vehicles/planes? As a newbie at BR 16, should I start buying guns for MAXes?

Grounder is probably the best choice.

As a starting Heavy, what you miss mostly is a way to deal with air. Grounder will lock onto enemy air and, when not killing, will at least scare them away.

Dumb fire is good because you won't use your rocket launcher (or at least you shouldn't) only against vehicles or air, it's a very valuable tool against MAX and infantry alike.

By not being able to dumbfire you are actually limiting your killing potential against those threats.

Consider this, air is annoying ALWAYS and a rocket from Grounder will do good damage against an ESF, more than 1/3 of its life. When you it an aircraft he has to either use its nanite healing ability or run away somewhere to repair. In either cases, you cleared the skies.

Now, it takes you from 5 to a gazillion rockets to kill a MBT or a Sunderer, at distance they can simply retreat beind a rock and repair and you'll be sit there wasting rockets and time trying to do damage but you are actually being ineffective.

By the time your rocket launcher becomes a real threat against vehicles, you are in a range where you can just dumbfire it. Otherwise they'll just shrug it off like you shrug off a mosquito bite. Annoying sure, but not lethal, nor threatening.

Meanwhile, with a dumbfire RL you still be a threat to those MAX and still be able to splash damage corners, things that you won't be able to do with a lock-on only launcher.

About the Striker: it's very good against ESFs that fly near the ground. If you can lead the targets they can be very effective in clearing up the sky. It becomes increasly worthless as soon as the target starts moving fast (harder to lead) or is far away. Grounder is the opposite, will be less effective close range against air, but more effective at range thanks to the lock-on.

Striker is not very good against vehicles since it takes a lot of time to fire all the rockets, and while doing it you are standing still and exposing yourself to the enemy fire. It's virtually worthless against MAX and infantry since the splash damage it's minimal and, once again, standing still while firing it its almost a guaranteed death sentence.



TL;DR:

- Lock-on only launchers are generally bad because they limit your options on the field by not allowing you to deal with MAX and infantry

- Ground only lock-on launcher is bad because you lose alpha damage to gain the trivial ability to lock onto ground vehicles. You won't be doing enough damage at range for it to be worth it.

- Air oly lock-on launcher is good because gives you the ability to fight the only thing you can't fight as standard Heavy (air) while still be able to deal with vehicles at short-mid ranges, and still be able to fire onto MAX and infantry

- Striker: best AA launcher for enemies that fly low, near the ground. Loses efficiency over distance. Bad against vehicles unles you are in a safe spot. Virtually useless against MAX and infantry since firing it will almost result in your death.

[Ishan451]

ASP-30 Grounder is the obvious answer.

Its an Air Lock-on with a Dumbfire option for ground vehicles, everything else is situational. Also it might be worth adding the Default Rocket launcher has more damage than the Grounder. Matter of fact, the Default one has the 2nd most damage of all Rocket Launchers.

[KURO]

Thank you all so much for the responses! Seems like the grounder is the way to go.

[Murgen]

Originally posted by JustEliminate:

Problem with me is that I always sit on 750 nanites since Id rather hop onto an upgraded vehicle as a gunner than use my clean vehicle lol. Would that justify looking at MAXes?

Pulling MAXes burns through nanites really fast which is going to leave you with downtime where you'll wish you had certed out another, non-nanite costing class.

For example let's say you start at 750 nanites, and as a newbie your MAX is able to survive on average two minutes and you're pulling MAXes as fast as you can. After just four minutes you're down to 50 nanites, so you've got 8 minutes of downtime before you can pull another MAX. During those 8 minutes you'll wish you had certed out a class that didn't cost nanites...

[Justin]

The advantage the Annihilator has is that you can buy it for both air and ground targets; hitting Harassers on the move is tough, and being able to use lock on missiles helps a lot in killing them. If you're strapped for cash I would think about that one, since you can always switch to your dumbfire for MAXes and infantry. While I've used the Grounder to attack ground targets, I don't remember the last time I've actually killed a ground target with a Grounder rocket.