Are marauder bombers supposed to be this useless?

[DarkFenix]

Looking at the unit, its main weaponry is nothing to write home about, so quite evidently its focus is its bombing ability, except...

That ability is worthless. One attack at 3.8 damage (including research upgrade), 50% accuracy, 2 armour piercing, and a 3 turn cooldown. It has an effect called "apocalyptic barrage" which presumably amps up the damage against multi-model units, but when the damage is so low anyway, what's the point?

Did somebody make a typo somewhere? Maybe missed out a zero on the number of attacks? This is an expensive unit, requiring a tier 9 research, and the attack is on a 3 turn cooldown. I expect something pretty spectacular given all those limitations.

[Desolator]

it's honestly a pretty ♥♥♥♥ unit. Yeah, it has pretty decent movement, and it does semi ok damage with its normal damage, but the bombing ability is utter trash. You can use it in combination with a normal attack since it only uses movement, not the units action, but it's still a meh ability. There's not really any multi model unit in the game that warrents researching and building a T9 unit for just to kill it. The pathetic 2AP also makes it virtually useless against Terminators, the only real high end multimodel unit that is also in the higher end of the research tree, but you can just get your predators (or even bullgryns) to roll over those.

[Saxon]

Yeah I really hope someone typed the wrong value and that this will be fixed because I've never found a use for the bombing ability which I assumed is it's primary purpose. And even as a general combat unit I find it disappointing for the amount of research and resources it requires.

[Shin]

I guess the only advantage is it's high hp. But I still prefer spamming thunderbolts.
It's kinda a similar issue with the ork burna bomma which does less damage then the dakka jet. I always build dakka jets and ignore the burna bomma.

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by Desolator:

it's honestly a pretty ♥♥♥♥ unit. Yeah, it has pretty decent movement, and it does semi ok damage with its normal damage, but the bombing ability is utter trash. You can use it in combination with a normal attack since it only uses movement, not the units action, but it's still a meh ability. There's not really any multi model unit in the game that warrents researching and building a T9 unit for just to kill it. The pathetic 2AP also makes it virtually useless against Terminators, the only real high end multimodel unit that is also in the higher end of the research tree, but you can just get your predators (or even bullgryns) to roll over those.

Indeed, that's why I speculate that the issue is actually a decimal point in the wrong place, or a missing zero, because even at ten times the power the bombing ability wouldn't be overpowered.

Originally posted by Shin:

I guess the only advantage is it's high hp. But I still prefer spamming thunderbolts.
It's kinda a similar issue with the ork burna bomma which does less damage then the dakka jet. I always build dakka jets and gnore the burna bomma.

It seems to be a common issue in this game where specialised units are not actually the best against their intended targets. Bombers aren't the best against ground targets, anti-air units aren't the best against aerial targets, etc.

[LPG]

majority of planes in this game are kind of worthless. Marauder has the description that it obliterates land targets but its more like a slight tickle.

[DarkFenix]

Originally posted by LPG:

majority of planes in this game are kind of worthless. Marauder has the description that it obliterates land targets but its more like a slight tickle.

I've not tried orks yet, but the Doom Scythe, Thunderbolt, and Stormraven are all great. They all get a nice mix of firepower appropriate to their cost, which is why the Marauder sticks out so badly in just how pathetic it is.

[Shin]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

It seems to be a common issue in this game where specialised units are not actually the best against their intended targets. Bombers aren't the best against ground targets, anti-air units aren't the best against aerial targets, etc.

Yeah I agree. Some other units with a different role really do a better job at antiair then the specialized antiair units. It's kinda weirdly balanced. Some units are very useful and others are so extremly underwhelming even in higher tiers like the Marauder so that they just can be ignored the whole game.