Striker is awsome

[Collin]

Well the Striker is the best AV imho. U ask why? If u use 2 or 3 Strikers against targets they have no chance to survive. Lightnings go down in seconds. Reavers cant run. Lock and death. And on maxes u can go 1 on 1 (outside).

Tipp of the day: VS Maxes when u get hit by a Striker DONT JUMP.

enemys of the Striker: Woods and Hills / inside a base its still crap but well we get the deci for that

I like the Phonix as well but its more a one man show.
The Lancer dont know if its broken but i just dont like it

[BadAsh]

I liked the striker too, but...

It has lockon problems when targets are too near a structure such as a base or tower... it just won't lock on. Indoors it won't lock on anything. It's dumb fire mode is... dumb... horrific COF... even crouching... ugg...

It does own max units that are out in the open with no cover and in groups it does own aircraft and light vehicles.

The Phoenix is just the King of AV IMHO... its fun, it's effective indoors and outdoors, and you can fight from 100% safty and get kills...

The only drawback is that you are vulnerable when guiding the missile... but intelligent selection of your firing position can greatly minimize your risk... and if you are part of a team say with AA MAX guarding/support... it just gets ugly fast...

Additionally, a handful of dedicated Phoenix troops can keep an exposed vehicle terminal down... this is critical in a seige... the defenders quickly have no vehicle support and lose the CY by being unable to have a MAX or vehicle on the surface... And you can accomplish this with 2 Phoenix users dedicated to hitting the exposed terminal... 1 if the enemy is not organized in repair efforts... 3+ phoenix users can keep the terminal down and pretty much clear the whole CY... oh and you can forget a CY AMS when the NC have the Phoenix assault going on...

No other AV matches it's power and usage amusement level

[Veteran]

Check out VR and see how many Strikers it takes to kill a Lightning. It's rather sad actually.

[UncleDynamite]

Check out VR and see how many Strikers it takes to kill a Lightning. It's rather sad actually.

Yeah, Collin, you're pretty much describing Pre-Nerfed Striker, back in the day. Right now, it's not so hot, but there should be hope around the corner.

[SilverLord]

Yeah, Collin, you're pretty much describing Pre-Nerfed Striker, back in the day. Right now, it's not so hot, but there should be hope around the corner.The Striker damage doesn't compare to what it was back in the day. I love the Striker and never go anywhere without it but it's not for killing vehicals, it's for making them run away and go hide. It is, on the other hand, good at killing Maxes. The only thing I hate is that it doesn't long on very good indoors...i wish that would be fixed. If it's a bug, I don't know.

[Krinsath]

AV is one of the most common certs my characters have when possible, and I've been using all three AVs since beta, so I've had a lot of time to ponder the various effectiveness of the weapons.

Striker - When lock on works, it's a very good weapon. However, it's got the lowest damage of any of the AVs, lock-on is bugged, the CoF is horrible, and the missile is slower than a snail trying to climb uphill in winter (sure, speed doesn't matter in close, but at extreme ranges it does). It's a capable weapon, but for most of what the TR does, the Decimator is a better choice. The only reason the Striker beats it out is that you carry more damage for the space (and that's after the current testing patch). Again, good weapon...but not the best AV.

Phoenix - God I love the Phoenix...it's an awesome weapon. You can almost set up as a one man artillery barrage. It does the most damage per shot, and it's the AV I fear most in a tank as you can't readily tell where those missiles are coming from. The drawbacks? You're a sitting duck while you're firing. Sure, you can try and minimize the risk, but chances are someone, somewhere is going to kill you in heavy fighting. The missile isn't terribly accurate in dumb-fire mode either, so it's indoor effectiveness is greatly reduced. It really is a weapon that you need separation to use at maximum efficiency. If only someone would tell the NC that the Phoenix isn't a terribly good AI weapon... :rolleyes: I'm really tired of them trying to use it as such...

Lancer - The *best* AV weapon. Why? With the move of the Deci from SA to AV, the Decimator will probably take over as the choice for indoor assaults. It's by far the most powerful weapon against armor, it's just not good at range. At range is when you're going to take your empire-specific one and the Lancer is just incredible at range (the base weapon has a 4x zoom on it). Get a range magnifier (which improves accuracy tremendously) and you can go to town with this weapon. From what I've heard about the improvements made to the Lancer, it's going to be even more fearsome now. The problem with it has always been that you had to aim it spot on and that delay threw a lot of people off when compensating for a moving target. For my money though, there's not a combination better for a VS trooper than Sniper+AV+Rexo. Put that combination together with someone who can shoot and there's not a safe place for anyone on the walls of an enemy facility.

If you were only going by current AV weapons, I'd be tempted to put the Phoenix at the top, but with the Deci outperforming it indoors, I'm more inclined to go with the dark horse candidate that is the Lancer.

[Onizuka-GTO]

mmmm...

At leased someone likes the Lancer....but you must agree it does need improvements for it to be on par with the other AV weapons...don't you think?

[UncleDynamite]

mmmm...

At leased someone likes the Lancer....but you must agree it does need improvements for it to be on par with the other AV weapons...don't you think?

From what I've heard from the Test Server, the Lancer has been greatly improved.

[GreyFlcn]

hukked on phonix

[Rbstr]

I can't say anyone of them are the best, they may have more ammo but they still don't do much AV damage.

They all have their strong and weak points.

Striker can hit air stuff and locks on, but does medium damage(middle TTK) and you need LOS
Lancer is extremely accurate, does decent damage(best TTK), but you need LOS and thas that charge time, hard to hit air
Pheonix can hit stuff thats behind things, does best damage(bad TTK though), slow so its hard to hit air, one shot clip with very lond reload, can't move while firing(your vonerable, sp)

[Queensidecastle]

I predict after the Test patch goes in the Lancer will be by far the best AV. Also The striker will resume its AA abilities which really anoyies me.

I say this because:
A) The Deci moved to AV so everyone will have it
B) Rexo got buffed and makes it easier and more attractive than ever to have 2 rifles
C) Ammo boxes got buffed making AV more effective

[BigFreak]

Aye, it's crappy now, you're dead long before you down a reaver. Not used Lancer recently, but if you can still sniper infantry with it, Striker's probably the worst AV weapon.

[Spee]

Yeah. Lancer owns. And, now that everyone has one, me, and 4 other vanu(all with lancers) Stood on various levels of a watch tower and shot at a fleeing vanguard.


It didnt last too long.

[SpunkJackel]

Not to mention the lancer is gigantic, and bigger is alway better.

[Queensidecastle]

Yeah. Lancer owns. And, now that everyone has one, me, and 4 other vanu(all with lancers) Stood on various levels of a watch tower and shot at a fleeing vanguard.
On its own, the lancer is just ass, unless your shooting at MAXs and lightnings, but no other AV can "scale" like the Lancer can. Even phoenix's in packs cant compare to what a focused pack of Lancers can pull off. Now since the AV cert will be as common as the MA cert (thanks devs, nice one) we can expect huge packs of AV users. That coupled with the upcoming landmine buff and its going to be a really hostile time for Vehicles in PS

[BadAsh]

On its own, the lancer is just ass, unless your shooting at MAXs and lightnings, but no other AV can "scale" like the Lancer can. Even phoenix's in packs cant compare to what a focused pack of Lancers can pull off. Now since the AV cert will be as common as the MA cert (thanks devs, nice one) we can expect huge packs of AV users. That coupled with the upcoming landmine buff and its going to be a really hostile time for Vehicles in PS

Yeah, the days of the 3 cert Tank scoring dozens of easy kills against "soft" targets before finally being taken down are coming to an end. Good.

IMHO Vehicles are an easy ride to victory in many occasions. I can't even begin to count my Reaver kills against infantry I busted in the open. Since alone or in small packs they can't fight back... you can rack up an impressive amount of "free" kills with the Reaver and empire talks... Skyguards and Lightnings also can fill this role to a slightly lesser extent.

One of the most "impressive" (50K kill leaderboard superstar) players I've seen in action would get a Magmower and go on a mowing frenzy... when he lost his mag, it was Reaver hunting soft target time, when he lost the reaver the mag was available again, etc. when the vehicle terminal and CY was lost it was boomer in packed hallway time. Each Magmower run racked up 3-12 mowings, each reaver run against snipers and stragglers raked in 4-6 kills, and each boomer garnished 1-5 kills... so hoplessly defending a zerg raked in about 100-150 kills in 2 hours of playing. Amusing and lame at the same time. But, you can't beat the formula of: Find an over powered tactic and exploit the balance weakness over and over and over.

Oh and don't forget... never use your OS to help your empire stop the zerg... use it to hit the CY packed with enemies seconds before their hack goes through. This will ensure the maximum free kills of players waiting for the cap exp. Another lame and over played kill count increaser...

No other AV can scale like the lancer? Then I suppose you have never seen a coordinated Phoenix Squad in action then... pure devistation...

[Veteran]

When a tank crew withdraws for repairs, it's one of two situations. First, it's a Vanguard crew, in which case just pull over a ridge and repair. The second scenario is that it's a TR or VS tank crew, and then just pulling over a hill out of line-of-sight becomes inadequate to escape the Phoenix barrage. TR and VS tank crews have to retreat 250m+ to be sure they can repair without getting murdered by the mighty Phoenix.

[Seer]

I've done grevious harm to vehicles and maxes every day since I could afford the Lancer. Phoenix has strengths, but also serious weaknesses--same with striker. In my mind, the lancer is clearly best all around, at least when you give it to someone with patience and skill. In the hands of a skilless neophyte it may as well be a giant brick.

Outdoors against vehicles, the Phoenix takes the cake. It doesn't have the Lancer's TTK but the ability of the user to blind fire and turn corners does really change the game. Vet is right about tank retreats from the nc--you need to leave very soon, since the missiles follow you a long way.

[Seer]

Now since the AV cert will be as common as the MA cert (thanks devs, nice one) we can expect huge packs of AV users. That coupled with the upcoming landmine buff and its going to be a really hostile time for Vehicles in PS

The new patch basically amounts to rolling back all the improvements they make to vehicle survivability. I'm not happy about it in the slightest.

[Veteran]

People will be certified AV, but the fact that they mainly carry Decimators won't change. Decimator owns eight ways from Sunday.

[shaizan]

Both my Heavy Grunts deleted all the favorites they had with a Decimator in them. I enjoy the Thumper quite a bit more than the Decimator. I know that I am in the minority on that opinion, however. In it's stead I have been making conscience effort to practice and become proficient with the Rocklet Rifle. It, too, can kill a MAX with reasonable capablity. Not as well as a Decimator, but it does well enough. With the comming ammo box capacity increase it will be an even nicer option. :)