Phoenix - worth it?

[almalino]

Hello,

Do Phoenix worth it to buy?
I already have lock on AA launcher and Anihilator. What are the main usecases for Phoenix at the moment? Do you enjoy using it?

[Haro]

The Phoenix is best at taking out tanks and maxes. It does high damage, and the player can guide its missile. It's fantastic for shooting from cover, or for adjusting your aim to hit moving targets. It also is not fooled by any counter measures.
It's weaknesses are that it is relatively slow for a missile, and it doesn't have a great turn rate or super long range. This makes it very hard to hit aircraft or fast moving ground vehicles like the flash. Everything else is pretty fair game. Also, while you guide the missile, your character can't move and is quite vulnerable.

I'd highly recommend the Phoenix to any NC player. It's better than most rocker launchers against tanks, and it is the best launcher against maxes. The only times I don't take it are if I expect a lot of enemy air (take the Hawk) or if you will be very close to enemy infantry or need to move a lot (then the guided missile makes you more exposed.) Otherwise, it's pretty great.

[Hamma]

I didn't like it personally - but it definitely has a role.

[almalino]

I bought it yesterday. In VR Phoenix looked to be very strong and killing magraider from all sides in 2 hits. Not so powerful in the field though.

Impressions are mixed. It is fun to use but you wont get many kills with it.

Infantry:
You cannot kill infantry with it. May be with several hits you could but it ususally not happening.

Air:
You can hit only stationary air units with it and even then it is easy to miss.

Vehicles:
It is pretty good at hitting vehicles and especially magraiders even if those hid behind hills etc. Though you need 2 hit from the back of magraider or 3-4 hits in front to kill it. So , you will get the kill only if tank is heavily damaged already. Otherwise this is a good tool scare tank avay but not to kill it.

Sunderers:
This is where it shines. If you know where eney parked the sunderer just put a personal way point there on the map and start spamming sanderrer with phoenix from
behind the hills etc. You, probably, wont kill it but enemy engeneers will get a gray hair repairing it from the rockets hitting but heavy not visible anywhere around

Infiltrators:
I was killed billion of times by infiltrators while firing phoenix. Shall I explain why?

Summary:
I think I will use phoenix as a medium range AV rocket launcher in case I cannot or do not wont to lock on on the enemy vehicles or if I want to hit sunderers around the corner

Basically, it is very fun launcher to use and to do tricks like firing from inside of biolab and then steer the rocket to the nearest liberator outside of biolab. That is a very nice surpise for those liberators because they do not expect to be attacked by rockets from inside

[p0intman]

if you have a group that knows how to fire them together in a salvo, yes, it is worth it to have.

[Artimus]

Since the balance pass the phoenix is more like how it was in ps1. You can be 100 percent behind cover and guide your shots into tanks. Incredibly effective as long as you can guide your shots properly from behind cover. The speed was turned down and turn speed increased to allow better control over the rocket.

[almalino]

Originally Posted by Haro

The Phoenix is best at taking out tanks and maxes. It does high damage, and the player can guide its missile.

Actually, according to the stats it does only 700 damage. Lockon AV rocket launcher does 2000. So, it is actually weak according to stats.

[MrMak]

The ingame stats are wrong. The anihilator is supose to do more damage acoding to them but I tested it inthe VR. Anihilator needs 3 hits from behind to destroy a magrider while the Phoenix does that in 2 with damage to spare. Essentialy it requires the same ammount of hits as the Decimator.

[VaderDSL]

Aye I've read the Phoenix is on par damage wise with the Decimator. It's also hellishly fun to use

I still use it to snipe infantry when there is no armour to fire upon, you can generally pick off engineers and infiltrators, they invariably don't run at full health for whatever reason. Also taking out engineer turrets is what the Phoenix is god like at

[Neutral Calypso]

I suspect the damage stats got confused somewhere. Last I checked only the decimator deals 2000 damage per shot, and that is dumbfire only.

[JesNC]

The Phoenix works great for engaging tanks, turrets and stationary aircraft <200m while in cover and being protected by your team from snipers/flankers.

For everything else, the Shrike works better.

[RykerStruvian]

Unlike other launchers, the pheonix's missile can be shot down mid-flight. Surprised no one mentioned this obvious drawback :P Also, the Pheonix requires a lot of firing clearance otherwise you run the risk of friendly fire. Makes guidance a little bit more obnoxious because you have to compensate for this, which could make or break the gun due to the amount of turning required post-launch.

[Lonehunter]

Everyone is also forgetting bucket seats. The back of a Flash, and coming soon the Harasser and ESBuggies, is where the phoenix REALLY shines. Using a lock-on launcher, burster, or even a new AV MAX is going to be pretty hard without any "turret stabilization", so much speed and rough terrain in PS2 makes it difficult, but not impossible. But with the phoenix you worry not about terrain or recoil.

So with the Phoenix's draw back of leaving you vulnerable and imobile, it's great to have a speedy escort. The harasser will even have it's own anti tank turret selection.

[almalino]

I noticed I now use Phoenix exclusively on tanks. I stopped using lock on launchers. Those are too boring

[Lonehunter]

Great for getting those tanks who start to smoke and back over a hill. I love that feelin of being about to blow up a tank as the engi is next to it repairing.