Burster sucks butt!

[Caspertoo]

Ok now as a TR I see people all the time with the burster cert.....indoors and I do try to tell them that the burster sucks...indoors but try as I may I see bursters fall to agile armors all the time simply cuz they are within that 10ft envelope where the burster doesn't do crap. This got me thinking of why the burster sucks as AA.

With the recent patch that increased the starfire's rate of fire, range and speed of those projectiles as the same as the sparrow's. This makes the VS and NC AA about the same. Another thing about these two is that they can be used against infantry as well, up close or far away, to some extent. Plus myself being a reaver pilot I'll tell you that even before the patch both can drive away pilots faster than you can say "piss ant max bitch!"

But the thing is that the burster, for the most part, sucks balls. You have very little chance of hitting a fast moving aircraft, and you can't hit anything within 10 feet of you. One of the more important aspects of the NC and VS AA max's is that they scare off aircraft. They scare of liberators, galaxies, skeets, and reavers, and it doesn't matter how high they are. Not so with the burster, the only way your going to hit a liberator at 400m is if the idiot is hovering up there, or if god himself magically guides your flak rounds directly to him. Ok so you say the burster isn't designed or intended to hit planes flying at that altitude, even though both the NC and VS now can. .... ok.

Ok lets talk about low level protection. The VS and NC AA max's can lock onto fast moving aircraft, and lob rockets or blue testicals at them with impunity, hitting them and causing them to die or flee. Not so with the burster. If a skeet or reaver is zooming by at more than 50m away, you must be a crack shot to hit it with the burster. Ok so you say the burster isn't designed or intended to hit "fast" moving aircraft low. .... ok

So what is it designed to do? Ok yea its designed to hit aircraft hovering or moving very slowly. Lets review what they say its designed to do. Its designed to lock onto a target that preprogrames the flak to burst at that specific altitude but the aiming is totally up to the user. SO this means that while the starfire and sparrow both lock on to their target and require only keeping the target reticule on the target to have the missles hit, the burster user must lead (by quite a bit depending on the speed of the target) in order to hit. So that means while the NC and VS AA max's are user friendly the Burster is only really capable in the hands of a seasoned PS player.

But surely it has other great aspects. Um not really, sure it can be used to fire upon a bridge or tower, but if anyone sees it they only need to run up to it within 10 feet, hell i'd kill one with a beamer just to piss the guy off. So you say it has some weaknesses, much more so than the other AA max's, but you still love it!

So bottom line is, it has limited use against aircraft, its only real advantage over the other AA max's is that the target doesn't have a "lock on" warning indicator (hmm just like the skyguard and that is one POPULAR vehicle lol), it doesn't shoot any faster than the other two AA max's, and it requires advanced targeting on the users part to use. Oh lets not forget is sucks balls against infantry within 10 feet and only average beyond that. Honestly I'm surprised I don't see more people complaining about this. But i'm sure there are going to be a lot of people responding to this post that I'm just not using it right...um isn't that my point that the NC one and the VS one don't require any "knowledge" of the proper way to use their AA max's?

[dscytherulez]

or blue testicals at them with impunity

blue testicals

Yeah, i basically agree with you, the only thing theyre good at is tower battles where the enemy has like 20 reavers hovering around tower, but other than that i think they are useless.

[Peacemaker]

.........

Look man, if youd search the forums for a thread like this I wouldnt be here describing to you why the AA Burster Max is better than the NC and VS maxes at times. The AA max can lock down and send avolly of shells at an aircraft and said aircraft wont know that 10 shells are coming at him untill its too late. If you cant aim with the burster its prolly cause your not leading them.

[Mejwell]

I would also like to add that one of the key "features" of the Burster was supposed to be that the flak shells are set to explode at the altitude of the target, whether they miss or hit, so if your shells are near the aircraft, they'll still damage it with splash.

Given, I haven't had a lot of first hand experience with the burster, so I'm not sure if that feature was properly implemented, but from what experience I had, it DID seem to work, meaning that although I wasn't getting direct hits on enemy aircraft, the flak shells were still detonating in close proximity, still dealing damage.

[Doppler]

I have completed my psychobabel analysis of your post and mined the following data from it.

>You are one of those people who like to think their the expert on anything, personaly I think if my faction mates complained about the weapon i was using being innefective i would kill them with it to prove a point. I'm going to let you in on a little secret, with the notable exception of the pounder max any given max is not far and away more deadly then a HA armed grunt, max's primary job in inbase assaults is a bullet sponge, you draw fire away from your teammates, learn it live it love it.

>You are a reaver pilot, which means you have homing missile penus envy. You are so used to killing people with impunity that whenever an empire locks onto you and kills you with their tailor made ANTI AIR MAXES you assume them to be horribly unfair. My advice to you is suck it up, or try slugging it out on the ground for a while

>You are a TR guy which means you always overlook your empire has the strilker, in fact a lot of your empire has the striker (something like 75 percent at one point according to thotbot) this scares away air assets plenty. Rather you seem to think you should have a gift from god scare planes away stick when they actualy catch you out of your reaver.

>You are a tr which means you forget that the weakness of all of your max's is when infantry get up right in their faces.

>You are TR guy, your not actualy used to having to lead your targets again because of the striker, it's ok well forgive we just want you to be quiet.

>You dont actualy have the burster cert, so you've never actualy locked one down and turned them on a vehicle or a max, their quite impressive.

>Your tr so you've never had a burster actualy turn your aircraft into something resembling raimen noodles, theres no warning there no lockon, you just go from flying to dead.

Finnaly i'll dispell some myths you seem to have.

*Any aircraft moving at full speed cannot be hit by an antiair max, period, the projectiles cant catch it, and human reflexes cant track fast enough. All you have to do if your ahead of the missile is duc behind enough cover to loose the lock and your golden.*

*The use of all AA max's is only very handy in certain ideal situations, taking any aa max against infantry is less effective then their heavy assault counterparts.*

In closing let me say.

ITS TWO FRICKING CERT POINTS STFU NEWBIE YOUR NOT USING IT RIGHT!

[TheAngelOfWar]

use of the burster requires knowing HOW to use it.

first, point at a gal and shoot. the results will be messy.

second, use yourself as bait. when i first got the burster i went 10-1 vs. reavers. setup alone on a wall and make yourself a tempting target. when you see one veer towards you, anchor down and cut loose. you can actually anchor, empty a clip, unanchor and move on before 1/2 of ther rockey volley hits you once you get your timing down.

[Piith]

since the last patch the sparrow does not lock as easy, not sure if it was due to added lag that has been happening since that latest patch . . but the sparrow is a lock, shoot, and forget, it stays locked . . as for the Starfire, you have to keep your rectical on the aircraft to keep the lock, not too many aircraft have a chance if that Burster gets a chance to anchor down .. . .
I do dislike the way it is useless at close range, I had this dude run in my face and I went through 2 reloads, after he killed me, I telled him to ask if he took any damage, he said NO, thats the TR's Max's weakness. That really sucked to know that, being used to using the Sparrow all the time.
best way to avoid sparrow locks is go to a lower spot or behind a wall, the missles hit the wal or the hill infront of you . .. as to loseing any other type of lock, move, a tree sometimes helps lose the lock.
as for those that get nailed by a phoenix, . . well .. better hope he is a noob at it . .

[Katanaboy]

I love the burster. My TR character has it, and it rocks. When i see one of the n00b reaver pilots who love to sit still 10 feet above the ground and spam rockets, i lock down and flak it to death within 5 seconds. Against moving targets it's about leading your target, since like the lasher it deals damage with near misses. It is the only AA max with the potential to hit fully afterburning aircraft, since sparrow needs a lockon before firing, and its missles can be outrun (if you run like hell and try to put mountains or trees between you and the missles), and the starfire needs direct line of sight, something hard to achieve on an afterburning aircraft due to the slow turning rate of the max. Against infantry/veh, its pretty good, as it has the largest blast radius of the AA maxes (sparrow's is pretty small, and starfire doesnt have one), so you can shoot at walls/the floor near an enemy to deal damage. Up close it does suck, but then again it was designed for AIRCRAFT, and last time i checked aircraft weren't found inside bases (i know there's that little bug that makes reavers fly around in the basement, but that's not what i'm talking about). The sparrow/starfire also dont have as much use indoors, as their rate of fire/raw damage against infantry isnt that much, when compared to the other maxes they have at their disposal.

um isn't that my point that the NC one and the VS one don't require any "knowledge" of the proper way to use their AA max's?

actually the NC/VS maxes are HARDER to use. the burster is just "aim in the general direction of the aircraft and spam away", while the sparrow must achieve lock before firing, or else the projectiles will go dumbfire (and it takes a good 4-5 seconds to do so, giving the target time to run away), and the starfire must keep reticle lock on the target the whole time (the only effective way to use the starfire is to fire the projectiles dumbfire, and then achieve lock, like the way the striker works).

I like all the AA maxes now, though i think the burster needs its range bumped up to 400m. Aside from this they are now all balanced well.

[SmackDab]

Why bother with this max and the 5 minute respawn timer, you have the freaking Striker missile that can lock on to anything almost....use that.

[Ultimatedogg]

2 reasons
-650 armor
-2 certs instead of 3

[WritheNC]

I'd probably own in a burster.

I had envied good pilots in BF1942; since I could never fly well, I just learned how to use the AA guns and LEAD MY TARGET!

[gonnagetyou]

My TR character has the Burster Cert and I love it. I use it strictly against aircraft like you're supposed to and I can swat down reavers and mosquitos like flys. Lead the target and as long as you get close they take damage. Plus they don't get any lock on warning which means you have the element of surprise.

[Mudflap]

As a reaver pilot (sometimes at least), I know what it's like to be shot by a Burster. You realize you're taking damge, and thjink some pesky trooper is firing at you, you begin to strafe, continue to take damage. Then you realize that you're taking massive damage and you decide to jet, hit your afterburners, and die. Thus ends the cycle of another reaver pilot shot down by a burster. Besides, the burster has nice range, and big splash. If you see the general area of an enemy AMS, light the area up. The bursts go off by themselves near the vehicle, kindly letting the rest of your friends know exactly where the AMS is.
I love the Burster when playing my TR guy. The range also lets you scare snipers off hilltops and such.

[SumYungGui]

funny how you bitch about the burster when you have the striker, the single most flexible weapon in the entire game and the purest of envy from us 'flexible' vanu. (here's a tip TR, instant AP mode 'flexibility' just isn't as cool as actually killing your target)

anyway...I watched a burster plant himself on a tower that overlooked the courtyard of a base we had. ya wanna know what he did? absolutely anything that came outside was, if not flat out killed in seconds, at least very hurt. MAXes? no problem, it's AA so it's inherant AV capabilities tear through the armor. vehicles? same as above. infantry? he was shooting so fast because of his planted mode that he would tear through the armor and then kill them in seconds. his weapons burst on impact ensured that he simply could not miss if he tried.

yeah, my heart bleeds for you poor TR without any effective air cover at all. now where'd that violin emote get to?

[Madcat170]

I dont know if any 1 knows this but back in beta where fights were smaller the zerg wasnt there and all was shiny and glowy and things.

The Buster had a sort of Lock on thing the shells would fly into the target for you, they removed this because its supposed to be like traditional flak, killing those lumbering Gal's, libs ( and maybe Loadstars). Another reason they may have removed it is because of the Striker, Notice TR AV locks on TR AA MAX no lock on, VS & NC AV no lockon, VS & NC AA MAX have lock on.

its fine, perfectly designed for the idiot reave pilots that like to fly straight at you, sniping people, blowing up AMS and doing all the shiny things above.

Lets leave it at that.