In-case you did not notice, but with the release of Project Phoenix they changed the damage from: 10 per bomb/shell to: 40 per bomb/shell. I realize they were pretty much useless before, but what about now? Even one 40 point hit on a mech is pretty substantial. One hit could tear off an arm, strip off torso armor, finish off cored mechs, or even insta-kill a mech in the face. Speaking of hit location, I wonder how this is determined. Does each bomb/shell have it's own trajectory like an AC round and able to hit anywhere on a mech? I would assume so. I'm very much considering blowing all of my 40,000+ GXP laying around to test these out after their huge damage buff. Upgrade to improved and run both Artillery & Air Strike. Possibly make a video showing results. Would love to hear from people who currently use these consumables. Or if anyone is interested in my findings (when I get a chance to collect data)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg_OIipJuds i am! Blame for that, but i´m a big fan of Airstrike & Artillery-Strike! I gives me the more "planetwide-combat-feeling" ...but the usage was quite "limited" by now. I gote some trys after the buff by now, but not enough to make an edjucated statement about it. I will go on with that and give feedback.
I've used them a few times in both Assault and Conquest after the patch, and they can be quite devistating! You can take off about 5% health from a mech, which is great. Sometimes, it even makes a random part go all the way to red armor! I once managed that to the head of an Atlas, but that was just random luck.
I was spectating earlier tonight and watched airstrike smoke pop on the enemy's coffee maker, few seconds later my team's Locust was blown to kingdom come. Pretty good tactic to get the enemy off a cap point at the very least. Might just buy enough time to get reinforcement to support.
I've been seeing them more and more actually. Small useless mechs (like oh... I dont know... the Locust) could mount one of these and just run in and drop it.
Yup we are running them more and more in our 12-mans. If you have a spare module slot they are worth taking I think. What I would really like to know is if the Artillery Accuracy module is worth it. At that point your filling 2 module slots to drop one artillery slot which is a lot IMHO. :unsure:
I think it's a situational thing anyway. When mechs are overheating or standing still, improved accuracy will do way more damage. But if they don't it's easier to outrun so there's less chance you get something out of spending an arty strike.
Not sure about the MC strikes, cause I would NEVER EVER EVER BUY MC CONSUMABLES, EVER. Tried doing the cbills version a couplt times way back, is unimpressed, maybe I will try it again after this buff... when I finish leveling... Right now I REALLY NEED CBILLS.
Yeah, dumping 80,000 cbills into a mech every round really hurts your income... but this is for science!
Was running a 4 man premade last night and we managed to score 5 to 6 kills over about 20 rounds using air/arty strikes. We were all carrying one and trying to only use them when the situation is right. I managed to get 2 kills with on air strike on a group standing by the cave on forest colony. This was after they had taken some damage obviously but I was super impressed.
With the air strike do you get to determine the direction of the strike or is it just always the direction your facing when you launch it?
As soon as you pop the smoke, draw a line from you to that point. That is the direction it will go, starting at the smoke. You have no additional control over it. I wish you can designate it on a map...
I feel like the Arty strike is more worthwhile in general situations, a line of bombs sounds easier to dodge than a cluster.
I have been using them Alot since the Buff,, wait not alot,, Every match. I even have a Video on my channel explaining the differences and how to use them But in short the artillery strike lands perpendicular to your launch direction and the airstrike lands Parallel, the artiller strike is centered on the spotting round, where airstrike starts at the spotting round and travels away from you. There is a Game balancing limitation on these that sometimes gets annoying when your team can not or will not tell you they are using it, it becomes unavailable for you for about 15 sec. so some time 2 people have the same idea and when you go up to launch it you click and nothing happens because the strike time was reset by your team somewhere else and you get shot up by the group you were going to Nuke. My team ALL carry Both, and we announce when we feel one should be used and when we are going to use one of our own so that the rest of the team knows what is going on. Each strike has 10 Shells which do 40 damage to everything in a limited radious Ea. so if i stand in the blast and one lands in front of me i get less than 40 damage to many hit locations less as it gets farther away from me. but if i am in an area where one lands in front on the left and right, I just took under 120 damage to almost every location Turning my chassis yellow or sometimes Red. Knowing this is very damaging but spread out over the whole mech we understand that strikes are best used early in a match and when you can hit 3-4 mechs at once. This way your locust just tid 120 damage to 4 mechs (480) with no chance of trailing back to the locust and did not take up a weapon slot nor generate any heat. And now that those mechs are all damaged the rest of your Group can penetrate their armor faster and get kills easier. IMO: best time to use is when your Group and their Group get to the point where you and they are hold up behind a hill and both teams are engaging the long battle before the assault, this way they are probably just behind the hill and grouped together. Best use of Artiller for the Unit was when my XO and I were in termaline Desert and the other unit was rounding a bend tight together (so they could roll us) and He dropped an Artillery, then 30 sec. later I dropped artillery, then 30 sec later I dropped an Airstrike and we Killed 3 Atlases with out ever firing a Round. So is it worth it, In a compatition yes. is a Pug match maybe not but i still bring them as I have no need for C-bills, but I understand 80,000 c-bills is alot if you are trying to build your c-bills.
