How to make rocket 20's work

A short take on rocket 20's at the time of this post. I feel that PGI should consider replacing the visual effect of rocket 20s to bubbles. That's what it feels like when I go to shoot an enemy mech with rocket 20's, fire 4 of them and still do less pinpoint damage than a artillery strike.

In PTS, theb33f is shown shooting the enemy mech within 50 m. Now you are required to stand outside of that radius to do any damage at all. Rocket 20's are 1.5 tons, maybe they are great for mech builds that don't even use the missile point. It's just. I can't see it.

 

Well... no. Not quite. Rocket Launcher 20s are great if you can get behind a mech with a Light; because just two of them will tear off rear armor with ease; and potentially even score the XL kill. These are one-shot burst weapons; not DPS or sustained combat guns.

If anything, I would agree that they are undertuned. They don't quite deal 2 damage per rocket; and for a one-shot gun, that's not high enough. But at the same time; I've scored kills with them, you just need to know when to use them. If PGI upped the damage to 2.25 damage per rocket; you'd be looking at a roughly 50 damage strike; and that's more worthwhile than the current ~38 damage.

As backup for my argument, you have this.

 

Rocket Launchers are at their best when used on heavies/assaults who don't mind sparing a bit of tonnage. Take the KGC-000 for example; a common build is a pair of heavy ballistics with lasers for backup. At that point, three tons can't add much more DPS but some RLs can add about 70 damage to the alpha strike. With lighter mechs, though, those three tons represent a lot more of their total loadout and could be spent on other weapons to improve DPS instead.

 

That was within 50 m. You can't stand that close anymore.....

 

I've kitted out a archer 5W with 4 SRM6+A and the rest rocket 20s and 15s. I still do better with airstrikes.

 

I would use the rockets against lighter mechs, but they usually move out of the way, stand within the minimum range, and when it does hit the missiles just feather them.

 

It doesn't sound like a weapon issue.

 

I'm willing to learn to learn senpai. Please teach me the arts of Rocket 20s. XD

 

The point is that you having trouble with them doesn't make rocket launchers bad. It's been a week since the new weapons were introduced. Give it some more time.

 

You do realize that the difference between point-blank and 50m is negligible at the speeds these weapons travel; right? I can easily land all the missiles at 100m from a moving light onto a moving heavy or Assault; it's all about angle of attack in that case.

Spread is pretty bad on the 20s; agreed; but the extra punch is appreciated; at least for me with that silly little LCT-1M build I've been darting around with. If they tighten the spread a little bit; then RL20s would be stronger, and... well; in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure they need to be much stronger when their role as added burst is considered.

 

Well if its intended to fill a role as a one shot wonder, its falling short because i wouldn't even consider it right now. I can easily take a javelin arm it with srms and be triple effective on multiple targets.

 

Personal opinion; as with everything else in the game. You have your way, I have mine. Also; I think we stopped talking about boating; I just mentioned boating because of your arguements against it. Rocket Launchers aren't designed for that, they're secondary or tertiary weapon systems at a maximum; there to add to your burst and assist in killing targets you wouldn't bring down otherwise. Great on lights, mediums as well as some heavies and assaults. You are measuring effectiveness in a different way to myself.

 

im measuring it for its value. Is it worth the tonnage, and hard point? Well just ask the new players who try to boat only rockets. You know its going to throw some pug games.

 

Are they worth the tonnage when part of a well-thought-out build? You bet! It gives a light mech like a Locust or Commando a sudden surprising gut punch for anybody not paying attention to them. It can boost the firepower of some of the older Jenner laser-focused builds. Hell; even things like the X-5 can fit them in and see benefit.

Are they worth it to boat? About as worthwhile as an IS light boating LRMs. So no. But mentioning newbies isn't really a good example; most newbies are just going to mess around and experiment and learn the way we did, by experimentation.

 

1 medium laser locust w 3 flamer vs 4 rocket 20 locust w medium laser.

 

Both are situational loadouts; with their own roles.

Flamer Locust is more oriented in causing enemies to shut down; but he can't kill them himself without a lot of luck and timing.

Quad RL20 Locust is capable of killing at least one mech with that loadout; but after that he will gimp himself down to a single medium laser so he'll be about as combat-ready as the Flamer mech; without the ability to shut targets down... but retaining the ability to function as a spotter and capper, in the same vein as his friend. Alternatively; he can be an assassin and remove up to four critically damaged targets that manage to escape his teammates that he couldn't kill otherwise due to a lack of firepower.

 

Tried it on the cataphract and awesome from 50, fired all rocket 20s, all it did is crack the armor.

It's like they added a table top weapon that would be good when all the shots rely on a dice roll, except this is a FPS where every shot counts.

They need to remove the minimum range or shrink the spread by a ton.