Hello!
I got this merc with beginner’s pack a while ago, but by that time i had kira already and i was really disapointed. Arty seems to be somewhat between Skyhammer and Kira, but those two are simply better than Arty. So i suggest to rework arty to similar area denial as Stoker’s molotov. The idea is 5 arty shells falling 1 by 1 every 2 seconds.
I don’t think he should be area denial. He’s second best at disabling the EV, but I think it would be more fair if they increased the amount of arty strikes to 3 from 2. Some say 5, but 2 arty strikes is enough to nearly disable the EV, and 3 does it no problem.
In my opinion arty is the best at destroying the EV if the enemy is repairing it very quickly. With Skyhammer you have to wait another minute, so if they repair it in 10 seconds, you’re going to have to wait for quite some time. Also, the EV may go over the marker and cause no airstrike with a 15 second wait. With arty you just need 3 strikes which takes about 20 seconds. Then if they repair it quickly you can fire one strike right away, another one in about 5 seconds, and another one in about 10 seconds. Meaning Arty is arguably the best at destroying the EV.
I love Arty, but he is a bit underpowered. One easy, much needed buff is make his laser charging uninterruptable. Considering he has to expose himself 90% of the time to get the angle he needs (whereas Stoker and Skyhammer can lob from cover), it is entirely unfair that he can be interrupted (did I mention Stoker and Skyhammer can’t be?).
I’d eventually love to see Arty’ artillery separated into marking and firing. If he could mark a target with his laser in advance and then call in the artillery whenever he was ready for it, that would be awesome. It should still be perfectly balanced as enemies would get fair warning by the sky laser (plus the sound) before artillery comes in.
Sure he may be good at destroying EV, but this advantage is kinda meh. There is only 2 out of 6 objective maps where you need to disable EV and 2 execution maps where all abilities recharge every round. Arty’s advatage is very limited with defending on those 2 maps that’s the main problem. On map with EV you can take 2-3 arty in defendce and make EV stop every meter no problem. But in attacking team or on other maps he will be least usefull supporting merc.
Kira’s laser is better for killing players and area denia. It’s not so much worse at taking out EV and can be started in safety or moved behind cover.
Skyhammer is a starting merc to begin with. He has better weapons for close quaters and can use his air strike marker as a grenade with 15 seconds reload where air support is simply impossible.
[quote=“camouflageTanker;107141”]Sure he may be good at destroying EV, but this advantage is kinda meh. There is only 2 out of 6 objective maps where you need to disable EV and 2 execution maps where all abilities recharge every round. Arty’s advatage is very limited with defending on those 2 maps that’s the main problem. On map with EV you can take 2-3 arty in defendce and make EV stop every meter no problem. But in attacking team or on other maps he will be least usefull supporting merc.
Kira’s laser is better for killing players and area denia. It’s not so much worse at taking out EV and can be started in safety or moved behind cover.
Skyhammer is a starting merc to begin with. He has better weapons for close quaters and can use his air strike marker as a grenade with 15 seconds reload where air support is simply impossible.[/quote]
I agree with what you say except for the part about the EV and Kira. She isn’t that great for taking it out because a single laser would take out only half of its health from full.
It’s more like 2/3 if you fire EV directly. You can take rest 1/3 other way. One arty, stoker, other kira that will wipe out enemies near EV first and than damage objective. With ammo station may just shoot it.
Arty is fine, no rework or buff needed. You can get him to work more easily on defense than offense, but he works well for both (fire support isn’t needed all that often anyway). He’s a mid-long range operative, his artillery gets me tons of kills. Just make sure they’re busy so they don’t see the big laser pointing out where the arty will go. It’s excellent on chokes, you can call down the arty from where they will not see you.
Of course like fire support in general, arty is not good in every situation *cough *cough underground *cough *cough but as a fire support he is good. Only guy who can use fire support indoors and in almost every situation is probably stoker.
[quote=“HoopleDoople;106932”]I love Arty, but he is a bit underpowered. One easy, much needed buff is make his laser charging uninterruptable. Considering he has to expose himself 90% of the time to get the angle he needs (whereas Stoker and Skyhammer can lob from cover), it is entirely unfair that he can be interrupted (did I mention Stoker and Skyhammer can’t be?).
I’d eventually love to see Arty’ artillery separated into marking and firing. If he could mark a target with his laser in advance and then call in the artillery whenever he was ready for it, that would be awesome. It should still be perfectly balanced as enemies would get fair warning by the sky laser (plus the sound) before artillery comes in.[/quote]
Omg THIS! xD
that’s a great idea.
Arty is actually pretty good for attacking on Underground. You can mark the defender’s doorway from roof and the skylight itself plus of course the entire second objective. Basically play rooftop then pipe then gas tunnel.