The past month or so I’ve been using Arty fairly exclusively on chapel and started to notice things about using his air strike/artillery on the EV. It seems like at times I’ll pull off what I think might be maximum damage, other times I’ll do maybe 100 dmg to it, with none of the strikes being a huge miss or being literally on top of it. I’ve also noticed that when shooting at the EV, areas around the MG don’t cause damage (red hitmarker doesn’t appear) to the EV. With the inconsistent damage I’ve been getting due to artillery, I’m curious if anyone has noticed a “sweet spot” on where to place Arty’s strike to get the max use out of his skill each time, or if it’s considered a bug that certain parts of the EV don’t cause damage, and thus block some of the incoming artillery damage.
EV vs Arty's Air Strike
I don’t know about maximum damage to the EV itself, but I always drop a salvo right in front of the EV so if anyone pushes it it lands right on top of it regardless, or right behind/to the side of it so anyone trying to repair or push it gets killed instead of the EV.
2 well-placed shots is a guaranteed EV kill, so it doesn’t matter too much where you hit the EV, just that you hit it with most of the damage.
Nope. You need at least 3 arty strikes to kill an ev.
Here is an video of 2 pretty much perfect arty strikes on an ev and they won’t kill it.
If anyone cares to argue otherwise, please provide more than anecdotal evidence.
The “sweet spot” is the gap between the turret and the main body. Guaranteed maximum damage no matter if the EV is moving or not, at least in my experience. Kills everyone that is glued to the back if it’s moving. And yeah, 2 perfect strikes bring it down to ~20% health. It’s best to team up with a Nader or another Arty for maximum efficiency 
Of course it’s not that easy to aim there due to aimpunch, EV moving up/down, wrong planet alignment etc. If you’re not confident you can pull it off better aim right in front of it as it’s better than nothing.
[quote=“MarsRover;202016”]
Of course it’s not that easy to aim there due to aimpunch, EV moving up/down,[i] wrong planet alignment[/i] etc. .[/quote]
Not to forget the ever so important knowledge of next 2 weeks lottery numbers, proper rhythm in ones rain dance and proper sacrifices to the Azure Sky Gods.
Holy hell how annoying laser designators are in DB.
Does anyone know if the fall pattern of the shells is fixed? Maybe what I’m noticing is a spatial difference depending on where the EV is actually at when it drops along with anyone’s model around it blocking some incoming damage as well.
You can still pull out your two artillery strike and finish with you gun. Yes : guns deal damage to the EV ! I managed to finish a low health EV a couple of times like that. It’s pratical but you should do it only when the EV’s health is low enough.
Nope. You need at least 3 arty strikes to kill an ev.
Here is an video of 2 pretty much perfect arty strikes on an ev and they won’t kill it.
If anyone cares to argue otherwise, please provide more than anecdotal evidence.[/quote]
Yeah I just went and tested it out, I was wrong, the most I could get the EV down to after 4 tries was around 7-13% from full health. I thought I recalled the salvos doing just enough damage to kill it with two.
Usually the safest way is to aim straight at the MG turret, it will hit the EV directly on top and if there’s someone pushing it from the back they might get caught as well.
Also this, and having multiple people shooting the EV makes it much faster.
if I ever see an arty hitting the EV with artillery, I know they are not going to be able to finish it so I also start shooting it while the artillery is dropping. Doing it that way saves me an airstrike throw usually that I can use later.
[quote=“MarsRover;202016”]The “sweet spot” is the gap between the turret and the main body. Guaranteed maximum damage no matter if the EV is moving or not, at least in my experience. Kills everyone that is glued to the back if it’s moving. And yeah, 2 perfect strikes bring it down to ~20% health. It’s best to team up with a Nader or another Arty for maximum efficiency
Of course it’s not that easy to aim there due to aimpunch, EV moving up/down, wrong planet alignment etc. If you’re not confident you can pull it off better aim right in front of it as it’s better than nothing.[/quote]
Ahh yes…aimpunch…can’t somehow manage to make a target even though it’s a laser pointed at the ground yet a sniper being pelted by bullets is somehow able to keep a completely straight shot 
aiming at the turret is the eziest way imho. It always takes 3 strikes to take it out.