Skyhammer issues

(gloomyRequirement) #1

Oi,

Somewhere I kind of have the feeling Skyhammer might just be the one of most useful merc in competitive teams due to his airstrike being - aside from Kira - the strongest AoE ability.

Yet he feels kind of weak. It’s the ability I get least often killed by even considering ~40% of the players play Skyhammer. When I play him myself, and I consider myself a good player, I don’t get kills often either. I do way better with both Kira and Arty(especially fragger, but he’s a bit of a cheapo merc). It’s all in the delay, literally every merc can escape his airstrike even if they get hit by the initial beacon(it’s really bad, even a full hit right by the feet allows the slowest merc to still get away timely pretty easily). That can be prevented by reducing the delay, but you’re going to have to deal with the issue of skyhammer becoming potentially crazy overpowered.

I had another suggestion, which is mechanically way more difficult but that aside:

After Skyhammer throws his beacon it doesn’t explode unless Skyhammer has set the direction to get artillery fire from. After the beacon is thrown Skyhammer immediately equips a compass/radar-like device on which an arrow is presented that rotates along a circle as the player moves his/her/it’s mouse. When the player has decided which direction the airstrike should come in from he simply presses left mouse after which the beacon explodes and the airstrike is inbound with an angle provided by Skyhammer relative to it. Pressing Q when equipping the radar like device cancels the airstrike lowering it’s cooldown to 20 and makes the beacon explode nevertheless.

How does that sound to y’all? It doesn’t necessarily make him that much stronger, but it does allow him to be more on par with the extremely versatile Kira and Arty.

(Dawnlazy) #2

Only throw it in plain sight if you’re using it for area denial, for example if you want to flush a bunch of opponents from behind cover. Otherwise you use the wide area it hits to your advantage, like throwing the marker behind a wall and so they can’t see it but part of the explosion hits the other side of the wall nonetheless. Another good way to use it is to learn spawn timers so you know when your enemies will start appearing in certain places.

Check out some of crooKk’s airstrikes:

(gloomyRequirement) #3

[quote=“Dawnrazor;139287”]Only throw it in plain sight if you’re using it for area denial, for example if you want to flush a bunch of opponents from behind cover. Otherwise you use the wide area it hits to your advantage, like throwing the marker behind a wall and so they can’t see it but part of the explosion hits the other side of the wall nonetheless. Another good way to use it is to learn spawn timers so you know when your enemies will start appearing in certain places.

Check out some of crooKk’s airstrikes:

These are nice, but would you really say Skyhammer is as good as Kira or Arty in the hands of a skilled player?

(Dawnlazy) #4

[quote=“gloomyRequirement;139295”][quote=“Dawnrazor;139287”]Only throw it in plain sight if you’re using it for area denial, for example if you want to flush a bunch of opponents from behind cover. Otherwise you use the wide area it hits to your advantage, like throwing the marker behind a wall and so they can’t see it but part of the explosion hits the other side of the wall nonetheless. Another good way to use it is to learn spawn timers so you know when your enemies will start appearing in certain places.

Check out some of crooKk’s airstrikes:

These are nice, but would you really say Skyhammer is as good as Kira or Arty in the hands of a skilled player? [/quote]

Sky’s sort of my “main” merc, I have over 140 hours on him and I never had any terrible regrets about bringing him in my squad. He’s legit top tier. Arty and Kira are very map dependent, I play them a lot too but Skyhammer is just so damn solid, he can do some serious work in most areas of all maps.

(CCP115) #5

Skyhammer has a lower skill ceiling then either Kira or Arty, so yes you are kind of right when you say that, but at the same time Skyhammer is still really good. Some of the best guns and a good HP/Speed combo.

(Mrarauzz) #6

I have the most time played with skybro. He is personally my favorite merc, but kira is also really strong. The airstrike can easily win games whether it be killing or intentionally moving the opponents away from an area.

(streetwiseSailboat) #7

I don’t want your difficult idea to be implemented. He’s everyone’s first merc and I don’t want newer players to have to difficulty with their cool ability.

(nokiII) #8

I just want, that new players use the abilities at all.

(bizarreRectangle) #9

Can anyone give me some more tips for his airstrikes and how to aim them?

(nokiII) #10

@bizarreRectangle The airstrike will be called in perpendicular to your throw direction, given that it doesn’t bounce around. The plane itself will bomb from right to left if you look at the marker.

To illustrate my point:

(KattiValk) #11

Skyhammer is far from UP. You should try using the airstrike’s range to your advantage. Throw it perpendicular to a wall and give campers on the other side a nasty surprise when the marker they couldn’t see because there was a wall in the way, brings down the thunder right on top of them.

(Haki) #12

He has 120hp, the best weapon in the game and can keep himself topped up on ammo very easily and at all times. AND he has an airstrike that takes out the EV in one go?

much underpowered, pls buff

(crooKk) #13

In addition to demonstrating some useful strikes, I mention some Skyhammer tips in this video as well;

Part 2

Dome

Keep an eye on or sub my channel if you want to see more. I am scheduled to fly home from out of town on Wednesday and will be putting up a Skyhammaer Chapel vid after the first week of Feb (and one more map by the 3rd week of Feb).

(bizarreRectangle) #14

What game mode were you playing? Is it also possible to read spawn timers on objective mode?

(Dawnlazy) #15

If you hold TAB to see when they spawn you can sort of mentally time it, sometimes I can get well timed airstrikes in OBJ servers.

(JJMAJR) #16

@crooKk how did you get that HUD? I want that…

I don’t know how to alter my HUD…

(crooKk) #17

I only play stopwatch.

One tip for timing spawns in OBJ mode is to leave some ungibbed corpses around. When they self-gib (should be around the same time), you know they have just spawned and you can start predicting travel times :slight_smile:

Or just use tab as DR suggested (stupid feature they added in a few patches back)

(crooKk) #18

[quote=“JJMAJR;141303”]@crooKk how did you get that HUD? I want that…

I don’t know how to alter my HUD…[/quote]

I use sick6 newb’s. You can find it here: myinternets.ca/prophet/dirtybomb

Search google or reddit on how to use it. I’m on my iPad on a poor satellite connection and can’t access certain pages right now, otherwise I’d post detailed instructions. Someone else minding showing him how to use a custom hud?

(Dawnlazy) #19

[quote=“JJMAJR;141303”]@crooKk how did you get that HUD? I want that…

I don’t know how to alter my HUD…[/quote]

Look here:

You can also talk to Kirays, the guide’s author, if you have any questions - he posts in the forums too.

[quote=“crooKk;141316”][quote=“JJMAJR;141303”]@crooKk how did you get that HUD? I want that…

I don’t know how to alter my HUD…[/quote]

I use sick6 newb’s. You can find it here: myinternets.ca/prophet/dirtybomb

Search google or reddit on how to use it. I’m on my iPad on a poor satellite connection and can’t access certain pages right now, otherwise I’d post detailed instructions. Someone else minding showing him how to use a custom hud?[/quote]

I use your HUD too as a young Skyhammer padawan :stuck_out_tongue:

(crooKk) #20

[quote=“Dawnrazor;141449”]
I use your HUD too as a young Skyhammer padawan :stuck_out_tongue:
http://i.imgur.com/2NHRc3U.jpg[/quote]

Try a troll strike on that stage.

Toss your strike to cover the defenders right side balcony exit, and then go main and repeatedly jump up and down in front of ramp so defenders can see you when they repsawn.

“oh shit, skyhammer @ main!” Better go balcony so the strike doesn’t get me!