I don’t think there is, is there? Aside from roofs, which is a preventative measure, and not a counter. Like, I can’t shoot or zap away a laser if it’s on a point so that’s literally just free seconds you’re giving to the opposing team.
What counters Kira's laser?
Rokon2
(Rokon2)
#3
Solid advice, not going to lie. If I could only kill her fast enough, that way her beam doesn’t stick around for 10 seconds just death balling everything it rolls under.
kopyright
(kopyright)
#4
If I am not mistaken the beam still sticks around after Kira’s death but it doesn’t move anymore.
SiwaonaDaphnewen
(SiwaonaDaphnewen)
#5
You need to aim in one small area to call an orbital strike and it takes quite some time. This makes casual Kira to stay immobile and experienced Kira to be less mobile. Use that time to avoid laser area and/or shoot weak immobile 90hp merc down.
She might summon it from cover, but she still needs to know where you are and needs reference points to control laser. If you didn’t see her before - you’ll likely to see her now.
Once Laser started she still has to control it - that’s when casual Kira doesn’t shoot at all and expereinced Kira shoots less. Yet again that’s the time you shoot 90hp merc down. Strenght of laser is ability to control it and point directly onto enemy otherwise it is worse compare to other fire support abilities.
So yes, to counter Kira, you need to shoot her.
Kirays
#7
No. What you can do however is to target a location and then switch to your weapon - the laser will continue moving to that point.
By the way, the laser is fairly slow so, unless it catches you unprepared (which it should do), it’s possible to outrun and dodge it by performing long-jumps.
@kopyright said:
If I am not mistaken the beam still sticks around after Kira’s death but it doesn’t move anymore.
Correct. It’s worth noting that downing the Kira is not enough, though. You have to gib her to stop the laser from moving, otherwise it will continue to its destination the Kira marked previously.
Rokon2
(Rokon2)
#9
Alrightie, so the best solution is to shoot them before they have a chance to use it. Fair enough I suppose.
GatoCommodore
(GatoCommodore)
#10
if you see kira pulling out her laser painter shoot her in the stomach to cancel the channeling.
even 1 bullet would keep canceling it and force her to deal with you first.
OCB-Wildcard
([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard)
#11
@Rokon2 said:
I don’t think there is, is there? Aside from roofs, which is a preventative measure, and not a counter. Like, I can’t shoot or zap away a laser if it’s on a point so that’s literally just free seconds you’re giving to the opposing team.
The actual counter to her Laser is in the gameplay mechanics behind it, much like with Arty’s ability, as any gunfire taken while attempting to place it will take away a large chunk of the progress towards activation (essentially pushing the countdown further from zero; at which point the Laser is active); so the earlier you begin shooting her during activation, the worse it is for Kira. If done early enough it becomes impossible for her to activate the Laser while under fire, even with Focus, as it will restart the countdown from the beginning with every bullet that hits her; or close enough to the beginning as to render the attempt useless, in any case. It should be noted, however, that Weapons with a High Rate of Fire and Headshots will be the most efficient at this method of counter-play.
For example, it is more-or-less impossible to place the Laser while under fire from a gun like the Hochfir due to how quickly the bullets are shot at her completely cancelling out any attempts to place it. The amount of Damage per Bullet also factors into how far back the timer is pushed for each shot landed, making shots to Kira’s head the most effective regardless of your Weapon’s Rate of Fire (i.e. RPM, Rounds per Minute); it will also result in a significantly shorter T.T.K. (i.e. Time to Kill) which is an added benefit and further deterrent to her continuing to attempt placement of the Laser in this situation. It is worth stating that even if you don’t finish off Kira she can no longer Direct the Laser for the remainder of its active duration (even if she is Revived during that time) til it’s off its Cooldown; at which point the cycle begins anew.
TL;DR (i.e. The Short Version) - For those who don’t care for all the technical jargon and lengthy explanation contained in this response, I’ll make this as brief and simple as possible; if you see Kira attempting to place the Laser focus your gunfire on her and she won’t be able to place it, thus avoiding the problems it can cause altogether.
Rokon2
(Rokon2)
#12
@GatoCommodore said:
if you see kira pulling out her laser painter shoot her in the stomach to cancel the channeling.even 1 bullet would keep canceling it and force her to deal with you first.
I guess I never realized that, thanks for the heads up fam. Think I’ll have to at least do that, if I can’t kill then I should at least try to delay her laser, and relocate her if possible.
@-OCB-Wildcard said:
@Rokon2 said:
I don’t think there is, is there? Aside from roofs, which is a preventative measure, and not a counter. Like, I can’t shoot or zap away a laser if it’s on a point so that’s literally just free seconds you’re giving to the opposing team.The actual counter to her Laser is in the gameplay mechanics behind it, much like with Arty’s ability, as any gunfire taken while attempting to place it will take away a large chunk of the progress towards activation (essentially pushing the countdown further from zero; at which point the Laser is active); so the earlier you begin shooting her during activation, the worse it is for Kira. If done early enough it becomes impossible for her to activate the Laser while under fire, even with Focus, as it will restart the countdown from the beginning with every bullet that hits her; or close enough to the beginning as to render the attempt useless, in any case. It should be noted, however, that Weapons with a High Rate of Fire and Headshots will be the most efficient at this method of counter-play.
For example, it is more-or-less impossible to place the Laser while under fire from a gun like the Hochfir due to how quickly the bullets are shot at her completely cancelling out any attempts to place it. The amount of Damage per Bullet also factors into how far back the timer is pushed for each shot landed, making shots to Kira’s head the most effective regardless of your Weapon’s Rate of Fire (i.e. RPM, Rounds per Minute); it will also result in as significantly shorter T.T.K. (i.e. Time to Kill) which is an added benefit and further deterrent to her continuing to attempt placement of the Laser in this situation. It is worth stating that even if you don’t finish off Kira she can no longer Direct the Laser for the remainder of its active duration (even if she is Revived during that time) til it’s off its Cooldown; at which point the cycle begins anew.
TL;DR (i.e. The Short Version) - For those who don’t care for all the technical jargon and lengthy explanation contained in this response, I’ll make this as brief and simple as possible; if you see Kira attempting to place the Laser focus your gunfire on her and she won’t be able to place it, thus avoiding the problems it can cause altogether.
Appreciate the breakdown. It seems that the best counter for her laser is essentially a deterrent in the form of just outright shooting her down, which I suppose is the most logical, all things considered. Kind of reminds me of Sombra and the mechanics behind her hacking ability, where even sneezing in her direction would stop it. Fair enough, guess I gotta be more mindful of where she is then.
kirinichiban42
(kirinichiban42)
#13
Some really good advice over here. I never realized how hard it was to place a laser under heavy gunfire. From firsthand experience, just one good person shooting at you is enough to completely block a laser.
My only gripe is how Kira can place a laser down while behind cover (point the laser upwards and target the farthest wall) which makes her hard to see and shoot. I’m not sure if that has a counter (I probably haven’t noticed), but if it doesn’t it would be nice to implement a mechanic to detect if a Kira is trying to communicate with a laser satellite while she is behind cover.
OCB-Wildcard
([ *O.C.B.* ] Wildcard)
#14
@kirinichiban42 said:
Some really good advice over here. I never realized how hard it was to place a laser under heavy gunfire. From firsthand experience, just one good person shooting at you is enough to completely block a laser.My only gripe is how Kira can place a laser down while behind cover (point the laser upwards and target the farthest wall) which makes her hard to see and shoot. I’m not sure if that has a counter (I probably haven’t noticed), but if it doesn’t it would be nice to implement a mechanic to detect if a Kira is trying to communicate with a laser satellite while she is behind cover.
You can see the red lines and the symbol where it will be focused on the ground most times when she’s starting to activate it; though it can be easily missed if you aren’t keeping an eye out for it or are far enough away from the initial zone of impact. The symbol should resemble an X’d out circle on the ground, but the big give-away is the lasers circling and converging towards each other on a single location; again this is easy to miss in some instances as you’ll only see it easily if you’re relatively close by. So technically there are warning signs but, as is also the case with arty’s ability, the warning markers are a bit wonky sometimes and either don’t render properly (e.g. Arty’s Artillery Strike marker sometimes ends up partially under the ground on maps like chapel similarly to the marker for Kira’s Laser); with Kira the converging red lines will always be visible, but they are rather thin and so are easily missed if you aren’t close enough to the target zone.
Essentially, there are warning signs implemented into the game in case you aren’t able to get eyes on Kira to shoot her during placement. The only problem is that there are some weird bugs on some of the maps presently that make it a bit harder to spot at times. Hopefully these issues will be addressed by Splash Damage before the launch of 1.0 as they’ve been around for a long time; Chapel has had this problem since even before its rework, and the problem still persists for Kira and Arty among the current list of bugs/glitches in Dirty Bomb.
kirinichiban42
(kirinichiban42)
#15
You can see the red lines and the symbol where it will be focused on the ground most times when she’s starting to activate it; though it can be easily missed if you aren’t keeping an eye out for it or are far enough away from the initial zone of impact.
That is a good point, the targeting light thingy is a big giveaway that Kira is using a laser.
I guess another thing though I noticed is how Kira’s laser is much more effective at area denial than the other field support mercs, especially Stoker. Stoker is the closest to Kira in terms of area denial because they both have long lasting abilities. However, you can negate Stoker using three methods: explosives, smoke, and Guardian’s trophy system shield. On the other hand, Kira has no hard counters other than shooting her (which also works against stokers). If a Kira blocks an objective with a laser it stays there till the end, whereas other field support mercs can have their abilities nullified just by a Guardian Shield.
I am by no means saying that Kira is OP, she is not gamebreaking in the least. Furthermore, I have a feeling Splash Damage will introduce a merc who will be a hard counter to Kira. However, I will say that Kira’s ability goes unchecked compared to other merc’s abilities.
kopyright
(kopyright)
#16
@kirinichiban42 said:
Furthermore, I have a feeling Splash Damage will introduce a merc who will be a hard counter to Kira.
There already are some leaked artworks on their Instagram page.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]
