About them missiles...

Hi everyone, I'm new here, and I have a question for you guys. I've got a lvl 10 rare missile launcher that I have equipped on an mk3 fixer (soon to be mk4, and I also have an mk4 shooter and an mk4 speeder), plus a spare rare missile for when I unlock its evolution. But even though I've seen a bunch of great players use it, I can't seem to make it work. When I play with it on my fixer, I always end the games with very low damage – around 200-300, whereas I can top 1000 with my other weapons. Missiles go kind of fast, but not enough to be a more or less "sure shot" like with the sniper rifle. They seem scatter randomly and their blast radius is small, so when the target is far away, I often miss it altogether even if it is just sitting there. And when I do hit, it usually makes very low damage (like 40 or 50). And yet, every now and then, I play very good players who hit me with their missiles and do serious damage — in the 300-500 range.

So what should I do ? I'm reluctant to put it on one of my other boats : on my shooter, I'd have to take off either my lvl 21 UC explosive cannon or my lvl 21 rare bertha, it *really* doesn't seem to be worth it ; and it would NOT fit at all with the set up on my speeder (frost blaster to slow them down, then make them pay with the bertha + lvl 10 rare blast cannon). Should I scrap those missiles for parts, tough it out and try to learn how to use them, or just wait until Blastian reach higher level and use something else in the mean time ?

Thanks for your advices !

 

Yes! I suggest you wait until your Blastian gets higher. What level is it?
I have mine so that I can launch 4 Missiles, I didn’t like three and I don’t want to wait until five.
One thing that helps me out a lot are the Range perks. Don’t treat it as a long range weapon. If you want to though, use it only after healing your teammates, or else you’ll be taking seconds to aim than to heal your team.
And lvl 10 won’t do an amazing amount of damage just yet, so be patient and boost that Blastian!

 

This. Missiles are similar to railgun and explosive cannons. Laughable below level 20, Ok in 20s and then scary after level 30.

 

All right, I'll just wait then. Thanks to you two for the advice !

 

Missles are by far my favorites. But they are a great mid-range, sloppy long-range, and NOT a short range weapon. You must aim carefully and definitely get the four/five missle upgrades. I use two of them on a shooter and I'm almost always the high damage dealer. Much faster than a torpedo, really quick reload time, high damage. Only drawback is the careful aiming, but totally worth it.

 

Does the range perk really reduce the spread of the missile launcher? Quite a few forumers here said that it only extends range but doesn't reduce spread. But people like waveblower seems to be able to land all their missile shots with the range perk, so I'm confused. Really appreaciate your feedback on this, thanks.

 

No, it doesn't. I have 3 range perks and I use it as a mid-long range weapon. I do NOT have accuracy at that range, but it's a nice scatter weapon for early in the fight. I hit stuff, it does damage, and I move on. Often I hit multiple targets at that range.

Occasionally, the spread puts two missles at either side of the spectrum. In that case, I miss. However, if even one or two are near center, that's nearly 300 dmg for mine. That rivals my sniper rifle, so it's decent enough. 600 if I get two to hit long range.

As to the original question, no the spread is not reduced.

 

I thought Range perks would help, but like @TenKLeagues said, it doesn’t really help with spread. I also have 3 Rare perks equipped, yet I find it hard to land all shots from far or mid far. It’s best used mid range.

 

Thanks mate.

 

I sometimes put 2 missile launchers on my defender.
One has 2 range perks.
One has 0 range perks.
So, I often get to "see" the spread against the same target (at the same range) on 2 consecutive shots.
I have to say, I think the Range perks DO reduce the spread.

Here's how I believe it works:

Missiles have a stated "spread" = 10 degrees.
That refers to the spread "at max range", and then the degree of spread gradually shrinks at shorter ranges... For example:

If I have NO range perks (max range = 30)...
...then spread = 10 degrees at 30 range
...and spread = 6.7 degrees at 20 range
...and spread = 3.3 degrees at 10 range

If I apply range perks (max range now = 40)...
...then spread = 10 degrees at 40 range
...and spread = 7.5 degrees at 30 range (that's a tighter spread than 10 degrees)
...and spread = 5 degrees at 20 range (that's a tighter spread than 6.7 degrees)
...and spread = 2.5 degrees at 10 range (that's a tighter spread than 3.3 degrees)

If my assumption that the listed 10 degree spread means the spread "at max range", then yes, having Range Perks will reduce spread at a given X range.

However... the other way it they could have coded this... is that the stated 10 degree spread is at the weapon's specific original max range (30)... and then adding Range perks means that the spread will actually be GREATER than 10 degrees at those greater ranges... (the reason I don't think this is the way it is coded though, is because of my trial-and-error playing with 2 missile launchers with/without perks at the same time. It's not easily "measurable", but it's what I perceive...)

(...would love to see a dev confirm either way!)

 

Your math looks good, Spinners71, and I have the same: 2 missle launchers on the same ship. I always felt like the spread is greater on the longer shots, so, your second conclusion. I think they change the angle of trajectory at the origin point by 10 degrees, which means the further out they go, the farther apart they are. As you pointed out, it's hard to tell for sure, I'll take the perks off on one and see what the difference seems to be.

 

Thank you all for your answers and insights (and further questions) ! Really appreciate it. I was wondering too about the range perks. If we sum up all the answers, I think we can say that IF they do reduce spreading, it's not by much — and it certainly doesn't act on the spread's randomness. But anyway, I'm glad I started this thread, I learned a lot. Thanks to all !
P.S. For those who asked : I leveled up Blastian until I got the fourth rocket, and it does make a VERY big difference. Also, I have a lvl20 epic launcher now... ;-)

 

After thinking about it... I think you're right. My post actually has faulty logic from the start, because I was interpreting 10 degree spread as some sort of "radius" at max range... but really 10 degree spread is the spread at launch.... so, just like you pointed out, the further out those missiles go, the bigger the radius of the spread.
Either way, the common agreement among all missile users = don't expect to hit at max range. It thrives in close - mid range (but not too close).