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> > > > I don’t know when it got started but yes it needs a patch, please.
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> > > Snip
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> > Snip
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> -Snip-- If a banshee constantly flips over and over it means they’re not actively focussing on killing anybody. Good thing for your team.
> - When I’m getting pumped full of BR from 3 enemies there is no evading that no matter how many times I flip. Lock weapons aren’t the best choice a lot of the time.
> - Most people just want to be able to fire a weapon at a banshee and get the kill. Reality is that you have to be smart when and where you fire at it. Try to lock onto the banshee as it’s away from the majority of your team and not in active combat. This way it’s not focussing on avoiding anybody and won’t see your rocket/ hydra rockets coming. Caught off guard.
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> I kill a lot with the banshee but I also kill a lot of banshees. People (especially in BTB) go for the easy kills and just try to avoid engaging the banshee which is the wrong move as it has the power to disperse your entire team.
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> -Snip-
These points are good for BTB. I’ve never had a problem with the Banshee in that mode, since you never have to encounter more than 2, and anti-air weapons aren’t readily dispensed. I don’t think there are very many lock-on weapons in BTB, except for the Hydra. Haven’t played BTB much since the most recent refresh, so I wouldn’t know for sure. Another thing BTB has going for it is that the Banshees are the base, un-upgraded variants. Though they still have the lock-on removal function, it’s not too prevalent since, as you said, team-shooting with the BR works just fine. It’s easier to coordinate fire on one Banshee as well, and if the enemy managed to obtain two, then you were probably getting demolished already.
Not so in Warzone, though. In a game mode with so much potential for good plays and counterplays, it seems like the Banshee is far too powerful in numbers. It counters pretty much everything except the Hannibal Scorpion, which is incredibly rare and unlikely to be called in if a team is being stomped. All Banshees are good at destroying, but the Banshee Ultra, especially, is immensely infuriating.
- The cooldown on the Fuel Rod Cannon is approximately the same as the time it takes to flip, so the Banshee pilot is definitely getting kills as he flies the Ultra like a maniac. This isn’t really a big deal for the base and Sword Banshees, but for the Temple and especially the Ultra Banshee (which also fires rounds that act like Pool of Radiance shots, but more deadly), the flip having no cooldown means they are able to flip, get kills, and avoid any sort of lock-on. - While 3 people coordinating fire on a Banshee in BTB is somewhat tough unless one is searching with friends, it is still possible that the randoms will try to take out the one, maybe two, Banshees in the sky with focused fire. Because the Banshees are all the base tier, they don’t have too much health and this is a viable way to eliminate the Banshee. Not so in Warzone. When you have 4-8 Banshees, usually at least 50% Ultra, swarming your spawn point, it becomes almost impossible to deal with them. You can only search in Warzone with a team of 6, too, so you have to hope that the other 6-11 randoms will also shoot at the Banshee you’re targeting. Why do you need 6? Because the maps are really big, the Banshee Ultra can flip and kill simultaneously, and it has more health than regular Banshees. I’ve seen people go 100+ kills with an Ultra Banshee they unlocked relatively early in the game. When we start teamshooting it, if we do, it typically just does hit-and-run, since there is usually enough cover from hitscan weapons. - I think that, if done correctly, a skilled Banshee pilot would still be able to avoid locked-on projectiles with properly-timed rolls. Now, it’s just “shoot, the enemy has a Rocket Launcher. Quick! Everyone flip a bunch! He can’t kill us then.” They can make it so that the Banshee is able to avoid locked-on projectiles without disabling both pre-existing lock-on from fired projectiles (I can live with this, though it honestly makes the Mantis and especially the Anti-Air Wraith useless due to the incredibly slow projectile speed) and completely removing and resetting the lock-on you were trying to achieve (rendering the Rockethog all but useless against the one thing it should be good at killing: air vehicles)All-in-all, because of the way that BTB maps have been built, and the weapons on the map laid out, I am totally okay with the way the Banshee plays. I don’t honestly think that the lock-on removal “feature” affects the Banshee too much in BTB (maybe the Hydra, but I think that a well time Banshee roll should still be able to avoid impact as the missiles are about to strike.) I haven’t played on the new maps too much, though, and I’m not sure if the Banshee appears on maps that also feature weapons like the Rocket Launcher.
In Warzone, though, it just makes too many REQs useless: All Mantises, except for the Hannibal and ONI Mantises, which can lock on to ground vehicles and, in the case of the ONI, infantry; the Anti-Air Wraith, which functions perfectly against Wasps and Phaetons (both can avoid the shots if they strafe and, for the Phaeton, properly time its evade, but neither completely removes lock-on like the Banshee, which almost always kills the AA Wraith); and the Rockethog, which has relatively low RRR, meaning you have to basically be in the Banshee’s grill to even start locking on, and it takes a long time, too. You only have to flip every other second, instead of constantly, to completely negate the Rockethog, so that’s even more underpowered. I don’t mind the lock-on removal for Banshee dogfights or even Phaeton v. Banshee fights (though the Banshee almost always wins, especially if it’s upgraded), but it is somewhat annoying in Wasp v. Banshee fights. For infantry weapons, it’s not too big of a deal., though it is a little annoying. The Rocket Launcher projectile speed is high, the lock-on is strong, and upgraded variants give you plenty of rounds. The Hydra fires tons of round and has strong lock-on, too, so that’s understandable as well. The Plasma Pistol is pretty powerful if the first EMP strikes, so that’s fine as it is. The Light of Urs barely has lock-on anyway and is more of an anti-infantry and anti-ground vehicle weapon. I could go on, but it’s not too imperative that infantry weapons be adjusted to always have lock-on.
So, really, what it boils down to is that I feel like the Banshee, especially the Banshee Ultra, eclipses other air-vehicles and pretty much all anti-air vehicles because of the way it treats their lock-on. The Mantis, AA Wraith, and Rockethog all excel against Wasps, and all can be used pretty effectively against Phaetons (though the Helios is usually better to snipe at with a Rocket Launcher or a Laser). But when it comes to Banshees, a series of flips and Banshee Bombs renders all of them more or less useless for their intended role.
This makes the Banshee the clear choice for Air vehicles once they are unlocked. I’m not saying you can’t be killed while in a Banshee, but that far fewer weapons and vehicles can effectively counter the Banshee, while they can easily demolish the Wasp and Phaeton. Maybe they could add the lock-on removal to the Phaeton to at least make the Phaeton a little more desirable than the Banshee? Or maybe they could make the general lock on for all infantry-based projectiles slightly weaker and remove the lock-on removal feature?
