Now thats a solution I can give my "Approved!" stamp. Anyways, test the hell out of this in the upcoming tests please. Then we'll be able to decide about comm armor in general.
arty makes perfect sense as a finishing weapon today on canyon I had a squad (as nf) in the south, BE was doing their best and almost getting rax up at the SW corner and then in the middle south, my team was spamming the rax like crazy with nades and mortars, but it wasn't dying. so, when it started to smoke bad enough, I finished it with an arty strike. This imo is the way to use arty, once in a while, to kill one specific thing, but not used to kill that thing by itself, unless it's one lvl 3 mg in the way of your squad. used this way arty doesnt seem overpowered. Ive been using it specifically only this way over the last week or so just to figure out for myself if it is overpowered, or just easily abused. I think a 30 second timer (cooldown not delay) on it would solve the problems, it's still useful for the squad, not just the leader, (unless yer name is snakeDfox) without being overpowered at trashing buildings because you still have to hit a building a decent amount before killing it w arty strike.
You could make it more expensive but have a longer barrage over a wider area. So it would be about as effective against clusters of enemies and buildings but less effective against single targets.
I still fail to see why the comm has a ridiculous heat to target. Well I also fail to see why there are single units with around the life of a heavy tank that end the game when they die.....
SnakeDfox is only one of the many people who use this too kill comms I've done it a lot myself since the cv armor damage heat thing. I like it in a selfish way but it is kind of sketchy with all the different size sky boxes. And I've even seen it just explode on the ground and not even drop. It's really kind of a buggy/selfish squad leader power that looks better on paper. Maybe we can brain storm up another one like a squad mine diffuse power for rushing tanks. Or something thing that air strikes only turrets. I am all for a hardcoded ban of snakeDfox or hardcoded mute atleast.
Well usually its a ninja not seen so he could just call it 4-5 times in a row wait 30 seconds then shoot his rpgs once it starts raining. Unless you made a longer in between time for strikes.
I would like it to come in pairs of two then with a 30 second cooldown. I find it amazingly useful for dropping barracks with a couple engis inside of it, 3 arties + a mortar will usually drop a racks. Having it so you could drop 2 arties every 30 seconds would make it very useful for that killing blow but it wouldn't be able to overheat the commander with the recent changes.
Instead of giving the squadleader the ablility to call arty strikes why not give every squadmember the chance to call one small arty strike when the leader triggers the ability. Imo make it 3 mortar shells in a wide spread per squadmember and the damage of the small strikes doesnt stack on one target
I think arty strike comm fatalities are just a symptom of the comms ridiculously high heat-to-target. It basically ensures that the comm can't escape any ninjas or rushes.
I was saying the delay is after the strike falls. arty strike - wait 30 seconds - arty strike - wait 30 seconds etc etc
I would like the artillery strike to be redone at some point, more like a supportive shelling over a larger area, not as the instant death ray it is now.
I like the point I think mayama made about how it really benefits only the squad leader. The other powers are for everyone in the squad. This arty may help the team but it can also be used to whore kills.
If you're whoring kills with it you're getting more squad points and killing lots of enemies, and as it's usually used to take out a key target I'd say it very much helps the team.
