Flare Gun: viable?

[Audie Murphy]

I'm a new player, and the flare gun came up in a discussion about flame weapons, but the reaction wasn't, "it's a shitty weapon, no reason to use it," which is what I expected from reading the description and looking at the weapon's stats.

What does the flare gun actually do to a ship if you nail one with it?

[Shinkurex]

I actually mount 2 flares on the sides of my goldfish... If you hit the enemy with one, it puts a 15 stack of fire on whatever component you hit... Very useful when you want to cause some engineer mayhem (especially if they brought chem spray instead of a fire extinguisher)

[HamsterIV]

What does the flare gun actually do to a ship if you nail one with it?

15 stacks of fire damage to the component it hits.

It should also be noted that the flare gun has the widest lateral turn arc in the game. 90 degrees if I am not mistaken. This means if it is mounted on the side of a ship it can shoot strait ahead and strait back. I have two flare guns on my goldfish for this reason, although the build isn't considered the best meta, it is tons of fun.

Damn you ninja Shinkurex

[Shinkurex]

Who little old me?

[Audie Murphy]

Thanks guys!

[Moriarty]

Aiming for the balloon is popular two shots generally sinks a ship. oh and is there actually established goldfish meta atm?

[RearAdmiralZill]

Aiming for the balloon is popular two shots generally sinks a ship. oh and is there actually established goldfish meta atm?

I doubt it. I haven't seen too many of them in pub matches to be honest. If so they always take a varied loadout.

[HamsterIV]

Most experienced people I have seen roll double gat so they can do some armor shredding then turn the main gun on target. Unfortunately gats lead to that pesky "Just one more shot" syndrome which leads to some engineers (myself included) neglecting the hull at critical moments. Flairs on the other hand don't cause people to worry about finishing a reload or emptying the clip.

One question of my own:
Do shooting greased rounds out of the flair gun reduce the fire stack on a successful hit? I got the impression fire stacks were a different damage system than normal impact damage.

[Moriarty]

Thats a good question, however another good question is why weren't you using heavy?

[HamsterIV]

Thats a good question, however another good question is why weren't you using heavy?

The flare gun's shot drop is bad enough as is, and I don't think the flair gun has much of an aim wiggle. I have asked my crew to bring lesmok in the past, but most of the time we are so close the extra accuracy wasn't necessary.

[N-Sunderland]

Greased has no effect on the number of stacks placed.

[JJPSX]

I pretty much only play with a full crew and we usually pack a side flare gun when we fly a Pyra.  Aside from the occasional ability to apply flame stacks to a component, it's proved invaluable when someone tries to flee into cloud cover - pretty much guarantees we can stay on them accurately.  It's also just a short trip away for our main hull engineer to fire. 

I'm not sure it would be nearly effective with a crew that was less communicative, though - we tend to use it more for revealing vision/scouting clouds than the actual damage output.

[-Muse- Cullen]

The utility that the flare gun offers, in conjunction with the max fire stacks, definitely makes the flare gun viable in certain situations. I will usually keep it in 'that one slot' that all ships have that don't get used quite as much, such as the farthest aft gun on the Pyramidion. The wide arc makes it viable for any position.

[Cheesy Crackers]

Wow 15 stacks of fire damage? gotta check that out

It's also great for finding where those pesky enemies are hiding in that cloud, it reveals the silhouette if you fire it into the cloud, good if you're chasing someone, good if you're trying to snipe people and they hide.

[RomanKar]

And also, Lesmok rounds make them go faster, straighter, and farther.  Perfect for the main engi on a Pyri to load up early for that extra something special for a flanking enemy or a fleeing enemy.

My main engi killed a Galleon with a flare through the hull.  Also great for taking the balloon out of a chasing enemy as well.

So, not useless at all.