Artemis Rocket Launcher

[FightBoyVash]

The fact that ONE Artemis can almost completely disable any ship at any range makes is OP. Agreed on reducing AoE.

Reckoning approaches.

 

I'm afraid

[Captain Smollett]

Well, if I could make the small request of not dialing it back too much please.

I never really used the carousel much in 1.14 but I loved that its buff brought another light weapon into the forefront and into frequent use. When it was nerfed shortly thereafter it became so weak we'd practically mock ships who took it as a primary weapon.

I love to see a diversity of ships and weapons all be valid and competitive and I think almost everyone's agrees, especially awkm, so please don't smite us for our seeming lack of gratitude (guys you have to admit we've been a little petulant, asking for months for the Artemis to be buffed only to complain intensely the moment awkm gives it a ever so slight boost in speed and turn arc).

[Malarosa Agresti]

Well, if I could make the small request of not dialing it back too much please.

I never really used the carousel much in 1.14 but I loved that its buff brought another light weapon into the forefront and into frequent use. When it was nerfed shortly thereafter it became so weak we'd practically mock ships who took it as a primary weapon.

I love to see a diversity of ships and weapons all be valid and competitive and I think almost everyone's agrees, especially awkm, so please don't smite us for our seeming lack of gratitude (guys you have to admit we've been a little petulant, asking for months for the Artemis to be buffed only to complain intensely the moment awkm gives it a ever so slight boost in speed and turn arc).

I strongly agree with this sentiment.  The more 'real' options available at the higher levels of play, the better.  I don't think anyone disagree's with that.

I do think the weapon may need a small nerf, but I'd wouldn't want to see it's range impacted.  There aren't a lot of options for the sort of ranges the Artemis is able to work at.  I would just reduce it's Hull damage to reinforce it's purpose as a disabling weapon. 

[NikolaiLev]

I must insist that the best way to nerf the Artemis is first to reduce its firing arc.  It's a long range disabling weapon; everyone agrees on that, so that's what it should be good at.  It doesn't need to have a good firing arc to be good at long range, but it has it anyway, which makes it too useful at close range.  Give it the Field Gun treatment and nerf down its arc and rotation speed.

Reducing AoE would mandate the use of burst rounds to get the most out of its large shatter DPS, and increase the skill required to make the best use of it.

Making these changes should put the Artemis in line with other weapons.

[Ofiach]

I must insist that the best way to nerf the Artemis is first to reduce its firing arc.  It's a long range disabling weapon; everyone agrees on that, so that's what it should be good at.  It doesn't need to have a good firing arc to be good at long range, but it has it anyway, which makes it too useful at close range.  Give it the Field Gun treatment and nerf down its arc and rotation speed.

Reducing AoE would mandate the use of burst rounds to get the most out of its large shatter DPS, and increase the skill required to make the best use of it.

Making these changes should put the Artemis in line with other weapons.

Let's hang on here Nikolailev, doing all of those nerfs at the same time is a bad idea. I don't know if you've had the "Pleasure" of playing EA or SOE games but one of their biggest issues is TERRIBLE balance, because the buff underpowered things by a ridiculous amount then nerf overpowered things by a ridiculous amount. Basically what was OP last week becomes a completely useless and pointless build. (examples available upon request) Now reducing the arc OR slowing down it's rotation OR reducing its AOE are all good idea's but implement them one at a time and give it a week to see if it is a good balance. I mean all they did to make it suddenly viable was boost it's projectile speed, add some zoom, and make it have a slightly bigger arc.

I guess my point is this, they made 3 changes to make the artemis viable lets not do 3 changes and send it back into obscurity. Honestly as it is now it's still a debate for me to take the Artemis to keep myself safe or a flak cannon to get kills. It really depends on the reliability of my other captains and my current crew.

[NikolaiLev]

Let's hang on here Nikolailev, doing all of those nerfs at the same time is a bad idea. I don't know if you've had the "Pleasure" of playing EA or SOE games but one of their biggest issues is TERRIBLE balance, because the buff underpowered things by a ridiculous amount then nerf overpowered things by a ridiculous amount. Basically what was OP last week becomes a completely useless and pointless build. (examples available upon request) Now reducing the arc OR slowing down it's rotation OR reducing its AOE are all good idea's but implement them one at a time and give it a week to see if it is a good balance. I mean all they did to make it suddenly viable was boost it's projectile speed, add some zoom, and make it have a slightly bigger arc.

I guess my point is this, they made 3 changes to make the artemis viable lets not do 3 changes and send it back into obscurity. Honestly as it is now it's still a debate for me to take the Artemis to keep myself safe or a flak cannon to get kills. It really depends on the reliability of my other captains and my current crew.

Your principle is completely sound.  However, it's just a matter of tweaking the nerfs so that it isn't too drastic.  Reducing the firing arc by 20 degrees (major) and reducing the AoE by 1 (to 4, minor) wouldn't throw it off by much.  And remember, it still retains its huge damage output, range, and accuracy.  It wouldn't be a huge nerf.

It's also not a nerf to the weapon's primary role.  It should be a good disabling weapon at range.  These nerfs are geared at nerfing the secondary role it shouldn't have; close-in disabling.  The awesome firing arc, turn speed and AoE make it good at that, and that's why it's overpowered.  The Artemis should be weak at close range, but excellent afar.

I'm really not sure why it was an obscure weapon a few patches ago, because it was still awesome.  I suspect it was a case of the metagame, because no one knew how good it was.  I know I made use of it to good effect back then (even before the buffs it likely didn't need).  Now that people are beginning to realize how great shatter is (again) it's becoming more and more common.

[-Muse- Cullen]

To be honest, I think the perfect way to nerf it without completely removing the buff it received would be to reduce the AoE by a few points. As of now, if the weapon has greased or burst attached to it, it becomes too effective. By reducing the AoE, it still has its damaging power, but it would require the gunner to actually aim for parts instead of simply spraying.

[Ofiach]

I have to agree with Cul, make it precision and see if that fixes the slight OPness. If it doesn't then start messing with other values.

Maybe even give the banshee the extra blast radius that the artemis lost

[Moriarty]

Nerf it. NERF IT BACK INTO THE DARKNESS FROM WHENCE IT CAME.

As discussed Its worse than the carousel in 1.14. Also its kinda like the manticore now only far far better.

BURN. IT. WITH. FIRE.

Sincerely, Moriarty.

[Morblitz]

You mean, burn it with the fire from an Artemis? Only then will the job truly be done.

[Moriarty]

The damn things are already breeding like tribbles, and you want ... escalation?

MADNESS!!

[Spud Nick]

I like the idea of a smaller clip size... Two missiles per clip sounds good.

[Keon]

Then it's a howitzer with less scope and no drop.

[Sakaron]

I say keep the ammo it defines the gun, nerf the AOE and damage a bit. OR the AOE and Turn radius, It has very good turn radius for its power. The AOE and power allows it to deal a decent damage to multiple Components but being able to hit a wide angle of fire just hits the Overpowered mark I think

[dragonmere]

With a bit of skill, the artemis can quickly disable an enemy ship and pretty much keep it disabled as long as it wants to. While I understand this is quite annoying and hard to come back from, I'm not totally sure how this is different than the lumberjack. Or the carronade, for that matter. With a little bit of skill, a lumberjack ship can disable your balloon and most of your components, and pretty much keep it that way until you die. To a lesser degree, the same with the carronades. It's very annoying, and a captain or crew that doesn't know how to handle the situation will die every single time. There are ways to get out of a repair cycle versus lumberjack and carronade, and there are ways to get out of an artemis disable cycle. It's just not easy.