My new oppinion on the lasher: I love it!

[Robby682]

HERE'S THE PROBLEM W/ THE LASHER:

At first, it really blew monkey chunks - I'm talking back in BETA: the orbs were really really slow and the damage was bunk.

The first change (if my memory serves me correctly) that the devs did was increase the rate of fire -- which helped it out but was still getting own on the battlefield.

Now the lasher's damage has been increased dramatically and the rate of fire has been increased EVEN MORE.

I believe the rate of fire isn't really that bad for the lasher -- BUT the damage is way too high for that rate of fire, not to mention the splash damage is extremely outrageous -- there's no cover from this thing!!

The rate of fire should stay the same -- hell, even the super-sized splash effect can stay -- BUT the dmg of the lasher has to be scaled down slightly.

Another reason why the lasher is overpowered is how dramatically effective it is in a open battlefield. HEAVY ASSAULT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EFFECTIVE IN AN OPEN BATTLEFIELD. Heavy assault is suppose to be a close-ranged weapon, I hope the devs can remember that.

P.S.: I've been up all night so I probably rambled on -- so thanks for reading this.

[Madcow]

I don't think the Lasher is that effective in the open battlefield. It's very effective combined with some people firing Pulsars, but not by itself really. It's effective to 'herd' a player in a certain direction, but you can keep a distance from the lasher out in the open. I don't think the Lasher is truly any more effective than the JH and the MCG in the open, if anything the MCG is slightly nicer.
I played my infil last night for the first time since the patch. I've had no real complaints about the Lasher with my infantry, and I had a slight complaint with my infil but otherwise I don't think the weapon is a big problem. Maybe I'm just resigned to getting owned indoors since I've been living with the Jackhammer for so long, but it really doesn't bother me that the Lasher is so nice inside. The MCG was upgraded as well, it's not as strong but it's useful and fun, I don't have a real issue with the Lasher and the JH being superior inside bases.
Being inside isn't necessarily the Lasher's strongest suit, though. It's strongest suit is holding choke points. We were trying to hold a tower last night and the VS would just station 2 lasher infantry outside each door and spam the door while occasionally allowing their MAXs to rush through. Once somebody dies at a tower door and their backpack keeps it open, the tower pretty much belongs to the VS. It becomes a near impossibility just to run from the spawn past the first floor of the tower. Again, I don't actually mind that it's so strong in that regard. I just started trying out new strategies to take the Lashers out, had a little bit of success but was getting a lot further than the majority of TR who seemed to think rushing out the doors might be the answer.
My two (minor) gripes about the Lasher as it works now:

1. The spam. Could they change the Lasher to be a little bit more transparent? The giant orbs weren't a big deal at the previous RoF, with the current RoF they can keep you from seeing large areas of the screen/battle at once. They're doing a good amount of damage, do they need the additional benefit of blinding us?
2. Lashing infils. I'm sure this is just a greedy thought because I played my infil last night, but it was getting old hiding places and watching a VS infantry enter the room and spam the whole area with disco balls until I dropped. There is very little reason to waste an implant on DL if you're VS right now, if you suspect there might be an infil you can blindly launch those orbs everywhere and an infil won't last long. JH users used to run into rooms they suspected I might be in and spin around filling the area with buckshot, but I would survive 90% of those encounters because they needed a direct hit to kill me. The Lasher is far less forgiving, and infils have enough stacked against them without a weapons that can 'see' them. Even if the lash damage was decreased against infil (you could use the excuse that the lashes were attracted to armor, or something like that) I think it would balance things a bit more.

[Sleepwalker]

i too play infiltrator, and i used to get most of my deaths to bolt driver and mosquito. not to anymore. i am now not very effective at all indoors, and that COULD be partly my fault. i would be fine with the lasher if the same amount of people had it. it's just, any three people with lashers in a squad can completely OWN indoors, no matter what.

HOWEVER. think about the future! the lasher owns indoors, sure. but where is the battle going to be soon? OUTDOORS! the one thing my infiltrator has going for him is that most of the people who ran to VS, did training for ten minutes, and grabbed HA are still fairly noobish with it. they feel too invincible, and thus outside it's REALLY easy to just come up behind them and own them with the repeater, or melee boosted chainknife. that's why i'm happy about CTF, because the battle won't just be hacking a base, then standing in the base, getting owned by HA, and losing the hack. instead, it'll be hacking a base, running outside, and watching my teammates DESTROY the lasher.

[Arakiel]

Originally posted by r3d
Like I said before, nc cannot bitch now that VS is par with your weapons.

<3 r3d

[NCG JMan]

Finally the NC feel/see how it's been/is for us(TR) when they had/have the JH's. Now they get a taste of their own medicine....it's bitter huh NC? Just adapt like we TR have been having to do.

I personally like going up against someone better than me. It's a challenge. I learn from my mistakes and I get to learn new tactics (the one's that owned me).

[WritheNC]

You were aware I was being sarcastic, right?

Yes, that's why I wasn't being dead serious and saying things like, "OMFG fuck you Arakiel!" I wouldn't say that anyway, but you get my drift.

Are you aware that my post wasn't even aimed at you and was a fairly generic crosspost from my clan forums?

Well I apologize if that was your intention, but you didn't state it was from your clan forums. Compounded with the fact it was right after my post, and looked fairly similar to my bitching(yes I was indeed bitching/being nitpicky etc.) albeit in a vague manner; the post structure was close enough at a glance, anyway. So my apologies for not realizing that, even though you really didn't clarify.

Did I hit a sore spot, being that I was oddly correct?

You aren't correct yet, but you may very well be in a couple weeks once things settle down. Doesn't mean I'm right either. Well, you are correct when you say wait a couple weeks to see what happens, but you knew that.

so my only new sentiments for the anti-lasher argument from NC are, well, now it's your turn to be the bitch. Sorry.

Someone has to be the bitch, or do the bitching.

[Hamma]

It isnt even fun to fight the VS now, my squad moves to solsar or hossin. Even fighting an entire NC zerg is funner than going up against a squad of lashers.

[Celedon]

Originally posted by Hamma
It isnt even fun to fight the VS now, my squad moves to solsar or hossin. Even fighting an entire NC zerg is funner than going up against a squad of lashers.

Ditto. And that ultimately is the big problem.