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Crasher improvements.

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9 years ago
Crasher seems to stink as AA compared to other mobile AA units. Low DPS and short range. Indeed it is a fast moving AA, but it lacks punch once it gets into it's destination.

I suggest a partial improvement. I don't see crashers being good at anything particular, so I recommend adding a medium size "area of effect" to better deal better damage to clustered air units like gunships, even air planes such as swarming bombers. I don't think this would over-power the crasher at all. Just a minor improvement.
+1 / -0
Skasi
9 years ago
I suggest increasing speed: Buff strengths, nerf weaknesses.
+2 / -0

9 years ago
Does Crasher actually need to be powerful? You got Slasher as flex AA and some of the best non-AA units which you can use even in a matchup against air (eg. Darts - bombing these is super wasteful and they prevent any naked expansion).
+0 / -0
FIrankFFC
9 years ago
Slahser sucks agains air
+0 / -0

9 years ago
that's why flex
+0 / -0
wait wut, crasher is weak?

can this be demonstrated?

i dont think they are weak at all
+1 / -0
Watch the crashers being useless!
Multiplayer B283837 2 on Red Comet
+1 / -0
Skasi
GBrankKyubey, they are alright as speedy supporters. Range and speed makes kiting gunships viable too (except for OPbrawler). I think on large not-perfectly-flat maps they might be awful though because they take longer to arrive where needed and that's more important for AA than other units. That said, maybe they shouldn't be a good choice on such maps, ZK already had many "make all facstarts viable on any map" changes.

My first post should probably be read as "IF they are changed, then..."

USrankFealthas, the battle you linked had opbrawlers. Crashers fail at turning/changing directions, so dodging opbrawler projectiles is extra hard.
+2 / -1

9 years ago
So what are you supposed to do? Slashers have super low dps, and your aa unit is bad. This was solved by going air -> vamps, not by making your "aa unit".
+1 / -0
Skasi
No, Vamps were a bad choice. Brawlers happen to counter Vamps pretty well. The solution is probably Swift/Raven spam and maybe archangel/gremlin/vandal/cobra as they have high continuous dps compared to other mobile AAs low dps high burst.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
Can Crashers fire while moving? I haven't played lveh much in a while :/

I think I'd like to see crasher as an AA unit which gets its viability from being able to run away from bombers/gunships while firing at them; compensating for low DPS by increasing the amount of time an air unit has to stay inside its range. Is that currently how they are implemented?
+2 / -0

9 years ago
Sort of. Except for the fact that crashers are rarely the actual target of the bombers; you usually want to protect something with your AA. In that case, it won't help if the crashers flee.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
You can either position the crashers in the path of the bombers (if you know what that will be), or run away the target as well if it's mobile. Or both. That's not a foolproof solution but I don't mind mobile AA having some weaknesses, and opportunities for counterplay.
+0 / -0
I think mobile AA needs some work, even Jethros, which are arguably the best mobile AA with their speed, power and utility, seem to sometimes lose vs bombers, and many of the other AA is weaker. Things like speed, range and HP are not necessarily a direct exchange for DPS/cost because it's DPS/cost which actually stops the bombers, and if you don't have enough of this, you aren't cost efficient.

All mobile AA has a kind of role, Tarantulas are great mid and late game at hiding on hills and sniping air, Flak has AoE, Crasher is fast. But the use-case for 1v1 is almost always: Can it effectively kill Shadows. If you can't do that, you are much weaker to air starts or switches in a 1v1.

I'd also consider some secondary utility, like radar on the Crasher, shields on the Vandal, etc.

Frankly I prefer static to mobile AA, creating a domain where bombers must pay a cost to enter, where this communication between air player and ground player is clear, unlike, say, Jethro's, where it's just 'Surprise! You lose all your bombers!'. But the only practical AA to build early is defender spam (ugh) or Razors Kiss (Which is really hardened AA, and does not create a land-snipable point of failure). Flak and Chainsaw are too expensive to fit in this gap, and Hacksaw is owled, so we keep using rkiss.

But anyway, air is AUrankAdminGoogleFrog's domain.
+0 / -0
Part of the problem I think is that if mobile AA beats bombers, then air is almost completely unplayable. Air really only has one card to play earlygame, so it has to be a good one. (Also see: Pyro/Puppy.)

I think hacksaw might still be viable, if only barely. Being guaranteed to kill something (edit: before it gets to attack, even) is kind of valuable, especially if your opponent has airswitched in a 1v1 and so doesn't have a lot of fighters to bait with. The window in which you wouldn't prefer to have that cost in rkiss or a chainsaw is pretty damn narrow though.
+0 / -0
To be clear, the problem in my mind is not that mobile AA is necessarily too weak (I prefer static AA), but that Jethro is one of the strongest AA units and even it sometimes loses to a bomber start: The others often fare even worse. This variability is a problem.

Air start should not be blind RPS based on enemy factory, and you should not get a 'free win' if they pick a factory with unfieldable AA (Say, Spider or Tank).
+0 / -0
quote:
Jethro defender is one of the strongest AA units and even it sometimes never loses to a bomber start
FIFY

seriously, if you are loosing to a bombers start you have either:
A) not made/effectively used defenders (protip: mobile AA+2defenders=dead bombers)
B) not made (enough) mobile AA (600m worth, if you arent sure)
C) not expanded (you have cons, they are bomber resistant. stop dicking around in your base and expand by 2 minutes in the latest)

these are the only points of failure vs air start, and they are true even for htank (although why you need AA for a lab whose builders will tank a whole bomber fleet...)
+0 / -0


9 years ago
quote:
although why you need AA for a lab whose builders will tank a whole bomber fleet...

Convicts survive Ravens better due to their small shield often tanking the first bomb.

Welders are expensive.
+0 / -0

9 years ago
crasher is so fast it can outmaneuver shadows due to the shadow's limited turnrate. also flee or hunt them. ofc it needs flat terrain, which is the vec's natural habitat. i like them.
+0 / -0


9 years ago
Crasher's problem, as mentioned above, is not its survivability vs air, but its inability to stop other things from being killed, cost effectively or otherwise.

Ask yourself, how many Crashers you need to prevent a single Raven bombing, or for at least killing it?
+2 / -0
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