Darkwind
Heavy Flamer, Worth it, or not?

*Wolfsbane*


Posted Oct 20, 2009, 10:14 pm
I just picked up a Pulveriser, so now I have to decide whether to keep the HF in it. 60 bulk seems like an awful lot for a point-blank only weapon, but I like the idea of doing absurd amounts of damage (and I always seem to end up at point blank anyway). Anyone had any luck with them, or should I just be sensible and stick HMGs on instead?
Marrkos


Posted Oct 20, 2009, 10:22 pm
They don't really do 'absurd' amounts of damage (what does that mean, really?).

But they do stress the occupants out like nothing short of multiple rocket strikes.

Pro: Very handy for demo'ing vehicles while leaving them in decent shape.
Con: Increases the likelihood that you'll blow up if damaged.
simonmaxhill


Posted Oct 20, 2009, 10:48 pm
HFT is really great for pro combats and are popular with ram vehicles.
*goat starer*


Posted Oct 20, 2009, 11:13 pm
they also regularly set vehicles on fire without having to breach armour.
Nojj


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 3:44 am
Hello, my name is Nojj, and I am a flamethrower aficionado.

The Flamethrower, both heavy and regular, is a beast not to be misunderstood.

It is by no means a primary weapon. It is too bulky with too little ammo. But, it is not situational. The goal in a scout is to maximize the physical and psychological damage to the opponent, while minimizing the damage to any assets you'll be taking back with you.

Flamethrowers are ideal for that purpose (until Sam implements my idea for a Chlorine Gas Thrower).

Flamethrowers are best paired with high efficiency weapons like the various machineguns and gatling guns. This allows the high ammo/low bulk weapons to strip armor, while the flamethrower waits for opportune hits on low armor or breached sides.

They are very hard to miss with, but very short range. So in my experience, they are ideally paired with gatling weapons for the range matchup.

One of my best setups is a 3.2Lv8 Apache with front mounted HGG and HFT and a 5 unit fuel tank. With a driver, and two gunners, it has to be one of my most effective setups.


As far as my experiences go, I've had colossally good ones and colossally bad ones. The good ones are too numerous to mention. Usually they involve demoing multiple vehicles without breach. But the worst one takes the cake as far as bad experiences go. I had accidentally lit one of my own vehicles on fire from a single HFT burst. The next turn, it exploded, killing all three occupants instantly.

In the end, they are finisher weapons. Their crits to occupants are incredible, and peds beware...

But, flamethrowers are not line battle weapons! You have to be a good dogfighter to get best use from them. So it come down to you and your abilities as a dogfighter.
4saken


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 3:49 am
Conventional DW consensus is that the HFT is decent but the regular FT is underpowered. How accurate that is is anyone's guess.
Nojj


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 3:59 am
4saken said:
Conventional DW consensus is that the HFT is decent but the regular FT is underpowered. How accurate that is is anyone's guess.


The regular flamethrower could be lowered to 30 bulk and 6 ammo bulk to balance it out, but the HFT needs to stay 60 and 12.

Fealty Lost


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 5:10 pm
Nice post Nojj.

That being said: I love HFT's. I put a pair of Reinforced Rams on an Apache, slap an HFT to the rear (or one each to both sides), fill the empty spaces with Heavy rockets and go have fun.

If you don't kill the enemy with the ram, your vehicle usually veers one way or the other and you light the enemy up as you pull away. The combo of ram and HFT usually demo them pretty quickly if not, again, outright killing them.

It's best to keep your ram vehicle behind your primary engagers...then swoop into the enemy's flanks or pick up stragglers/flankers.

*Wolfsbane*


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 5:51 pm
Thanks guys. I think I'll go light a few things on fire and see how it works out.
Bytten


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 6:06 pm
I have a fully loaded HFT ram car on sale in SS at the moment if anyone's keen to experiment. I've gone with a fairly arbitrary figure but I'll accept a reasonable offer - PM if interested.
*goat starer*


Posted Oct 21, 2009, 6:30 pm
$1!!

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