[Request] Guide to Anti-Air

LANDs gets chomped hard by beams...
ARTs get ripped to shreads by melee...
AIRs can dodge 90% of missles all day with 40 Fly and vanishing jump-type parts.

What is wrong with this picture? Am I missing something? I don't think I am which is why 75%+ of my opponents seem to be AIR's. (Which I just can't seem to get the hang of but I rather there be balance then having to copycat my opponents just to have a chance)

So far here is the tactics I've heard:
Missle Spam - hope to get more lucky hits expending all your ammo on one opponent then they do toasting you and/or your PS.

High Fly Melee - Really? Your giving up LANDs main advantage just to counter and typically it doesn't work because oh yea, they have powerful beams. However you can do this with melee AIRs but you should never have to consider countering a weapon only with itself. That is bad balance. Support maybe but their not really built to be killers typically right? My Squid defies logic but it's too short range for flyers.

Catch them in Tunnels - Not everywhere has tunnels and most places have multiple routes. And then there is some levels with ridiculous high areas which let the flyers assult from the sky's without being in range of anything short of a Toybox core. (Kinda curious if that locks on and tracks flyers I know Sturbanger's suck)

Blast Bazookas - I heard these work wonders... I'm a Steel Hero and have yet to get one. I've tried Victory 1 and typically I get destroyed before I can do much real damage.

My current tactic - Howitzer/Missle Barrel joints and Melee or Maxis II railgun(I say II because it's doubtful you'll land a hit with only one shot). This works with teamwork, however it just doesn't cut it 1 on 1. And you can't spam lock-on's.

So what am I missing? Why does this seem like Rock, Paper, Explosive Shotgun rather then Scissors. And why aren't these available to people right at the start since there seems to be such a gap?

The main weakness of most airs is being stunned. No matter what, airs are fragile; you can play a 500 HP air with 40 fly and air loop, but if you get hit by an explosion of any sort and there's an enemy underneath you, the odds that you won't be making it out alive are extremely high. Therefore, the best chance you have is to get a weapon that will stun frequently and either moves fast, has good homing, or both. Considering how fragile airs are against blast damage (x2.3 damage taken, compared to the x1.4 other types take from their weaknesses), any weapon that does blast damage should work, regardless of force. Missiles, bazookas, breakers, railguns. Grenades aren't recommended due to the arc.

Also, keep in mind that stun isn't the only thing that'll force them to land; airs only get ten seconds to fly at a time, if you can distract them long enough you can sometimes draw their attention away from their boost gauge and bait them into dropping.

I think these do great against AIRs with 30-40 fly...

Large bazooka, or any zook in general-just practice aiming.

Blast Bazooka- If you're using Victory 1, don't chase the airs, let them come to you. Also, stay in a group of allies.

Railgun- Best one is Saggi's

Sturbanger's missile spam- *this only applies well if the AIR is still far away, otherwise, it sucks...

8 Vulcan- When that pesky AIR is really near you, use this...

EVE- Overpowered railgun with shots the size of L sized bots......best thing against any AIR, no matter the amount of fly....

Squealer AMs- these home in like missiles, but I don't think it's smart to punch 40 FLY AIRs...

Pulse gun/Electron gun- Stuns most AIRs and they drop like flies, since most AIRs have relatively low TGH

Winberl's AMs- They bring the AIRs closer to you. Pretty long range as well. Use these with Mini/micro zooks if against AIRs.

Frau LG's tuned with slow- I see these often, and they seem to hurt even AIRs a lot...

Also, Destructor/Destructor Girl's internal AA missiles, as well as Grandum BS's multimissile, all have fantastic homing. Even a 40 fly air can't consistently dodge Destructor Girl's missiles.

Saggy's aiming program auto-leads the enemy, if you lead yourself to augment this, you'll be able to knock 90% of airs down, and his railgun has good splash, if any part of the hitbox crosses the bot's hitbox, it detonates. Sturbanger missiles can't hit the broadside of a boytitan unless you literally camp under a PS and blot out the sun.

If you can somehow obtain one, any curvegun-type weapon that is NOT crabberoid AM works.

when using blast bazookas/victory 1 predict the enemies movements and shoot manually, dont rely on the auto aim.

Doubt you have one, but Fire Rod and Phoenix Rod have served me extremely well against AIR, but only at farther distances. They're pretty much useless at close range because of the time it takes to fire, lol.

Kitouski wrote:

Doubt you have one, but Fire Rod and Phoenix Rod have served me extremely well against AIR, but only at farther distances. They're pretty much useless at close range because of the time it takes to fire, lol.

Phoenix Rod has surprising homing. I've killed a few seraphs with my medi aide using one, even when they had their wings out.

Kitouski wrote:

Doubt you have one, but Fire Rod and Phoenix Rod have served me extremely well against AIR, but only at farther distances. They're pretty much useless at close range because of the time it takes to fire, lol.

yep i recommend phoenix rod+any kind of bazooka but not a fire rod. fire rod is pretty crappy if you ask me.

Anti air missiles in general are good, but out of any bot I've used contradict takes the cake cause he fire's 2 per target, meaning that should they activate a bit you'll fire 4 missiles that home well, or better yet, if they use a dual bit (propeller, dual beam, pepen, ect.) they now have 6 missiles to try and avoid.

Anything that you find accurate is generally a good choice. I've had success with custom mags thanks to their high dmg and fast speed. Breakers are effective, thanks to their high damage, and humorously enough, HEAT guns work well too.

Ur forgetting Amateus
THE AIR BANE

With small legs (Ace Braver), he's similar in size to Lily Rain.
With enough FLY, he's just as mobile (mine has Wing AMJ and can easily fly away from
but
U can equip L weapons (mine: box Missiles) that do about 60+ dmg to AIR
The core main weapon is also a great AIR harasser
The sub weapon is a lil tricky to use, as many things can avoid it but, the explosions so huge. AIRs run into it. I fragged a number of AIRs with this (not just in Epoch). It also gives "Booster Trouble" status to anything hit,(Boost drains fast) so, an AIR that can't fly is a dead AIR

He can have Short Boost & Quick Land carts, so he can hop too. Annoy the heck outta AIRs as they try to beam you while u just hop away and fire the main core weapon at em.

My best result with him was getting no 1 in a 30vs30 room(above lvl5) while Amateus was still lvl5

The AM2 sucks but thats the only downside (replace with box missile/viper shield)

i've got some pretty good armament against air. choose:

a. Maxis 1 Can get you to top 3 to 10, my favourite when fighting against seraphs even if their wings are up. Watch them drop once you hit them.

b. Maxis 2 Burst fire railgun (4 railgun shots in one charge), but with lower damage and range, and you can't equip a second viper shield because it only has one arm

c. Dgirl with railgun Don't have blast bazooka atm, gets me some frags on air, got me at least 10 air bots once in a single arena

d. Baltheon Shop with am3 lightning gun - Cast Shield and target those airs, they can't really hurt you unless they have melee bits, melee weapons or blasters

e. CS Rod - very nice homing, can hurt airs 20 to 60 damage depending on your tech, don't use in close range btw

f. Destructor CN - Burst fire all your weapons, once you hit an air bot, it won't fly again once it drops to ground, coz you'll eat him alive

g. Destructor - same with dgirl but can equip bad ass weapons, though only 2 internal upgrades, unlike dgirl

h. Vanguard - get elevation, cast your internal, then aoe them in air, watch them die.

i. Any Air Bot with mini bazooka - fly above them and fire that mini bazooka, watch 30 to 60 damage.

j. Red squeler arms, (jump and watch that falcon punch)

k. Pulse/paralyzing/electro Gun(use S air or any s support), once they are stuned, let some of your guys below finish her

l. Depends on your playstyle though, choose, CB is more on customization, so customize your anti air bot^^

That's some of my anti air bots/arsenals, don't have amateus or contradict atm.

This might probably help you.

Based on my personal experience (as an AIR):

1) Destructor/Destructor Girl core missiles have some crazy homing, can rip off a huge chunk of your HP even untuned (the missiles deal pure blast damage, I believe, based on information from the Destructor Girl thread), rather difficult to see because they're smaller than those yellow things everyone else shoots out and don't leave a trail, and are pretty much guaranteed to stun with a single hit (although maybe this is because I have less than 10 TGH on average, but still). Based solely on core alone, I'd say Destructor Girl is better due to her smaller size; Destructor can equip L and LL-sized weapons, though.

2) Saggitary Maxis I's railgun is another excellent contender; you'll pretty much only dodge it if you're aware that there's a Maxis shooting at you (and it's difficult even then), and will also stun you out of the sky. Saggitary Maxis II is actually less threatening because his railgun's very much different from I's (less range, for starters); you might not to approach one of those if they're sitting under a Power Spot, though. Handheld railguns are also an option, but they don't seem to have the same level of stunning power as the Maxis ones (unless it's EVE's railgun, that thing is hax).

3) Speed-tuned Box Missiles are frighteningly fast, and if an ART has two of them you'll find yourself pounded to dust rather quickly once he catches you.

4)The good old Blast Bazooka, of course! Works wonders.

5) Get a highly mobile ART (Lily Rain, Amateus, etc.), pack some nice bazookas, and engage enemy AIRs in close quarters. It works wonders too *cough*tori'samateus*cough*

Midreus wrote:

Based on my personal experience (as an AIR):

1) Destructor/Destructor Girl core missiles have some crazy homing, can rip off a huge chunk of your HP even untuned (the missiles deal pure blast damage, I believe, based on information from the Destructor Girl thread), rather difficult to see because they're smaller than those yellow things everyone else shoots out and don't leave a trail, and are pretty much guaranteed to stun with a single hit (although maybe this is because I have less than 10 TGH on average, but still). Based solely on core alone, I'd say Destructor Girl is better due to her smaller size; Destructor can equip L and LL-sized weapons, though.

2) Saggitary Maxis I's railgun is another excellent contender; you'll pretty much only dodge it if you're aware that there's a Maxis shooting at you (and it's difficult even then), and will also stun you out of the sky. Saggitary Maxis II is actually less threatening because his railgun's very much different from I's (less range, for starters); you might not to approach one of those if they're sitting under a Power Spot, though. Handheld railguns are also an option, but they don't seem to have the same level of stunning power as the Maxis ones (unless it's EVE's railgun, that thing is hax).

3) Speed-tuned Box Missiles are frighteningly fast, and if an ART has two of them you'll find yourself pounded to dust rather quickly once he catches you.

4)The good old Blast Bazooka, of course! Works wonders.

5) Get a highly mobile ART (Lily Rain, Amateus, etc.), pack some nice bazookas, and engage enemy AIRs in close quarters. It works wonders too *cough*tori'samateus*cough*

Pretty much the five main things air players watch out for right here.

Saggitary Maxis 1 > Saggitary Maxis II


Nuff said.

I feel the urge to fly for my life...
*flies away*

Been having a bit of trouble against Bomb Launcher wielders recently with my Air (I know Kanbara uses it on his Maril, so did Tifa on his Lily), man those things are fucking fast (300 speed), 32 power and only 75 cost, the projection arcs like grenades but it's no where near as bad as them and can perfectly be used as a superior substitute for Bazookas as far as I can tell.

Disregard that, I believe I was actually thinking of Blast Bazooka...

Become a tori, psyche I actually mean boytitan

dont miss out air vs air mini zook dogfight.
the one without mini zook loses.

Considering I've won against quite a few airs with minizooks using various beam weaponry, I'd have to say no weapon compensates for skill. You have an advantage, but that's about it.

Intet wrote:

Considering I've won against quite a few airs with minizooks using various beam weaponry, I'd have to say no weapon compensates for skill. You have an advantage, but that's about it.

u havent fought the pros yet.

No I have, I'm not saying I win all my fights, but it's do able. Partly out of necessity, because I like to play helingal, or play a large air. You can kill anyone in this game, with any weapon, you just need the right approach. Thinking that some weapon makes you auto win, is a way of thinking that will hold you back.

Intet wrote:

Considering I've won against quite a few airs with minizooks using various beam weaponry, I'd have to say no weapon compensates for skill. You have an advantage, but that's about it.

The problem is when the person with the mini zooka has beam guard. 19 damage Stardust is NOT cool. .-.