The Notha

[Evan_]

I used to wonder why I would rarely if ever see Notha fighter bombers as I watched cast after cast. Corsairs and Swift Winds would appear here and there, and Janus, while less common, would make their impact.

A quick sandboxing reveals that the Corsair does more damage, and is more accurate than the Notha. Testing on land factories, wall sections, and slow, moving land units (percivals walking in a straight line) shows Corsairs doing 1200 damage while Notha's inflict only 1175. The only case where Notha did more damage in a single pass was to walled t1 pd (higher angle of attack meant less dps stopped by walls). But it's dps isn't it's problem...

Watching a Notha bomb fall to the ground is like watching the titanic sink. It's so long and painful I thought I was at -2 game speed. Seriously, people get mad when Cerberus gets stuck on the ground but Notha bombs almost get stuck on the wind. ACU sniping is out of the question and so is hitting anything turning. In fact, even a GC can quite easily move out of the way, EVEN if the dodge order was issued before the bomb started dropping.

Corsair can reliably snipe ACU, Janus can mass kill t1 and hit shields pretty well, SwiftWinds secure Air while Mercies kill undefended targets. Nothas can... hit t1 PD?

Seraphim are already weaker in the t2 air stage with their subpar gunship (average dps, no aoe/transport clamp). The t2 transport is nice, but Seraphim air players don't feel nearly as threatening as other factions to me, at least until the role out Ahwassas.

I'd like to propose a small chage in Notha bomb damage, up to 1250 per shot instead of 1175. This might seem like a small change at first, however it will allow the Notha to kill any T2 power plant or mass extractor in just 2 passes. In return I think increasing the cost to 500 mass and 9200 energy would be a fair tradeoff. It still won't be able to hit moving units, but what it can hit, it kills.

[Wesmania]

Corsairs are definitely less accurate than you claim them to be. It takes just a tiniest bit of micro to throw their rockets off course and waste 90% of the damage. A microed commander can dodge a ton of corsair damage. Corsairs aren't accurate on stationary targets either - 2 corsairs often fail to kill a T2 pgen in one pass.

[Sovietpride]

Corsairs doing 1200 dog is often quoted but rarely the case.

I won't deny it's superior for sniping, but that's because the two main counters (1, dodging, 2, flak) seem to be non-existent for the majority of players.

I've found a dirty love for nothas as an air player. Unless I'm facing UEF, using two per t2pgen whilst the enemy air tries to get to t3 is often very effective.

Oh, and you can use the Spanish Inquisition rule. People see cybran they're vaguely aware of corsair snipe possibilities. No one seriously expects notha snipe attempts, and it's not uncommon to nab a critical health ACU with them either.

But then again, maybe I'm just insane for liking sera air.

[Lieutenant Lich]

Speed up bomb fall speed?

[ThomasHiatt]

I think it would be nice if the Notha had equal or greater AOE than its t1 bomber counterpart, it is kinda weird for the t2 bomber to have less than the t1.

[LabPunk]

Only if you decrease the damage, otherwise it would become way OP for the t2 stage, and Seraphim already have the best t2 gunship.

[Rikai]

Seraphim already have the best t2 gunship.

In what way are they the best T2 gunship?

[keyser]

http://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.p ... ip#p177772

[ThomasHiatt]

I wouldn't really be afraid to give buffs to random non-cybran and maybe non-uef units. The majority of players play those factions and if seraphim or aeon were a little overpowered it might make the faction distribution more even, or maybe we could enter a meta where a faction other than cybran is dominant on ladder.

[FtXCommando]