Hackfield 2042

@JarskyPlays No. Rao is finally usefull. He already has CD on hacks and radius is not that amazing. Hacking speed is good only point blank and the further the target the longer it takes to hack someone. Hack duration is not THAT long too TBH (I wish it would be longer rly).
I've seen condors just flying above heck/stinger range and obliterate everything with the cannon. Rao is fine. Maybe buff a little bit but in general he is a good spot and good support RN.

@JarskyPlays you can see the direction of hack incoming. C5 drone is not a thing anymore as drones are slower with the bigger hitbox. I was blown up once since the change but that was on me rly. I wasn't even mad.
Attackers usually have more than 1 vehicle so you need a lot of Raos to cover everything. Meanwhile Rao can't even kill the heli (hack is one stinger lock on long). You won't have time for second one: either dead or heli pops flares. Transport have self heal, fast flares recharge and hack is very limited in range. It also interrupted by any leaf between Rao and target so pop smoke if you a ground vehicle. And it does require teamwork even with active Rao to bring the vehicle down. Add no CD for attackers on top. Even full Rao squad might be not enough for that.

@LlamaWithKatana the hint of a direction is so vague its not useful what so ever if youre flying, and flying a transport in particular. Maybe he should have a red light glint like a sniper lense flare or something.

Honestly, so many attacks are utterly destroyed by just 1-2 Rao's. And no you dont need a lot of Rao's, im specifically talking about Breakthrough...tactical gameplay. Not that 128p conquest garbage of a game where you can just go to another point. You just need 1-2 Rao's hiding in a bush, to hack the main tank and transport heli to completely destroy any attack. You dont get that many vehicles on Breakthrough, especially now that 128p isn't a thing.

And no Rao's hack isnt 'interrupted by a leaf', they buffed him recently and his hack is extremely forgiving, going through buildings, structures, over crests of hills, etc...Also air don't get smoke, hence suggestion that flares should at least throw off the hack for air, in the same way smoke does for ground vehicles.

And yes transports have a fast heal, which is interrupted by any sort of damage what soever, but also youll often have squads of Stingers on standby waiting for the hack, if you wait there for more than 2 seconds you're toast in any sort of competitive round what so ever.

@JarskyPlays it is interrupted pretty easily. Prob play as Rao and see yourself because you clearly have outdated information. And where are those teams with stingers because I don't see those. Prob they all are in your games.

@LlamaWithKatana I have played as Rao, its 10x easier to use his ability now since they buffed it as I already stated. You previously could fly behind a tree, or the arches on Hourglass, or a pylon, etc...and it would interrupt, not anymore. It's not interrupted easy when most Breakthrough points are in the open.

@JarskyPlays then it is map issue. Not Rao issue. Rao buff was needed for a long time and RN he is in a good spot. Also nuking those pesky drones. And hack is still interrupted pretty easily. Maybe your Rao is broken but in general I find there are too little Raos in my BT games so I have to be at least one of those. Only thing is I wish there would be more possibilities to use environmental hacks.

@UP_Hawxxeye well, except plane vs plane balance. It's not about maps XD
I still think Rao is fine as it is now and doesn't deserve nerf. Compared to some other specialists he deserve buff IMO.