Helicopters are worthless because stingers are incredibly OP
Like the title says. Helicopters are worthless because stingers are incredibly OP. A jet can sometimes get out of range before they fire a second time but choppers so much.
Some people might say a helicopter can maneuver around objects and the like but the thing is the stinger can fire so quickly, at such incredible ranges, and with so much power that it forces a helicopters to hide or die. This was the problem with the latter half of bf3 and bf4 that made me leave the franchise.
Hard to say what the fix is exactly, but I'll that in bf3 recon needed to work with an engineer to paint the target for homing missiles. In bad company 2, there were no homing shots at all but only to 1 rocket to kill it.
My suggestion is to drastically increase lock-on time for the stinger. And drastically decrease flare recharge rate for choppers and give them a stockpile they can generate. The point being that the helicopter can't be too reckless while ensuring it has the means and capability to react to threats for at least short periods of time before it must retreat for a bit or be incredibly vulnerable.
As it stands, the whole map can see it the moment it's in the air and 1 dude with a stinger and 2 launches over the course of about 6 seconds is all it takes to get that bird on the 2 minute timer again.
Notes:
- I know the "little bird" will have repair men on the wing probably. This is a seperate issue but since missiles are 1 hit kills to choppers, it's a moot factor since there's nothing to repair on hit. If it isn't for some reason then I'd recommend ensuring missile hits frequently kill said engineers.
- Also while I have your attention. Please let miniguns be scary again. Sweeping over a target should be all that's needed with the volume of bullets they unleash, and helicopters aren't the most stable or protected platform to to fire or fire from. At some point in bf3 they were surely nerfed from the sweep to about 2-3 seconds consistly on target allowing any one infantry to take about 200 rounds before death. Making it a fairly pointless weapon for how exposed you are in the air where speedy/evasive hit and runs are the only thing that tends to let you survive for any amount of time.
