Mighty Swingfire

[TeyKey1 119]

I used to utterly hate this vehicle some years ago. Just recently bought it again and equipped it properly to write a vehicle guide about it. After some games I started to really like it. The launcher combined with the super agile missiles allow for some nasty trickshots. Quite high damage and burst in close combat. I'm curious what you think about it. Again my POV here is completely on the PVP side of things.

Strengths:

• Super agile ATGM combined with the launcher pointing in the air at a 45° angle. Allow for nice trickshots past obstacles
• High burst damage and damage in general. In close combat you can pull off 2k dmg within 2s (Which means you can kill lots of tanks with one burst). In general the damage rolls are quite high around 1k dmg
• Somewhat decent mobility. Not the fastest but it's decent. One nice feature is that it goes as fast in reverse as it goes forward. Can save you some time as you don't need to turn the tank around all the time.

Weaknesses:

• Only ATGM as a weapon system (Eg. you can be quite screwed in some close combat situations)
• Velocity of the ATGM - Man those things are soooo slow. With a speed of 185m/s it's quite hard and inefficient to hit stuff at high range
• No armor. Even 7.62 MG can punch through frontally
• Can only have 1 ATGM in the air at the time. Which again gives you a disadvantage on long range combat.

I currently compared it to the C13 TUA, as both are quite similar in terms of weapon systems. C13 TUA is definitely performing better, and in general more versatile (and it has infantry). However the Swingfire can really shine in some situations where the C13 TUA can't. I feel like the C13 TUA is more for medium to high range, while you want to be as close as possible in the Swingfire without hurting yourself.

[LeoAegisMaximus 6]

oh god what gets me is the AI's ability to ignore the minimum distance arc, at least it subjectively has a faster arming animation for the launcher tubes versus the C13 TUA, you could say due to the rear mounted firing position its much better firing from cover situations.

[di_duncan 24]

I hate these types of ATGM vehicles... But mainly for selfish and/or stupid reasons ;)

First gripe of mine are the incoming ATGM indicators (especially at high tiers). They give me mild anxiety, as I can only guess at the type of projectile which has been fired (MGM god rod? T-15 double tap?), plus sometimes they appear even when the missile is not intended for me...

Second of all, as an NA player, I hate using ATGMs as they seem to have a mutual hatred for me... In reality, it's mostly my awful ping, but it's definitely annoying to try to control ATGMs with poor responsiveness, especially slow missiles like the SPHINX's MLP and AFT10's RA-10.

Finally, without an alternative weapon type, as @TeyKey1 has mentioned:

9 hours ago, TeyKey1 said:

you can be quite screwed in some close combat situations

I'm envious of fellow European players (like my good friend Shrek) who are exceptionally skilled with ATGMs, seemingly on any vehicle, at any range, against any target... 

[Travlla 5]

34 minutes ago, di_duncan said:

 

Second of all, as an NA player, I hate using ATGMs as they seem to have a mutual hatred for me... In reality, it's mostly my awful ping, but it's definitely annoying to try to control ATGMs with poor responsiveness, especially slow missiles like the SPHINX's MLP and AFT10's RA-10.

 

Just out of interest, what is your ping mate?

[di_duncan 24]

19 minutes ago, Travlla said:

Just out of interest, what is your ping mate?

~110-120. Probably much less than yours (assuming you are an Aussie).

Note that I primarily play GlOps ;)  

[TeyKey1 119]

5 hours ago, LeoAegisMaximus said:

oh god what gets me is the AI's ability to ignore the minimum distance arc, at least it subjectively has a faster arming animation for the launcher tubes versus the C13 TUA, you could say due to the rear mounted firing position its much better firing from cover situations.

Never experienced such AI behaviour, but I'm playing too few PVE matches probably. In PVP the minimum radius is around 10-20m, I killed an enemy at a 20m distance yesterday. I have to check how much it is. The Swingfire doesn't have a reload animation I think (at least I never noticed it). But yes, reload is way faster compared to the C13 TUA.

3 hours ago, di_duncan said:

plus sometimes they appear even when the missile is not intended for me...

Yeah you get the warning as soon as you're in the flying path of it. I'm quite sure that with a high ping all the rather slow ATGM become a pain to play.

3 hours ago, di_duncan said:

I'm envious of fellow European players (like my good friend Shrek) who are exceptionally skilled with ATGMs, seemingly on any vehicle, at any range, against any target... 

Yes there are quite good ATGM players. In close combat it really depends on the level of stupidity of your enemy if you can hit him or not, especially in the Swingfire.

[Lenticulas 9]

The swingfire

Back in the distant Stone, or rather Obsidian-Age, when Swingy was tier 4 I think, I absolutely loved it. And I played it all in PvP, when I still bothered with pvp.
I loved it so much, it was the first tank I paid actual IRL money, to buy some camouflage for.

Then they shoved it up a couple of tiers, made it handle like shit, and generally made it into a really good way of losing and dragging your team down with you. Because anyone could just drive up to you, and the minimum missile range meant you were dead, because you had NO Weapons, no armour, and couldn't even run, because it was so slow, and unmaneuverable. In other words, they completely ruined it.
And I haven't played it since

Now you've intrigued me, I might have to try it out again...

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by Lenticulas (see edit history)

[Travlla 5]

On 6/25/2020 at 2:54 PM, di_duncan said:

~110-120. Probably much less than yours (assuming you are an Aussie).

Note that I primarily play GlOps ;)  

Yeah I'm an Aussie mate, would kill for your ping, with mudfish i get around 250ish, as long as it's under 300 it's manageable,  

[JintoLin 9]

On 6/25/2020 at 3:23 AM, TeyKey1 said:

Never experienced such AI behaviour, but I'm playing too few PVE matches probably. In PVP the minimum radius is around 10-20m, I killed an enemy at a 20m distance yesterday. I have to check how much it is. The Swingfire doesn't have a reload animation I think (at least I never noticed it). But yes, reload is way faster compared to the C13 TUA.

I can confirm that the AI does some BS with missiles, swingfire included/most obvious. All missiles seem to ignore your soft-kill aps systems. The only APS worth anything is hard kill in PVE. All AI missiles seem to act like fire and forget. I would like it if they added a dead zone for the missiles. The missile on the IT-1 IRL has a dead zone of 300m, the safe and arm device has not armed the warhead until the missile has traveled at least 300m. Now I know that if we use the real dead zones, some missiles won't be usable in game, maybe somewhere between 25m to 100m.

[Lenticulas 9]

Swingfire Redux

I had a test on Alabino, and then a Glops game in it. 

Both the main problems with it, caused by devs' ruinous attempts to balance it, have been... sort of... half-fixed. 

1. The dismal speed is manageable, because it has the Speed Boost ability now. 

2. The minimum shooting distance is... well it seems to be slightly less than it was, and even though you are utterly defenceless under about 5 tank-lengths, I think I can cope with that. Not great, but better than before. 

On the bright side, the missiles still hit like Thor the Thunder god, stamping on your enemy with an armoured boot. The view range is excellent ,  And if you are really good, you can "banana" shots around things, but don't tell anyone.

 

I did actually think: OK, if there's a minimum attack distance, maybe if I turn backwards, and fire the wrong way, the missile will shoot out of the minimum attack distance, turn round and come back. But I couldn't get it to work, so don't bother.  

Ahhh Swingy my first love 

You may not be that fast, or that pretty, but baby, you can still suck a golf ball through a garden hose

Edited June 27, 2020 by Lenticulas
You are a dirty, dirty girl, and you need a spanking. (see edit history)

[Beeda2004 2]

FV438 Swingfire

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swingfire

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