[TF2] Flying The Extra Mile: The Air Strike

[@Pudding404]

Me and my friends used to help each other practice rocket surfing with the airstrike, the decreased blast radius and odd fire rate made it so easy when you were up against a conventionally better rocket launcher that wasn't the direct hit. Just have alot of good memories with this weapon.

[@chairwood]

ahahahahaha pudding

[@jonathansmithers2763]

9:42 you lit up the battalion's backup for 'damage' and the buff banner for 'protection'

[@imwithmilk8162]

This is a bit cliche but: "The best offence is a good defence" and "The best defence is a good offence" Since the BLU team usually needs to go directly into the RED team to win and RED have the better positioning for balance reasons, you are actually better off using protection to push and damage to hold I learned that one from medic 101, Krits is most effective on defence and stock on offence

[@jonathansmithers2763]

@@imwithmilk8162 I acknowledge your viewpoint. However the Battalion's Backup doesn't directly contribute to damage, and the Buff Banner doesn't directly protect the user or their teammates. Yes, being able to push further into the enemy fortifications *allows* you to get more damage in, but that is solely because of your increased resistances. With the Buff Banner. You *might* be pushing the enemy advancements back, but that is solely due to the increased damage you deal [minicrits].

[@imwithmilk8162]

@@jonathansmithers2763 I suppose if you mean literally then yes the buff banner increases your offence and the battalions increase your defences, but in practice those buffs are better to do the opposite of the initially expected role because of the design of the game, with the exception of the battalions being good on RED if it's a chokey part like sunshine last or 5gorge mid, that's what i assume they meant by saying the buff is for protection and the backup is for damage

[@btcbuster5556]

But he didn’t say offense or defense, he said damage

[@imwithmilk8162]

@@btcbuster5556 oh yea he does.. so he just fumbled then

[@Aarmastah]

this video is good because i have a small cameo

[@RustamSV]

famous youtuber moments

[@cactusman8980]

I also make a cameo in the form of a Cactus on the map

[@officialpoppyperson]

@@cactusman8980no way are you the real cactusman8980?!?!!??

[@sleepiboio]

Famous funny cat moment

[@MissNulle2000]

Correction: This video *is good.*

[@jami.j2044]

6:55 Fun fact:If you bunny hoop with the airstrike you keep the firing boost as long as you maintain the bunny hoops,becasue the game still considers you are rocket jumping while you bunny hoop.Really cool tech.

[@comradpingu5745]

Same with market gardening

[@jami.j2044]

@@comradpingu5745 I know my fellow communist.

[@elfasto2255]

bunny hoops

[@memoman_yt]

​@@comradpingu5745 or any other Arial buff

[@robbierotten2024]

I would possibly increase it’s direct hit damage by a bit. Like +10% maybe. This would reward you for hitting those rockets you can’t really use for splash damage anyways without just making it a better stock. This would also slightly improve its ground game, and wouldn’t increase the rocket jumping damage you take

[@scrubscrub4492]

Honesty, what I think would be more fun is a reload speed buff per kill. The clip doesn't mean as much if you have to reload for an absurd quantity of time to get it setup up

[@StickMaster500]

Air Strike is always a fun niche to use and is always satisfying to kill a bunch of people together, especially if you get a random crit. If this thing had some extra upside like a faster reload, it would be something I would use a lot more!

[@no1normal750]

yeah that's all it needs imo, reloading 8 rockets makes me wanna sleep.

[@zzyxxyzz5442]

No. Two of the large parts of soldier's balancing is the fact reloading is slow, and you only have four rockets in a clip. You're allowed to negate one of those, for lower damage. Having a faster reload would make it somewhat of a perfectly accurate tap-firing beggar's bazooka.

[@cubanwargaming4879]

​@@zzyxxyzz5442 simple: slower grounded reload, faster airborne reload to go with the weapon's overall gimmic

[@wiifitt]

@@zzyxxyzz5442 I propose a gradual speed up in reloading per rocket per session. first one is slow, second is average, third is say 5% faster, ect. It would ensure the burst damage playstyle still remains while not making the soldier wait an entire respawn time to fill the entire clip.

[@Sammy-qx5mx]

Pairing the airstrike with a shotgun can be pretty fun too. I usually shoot my entire clip while in the air, and follow it up with the shotgun to get rid of any stragglers that survived the rocket barrage. Sure, it's not 'ideal' but when it works, it really works. The reduced self damage is already plenty incentive for me to drop the gunboats, so I feel like having another method to do more damage is always welcome. Also, while I haven't tried it yet, maybe pairing it with one of soldiers other backpacks could be nice.

[@sparkwheezer1549]

That's honestly doesn't sound too bad. I do usually use the banners, mainly for the Buff Banner. It's actually pretty devastating.

[@Effion]

I LOVE THE AIR STRIKE! I have been using it recently and I love doing some cool jumps with it. Btw nice video I really enjoyed it

[@John_Smith_Dumfugg]

I really like using the air strike with the gunboats

[@razztastic]

That intro animation is something I've experienced many a time as somebody who really loves playing Soldier. I'm glad the Air Strike is getting the love it deserves. I hardly see anybody using it because of the Trolldier circlejerk, stock purists and whatever the black box conch Soldiers hope to accomplish.

[@averylangs]

Man TF2 content creators are seriously some of the most talented people of any game's fanbase I've seen. So much time and dedication to making the video entertaining with SFM animations and little animated gags in between lines; I can't imagine how long it took just to get some of the shorter animations done like the duck hunt sniper one. I've been watching your vids since 2019 and it's been a blast to see how much the quality of your content has improved since then.

[@PurpleBroadcast]

Bro its full of clichè's and weapon analysis has been done to death. Everything he said has been said before

[@fireflythe7]

@@PurpleBroadcast oh at least it’s entertaining

[@chriswolf3686]

Correct me if I'm wrong, the base jumper USED to open and close the parachute at any time, giving extra mobility for the soldier/demo but it got nerfed. Open the parachute once, you live only once.

[@Nick_Upperscore]

as a airstrike user who has a strange killstreak airstrike named NATO, i can safely say there's nothing more satisfying then jumping in (without the BASE jumper, gunboats are better.) and making the enemy eat 6+ rockets, bonus if atleast one of them is a crit. (unless you can't aim for shish and the rockets land around them doing atleast 28 damage, also the airstrike is best on hightower.)

[@ThatShinyVee]

I remember playing with the Air strike in an MGE I did with a friend, I killed him and I hit 4 direct hits, literally traced him but I didn't kill him, I wonder how it would be for it to have the reverse ramp up while rocket jumping like the Crosbow currently have

[@bruhmoment5465]

it would nerf it's effect at traditional soldier bombs and encourage long ranged choke spam pls no

[@demoman5864]

wtf is your channel banner bro ☠️☠️☠️

[@Samwiz1]

My heavy model speaking is GOOFY

[@RocketManFran]

Yes it is

[@oneandonlydumie3251]

I would love to see an entire lobby full of airstrikes

[@MLGProMaster-tu9tz]

Battlefield fortress 2

[@FlipZFox]

As fellow Air Strike enthusiast, I would like to state that the Air Strike is the definition of a journey where you're more rewarded to be worthy of it's power if you know how to manage and keep yourself alive.. outside of a few uncontrollable scenarios. If you manage to prove yourself with 4 kills, you are blessed to use a huge advantage that no other rocket launcher can give you. More rockets to fire, greater momentum (especially with gunboats), and being able to deal burst damage like no other rocket launcher! Also this thing can be a killing machine if used with the buff banner in the right hands. Consider this, for a few moments (unless the enemy team has an ace up it's sleeve against this such as Battalion's), you have can have up to *8 NORMAL ROCKETS* with no falloff and slightly extra damage that well makes up for the damage penalty even when rocket jumping (where that at least gives you extra firing speed to make up for it). The only concern in this scenario is that blast radius, but if you can land your rockets consistently it's really no concern. Just be aware though, this thing isn't so great if your in a scenario where your team is struggling to even land one kill with no room for error and it ends up being more of a hindrance considering you need kills to get this extreme momentum-filled, killing machine to even start killing as promised. In these scenarios it's better to use ol' reliable or any other for the job. Edit: It also came to my attention that the Airstrike isn't too helpful if you're playing in a map like Junction. Without the air, there is no strike.

[@honeycombkole3185]

I like the fact you can essentially paint a nuke silly colors or kickass cool colors. It'll still be intimidating regardless.

[@coldchillywilly9901]

The SFM bit at the beginning was really well put together. Absolutely Badass!

[@genuinebear8569]

Decided to start farming my strange Air strike and made me relise it is my favourite rocket launcher. Though I don't run it with Base Jumper as i find it more fun using either Gun boats or Buff banner. Gunboats make jumps harder but more rewarding. It helps with the damage fall-off and makes everything a lot faster. With less self-damage and gunboats, you take very little damage from jumps. Fall damage is still a problem. If you plan your jumps, you mitigate the fall damage. Buff banner, is for whenever you're struggling and playing on the ground until you have rockets or a banner. Using the banner and being able to spam 100dmg rockets across the map is fun. One thing about it is that your opponents can never be sure how many rockets you have. You can still play with it as a stock rocket launcher, you will just need one extra rocket. Surfing another soldier rockets to get the airborn stats can feel so amazing if you can pull it off. Don't think it needs any changes. Maybe +10% more ammo, but I do not think it is needed. Great video, so many good edits. 👍

[@quotastrider801]

0:19 THATS THE EXACT SPY OUTFIT I HAVE!!

[@Googie_Oogie]

What if it was you!?

[@quotastrider801]

@Googie_Oogie GASP I AM FAMOUS NOW!!!

[@raighteous7165]

Even though my go-to loadout for Soldier uses the Air Strike, my secondary of choice is actually the Buff Banner! The combo is fun because it allows for some insane burst damage in the air & great sustained DPS when fighting on the ground! I honestly think that the best Soldier to use a stock Übercharge on is one with this loadout, with max heads & full banner, of course. The damage & blast radius penalties make the weapon really punishing for inaccurate shots & especially make you outmatched by other Soldiers (unless you have a banner popped), but I think the Air Strike is super rewarding for those who can consistently aim & know how to position themselves to ambush their opponents! The Buff Banner is especially good with it because its mini-crits can still one-shot light classes! The Air Strike is one of those weapons that will probably get you killed if you're caught with your pants down, but, under the right circumstances, can absolutely obliterate entire teams! PS: A max-head, Buff Banner-boosted Air Strike can deal OVER A THOUSAND DAMAGE in a single clip, so... Yeah, it's a pretty fun loadout. 😏

[@Flynn217something]

The deployment nerf to the BASE jumper to make him easier for *SNIPERS* to hit soldier was one of the stupidest balance decisions ever made, as though the most powerful class needed any more help terrorizing the game.

[@dr.pokedude8093]

And also I 100% agree on that 16:05 (what you suggested)

[@caveman2328]

This is an underated video and needs more views

[@cloudedarctrooper]

Don't forget. The base jumper used to open as many times as we wanted it to.

[@bronzor1718]

This is an incredibly well done video. Great job man, keep it up!

[@アプラスタロット]

1:02 bro used the thanks voice command

[@RocketManFran]

ah, I see what you did there lol

[@アプラスタロット]

@@RocketManFran funni tf2 youtuber commented back now i famous

[@danielszilagyi9112]

I can't remember the last time when this many people collabed in just one video. Loved it!

[@ayr1190]

From subbing way back before you changed the channel name to now, I’m amazed with how well your content and channel have grown! Keep up the great work

[@johnblain4477]

Bro said Mr Simons and I’m like “wait did he go to the same high school as me?”

[@hamzaahmed652]

Personally I think the ait strike needs to be adjusted so its better at taking short quick bombs closer to Solder by making him reload faster or make him a better long range bomber by reducing his rocket damage falloff/rate so he can take out clusters of enemies more consistently Personally stat wise I would change: For every kill increase max ammo size by 25% Every extra rocket you use will reload slightly faster by 4% stacking on each other upto 16% While rocket jumping you reload 10% faster Explosion falloff rate increased by 25% Remove explosive radius reduction when rocket jumping This way the airstrike would be less polarising to get kills but requires more skill to use to max effect since you need to choose when to reload & have hit your shots more consistently For base jumper I think it needs a combination of the changes by Higps & Fishonastick servers where: Reduces rocket jumping dmg by 25% Increases air control by 100% Can be held open for 6 seconds max Taking dmg reduce the time & 100 dmg will close your parachute Demoknights can jump once while charging This way the base jumper is a decent short term utility/bombing tool & useful for demoknights I would add a melee that's the rambo knife made by the same creator for the base jumper & it's stats would be: While equipped : your rockets have delayed travel until you switch away You have 200% increased gravity Weapon deploys & holsters 40% faster No random crits

[@double2254]

Big help for the air strike would be a faster reload speed either as a flat increase or a scaling increase compared to how many kills you’ve gotten… yes your clip size gets bigger with each kill but it also makes using a full barrage take abysmally long to fully reload if you are doing good. That along with with a clip size increase (could make one of the downsides stronger to compensate) and the gun would be made a lot more usable

[@airliner7478]

1:07 Great job, Soldier. You've turned that heavy's Team Captain (hat) into a Burning Flames Team Captain. Now you cap sell it for big coin...

[@SoulOfPower]

The airstrike can definitely be a fun weapon paired with the base jumper, if only I could hit shoots on land. (Also I wonder if that is your real teacher lmao)

[@jami.j2044]

0:38 Sliding acroos the sand- classic soilder move.

[@blackholetl]

I play almost exclusively with the air strike and tend to pair it with the shotguns where I will bomb in then go pellet crazy. Edit: If it could think of a change change would want. I would want the blast radius thing to be reworked. Have the blast radius penalty on the ground but not in the air or something to a similar thought.

[@BiblemanTF]

Yes the video explains very well how you're suposed to combine it with the base jumper since it helps more against groups of people, but gunboats has a lot of synergy with it (when you have at least 1-2 extra rockets), you deal less damage when you are far from the enemies when in the air, but when you close in while jumping, the rockets are closer to each other making it just 1 big blast instead of alerting them with the starting ones (every rocket deals more damage individually because they deal less damage depending on how far you are from the enemy and not for how long they have traveled) also, you get away at the cost of less health and since you are more mobile you can spend more time in the air and get more people off guard with the faster firing speed anywhere instead of making it very situational. Im not saying this combo is irrelevant, just wanted to see the choice mentioned in the video but i guess Zesty already covered it. Cool video.

[@yifenifen5709]

I mean Air Strike + Conch is my favourite Soldier load out In my personal experience the ammo doesn’t tend to be an issue as you can take it from the guy you just threw 8 explosives at A reload speed on kill would be a nice buff so I don’t have to spend a majority of my game watching the animation

[@olive_olive.mp4]

5:01 oh my GOD this bit is so funny, the little sound effects as he counts and adds, I love the sarcasm

[@Inconspicuous-Gnome]

Another change I would like to see added to the airstrike is removing the flat self-damage resistance and add an increasing self-damage resistance with each kill you get. Similar to how the Eyelander would give you increased movement speed with each successive head you get.

[@danknstein6504]

This was really well-made, i enjoyed it. I have the "Good Job" (c8) voice command bound to middle mouse button so I REALLY related to the bit at the beginning lol As for the base jumper, my two cents is that it ironically kinda works against the air strike in some ways, particularly before you have a bunch of mag upgrades from kills. Rockets deal more damage the closer you are to the impact site when they explode regardless of where you are when you fire them, so being up in the air still when they hit is leaving damage on the table. I like to jump really high to fall really fast directly on top of people with sync rockets, squeezes a fat chunk of extra damage out of the same shots by being right on top of them when they hit. The catch is you pretty much need the gunboats for it to work without getting rekt, but this has it's own general upside: you can use your rockets to pad your falls with the blast and take way less damage than the unmitigated fall would have dealt, and you can do this all the time when you get used to doing it. When considering the Air Strike's self damage reduction on top of the gunboats you take next to no damage, I've had situations where i rj away from a fight with

[@medic6994]

Note: if you max out blast res, clip size, firing speed, reload speed, and health regen, you can stay in the air forever

[@sirnooblet2793]

I thought about it and honestly imagine if the base jumper had maybe a -10 to 20% damage falloff while active, that way shooting rockets with it active is more worth it. It doesnt super buff anything, but it adds a little bit of flavor while soldier is essentially making himself easier to hit in the air (where a lot of weapons can obliterate him).

[@CoolTheFool]

1:35 "I've seen enough. Look into my eyes when you die. Knowing that all hope has abandoned you." + Dangerous

[@leviathan67]

tbh it aint that bad on the ground, if you want to get your full 8 switch your secondary to the panic attack, shoot someone with it *then* with the airstrike and boom now you have 5 rockets *there is nothing saying you need to get the kills while airborne* and if you feel the panic attack is useless after 8 switch to a different loadout that has the air strike so you dont lose your snowball

[@misterjersey5460]

The one soldier weapon i wanted to master very much. Also, haven't heard from samwiz1 for a while.

[@BoxCuttur]

Awesome video! (Zesty at the end had me laughing lol)

[@RocketManFran]

Glad I managed to convince him to be here just for this one scene XD

[@P-lywood]

I actually use the air strike every now and then, and my favorite thing to pair it with is the buff banner, allows me to barrage people at long range without worrying about falloff

[@CWOFFEE]

If you like Air Strike + Gunboats, I've really gotta recommend Beggar's. It doesn't have a dmg penalty, so it's also just way more usable on the ground. I've got a few ideas for what I'd want to do with Air Strike, but I think replacing the snowball mechanic with a flat clip size of some sort (5 or 6?) would probably be a good starting point. For a weapon as fun to be dumb and aggro with as Air Strike, it is criminal to make you go back to 4 rockets on death.

[@crazycactus717]

The beggar’s is worse for ground movement because of the rocket deviation and smaller explosion radius, and can only put hold 3 rockets. You’re still able to hit directs more reliably with the air strike and you can have 8 rockets before you need to reload

[@CWOFFEE]

​@@crazycactus717 Air Strike also has a grounded explosion radius penalty and the damage penalty fucks with damage thresholds. Air Strike literally can't do over 100 without other damage modifiers. Because of this, anecdotally speaking, I find that some fights end up taking longer than anticipated + I more frequently see that I lose fights by a tiny bit of HP when using Air Strike compared to Beggar's. Plus, the fact that Beggar's can only hold 3 rockets doesn't matter too much because tap firing is shockingly fast, and being the Beggar's, storing 2 or 3 full damage rockets and barfing them onto whoever is around a corner is pretty effective in pubs. The deviation can be pretty gnarly, but you can still hit directs at closer ranges (not just point blank) fairly easily, letting you abuse that lack of dmg penalty. For the record, I like both guns! I started with the Air Strike a few years ago before moving towards the Beggar's because of the stuff I talked about above. I just wish I had more of a reason to use Air Strike as a gun besides sniping sentries, seeing as their movement capabilities are somewhat similar.

[@greentg10]

things ive learned from about 2 weeks of air strike: 1: gunboats allow for 10 hp rocket jumps. i think of them as adding about 50 HP to any bomb. 2: when you bomb, go for a close but safe position but keep 1 getaway rocket. 3: dispensers are your lifeline. don't chase people too aggressively, they have the advantage in a 1v1 4: pairing it with shotgun or panic attack can make single target bombs incredibly lethal. 5: the banners + an 8 rocket clip turns you into a brawler. my personal favorite is the conch. 6: there are situations where stock is better, so dont be afraid to switch if you need the extra power on respawn. 7: i use the escape plan for resupping, this gun is not great for prolonged fights. if you are a powerful gamer you could use gardener instead. i love this gun so much, it has incredible potential.

[@captaincookie72]

I recently wanted to try something new so I had started using the air strike and it's an interesting and fun alternative.

[@OldSchoolTF2]

I had a lot of playing with the air strike in the past, using it mostly to rocket jump around, because of the reduced self damage. But recently I've been having more fun with the liberty launcher. I think the liberty launcher is just more reliable.

[@DrCoeloCephalo]

>Sonic Heroes music in an Air Strike video essay. _"What goes up must come down_ _Yet my feet don't touch the ground_ _See the world spinning upside down_ _A mighty crash without a sound"_ Perfect

[@Duwahkeen]

I enjoy the Air Strike with the Gunboats. Just zooming in and out for cheeky Market Gardens, escaping ridiculous fights and *sometimes* getting those fat group kills. Fun weapon!

[@SportBallzz]

Something about the scout, medic, heavy, and spy all screaming at the same time is terrifying

[@RocketManFran]

good >:)

[@chispo167]

You should try the beggar's bazooka. You may think it's bad or something idk, but when you get the hang of it, it's AMAZING to use

[@springpl1879]

I have been using the air strike for a while now and for some reason, I love it too much, some would call me an air strike main. with the weapon, you have made a great example but try it out with some of the banners, I haven't used the base jumper (rip base jumper, still a very haha weapon in a good way) and I have seen myself go on in the top three MVPs. But in all words, the air strike is still a very good weapon and I love it, slow starts but quick moves to the end. PS, very funny to see pyros' try air blast them all away, I've had it happen to myself, lol. great video in all words.

[@moritamikamikara3879]

I maintain that the best use for the airstrike is what Fran showed in the intro: Sentry busting. Apart from maybe the wrangler, there is NOTHING that an engineer player can do to save his sentry from an airstrike player, even with only the 4 rockets you start with, that's enough to demolish a sentry from full health to nothing before the engineer can even react, and because damage falloff doesn't work on sentries, you can do it from as far away as you like, well out of the sentries range and it doesn't reduce the damage you do.

[@wickergalvix]

this is a great video. that opening animation goes insanely and you really did a good job talking about the weapon's upsides and downsides. i agree with giving it an ammo increase on kill, but i think a reload speed increase as you get more kills would also help, because especially with all eight rockets you'll be reloading a *lot*. thanks for taking the time to talk about one of my favorite weapons in the game :)

[@butterlol5464]

pov making a video about the air strike week before this

[@Imirui]

9:44 “damage” *highlights battalion’s backup* “or protection” *highlights buff banner*

[@ProfessionalEepyHead]

I kinda want the soldier to force feed him the information to the spy like “since you’re here looking pathetic, the air strike is a weapon equipped by the solder class from team fortress 2”

[@dr_nimbostf2]

Awesome video! Good to see someone actually remember the Air Strike exist, as someone that has put a LOT of hours on the Air Strike i want to give some observations and opinions on the video, i may not be the best Soldier player but atleast i know a lot about the Air Strike. First is that yes the Air Strike is not the best rocket launcher in terms of damage, but is probably the best for movement while i think the Beggar's is amazing for vertical movement, the Air Strike is the best for horizontal movement, using the gunboats one rocket jump does 14 damage, meaning you can rocket jump a lot without damaging yourself, which is why i think the gunboats is actually the best weapon to use it, or at least the more fun one, the base jumper is really good at dealing damage to a certain area but you be so much vulnerable while on the air, while the gunboats exceeds on movement and single target combat. There are many tricks you could do with the Air Strike, like not jumping too high if you know you wont survive the fall damage, observing if it's worth even engaging with certain fights, so the best thing you could do as a Air Strike soldier is be carefull of your health and your enemies, also there a lot of bugs with it, firstly a rocket can be fired if you hit the ground after a attacking in the air which is very useful on low cealing areas, and just finishing of enemies, you also can bhop to extend the air rockets just like you can extend a market gardener you can extend air rockets while doing a bhop, you can also use other explosions to gain you a advantage on single or multiple targets and while you have more rockets you can do rollouts much faster and easier, and the additional rockets can really help if you are being ubered it can allow you to be more agressive without thinking of reload. While the Base jumper is the safest option to use with the Air Strike for me the gunboats is just better if you learn how to use it right, so in my opinion the Air Strike is NOT useless without the base jumper (but thats from a guy that put a lot of hours and effort on one stupid weapon hehehe) but really fun video! (also i'm from Brazil, sorry if the english written here is bad)

[@IrishSturmtruppenGodBlessUSA]

finally, someone else who enjoys the airstrike

[@aneasteregg8171]

Your editing is so on point dude

[@QwertyQwerty-fr4yz]

As the tf2 community lives on, it finds love for weapons no one was expecting getting.

[@solarson4918]

The air strike/base jumper combo is very strong when you play soldier more like an assassin than anything, like how you said with it working best on unaware enemies. I find it works best on defense, but its good on offence as well as this thing shreds sentries like nothing else. Also the rocket jumping requirement works with enemy rockets as well, so if you get bombed and knocked into the air, you have anywhere from 4 to 8 rockets to shred through whoever made the mistake of jumping you. The best tip for it I should mention is that if you do use this combo, avoid using the parachute at the apex of your jump. Parachuting almost right above your enemy really helps with damage falloff and aiming rockets in the first place. Basically just a regular divebomb, but you parachute above their heads to get your full airstrike clip off. Horizontal jumps into parachuting at head level also work pretty well. Also yeah, anywhere with really low ceilings is gonna suck with this thing. Ceilings like with borneo last don't really make an impact, and lower ceilings can work if you do smaller rocket jumps, but don't bring this thing to somewhere like 2fort.

[@pajarokujo_6829]

16:04 Its secret penalty, the airstriker when firing in the air has even less blast radius than the stast so you rely on direct hits, added to its low and shortened damage and base explosion radius finishes putting a bit of salt to the wound.

[@BuenasSoySimon]

The only time i used that weapon, was in harvest, rocket jumped to the roof, killed the sticky spammer enemy demo, then killed an engi, and just didn't make more because my friend wanted to find another match.

[@linusdickens4767]

My idea to fix the air strike is to merge it with the base jumper so you can have the benefits of the base jumper without wasting your secondary slot.

[@michaelb6660]

"Not going anywhere for a while? Good." *spends the next 10 minutes reloading*

[@kykoda]

The Zesty ending was perfect! 🤣

[@piplupfan71]

I haven't seen anyone else mention this!

[@Z0u1Th3Sl0w]

I find that this is a good rocket launcher for working with engineers. You get the health and ammo you need from the engie, engie gets a more explosive spy check and a friendly airstrike. With that in mind, I would actually give this weapon a reload-speed increase on kill to lower downtime when your onto higher kill counts. This way you can spycheck more often while you wait for the dispenser to heal you, giving skilled soldiers a duel-purpose. But this is also how I end up playing the launcher, base-jumper or not.

[@DLCstealer]

"What? Real life parachutes don't do that, so clearly fictional ones don't!" Warzone: hi

[@godusopp1797]

Been using the Airstrike for around 8k kills (based on my stranges) and I use it religiously in MvM too, but I also religiously don't use the Base Jumper with it, so here's my take on first the Airstrike then its combo with the Jumper. --When grounded, the reduced splash & self-damage penalty does help you survive a lot of one on one fights that your enemies don't really expect you to live long enough through, and when you start snowballing kills & heads, you can outgun everyone and even start taking on crowds all while still having your feet planted, essentially unlocking the Airstrike's rarely utilized spamming function. On the same topic of being grounded, sometimes you can get the jump on demos & soldiers who bounce you up into the air with their assorted explosives for short hops, letting you unload an extra 2 or 3 rockets for your advantage. --Going for airborne kills, intentionally without using the Jumper, you will start to become more creative with your clips. I personally like jumping horizontally to a single target or small group, unloading half my clip, then landing to secure extra kills or damage with grounded direct hits. In MvM, I like jumping directly off of Giants and pogoing on their heads with my whole clip, assisted by banner for killing it faster or conch for getting to do it persistently. There's also simply just doing a quick overhead flyby with you 8 rockets and landing safely before anyone can track you, which happens to lead me to-- --My hot take on the Base Jumper combo, which basically echoes Mr ManFran's negative around it, being that most of its use is just to help people aim. Players who can think quickly, aim quickly & improvise quickly will mostly benefit from using a different secondary besides something that actively slows them to a crawl while airborne. There's also an argument of positioning where floating midair with the Base Jumper would assist in waiting for your enemies to cluster together for more rewarding plays, the same is true for the opposite view, the more time you spend wandering around above everyone's heads for a more focused kill just increases the chance that someone is going to look up and kill you before you can fire even 2 rockets. -- Lastly, my own negatives about the Air Strike: Reload. Reload. Reload. Reload. Reload. Reload. Reload. Reload. It takes 8 solid reloads to refill a maxed Air Strike and DOUBLE if you've maxed it's upgrades in MvM. The damage penalty is absolutely the worst part about it though since it can be reduced way further with damage falloff, so even if you do have 8 rockets to unload midair, if you're *_too_* high up you're going to be dealing shrug-able damage to a high priority group of overhealed & dangerous team carries (which happens to be another downside to using the Base Jumper.) Also about your change regarding the ammo count, I think +20% being 36 Total Ammo with 4 Kill is a bit much, sure that's less time looking for ammo packs and even +18 ammo & +8 from medium & small packs, but 36 ammo is Four 8 Rocket Clips plus 4 extra rockets, which on-top of your preloaded clip very much sounds pretty surplus and likely overpowered. A more balanced option could just be +5%, which is just 1 extra ammo per kill, but it adds up to 24 Total Ammo, Three square 8 Rocket Clips, +12 from medium ammo packs & +6 from small packs. As for what I would change, I think I would just increase reload speed per kill, which I know would very certainly drain ammo faster but it would create a new defensive tandem when you have access to dispensers

[@natan9113]

funny thing you can do is if you time your bhops after you rocket jump, you can basically use the airstrike on the ground

[@enclavegeneral3946]

I picked up the airstrike a while back and i never reverted i find the airstrike on cqc or long range maps extremely good while certainly its not as good as stock with the 4 that does not mean its unusable or bad. Take for example enemy solider throws you in the air you automaticly win unless a crocket hits you its always you that wins becuse you just threw 3 rockets back at em. Not only that but the airstrike with 0 kills still is a incredibly versitile mashine giving small radius of shots in air and a relatively normal one on ground. For me this thing while not as good as stock on ground thanks to the added kills you get it realy does not loss in many cases esspicaly if you run the right loadout while many choose the base jumper to combo with the airstrike in my opinion the best is the gunboats or the conch are great to pair as with gunboats you can take to the skys alot more times than normal and with the counch become an unstoppable force a nature on the ground. Bring this along with the escape plan which is preety goated in my opinion youve got a license to kill and erase the enemy team no matter the situation. The only issue that the airstrike has and this solely is why its not op is ammo your going to find yourself out of ammo alot and thats the weakness. Many more times than not your be damaging your self to gtfo with the escape plan for ammo.

[@MainDotLua]

The Air Strike is another one of those weapons i haven't used much - but it just works too well with my Gunboats addiction and my already very "in your face" playstyle. A really fun weapon for sure which i should probably use more often!

[@kmoorother879]

As someone who has soldier as one of my least played classes, this makes me want to play him

[@WooHooLadttv]

You didn't need to go that hard on the intro but oh man is it appreciated

[@averg6261]

A change I have in mind that could make the Air Strike *a bit* better is increasing the reload time on the ground slightly, and heavily lowering the reload time whilst in the air. It would make up for what the Air Strike lacks in terms of ground combat, since if you're low to the ground with the base jumper equipped there won't be enough time to get away before any enemies nearby kill you. Being able to retaliate when on the ground would be much more useful. It would also make the cycle of bombing and retreating much easier, as the increased reload time on the ground would help your 8 rocket clip to be reloaded to full. The decreased reload time in the air balances this out but may also slightly hinder how easy it is to kill enemies that haven't died to the horde of 8 rockets shot at them in the first place. It's a worthy disadvantage for the decreased time to reload between bombings and could definitely help with quite a few of the problems mentioned in this video. Love the work, Fran!

[@Veratig]

I watched this while taking a shit in the outhouse at work

[@hawkhatter9047]

I'm one person who uses the Air Strike all the time when playing as Soldier. I, however, Play with the Buff Banner to further buff the rapid burst strikes that you can do to annihilate groups or other fortified positions with the 8 rockets and banner you get from obtaining said rockets, it negates the damage downside, and that gets very, very far in my experience.

[@Woodland_Adventures]

I love the airstrike. Honestly one of my favorite rocket launchers.

[@angzarrpsyco]

Imagine if the Market Gardener gave the Base Jumper 1 redeploy, acting as a back up chute

[@sandvicheatfresh]

an eyelander demoknight, an enemy air strike soldier (and maybe an bizarre bargain sniper) can steal your extra rockets because they are considered heads reduce the hidden blast radius penalty when you fire after blast jumping give 5% faster reload and projectile speed for every "head" capping at 20% for the base jumper: have it slowly reduce your horizontal velocity over time, slightly decrease its air control penalty and let you put the chute away and redeploy it once (reserve parachutes exist)

[@vitaleriof]

that bit with the spy in the intro really reminded me of goku letting frieza off on namek

[@Lumac0s]

first minute gave me the feeling that this was a "how it feels to use the air strike" video

[@xeros672]

I thought of a balance change where the air strike does 10% incresed dmg while rocket jumping and change base jumper into "open and close it how often you want but it can only be open for a certain duration" instead of "use it once"

[@Haunted_Hunter]

I remember when you could open and close the base jumper repeatedly, such a sad feature that got removed only a year after it was released.

[@JBirdOlliesFan]

1:07 you did them a favor now they have a burning flames team captain

[@ethanclark-rf9sk]

I use the airstrike with the conch, it reduces the time you take scrambling for health and makes it so you can use the airstrike like a normal rocket launcher due to the increased sustainability. This combo is better for being useful in general instead of just being good in specific situations. I recommend pairing it with the disciplinary action or the escape plan so you can run away or help increase rollout efficiency depending on if you want to be more supportive or self sustainable (Loadout is may not be for everyone)

[@danboru_bakooo1966]

The intro has " then i tell him, that's not a cow that's my wife" energy

[@nikoliaskos2596]

How the hell did you manage to drag Sam away from his Paradox games lol. Good video

[@RocketManFran]

He owes me for me dealing with his nonsense from his streams lol

[@nikoliaskos2596]

@@RocketManFran lol fair enough. Considering the binge for Stellaris he is on now, you might not get him again for a while

[@Mrkarton]

Im not really a fun of the snowball effect on this weapon I would rather have Just 50% bigger clip size.

[@scrubscrub4492]

What I'd like the most would be a reload speed buff per kill, that way you can actively enjoy the benefit of your increased clip size. Doesn't even have to be big, like 5% per kill could really add up once you get the full clip boost.

[@babooooooooooooooo]

The intro feels like rise of the epic scout and it's so nostalgic

[@HiddenForbidden2]

Man, I had just finished cooking dinner and was about to go search for a video to watch. Perfect Timing!

[@ZackarySchejbalCODBO2RGM2]

So there's this one MvM community server that has some classes with massive powerups, such as the Engineer can build 3 sentries and 3 dispensers, ubercharge is like 1 secons to charge so can spam that, Medic's syringe gun you could turn into an A-10 Warthog, and much more. But my favorite part of it is what they did to the soldier. You have your soldier equip the Direct Hit, the Battalion's Backup, and whatever melee and you turned Soldier into a literal god. Let me explain: In this community server, they not only made the Battalion's backup give you 2200 health instead of 220 health, instantly charge the rage, and the rage lasts for at times an entire game, but they also made by default the Direct Hit have massive damage per missile. And if you play Ghost Town on that server, where they give you enough automatically to max upgrade your class (AKA buying every upgrade on that class) while having more than half the points left, let's just say you're going to be able to walk up to a juggernaut enemy and put them down easily with losing little to no health. And if you got a medic with a Kritzkreig, then may God have mercy on those robots. The only downside to that is even with max firing rate, reload speed, clip size, and ammo reserve it takes a good while to reload and you do burn through ammo real quickly if you don't have a nearby dispenser.