TF2: The Good, The Bad, The Airstrike

[@ZestyJesus]

youtube didn't like the word "airstrike" in the tags, so now that it's been removed, it's being shared. lovely, good to know.

[@Markm8]

Zesty Jesus the “skysike”?

[@JimmehRulez]

I forgot you got the gold pan. Neat.

[@quenquent95]

I guess it's because it can be related to violent content, like bombing and stuff

[@thatf2p300]

uh zesty what about random crits? Wouldn’t the huge clip make it more likely to crit?

[@donna8536]

@@thatf2p300 yes technically but not everyone plays pubs with random crits

[@slaccinjacc2803]

14:52 "Huh, that heavy has the same loadout and gun as me" *notices name* "Oh hey, it's me"

[@jackmack4181]

Lucky

[@tameronica]

epik

[@tenzen7723]

Slaccin' Jacc id like to believe that, but anybody could say it

[@im_sorry_i_forgot_my_username]

What's that Tomislav skin?

[@stiky5972]

@@im_sorry_i_forgot_my_username reskin.tomislav_skin.generic_red

[@gustavosalles7573]

My idea to fix the Air Strike: Every kill you get with it you gain 5% faster reload speed caping at 20%

[@Midnight-Starfish]

I say it should work like the Eyelander. Where you have a penalty but kills increase a factor to nullifies said penalty. I think the blast radius should increase with each kills as well as the magazine; that way it become that carpet bombing weapon that it's supposed to be. Maybe it increases by 10% with each kill capping at a 15% increased blast radius.

[@pieperson444]

also maybe a higher reload rate while on the ground, but slower in the air. make the weapon useless on the ground but when the sky opens up so do the possibilities.

[@thatcooldudeisawesome876]

@@pieperson444 do you mean faster in the air slower on the ground?

[@Kersakofu]

Would be interesting to have the eyelander effect but it removes the blast radius penalty in the air with each kill. So it keeps the -15% but at 5 kills the stat is removed, like how an eyelander demo becomes hard to kill at full hp

[@catrielmarignaclionti4518]

@@thatcooldudeisawesome876 ut actually would be balanced that way, in the ground you reaload _fast_ , but in the air, you cant, so you gotta get those kill in order to perform an *AIRSTRIKE*

[@258thHiGuy]

That demoman in the sun, he speaks to me I can clearly hear him He says, _"youre doin good lad"_

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

Thank you, guardian Demoman.

[@CuppaBro1]

Ya done did good, kid.

[@torchy9030]

He is more like: "...A Y E"

[@cranknlesdesires]

His some kind of solarlight

[@bluewink1646]

He’s more like, “if I waznt a man I would kissss ya”

[@FSRiko]

Reload speed should increase with each kill.

[@-RandomStranger-]

It's silly backrooms man!!1!

[@Looona_fan]

I agree

[@joshuaroberts7794]

8:06 That heavy ragdoll though. Slipped and smashed his back on the ground.

[@slapnull1819]

Thank you for pointing that out, that just improved my day by 35%

[@sanosu87]

@@slapnull1819 but you get 15% damage penalty

[@Lrizu]

@@sanosu87 yeah but he gets 40% fire damage resistance

[@sanosu87]

@@Lrizu Not worth it when you also get a -40% max ammo

[@Lrizu]

@@sanosu87 but wouldn't the +35% better day make up for that?

[@extendedmag9411]

Zesty is officially a tf2 pro, we can know due to his golden pan now.

[@SuperGamerNinja1]

Does the fact he had it still count? Cause he sold that thing for a new transmission.

[@extendedmag9411]

Voice of .Reason I would say so, but maybe others might say otherwise

[@quenquent95]

Well he still have to make good MvM content, which is where most TF2 KZbinrs fails at, before being a god

[@matte8845]

Means nothing

[@Eeveeening]

@Antonio Sánchez It's a joke.

[@LARAUJO_0]

It would make a lot more sense if the blast radii were reversed, in other words, 30% less when grounded, 10% less when airborne

[@therubbermeep7456]

I think the reason it is reduced is for balance reasons ,so you cant carpet bomb the entire enemy team.

[@patrickfrost9405]

@@therubbermeep7456 but that's the weapon's point.

[@SkyNinja759]

@@patrickfrost9405 It's suppose to be a multi-rocket precision strike, where the "airstrike" comes from multiple small rockets as opposed to all them being big bombs. Just have a but smaller flat penalty no matter where the soldier is.

[@georgiarushanov2210]

Patrick Frost dumbest argument ever so should heavy be allowed to do 50000% extra damage because “damaging the enemy team is the minigun’s whole point”

[@ViceN53X]

Or remove that damage falloff so that pairing with the base jumper would make a lot more sense

[@GermanPeter]

6:38 I literally went "Hey! :D" out loud when I saw that clip, nice to see my video is being used for other videos. But you can still use the BASE Jumper with the Airstrike, in the way you described: jump at the target, and when you're really close, activate the parachute so you can keep shooting more rockets while staying close. What about the Mantreads by the way? They give you higher mobility while rocketjumping, does that influence the weapon in any way? Also, for some reason I remember the Airstrike having faster reload in the air. I don't know if that was ever a thing, or if I am just misremembering it because all the other stats having increased speed too. I think at some points I even rocketjumped just so I could reload faster. So if that never existed, I must have looked... pretty stupid :D

[@Jennacide.]

A man has fallen into the river in lego city "Hey! :D"

[@lava2istrue]

Actually, the weapon *”does”* reload faster while rocket jumping. But this is a quirk in the source engine that applies to all weapons: when reloading, the first shot takes slightly longer to reload. And this is actually affected by the rate of fire of the weapon. I believe there is a MvM testing vid that shows how tap fireing the beggars bazooka while having fully upgraded RoF would increase the overall rocket output. Despite not having invested in reload speed bonuses. Gimmie a sec and i’ll find it.

[@lostnotyetfound6013]

@@lava2istrue well? Did You find it?

[@lava2istrue]

@bruh ... no... but its possible to see on x10 server. whenever you fire a weapon with a really slow RoF, the first reload is *unbearably* slow.

[@Argonwolfproject]

And let's not forget the most important upside to the air strike, which is: Air Strike + Kritzkrieg = nuclear holocaust

[@djomni115]

Remove the blast radius penalty when jumping, and maybe add a reload speed increase. Not enough so tapping m1 with an empty clip becomes viable (looking at you Beggar's Bazooka), but enough to make the long reloads less punishing. I personally wouldn't want to change too much, because the Airstrike is on of those weapons that is only 1 buff away going from okay to overpowered.

[@tellyg7985]

Reload speed buff that applies based on kill count, also by rockets loaded IE 1 kill | Rocket 4 n 5, reloads 30% faster 2 kill | Rocket 3 n 4 beyond, 30% faster 3 kill | Rocket 2 n 3 beyond, 35% faster 4 kill | Rocket 2 n 3 beyond, 40% faster with a tooltip that somehow surmises that the rockets will load faster with subsequent kills, earlier in the magazine with more kills in like 6 words lmao

[@keineangabe1804]

If you remove the blast radius penalty it becomes op. So I suggest to remove it but also give it a 2 % random spread while in the air. Makes bombing possible but forces the user to engage directly.

[@baneofthebread]

@@keineangabe1804 , ah yes, RNG, the thing that all tf2 players just love, am i right?

[@keineangabe1804]

@@baneofthebread the beggar's bazooka shows that RNG has its place as long it is not a "somebody just got lucky and now you explode" mechanic like the crocket is for free to play. Why does every weapon need to be completely free of random chance? Can't there be a middle ground between "melee weapons crit with 50 %, your success is solely based on a coin throw" and "this weapon is 100% predictable, you can calculate the outcome of this engagement before it starts"?

[@baneofthebread]

@@keineangabe1804 2% isn't exactly a coin toss, and most of the time isn't gonna actually affect the performance of the weapon significantly, not to mention it punishes the player for good aiming And don't bring the Beggar's Bazooka into the conversation, you can make a bible questioning that weapon's design

[@burrito9327]

14:03 If I had to order this in terms of what I feel are most necesary I'd say: 1- Remove the blast radius penalty when rocket jumping: Why make a weapon all about attacking while airborne do less potential damage when airborne? 2- Faster reloading: It would fit with the other burst fire weapon that was in tf2, the old panic attack. 3- Reduce self damage: It would allow to use the other secondaries more often, but the Air Strike always gave me a "Rockets Only" mentality, and I think thats the point. It would allow you to jump, bomb, and jump away without losing too much health tho. Nice video pardner.

[@this...isabucket.6665]

The problem with buffing its reload speed is it would make ground-to-ground usage way too good since the airstrike would be the only rocket launcher able to dish out more rockets while grounded (less reload time = more rockets and time shooting) You can see the other rocket launchers none of which have reload speed buffs. This unique upgrade to directly increase its effectiveness while both grounded or mid-air would be too good and we would see many soldiers using it as they would with stock-that is, not rocket jumping at all.

[@burrito9327]

@@this...isabucket.6665 Perhaps faster reloading while rocket jumping? Like if you just bombed and only have one rocket left so you rocket jump away and reload everything back super fast?

[@this...isabucket.6665]

@@burrito9327 Perhaps if they decreased the self damage by a fair amount, yes. Otherwise soldiers would probably die a lot from having to rocket jump all the time.

[@flaco3462]

I'd go with reducing the blast radius penalty and buffing the less self damage thing even more, the reloading thing can stay the same, every weapon has to reload for a while. With these 2 improvements the Airstrike can have its Maximum Potential in blast jumping and its namesake.

[@this...isabucket.6665]

I would actually recommend buffing the airstrike's projectile speed. It would make hitting far targets easier and conditionally improve its DPS based on if the user is skilled. The airstrike is supposed to be weaker at ground-to-ground combat, so an increased reload speed would perhaps make it too viable for every situation. However, the liberty launcher with very similar stats to the airstrike (less damage less rocket jump damage) is still perhaps the most underused rocket launcher (except rocket jumper) so adding in a faster projectile speed would make it still similar to liberty launcher on the ground, which the TF2 community has proven to still not like. This way its mid-air capabilities are buffed somewhat, while not affecting ground usage.

[@bobbydazzler2960]

what if they swapped the radius reduction effects so that when on the ground less blast radius is done so it is encouraged to soldier bomb?

[@bradman7281]

This sounds like a good stat change to encourage users.

[@Lh0000]

THIS. And another suggestion that’s been brought up a lot, faster reloading speed: but only when grounded.

[@davitdavid7165]

@@Lh0000 reminds me of old wr design. Love it.

[@Blueberry_Koi]

As Air strike main, I truly hope they increace the reload speed as the clip size grows

[@Appletank8]

There's a danger of making it too good as a normal rocket launcher, especially with a 8 shot clip.

[@lordnacl5277]

Just make it each successive rocket reload faster, so the first one is normal speed, the next is slightly faster, the next slightly faster than that and so on. The net result is a much faster reload time for all 8 rockets, but it doesn't make it obnoxiously spammable

[@Blueberry_Koi]

@@lordnacl5277 that is great idea, kinda like the granade laugcher's reload mechanic

[@dangergun2346]

@@Appletank8 to fix that I think that the gun should have reduced blast radius on the ground rather than in the air, if that were to go through

[@samtheman._.6532]

I'd love thar

[@aneasteregg8171]

I didn't even know the reduced blast radius during rocket jumps was a thing. Very counterintuitive. If the extra rocket was immediately added into your clip on kill, that might help the reload issue a bit. And it would still work after clip is maxed out, like how Demoman still gets health from Eyelander kills after his HP is maxed out. Would help counteract the weapon being an ammunition hog a bit as well. On another note, this weapon is heavily map dependent as you need room to rocket jump, but I don't think anything can be done about that.

[@birbinabasket]

+1 rocket in clip on kills in general would be interesting..

[@sonicmeerkat]

ooo actually that's way more powerful than simply a bigger clip, would essentially make it the widowmaker rocket launcher. flip the blast penalties to 30 grounded and 10 airborn and the 2 main issues are solved, constant reloading and cucked damage while jumping without making it too snowbally with the 8 clip it currently caps at. helps during long engagements but in 1 on 1's, i'll admit i just spam people to death in dms lol.

[@-RandomStranger-]

​​@@sonicmeerkat That would be too op, I know the main point of the airstrike is to carpet bomb the enemy team, but a bigger blast radius is a little too much

[@MoreDepresso]

I met a guy with a gold pan on a VSH server and it was named “(insert the guys name when he got it)’s life savings” and had a description that said “let it be known that on 3/2/19 2:37 AM that I beat tf2” Edit: this had nothing to do with the video apart from that fact that he only used the pan to market garden

[@kannatheweeb8836]

xd

[@EarthyTKarma]

@@kannatheweeb8836 Ravioli ravioli, don't lewd the dragon loli.

[@handson4580]

@@EarthyTKarma ya slight problem with that...

[@funnyvalentine6360]

@@EarthyTKarma Too late

[@dagaminking8272]

Madlad

[@higps]

I had actually forgotten about this downside, the explosion radius limit when blast jump can be confusing as it's not really consistent, however we can test all of the suggested changes on my balance mod

[@navimations8395]

Neat

[@breakinggood3601]

Yay!

[@taptiotrevizo9415]

Plug

[@FredrickGodzilla]

2:29 that is such a good movie.

[@theguywithadifferentopinio9060]

What movie?

[@Aureliryus]

@@theguywithadifferentopinio9060 THE movie

[@sevkips]

The air strike is so op when you play in upward. Or almost any king of the hill map, It’s just straight up emerald splash

[@PlayerFrazier]

Everybody gangsta until the Natasha Heavy deflects the Rocket (Emerald) Splash.

[@DuckSwagington]

I remember when Gun Mettle came out and this thing got buffed from its launch state. It was so much fun but a tad bit too strong. Most people agreed that it needed to be toned down a bit, but then Valve added the 20% blast radius penalty ontop of the base reduction in Tough Break and people just stopped using it.

[@themagicboy6548]

You know what's really fun? Getting into a 1v1 against another soldier in a tight area and suddenly puking 3 or 4 rockets in his face

[@greenoftreeblackofblue6625]

As my grand pop would say "Once upon a time in the Wild West"

[@sticklyboi]

as my grandfather would say "if u dont eat u dont shit, if u dont shit u die" and those are words i live by

[@dopey473]

@@sticklyboi indeed

[@Everik-ct6pg]

Every gun has it's own tune. The airstrike's is fast and intense.

[@maxresdefault_]

It’s definitely a high risk and reward type of weapon. To be any good at it, you’ve got to have good aim, good ammo management, good health management because you need to literally shoot yourself in the foot to get the upsides, and ideally have some rocket jumping ability. But if you can get those down, you get the ability to vomit rockets at opponents. I’ve never thought it needed a buff, but it is definitely quite a punishing gun. Reminds me of the loose cannon somewhat. If you aren’t good with it then just use the grenade launcher. But if you’ve ever seen someone who knows what they’re doing then it can be godly.

[@bbittercoffee]

Huh, yeah Guess I should use this weapon then I'm not godly with the loose cannon, but I consider myself to be pretty good, I basically always know how much to charge to get that double donk, and I have a pretty good idea of my maximum range too, which means I don't have to charge at all. Now that I think about it, the Loose cannon is better to use at longer ranges, since using it up close means that you have to charge for up to a second, to deal a maximum of 131 damage, when you could be doing 200 with two shots from stock... Oh wow, even this is very similar to the airstrike!

[@triandot]

5:01 hit me in a way i've never experienced

[@GigasGMX]

The airstrike gives me a serious “the designer forgot that rocket jumping does self-damage” vibe

[@terriblejokefactory8831]

I used to use the Air Strike with my friends to first bomb the enemy before my friends attack (usually as pyro, heavy, etc) and yes we called this strat Blitzkrieg. It was also fun to just bomb the enemy team in a teamfight

[@regalblade8171]

One man B17

[@epicgamersaurus]

It’s so odd to me that the Air Strike has less self damage reduction than the Liberty Launcher.

[@tbone2416]

Considering how the liberty launcher is at the moment,it needs all the help it can get

[@zaphodbeeblebrox7893]

This is easily the best The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly image I've ever seen. Most people just slap generic western shit in and play the theme, but you went waaaaaaay beyond that, well fucking done!

[@Fofenho]

i can hear the yeehaw in his voice

[@TheeM15]

1:32 Zesty Jesus : *Puts maximum effort into making a good transition/intro thingy , with a smooth animation and it's basically all around a great transition* Soundsmith in his videos : haha soldier do conga time

[@Xkay7]

I use the Concheror with it, since i take so much time waiting to finish reloading I might as well recover health too, and the vampirism when the buff is active pairs very well with the high damage output in bombing. I would value the self damage reduction more.

[@ludwigiapilosa508]

Sounds good. I'll try

[@mywither7878]

I personally like the Buff Banner, if I get the charge, I can then let loose a pulse of little death fireworks, even from a ways away due to minicrits nullifying standard damage falloff. If I'm close enough for damage ramup though, it's almost a few guaranteed kills. Another point on the buff banner is that, as long as your soldier bombs do damage, you build banner charge. If you struggle getting a kill, you can charge the banner instead, which in turn makes it easier to get a kill, building the clip size and that makes it easier to build your banner charge again, they are just feeding off one another's increased damage potential. That's how I like to play with the Airstrike at least, but, I do still love myself a Concherer or Backup charge.

[@axellion9951]

“When Clip is at 0, Reload Speed is increased by 25% until interrupted”

[@StrobeVII]

12:20 13:33 Hi Ma! Personally, I'd increase the reload speed of the Air Strike by like 50% or something.

[@this...isabucket.6665]

The problem with buffing its reload speed is it would make ground-to-ground usage way too good since the airstrike would be the only rocket launcher able to dish out more rockets while grounded (less reload time = more rockets and time shooting) You can see the other rocket launchers none of which have reload speed buffs. This unique upgrade to directly increase its effectiveness while both grounded or mid-air would be too good and we would see many soldiers using it as they would with stock-that is, not rocket jumping at all.

[@StrobeVII]

Maybe there could be a unique caveat, where you'd have to have just completed a successful "air strike" to get the reload speed buff for one reload cycle.

[@PX6DEVASTATER]

Increase the reload speed for a set amount of time after blast jumping.

[@bernabo9115]

@@StrobeVII maybe increasing the reload speed slightly with every kill, just as the clip size

[@dangergun2346]

@@this...isabucket.6665 just reverse the blast radius reduction, make it -30% while on the ground and -10% while in the air

[@WooHooLadttv]

Increase reload speed and rocket count per kill, don't know by how much, but make it so on 0 rockets it's normal, each rocket put in it speeds up, would make it a stronger "ramp up" weapon. Idk just a random thought

[@petrgrief8091]

I was thinking more remove fall damage when equipped and increased reload speed So that you could really remove that self damage negative with it buffed reload is a must too for this one

[@Hei-BK201]

If the airstrike only had 25 damage bonus cuz damage is all i care about thats why i use the direct hit

[@2naaa_]

I just finished watching Unforgiven like 15 minutes ago. I need NordVPN™ so Zesty can't monitor me anymore.

[@Prep5242]

the duck of death??

[@ryanphillips4123]

This video was super helpful. I love the Airstrike. I used it almost non-stop for about 2 weeks. I really enjoyed it's ability to shred sentry nests, so that's what I focused on. I never considered not useing the BASE Jumper. Thanks for opening my eyes on this.

[@Blappyboop]

The air strike is only really good on huge open maps like high tower for example, otherwise it’s just kinda ok.

[@ludwigiapilosa508]

hindu_frappe - in my experience,the opposite. See my other post

[@shackell5504]

hindu_frappe for me it’s the opposite. Like Dustbowl’s choke

[@landono4209]

i played the airstike in a 2fort pub for 3 hours today and this was the first thing on my recommended, must be a sign

[@shurbrrt]

5:03 everytime a good sniper plays on hightower

[@ohmadda7038]

hello compressed pinkerton

[@shurbrrt]

@@ohmadda7038 h

[@CatsandBoots935]

"in this world, there's those who rocket jump, and those who dig. You dig"

[@starlie6269]

My thought would be a subtle reload speed increase with every kill, so it'd be normal at 0 kills, but slowly build up being maxed out at 4 kills when you have max rockets

[@PondWaterEnjoyer]

after using the airstrike for a while, here's my thoughts on how a rebalance could look: + increased attack speed while blast jumping by 65% + increase reload speed by 5% for each kill, up to +20% + -15% blast damage from rocket jumps + clip size increased on kill, up to +4 - 10% smaller blast radius - 10% damage penalty - while blast jumping, rockets have an additional 10% smaller blast radius let me know what yall think

[@majormajormajor]

Thanks for reading the tf2 wiki with a movie trailer voice for 16 minutes

[@albertsebe]

hmm i realized that

[@donniedeadshot6317]

no need to be a douche

[@ShaddySoldier]

Savage

[@CodeRedZero]

The air strike seems to work really well with the backup, because with one 8 rocket clip, you are instantly charge your rage, and you take less damage, so you can be more aggressive, and you will be able to recharge your rage much quicker

[@bena2.0]

It's quite a cool weapon when a medic bestows the power of kritz over your 8 rapid firing glowing missiles

[@dimsthedimwit600]

It's very fun

[@jafsrob]

theres something to be said for soldier banners and the airstrike both rewarding you for similar things, making them a pretty good pairing. airstrike with a buff banner is kinda scary

[@RatSlapper]

4:07 Hey, that's inky the moth! I met him before on a casual match!

[@JXshua97]

*litterally 2 seconds into the video* Zesty:gotta pull out that pan-show my dominance-

[@larzanthony2275]

Remove the area of effect reduction on ground, in the air it has a 10% reduction. 20% damage penalty. 50% less self damage. Each consecutive reload is faster.

[@JayTheYggdrasil]

Ok so after watching the video, and being a human who uses the airstrike almost exclusively these days on soldier w/ the gunboats, I actually learned quite a bit about the weapon (mostly the hidden attributes you mentioned along with the fall off damage calculations, which I knew about but never actively thought about how they impact damage). I think you left out one pretty major part which is it's rocket jumping abilities far surpass that of the stock, you can do so many more interesting rollouts and rocket jumps using multiple rockets which gives you unprecedented movement capabilities compared to pretty much any other weapon in the game and is by far one of the most difficult things to master when using this weapon. It provides so much utility and an absolutely enormous skill ceiling for the weapon. Another thing that's actually super interesting about the air strike is that you can utilize enemy explosives to get your firing speed bonus, I haven't been able to do much research into exactly how this works as it is a little strange how the firing speed bonus actually works, but it is certainly something to keep in mind when using the weapon.

[@aaronking2020]

Just up and remove the 30% blast radius while jumping thing, it's counterintuitive.

[@storyofsharplyon]

Me and my friends once all equipped airstrikes to defend last on badwater. Was probably the funniest thing I’ve done all year.

[@kushine_]

10:22 lmao that nickname

[@thesamdolorian8530]

The air strike belongs in the airborne armaments set more than the schwicky scwag (liberty launcher)

[@pjotrsc280]

The reason why nobody uses this is the damage penalty.

[@samforpanek8401]

I live for the moments you get knocked into the air by an enemy and end up unloading on them

[@boosegumps3697]

Well, in my experience, I usually get more kills with the a irstrike than stock. I use the concheror with it, so that might be part of why. Also, I've noticed it's easier to get kills if you're at medium/close range before rocket jumping.

[@Overused_MayMay]

"Thuh airstrahk" Hey man, you dropped your Texan.

[@snipercrow7943]

they need to remove the blast radius penalty while rocket jumping, as it already has the same penalty.

[@HyperactiveMelon]

I love using the air strike in MvM, since you can just upgrade out the bad sides, and in return basically become a flying rocket minigun

[@el-yerba-buena9678]

That perfectly cut laugh is way finnier than it should 5:06

[@simonsauce188]

The amount of effort put into these weapon reviews is awesome. I wish you had more subscribers!

[@nickknight8692]

Ur southern draw started coming out in the end. You unconsciously change your accent when recording. Also I am typing this to boost engagement.

[@sycolix]

14:30 You can really hear it there

[@amsams2290]

clearly put alot of effort into this very well done! good vid keep it up

[@Night_from_GT_asia_2]

Dam KZbin’s recommended is really upping their game

[@MariuigiKhed]

7:00 that make absolute SENSE! You save my most use loadout.

[@cyberstrikebeast7997]

A simple one would be swapping what the blast radius is when jumping vs grounded

[@chicagobreed502]

You were pretty spot on with this video, I'm very impressed!

[@Appri]

Omg zesty I was playing against you yesterday! Magician's Red, 2fort

[@dooderbug2437]

Joejoke

[@EternallyDoomed]

MAGICIANS RED ACT 2 MAGICIANS DEAD

[@robinrai4973]

Great underrated channel, glad I found you!

[@HuneeBruh]

"The airstrike isn't good, but it's almost good" *I think that's called "okay"*

[@sethwalker2350]

man I love the airstrike. the turbo fast firerate and expanded clip once you get going is fun as hell

[@WAtheAnum]

and here i am, sitting as the one who mains the liberty launcher, laughing.

[@StarlightTrail3]

air strike is mediocre and yet it's still better than liberty launcher in terms of stats besides the fucking blast radius penalty.

[@Nitreon0978]

meanwhile I'm literally just using the air strike with gunboats to go zoom

[@The_Cat_Kiff]

"Spending more time reloading, than shooting" -SPAS 12

[@Ontspot]

Jump Further into enemy lines to get a good bomb, then you’re too far into the enemy lines and spend forever reloading.

[@susragejr477]

"This is assuming you hit every shot directly, which just doesn't happen." Direct hit soldiers: *I DON'T HAVE SUCH WEAKNESSES.*

[@sad_boi_sushi427]

A lot of the bad weapons I find are super fun to use in MVM, the air strike especially

[@opachki1527]

i dunno how, but somebody somehow gifted me the airstrike in the middle of a 2fort match. Props to whoever that was if youre reading this

[@commscan314]

Using the airstrike for a bit made me realize that its playstyle is very similar to the Beggar's Bazooka's burst fire, in which you use one rocket to jump at enemies, and fire the other two at said enemies.

[@300IQPrower]

I know it all boils down to "falloff is a thing" but 6:00 to 8:00 really does show how this game rewards and punishes based on knowing every mechanic at play as opposed to going off assumption

[@mr.moonthegoon4178]

The airstrike finally made soldier click for me.

[@darkregin2]

9:48 there's no better summary of how the air strike actually feels to use than that bomb attempt on the pyro

[@tamarin0814]

a good buff to the air strike would be to make the rockets have no ramp-up or fall-off while rocket jumping, while keeping the blast radius stuff. that way, you can use rocket jumping to take out high priority targets easier, while staying on the ground when it comes to fighting groups.

[@Epicman6676]

you yoinked so many spy backstabs in this video haha amazing vid btw

[@timothyjacksondrake4454]

I've been playing around with the airstrike and it is a lot of fun. The only area I've found it to shine in though is taking out clusters of enemies. It pairs surprisingly well with the buff banner to occasionally negate the dmg penalty.

[@thelyre9137]

Great analysis, I never took the time to understand why I found this weapon wacky to use, but now I know why. Anyway great video, it's very pleasing to watch your content !

[@velikigospar]

Using this weapon I've had many, MANY of those "if I had stock I would've killed him" moments

[@didsomeoneaskforanegg2168]

Really great video, I've never seen your channel before but this was super entertaining, well-researched, and polished +1 new viewer 👍

[@bandyinkeplayz4404]

You forgot to mention random crits so i will , since with the airstrike the player does less damage which means he gets less kill and since random crits depend upon how much damage you and not how many kills you get and also the player uses the airstrike where there are a bunch of player example payloads cart the player gets more random crits then stock and since a player can hold up to 8 rockets and fires them instantly which means it can shot more rockets to get random crit and with the stock the player can shoot 4 rockets reloads and then shoots another 4 rockets to meet the output of the airstrike (As you can see by reading this comment u have no live commenting on a 4 year old video)

[@IrelandVonVicious]

The extra mobility is awesome. The math changes more than stated when jumping as you lose first rocket just to get airborne. For that reason the gap between ground and air is far larger. It's the ultimate market Gardner weapon too. By far my favorite launcher. With just one kill you are superior in the air. Because it's three rockets vs four. Maybe even two vs three on a rollout finishing with a Gardner.

[@Durtas234]

I use the air strike with the base jumper because it’s such a good feeling when you punish a scout, get the rockets and then rocket jump near the enemy medic killing him with all of the spam, and since the medic is always hugging they’re pocket you deal maximum damage cut the parachute and escape.

[@jmstudios457]

Provided the right circumstances, the air strike is godly. I remember one time when i was playing roamer on frontier, I was racking up kills. A friendly engineer set up a nest I could retreat to to restore my health. The opposite team was pretty much stuck at one choke point for 10 minutes.

[@Jaffersin]

As you mentioned, due to being a consecutively reloading weapon the rocket launcher has the first rocket put into it take longer than those after. Making it get a considerable boost to the speed of those could make it so it could top up quickly without an unfair advantage of like, always having one rocket ready to fire that a big, flat buff of like "+50% reload speed" or something.

[@mooderpcow8614]

It’s a very fun gun to use even if it’s not very good in the meta. Definitely one of my favorites

[@lanikoniko5904]

"When you have to shot, shot don't talk" i agree with that

[@WanderSeth]

I love using the Airstrike. I usually pair it with the conche for the shock and awe, or buff banner to cancel the damage reduction

[@ZRob23523]

How do you only have 38k subs? This is quality content!

[@Jota16BR]

Since the idea of the gun is to encourage using it while on the air, *'remove the blast radius penalties while jumping'* or *'reduce self damage from blast jumps'* would be the better calls, since *'increasing the reload speed'* would improve the weapon both on ground and air. That being said, I think that *both* could be included to create a balanced weapon. Straight remove the *'blast radius penalty'* and *reduce (just a bit) the 'self blast damage taken'*. Small tweaks on the 'self blast damage taken' would be the fine tunning to make it balanced.

[@javierdominguez8547]

The editing on this video is pretty epic.