Baranz Launcher
This is my Baranz Launcher. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My Baranz Launcher is my best friend. It is my life.
Hello, Ephinea. I'm happy to see one of my favorite weapons get attention in its own dedicated thread. Perhaps there's a use for forums in the age of discord still.
The Baranz Launcher is the workhorse of the Ranger classes. Being a Shot type weapon, it targets multiple enemies/hitboxes at the same time (up to 4 as opposted to the standard 5 of other Shots). The projectiles are also comparatively slower; they can even miss targets that move too fast, even simple grunts moving about!
The reason you would want to use it still over the typical Charge or Berserk Arms is the raw ATP you get from the extra ATP; per the wiki:
| Baranz Launcher | Arms |
| 230-240 | 60-140 |
In other words, when fully sphered it will let any Ranger deal comparatively much more damage & opens up a bunch of combo kills that wouldn't be possible with Arms, especially for the male classes & Force Shifta & Zalure.
What spread should I pick?
A lot of players like using Native/Machine A. Beast/Dark with the reasoning that it offers more coverage in locales such as Central Control Area, Desert and so on.
I'm more of a Machine/Dark head myself & Native/A. Beast is perfect for Crater which I run a lot. In truth I feel like spawns where the spread matters a lot are very rare & it ultimately comes down to personal taste, and I can think of a few spawns where even Native/Dark and A.Beast/Machine would be theoretically useful (don't sphere these ones).
Verdict: Personal preference.
When do I use other weapons instead?
Unfrozen wolves running around in Forest or a given enemy spawn where your Arms offers enough damage to combo kill, it's more reliable to use that instead.
For any spawn with 3 or less enemies grouped up closely, you're better off using Excalibur for raw damage.
Similarly, hell is oftentimes faster than Baranz in EP2 with v502 versus the basic AB grunts (at least until you have bad RNG).
Generally when there's no crowd control, stick with Arms (or start freezing enemies first).
Don't use Baranz Launcher against a single enemy. What are you doing?
What are some good use cases for Baranz Launcher?
I'm glad you asked!
- Destroying a paralyzed or (more likely) frozen spawn:
For some spawns the extra ATP compared to sacrificial Arms matters enough that you can reasonably handle it with a single combo, especially when frozen.
- Shotgunning a spawn:
One of my favorite use cases - at very close range & with the correct timing, you can dismiss the slow projectile speed of the Baranz Launcher & hit the enemies in one clean combo.
- Accuracy Glitching:
The ATA glitch has been thoroughly described better & in more detail elsewhere by better players than me, but the short version is you can destroy a spawn with a full SSS combo if you're positioned in such a way that you'll fire your next shot before your previous one makes contact with the enemies. This makes S2 and especially S1 much likelier to connect, especially against frozen enemies. Notably, I find this works incredibly well vs Ob Lilies in both EP1 & EP2.
- Trap comboing:
Similar to 1) but in some cases you can kill enemies cleanly by comboing with a Freeze Trap close to the enemy, either pre-set as you run to position your combo or with a trap shoot like in the above .gif - remember that when trap shooting you'll turn South, so position yourself North relative to the enemy spawn for best effects.
Be willing to experiment & see where you can use yours for best effect.
Conclusion:
In summary, this is a very potent & useful weapon in the right hands, with the only other videogame Rocket Launcher coming close being the UT99 Rocket Launcher. I hope you've been informed by this post & will choose to start to put spheres on yours today.
