Is there an actual 'reason' to use rockets besides leveling to 20?

[crasher]

I've already leveled 2 'toons to 20 on weapons.
So I kind of have a handle on this stuff, but in light of weapons balancing in the time that I've been sandboxing, I'm getting around to rockets again on a few more 'toons.

This particular 'toon is already a '6' on rockets, so it's not like it's 'looking down the tube' stupid wrt rockets.
OK, so I have an OJ E-2K Swarm cannon.
With Grenadier. :/

And .90 Full damage radius perks.

I start out at the New Freedom and hike over to (167,327) just south of Sniper Ridge where the paved road starts again.
I encounter a roadside emergency 'Standoff!'.
I run out of rockets before any badguys actually die, though 2 of them looked like they were tired and mildly annoyed.

I clean out the emergency, and head over to a secluded area to reload/regroup.

Another emergency in the same spot, 'Captured!'.

It plays out pretty much the same way, only this time I swear the badguys are actually laughing.

I clean it out again, just to spite them.

WTJ?
These things (well, a blue Rebounder) is what I used with the snipers you had to sort through because some of them did '0' damage (remember those gems?) on DM roadblocks at BugChug back in May/June. That was until Remedy clued me into Flare guns at Chinatown Gate Siege, and my world changed.

Seriously, a single hit with a flare gun shouldn't be more devastating than several rounds of Swarm Cannon.
I guess it's back to Sludge and Bonfires....

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are my only hope.

[Amack]

Sure, blame it on the rockets. Some guy always coming on these forums blaming the weapons for their lack of skill. Typical.

[Manstan]

I hate the rocket launchers, seems everyone favorite just obliterates my screen, makes my game look like some one puked up a Jackson Pollock painting.

[D351]

Rocket Launchers are just good old-fashioned fun. They may not be competitively balanced, but they make a big mess and are very likely to cause you to kill yourself. Good times.

[InfamousBrad]

Some rocket launchers are better than others. The Swarm Cannon is excellent against really big targets, like Hellbug Monarchs, because of the overlapping explosions, like a Ground Pounder detonator with a higher rate of fire. The incendiary, the AR2 Bonfire, is fun in PvP and can be used to make large swarms of targets stop attacking while they run around on fire. Every other rocket launcher I tried, I was able to find a non-RL weapon that did the same thing only better, though. In general, most of them do too little damage, have too small of an area, and/or have too small a magazine to be practical.

[Arsenic_Touch]

Most of them are crap. You might find one or two worth using and even then there are guns that would be more useful in that situation. Rocket launchers should've never been a drop or a skill level because of the very mechanic of a rocket launcher. Rocket launchers should've been weapons like reaper gatling guns, that show up at emergencies or during events to give you some firepower. Until they decide to bump up the ammo count and the damage to make them useful in pve, they will continue to be crap.

[Albion]

Still trying to level rockets to 20 on my main toon - its awful. I swear I hit a raider with 7 rockets from a breaker cannon and he still would not die. 7 rockets!

The precise chaos and bonfire are about the only two useful rocket launchers.

[rebtattoo]

I like using the rebound cannon on large groups of hell bugs. Such fun!

*Edited* The mass cannon, modded, works nicely against afflicted.

[Nefarious]

Rocket Launchers were fine as is before they got a buff. But ppl wanted direct base damage buffed instead of using the right perks to enhance Rockets. And now that they got a DMG buff there is no dispute that Rockets are not good. This is my explosive build. All perks level 3. Just using this build pre-buffed Rockets was good enough but now its insane.

Overcharge (+30% DMG ofcourse)

Killing Spree (+6% to Ego duration added on a kill, going to need this)

Killing Machine (Increase Overcharge duration 6 seconds, good to help extend/support Explosive Onslaught)

Quick charge (-9 seconds off Overcharge recharge time, nice to have)

Deadly Cascade (a must have, +30% bonus dmg for every enemy caught in an explosion)

Scavenger (loot more ammo, don't carry a lot of rockets so this is good)

Mad Bomber (15% clip reload on explosive kill, which will always be a half or full mag recharge depending on mag size. Either way your rocket launcher instant reloads for continuous fire if you keep up the killing)

Intimidation- (+75% dmg to enemies flinching, knocked back, or knocked down. Enemies are always flinching and knocked back from excessive explosive hits.)

Explosive Onslaught (For whatever reason this perk is never in players explosive builds and its the best. It does +9% duration to your EGO power on a kill. This stacked with Killing Spree 6% makes it 15% a kill, that's alot. That's 15% on all kills. So if you catch 3 enemies in a explosion and kill them all then that 45%. That's a crazy Ego recharge and no one uses it. Go to an a scrapper/hellbug Arkfall or Affected Siege and your EGO will never run out with all the killing you will be doing with Overcharge, Deadly Cascade and Intimidation. Along with Mad Bomber your clip will reload with every kill. And with all the ammo laying around with scavenger its really hard to run out.)

Of course you could trade out Killing Machine and Quick Charge for other perks since they are really not needed. This is just what I use. Ammo Thief would be good. Sucker Punch. A lot of stuff.

And Rockets having a higher ammo count is not a good idea considering how powerful they can be. The buff they got is more then enough and way more then they should of got.