Yeah, I overreacted at the title. I edited my original post to reflect thwt, but apparently too late to preclude you from replying.
*Notices URL on Avenger* The people who designed the Avenger should work for the TR because what the TR scientists came up with is 1/4 of an Avenger combined with preposterous amounts of RNG... Basically the firing mechanism consists of about 80 rabid Hamsters in the same motorized wheel, attached to the barrels. Every Hamster that gets tired or eaten is ejected out of the barrel, dealing about 1 Dmg. So basically a sawed off Avenger fueled by Hamsters made to fit a Sega Mega-Drive on tracks. They also designed a Safe-For-Kids variant for our Harassers which becomes lethal under circumstances that don't exactly characterize actual WEAPONS.. How could I forget, we also got an even smaller one for our soldiers! I am not sure which is more sad, the fact that the portable version is more workable for its intended purpose or that all versions might as well have been replaced by muskets?
I think the Canister deserves a HUGE buff to make to the PPA levels same with I the Marauders on the Harasser but marauders on the Prowlers should stay the same. Why you ask? Becuase the PPA on a HE prowler would be the most OP thing against infantry in the entire game. A HE prowler WITHOUT a gunner outperforms a HE and PPA magrider. I'm fine giving TR harassers and NC Vanguard and Harassers a PPA. But only as long as the Prowler doesn't get one. The Magrider should also get a damage buff to its main cannon since the Vanguard will start outperforming it after the buff.
First just so we are clear, the Scythe PPA is pretty bad especially when compared with the banshee. It is also lack luster on the harasser (unless you can safely park in a vehicle zerg, then it works just as well as mounted on top of a magrider). If I were to rate ESF empire specific AI, MBT empire specific AI secondary, and Harasser empire specific AI it would go something like ESF - TR >>>> VS > NC MBT - VS >>>> TR > NC Harasser - TR >>> VS >NC (but this really doesn't matter, because harassers are all but obsolete with how frail they are) With harassers and ESF's you don't want sustained fire, you want quick bursts to hit and run. The PPA for the magrider has two main qualities that make it an amazing AI secondary. The ability to suppress areas for long periods of time with its large magazine size. And a straight shooting projectile that is best in class for shooting intelligent infantry players attempting to use AV against tanks. Think about it, as ranged AV infantry how do you want to attack a vehicle? Close to cover and ideally from above where you can quickly peak and then retreat to safety. The canister is just plain bad at this and the marauder's splash is all but useless. Not that I really want more AI farming from tanks, but there really should be 2 kinds of AI secondaries. Your Kobalt / PPA type with large mag size and very little drop and your Fury / Bulldog type which specialize in splash damage but only excel in certain kinds of terrain.
I'm with the op, BUFF the other races AI weapons please. On the other hand, a tiny nerf on the PPA might be in order, but then again they should really buff the magrider since it kinda sucks with its main gun bullet drop and all that.
I wonder how big the ****storm will be when they buff the Canister up to the PPA's effectiveness levels. Think about it, just take the traits that make the PPA a good weapon (spammability, area of effect and range) and apply them to an oversized shotgun. Forumside will be swimming in tears for weeks.... Or what about the Marauder: A PPA that can basically double it's rate of fire with lockdown. Sounds nice, doesn't it? TL;DR: Don't buff those weapons up to PPA levels, let them meet somewhere in the middle (with my personal preference being on the lower end of things, PS2 doesn't need any more infantry farming tools IMO).
Harassers were the main reason all the secondary weapons got nerfed into the ground, zooming in and decimating tanks/clumps of infantry then zooming out to repair while shrugging off return fire like a ground-based liberator.
What good are you to the team if you're dead? There are several weapons that damage armor. You make assertions regarding weapons, but semantically, you're revealing a profoundly flawed vision of the game; where in-game results are the doings of weapons, and not players.
PPA on Scythe is bad against other ESF but for it's intended role against soft targets it does just as well as it's ground version, which is very good.
It's also lethally effective against infantry, seeing as how the standard load in Afghanistan was with a straight load of high explosive incendiary anti-personnel rounds.
You want secondaries as good as the PPA? Fine..then give magriders mainguns that are as good as those of vanguard and prowler... After all it's not the secondary that counts...cause by far not all tanks have 2 users. The main cannon on the other hand...well....
You didn't provide anything new, but it seems to have gone over your head. I have yet to see the PPA on the scythe do anything well, unless your faction 100% controls the airspace (like a major pop advantage + a air zerg) in which case you can't determine balance of anything based on that. It is slow, it is not up for debate... lol same with RoF and if you have trouble avoiding/seeing it then this is more of either a personal problem (IRL Vision) or L2P.. 20 round mag is not large... I don't think you are getting how contradictory the design is for an ESF, it would make more sense as like an ES lib weapon. Stationary, firing slow moving orbs at a low RoF that don't even do that much damage/ have a large blast radius is an oxymoron when you put "ESF" in the same statement. This whole hovering stationary lolpodding doesn't work in real fights where you aren't zerging an overpop with air superiority. You don't get it, you want the AI secondaries for the prowler (the best infantry farming tank with metrics to prove it) to be buffed, as well as the one for the Vanguard (best AV tank). Whilst the Magrider is stuck in the middle being crappy at just about everything else, whilst having a limited main cannon and the worst one at that, and doesn't even have a great ES AV secondary.. So my point is, I have no problem with the AI secondaries for the prowler and Van being buffed. As soon as the magrider gets major buffs to the main cannon, strafe speed, and gets the Saron closer to it's status when it was released, then sure, you can have the AI buffs. This is also why we desperately need the MBTs changed into dedicated gunner and dedicated driver like PS1, and the magrider should have a turret based main cannon like the other 2 MBTs. The lightning should be the tank for the solo player.
I made a thread of my idea how to improve C85(originally in reddit): Percentage(subject to balance) of shield penetrated possibly based on range, so the effect diminishes towards far ranges. I'm talking about the default shields, not the heavy assault shields. Reason for this suggestion is, because at the moment C85 sort of lacks suppression capability at least on the slow Vanguard. For example, enemy heavy assaults are able to harass the Vanguard relatively easily because they won't lose their health through their normal and heavy assault shield while they briefly emerge from the cover and go back unless they really push their luck / perform badly. Don't think this is just a whine thread. I use the C85 and will continue using even if it got no attention. It's not like I haven't killed a lot of heavies or other infantry who pop their head out from behind a rock using scout radar. Sometimes it's a cert christmas but don't situations don't happen often.
i agree the swagrider has a terrible design, but the saron doesnt need a buff, its not supposed to be an alternative to the halberd for long range AV, its supposed to be a high DPS mid range version. MAYBE an accuracy buff as for the swagrider, its power comes from its movement ability. its the whole reason why the tank still out preforms the vanguard if you cant hit the tank, then you have a harder time killing it if it had a better long range cannon, it would be too powerful since at long ranges hitting it is like trying to hit a mouse with a nerf gun at 100 meters the prowler's marauder i dont believe needs a massive buff, only a slight one, the harrasser marauder needs a decent buff, and the canister has always needed a buff. the scythe version is unique to the VS, just like the air hammer and the banshee its slow, but so is the airhammer, but it has a longer potential range and better splash damage just because its slow doesnt mean it needs a velocity or RoF buff, it has been balance to be as good as the other ones
That is the main thing the Saron needs, an Accuracy buff. What gutted the accuracy of it, and to even get an ounce of accuracy at medium range even you have to fire it so slow that it is completely out DPSed by any other options that are perfectly accurate at that range to being with. No matter what weapon you use in the game the skill cap of a weapon should be high based on trigger discipline, the problem is just like most VS weapons, they have (GG @ Devs) the lowest skill cap, which means their maximum potential. No matter how good your trigger discipline is, you are still being counter by crappy first shot accuracy and recoil patterns that make the crosshair dance in a way it would make a professional break dancer jealous. I think the Marauder, if it were to receive a buff, is a velocity buff. However I think with any increase in velocity it should have an increased drop rate. This way you can make it go farther easier, but it will still have a heavy arc (which can be a bonus depending on situation like killing pple behind cover) As far as the Air hammer, it is still better then the PPA as far as fitting to an ESF, I would be okay with it getting a tighter cone, but at least the design of the weapon doesn't limit you to hovering with a big target on your ESF to be effective, where as with the air hammer you can hit and run. ESF weapons should be high burst damage, low sustained where as Lib weapons should be the opposite... which is based on the design of a vehicle for "sitting there and hovering"
It is lackluster for A2G because it is mounted on an ESF which is pretty fragile. If there is one intelligent player in the hex, you will never make it through half of your PPA magazine on a scythe. Like I said, the Banshee is best in class because of the bursty nature combined with a frail but agile weapons platform. Don't get me wrong, if you find a Hex where you don't have any AA for resistance, it is nice to kick back and farm but that is a pretty extreme rarity, at least on my server. If you get a kill or 2 your first run, you can bet your second run you will have at least 2 AA lockons or a flak max in a spawn room for your second.
I think it has a lot to do with reduction of Saron AI potential, as well. The PPA upswing really started, at least on my server, when people began adapting to the new-found 'specialization' of the Saron.
