Also rendering. It wouldn't be so bad if I were able to SEE where the AA is and stay away from it or set up proper attack runs...
I kill stupid clueless Infantry with an AA MAX. But that's nothing to do with the AA MAX being good at killing Infantry and everything to do with some Infantry being stupid and clueless. I also kill Infantry with a Pounder MAX. But that is also not because it's good for killing Infantry. There is an obvious pattern here. If this game gets dumbed down any more then SOE might as well switch off all the servers and we'll just go and play Hello Kitty Online. What happened to just plain trying to get better at a game?
The AA MAX is a hard counter to ESFs within 300 meters. Try to fly an ESF within 300 meters of even a single AA MAX, even if you are good with ESF controls you'll last no longer then a dozen seconds doing the craziest acrobatics, and if you are just decent enough to use an ESF for transportation you wol't last longer then 3 seconds within 300 meters of that AA MAX. To me that's a hard counter, especially since if there are three or more AA MAXes, any ESF that gets within 300 meters stands a good chance of instant death. And I think that is how it should be, at those ranges. My only issue is how massed AA MAXes with their range dominate airspace up to the flight ceiling in some areas, and over multiple hexes.
Sometimes I can get kills with the punch. I agree it's very satisfying when it comes off. I got killed myself as Infantry by MAX punch when I first started playing. I soon learned my lesson though and now I keep my distance. If a MAX charges towards me I either run off to the side or simply run through them to get behind them. In all honesty though, I have yet to find anything that is easier to kill in this game than a lone AA MAX.
Your addition to the conversation is pointless because it's a thinly veiled ad'hominum based on your opinion. AA Maxes are currently far too strong. <--- Notice how I can give my opinion without invalidating it? Try that sometime.
I suppose my problem is that I'm too lazy to rebind my max punch button on the keyboard, though it is set by default to mouse3-push the scroll wheel down and punch away.
O I see your super accurate statement includes both composite ESF and ESF with out, not to mention takes into account damaged ESF and multiple bursters and all ranges including about 50m over head. Go back to the ad'hominums, your better with them. The maxes need some serious nerfing.
Not by a long shot. Good pilots rarely die to AA, bad pilots always die to AA. I play AA enough to tell which is which. Killing a BR1 pilot makes me sad though, they were just practicing and now they are locked out for a hell of a long time.
Use an anti-infantry nose gun if you're worried about a MAX. I can kill a MAX in a straight 1vs1 using a banshee rotary with 2 mag upgrades. The smart ones use F to flee when they realise what's happening, and annoyingly it takes me longer to go repair than it does them; but that's part of G2A versus A2G balance - the G2A has a higher % uptime which is why G2A becomes exponentially more effective the larger a battle gets.
I use the Hailstorm nose gun on them a good bit, myself. It's amazing what stealth + additional friendly targets (or a Galaxy "linebacker") can allow one to accomplish. I've also taken out 4 of 6 burster maxes and their pet engy in a single pass, without firing a shot (or taking much damage, for that matter).
Yep. They were lined up so nicely right on the edge of an amp station air pad, so the multi-roadkill was too sweet to pass up.
You're aware that AA MAX got a buff against infantry recently? I think it was just before the 02 patch. I kill twice as many infantry than I do pilots as an AA MAX, now. About the rest of the thread; 1 AA MAX kills 20 air before being noticed? I'd love to be on that server lemming farm. I've fired more shots into the air as an AA MAX than any other weapon in the game by around a factor of 3. I'm probably better than average with it. I still have a bunch of pilots on my hit list on Briggs who I can never come close to downing because they actually know how to counter AA. They get in, they get their target, they get out, I can't put consistent flak on them to stop them because they don't fly predictably. The majority of my kills are on pilots who hover and/or believe the fastest way to get out of range of AA is a straight line. A MAX has to guess where you'll meet their flak. If you deviate speed, direction, elevation or ideally, all three - not only will I miss you, I also won't be able to predict with any reliability where I can fire to hit you.. so I'll stop trying unless there's 5 of us aiming for you. Maybe we'll get lucky. If I can hit you with ~7 seconds of flak while predicting your movements in the most maneuverable vehicle in the game, don't tell me you deserve to live after that. You'll look ridiculous.