I could easily make this a long and detailed post, but I'll try and cut to the chase as best I can. I play VS, I started as an engineer and pretty much embrace the class. repair, shoot, repair, drop ammo, repair, repeat. Anyway got tired of being pounded by air so I started certing an a2a Scythe. I do ok against air with stock gun and a2a missile pod, but considering an average pilot lives only so long I've found the return on my investment to be so-so. got about 2k certs into engineer, and 1k into Scythe. Now I've got about 1k certs built up and I'm looking to grab something that may have a better return on my investment. I've narrowed it down to the following options: 1. Max burster, seems like there is always a need for anti air on my server, but cooldowns suck. 2. AV turret, looks like a nerf is coming, but I can see myself using it alot with a good cert return. 3. certing into a HA char. g2a launcher and a gun upgrade. Now I hear about a new launcher for VS that may be a sniper sort of thing. Good for a2a??? now I don't know what launcher to get if I go the HA route. I only have about 4k certs in the game total, so I don't want to waste any on stuff that won't really pay back. I want to build my characters up. thoughts or advise?
Personally, i love the AV turret, the thing is a blast and you can snipe take/sundys across hexes (so long as you get a handle on the rocket) but, with the new empire specific rocket-launchers coming, i might say take the heavy. then snag the new puppy once it comes out. So i say heavy, unless youre looking for a fun new challenging toy, in which AV turret is the way to go
AMS / Ammo sundy. - Repair Tool. - AT Mines. Anti Personel mines. Anything that helps you reliably put damage on vehicles (both air and ground) So a ground lock on and a burster arm. Will be swimming in certs with very little investment.
A second burster and extended mags is probably the best thing you can get if you want to be AA, both in terms of effectiveness and return on investment. AV MANA turret is great, there is not really any reason not to get this if you are an engineer. It may need a damage nerf, but it would still be useful if it did 50% of current damage. Upgrading your repair gun and ammo packs is a great way to rack in XP if you are often an engineer on foot. Remember, a seemingly small increase in radius translates into a large increase in area of effect (pi*r*r) and bigger area of effect means more people being resupplies after each reload rather than having to run to your pack when they get low.
Personally, I've never really got that many certs from AA. By far my best purchase for the engineer was the solstice-SF with an underbarrel grenade launcher, got the Auraxium medal incredibly quickly on it as underbarrel kills count. Great on the engineer as you can constantly resupply and whenever you see a medic nest you can reliably clear it out. If you're burning through resources, it can also be helpful not having to restock grenades to focus on tank mines. Noobtubing is very easy certs
thanks for all the good advice I've decided to go AV turret. Now that vehicle xp is boosted due to GU04 it seems like the ability to hit vehicles from far away with no lock indicator is going to pay off. I'll probably continue to put certs into my engy class since its my main at this point. I see repair tool V and some certs into the utility bag to give me more mines as my next purchases. thanks all.
One imagines that with the new territory control system coming, predicting the path of the almighty zerg will be a little easier. So those AT mines will come in handy. Especially if you have 4..
If love engie and want to increase cert rate I think you want AV turret. because the cert rate with the ai turret is bad. Also - can't believe im saying this - but ammo pack certs actually do payback nicely.
I will go off the grid here and say dump your certs into Medic and Med App, once you hit Med App 6 it's crazy cert time. my primary is heavy and it's great but I get the most return on time with medic and my Lighting.
Definite no to G2A launcher. You won't get the certs back, you are only a scare crow with lock-on launcher basically. You can do damage, but assists are nothing to "live" from. Out of those options i would say Burster if you want anti air. AV-turret - only if you plan on flanking, otherwise it#s basically as futile as shooting with default HA launchers at Tank frontarmor. I would expect a nerf in near future on that as well. Burster XP was okay before the patch (comparable to my other classes in my case), can't comment on current situation, but it should go up quite a bit with the vehicle xp increase. Burster is also pretty satisfying, ruining the day of pilots that wanted easy prey is priceless. If they are skillfull you won't get much xp from them though, as they'll hit AB if they recieve a shot and look for another area to molest. I agree, i've started using the medic and its better in terms of spm with 'only' the level 5 tool. You can even gain certs while your mates are getting farmed left and right in a pointless situation *giggle*. Then again, i haven't played with GU4, so vehicle hunting may have become the better option (->HA/LA/Engi with C4)
Hmm, maybe you cert lightning a little, stock gun is nice to farm infantry you only need NV and more ammo capacity for start
1) AA MAX is not about farming certs. It's about doing your duty to keep enemy air in check. You will rarely get kills which is why it's a duty and not a cert farm =) 2) I have no experience with the AV directly. If you could get vehicle kills with it the potential XP is awesome now with the buffs to XP from vehicle kills. However does it end up like the AA MAX where you get lots of HITS but rarely get KILLS? I don't die to AV turrets a lot in my vehicle. Usually die to aircraft and infantry with mines / C4. I could count on 2 hands how many times I've died to an AV turret. Couldn't count how many times I've had someone suicide mine / C4 me. 3) HA A2A... again... you're rarely going to get a kill like this; certainly not a cert farm. Far better off with a good gun and killing people for XP. Then again you can do that with ENG. I get lots of kills with my ENG's carbine, claymores, and AT mines. Here's where I get most of my certs: - ENG: Repairs = certs. AT mines = certs. Properly placed claymores/AP mines = certs. If there's no action (I play at weird times) then I'll run around repairing busted up facilities. - MEDIC: Reviving = certs. Reviving squad members = mad certs. Healing = certs. Get in a big fight, find where people are dieing, and res them. It's kinda pathetic and just cert farming but it works. If my outfit isn't running ops I've done this and racked up a lot of certs in one fight. - INFILTRATOR: You can go deep behind enemy lines and harass big facilities; again if there's not much action I'll do this. 100+ XP for overloading a generator and 100+ when it blows. Most facilities have multiple generators. Hacking a turret or terminal is 30+ XP; again larger bases have plenty of them. Don't even bother trying to ghost cap as it's not worth your time really; just farm these things and move on to the next one. Maybe take the time to flip the point on sub-bases because it's quick and like 30+ XP Then some lucky ENG gets to come along and fix it all for certs =) Here's where I see people on Twitch farming certs: - ESF: They are good pilots and rack up the kills. It's insane but then again they are good pilots. - Tanks: Usually rolling in large groups and just pounding spawns and objectives. Gotta be in a group big enough so you stay alive and actually suppress the enemy so you can shell them. - MEDIC: Same as above
Well I know some other people have said that heavy assault with an AA gun is no cert farm. This is true it will not make you rich. However my big problem, and I had the same one, was that as engineer, the only enemies that could camp me good were aircrafts. In that vein, using some monthly station cash to buy a nemesis vsh9 heavy assault AA gun, ( http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/Nemesis_VSH9 ). was a great investment. Its incredibly satisfying to sit attop a tower and be able to lock on to enemy aircraft. Mosquitos i can kill in 3 rockets, reavers in 4 generally and libs in 8 or so. The nicest thing about the vsh9 is more of a psychological deterrent.I find that most times, one rocket is enough to send an AA that has been strafing your position, home with his tail tucked between his legs. It seems after one rocket that they most likely cannot dodge, the aircraft will be moving on to easier targets. You do get aircraft which have like a chaffe flare or something which makes the first rocket fail, but generally after they deploy their flare, they are also turning around and speeding away as they only have one of them and now they are scared. So even though you may get more kills or XP and certs with other weapon combos, there is nothing like the psychological deterrent of lock on weaponry vs air units. Also if you have an AMS cert as well, its awesome to sit in one of those narrow passes and sit there sniping people dog fighting. You can easily make an air unit start smoking with one or two rockets, and then let your team mates go in for the kill. Sometimes you get the kill instead! But its more fun than just farming certs. I love making air units squirm! and i find that flack cannons do not deter air as much as lock on weaponry does. I am not sure about other race options as i am VS as well.
