A SCATMAX tries the Mercy (yup)

I consider myself a MAX enthusiast. I've spent over 100 hours in my MAX, unlocked every single weapon for the MAX, and have invested over 5,000 certs into the MAX.

As we all know, the scatmax got a huge nerf recently, which degraded the performance of just about every single aspect of the weapon. We now have to put up with a slower rate of fire, a shorter clip size, a smaller ammo reserve pool, slower projectile velocity, longer reloads, smaller extended magazines, and lesser effective range. Some may claim that "nothing has changed", but in my honest opinion this nerf has really hurt the performance of the scattercannon. The only good thing about this nerf is that it brings MAX vs MAX encounters into a more balanced territory, seeing as the NC MAX now has to reload before it can kill an enemy MAX.

Watching the TR and VS eagerly jump into any thread that mentions the post-nerf scatters and post dumb "crybaby.jpg" pictures and generally laugh in the face of any NC who doesn't like the nerf just because they are NC and just because they are talking about the scattercannon, I've given up any hope at having a serious conversation with anyone about this nerf. Anyone who tries to argue that the scattercannon wasn't nearly as powerful as people were trying to make them out to be, was met with responses like "You're an idiot. The Scattercannons were ridiculously overpowered, and a giant crutch for all NC who had them. Try playing as the TR or VS MAX, and then come back and try again."

So you know what?
I did.






Oh my god. WHAT?

I'll just say it now. The Mercy is far superior to the current scattercannons in almost every imaginable way. That was my first time using the TR MAX, and indeed the first time playing any faction other than the NC, and yet I was immediately able to outperform my NC MAX (which I've spent over 5000 certs upgrading) with a stock TR MAX w/ Mercies. Within my short 30 minute run with the Mercy, I killed over 60 people and earned over 90 certs.

I'd now like to address all the arguments the TR and VS use to justify the scatmax nerf.

1) "It instagibs infantry! Who cares if it only works <10m, that's the only range where fighting actually takes place!"

Well, no it's not the only range. Most of my fighting is done 15m - 25m away (the range at which Mercies completely dominate), and the 0m - 10m range is only actually relevant in small rooms inside buildings. Yes, it is true that the scatmax "instagibs" infantry, but you know what? SO DOES THE MERCY. Really, the TTK with the Mercy within the range that the scatmax is most effective (the only range in which it is effective) is so short it might as well be instagib. In my time using it, my targets had no time to react when I attacked at scatmax range. I just looked at them and they died instantly, just like with my scatmax, except the difference was the Mercy still had 44 bullets left in the clip after the kill, so I didn't have to just run away and reload immediately after like I'm forced to do with the scatmax.

2) "The Mercy is inaccurate and underperforms LMGs at range, and has terrible damage! A single Mercy is less effective than an LMG, you need two just to equal it! A Heavy could easily outgun the MAX!"

What a joke. The Mercy is way more accurate at range than an LMG could ever hope to be, and I was able to outgun heavies effortlessly. The fact that it doesn't suffer from CoF bloom or huge recoil makes it 1,000% more effective than an LMG, regardless of what damage values you decide to quote.

3) "The SCATMAX was overpowered in MAX vs MAX battles, with it you could instagib an enemy MAX who had engineer support!"

That is true, and as I've said many times before, it was the only thing truly overpowered about the scatmax. Before the nerf, I had instantly killed countless enemy MAXes just by walking up to them. It was stupidly overpowered and something needed to be done about it. However, now the scatmax performs on level ground with enemy MAXes at CQC, but does that make it balanced? No. The scatmax uses shotguns. If shotguns are going toe-to-toe with miniguns in CQC, there's something wrong. I don't care what you say, a shotgun should beat a minigun at close ranges, which is no longer the case.


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I have only one thing to say to the TR/VS: Get over yourselves.

just out of curiosity, I'd like you to try the VS max and tell honestly where you think it stands.
Otherwise, your post was an interesting read.

I don't really think NC needed a nerf, I think that every faction should be able to specialize their max in the area they want, let it be CQC or long range or anti tank.

Oh, and you even TKed less then with a Scat MAX, that is always a bonus

Still waiting for any proof....

Oh wait... https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&gid=23

Yeah the NC Max was OP and needed a nerf. Still waiting for data since the NC Max nerf because I am sceptical about OPs claim and anecdotal evidence with rubbish arguments doesn't convince me.

Trouble is, compared to the other MAXes, it was just too damned good. No TR or VS MAX is going to go on the same kind of killing rampage as an NC MAX, and therein lies the problem.

I still don't see what all the fuss is about, and I've barely even noticed the difference, they're still rampaging around blowing infantry away long before they can hope to respond. Seems no different to what we had before the update.

I see the Op speaking to VS and TR, then i read about Scattermaxes and Marcy maxes... I'm, scratching my head trying to understand what's VS role in all this.

Don't really care *wears spandex, turn up the dubstep, fires his lazors*

Anti infantry MAXes should of never been ingame in the first place, theres just no way to make em balanced without making em useless or overpowered.

hurr But but but.. Higby only cares about NC how can this be possible? durr

To be honest, SOE made a mistake from the very beginning allowing shotguns to be equipped on MAX's. There's really no fair way to balance such fundamentally flawed differences between factions... NC solely relies on close range burst-damage while the other two have sustainable fire with five times the range but nowhere close to the same burst in MAX duels. (talking pre-patch figures)

They should just get rid of the shotguns and replace them with machine guns...

"The Mercy is way more accurate at range than an LMG could ever hope to be" You must be really terrible with LMGs if someone is more accurate with double Mercys/Cosmos.

One thing I'll say about the NC MAX post nerf that I noticed is that they're much worse in large fights now compared to TR/VS MAXes.

In large fights involving a large number of players, your ability to damage at range becomes more important, simply because more people are shooting back at you which means you're taking more damage per unit of distance most of the time. If you're not able to create a credible threat by having a large amount of front-loaded damage, people can simply gun you down before you have much of an impact via mass-fire.

3 or 4 dual-mercy MAXes can definitely hold a medium-sized to large room much better than NC MAXes now. (Think, the generator room in the Biolabs, or the fan-shaped room attached to it, both of which are directly across from most spawn rooms, as well as the Biolab courtyards).

In small sized engagements or inside small rooms, I find the NC MAX is still superior, as there isn`t enough DPS to gun him down before he gets into alpha strike range.

Basically, the more MAXes there are, the more the advantage falls in favour of dual-Mercies. Is that unbalanced? I wouldn't be so quick to jump on that bandwagon just yet. TR MAXes still die as easily to C4 as anyone else.

Careful, the NC MAX players will be after you for even daring to suggest such a thing!

Well, I didn't really want to spend an additional 1,400 SC on dual Cosmos, so yes perhaps I should have just talked about the TR.

No hard feelings mate, I simply don't care for 2 3 reasons:

• I never called for nerfs
• I don't play max
• I don't think a single video of a single killspree by a single person proves _anything_ at all

I just hate generalizations, so i was pointing out that VS had no part in this thread

It wasn´t just to damn good, it was better in some cases and worse in others. What the OP tried to show(and in my view succeded) is to show you exactly that the other MAXes can pull the same killing rampages. And it is way different than it was before the update.

Really? How many of those MAXes are flak? Do flak MAXes from every empire perform the same in terms of kills and score/hour? Does 10% MAX imbalance in favor of NC(3000players with over 1h playtime) justify 20% imblance against NC for tanks(25k players with over 1 hour) or 10% imbalance against NC for ESF(20k players with more then 1h playtime).
If ppl play carefully and choose their engagements to be in their favor they will get insane k/d ratios and kill streaks. That doesn´t make the weapon OP.

Bump for Mercy nerf...

No, but if anyone that uses said weapon is able to do it? What then? You're telling me that all the MAXes TR/VS run into are being used by skilled players? Yeah, I'm not buying it.

And ....?

I have a dual Hacksaw MAX on my NC character, played it for quite a while before I concentrated on Vanu. I used to be a freakin' lawnmower and mow VS and TR like grass. However, my longest killstreak I have made is on my VS dual Cosmos MAX because of the situation I was in (defending Crown against waves of infantry). So?

The NC MAX was still wildly overpowered in its arena and I used to shake my head while using it, that doesn't mean we aren't all aware of the situational nature of that imbalance. See-saw balance (ie madly good at one thing while completely sucking at another) is rarely good game design.

Try it with the default weapon and a trial one. Won´t perform exactly the same but would give you an ideea for no cost.

That was 3 reasons....

It's not just "oh hey look I got a killstreak, you guys are wrong lol". This was my first time using the TR MAX and I immediately started dominating with it. There was no before or after, it was like this from the moment I got into the MAX until the moment I logged off.

Killing sprees don't prove anything, but that's not the point. The point lies in everything I talked about after the video which explains what I came to understand about the Mercy after using it.