[Video] The BEAST of the BIOLAB | an NC Max montage | Slug ammo discussion

Here is a montage featuring some beast moments i had with the NC max! i didn't liked it before i had the extended mags and slug ammo.

the accuracy with the slugs is quite random, you may hit, you may not, but when you hit you do massive damage. Sadly even with slugs the range you can engage is still limited, that's why i almost only pull it in biolabs.

i would love that SOE implement some kind of dynamic crosshair for the slugs, and if possible more mid range weapons like TR or VS has, so that we could use it more often in every base.

because honestly i don't really like the biolabs "spawncampfest" battles. Maybe biolabs should offer more alternatives paths to get in.

tell me what you think about this.

I'm probably the foremost proponent of slugs on the forums, and I approve of this video. I too hated our MAX until I gave slugs a shot and now I'm in love with it. With buckshot it's just too niche and pigeon-holed to be worth 350 infantry resources, but with slugs and some practice you're lethal out to 50m.

Re: the video, it looks like you're a natural with the slugs. Perfect amount of time between shots and you prioritize firing wildly into groups when necessary. That jump pad moment is pretty much textbook "what you hope for as a slug MAX" because you'll never miss. You stop moving to shoot when they're >10m away with is also vital and you've got the lead down enough to skeet shoot LAs (which is one of the best parts of slugging).

The only two things I'd change about the NC MAX is a) the Aegis should boost forward movement when active (but not side or back, that's ZOE's thing) and b) slugs should start out with almost no spread/COF but should have more bloom. That way they could be used to accurately attack out to range but couldn't be dumped without rapidly becoming horribly inaccurate.

Good to see someone else gets a weirdly huge amount of headshots with slugs despite not even aiming for the head

I actually don't have an issue with NC maxes, as an NC player. However, I do think that currently the ZoE max is the 'beast of the biolabs'. Have you tried taking a biolab from VS when they have a couple of these around (which they always do)?

Slugs can be effective but they're too much randomness and luck based for my taste. I might give them another try later on but currently I find slug MAX's still being too limited for such cert investment.

Yes, with Decimators and either concussion or AV grenades. Works wonders against the average ZOE nub but the more experienced players that know when to toggle it still spank you back.

I think you've now experienced what most regular NC max users find.

To be competitive you have to have full armour and the 2x500 cert clip size expansions. Seriously SOE: the stock guns should just be 10 rounds to start with because until you slot those, the max is worse than any other default max. It's not even as though the equipment slot has an alternative choice (e.g. incendary ammo, fast reload, targeting lasers) - it's just a simple fact that you're gimped until you have 1,000 certs to spare.

The slugs thing really does depend on whether you're going to be hugging walls, or actively moving around the base to engage targets. Without a doubt I find myself more and more defaulting to having slugs slotted as getting up close to several opponents just means instant c4 death. Seriously: every other player has c4 ready to throw at your feet or drop on your head. It's just so common. Not having a range solution other than slugs has been discussed ad nauseum so no point me re-iterating that.

The downside seems to be damage at close range. This doesn't matter so much against one or two infantry, but for whatever reason, I find I just don't do the same amount of damage against other maxes with slugs equipped. I think it might contributed to by the zero damage bug, but I just find buckshot seems to be better against maxes. The net effect of having to equip slugs more often then is that you're worse than other maxes at long range, medium range, and short range. I find myself losing more fights than ever before at <10m to ZOE maxes, even with shield for reload, and that's just a ridiculous situation. You could argue skill, but really neither of us misses - I only pop shield for the reload timer - and I still don't win. At a range the NC max is supposed to be dominant at, a full spec ZOE max is champ. tbh I'm utterly convinced slugs have a short range bug that plays up regularly and this is what is driving this, but it could also be that I'm not running fully automatic shotguns on both arms and my RSI is playing up.

It's funny. I was probably the slug advocate 9 months ago but now I just don't bother with them anymore. In the above video, they're great when infantry are bunched - when you miss you still hit something. I'm almost certain slugs used to be a lot better than they are today which is probably why I've been turned off them. That and the proliferation of LA's with C4 - unslugged Mattocks and shield have reduced my C4 deaths significantly since ditching slugs.

There were some documented nerfs but it also appears to me through experience that there was also a CoF nerf quite a few GU's back. Every now and then I'll throw slugs back on but I end up quickly taking them back off when I see the slugs constantly whizz either side of what I'm aiming at. Once upon a time, standing still, letting your arms settle between each shot meant half decent accuracy, took them for a spin a couple of days ago, remained completely still and crouched shooting at an Infi that was oblivious to me at about 30m, every single shot missed. Ended up just running over and MAX punching him to death.

I think this is the proof needed to convince 80% of NC that their maxes arent s h i t. Now thats dealt with i dont want to see anymore buff nc max threads ^^

Nice gameplay.

Maybe someday we see a vídeo like this with a VS max...

Great video. I also hated NC MAX until Epic High Five (second poster) convinced me to blow 800 certs on slug Grinders and they're now my weapon with the most kills across all empires. Although lately, now that I've had some practice, I might prefer slug Scattercannons I have on another character now. The loss of ammo hurts but Scatters and Mattocks have much better hipfire than Grinders, so results are a bit better especially on quick snap shots.

I don't prefer either one strongly enough to get both on the same character though. Damn you, exmag cert tax

I love slugs for the MAX weapons. Bloom per shot is very high though, double that of infantry shotguns, so one has to be careful. Seems like you're a natural at that, though. Good job!

And people never seem to expect slugs judging by how many will just stand and try to have a shootout with you 25m out or so.

The chief problem is that this setup is still overall more limited than, for example, dual Mutilators (my personal favorite TR MAX loadout) and to even get to that point you've gotta dump in 1600 certs. That's NOT including the second Scatter arm, too, which alone costs 2x more than everything you'd need for the dual Mutilator setup (aka, 2 arms and nothing else)

It's a lot of fun and I love my slug MAX, but we really need something with deeper mags and shorter reloads. I'd love a slug-only gun (maybe change the mattock to one?) that in exhange for losing the power of buckshot, it gained huge mags and a deeper ammo reserve.

I mean, compare our inaccurate deep mag option (Grinder) to ours and others:

Grinders: 8/56
Scatter/Hacksaw/Mattock: 6/50

Mutilator: 100/700 (!?1? same stats as the cycler/onslaught too! Why pick anything else?!?!?!)
Mercy: 50/350
Cycler/Onslaught: 60/420

Cosmos: 75/525
Blueshift: 40/280
Nebula: 50/350

Those are huge differences! Especially in the reserve ammo department, but the Grinders get barely any bump at all for all the disadvantages of having the 2nd highest spread for any shotgun.

I don't want to get rid of shotguns on our MAXes, I just want some legit variety. Slug people will have their thing and buckshot have theirs, all without having to do any gigantic overhauls.

Also, this is hands down the best part of running slugs. It happens ALL THE TIME and people just standing there plinking away at me with their carbine as I line up to stove their head in with a toaster worth of hot lead are probably 40% of my kills.

If you run slugs I promise this will happen to you all the time.

Stand tall for the beast of the Biolab.
Lay down like a naked dead body,
keep it real for people that are spawning in,
they can't stay living if they don't stay mean.
Stand tall for the people of the Biolab
Stand tall for the man next spawn, cuz
we are free in the base of the Biolab,
we aren't goin' down like this. Come on Now

Yeah a Mutilator MAX can clear a whole room out. It has better burst, better accuracy, and more damage per mag than the VS equivalent. NC MAX guns are too samey. There really isn't enough of a range OR ammo gap between Grinders and Mattocks for example.

Are you abusing max flak armor to completely eliminate the only vulnerability that maxes have to infantry?

Also gotta love that reload during aegis, who the **** thought that was a good idea.

If you like hitting what you're shooting at, mercies, fractures, bursters and NOT using lockdown are you're only options.

Onslaughts get the spread of a shotgun with only a fraction of the DPS. YEEEAAAAHHH

Still the TR/VS maxes are much better than the NC one.

btw, would it be better dual Mattocks + slugs ?

Scatters and Mattocks both have the same slug accuracy (determined by hipfire cone, which is identical). Getting Mattocks buys you an extra 100m/s velocity, which is very nice, but probably not really critical at slug ranges.

Get whichever is on sale first. They also mix pretty well in a pinch because with slugs, they're basically the same gun except for the velocity.

If you also like Buckshot, get Mattocks, because their buckshot spread and damage curve is superior to Scatters outside 5 meters, while with slugs it's the same and you can just pick whatever.

Slug Grinders are the best slug option against MAX units or when you get swarmed, but have worse effective range unless you stop and crouch all the time, which might get you hit with rockets more.

you clearly have never played VS. Please save your whining for another thread.

Good video.

2/3 =! 3/8.5 [CoF Min/Max]
0.4 =! 3 [Spread gain per second of fire]

Yeah... Not even close.

I'm sorry but doesn't this video show just how awful NC maxes are? He was only effective in a BioLab, while spending thousands of certs into his MAX...and only then was he competitive...

What am I missing here? Sure NC MAX will dominate in tight CQC, only if there is 1-2 people because after the first kill (maybe two) he has to reload. I will take a TR/VS MAX any day in any situation over the NC max. I just don't understand how you are argue against that without trolling.

Play TR during a biolab alert: the choice between fighting shotguns max or ZoE max is awful in those bases.