So my outfit needs another MAX pilot and after one year of hating MAX, i finally caved in and certed my TR MAX. Flak+Kinetic lvl 4/5. I have been running a bit of solo MAX'ing, to get a better understand of how the MAX works at different bases, without slowing down our outfit. Now the question: i have mainly been running mainly kinetic lvl 5 for solo and hoping for randoms for repairs. I have cert into level 2 auto repair and it seems kinda okey, but i do take a lot more dmg from random small arms. So what do you experienced MAX pilots do when solo and is auto repair lvl 5 worth it?
Auto Repair is defiantly worth it. I have it at lvl 3, and it only takes around 30 seconds to get you ready for battle. Allows me to find a safe nook or cranny to hide and repair. Of late, most of the time I run out of ammo before I die. Nanite Auto, like ZOE, is all about choosing your engagements.
I cant be considered as pro max at any point of time, but well I use kinetic almost exclusively for the following reasons: 1) TR max is almost exclusively useful in biolabs only. 2) out of 1) There are always engineers to repair you in biolab fights 3) Most of the folks shoot you with small arms. 4) most of the maxes shoot you with small arms. 5) ???? 6) Profit.
NAPS 4+ for MAX units is really helpful. I would really recommend getting it. I don't use it much in groups, but it's really useful when I need to do something solo. For example, when doing AA or some AV, I don't have to sit in a spawn room waiting for an Engineer if I take a little damage; I just equip NAPS and get back in the action. I don't think it's generally that great for AI work. Down-time is quite significant, the cost of being a solo MAX, you have to wait for long periods to get back in the action or your health will gradually get whittled down. I have heard of certain outfits using it to forgo Engineers for extra MAXes though, and just rotate the MAXes. FYI, Kinetic Armour is not really the best standard choice, especially in a group. Most of the threat to MAXes is from explosives and not small arms. If your squad has an Engineer, usually he will be able to sort any small arms damage out for you. You should really have an Engineer assigned to you if you're a MAX. If you don't then your squad lead doesn't know what he's doing. Flak Armour, in most instances, is the way to go for MAXes. Most infantry will try to counter you through explosive. Most vehicles do explosive damage. Flak Armour 5 is a must for any new MAX. Kinetic Armour in certain niche situations. I will take it when: I know I will have to advance through somewhere where I am going to take absolutely massive focus fire from small arms. I am on anti-Scatter MAX duty. I also use it in one of my Comets + ZOE builds. With you being TR though, that is not really an option.
NAR (Nanite-Auto-Repair) is perhaps one of the best suit slots for the MAX in my opinion. The reason being that it is ALWAYS useful and there's rarely a situation where I'm wishing I'd had my kinetic or flak instead. I cannot stress the importance of having auto repair, it frees you from the shackles of sticking with engies and allows you the freedom of lone wolfing if need be. Run around, take some numbers and then duck behind cover to repair. At rank 5 it's 8 seconds of downtime and the 1.5% of your health back every SECOND! Max rank will heal you very quickly. It's like having your own pocket engie without actually having to worry about them dying. I suppose if you ALWAYS play with an engie, than flak would be better… But I doubt you have 24/7 engie coverage I also suppose that if you only play MAX to rush rooms and aggressively advance the line kinetic may be better. But if you are playing MAX as a primary class, NAR will be your friend and save your life COUNTLESS times. As you can tell, I'm a big fan Hope that helps! -Quiiliitiila
I currently have Flak/Kinetic/Autorepair all maxed out to level 5. Auto Repair is invaluable for those times when you can't count on engineer repairs. Mostly when you're going solo, for example. Sometimes if you're in a small squad or just bumming around with friends and none of them are playing engineer. Play more conservatively in this case and don't bite off more than you can chew. Always leave yourself a pool of health for retreating from battle so you can find somewhere to self repair up. Chow down on any deployed engineer packs you find as opportunity permits and you're right as rain. If you DO have dedicated engineer support, then Flak or Kinetic are definitely the superior choice, depending on what you expect to be facing against. Lots of incoming small arms fire? Kinetic. Expecting a lot of grenade and rocket explosions or intending to pull Burster duty? Flak armor. You can also afford to be more aggressive in this case, as not only are you more resilient but you're getting repairs regularly. Just keep an eye on your engineer, cause if he gets swatted then you won't be getting the repairs anymore and may have to withdraw temporarily.
Thx everyone. Al right. So ill be swithcing to flak when we play organized. And yes when we play with MAXs in the outfit, we always have an engi permanently assigned to a MAX - with a medic for rez support. The reason why i certed kinetic first is/was that i very rarely die to rockets/C4/nades Ill be spending my next 1000 certs on Auto Repair lvl 5
If you're going to run solo, then it's going to be of substantial help. If you purchase both kinetic and nanite autorepair, you can just repair yourself at a terminal with autorepair and switch back to kinetic before heading out.
If you are going solo, get the repair. Most of the time you will have an engie near by to help heal you; however it's nice to not be so dependent, or to have the option of not sticking with the large mass if you want to check somewhere else for a bit.
Rank 4 auto repair is good enough; no need to spend that extra 1,000 for Rank 5. Also you don't run it constantly and in a fight. You only switch to auto repair if you can't find an ENG. For example I was at Vanu Archives today. Only about 5 of us there and nobody could be bothered to switch to ENG and repair me now and then. So I rocked the flak armor while taking out vehicles. Then when I got low on HP I'd run to the spawn room, switch to auto repair, wait a few seconds, then switch back to flak. You'd be better off with other upgrades than spending that 1,000 on rank 5 auto repair. If you don't have dual fractures yet... get them. HEG Pounder is useless. Dual Bursters are a must. Along with dual Mercys. If you wanna be really trick put extended mags on one Mercy and then you can constently fire while keeping your reloads staggered. You can do it with out the extended mag if you time it right but it's more tricky. Good luck!
Auto repair is great when soloing when combined with charge. Flak is good when out in the open, AA Max duty. Kinetic I find is mostly a worthless upgrade that seems to be the most cert intensive.
I've been running NAS 5 and Charge 6 forever. Best MAX combination as far as I am concerned. ZOE at it's initial best was of dubious utility, then was rapidly and repeatedly nerfed. The armors are nice, especially Flak, but my play style isn't conducive to finding a competent engineer and having him/her follow me around all day, so NAS is really the only viable option.
ZOE + Nanite rep was nice, you die'd from single rockets, and if you faild to kill an infantry one mag would shred you to half HP. But it was fun and you could do alot of cool things. However, now i think if i keep playing MAX now and then ill cert flak to survive the hordes suicide C4 and rockets.
I use it at max rank. I'm so used to having now I have never considered creating into anything else. In tough 1vs1 max fights it makes a huge difference. You can use charge to disengage, run about a bit and just back into the fight with a chunk of new health that wins you the fight.
