[Guide] Comprehensive Guide to Light Assault

Discussion in 'Light Assault' started by Iridar51, Jan 5, 2013.

  1. Iridar51

    Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that strong horizontal recoil limits effectiveness at range. Thanks, will fix.
    • Up x 2
  2. Iridar51

    I moved the guide again. New address is linked in the first post of the thread.
    • Up x 1
  3. GetOutOfDodge

    Just wanted to say, I read this guide over a year ago before I started playing the game and it helped me out a ton starting off. This convinced me light assault was the way to go for me, and I've played almost only LA and infiltrator in my PlanetSide 2 career now because I love flanking. So yeah, thanks for making this, it has definitely shaped about 40 days of my life so far.
    • Up x 1
  4. Iridar51

    Thank you for your feedback, glad to have helped.

    I've had a similar experience in WoW, I read Frostheim's hunter blog/guide compilation, and it shaped me as one of the best hunters on my server. Over the years to come, as I rose in world ranks to top 200, I realized just how good I am at what I do, and that I can become as good at anything I wanted to do, and more so - anyone can do it with proper practice and research.
  5. Nakar

    Iridar, some info I dug up off the DA stat site you might find interesting. I posted it on the Heavy Assault forum, but I did check similar data for carbines. I've made a list of them in terms of horizontal tolerance, which I'll reproduce here:

    CARBINES
    HC1 Cougar: 0-0 @ 0 (may be an error)
    Zenith VX-5: 0-0 @ 0 (may be an error)
    Gauss Compact Burst: 0.14-0.14 @ 0.28
    Pulsar C: 0.175-0.175 @ 0.3
    AF-4A Bandit: 0.1-0.3 @ 0.3 (may be an error)
    Solstice Burst: 0.16-0.16 @ 0.4
    TRAC-5 Burst: 0.17-0.17 @ 0.4
    AC-X11: 0.175-0.2 @ 0.4
    AF-19 Mercenary: 0.175-0.175 @ 0.45
    Razor GD-23: 0.1875-0.1875 @ 0.45
    Gauss Compact S: 0.175-0.2 @ 0.45
    T5 AMC: 0.2-0.2 @ 0.45
    Solstice VE3: 0.2-0.2 @ 0.5
    Solstice SF: 0.2-0.2 @ 0.5
    TRAC-5: 0.225-0.225 @ 0.55
    TRAC-5 S: 0.225-0.225 @ 0.55
    NS-11C: 0.2-0.2 @ 0.6
    GD-7F: 0.225-0.3 @ 0.625
    VX6-7: 0.25-0.25 @ 0.7
    LC3 Jaguar: 0.245-0.275 @ 0.735
    Serpent VE92: 0.25-0.275 @ 0.75
    LC2 Lynx: 0.25-0.275 @ 0.75 (may be an error)

    SUBMACHINEGUNS
    MKV Suppressed: NO DATA
    NS-7 PDW: 0.2485-0.2485 @ 0.6
    AF-4 Cyclone: 0.2-0.3 @ 0.7
    PDW-16 Hailstorm: 0.3-0.35 @ 0.8
    Blitz GD-10: 0.3-0.3 @ 0.9
    Eridani SX5: 0.3-0.4 @ 0.9
    SMG-46 Armistice: 0.35-0.4 @ 0.9
    Sirius SX12: 0.4-0.4 @ 0.9

    I'm pretty sure all the data for the new carbines is wrong, as is the data for the Lynx (it's probably accurate, but applicable to the old Lynx and not the new one). However, the rest appear to be accurate. Tolerance essentially appears to be the extent to which deviation will occur due to random horizontal recoil. So while horizontal recoil is uncontrollable, there's actually a stat that determines how far out of control the horizontal recoil can actually get. Notably:
    • The Pulsar C is insanely good about this. Incredibly low tolerance combined with very low baseline recoil and an Advanced Grip go a long way toward explaining why so many VS seem to like this carbine despite a lower-than-average DPS profile.
    • The AC-X11 has more recoil than the Merc and Razor, and it's less consistent, but it does have better (lower) tolerance. That seems to mean it jumps more per shot, but in a smaller range. However, it also gets an Advanced Forward Grip, so with that it's probably noticeably improved over the Gauss variants.
    • The T5 AMC actually has the same tolerance as the Mercenary (and better than the Solstice)! Granted, more horizontal recoil per shot and a higher ROF, but the same tolerance is pretty great when you consider other TR options. Plus it's got that Advanced Grip, something the Merc lacks. I suspect the Cougar is slightly better (probably around where the Razor is), but the AMC is darn close.
    • The TRAC-5 does have variable angled recoil, but it also has better tolerance than the Jaguar in addition to the lower horizontal recoil. If the TRAC-5 feels more accurate in ADS despite the Jaguar kicking straight up, that's probably the reason why more than just the lower horizontal recoil.
    • Go figure, but the GD-7F actually kinda is a little more accurate than its contemporaries. These stats are a bit old and its recoil was increased recently (as was the Serpent's I believe), but if the tolerance stats remained the same then it actually has a slightly better tolerance than the Serpent and old Lynx, as well as the Jaguar (but the new Lynx might or might not be different).
    • Only the Jaguar/Serpent/Lynx 1.0 have worse tolerance than the best faction SMG, and other than the "high DPS" carbines pretty much every carbine has better tolerance than every SMG including the NS-7. So no, SMGs can't necessarily replace carbines, as carbine recoil is going to be much less likely to get out of hand due to a string of weird recoil kicks. And even the worst carbines for tolerance tend to be better than SMGs, although the Cyclone and PDW are competitive.
  6. Iridar51

    Interesting, thank you. "Tolerance" could explain something. In my experiments where I tried to reverse engineer the process of generating recoil from recoil stats, not only I failed to recreate a clear pattern from stats, but I also failed to find ANY pattern at all, like recoil had an additional variable I wasn't aware of.
    Considering my experiments were with VX6-7, which has high tolerance value, it would explain why I failed to find any pattern.

    This is a very valuable piece of data, and I thank you for presenting me with it, even if the values themselves may be outdated, just knowing the fact of its existence is a step forward.
  7. Vosrash

    The link for the blown up NC gun chart at the start of the weapons section brings me to the TR spread sheet. Therefor on my moderately sized laptop i must decipher tiny scrawl in order to make out all the otherwise useful information on said chart.
  8. Iridar51

    Thanks, will fix. I remember fixing this error already, looks like didn't save the guide at that time.
    • Up x 1
  9. Iridar51

    Finally updated the guide. Sorry it was such a mess for the last few months, but I really had to move the stuff that LA shared with other classes as well. Now it's clean, clear and short.
    • Up x 1
  10. asdfPanda

    Sometimes less is more.
  11. Iridar51

    Not in this case :)
    It's roughly the same amount.

    I just wanted to split the things that useful only to LAs from the things useful to everyone.
  12. asdfPanda

    Ah, I see, you moved the carbine stuff to your Gunplay Guide.
  13. Iridar51

    • Up x 1
  14. Zorro

    Nice! It is not easy to continually update a guide, but you do so splendidly.