[Suggestion] Next on the roadmap is the MAX class revamp, a good time to look at each faction's MAX balance.

Fight shotgun with shotgun. Eat fully automatic hot plasma!

Bump for great justice, MAXimum fun mode for all!

These are my thoughts on Max balance. I don't play max much (read: at all), but these seem to make sense.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/showpost.php?p=906338&postcount=214


also check out PSU, because Hamma is cool

While I'd love more small arms resistance, The problem I see with this is that it will just take us longer to try and drop the NC MAX's, if they gave us some decent anti tank weapons, then yeah by all means, but at the moment our AV weapons fire ping pong balls, give us a single arm rocket launcher for gods sake!!

Actually it will help TR/VS in max duels more than you think because the NC will have to reload before killing you, DRASTICALLY increasing the TTK (they should still win up close but they have shotguns, what do you expect?).

From using shotguns extensively in real life?, a lot less.

Look at it this way then, the HackMAX can dish out just over 20k damage before needing a reload which takes a further 3.2 seconds.
While it takes Dual Mercies about 6 seconds to drop a 13,000Hp MAX, so during this time, the HackMAX has dished out it's full Mag, reloaded and started dishing out some more, about 29k in damage total before the mercy can do it's 13k.

This is not a Nerf NC MAX post, I'm just pointing out that increasing the small arms resistance will only scale things up between the MAX's, so instead of the NC MAX dropping a TR MAX in 2 sec, it would take 4 sec, and instead of the TR MAX dropping the NC MAX in 6 sec, it would be 12 sec, I don't think it's a good solution.

I think the MAX units should have Small arms immunity and require Anti Tank weapons to bring down, it's not as if the game is not saturated with them now.

Fair enough, I just wanted to point out that dissalowing the NC max a kill in under a mag would at least remove the instagibeffect rather than just extend it bit.

I play VS Max. I can never win a close engagement against a Scatt Max. It can be very frustrating. With that said, LEAVE THE SCATTMAX ALONE! Their long range is terrible. I like the fact that not every unit across the races are a carbon copy (dps wise) reskinned version of another faction.

Lot of good ideas in this thread! Hopefully we will see some cool stuff in the "April" Rework.

If it took AV weapons to kill maxes, biolabs would be nightmares even more than they already are.

No worries, our NC scatt maxes(as well as other shotguns) are being "rebalanced" in GU6 (before the class revamp) and we all know what that's code for. *cough*nerf*cough*

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I don't want to see my skillsaws nerfed, but if the nerf is also applied to the absolutely infuriating pump action shotguns, I might be ok with it. In the hands of light assault the pump actions are way too powerful because they can kill you before your killer even renders. Instagibbing is ok for the MAX because they're slow and clunky, but not on the extremely mobile LA.

Honestly, even if they nerfed damage a fair bit. If they also upped the clip size of our max guns I'd be ok with that and we'd still be able to do better in close combat. But I honestly think a slight nerf to Max vs Max TTK is all that's needed. Because all three Maxes are good against infantry.

In close combat the NC MAX inspires fear and I think this is very good for the game, though this would be even better if it was the case with all MAX's, in saying that I wouldn't want MAX shotguns, I like the uniqueness between the factions.
The Pump action shotgun is a joke and just another of the long line of mistakes from SOE, lets see the how far they nerf them.

Yeah, the pump action shotguns feel like pump action shotguns should, but the problem is this game has no need for pump action shotguns. I think they need their rate of fire reduced so that missing is a death sentence rather than a minor inconvenience. But that's a discussion for another thread LOL.

Honestly mate, I die way more to C4 and rockets than Small arms fire.
Though if it was AT damage only, you could actually use your own factions MAX's to take out the other MAX's, in any situation.

STOP SAYING "DON'T NERF NC, BUFF THE OTHERS".

TR MERCYS ARE EXACTLY WHAT THEY SHOULD BE.
NC MAXES ARE DEVASTATING AGAINST ENEMY MAXES.

CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE I'M TIRED OF VS (who DO need a MAX buff) AND NC ("noes, my precious OP XP machine!") SAYING THIS (especially when numerous GOOD (top 100) NC players agree the NC MAX is OP).

That said, the Onslaughts could use looking at.

Mutilator is good (insane amount of ammo), Mercy is god (accuracy), Heavy Cycler is meat and potatoes (boring and average).
Onslaught promises something different and fails to deliver.

The kills I am able to make at a reasonably longish medium range are really satisfying with my Mercy and I know are a nice benefit over NC versions. I feel any improvement to the Mercy (except for empire specific lock-down) is serious overkill.

I believe I am being reasonable.
I don't want buffs, I want NC brought to heel at long last.

No, NC are exactly where they should be - 2 full weapon versions on each arm.
Spending 1000 certs to get 1/2 of weapon dont make sense, MAXes should have 2 FULL WEAPONS on each arm, all of them

On the subject of AV weapons, don't you dare touch my Comets. They are amazing. I love them. Dual Cosmos are also a pretty powerful force as AI in close-mid range, as they are basically re-skinned Mercies with: 24 more dmg, .075/.3s higher reload speed, 25 more rounds per clip, 200 more total rounds, slightly higher COF (except sprinting, where theirs is the same as when moving, and crouched when it's identical to Mercy's), with 90 fewer RPM's, and 50 m/s slower bullets, but no bullet drop, making them give or take either equal to or better than Mercies. And Bursters work great if you know how to lead targets.

The only thing I would change about MAX units is about how engineer dependent they are. They should be somewhat dependent, but not as much as they are now. The only solution I can think of to that is to give them SOME sort of small shield, maybe roughly as powerful as an infiltrator one.

Also they really need to bring back the flavor of the faction specific MAX abilities, like TR's lockdown and VS jumpjets. That additional flair would really bring a huge amount of fun to the game for MAX users.

The problem with entirely preventing the NC MAX from getting a kill against another MAX in one magazine is that it makes the NC MAX at the exact opposite end of the spectrum of MAX balance than it is right now.

Early in the beta, the NC MAX only had 5 rounds per magazine. This made it completely useless against TR and VS MAXes because they were completely unable to get a kill without reloading, and it takes longer to reload than it does to kill a MAX with any of the TR or VS MAX weapons. So they upped the magazine to 7, and suddenly NC MAX became the king. Now that they've done the MAX balance patch, NC has 6 per magazine except on the Grinder, and that is barely enough to get a kill without reloading, if every pellet hits, with the Scattercannon or Hacksaw. This is good, because it means that an NC MAX isn't useless, and can still get the kill if it has support firing on the other MAX too, but it also no longer reliably instagibs other MAXes.