Max balance in 6 months

ZOE can't be used effectively in CQC such as biolabs due to the small maneuvering space and the risk of strafing in front of friendlies. Aegis and lockdown beat ZOE by a mile when used in the right situation. I'm not saying it's bad, just that to say it's not situational is not accurate.

From what I've seen so far, ZOE is good when you're in a situation where a MAX is not necessary and a heavy could do the job. Lockdown and Aegis are good for when you actually need a MAX to perform its intended role. Personally, I'd like to see ZOE scrapped and go back to the drawing board. It doesn't help the MAX perform its role, it changes its role entirely.

Lawls, please, a dual Hacksaw MAX is still the king of CQC (0-20m). A dual ZOE MAX still doesn't kill infantry at anywhere near the rate of an NC MAX.

A ZOE MAX is good I admit at the ranges a VS MAX normally likes to fight, ie 30-50 metres.

Um, yes it does. Legitimately better than hacksaws at killing infantry, you have seriously warped fear of hacksaws. I think it's funny, the fear factor, but it's totally unwarranted.

The hacksaws insta-kill infantry at 5 METERS, and you've got to hit them with both arms in the high chest area. Around 10, it takes 4-6 shots, (2-3 on each arm), and anything past that you've gotta waste the entire clip and MAYBE you'll get a kill. Blueshifters, upclose, kill as fast as you can possibly kill something without it being instant. It's practically instant, the effect in gameplay, when considering latency, is basically instant. It's freaking instant, dude, while ALSO having range, which is also pretty damn instant.

When were Dual Cosmos ever NOT effective for VS? Great damage to infantry and armor + no drop so they can fire as far as you can see.

This is a ******* laugh.

VS>>TR=NC as far as I'm concerned is the balance now.

ZOE gives the VS MAX far too much versatility due to the movement speed increase. Any increase in damage taken is practically negated by the new found ease of dodging rockets, C4 and tanks rounds, with it being easily switched off if you start sponging on too many bullets, then switched on again while the bulletchuckers are busy reloading so you can sprint up to them and introduce them to your shiny new blueshifts.

And as for the NC MAX? I'm not even remotely scared of them anymore. I just generally keep them 15m away or so and just gun them down, hell even in biolabs I'll just prefer to fight them rather than run. Not so for the ZOE, as I can't outmaneuver it and I can't fight it from a few metres away.

You must be running flak or the deci missed. Because 84% is what a standard rocket does to mine, a deci however insta kills me regardless of HP

Tell me again how lazer machine guns can kill prowlers?

^This.

Also:
The shield and lockdown are cool abilities. They aren't good for every situation, and they won't eclipse Charge and Ammo Cans. There will be plenty of players who pull a MAX as NC or TR and not want the new ability.

ZOE isn't the same. It will make a MAX better in almost every situation. It completely negates Charge as an option, and Ammo Cans is easily replaced by other game features (Engineer, Sunderer, terminals, etc.). It's pros and cons can be instantly turned on and off for as long as needed. Every VS MAX should equip ZOE.

I know, but thats the case now.

I am really enjoying the tears of the NC on this one. They really do taste so sweet. I remember a couple of months back before the Hacksaw nerf (which extended from game launch -- so about 4-5 months of unerfed MAX) you literally couldn't walk into a Biolab without seeing a army of OHK MAX's. It was literally impossible to leave a spawn.

JRV, drop the charade. You racked up so many kills (Hacksaws are your number #2 and #3 weapons overall). Don't try to pretend like it's all skill either. We all know shotguns are less about skill and more about being in the right place. Many NC racked up stupid high kills and K/D ratios with an OP MAX. All levels of BR's profited insanely hard off Hackmax's. I can assure you my stat line would be way different had I abused an OP max for months. I know you have skill aside from the MAX, but you and I both know jumping into "easy mode MAX' isn't about skill.

And now, for the first time since launch VS MAX's actually have the ability to do some work. What happens? A flood of tears from people with over 3k MAX kills.

Wanna know how many MAX kills I had before ZOE? Not even 50 (excluding bursters). People need to stop playing coy like the VS was in the same realm as the other two MAX's.

With that said, ZOE probably needs some tweaking to the movement speed and a cooldown timer, but other then that it made an ENTIRE CLASS viable for VS, which was unprecedented. People cried and and cried on these forums "Please don't nerf the Hacksaws and Mercies anymore, just buff VS instead!". Well, people got their wish, and now they see how hard it is to deal with an OP MAX.

VS > > NC > TR

Come on man... you know that VS maxes are way better now than both NC and TR maxes.
ZOE maxes are evasive killing machines... there is no downside in it. They are swarming all the places almost replacing VS infantry, if a zoe max is strafing i can barely hit it with a rocket or fractures, this thing is the best Max now.

I was using kinetic armor rank 5, a single decimator shot its something like 60%, flak armor decrease just the indirect damage, nades lolpods etc...

They nerfed hard the accuracy of the cosmos when they buffed the blueshift, they are not worth it right now.

Stop with the 5 meters range, no one belives that, i have a dual scatteranon max with my NC character and i fight every day against NC max with my vanu, after ZOE the VS AI max is better than the NC overall, not because the VS is op or the NC new ability is trash, its because SOE was wrong giving you a situational weapon for your max instead of a more versatile weapon like the VS and TR because eventually SOE will release empire specific max weapons, and the NC will have a sh**ty machinegun like VS and TR have since release.

You know your max guns were always as good as TR right?

You just denied everything and then brought up a completely irrelevant point. The NC ability IS trash, Hacksaws are straight up inferior to ZOE-boosted dual blueshifts, we need a ranged weapon that maintains our killing ability upclose, that's what the Vanu have right now. Slugs are crap, mattocks can't match the range of the other empire's weapons.

Typo there, meant to say Dual Comets.

For the sake of this conversation:

NC Aegis Shield:

• Downside - Sacrifices shooting any weapon
• Upside - Receives no frontal damage

TR Lockdown mode:

• Downside - Sacrifices Movement
• Downside - Sacrifices ESR (Effective Shooting Radius)
• Upside - Increased damage output
• Upside - Increased ROF

VS ZOE module:

• Downside - Receives more damage
• Upside - Increased damage output
• Upside - Increased ROF
• Upside - Increased movement speed

In my opinion the NC got the worst deal out of the three, they should at least have the ability to shoot with the shield to the side if they wanted to (Right click drives the shield to the side - protecting half front/half side - and allows the player to shoot with the right arm, left click pulls the shield to the front for a full protection).

Here's how you use a NC shield max:

charge in a room with dual hacksaws. Mow down 4 instantly. Shield up and reload. Shield down and mow down 4 more people.

Rinse and repeat.

Please, stop.

Shotguns =/= super godly awesomesauce of the gods

At some point, everyone started assuming that the word "shotgun" is synonymous with "overpowered".

Actually, NC MAX shotguns = weapons that kill at basically the same speed as TR/VS weapons except they only work below 10m and have less damage/clip. Did you read that correctly? The mathematical TTK is essentially the same as the TR/VS (within 1/5 of a second). So the ONLY advantage that the NC MAX has over the TR and VS is the first kill being potentially instant. In compensation, they have the smallest damage/clip, the longest reload time, and the shortest effective range by far.

"But it's a shot-" NO

The only reason NC MAX were ever "overpowered" is because the NC used them in the only situation that they were useful. CQC. So any time you see an NC MAX, it's when it's camping a corner and insta-gibbing you.

Well guess what? The TR/VS MAX do the SAME EXACT THING. Being able to camp a corner and insta-gib >5m isn't an NC MAX only ability. TR/VS can, and always were able to do the same basic things as an NC MAX.

/rant

Would've been cool to have the 3 firing modes on the nc max like in ps1.