NC losing third WDS week in row

Remember back before the Magrider and ZOE were nerfed?

VS: "We're not OP, we just magically have all the best players!"
NC/TR: "No, you're just OP and the stats prove it."

Magrider/ZOE nerfed, VS dominance ends. Coincidence?

Then the Harasser is introduced and given ES vehicle secondaries. NC is the least capable of countering Harassers, and gets the least benefit from the ES secondaries due to the C85 Mod. Meanwhile, TR gets the Vulcan and Marauder, while the Striker keeps enemy Harassers away. The VS gains are somewhere in the middle, with the Sauron and PPA being fairly useful on the Harasser, but their ability to counter enemy Harassers (mostly ZOE MAXes and Lancers) is only slightly better than NC.

There's other factors, some of which have been here since launch (looking at you, NC MAX), but the above seems to be what's really tipped the scales recently.

So now there's two arguments going on:

TR/VS: "NC isn't UP, they just magically have all the bad players!"
NC: "No, we're UP and the stats prove it."

TR: "We're not OP, we just magically have all the best players! (that VS had just a couple months ago)"
VS/NC: "No, you're OP and the stats prove it."

Which, of course, means in both cases the TR is heavily invested in the magical player magnet theory right now.

You should check out the full season.

Also I feel like making a few graphs about this just to demonstrate the disparity between faction scores (or lack thereof). Shame I don't have the previous scores. Keep an eye out.

I can only talk for my server but the nc are getting more points than the vanu by far, they could be doing even better with a little more strategy. Tr are overpop but most of them are just ghost capping amerish and esamir to pull the most points, when they change the scoring system I fully expect things to equalize.

IMO....
-NC lacks air ( the blue brick is to slow, and have a high skill gap)
-Long range weapon for MAX (or anything useful...)
-and the pure fact that no one cares about the alerts,( on Miller alert is about one thing, poke the TRs eye with a stick for 2h)

full season is unbalanced as balls, TR overpop + striker + North warpgate is free points. the gap between the NC and VS is pretty much just woodman's & connery's unbalance

In my opinion it comes down to a few things, that make playing the NC frustrating.
#1 we lack an AI MAX capable of killing targets beyond 15m. This may sound trivial, but this is very limiting, since we do not have a MAX that can support infantry pushes other then locking down doorways.
#2 We have an EXTREMELY situational ESRL, that is really only effective against slow or stationary ground vehicles in the 125m-295m range and virtually worthless against air craft.
#3 We do not have a good ES AI Secondary weapon for our vehicles, let alone one that can engage infantry at range. Yet both the TR and VS have ESRL that excel at killing vehicles up to and beyond 400m.

Personally, I think the balance between the NC and VS is pretty good. The TR are a different story and I think this holds true for the VS as well to a lesser extent. The problem with the TR is that they gain a significant Anti-Air capability with the Striker, that can not be matched by the NS lock-ons and the Phoenix is a joke against Air. I mentioned this effects the VS to a lesser extent and the reason being is that the ZOE helps buff their bursters and they have the Lancer which is a fairly versatile weapon with great range and accuracy and it is pretty good against Air craft.

I don't want to get into a Striker debate I really do not care about it's DPS, or counter measures or it having to maintain LOS, it does 2X the damage of the equivalent annihilator and it absolutely chews up air and ground vehicles at ranges up to 500m and it requires nominal skill & COORDINATION to be effective. I have the Annihilator, I have the Hawk and I have the striker and hands down I am absolutely brutal with the Striker.

Now, if the TR want to continue to defend the striker having Lock-on capabilities that's fine. Then the NC need to DEMAND an ESRL that can hit BOTH Air and Ground vehicles beyond 295M with relative ease.

I have a TR on connery a VS on Waterson and a NC on matherson and after playing a large amount of time with each I do think the NC need something.
My TR character on connery is my main and its really hard to understand how these forums claim TR are easy mode because on connery TR always seem to have lower pop when compared to the VS and we usually lose but I still love TR.
My VS on waterson is always fun to play, yeah they are under pop but VS weapons are fun to play with and VS maxes are the funnest to play with(everyone always runs away without even shooting). I do think VS waterson command does give up easily sometimes but other times they surprise me.
My NC on matherson, At first I thought "wow NC are just whining these weapons are awesome" but then after playing for a couple weeks I noticed a couple weaknesses and one of the most noticeable is the max especially early on. The VS max is pretty good even without any certs but the NC max is pretty bad overall unless you get into hugging distance(which is dumbfire range). The reload time on the NC max weapons is usually the reason NC lose max to max fights ( maybe a slightly larger magazine or a faster reload time can help). Also the max shield while looking cool doesn't help as much as lockdown or Zoe. I know a lot of TR won't agree with the lockdown but maxed out lockdown with bursters or fractures is awesome.

I also want to say another problem with NC besides the faction's slight weaknesses is the forums, if you keep saying a faction is very underpowered people will start to believe it and just not even try. That's the problem with NC command lately too, they think "well VS and TR have better everything so why even try, lets just stay on Indar"

Not sure about the VS but look at the TR, they have a rocket launcher that hits both air and land, they have a Max that only needs one weapon to kill infantry and vehicles. Their weapons carry more ammo and have better accuracy and higher RoF. It's not hard to figure out why the TR are on top over the other two factions.

Stop complaining about TR lockdown, be lucky we dont have the changed version of it from PS1(When you see a locked down MAX, FLANK IT!). Also, NC scat max is awesome it destroys people. Dont engage an enemy that is far away just let them come to you ( do NC scats have the 3 different firing functions like they did in PS1? one was upclose and very fast firing, the second was medium range with slower fire, and last mode was range with a very slow rate of fire.)

Oh please, TR whined just as badly when they were underpopped. And let's not forget the TR that whined about ZoE and prenerf-prenerf-prenerf scatmax.

Perhaps now is the time for the devs, in the name of balance, remove all but a few weapons...and slowly reintroduce a particular set of weaponry as stuff is tweaked to be balanced.

No they dont. Its point blank use or slug ammo. It would be a nice fix.
Currently Nc max is stuck at point blank till they change loadout.
You cant flank biolab lockdowns. You can go over with LA but good luck holding points against organised outfits with only light assaults.

Its a different game to ps1 mate

Yeah if they gave the NC maxes that ability from PS1 things would probably be much better, It shouldn't be a cert but a fire mode like semi auto and such. PS2 devs really REALLY need to go back and look at PS1 and bring back a lot of the features from that game.

Nerf the zoe max and the striker, or buff nc weapons to be on par and not suck.

As for this little pr stunt SOE is pulling: LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Come find me when they do something that merits my attention and doesn't cause me to laugh scornfully at the entire concept. I fight on my terms, not theirs. The world domination series is garbage, end of story.

Before the WDS Preseason ends, I am hoping for one more warp gate rotation. I hope the NC will get a boost from it just like it appears the Vanu did. I hope that will help the NC feel better about what is a very good Faction.

I logged into both my VS and TR alts this week, so I'm not too worried. I'm getting my free boost, so alls good, right?

Once the devs fix the NC aesthetic I'll jump on the bandwagon and kill for freedom.

Superficial?

Perhaps, but I play this game for fun and the NC aesthetic reminds me too much of kindergarten art class.

The truth is that the high damage, slow weaponry of the NC require some patience to operate. NC weapons are not conducive to spamming which is the dominant play style of 99% of the player base.

In the hands of non-ADD players who know how and when to pick their fights the weapon systems are devastating.

Newer folks will get frustrated quickly.

No,NC MAX doesn't have any different firing functions. And people aren't that dumb to come up close to NC MAX unless they know that they can overwelm you. Of course there are some extraordinaire individuals, like that one time I killed 7 TR noob MAXes under 1 minute without any repairs and support. But they sure deserved it, entering the room 1 by 1 or 2 by 2 and charging right at 2xhacksaw MAX. But normally people won't do that.

I have nothing important or substantial to say, but wanted to make a post.


Please buff all NC weapons.

Latency normalization favors high rate of fire and long clips. It doesn't stack with increased damage per round. Especially if more rounds miss because of large recoil. The damage differential on NC weapons is simply not enough to effectively balance the NC weapons.