NAR isn't intended to be a tactical aid. I e it should repair between fights, not during. It will still be a good convenience to reduce downtime + not force you to fly as an engineer.
Maybe thats exactly the reason for the Nerf? NARS is meant to repair you between fights, so you dont need to land for repairs, wich is a huge advantage. Its not meant to do evasive maneuvers until it kicks in to rpair you mid fight. Stealth and Composite (Air version) need some rework, that is out of question, but that doesnt mean that NARS shouldnt get some balance changes to get it more into the role its meant to have.
It's not that big of a deal. I run NAR on most of my vehicles anymore and if I'm safe long enough to get it to kick in after 8 seconds, 12's not going to make a difference. I'm generally using that time to reposition and take stock anyway so spending an extra 4 seconds doing that is actually probably for the best At least they didn't touch how much it repairs for, which used to be much less than it is now and was real bad
The best kind But seriously, it's not like they nerfed the damage percentage that it restores per second. ESF pilots will still be able to afterburn halfway across the map before the cooldown timer expires. Engineers will still be the most effective means of patching up vehicles quickly. This is just a minor nerf amid what seems to be a broad policy of nerfing AI farm.
Does anyone know if they changed the NAR time on the MAX, as well? Or is it strictly all the vehicle versions?
Really after thinking about this a little, its not just that they are nerfing it a little and yes it isn't huge but it is a 50% increase. But It's that it isn't in the patch notes and that they ninja'd it into it under the radar so they don't get flak for it. Very untrustworthy and what will they do in the future? How far will it go from here? Yes it isn't the first but this is (I think) the first one that just shows it obviously to everyone without telling us, like how a max shield can not stop explosions that happen infornt of you deals full damage it feels and looks.
on one hand, I don't like anything that nerfs my ESF, but on the other hand, lvl 1 NAN is working for me now, so as long as they make NAN scale the cooldown from 13-12.75-12.5-12.25-12 seconds instead of the 12-8 seconds difference we have now I'll be pretty okay with the change. That change would decrease some of the non-skill gap between new and veteran pilots, and makes libs slightly easier to kill.
granted, i'm pretty mad about this nerf too. but keep in mind that: 1) this is the test server, which means a) things aren't final/fully balanced yet and b) undocumented changes could also have happened totally unwanted and could even be bugs 2) the game departments aren't always aware of all the operations and decisions other divisions make. like the design/balance department could have forgotten to tell the patch notes guy or community/forums representative all the relevant info. this would not be the first time this has happened, especially for a "low-priority" PTS patch that was just released recently that's why i think we shouldn't freak out too much about this. again, unwanted changes happen. and if this NAR nerf really does go live, people have already voiced their opinion beforehand, so the devs know how unpopular the change is within the community
<.< don't mind the NAR change. I only have it so i don't have to land every 5 minutes to repair anyways. Only place it sucks for is the Lightning where it is essential and those seconds could mean a difference between life and death -w- However as for composite armour. It should give a small boost in resitance towards all projectiles. including ESF, Liberator, Lock ons and tank rounds. Even if not much it should add a little towards all. -w-I mean you are putting some extra "armour" on the thing
I just noticed something in the OP that I overlooked ... NAR has been changed around a lot from beta to now. It once was passive on all Vehicles, some other things, like Lib Afterburner was also passive. I still have footage of a NAR, Flare, AfterBurner, Composite, Racer Liberator ... (crazy when you come to think of it with the current limited 3 choices) But it eventually late beta turned into a defensive upgrade and it was 12 seconds on all Vehicles. A few guys were whining around that NAR was no attractive choice, so NAR got buffed with shorter activation times, that happened I think about a year ago. From there it mostly remained unchanged, until now ...
I'll be pretty okay with this nef if the minimum level goes to 14 seconds, that would reduce the equipment-gap between newer and older players.
SOE likes to nerf what EVERYone is using - if 95%+ of players are using an option, you can bet it will be nerfed. The problem is, people use what works. Stealth isn't nearly good enough to justify the cert cost - It's nice for ESF A2A sneak attacks, and if you can cut your engines and drift down (At night, ideally) you may be able to take a few infantry / armor units by surprise, assuming they render. For ground units, stealth is much more useful for flanking and sneak attacks, not to mention smaller vehicles that can fit in bases (Stealth / Scout radar flashes FTW) ... In general, Zerg V Zerg, NAR is the only option. Comp Armor is a valid option for certain ESF / Lib playstyles, but on a world where every molecule wants to eat your vehicle, and every inch of plant matter is capable of withstanding a falling moon... landing sucks. Getting out of your vehicle, thereby allowing it to crush you while you repair sucks. Taking flack from earth via a wormhole 942,635 hexes away and having to land somewhere to repair sucks. Having your gunner swap seats, causing the vehicle to shift so abruptly it's as though someone tossed a bag of 900 pound NC clones into a bag of bonus checks really sucks, eventually leading to an explosion of nanites and world-ending debris really sucks. For vehicles, (non sundy) armor just blows. Due to how hit detection works, any attack from any angle has a chance to hit any part of your vehicle, so that % damage reduction on any given surface turns into a % to maybe reduce armor, sometimes, and only on tuesdays. NAR is a good balance of functionality and drawback. People can see you on radar easily, you take predictable damage once you get used to facing certain unit types, and if you manage to escape... you can keep going, rather then having to find a rock large enough to hide behind. Having options is nice, but for your average new player... NAR is the only real option.
I certainly expect they should give us a cert refund for such a sweeping change. As it stands today, NAR is only marginally useful as a choice in some instances because they already heal damage so slowly.
