Show me these stats you are going off of, because I believe according to the DA and oracle stats for the MBT Marauder it was barely above the Canister in terms of overall utility/performance. Secondly Higby doesn't know crap when it comes to MBT secondaries, and considering he called the Marauder (a weapon which is almost never used on the Prowler) the "gold standard" is a load of crap. Outside of spreadsheets Higby knows nothing of the Marauder, and doesn't even have an hours worth of time in a Prowler and likely hasn't even gunned a Marauder. Furthermore how could he know about a weapon which he doesn't see used in battle on a Prowler. The "risk" you speak of is unacceptable, you shouldn't have to put yourself at considerable risk just to try and use a weapon. It's also a risk the Magrider the Magrider doesn't have to use in order to utilize the PPA. You don't have to worry about LA flying directly above your tank, a blind spot in any view, since you can be over 100 meters away. The Magrider has the same armor and health as the Prowler, it has hovering and strafing capabilities that give it unique capabilities allowing it to stay competitive with other tanks. I figured you had learned your lesson on Reddit when people showed you examples of showing stats of the Magrider doing well, which then made you go silent, yet you figured you could act as if the Magrider is some horrible tank that makes it justifiable to have the only truly viable ESAI secondary. Vortexs are powerful but not competitive enough. I would have no issues with them receiving a buff as long as they received a range cap which didn't exceed their render range. Both Fractures and Vortexs could use a buff, I see Ravens and Falcons used a ton though. Don't go off topic though... People started using the PPA because the Saron got nerfed, the PPA usage rised dramatically after the Saron AI nerf, not because people called it OP. You don't even know what went down on your own faction.... If people aren't pulling a weapon it normally means the alternatives are clearly superior or the weapon itself is flawed. In the Marauder's case it's inferior and it's a flawed weapon when used on a MBT. What you are saying regarding Higby are facts, yet so are mine, what you said about the reason why the PPA are not entirely accurate, mine statements about the PPA can be verified by the number of PPA users skyrocketing directly after the Saron nerf. Try to accept that if I'm dismissing what you say it's for good reason, normally factual and well supported ones.
Basically, but then how could he know anything when his combined time for all 3 MBT's doesn't even exceed a hour? Higby Tank Usage!
I would trust Higbys opinions above some subjective "I want my weapon to be OP" opinion any day. It's funny how everybody dismisses the devs, as long as they disagree with them. If they agree with them, it's immediately a "Yeah, The devs agree with me" scenario. If the Devs said the Striker was bad, you would immediately agree with them. If they said it's good, you would call them stupid. I have numerous times said that if the Devs came out and said that the ZOE is fine, i would trust them. Of course, it seems that i'm one of the few people in this whole community that have the guts to admit when they are wrong. Do you really think that Higby is the only one responsible for all balancing done in this game? The "Risk" i'm talking about, is something that you don't even need to take when you lock down 250m away and spam the enemy spawn-room with your Anchor prowler. You should know, given how you have over 11 000 kills with your Prowler and does literally nothing else all day long. 11 000 kills, with a K/D of over 7, and you complain about AV weapons and think it's unfair that more spam requires you to take any risk whatsoever. The PPAs effective range is no longer than a Prowler, and the Prowler does not need to sacrifice any AV ability to do it. As long as the Prowler and longest ranged is the biggest farmmachine in PS2, you have no case whatsoever. Higby himself said that the Prowler is the biggest infantry killed out of all the MBTs. Once the AMgrider and Vanguard can farm TR infantry as easily as the Prowler, then you can get a good secondary. Until then, you have absolutely no justification for your complaints at all. Yeah, the Magrider have the same health. It also has a much lower range. Reddit? You must be joking? Reddit have no idea what they are talking about whatsoever, under any given circumstance. And in case you didn't notice, i removed my account because i literally could not stand to surround myself with people whom i had such incredibly low regard for. J ust because you had a bunch of TR like yourself downvote everyone that disagreed with you, doesn't mean you are right. It only means that you refused to accept any opposing views. Which is funny, because it's just what you accused me of doing. Everything you accused me of doing, you did yourselves 5 times over. Maybe the reason the MAgrider does well is because you cannot find a 1/2 magrider if you so looked for 5 hours. Every single Magrider you find is 2/2, and every single Prowler is 1/2. No ,the Vortexes does not need a buff, nor should they have their range reduced. Range is all they got going for them. It's an analogy that is perfectly on topic, one that you obviously did not understand. No, i have just told you that's not the case at all. You really don't listen do you? I picked a perfect analogy, the VS MAX being percieved as weak, and you completely ignore it. You're a waste of time. I will not be bothering to reply to you any more, because you completely ignore everything that people say that corrects you. Good bye, and please stop spamming these forums with "Tanks needs buffs" posts, until you have actually bothered to get a single infantry weapon over 100 kills. I am confident than the Devs know more than well enough about this games balance to ignore you.
After trying the Marauder post-patch, my verdict is that it's a little better but the dropoff still feels a little too much, at least on the tank version. I haven't gotten a chance to try it on the Harasser yet, but it's always been better on the Harasser than the MBT due to the more mobile platform so I imagine it's pretty decent there. The Harasser/MBT versions might need to be given different stats. Of course, this is a problem that you can avoid by not putting the same weapon on different platforms in the first place. >_> Edit: the resource change seems to have created a large influx of newbie drivers though, so it has been a little difficult for me to really assess secondaries because it's hard to find a driver who doesn't suicidally charge into the enemy and get blown up in under 2 minutes.
Used the Marauder a couple times since the patch... same problem.... Prowler I'm in sits back 400 some meters shelling.... I'm woefully out of effective range. Since I have time and ammo I try playing with the trajectory to get some hits. Rarely works, got bored, left Prowlers for more interesting game play.
Spent over 30m playing a Marauder on my Harasser last night. Won't lie, I went 25-2. Over 40 minutes. I did enjoy the increased velocity, but I found we still struggled to play the range game properly, and between the new speed and learning to account for the recoil again, we went right back to the Fury after the second death. My driver asked why we pulled the Marauder. I told him I need 300 more kills for the Harasser Directives, and we never have to touch it again. His response? 'Good.'
I need something like 290 kills for auraxium. Taco fell in love with it yesterday though. So not sure...need to try it. Seems like they nerf and buff stuff every 8 months or so. So come April 2015, the changes from last night's patch will be reverted and called a patch. When managing liability, risk and debt: RE-BRAND!
So, we're almost tied. Perhaps a race is in order? I think I have 298 left. How can Taco love the Marauder? Give the man a Fury and let's get back to work. I will say, the one thing I haven't mentioned about the Marauder: it doesn't damage armor, so you can farm a spawn Sundy until you get killed, without hurting it. We did this on Hossin last night, and frankly, it was really boring. We had alot more fun baiting Magriders into our defensive mine traps, lol.
Sure let's have a race. Winner gets to lead the next ECUS Harasser op? I find farming boring after 2 minutes. It never lasts that long for me though cause of lockons but ya. I just want auraxium and then to set it aside and go back to Halberd and Driving.
If you want an AI top gun and you're worried about C4 toting LA, get a Kobalt. It's better at hitting stuff that isn't firmly planted on the ground. As has been mentioned repeatedly, you don't want a Marauder on a Prowler if that Prowler intends to sit several hundred meters away from the action. That's more on the driver than anything else, though.
When I'm at work, lol. I think standard times are 8-10pm EST, I'm sure 'dollah can tell you. We were averaging like 1 kill per minute, it wasn't a hot fight. We probably would have logged out earlier, but we were having fun going to NC vs. VS fights and just leaving tons of mines in the swamp for them. Some things never get old... Also, I don't agree to the terms of the race. I think loser should have to lead, so the obvious better gunner can keep being obviously better.
As dstock said: Tuesdays 8-10 Eastern time. How come? I'd enjoy the break and besides, as a former member of NUC you've been harassing longer than I have and you've probably had the chance to use the Marauder in various buildings that Mercid taught you all how to get to, so you'd have a vast repertoire of experience to share. It would be fun!
Wait, Tuesdays only? I'll never make that, lol. I used to lead AirOps for TRAF. I made people work the UI to their advantage. Before we took off, we'd use way points to mark our area of operations, intended targets, and we'd also set a squad waypoint for people to copy, either as an escape vector or ammo resupply point. It just feels like too much work when you're Harassering. You either need all your focus on driving (FAST! Gotta go FAST!!!), or you should be watching all angles as the gunner. I don't enjoy leading vehicle squads anymore, unless it's like two buggies playing follow the leader. Even for indoor, I still prefer the Fury. Mercid taught me a lot, especially about Libs, but most of my Harasser strategy evolved from well after I played with NUC. I told you I want to make guides, and I'll still do that (when I have time), even if I stop playing in the next month or so. At this point, I consider my efforts in playing solely as a means to demonstrate to SOE how wrong they are about the way they're attempting to balance things. 'Infantry need their own spaces to fight' -minor rework to some bases, add walls, etc.- Guess what, those are the best bases to jump into or climb through, and then farm. There is one base in particular on Amerish that you are NOT supposed to be able to get into. Of course, all you have to do is point your buggy at a 45 degree angle to the wall where the 'posts' are that are supposed to stop vehicles, hit turbo, wall-ride over the posts, and you're in. So, you just drive up the 'secondary exit route' walkway on the far side of the spawn, and you shell the spawn from 60m away (from the back side: guys running to the point never even see you, until their death screen) with your grenade launcher, at an angle where the infantry have to fully expose themselves to fire, if they want to hit you. I still maintain the greatest problem with this game is map design. People like to say base design, but that's not really true. If vehicles actually had an arena (say, by expanding the minimal areas of open space between bases) and any real role to perform (how many outfits just laugh at Galaxies and Sunderers? This game doesn't actually need transports, why do you think there's so much QQ about 'battle' loadout transports? Because they're not needed as transports!), like engaging each other to control the open space between bases so their transports can move unhindered, I think the 'vehicles farming infantry bases' problem would slowly bleed away. Sure, people would still do it, but they'd have to team up and work together to push the balance on the ground to a point where they can afford for people to try to farm the spawn or whatever. I'm feeling ranty today. lol
It can be a lot of work, I'll agree, but once you get the hang of it, it's not much more difficult than any other high pressure situation. Though I've never worked a food market on Bazzare day or a Trading floor, I have done some level of high risk crisis management stuff in two different jobs: One in IT and my current one, Financial Systems Support. Leading a harasser platoon with tools like separated voice channels in TS, whisper lists; Waypoint markers and the mutual understanding of how I use them - has made it very easy. For lack of a better example, think Zoid, but instead of dealing with squad logistics while in his Fracture MAX and commanding his SLs in combined arms strategies and Lily in TS; it's strictly harassers. So in our case: This was TS last night, at 1:30am just before I went to bed. I still have plenty of time to be an active member of the combat initiative, but I admit, I prefer driving when administrating/leading. Tuesdays only is a special time because we focus on specific tactics or strategies with an eye to develop the group cohesion and synergy between new partnerships. The rest of the time is kind of like ops, only it's casual. For instance, I wouldn't ask someone doing a ride-along to hold himself up to the standard of an ECUS guy. So when are you free to harass? You are ranty, that's for sure!
That's just our outfit ops but casual harasser is every other time; most heavily evenings and weekends. Oh and after ops. Come by TS: voice.ecuscavalryoutfit.com
Yeah, I hear you. I was shocked when I logged out around 12-1am and saw we still had 10+ people online for the outfit. I still don't like the comms setup, I'm not sure if that's on you or me. I'm never on for ops, but for non-ops, there's just way too many people/too much chatter. Swift and I are spoiled, we usually have our own channel to play in, or maybe we'll play with the REGS squad and have 3-6 other guys. When I lead Air, I would do it as a Lib pilot. In a Harasser, I can't do it driving, you need to pay too much attention (I would never turn on cruise-control and hit my map in a Harasser: that's like guaranteed suicide). I also don't like to do it gunning, because when I need to make on-the-fly waypoint or strategy calls, I'm also trying to time Halberd shots or gauge lead for my AV Fury. I want to teach a class for you guys on how to **** bases. Every single strategy with several provided examples of how to get in to or on top of most of the bases in this game. My main issue (previously) is that some of the techniques are REALLY risky, and I didn't want to waste peoples resources/timers learning stupid jumps they may use twice a month. With the new resource system, though, it may just be worth it. Also, Chopst1ck has been asking me when I'm going to get around to those 'Harasser Strategy Flowcharts' I promised a few weeks ago. They are in the works, but I'm working every night this week, and I need some time each day to work on my other job, also. I expect to have them done in September. EDIT: Missed your question. Weekdays before 3pm and after ~10pm, and all day Sunday. I don't usually game for all that time, but that's when I'm around. I wouldn't waste my time ranting if I couldn't type almost 100 wpm, and knew that there are a few people who really enjoy what I have to say. That said, without an audience, I'd probably be 3 ranks higher in CS:GO ELO, lmao.
