Controversial Topic: NC Max

Actually, I think that may be a nudibranch, rather than a slug.

Really... remind me when bright orange became a VS thing? I barely see any teal anywhere!

Anyhow, I'm just not digging it. It's so... plain. Got a "fading" thing going around the edges and the aforementioned clashing orange spikes. That's about it.



This NC number is not only color-coordinated, but features an eye-catching and interesting use of dark navy blue and bright yellow for a shocking contrast. The splotches themselves are at once asymmetrical yet balanced.



This one uses a small amount of yellow for careful accenting, and instead much of the body is split between light and extremely dark blue. This suggests a sense of mystery, an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.



Although some might argue that the blue fringes and spots on this one are actually "purple", I would say that's part of the brilliance in this color scheme. By making use of seemingly-purple shades of blue, this coloration is not only fashionable but confuses potential predators as well. In other ways this particular specimen evokes the glory of the sun, as the NC liberation of Auraxis will soon light up the land.



Regal yet subdued, these colors exude confidence. This one understands that fashion doesn't always have to scream, but a simple, classy design can speak for itself. The grey-blue is appropriate for all settings from casual to business, and the golden yellows offer an interesting if reserved accent.



Long continuous stripes add a slimming and hip effect to this specimen. Electric blue lined with bright yellow provides a focal point which is reminiscent of lightning. A speedier (looking) slug there never will be!

Nature clearly has a NC bias as it is forcing it's faction colour onto others. I suggest we nerf nature so that the NC slugs can't wear purple camo to blend into the vanu slug troops. This is mostly a problem at night as the NC slugs become hard to differentiate between vanu slugs and NC slugs.

It's hard to find purple and teal slugs also

They're not bad agaisnt maxes as long as you keep the range short. Im no fan of the shotguns having to shoot 4 and sometimes 6 not so accurate slugs for most kills it's non-stop reload compared to how good the blueshifts and mercies are. But it's decent versatility and you can win most max v max if you play smart.

Slugs are fine

Sometimes I wonder if I'm playing the same game as the rest of you. It's not that hard to use slugs well if your aim is decent, particularly with Mattocks. Pace your shots, stop moving when you go for long-range targets, and aim for the upper body.

Fun fact: you can one-clip any non-KA MAX (i.e. most of them) with any AI weapon, all body shots, and slugs, if you're within the range where you could do the same with buckshot. If you're further out than that, the advantage obviously goes to slugs. KA5 MAXes can be killed before the reload with Grinders and 100% headshots, which sounds unrealistic, but remember that headshots are easy on MAXes, and you can finish them off with a Punch or two if you have to. You have enough DPS advantage to get away with it.

In my experience most people who complain about how useless NC slugs are use them on Grinders or Hacksaws. On Mattocks or Scattercannons they are as accurate as anything else while standing and have the best accuracy while crouching.

Every time I see a thread requesting NC get railguns instead of shotguns I just laugh.

Name something that has been nerfed that WAS NOT OP.

Top performer and overperformer is two things that a lot of people confuse. A lot of top performers that were not overperforming were nerfed over the years.

Nudibranches! Just dont touch them. I heard many are poisonous, not to mention icky.

Some nice slug (or whatever) pictures there

As for shot gun slugs, I have a reasonable amount of success using slugs in my Mattocks and I don't bother with ordinary shot any more. Accuracy is, of course, limited by the fact that we have no sights, but even so, I have killed a fair number at range.

Slugs can work, but honestly you're just better off playing heavy, you'll get more kills than using slugs, only time NC max is effective is without slugs in confined quarters, otherwise you're just using too much ammo for very little in return, 4-6 slugs past pellet range is not effective when you have 10 rounds in the mag, NC needs a viable medium range arm besides the AV weapons. Even if its something thats roughly the same fire rate as the shotguns but has 20-30 rounds in the mags.

Especially with the upcoming VS max changes with ZOE, which essentially turns them into an NC max but with a lot more suppressive fire capabilities, and they can turn it off whenever they feel.

You have to be almost point blank to kill a max with slugs, or get headshots with KA or not, once they're past 10m though you're toast, its just not reliable to use slugs against a max, you're bound to miss a shot or 2 with all the moving back and forth, idiots running in front of you ect..

I'm one of the few in my outfit who has everything on their max completely certed out. Slug rounds, even on the mattocks, comes down to luck more than anything to get medium range kills. By equipping slugs, it seriously destroys the max's ability to successfully fight other maxes.

It's better to leave the medium range killing power to the heavies. That's what a team is for.

The Ranger

Past 10m, buckshot will perform far worse.

well they are right NC scatter max should only be able to outperform other maxes in short ranges with the scatter weapons thats the whole purpose of them, Remove the slugs and give people the certs back its a easy fix.

Past 10m it doesn't matter you're dead, you're not surviving the 3+ second reload. I've given up with the NC max, it takes the stars aligning for it to be useful at all, and this is entirely because there aren't enough rounds in the mag, and extended mags is required for it to be even remotely useful, which is an additional 1k certs on top of the 2k you pay for your mattocks, then another what is it 500 for both slugs? You equip 3.5k worth of certs on your max to have a shot at killing things out to 20m+ only to get murdered anyways because you have 0 sustained fire and completely screwed against another max.

NC max needs a real medium ranged weapon with some sustained fire, or just buff the damn ammo count in the mags, remove slugs and allow NC maxes to have choke settings on their shotguns so that they aren't rock paper scissors all the time.

Realistically, no. You don't duel other MAXes on the ice flats of Esamir (or if you do, you bring Falcons). You break LoS for the reload, or at worst you bravely charge to safety. This is why most medium-range AI MAX encounters end in a draw, i.e. neither one dies. At 10m+, other MAXes are usually dead last on my target priority list, but I still get a fair number of MAX kills at that range, because I can reliably do a lot of damage to them quickly and take out half-health MAXes who probably assumed they were at a safe distance.

I use a hacksaw on the right (without slugs) and the default scattercannon on the left (with slugs), both with extended mags. I do have a decent headshot-rate with the slug-scattercannon, as i use it for more well-placed-shots and the hacksaw just for - you know.
Overall i wouldn`t buy slugs again, as i didn`t notice an imporvement at range and i use the scat-max just for extreme-cqc anyhow.

I also tried slugs on different shotguns as the piston or mauler and removed it again, same goes for the laser btw. Piston w/o laser was good, piston /w laser was meh. In the end the laser removes an advantage of shotties, which is the spread, so u hit even when you`re lagging or missing shots closely. Generally i dont use shotguns at all.

sprinkle some salt on it and it will become orange