[Vehicle] Magrtider: Racer or rival, and for what?

I have a fully certed stealth magrider with second to last magburn, full reload speed fpc, and similarly certed saron. For vehicle hunting like this what should i use as a chassis?

As a Prowler driver I shag Magriders 9/10 times by getting close, preferably under them, making it impossible for them to hit me. I have more trouble with Rival Combat Magriders than with Racer Magriders.

I tend to like going with Rival when your Magrider is lone-wolfing, and taking the enemy on head to head. The extra strafe and reverse speed are handy for being actually able to avoid shots at medium range, as well as disengaging without exposing your rear armour. However, it is best to have Magburner maxed out, since you are much more dependant on it for acceleration and mobility. Remember that on flat, clear, terrain you can get an extra ~5 kph by moving diagonally forward.

I like Racer when I am going in a group with other vehicles, because otherwise you will slow them down, and as the MBT you should be leading from the front. It also works very well as a pair of Magriders, because together you can take down anything difficult quickly and move on in a very aggressive play style. Also, with Magburner, a Racer Magrider can chase down nearly any other vehicles, like Racer Sunderers, Lightnings or (bad) Harassers. It is perfectly possible to play solo as a Racer Magrider in an ambush role. Cross country, a Racer+Magburner Mag can outrun anything it can't outfight (Vanguards), and is a very fun way to play Magrider. However, the lack of medium range strafe to dodge, and slower reverse speed to disengage means straight up fights are less advisable.

I always find this kind of choice funny. On one hand it seems like rival would be far better because of how everyone claims magrider strafe is OP etc. On the other hand I feel like shooting myself in the head anytime I switch from racer to rival. I have both fully certed (actually just about everything on my magrider is fully certed except full zoom/ammo capacity) and it just seems in practice that you will pull your hair out less with racer. The top speed change is huge even with having mag boost maxed out.

I think a lot of it is I tend to hide and pop out for shots rather than sit in the open relying on people to just miss because I am moving left/right. Also vs any locked down prowler strafing left/right will do almost nothing due to velocity increase and the amount of rounds coming at you. I also believe that the combination of racer + mag boost allows you to get up terrain that rival + mag boost would not allow although I have no proof on that.

Also as far as the 2 above post but if a prowler gets close to you regardless of rival/racer you are toast. Doubly so if he has a vulcan gunner.

i'm with the other guys, i love my rival chassis
strafing out the way of rockets and tank rounds is amazing


though one thing to note is that racer increases magburn speed iirc
so if you're maxing out mag burner then you might find that useful

Rivals really the only option, you have magburn for speed boost whether for acceleration or to dart to safety and hill climbing, so you might as well increase your strafe speed and make it so you can reverse strafe at 50 kph, which is almost as fast as a VG can go forward.

I use racer, because rival doesn't increase turn speed. Also acceleration sucks with rival and magburn recharges to slow.

At rank 1 they both do one very important thing - lift the maggie up and allow you to move much faster over rough terrain. The other benefits are rather insignificant, so I would call them even there.

At max rank rival allows for some great flexibility in leading your targets while still keeping your gun and your strong armor pointing at them, and what hasn`t been mentioned yet is it makes hitting stuff at range a LOT easier, since instead of turning you can just strafe your aim into position.
Reverse strafing is actually double amazing once you have maxed out magburn, since you can change your momentum from near 50 kph rev to near 50 kph towards in less then a second and still have half a tank of magburn left to position yourself behind the enemy that was chasing you.A great move for a stealth maggie the moment you break LOS, and almost always a guaranteed kill on a lone opponent.
The strafe speed and acceleration increase sadly does NOT make it possible to actually dodge shots at med range, only long range low velocity shells can be dodged effectively, in med and short ranges while the strafe speed is amasing, the acceleration is lacking and the huge hitbox of the maggie makes it an easy target even for decimators, and an even easier target for any vehicle weapon.

On the other hand racer increases your top speed.Considering the maggie is THE slowest vehicle in the game this small and marginal gain at first sight actually makes a HUGE difference, and in conjunction with the magburn ability this gain is even more important, given you can reach your top speed in less then half a tank of fuel, allowing you to keep up with running enemies just long enough to put that last couple shots in or hop behind cover when things go south.
It also increases acceleration, and that is a huge part of strafing an enemy, since to get to their weaker rear armor you can`t actually aim at them the whole time - even with rival the strafe speed is not enough,and the side to side acceleration is nowhere near as good.
On top of all that it makes moving from point A to point B much more pleasant and noticeably shorter then the alternative.

They both have their advantages, but the maybe counter-intuitive edge racer has in close range combat alongside the QOL improvements makes it the prefered choice for solo mag crews and small organised stealth squads.
On the other side the great maneuverability of rival + the benefit of easier target acquisition at range makes it that much easier to operate in the hearth of the battle and to find the fastest way around all the friendly forces surrounding you.

I personally prefer racer, but in my opinion it is more about playstyle and when used correctly in the right situation either frame provides amazing benefits over the other.

For me Racer is far better it lets you get between cover faster, chase things down, get into good flanking positions faster, run from bad situations and obviously reduces general travel time. Without it the mag is so sluggish and makes you easy pickings for harassers and increases the chances of prowlers and vannies closing the gap to you and as we all know a mag in face to face CQC is a dead mag, no amount of strafing is gonna help you in that fight.

Rival only really helps in the mid-long range fights but we already do fine in those and you can get a similar effect with racer+ magburner by tapping burner to change direction during your reloads.

Racer all the way, best for flanking and generally moving around. Once you get the hang of it you can scale the mountains with ease just like you have Rival on.

-Phatalend

Once you go racer, you'll never go back.
Rival is good for beginners, as it lets you practice strafing around shots and rockets and is somewhat easier to climb hills. However Racer allows for fast in and out, which is essential if you are flanking.
With Rival you go 50kph, but with racer you go 65. Rival has better reverse and side to side speed, but the difference is minuscule, unless you're at really long ranges.

Rival for me is too slow, Racer is a must on my mag.

Without racer, the Magrider is the absolutely slowest vehicle in the game, so for me racer is the only acceptable option.

If you are driving "diagonally" you are able to go almost/about 55kpm.
KRODIN mostly seems to use Rival on his Magrider ... just saying.

But your points are well taken, though the first chassis I maxed on Mag is Rival. Although KRODIN did tell me last weekend that I should have both maxed.

Personally, I have spent more time gunning in a Magrider than piloting one, and will say that it seems like it might be a touch easier to be a *gunner* in a Racer than Rival Maggie. The side-to-side strafing of a Rival equipped Mag can mess up shots by the gunner.

I switched to Racer long long ago and never looked back.

Most of the things Rival allows you to do, you can do with Racer with a little experience under your belt, Rival only makes it a little bit easier (hill climbing, general maneuverability, etc) About the only scenario I see Rival being worth it is in front-to-front duke it out armor line vs armor line battles. The type of battles where you'll be doing a lot of peek-and-shoot in a slowly moving line (either forward or reverse)

Any battle in which you choose to flank, you'll want to pick Racer due to the Mag's horrible speed. A good flank needs timing, if you can't get to the right position as quickly as possible, you're more exposed and likely to be seen if you are taking that much longer to get there. Especially if you are doing long flanks, rather than the normal positional short flanks.

Just listen to this man right here, I learned so much from his videos. Lead to my completion of the directive yesterday too heh.

For Stealth, Racer.

If instead you go with Armor (only 100 certs) then Rival.

Different combat tactics. I replied to your other thread with how I use my Rival + Side Armor.

ALWAYS Magburner though. Always FPC. And Always Saron.

I do have a PC + PPA loadout for Inf farming, but I rarely RARELY ever pull it, and only if there's enough AV on our team and a foot zerg bearing down...

and even then I'm still more apt to go Harasser or Lightning for AI anyways.

If I could swap loadouts, I'd actually use it more... that and my AA top gun loadout which I only ever pull if I'm solo.

You were getting much better over our long *** run that night though.

The only thing I'd say is that you can fire faster than you are with accuracy. You wait longer than you need to on CoF reset.

But yeah, ^witness right here to all the incomming fire I was able to survive using Rival + Side Armor, though it was DAMN close a couple time lol (side armor definitely made the difference)

PS: For side armor (well, any mag pilot should set this, but Side Armor it's essential) set vehicle turret turn (magrider strafe) bindings.

I've used Magburn to still keep on a fleeing Harassers tail long enough for finishing blow plenty a' time....

Over distance it's surely the slowest, but the Magburn if used properly can help minimize the disadvantage in combat.

W+A/D movement also gets you up to 55KPH.

i actually didnt make that other thread

some tr did

thanks for the advice though

Oh right, I did reply to your post though

But yeah, Rival + Armor is the best way to make the Magrider more of a front-line tank if that's what you want.

Stealth + Racer plays more to the Mags benefits in many ways, but the strafe speed difference is quite noticeable IMO.

Rival still doesn't let you outright dodge shots (until long range), but if you get good with timing of enemy reloads, you can get good at changing directions at just the right time (right as they're about to fire) which will throw off a bunch of shots. Racer can't really do that as well.

I'm going to cert into Racer + Stealth myself, since I'm tanking more again recently (did nothing but fly the last year) as I've got someone to actually gun for me now so I'm pulling MBT's again.... but I might even just opt to cert into a Saron for my Harasser instead honestly. Less firepower, but a lot more speed. Saron + FPC on rear armor is beast though... but once you're exposed you don't have the same escape chance that a harasser does behind enemy lines (still done it even with side armor Rival Mag... but man is it hard to get away )