The Magrider is a Heavy Harasser and NOT a Tank.

I couldn't think of a better title for this PSA, but I wanted to throw something together to give the Maggy some love given all the Magrider hate I've seen on reddit and forumside recently.



Love The Magrider in 5 very very (not very) easy steps.

The Magrider is not a tank and has no tracks. I believe this is the reason so many people just don't get it. They don't get the Maggy. They can't see how to use it, how to drive it; how not to flip it; and what they keep doing is trying to apply tracked-tank strategies to a tank that has none. And then when Racer 3 fails them, and they get killed by a Vulcan Harasser or Heat Lightning driven by a BR2, they uninstall, or make giant threads on reddit/forumside about how terrible the Magrider is and what DBG can do to fix it. Watch for these threads. They come up almost as often as I-Win-Shield or Press F to Win topics.


To be good with the Magrider, you have to unsubscribe from the notion that the Magrider is a tank. That it belongs on roads and on zero to fifteen degree hills. And that it climbs hills in 3rd gear facing backwards. Well, that last part has a bit of truth to it. Anyway, if you want to succeed with the Magrider; if you want to climb the hills of Hossin and shoot Liberators from the top of hillsides, than you have to think of the Magrider as a Heavy Harasser and ignore the fact that you pull them from the MBT station. That is the first step.

If you want to give the Magrider the old college try, than proceed to step 2. If this is too difficult, then stay in your AP Lightning or go see those harasser crazies over at /r/harasser.

The second step is to compare Racer and Rival chassis in the VR (equip Mag-Burn too) while practicing different maneuvers as you begin to understand Magrider movement behavior relative to Mouse sensitivity and inputs. Calisai has 2 Videos on that which you should watch in the following order:

1) Mouse Input Cap... slow and steady wins the race.


2) Cal's sensitivity settings (with examples)


The third step is to get stuck on youtube videos from Cal's channel and then somehow make your way to Eska's channel so you can see what the Magrider Gods can do. There's even Lindsey Stirling music too!

The fourth step is to get yourself off of youtube, and to (assuming you have chosen a chassis) go climb some hills with your side and back and wiggle wiggle wiggle your mouse as you have learned to do so. Remember to apply some Mag Burn as Turbo helps! But it shouldn't be your crutch.

According to Cal, you can do everything with Racer that Rival will let you do easily, which is why he uses Racer. I suggest you learn to do it with Rival first, because of how special the Maggy is as the transition from Rival to Racer in the Magrider can be less forgiving than from Scrapper to Racer, like in the harasser world. A lot of Magrider experts use both chassis. Chassis is up to you, so learn to use what you're most comfortable with so it aligns with your playstyle. Your playstyle may change dramatically over time.

Practice practice practice.

Step 5 is about weapons and combat tactics and strategies and for that, you should read the Magrider section of the Armorpedia. And then P1mp out your ride and have it posted on the Showcase.

Be sure to visit /r/planetsidearmor for all your armor needs.


Now go have fun!

Fodollah/Oberchingus/Smellychickens/Harasserbator

PS: I got stuck on Essence of Magriding. Damn you Eska!

yeah thats cool and all, but itd be nice if we had an MBT instead of the hover harasser, not that i dont love it

Really?

I get what you are saying, that Magrider is a gimped tank that can only perform if the driver takes 10 minutes to climb on top of some hill, at what point the battle may be already over.
There is a reason i have a fully certed tanks and 20 kills with it only, there is a reason most VS are using lightnings mostly.
But yeah, you are right, magrider is a limited vehicle that cant go one to one with another mbt's UNLESS it climbs some mountain.
How about DAT SHELL DROP, somehow you forgot to mention it, and also you forgot to mention that a 1/2 MBT can trash any 1/2 magrider that will encounter.
the strafing does not help one bit with how big is the center of the mass of magrider
WORST MBT from all
But yyeah, you took the example of one edited video, a guy who put thousands of hours on maybe getting those kilsl together, and generalise that all players are like that and can achieve that
Man, such fail...

Furthermore, this is taken directly from teh page you link, showing exactly WHY magrider sucks: it needs to get behind the targets to even stand a chance...
LOL
"
Enemy Combat

Magrider vs Vanguard

• Stealth is your best option when fighting Vanguards. In close quarters combat, if you can't get the jump on him then exit the fight and repair as the Magrider will not win in a direct fight unless it can encircle the Vanguard and land some shots in the rear.
• Surprise attacks against a Vanguard usually favor the Magrider, provided the Magrider can land its first hit in the Vanguard's rear. This is especially true if FPC and the Saron are used together. If the Magrider can only get a surprise side volley it becomes more of an equal fight. Any other surprise attack still favors the Vanguard.

Magrider vs Prowler

• If faced with a "Siege" type Prowler, avoid engaging at significant range or in open field combat. Try to close distance and get behind them quietly and without being seen, as it takes about 5-6 button presses to actually un-deploy from lockdown, leaving more than enough time to take the prowler out from the rear arc.
• If faced with a “Bruce Lee” type Prowler, engage at range if at all possible and do not let it get behind you. If it does get behind you, try and make the Prowler chase you through a minefield, or else you may as well kiss your vehicle goodbye. If you find one and catch it off guard, stay on its flanks or rear and keep your front towards it.
• Most lockdown prowlers have extreme tunnel vision and are not watching their rear. The more seasoned Prowler tankers will occasionally after a few shots do a quick perimeter check and then resume firing. Observe the Prowler before attacking if you are attempting to C4 or tank mine them to see how frequently they scan their surroundings.
• If you see a proximity radar on the Prowler, that player most likely has their minimap expanded to max and are watching it closely. HE prowlers are a joke and should be killed at your leisure.

Magrider vs Lightning

• The Magrider's Magburn ability is very useful for quickly encircling its targets so that it can land its rounds in the rear of their target. This is especially deadly for Lightnings as the Magburner can pull a 180 degree turn and drop the Lightning with two AP rounds to the rear.

The Magrider is the most vulnerable to Lightnings of the three MBTs. If the Lightning gets the first AP round into the rear of it, the chance of the Magrider wining is 50:50 without a gunner. If you get hit first, reset and don't re-engage until you've repaired. You should also be careful of Lightnings that drive underneath the Magrider, preventing them from being hit and allowing them to damage you with impunity."

SO , M8, INA WORLD WHERE YOU CANT FLANK, BECAUSE YOU CANT FLANK PROPERLY IN PS2 unless you are really lucky and playing against BR 1-10, VANU is pulling lightnings over magriders.

TL : DR is basically flank flank flank, which is the MO for most tankers anyway, with the exception of prowlers who'se MO these days is to sit as far away as possible and win at everything.

Look we've had this discussion a hundred times.

Yes the magrider is more of a hovering weapons platform and the prowler is more of a artillery piece.

The only thing that can actually call itself a main battle tank would be the vanguard and that tank is the least performing of the bunch. So maybe consider yourself lucky prowlers and magriders aren't really battle tanks.

It looks like i have hit some truth, and that made you angry and your response proves me right.
You had 0,1% credibility on your first post, now you are at 0 flat.
Pretty sure you lost all what you tried to attain, aka glorifying a useless mbt BASED ON SOME BIASED and for sure UNFAIR opinions.
I know, truth hurts isn't it?
All tanks can flank, jump in a prowler and test it. And you will have better range and damage while you do so.

really what? that i love it or that i wish we had something that didnt Have to play like a harasser to be effective?

magriders still generally outperform vanguards according to the statistics,
prowlers are usually on top of the hierarchy due to their massive pewpew.
maggy is a fantastic MBT when played to its strengths.

i run my maggy with maxed rival, NAR and fire supression, i can usually dodge most shots from other MBTs (not anchored prowlers though) and NAR kicks in and heals me up from the shots i've taken, it feels like a very solid build for tank fights
quick hint for others using rival, rather than simply ADADing move in elliptical circles, it means you are never stopped and you will move left and right much quicker than simply ADAD.

I maintain my same sentiment as before.


The Magrider is required to flank in order to succeed, yet no one seems to recognize that other tanks are perfectly capable of flanking themselves.

The few advantages a flanking Magrider bring to the table are far ought-weighed by the advantages other tanks have.

I recently, stupidly, dumped a bunch of certs into the Magrider.

Can I have a refund? Honestly I knew it was the weakest tank going in. But actually sitting in one and realizing what a waste of time the entire vehicle is, quite sobering.

There are NC and TR zergfits who do nothing but roll heavy armor. I don't think I've ever seen the VS do this, because the Magrider just isn't worth it.

Nope. Nope. Never engage a 2/2 Vanguard without backup, not in a 2/2 Maggie. . An ambushed Vanguard with competent* crew will kill you even if you put the first shot in its rear. You cant encircle them b/c VG turns the hull faster than you strafe. You cant use the magburner for the second rear hit, you'll expose your side armor and earn a side hit from a VG AP+enforcer which is just not worth a shielded rear hit..

So there is no good advice for this match up. Maybe call a backup or search another target, place some tank mines and try to bait them...

* tankers, who know what they do. Not random newbies.

Well, i wish there were some water surfaces and only magriders and sunderers could move across them... that whould be fun and unique.

theres def been times where this has worked and worked well it seems more and more like the enemy is learning though and the dodging is no longer as viable. i run stealth and racer. hit hard and ****, which can be fun but man id love to have a real MBT duel..

yeah, love the fixed turret (gags a little)

Let's look at some stats. http://ps2oraclestats.com/monthlystats/ will give you the monthly average vehicle kills per hour for each mbt primary gun and secondary gun. If we add the ap primary to the various av secondaries for each tank, that should tell us how many tank each mbt is killing. If you actually do the math, the best performing combination is the ap/halberd mag with 26.72 vehicle kills per hour. The ap/saron mag comes second at 25.56, the vulcan prowler comes in third at 24.69, and the ap/enforcer vanguard comes in fourth at 24.64. The ap/mjollnir vanguard comes in last place (if we only look at ap primaries and av secondaries) at 23.42. The actual vehicle kills per hour difference between the ap/halberd mag and the ap/vulcan prowler (ie first to third place) is higher than the difference between the ap/vulcan prowler and the ap/mjollnir vanguard (ie third place to ninth place). Some of this is probably due to a smaller, more experienced player base, but skilled players are clearly able to use the magrider well.

Sure, it isn't really a straight tank the way the other mbts are, and I'd support adding a general purpose NS mbt to help deal with this. Figure the NS mbt wouldn't have anything as powerful as the existing ES special abilities, but it would have somewhat higher base stats to compensate. Essentially, the ES mbts would be stronger when they can abuse their special abilities, and the NS mbt would be stronger if the ES mbt isn't able to get much value out of its special ability. However, giving the magrider major direct buffs is probably a bad idea.

TL;DR: You may not like the magrider, but someone is getting a lot of kills with it.

Also, do the math. Two full saron + ap gun mag volleys into the rear armor of a vanguard will deal over 6,500 damage. A vanguard has 4000 health and a 2000 health shield. If you get two full volleys into the rear armor of a vanguard, you will kill it through the shield. Since you are firing first and the magrider gun reloads faster than the vanguard's gun anyway, the vanguard should only get one volley off in return (maybe 1 vanguard shell and 4 enforcer shells). Even if that entire volley hits your rear armor for some weird reason, you still won't die. If we assume that you don't execute cleanly and the vanguard has a bit more time to fire (say 2 vanguard ap shells and 6 enforcer shots), you will still survive as long as you don't get hit in the rear armor. If you can take a decent chunk of that damage on your front armor, you'll have an even easier time. Magriders certainly don't win head to head slugfests. That doesn't mean that they can't win at all.

All of these emotional arguments in the replies, completely ignoring the fact that the Magrider *STATISTICALLY* outperforms the Vanguard. Obviously, the Prowler is still way out of line, but calling the Magrider the weakest tank is hilarious.

The main gun of the prowler has better stats than the other tanks by a significant margin, but the secondaries have worse stats by a similar margin. Prowlers are getting the same kills as the other tanks. The only difference is that prowler's main gun gets a larger proportion of the tank's kills.

im not calling it weak per-se, if you drive it like a harasser you can kick much butt. im calling weak at its MBT role(pushing battle lines forward, holding down roads, etc.) . those of us that have learned how to operate do it well but that doesnt change that its a completely different play style than the other two MBTs. and some may favor that. im not sure that i dont enjoy its different-ness to the point i WOuldnt want anything to change, but sometimes i sure wish we could just be the well.. Tank (as in terms of soaking damage).

and in reguards to dps versus a vanny, good luck keeping the vannys butt in view in they have any skill at all..

If you let a Vanny get close to you, you done goofed.