AI VS MAX

I've only played infantry so far and not even touched MAX, I want to change that now and I want to know;
Should I be using Nebula or Blueshift?
Should I be using charge or ZOE?
Which suit slot do you suggest?

Thanks.

Depends on the situation. ZOE was "fixed" according to the last patches but i think its still near useless. But its the best thing in there. Scr@w Charge. So I die.
I only use Nebula (with ext mags), Comets, Vortex and bursters. But starting out the Blueshift is more accurate.

Already made the first mistake in picking VS.

Tell that to pre-nerf ZOE when VS Max was the most OP thing out there and the others were asking for his mercy.

You mean 3 years ago? Anyway to OP Blueshift and charge; use charge to get out of fire basically because ZoE is still useless (additional damage taken for same ttk).

Blueshift for everything that isn't hugging engage distance (else cosmos). Charge all the way, zoe still a selfnerf with no significant gain.
Run either flak or kinetic depending on your scenario.

Against vehicles and LA serving bases -> flak
Indoor and ai exclusive -> kinetic

I always run EOD4 too, so I can see where c4/mine traps are waiting for me.

Yeah, I mean 3 years ago. I started then, I chose VS, stick with it. Then I left the game for over a year. Back then, VS was no mistake as that guy claimed.

Everyone uses blueshifts. Every certed MAX I face wield those giant crab claws.

if you have the certs always go for the accuracy weps, blueshifts for VS are the way to go,
MAX is supposed to be the "in your face" room pushing unit,
but aslong as they are so squishy to rockets and C4 they will never fill that role correctly,
Blueshifts give you the much needed ability to down things quickly from across the room

tl;dr you'll live longer and be overall more use with blueshifts.

now that the ridiculous range limit is gone ZoE is an amazing option for long range Av/AA again were you won't be getting shot all of the time, so you can simply enjoy a 10% damage bonus

The problem faces the same issue as AI weapons though; your actual ttk is highly unlikely to change because you're using dual weapons and put out more shots before the kill shot hits. So the net result is you take 20% more damage but don't really achieve any faster ttk and light up like a Christmastree screaming shoot me.

Keep in mind the Charge ability to likely getting removed, and being replaced with Emergency Repair, which seems to be a sort of "Fire Suppression" ability.

I still see the updated ZOE to be still suicidal with it's +20% incoming damage self-debuff. The insignificant +10% damage buff isn't worth the risk since you'll probably die instantly with all incoming damage from any source gets boosted by 20%. No thank you. They would need to flip those numbers before I even think of investing certs into that line.

The issue with this ability in the first place is that its extremely powerful in a situation where you arent likely to take damage, such as long range AV or spawn room AA/AI/AV. Flipping those numbers would be obscene. Maybe if the damage buff only applied to max damage range it would be able to be buffed. This way You get a more noticeable damage increase the closer you are to the target, and the closer you are to the target the higher chance you have of taking damage, balances out if you ask me.

Still all risk with no reward. Why would anyone give a roomful of enemies a +20% damage bonus against you in exchange to kill an opponent for 1 less bullet?

I'm saying IF they changed the ability to work like this, then they could buff it, I never said it should stay at the stats it has right now.

EDIT: Keep in mind, when it comes to a weapon that kills in 5 or 7 shots, one less bullet to kill a full health target is a pretty good difference, even more so in crowds because that 1 bullet you're saving for each target stacks up. Another reason why i think the damage buff should be based on max damage range is because when you look at the other faction specific MAX abilities, they are close range based. Look at the Aegis Shield and Lockdown(albeit Lockdown can be used for long range). Aegis Shield is worthless in a lock range scenario, and Lockdown is helpful but the accuracy of their weapons hinders it's potency.

Actually zoe is terrible in most cases. A 167 damage model is boosted to 184 in it's best, in fact zoe does almost nothing to AI weapons except increase the range it keeps its TTKs, like quasars go out to 15-20 meters with a 167 damage model which is not bad at all but 20% extra damage....you'll basically want to stay laneholding with an engie hugging your ***. For AV weapons, every 5 blasts is one extra shot, with bursters you cut down TTK on ESFs by .4 seconds.

Don't get me wrong, it got better but in almost every single situation it isn't paired up with a precise optimal weapon at x damage range it is strictly worse than charge.
Then again, all the max es abilities are pretty awful unless paired up with exact weapon for x situation.

Blueshifts/extended magazines/fully upgraded charge/ fully upgraded flak armor

Except you're missing two things which is true in reality; first of all you're using dual wielding weapons. This means your saved bullet is not actually saved because you fire that second bullet anyway with your second weapon. Which ties in with the second point; you don't count your shots and go "Oh I've fired the four shots required now" but hold down the buttons and hose your target which means you'll waste just as many bullets as before (as you'll not stop fire the moment the person dies due to lag and human reaction time).

That makes the whole point of ZoE useless; it's the exact problem as Magburn has. It is either OP (see omni burn suggestion for better dodging) or useless; it can never be one or the other which is why the whole ability needs to be reworked and replaced rather than scratching on the surface. NC has a defensive buff, TR has an offensive buff and VS should be the smart guys who do odd things so give VS the ability to enter a time bubble and be frozen and take no damage (nor deal any damage) for X seconds, or the ability to absorb enemy shots (absorb the nanite and turn them into health) or run mode but can't fire etc. The current ZoE however is never going to work because it will either be OP (see original version) or useless (see any version afterwards).

Hopefully charge sticks with us.

the big downside for the current ZoE is that it doesn't offer anything for AI play.

Cosmos/Quasar: 167 dmg, 6 shot kill.
Cosmos/Quasar with ZoE: 183 dmg, 6 shot kill.

Nebula/Blueshift: 143 dmg, 7 shot kill.
Nebula/Blueshift with ZoE: 157 dmg, 7 shot kill.

if they want to make it worthwhile it needs to be more than a 10% increase so it actually does something.