TR Max Balance - Lockdown

Lockdown is kind of bad on the max. The only really good situation to use it is vs air with double Burster, where it is hilariously over powered. I'd like to offer some idea's to make it useful out of AA and the very select few situations in defense where it can be good.

For any of these buffs I would consider losing some of the rate of fire and reload speed buffs worth it.

What makes Lockdown bad? Your a sitting duck. That means tank, decimators, and c4 all hit you very easily. C4, i dont really mind. While I would like maxed lockdown with maxed ordnance armor make it where 2c4 leave you with like 10-20% hp, its not needed. My main concern for Lockdown balance is the decimator.

Why the decimator? Its takes 2-3 missiles, and doesn't cost resources to kill you pretty easily. Normally 2 as your a sitting duck and they either get a headshot or some infantry fire with them as well. Heavies with decimators are very common, as the decimator is so strong. Any decent heavy that has put some time in has a decimator. In medium to large fights, you should expect multiple heavies with decimators. In fights with a dozen people you still wouldn't be surprised to see two heavies with decimators. It doesnt take long for people to figure out how to double decimator you, and your dead.

I would like to see it take 1-2 more rockets to kill you if you are have maxed out both lockdown and ordnance armor, and are set up. If this could be too strong, perhaps give the max setup a shield like the prowler now has if you want to add some form of weakens without lowering the bonus rate of fire and reload speed.

Tank rounds, you can't really set up and fight tanks if they are a decent shot. Thats... eh, i've given up on fighting tanks with maxes as TR unless im using double pounder and arcing them over something that blocks line of sight. That feels really off with a max costing the same amount as an MBT to pull. If I pull a double fracture max with max ordnance, hit 90% of my shots, and decide to fight a stock lightning, I should beat it. Though I suppose fractures are a different balance debate.

You play TR? Worst Faction in the game.

Anchoring has been since Planetside 1 and it never worked for TR ever, it was garbage then and still garbage now and they had the Bursters as there primary Anti Air max 18 years ago but back then NC had the Sparrow and VS had Starfire, but they worked for AA, the TR was able to make up for it with the Striker, but everything got nerfed.

TR now are just the whipping boys when fights are even.

So you think TR needs buffs all around and this is a good idea?

Well back when anchored actually provided some advantages, it was a decent tactic to flank, establish a good position to deploy, and murder enemy vehicles from the back. It was a niche sort of role, but the prowler worked well as a mobile artillery platform. Now it's complete doodoo.

As for the MAX which is already a slow-moving, low-health damage magnet, pinning it to the ground is just giving everyone a free kill, especially given the fact it cant even look around while in lockdown. Perhaps one of the worst abilities ever, even with a platoon of engineers and medics for support.

In general TR don't get much love from the devs, it'd be nice to see that change.

I've always wanted crouch to work with lockdown,
I always use it behind cover to mitigate damage, but I see no reason why the max would be unable to crouch while anchored down.
I wouldn't cut down on the rof+reload for this, i'd just do it!
I'd also remove the annoying wobble when firing Fractures, it's not too bad with normal rof,
but with lockdown aiming at distant targets becomes troublesome.
(back in 2017 I asked Wrel about this and he said a fix was coming soon. XD)

And at the same time rework ZOE to not be junk, and give nc max AI some cqc firepower,
AND take the c4 resistance out of ordnance armour and make it baseline for all 3 maxes.

Also totally agree on lockdown burster max being underappreciated!
It's just a shame that banshee is on the same faction, because i'd love to punish some banshee noobs with lockdown burster!

I am not asking for any buffs for TR, just stating the facts. They have a few marque items, but when the basics for instance of like the T9 Carv are skewed a weapon that excels at nothing compared to the Orion or Gauss SAW and the with NS/NSX weapons, NC have higher damage output and in some cases the VS have no ammo required. I find with TR, ammo a constant problem, for the high rate of fire, I would assume the ammo would be like a 5.56 mm, so why can’t they carry more ammo (not magazine), is it to tall of any order that they should get an additional 1-3 or a 25% jump in ammo boxes?

Anyway, it’s a moot point, awful hard to fix what has been broken at inception, I have 2 VS, 2 NC and 1 TR character.

The players need a faction they can just humiliate anyways. Forget balance, sick of it.

It genuinely blows my mind that they added Lockdown to TR MAXes in PlanetSide 2. This ability has been the laughing stock for all PlanetSide players way back since 2004. We know exactly why it's s***, it's still s***, it's always going to be s*** because of the conceptual requirement of standing still to use it. It's been discussed to death, and the one niche where it's good (AA) is barely enough justification for coding it in at all. They removed VS MAX jump jets for something different, why not TR MAXes too?

The best part is that Overdrive (what they toyed with giving TR in PS1) is VS MAX property now. Talk about a cherry on top of the s*** pile!

Have you ever used lockdown at the top of a staircase to cover an entrance?
(Especially if you use dual-pounders and an engi drops an ammo pack)
Literally nothing is getting through that doorway.

And as the OP pointed out, lockdown bursters are incredible.

So let's not pretend that it is useless, you just need to put some thought into where you lockdown, always try to use it behind cover

This reminds me a lot of rampant shield,
TR get given an amazing tool but complain that when they randomly use it in the middle of an open plain they die...
Well yeah...
You've been given a saw and you're all smacking nails with it..."this hammer is useless!"

all it takes is 2 heavies to deci you and you're dead. And also if a la flanks you as well. Maybe a burster MAX with lockdown is good...who knowns? By the time you're done emptying half your mag you're either a steaming pile of certs, or if you were in the spawn room the aircraft you're shooting at is long gone. Let's admit, the deploy, redeploy, deploy, redeploy each time you want to aim at something that moves isn't the best way to track targets, and in a majority of situations will do more harm than good.


Lockdown rampart prowler is another story, but again, asides from the 2-3 niche scenarios where the shield might be useful, you're basically just gifting the enemy with a huge hitbox and a bright, glowing "SHOOT THIS" target.

It's more like we've been given airsoft guns to fight ww3.Yeah, maybe you'll distract something with it, perhaps blind a dude with your bb. But in an overwhelming majority of scenarios, it's just a gimmick you'll happily trade for something useful.

deci heavies are a counter to all maxes though, not just lockdown.
lockdown won't really make a difference with how easy you are to hit since maxes move at a snail pace anyway.
the only difference lockdown makes is ramping up your damage so you have a better chance of killing those targets before they can kill you.
(and if you're using dual pounders to lay down a constant stream of splash-death, the heavies won't even want to enter the doorway!)
also as to the flanking c4 fairy, this ties back in to what i was saying about using tools correctly,
if i'm locking down at the top of a staircase its because the other entrances are covered.

also a hint for folks:
if you're locking down at a staircase like the one in biolabs near the shield generator (the narrow staircase pointing towards the center of the biolab) there is a wall to your right, so instead of locking down facing the staircase (which i keep seeing people doing) you can face 45 degrees to the left so you can cover both the staircase and your flank without any redeploy/deploy.

you have too much faith in you allies.

Idk the deci is usually slow enough to duck, or simply evade as a normal max, and you can repair some health with he emergency repair if you get hit anyways. There's no denying if you find the right spot with useful friendlies, you'll have fun, but a normal max could do the same anyways.

I can't say that i've ever seen a (non-ZOE) max dodge a rocket in an indoor setting, outside beyond 20m sure,
But in an indoor setting they're just too slow, by the time your brain even processes that a rocket is coming at you,
it's pretty much in your face

Does anyone know of ZOE gives a damage buff to Bursters.

I'm sure I was told a while back that the damage buff when ZOE is active didn't apply to AA weapons (at least not to the burst portion - it only applied to direct damage).

pretty sure it does

I thought that I remember a patch last year maybe were they buffed it to work on the flak damage too,
Could be wrong though, should be easy enough to test in VR.

Guess you never played a Burster Max with Lockdown, catch a lib decently close, and watch it melt

....watch it melt...YOU!

lmao

Let me introcude you to the NSOs.

from what I heard they get decent directive weapons.

From what I've seen their max is immense cheese and perhaps the only time I've seen people with it auraxed, especially the melee.

I tried to test in VR - however they appear to have removed all enemy aircraft from the VR training room.

I spawned my own ESF and tried on that - however, the busters didn't appear to cause any burst damage and it took 3 full mags and around 30 seconds to destroy the ESF, with or without ZOE.