I just thought it's the time to do a short overview on the Game's balancing problems apart from the daily Gatekeeper treads. I don't even mention the GK down there, since everyone already know it. Keep in mind, that I surely miss some things or have other opinions than you. What is overperforming? - Prowler Front gun doing the most kills by having twice the DPS and more than twice the shots of Magrider/Vanguard frontguns. Suggested Solution: Decreasing the Vanguards fron gun reload time to 3,5s and the Magriders to 3s (both -0.5 when max certed), increasing Magrider's front gun velocities to 325m/s. Or just increase Prowler's reload time to 3s - or something in between. - Claymore Does almost twice as much kills than the BB and PM per Day. Suggested Solution: Giving it thick long glowing lights on the sides so it can be seen around a corner like the others. Give it the same delay as the BB/PM. Fix the bug that you can place it in walls ffs. - Airhammer Good against Infantry, but also way too good against Aircrafts. Suggested Solution: Equalize all AI Nosegun's muzzle velocities. - Striker Actually yes. The Striker. It is the only auto-lockon RL in the game and great against air. This while VS/NC get just another AV option in return (Lancer/Phoenix). However, there are already enough good non-faction-specific AV options in the game (Engi Turrets, Turrets, Maxes, C4, Mines, RLs, Lock-on RLs etc.). Suggested Solution: Like Coyotes it shouldn't be able to lock aircrafts with stealth. - Aircrafts Suggested Solution: Increase Flack&Lock-on damages (and Infantry weapon damage, too). Make Ground AA more rewarding by increasing the ground-to-air damage bonus XP. - Shotgun Maxes Best Maxes on short range, where you actually use Maxes. E.g. because they have no zoom options and all Maxes are freekills in open areas. Suggested solution: Decrease Magazine sizes by 20% or decrease RPM. What is underperforming? - ES Short Range AV - Aphelion, Mjolnir Aphelion has too low DPS, even when perfectly using the burst, it is lower than the Vulcan's - you don't even get rewarded for skill. It does barely even have more DPS than the Saron, which is less situational. Also it isn't even more accurate than the Vulcan. Mjolnir seems like being too hard to use and too inaccurate, therefore it's not being used a lot. Suggested solution: Increase Aphelion's Burst Damage from 750(?) to 1200. Make the Mjolnir more user-friendly. I never used the Mjolnir, so I can't make a more specific suggestion. - ES Heavy Guns: Lasher People oftenly claim that you can't compare the Lasher to the CG or the JH, because they're totally different. However, would they say the same when VS gets a Nuclear Bomb and the TR a Brick? I think not. The TR gets the Chaingun and the VS the Lasher in return, so they have to be compared and balanced to each other. The Problems of the Lasher start with the low muzzle velocity. Only 100m/s, the slowest of all primaries. With it, you can have the fist shot on someone a few metres away and he can kill you before the orbs even reach him. Also it has an extreme blooming and a low raw dps. Suggested Solution: Increase Velocity to 225m/s, increase accuracy, increase max damage from 150 to 180 and min damage from 105 to 130. Increase ADS Multiplier to 0.75. - Phaseshift A unique, but also very bad weapon, because every upside has various downsides. It has no bulletdrop making it good at ranges, however a charge-up mechanic, low velocity and low 1 hit kill range all making it bad at range. It has unlimited ammo, however shoots so slow (small "Magazine") that it doesn't even matter. Also you can just redeploy and come back or find resupplies with a normal sniper. Suggested Solution: Increasing OHK range to normal Sniper's niveau, increase heat per magazine, make manual reloading useful. - Lightning Get's outpowered by MBTs and Harrassers and with Skyguard by everything. Aircrafts, All vehicles including Flash, Maxes and Infantry. Suggested Solution: Increase reverse-speed, Decrease reload-time, Increase DPS and velocity of Skyguard. - Cloak vs. Flashlight The Darklight was a needed buff for the former useless Flashlight, but an undeserved nerf for all infiltrators. Suggested Solution: Decrease the cone's radius and length of Flashlights on sidearms(!). Sidearms are smaller and should have a smaller flashlight. - VS LMGs Low DPS, small Mags, just as accurate as TR/NC LMGs. Suggested Solution: 0.6 ADS Multiplier. - Vehicle PPA I think I don't have to say anything about this. Suggested Solution: Less accuracy loss per shot, higher muzzle velocity, higher ammo capacity, better splash. .
The PPA and Mjolnir could definitely need some work, but even as a fan of the Lasher, do you know how OP your changes would make it? I've got 1.5 auraxiums with it, trust me, its only underperforming because people don't know how or when to use it, not because it's that much weaker. No other infantry primary can damage 6+ people per shot, from around the corner.
The Problem is that situations where it is good are rare and also, when you are using it you become an easy target for everything. Even for stalker Infiltrators. It's sound doesn't let you hear anything else and it's power in 1on1s is... not existing. Not to mention it automatically gives you a weapon lock every 30mins. Also you said it by yourself. You need skill to compensate its underpoweredness. I had some good runs with it, but also a lot of very short unsuccessful uses, compared to my favourite LMG or SMG etc.
Thing is, it's not a 1v1 weapon. It wasn't designed that way, and it doesn't play that way. In all honesty, it doesn't belong in a category with any other weapon, but since it needed one, they stuck "Heavy Gun" on it and called it a day, probably not thinking that we'd hang that title over their head in every discussion about the weapon. Not saying I wouldn't want a buff to it's 1v1 capability, but I don't want it if it means trading away the way the weapon scales into larger fights. Sure, I can't take one guy head to head 100% of the time, but I can take the entire squad that are stacked on a doorway with ease more often than not, and god help you if you're at a lower elevation than I am. You become a target, absolutely, won't disagree there, but whether you're an easy kill or not depends solely on the player's ability to read the situation. Maybe my ears are sharper, who knows, but I have no issue picking out every sound around me, even infil cloaks. Hell, I can hear footsteps while firing, though they're weak. Not picking at you btw, I'd just hate to see the Lasher get turned into a more generic "Shoot a guy dead 1v1 anywhere" type gun rather than it's current "Gun down an entire squad in the same doorway because they stood too close, and be pretty reliable most anywhere else", because you can't have both without diminishing one or the other. It's one of the last bastions of faction diversity, please don't get it into their head to change it
Do you understand, that what are you saying is basically "Nerf TR, Buff VS"? Don't know how good is Lancer in AA role, but Phoenix is OK. Shotgun maxes have painfully slow reload and very punishing when you miss. Also less effective outside point blank ranges. VS/TR maxes are spammable and reload very fast, so I can't see problem here. So basically "make Phaseshift the best SR in the game"? OK, then: Give Railjack damage profile 1250 @ 25m -- 900 @ 150m and decrease mag size to just 1 round. Give TRAP full auto mode. OH, C'mon. Your Orion is Carnage AR with 50 round magazine (or should I say "battery") but without .75 ADS. Yep, Tank/Harraser version need slight buff, But scyte version (Light PPA) need slight nerf. And thing that you haven't mention: TR/NC Directive AR/LMG/Carbine: at the current state it is just unfair that one faction (VS) gets ridiculously usefull (borderline OP) feature, while other factions get carbon copies of their default weapons (I know that LMGs are slightly differentiate, but still they are just ordinary weapons).
The meow meow on the harasser needs to fire full auto rather than spam click mode, it's just annoying. It also needs it's velocity bought up to match Vulcan/ Aphy, it's drop lessened & CoF toned down just a tad for both versions. Also shotgun maxes have no sustainability at all, you'd have to nerf VS/TR round size down to 30 and lower EX mags benefit if you want to lower NC mag sizes even more.
Funny, I thought the Mjolnir was the most balanced of the three CQC AV options, and the other two needed toning down a bit, then again, I've barely spent any time with it. I don't think he(she? sorry for presuming) was talking about lowering all of NC's mag counts, just the scattermaxes.
The Prowler is a powerhouse, but by directly buffing the other two I don't think you actually solve it. Especially the Magrider for instance has more than enough advantages in it's strafe, hill climbing and forced front-armor facing to your enemy. I think it's better to upgrade the base chassis abilities. Surprisingly when checking all statistics of KPH, VKPH, KPU, VKPU, amount of vehicles pulled and actual vehicle type killed etc, the Magrider and Prowler are pretty even. The Vanguard is lagging behind almost everywhere but at actual MBT kills and aircraft kills (which is very low anyway). Definitely agreed. It still baffles me that people think the Airhammer is OP. But as solutions go this one I can live with: A slower muzzle velocity would make the AH less capable of A2A and stem the tide of 'it's better at A2A than the other two!' even though it's about 1/4rth capable of any of the other non-AI nosecanons. I don't mind the Striker. If any action is taken it should be a change of other G2A lock-ons to require more skill and have more possibilities to miss based on lack of skill/aircraft dodging skills, but also have a higher chance to deal repeated damage quickly. Higher XP bonus does not help. G2A is simply not rewarding and XP bonus for hitting is only a little patch on the gaping hole of G2A frustration. You are completely dependent on having either help or the skill of the pilot lacking. Absolutely not. TR/VS MAX's serve many more purposes and are much more prevalent everywhere. You'll never find an NC MAX out in the open, while TR/VS MAX's are. The only reason why NC MAX's have any stats at all is because when NC gets the chance to hole up somewhere they use it. As well as the fact that their lack of taking chances outside (because they are useless there anyway) and the lower amount of kills TR/VS can gain by being outside. This is the reason why NC MAX KPH is inflated: NC players pull MAX's when they know they can get a ton of kills. You can see this in the lower amount of uniques pulled as well. You can argue that they need some change, or that VS/TR could use a CQC weapon (which I would find useless because every TR weapon setup is basically already a good CQC loadout), but 20% less ammo per magazine? Less RPM causing the NC MAX's to be under par of TR/VS when going toe-to-toe? The Mjolnir deals more damage if everything hits, it's how you can win from a Vulcan Harasser if you get in close enough with your Mjolnir Harasser. However it does have too big a COF growth that causes too much too miss. A reverse-speed almost as high as forwards would be fun. Higher acceleration and maximum speed could also help solidify the Lightnings role as a lightning. Before the Harasser the Lightning was the hit&run tank, it still is but people stopped seeing it that way. Flashlights need to have more utility. For instance causing a bloom effect or localized flash-effect on the screen of players looking almost directly in the light (depending on range, time of day and anti-flash implants), this makes them better at general combat against classes rather than anti-infiltrator weapons that aren't even used during the night. The same could be used for vehicles. Currently vehicle lights are better off because all they do is attract attention. If you could actually illuminate the environment with it and potentially blind hostile infantry nearby it would help. Adding a searchlight as a possible turret-addon to look for stealthed units, look for people at night or blind hostiles would be a nice addition. Since when do they have low DPS or are just as accurate as TR/NC? Needs to be more accurate, further I think it needs no changes.
It's damage is fine, It just has a lot of usability problems that the vulcan or Aphy don't have. Less velocity for one because ??? and more drop because ??? also. It ***** the meow meow in range so much compared to Vulcan and Aphy but doesn't even gain anything from it.
Striker is not an auto lock-on. The Coyote mechanism requires you to get your rockets close enough to the air target for the mechanism to work. And you need to hit with a full magazine to do as much damage as a dumbfire RL. In fact Striker is no longer useless since the small buff but it is still better at getting assists or frightening pilots away than actually getting kills. Great fun though. Greedy or stupid esf infantry farmers who hover low over a battle are the only real victims of the Striker. When you say Claymores kill more people do you mean the kill rate per deployed mine is higher or is this a statistical artifact i.e. more get placed so more are bound to get triggered? I get as many kills with Proximity mines and Betties as I do with Claymores. I grant you, the Claymore detonates instantly unlike the others but it is also directional. Effective use of mines is about where they are placed more than anything else. The flashing lights on Prox and Betty don't seem to stop my victims from running into them, I think that is because I put them in places where they can't be seen from far enough away. As to VS weapons, I find the Solstice, the Orion and the Polaris every bit as useful as the other faction equivalent weapons. I also run with the VX6-7 carbine for high RoF and it compares quite well with the GD7F and the Jaguar. I can't hit squat with the Lancer but that could just be me. Phoenix is far and away the most effective ESRL in my book (not the Striker, you'll note). I think you are missing the point about balance generally. It is asymmetrical. Look at default weapons by class for example. NC start the best sniper rifle, VS get the best LMG and TR get the best carbine and pistol. Other factions have to pay for equivalent weapons.
@ParsitheeVS Your Post reads like you never even played TR before. Lasher underperforming? Really? From my point of view it is the most versatile and strongest ES heavy gun. It hits like a truck is dead accurate and can shoot around corners with its splash. Striker Overperfoming? Really? It is the most crappy piece of tech the TR have... You cant hit any aircraft in mid flight with it. You can only spamm at hovering idiots with it. Its useless against tanks and even more against infantry or maxes. Its just that much useless really. Also the Aphelion, Mjolnir are doing great. Whenever I encounter these, I die. They do extreme close up damage and are a direct counter to the tank Vulcan from the TR. And some things are not true you say: The prowler doesn't do double the dps of the others. Just not true. True, it shoots faster because of lockdown, but then it becomes a sitting duck... Play Prowler for 1 Day and say to me that it is overpowered again. Also its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: Because of Lockdown being "that good" the whole tank is balanced around it and thus makes it underperforming while not in lockdown. It is just ****** gameplay to balance a whole tank around one mandatory equipment slot.
The Striker great against aircraft? It's great against noobs that hover over bases waiting to farm with lolpods. It's awful against moving targets. If you want to nerf it further ok but then I expect devs to fix the bug causing aoe against infantry to be next to zero, which makes it totally useless against Max.
Or you can just give more functioning to your brain so you can think before you mindlessly pass by a spot,plus for all the years i been playing i am 100% positive its far easier to see a claymore than the rest,try placing a claymore in plain sight. You guys should quit playing the game
Yet another nerf tr and nc and buff VS so we can steamroll everyone again for a year and a half straight and brag about how super awesome we are and everyone else needs to git gud and ltp yada yada yada. get dunked on
Well youre seriously underestimating the phoenix and overestimating scat maxes (Those shotguns are awful) Also the utility of the Lasher is something to consider There arent any other guns that can do what it does I dont see how the darklight is an undeserved nerf for infiltrators either. If you pull a pistol to find the infiltrator that means theyre already at a more level playing field where either the player spots the cloaker and shoots first or the cloaker shoots before being spotted. Pistol to pistol Maybe im crazy but these things stood out to me
