Max weapons are balanced around dual use. Almost every-body run with a pair of similar weapons (AI/AI, AV/AV or AA/AA) Maybe the solution to rebalance max loadouts is some kind of good metagame between max loadout. Basically, there will be the infantry farming loadouts, the anti max loadouts, and some in between. Unfortunately, max versus max is really complicated : A pair of AI weapon is allready effective against maxes, and some are accurate enought to benefit from headshots double damage ! The counter to AI weapon is balistic armor, but... FLAK armor is mandatory to defend your max against C4/AV grenades and rockets. AV weapon aren't really anti max weapon. They might not decrease the TTK enought to be clearly superior to a second AI weapon, especially if a few shots are missed. In practice, max are often supported (repaired) Sometimes, a max pull a weird trick such as charge, lockdown, ZOE, or a shield... There is so much hidden stats everywhere (weapon damage type, resists...) that it is impractical to theorycraft. Maxes doesn't benefit from cover equally It isn't clear if AI/AI < AI/AV < AV/AV. We need to solve the max versus max subgame first (tournament anyone ?), then replace it in the context of an infantry fight to check if the best loadouts are actually viable, and at last rebalance things in order to makes an AI/AV max a decent alternative to pure AI : a max who can defend itself against infantry and wreck a pure AI max in most situation. (posted on reddit : http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/2a4ysl/a_max_vs_max_meta_to_balance_maxes/)
The dual weapon systems is the entire reason the situation is allowed to get as bad as it is. Shot per shot, the AI weapons are par with LMGs in terms damage, but at half the fire rate. This gives them about 120% DPS compared to most LMGs in their damage class. The exception being NC MAXs, as their Semi-auto nature doesn't represent a fire rate, and each arm is equal to a shotgun in terms of damage. Basically all of this weird "meta" of MAX load outs could had been avoided if they were designed as a single weapons system. Under this philosophy, MAX vs MAX and MAX vs Vehicles in the AV weapon category becomes easier to conceptualize and balance. Especially since you can now boil it down to single projectiles per attack. AI also becomes easier to conceptualize, as now you're only dealing with one damage table and DPS value, as well as a more straight forward COF to factor in. Bursters are the only weapon system I can agree would make sense as dual arms (from an aesthetic stand point), where the alternating fire animation doesn't really pose a problem with aiming.
MAX AV weapons need a big boost against other MAXs, or alternatively, MAX AI weapons need a nerf to their effectiveness against MAX units.
MAX AV weapons should be much better against other MAXs. An AV MAX in PS1 was less for actually killing vehicles, and more for killing AI MAXs that would wipe the floor with your squad otherwise. But their AV weapons were poor against Infantry, who were less vulnerable to AV rounds. An AV MAX could still easily kill a infantryman who was not equipped for AV, but Infantry with AV weapons would win against an AV MAX. PS1 Balance: AV MAX > AI MAX > Infantry > AV MAX Though back in PS2s Beta, Flamethrowers absolutely WRECKED other MAXs. They do plan on re-introducing Flamethrowers at some point, and with them we may get the Anti-MAX MAX weapon we are looking for.
