A NC br100's opinion on post-balance-update faction weapons comparitively.

This is coming from what i see my allies/ enemies using effectively, i have maybe 3 combined hours play time vs/tr i mainly only play NC. The post is pretty disorganized and refers to many different aspects, but I think feedback is critical to creating a better game, so as I reach a level I consider experienced, thought I'd share my opinions in small summaries on a few things I feel are a bit out of place.

TR: The striker needs a revamp. Give TR this bone devs. It functions almost identtical to an annihilator, and doesn't bring an empire specific trait really. There may be better ideas but if I had to pick I would like to see them turned into a somewhat more accurate than most rapid dumbfire launcher similar somewhat to fractures. Deals same dps as regular dumbfire, but higher velocity and less drop.

TR max and lockdown: I always see forums hate about this but honestly i have seen lockdown used very successfully against me and my allies. I have seen first hand how it is an extraordinary defensive abilit when used right it can legitimately wall off entrances with bullets, and is amazing for av in the right position. If TR wants mobility while firinng they would have to sacrifice those crazy rof and reload advantages. It's a situational ability.
With that said I think a balanced option to give lockdown a tad more mobility is this: Lockdown could be changed so that you can instantly get out of lockdown, but total aimed mouse and movement speed would be reduced by 50% for 2-3 seconds. Another option is allowing near instant lock down deploy time, but forcing a 5-10 second cooldown before it can un-lockdown.

Prowler: It seems like this thing performs a bit too good anti infantry wise with the main heatcannon. A recent spreadsheet shows that the default heat rounds ona prowler get about 1.5X the kills of heat rounds on a vanguard or mag, and every quartiles KPU is higher. This is obviously coming from infantry kills, this cannons second shot much more forgiving. I completely disagree that there is balance when the default cannon on one tank can be so much more effective vs infantry than the others without sacrificing av potential. Infantry farming has a place with HE rounds, which should NOT be nerfed on the prowler, and thats where it should stay. P2 heat rounds are simply too versatile and the indirect damage should come down just a bit (bring direct up slightly to match same av damage) to more closely match the infantry capabilities of the other tanks default canons, without sacrificng av.

The es gunner seats are another story and feel a bit lacking.
The AV on the prowlers es gunner is a bit confusing. The prowler is a long range tank, yet the vulcan is close range. Prowlers also have access to halberds as it is which have incredible range so the problem is not giving the prowler a long range av secondary would be op. It seems this could also use a rework because it is very reminiscient of the basilisk, doesn't have a ton of synergy. To what im unsure.
If it stays as a automatic anti vehicle cannon I think it needs to have a bit more range. A bit faster velocity, and less cone of fire, make it a bit more viable in medium range.(reduced to aircraft to match velocity change). In almost all situations I find my enforcer gunner doing more damage to the prowler than the vulcan does to the vanguad.
The marauder needs to have a bit less drop, or changed from being a fury with more rounds in the mag. This is another ns variant that is essentially identical in use, but slightly seperate in mechanics.

Pounders: I'm totally glad that the pounders can destroy my max(not being sarcastic this weapon has underperformed for too long) but I think it's indirect damage might be a bit too high leaving pounders also pretty good at killing infantry compared with nc/vs default av weapons. Bring down indirect damage just a tad, bring up direct slightly. Again like the heat cannon, there is a place for ai weapons, and they should not overlap out of reason with their av counter parts, vice versa, or out of line with the other factions.

VS: Majorly I feel like vs is in a good state. Dont have too much changes i think spandex needs.
Buff/change magburn. Maybe make it so that increases all movement speed by x% for a few seconds, to give oppurtunities for quick strafe dodging.
The entire way to br100 i have always felt like I would rather take on a mag than a prowler in my vanguard at any range. lockdown makes me shudder, and 2 ap rounds close up in the wrong place is nothing to scoff at. magburn needs love.

I dont even know if this is the right name but The light ppa on the scythe needs some love. Whatever it is that shoots those orbs of laser justice. It looks bad ***, yet I have been killed by this thing maybe 5-8 times in my passed year of playing planetside.

Initially I thought the zoe nerfs were too much, but I have seen it still being used pretty effectively, but in situational places. I dont see it used that effectively that often though. I think the close range thing now makes that extra damage taken pretty substantial. I think the extra damage taken could be reduced by 5% and it would still fit situationally but a bit better in that situation. But truth told I am not sure I see enough evidence in my gameplay post balance update that is really underpowered about the zoe.

NC: vanguard shield damage before falling should be relative to rank and reduced overal minorly by 5-10%. I can just drive up to a prowler and use this and have a huge advantage..
vanguards HE needs some love. Stats show it is pretty behind in total kills and kpu compared to the other HE.
The canister is a joke. Always has been, always will be as long as it's a shotgun. I have a seperate thread on this in my sig.
Airhammer makes me sad. Another shotgun that feels forced onto a platform because NC. Its good for shooting infantry close and not much else, something i can already do with pods, and noseguns as they were, but from farther away. Would love to see this changed from a shotgun model as well.

Our max is fine. I wish we had a gauss mid range weapon honestly, but balance wise the max is in a good place.
I'd really like to see aegis shield get a tad bigger though!
The only thing wrong with nc max in my eyes is that aegis is plagued with clientside features making enemy damage come through ALL THE TIME it shouldnt be, and the frontal shield doesnt register where aoe damage comes from correctly. Devs please consider improving/changing the hitbox of the shield, investigating how to stop this, these problems make aegis ineffective where it should be amazing.

Again these are all just my opinions, based off playing an nc to br 100. I only felt the want to post it because I think I have seen enough in my adventures on planetside to understand what is ineffective in my enemies and what is not. I want to see everyone have a better balanced time, and I think feedback is critical to that, wanted to make an overall summary of what i feel is in a good place and whats not.

I agree with basically everything in this post. I personally think that the Marauder should be turned into a vulcan style weapon (so it acts like a machine gun) and the vulcan could be turned into a banshee style weapon (no spin up, no expanded COF) except with a far smaller COF and higher damage v. heavy armor. Marauder should be the spin up weapon since it will likely be used at closer ranges than the Kobalt (Kobalt for long range and Marauder for close range). Just my ideas.

I know I'm biased, but being as objective as possible, I really think the TR need some buffs. It just feels like they are underperforming, kind of like it felt like NC was underperforming before the last balance patch (and yes, I was all for the NC buffs and was very vocal on the forums that NC needed changes).

The TR just need a little something -- but maybe that's just me being biased.

Generally good points. The problem with the Max Lockdown though is not that you can ward of a door effectively, but you can only ward off a single door with support still needed. A couple of NC Maxes can do the job just as well as two lockdowned Maxes and they still have the ability to run away.

The Vulcan and the Striker both also need a complete re-work, neither is unique and the Vulcan is down-right useless.

the problem with all the anti-infanty coaxials is that an MBT (or really any vehicle) can't afford to be sitting in the middle of a clump of infantry long enough to use them effectively. The PPA's the exception because it's useful at long range, which really should be the model for the other AI secondaries.

I think the magburner's fine as is

I think it would be neat if the striker fired wire-guided projectiles rather than locking on

What if they change lockdown to inability to sprint intead of complete immobility?

I always wanted a nerf for the striker ( and i have it ) but now its just useless, there isnt a single reason to use it over an annihilator. If u have both and you use a striker u just are stupid.
Zoe Max is just bad..it helps you in one thing : to die faster.
I think the nerf hammer was too heavy on those 2 things.
Heat shells of prowlers are the only thing that make it playable...if you nerf this the prowler is done. And aniway is still the worst tank overall, even if i like it more then the other two. I think he needs some few more hp.... anchor mode? Is nice , but i dont like to sit in places i feel like a camper and you know C4. I prefer to run with fire suppression and vulcan + racer and reinforced sides or autorepair.

The indirect damage is actually pitiful and I'd consider a reduction of indirect for an increase in direct damage a buff.

It's also not that great against infantry, a flak/overshield heavy can pretty much solo a pounder MAX.

Honestly one minor thing I'd like to see happen to the Vanguard (and the lightning, which suffers even more from this), is for the turret to be moved forward a little bit so it can aim down a little. It would also help the Vanguard/Lightning utilize cover a little better, since they wouldn't have to roll as far forward to get their turret clear.

As a visual example of what I mean:





Notice how the Abrams' turret is mounted closer to the center rather than all the way in the back, and the barrel has more clearance to aim down.

Unfortunately it's not likely to happen because it would require re-working the Vanguard and Lightning models, so it's a small change for a lot of work.

It'd be very nice though, it's so annoying when I'm driving a VG or Lightning and then have to stop and reposition because some tiny little bump keeps me from aiming low enough to hit my target. Or when I'm going over the hill and the gun won't go low enough to hit anything until I'm aaaaall the way over and started on the downslope.

The TR weaponry for the most part is fine though I admit I main NC. The main issue from what I can tell is the population imbalance that is causing the TR to under perform as a faction.

The 4th faction swingers have it in their head that NC have the advantage since the PU02 changes and maybe I am biased but from an NC stand point I notice no difference in the effectiveness of our arsenal before or after, it's as if it never happened from where I am.

Now maybe TR could use some slight tweaks and maybe that will help attract some players back.

A few examples of small buffs that could make TR attractive whilst not OP
- The Striker should imo be made a double dumbfire launcher... mini Prowler mode
- The Vulcan could use a slight increase to it's effective range... though less than what it was before
- The Lockdown ability needs to be reworked, it is too situational and mostly only useful when camping a spawn... SOE should not be adding tools to make this aspect more effective
- What I do personally not want to see is TR have access to 200 dmg weaponry as that is a NC "trait" apparently, at the same time I think the stats for the Jaguar and GD-7F should be swapped as NC should not have a faster firing carbine than the TR. I think this could make a few good improvements to both factions identity

I agree with all of your post

This thread is making me feel a little bit like if you haven't played a faction to at least BR 40+ you can't expect to come up with good suggestions for it. TR players/all-faction players have a better grasp on these issues and have come up with better solutions.

And yes I have an NC character, which is how I know so well, and ramble so often about, how poorly TR guns perform at medium-long range.

OP I agree with you 100%.

A few minor tweaks/improvements to the other factions that I'd like to see

VS: ZOE needs some kind of improvement to make it more viable over charge. Maybe just increase the damage buff a bit, or increase the damage resistance a bit when on. Not giant changes, but small ones.

NC: I'd like to see the pheonix become a bit less of a death trap. Maybe either make it start reloading while aiming the rocket, or make the player automatically crouch when it is fired to be less of a target, Since they can't increase the range due to an engine limitation

All: I'd like to see the Fury made available on MBTs, which would give VS a better short range explosive weapon, and would give the NC a viable AI secondary that isn't the Kobalt. Of course this would come along with a Marauder rework.

Charge should be changed, That much speed on a MAX is OP. You get to move with a massive HP unit and know no matter what happens you can hit charge and escape.

This lets you move in get a least a few kill no matter what the situation then charge away so you can come back and do it again

I have it on maxxed on my max and I can't understand why people use anything other then charge. Maxxes weakness should be they are slow.

I also forgot to add the fact that NCs trait is slow firing high damage yet has a crazy fast rof smg and carbine, blitz and gd7f, yet TR/vs does not get a 200 dmg weapon does not make sense. i dont want tr to have a 200 dmg per shot weapon, but tr has a right to be upset about these weapons imo. id change them to slower firing variants, below trs rate of fire.

Good to see we are on the same page this time around

Just a correction here as I think you may have gotten confused, it is actually the Vanguard that performs better. And from the spreadsheet that you mention, Vanguard Titan-150 HEAT = 0.53% of ESF deaths with 5545 kills. And the Prowlers P2-120 HEAT is 0.28% with 2959 kills.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...cHJlWkJXYy13WVROc2s2TTNjOWc&usp=sharing#gid=0

Then we'll be back to ******** back and forth about ROF if this change happens.

I am using a different spreadsheet. will post it when I return to my main computer.

OK, I would be interested to see that one also. Please respond to this post with the link (when you get to your main computer) so I can pick it up in my alerts, many thanks.