Are scattermaxes too strong?

don't think scatmaxes are insane either.
ZOE was to much, fracture was to effective, vulcan was insane

SCATMax just need team work
to function and to be disabled- this is what the game is about

That's really easy to answer, actually. NC maxes always have been extremely strong, especially with mattocks equipped. They get OHKs on pretty much everything and are extremely effective in holding and taking points. However, in recent months, ZOE stole the glory a bit. With its speed, people felt that it was more unfair than NC maxes, so that's what everyone focused on.

Lastly, NC maxes also do extremely well in terms of the kills they get. They were only minimally behind ZOE maxes during their heyday, and now i'd expect NC maxes to be pretty much at the top of all KPU charts by quite a margin again. I.e., there's motivation for people ("it's not fair!") and ammo ("30%+ higher KPU"). So now that ZOE's gone, i'd expect these nc max threads to pop up quite consistently.

not a "protip"
that's a "clueless tip"

some factions do certain things better than others.
the TR max does vehicles better than NC max b/c of fractures.... deal with it.

that's how we're different than BS4 and the other twitch based shooters where the only difference is cosmetics

Scatmaxes are just fine if not a little underpowered in the mid range. The lack of any long range capability is balanced out by the savage in your face performance towards the first 3 people CQB after that the other AI maxes pull back the short distance in performance they were behind and accelerate into the distance in performance.

Oh you know forumside, they already got ZOE nerfed into uselessness, now its on to the next thing till everything is useless!!!!!!

The only problem I have with NC MAXes are the Mattock weapons. Its more of an accurate slug shotgun that can go across 30 meters if I'm not mistaken. Otherwise, I would bombard C-4 for free kills.

Oh, and happy new year.

Edit: Live around the west coast US, so I'm kind of behind.

They're very dangerous, but they went from ridiculously overpowered against equally specced MAXes to about even, all things considered (except the shield, which is still a huge advantage over TR's lockdown in infantry combat).

I think they're in a good place.
I would like TR lockdown improved tho, perhaps giving some defence boost.

I can't comment on the VS max as I don't play it. But I would take TR Chainguns over the NC shotguns without a moments hesitation. Chain guns are much more versatile and hardly less effective at CQC. If SOE ever make a NS machine gun max weapons, you will really see a change of pace from NC. And I don't think those that have not played both sides of the coin will be to happy.

Agreed totally. If they ever release an NS Chaingun/Quasar for MAX's, you'll never see another Scattercannon-gripe thread again.

Really I'd argue if they release NS Flamethrowers as a in your face ScatMax like option for the TR and VS to use in the ScatMax niche then in order to fairly balance things out they'd need to release an NS Max Chaingun like weapon so the NC can also have some of the capability at greater range as the TR and VS currently enjoy.

They have a tiny magazine size, and can't engage at range.
Seems pretty simple to me.

Zazen

I play all three factions and MAX a lot. The NC MAX is by far the worst and I will explain why.

In close quarters an NC MAX, with fully certed out AI weapons, can realistically kill 3'ish people before having to reload and it's reload time is long. This is critical when considering a MAX's key role is breaching or preventing breach attempts. Killing individual soldiers in .1 seconds vs. the .25 seconds a TR/VS MAX does, make no practical difference in terms of effectiveness, it's still below innate human reaction time.

In close quarters a TR/VS MAX, with fully certed out AI weapons, can realistically kill 10+ soldiers in one clip before having to reload and even then their reload times are relatively short. So, a single TR/VS MAX can basically one clip an entire squad of enemy soliders, assuming the MAX doesn't run out of HP's first. The TTK softies is so short, it's more or less an insta-gib just like the NC MAX. If the enemy soldier has extremely quick reflexes they may be able to squeeze off a micro-second burst before dying, but that's it.


The nerf that killed the NC MAX was when they shortened their clip size with and without extended mags AND made their reload times longer. Compound that with the cycle of shotgun nerfs and the NC MAX is not in a good place at all. Simply put, it takes ~3 NC MAXes to clear out as many softies as a single TR/VS MAX can in a single clip at close quarters in a similar amount of time AND TR/VS MAX's remain extremely lethal out to medium range & beyond where the NC MAX is rendered utterly impotent..

IMHO, the nerf to clip size & reload times was too much. They should have restored the original clip sizes with and without extended mags when they repeatedly gimped shotguns. Having longer reloads is enough of a nerf to prevent them from being OP given their range limitations and the relatively inaccurate nature of shotguns as a whole.

Riddle me this:

If you made NC MAXes worse at point blank TTK, why would anyone ever use them in any situation (other than the rare burster or AV role)

You say being confined to CQC isn't a disadvantage at all considering most of the fights revolve around points.

Tell me - have you ever tried to shoot someone with a shotgun who is on the opposite end of a 30-40 foot long room? Could you tell me how effective that is?

I think the NC MAX is strong with slugs and dual extended mags, but it's not all the NC MAXes fault. Partly the other MAXes are to blame, they're too bland a combination of bland stats that lack any real areas to excel at so they're an awkward mixture of OP/UP without having a niche. The NC MAX is strong in a high risk high reward sense with small magazines, bad accuracy, bad damage dropoff even on slugs, slow fire rate, long reloads, and high burst damage potential, while the other two MAXes are lower risk lower reward type platforms.

The TR/VS AI MAXes are too accurate, have too large magazines/reserve sizes with short reloads on top of it, have too little damage dropoff, and have too high an effective range as a result. To put them more on par with the NC MAX we could blanket increase all TR/VS AI MAX weaponry to the next damage tier, dock their accuracy a bit, make them have smaller mag/extended mag sizes to maybe 60% of what they are now, and bring the damage degradation in so they only do max damage out to 30m or so and keep the min damage what it is now. That way the TR/VS MAXes could have a greater risk/reward interplay like the NC MAX experiences. That way faction MAX play would seem a little more dynamic. And maybe in light of these changes, add 1-3 shots to each NC MAX AI arm.

If the NC MAX is balanced in CQC with the other factions MAXes and sacrifices more at range than the other MAXes by design then that's just because of asymmetrical balance and stuff. Just learn to use your things to their strengths! And stuff.

All this is why I use Falcons now more than I do shotguns.

Playing VS/TR their AI MAXes are so much stronger vs. groups of infantry, you flank them and you kill 10+ infantry in a room if they're not fast with rockets/C4. As NC, you come across the same cluster and there's no way you're pulling it off - you have to kill a few, back off to try and reload during which you're extremely vulnerable, and then they know you're there so a second push in is probably a C4 trap if they're competent.

Well I feel that each faction's MAX has different specifications. To be honest, I can be wrong on this but I feel NC do best at close range on their MAX's no matter the weapon(EXCEPT BURSTERS)

LOL stopped reading there.

Maxes are balanced: NC max trade more firepower fo' shorter range.

Then think why are you pulling maxes:

-Max crashing close range infantry chokepoint?
-Guarding close range infantry chokepoints?
-shooting infantries 40m away?

TR/VS max earns certs and KD/R, NC max win battles.

From my experience this seems the most logical conclusion. With ZOE i actually had a chance at taking down scat-maxes and barely get out with 10-20% hp. Now, without ZOE, any double scat-max simply wrecks me and now I just retreat any time one of them crosses my path. Dying while trying to kill one is pointless since any medics that try to revive me just get annihilated with 1-2 shots.

P.S. The fact that NC maxes trade long range power for greater short range is not an excuse for this imbalance as most infantry/max fights take place inside bases at ranges of about ~20-30m on average. This means that in most fights NC maxes overpower the other 2.