Balance Pass Post 1: Vehicle Weapons and the Harasser

Seems more like a feel-good patch than anything. Either get the Harasser in line with the other vehicles or do what Comie said and get the other vehicles in line with the Harasser. The state of the tanks right now is a complete joke. You have given so much to infantry to fend off tanks that tanks now cannot compete or even simply defend themselves. On top of this you still have the nerf that you put on tanks to stop them from farming infantry back when infantry had nothing to attack tanks with.

As secondary weapons have already been discussed, it's the above that interests me. ie: Changes to MBT main weapon velocity, damage, drop, angle, etc.

Looking forward to specifics.

As one of the more well known and qualified Harasser drivers here, I'm going to weigh in on these changes.

Totally fine with all these changes. Additionally, I suggest that both the Maurader and Fury are adjusted down the be similar in effectiveness to the PPA, while the Enforcer Modified needs to be buffed up to be as effective as the PPA. I feel that the PPA is a perfect example of where the Harasser should be vs infantry balance wise.

Totally fine with all this too. Given the other tools the Harasser has at its disposal; the turbo, the speed, the ability to repair on the fly, it's perfectly reasonable that the Harasser should have to put itself in danger to do optimal damage....oh wait...you're nerfing those other tools into uselessness too...

Agree with these changes 100%...assuming those were the only changes. I don't agree with them in conjunction with everything else.

No, you're not nerfing it slightly, you're neutering it to the point where an MBT will win every encounter with a Harasser no matter how skilled the Harasser crew is.

Good MBT crews already own Harassers, right now, on live. This change alone is for more of a nerf than the Harasser needs and this change alone will make the vehicle useless in any sort of skilled encounter.

Are you serious? One of the main differences between a skilled Harasser crew and a bad one is the fact that a skilled driver will use his turbo to drift and dodge incoming tank fire. This is what defines the Harasser. Make this change and you're again handing any skilled encounter to the MBT. This change will also kill Harasser vs Harasser encounters(some of the most epic encounters you can have in planetside) which will just end up being a matter of who shot who first; evasive driving will be impossible.

I've been testing out Harssers with rank 3 composite as opposed to rank 4 to "preview" this change. The difference in surviviability is definitely noticeable, but it's manageable if you can dodge well enough and repair well enough. Combined with all the other nerfs though, the Harasser will be as useless as a flash.


I think you are going about this the wrong way. All of these changes only serve to make the Harasser die faster, which will be about as fun for the Harasser crew as it is for an MBT driver to die from a Vulcan clip in the rear. Instead I propose the following:

-Leave the rumble seat repair and afterburner as they are on live. Those two things are what makes the Harasser fun and are part of what separates a good crew from a bad one.

-Nerf the damage of the Harasser AV weapons. There is no real reason they should be anywhere near as effective as their MBT counterparts. The Harasser will then be forced to stay on target, in danger, much longer to secure a kill giving the MBT a much higher chance of killing the Harasser.

If you implement the above two changes, and nothing else, you'll have fixed Harasser AV balance in a manner that isn't insulting to the people who have spent their time honing their Harasser skills and still gives MBT drivers what they want in terms of survivability against Harassers.

Please give NC MAX's a long-ranged Anti-Infantry weapon. We sorely need it...

We have slugs. Anyway the game will be dead before MAXes gets a 2nd update.

This, all of this. Also, allow us to toggle the roll correction mechanic. It's only passable on live because with a rank 4/5 turbo, you have a chance to flip yourself back over.

Next thing you know, they'll be removing the brakes and force the steering wheel to lock over 70kph.

Slugs increase the Scat's range by like 5m... cause that's a huge improvement.

Dont exaggerate. Slugs do as good as the other MAXes at range because of accuracy. The dps seems lower though which is felt in closexrange MAX duels.

Even if that is true, we shouldn't need to spend 150 certs to make our weapons useable.

Imprecise burst at range isn't really that great. Lots of overkill damage and 0 subtains is even worse.

That's why slug are pretty bad. Yes, you'll get kills but you can get kils with any kind of weapon really. In the end, you'll be more effective as a HA with a EM6 than lolslugs.

The harasser doesn't need a nerf people just need to get better at the game, a skilled 1/2 mbt can kill a 2/3 harasser and a skilled 2/2 mbt completely destroys harassers. Bad harasser teams don't do well so why punish the skilled teams.

All the people who think the harasser is OP try to use it and you will see that it requires a high amount of skill and dedication to become good. And if soe start nerfing based on how good skilled players can become with something then why not nerf ESFs because in the end most people who complain about certain vehicles being OP are just not very good players.

I do agree with the c-4 and tank mine buff against it though. If all these changes come into live then you should just remove the harasser from the game as it will be a pointless vehicle.

P.S. I agree completely with Rak.
P.S.S I hope I don't come off as sounding like a dick when I talk about players not being very good, I am just stating facts.

If these are for tanks getting c4-ed by advancing infantry, then Harraser and Flash anti-personnel weapons do not need a buff as they aren't targets to the same extent. A lot of the farming targets of big vehicles are infantry who either cannot fire back and do damage or have a much larger TTK. Quick close runs allow defensive buffs to be abused in offence.

Suggestion
The xp is the cause of abuse - if the infantry do not have c4 or aren't capable of carrying c4, at close ranges XP should be reflect the risk involved given the difference in TTKs (in the same way spawn kills do not grant full xp hence the ability to gain certifications, because of the reduced risk, while preserving the tactical outcome of spawn killing).

So nothing more about Proxi Radar? You've addressed concerns about everything else except that. We're all curious as to how you came to the conclusion that this is a good idea, because most of us don't see it.

I agree with Kurakoa. The recent changes are too detrimental to the harasser. The reason why most tanks get killed quickly is because they are showing their rear (which has the 2X damage modifier). If you're driving your tank properly and are a good shot, Harassers don't pose a threat. It's mainly poor driving (reversing at a harasser) and poor shooting that kills them.

Additionally, you have to look at the certifications that It took to get to that killing ability. If these changes are made Harassers will become very pointless, and as such, owners should get their certs back, and should also get their Station Cash back that they spend on their harasser.

slower repair and less effective composite should do wonders, combined with shorter effective range = more vulnerability

In my opinion, all vehicles should get one more open slot to put whatever non-F ability they would like in it. Same goes for infantry, just with a bonus suit slot instead.

Very encouraging signs from the harasser nerf updates, particularly the composite armor and repair-on-the-fly changes. Someone in the balancing department still has a pulse after all.

What does this even mean?

Cry me a river. How biased for the harasser can you get ? Just be glad they didn't outright remove repair on the move. As it stand it is simply too good of a perk for the vehicle when combined with composite armour. Just cert into the regen of harasser turbo and you'll probably get everything you used to have with just slightly weaker composite armour.

One of the main problems with the harasser is that composite armor is almost a requirement. The harasser should have the composite armor cert line removed (with a cert refund) and have the base stats buffed up to what composite is now (then apply these nerfs). This way harassers will have options like vehicle stealth (bit of a stretch, but it's been working in a magrider I've tested) and nanite repair. The rest of the nerfs seem fine other than "the small arms (infantry weapons) resistance is being removed." I don't know how much this value actually is, but completely removing this is a pretty huge nerf to survivability.