MAX ES abilities are underwhelming. They endanger the unit more than help it. I have ideas about how they should function. Any input or constructive criticism is appreciated. Aegis: The Aegis is the most functional ability. It works wonders protecting the front of the MAX, but he can only cover one angle, no fighting back, and no sprinting. It fails as a defensive utility because of charge's comparative efficiency, and fails as an offensive tool because it is slow and nullifies all offensive power of the MAX. To make this ability useful, the MAX should be able to use both is shield, and one of his arms. With this way, the MAX will have a utility great for room breaching and base defenses alike. A few drawbacks must be in order, however. There is already a innate disadvantage of being able to use only one of your MAX's arms. It halves your damage output and cuts efficiency in AV/AA loadouts. Reload penalties will come with the shield active, scatter cannons by themselves are still strong. To prevent maxes from simply putting away the shield in the moment and using their other hand to fire, the time it takes to put away the shield will be extended. If the shield ever gets totally depleted, the max will not be able to reuse the shield until it has completely recharged. This is for the sake of balance in smaller engagements. ZOE: The ZOE is the least efficient MAX ability, judging by how often people scoff at it. Before it was useless, it was notorious for how it could outmaneuver enemy fire and deal much damage all the while. The increased damage taken from enemy fire was negligible when one could strafe faster than another could aim. For the time being, this is how I want the ZOE to function: When activated at full health the ZOE will start off nearly as fast as the sidestepping crab demon it once was, but it's damage will jump down a tier (143 -> 125). As the MAX takes more damage, it will lose speed but increase damage in it's weapons. Folk who have to fight ZOE will not have to worry so much about being able to hit the MAX since it will have it's health constantly drain. The ZOE will have a good duration, but it can't be turned off. The MAX will self destruct when ZOE is over; it will drop to the ground and release a flashbang. The ZOE MAX will not be able to accept repairs when it's in overdrive. ZOE MAXes that die using their ability cannot be revived. (I'm having difficulty finding a way to balance this utility towards organized outfits. The loss of resources is negligible to redeployside defence and MAX crashes. Any input is appreciated.) Lockdown: I do not know enough about the current state of lockdown to say anything about it.
if you don't know enough about lockdown how could you then say that ZOE is the least efficient MAX ability?
Probably because ZOE is completely useless in its current state and actually does more harm than good when it's activated? I know TR likes to try and say that Lockdown is the worst ES ability, but at least Lockdown has situations where it's extremely useful and can be awesome to behold. ZOE literally has NO situations where it's useful. The damage increase equates to one less bullet needed to kill someone, but it must be within something stupid like ~10 meters for the boost. It equates more to AV and AA weaponry, but the same distance restrictions apply (unless that was changed in some patch I didn't catch) making it useless at that too. The speed increase is negligible and charge outperforms ZOE's speed boost (if you can call it that) in every way. To top it all off, we take more damage whilst it's active. Oh yeah, we can't turn it off either. As for the OP, no. No berserker ZOE stuff. I really don't know what's the fascination with suicide berserker MAXes. Unless the speed and damage are buffed to godlike proportions, no one is going to spec into an ability that kills them after like 30 seconds. Even if they are most serious MAX users won't do it. Just give us our damn Jump Jets. It's not like Light Assaults with their c-4 will have any harder a time killing us up on a roof than on the ground. Not to mention the insane aircraft spam... Sorry, bit of a rant. -Q
I have to agree with the Jump jets. Possibly make the ascending speed lower, as the MAX is heavier than the light assault. Or just give them drifter jets. I would love that.
What i find wrong with ZOE is the fact that the NC shield and TR lockdown are toggles, while ZOE has a time limit. I'm sorry but to balance ZOE it needs to always be on or off just like TR and NC max abilities
Aegis is awesome, get multiple max's to use it and you can effectively form a mobile barricade great for camping point with or method of moving a squad up by being a distraction. Couple of engineers medics and LA's behind you and let the HA's go out and fight your shield will absorb a lot of damage so while the enemies go "SHINY LIGHT!" and shoot you the other classes can take pot shots sending the enemy running. Of course C4=biggest threat but it's not that bad, also good for blocking ESF rockets. ZOE another good ability when used correctly, you want to use it short to medium range and play peek-a-boo with it. Pop out shoot for extra damage duck back in repeat, at close range it's extremely lethal so bio labs in theory are better, but bio labs also hold a lot of itchy trigger happy players. Lockdown is good at medium to long range mainly in hallways, or places with limited view. Lockdown behind a box or two will help keep your legs from being shot at, make sure to have team mates so you can Unleash either pounders or hailstorm of bullets down a hall. Don't take it all super literal it's just my way of playing with them. If they help you with playing with them more luck to you.
I'd like to be able to crouch in lockdown. It kind of indirectly nerfed your potential accuracy that way by forcing you to stay standing. Better COF bloom and COF and reduced targetable profile? Could help with higher ground locking too.
Aegis Shield is arguably the best of the ES MAX abilities. It has the most range of uses. ZOE is... bad... they need to remake the Vanu MAX Ability... Lockdown is pretty bad too... Why would you want to stop moving in a game all about staying mobile? Mobility trumps firepower. If you can out maneuver your enemies then no matter how much firepower they throw at you... they can't hit you. The only useful MAX ability that is ES is Aegis Shield. The rest need a redesign.
i'd say lockdown is easily the best of the 3 (i have rank 5 lockdown, rank 5 ZoE and rank 4 aegis [never needed to absorb more]) ZoE i'd say they should remove the range limit crap and just give it a flat damage buff at all ranges, keep the movement increase and remove the increased damage taken. to balance it, we should keep the cooldown mechanic and perhaps when it ends the max should move slower for a few seconds (kinda like cooling down a vanu heat weapon after a long burst) Aegis FIX THE BUGS! make it reliably block all damage from the front, perhaps give it slightly more coverage so it can block from front angles not just directly ahead. Lockdown allow crouching/standing (so simple, but it'd make a world of difference!)
I've been running ZOE a lot lately -- and ONE time it was awesome. Like, "holy **** what just happened!" awesome. The other 1000 times it just got me killed. A previous poster said something that would, I think, fix the ability -- make it a toggle. The fact that it is activate that you can't DEactivate to adjust to situations makes its utility a thing of luck. With the toggle it would be more about skill -- because as it is -- there is no reason NOT to use charge over ZOE. More to the point -- taking extra damage as a max is a much bigger deal than as an infantry -- we don't self repair (unless you want to sacrifice your flak or nanoweave armor...which is a bit hard in a large fight.) so the drawback is a pretty big deal.
What if the ZOE ability worked like the charge, but caused the MAX to explode in a large, dangerous explosion shortly after the end of the charge. Using the ability would emit the purple glow so people know when it's activated with about a 1 second stationary delay after the charge before the explosion occurs. A possibility would be to be able to cancel the explosion at the end of the charge by pressing the ability again, but would have a much longer recharge than normal charge and/or cause the max to be weakened for a time while the systems cool down. This would allow ZOE users to retain some functionality of the charge ability while being able to go out like a truly fanatic Zealot. Of course death from the ability would not be revivable, you 'sploded too hard.
I'm really curious as to why people would take a suicide charge on a MAX when MAXes are supposed to be super durable super-mecha-soldiers. The NC would get a giant riot shield, the TR get turret mode, and the VS get Zealot Suicide Engine? My opinion on the whole ZOE deal is, well... I played before it was put in, then stopped before it got added, and started playing again after it was nerfed. I don't have experience from the days when it was considered the most powerful MAX ability, and I've been an idiot when it comes to assessing it. I even tried it out a few times, usually when I needed to assault a room/building and know I needed to take targets down so others can get in and take the point. I've had it work well once or twice, but as far as stats go I lack the data truly needed to say much, plus it would just be my experience, and not everyone's. However, I have several friends who have used it enough to have opinions, and what they say tends to favor ZOE being pretty bad. Honestly, I can understand them. So how would I advise making a better VS MAX ability? Well, my first step would make a lot of people flip out. I notice that the other factions' abilities, as far as I know, are toggle abilities. Can ZOE be toggled? Well, it was at one point, but that's part of what made it so strong. Then again, ZOE now, again, to my knowledge, has been nerfed in all aspects, and only recently did we get a damage increase, enough to make most weapons go up a whole damage tier, I think? But only within short range. If one wishes to take into account the various themes of the factions, though, I really think the aspect to be pushed is the movement speed bonus, not the bonus damage. While the extra damage is nice, moving faster correlates pretty well with being able to not be hit by bullets/rockets/grenades/tank shells/missiles/etc., as well as being able to charge down the enemy. Taking this into consideration, however, means that that bonus damage the MAX takes... doesn't quite add up so much, since enemies have to hit you first. In fact that's probably why it got nerfed, since as a toggle you could keep it on forever and just play as Mecha-Neo, Dodger of Ordinance. Honestly, my opinion on how to fix ZOE? Play around with the numbers, emphasize the mobility, potentially make it a toggle (but not discount Matrix mode), and try not to make it into something for the NC or TR. Or just give us MAX jump jets instead. That could be cool too.
As a TR exclusive, Lockdown does have very limited utility - especially in an AA capacity. If you have extended magazines on both burster and a fully upgraded lockdown you can pull off some crazy burst DPS on aircraft, especially those that hover. As for added utility to lockdown? Lockdown definitely could use a minor damage resistance buff when locked down because currently any infantry in the area is going to headshot gank you pretty easily or you'll just die to a hailstorm of frag grenades.
