MAX unit is an absolute mess. On one hand it is expensive as hell, on the other can get killed by C4 like trash, you need bonus armor resistance, ordinance armor protects you but then you are susceptible to anti-material rifles, you switch to Kinetic armor and randomly die to a Decimator..... It's just a mess. And the only possible way you can use this class is in a messy way. In 2012 the MAX had an ability called "Charge" I saw in a video. Charge | PlanetSide 2 Wiki | Fandom And here it describes that it was removed because it had no counter play. People would stack MAXes and rapidly send an unstoppable wave... But this is an issue with the class because it's too offensive. No matter what you do, remove revives, add more anti-MAX counter, it's still has the same issue.... And the more you push it towards having that only use, mass pull rather than tactical pull.... And now on the forums we have continuous back and forth, of how MAX should get revives back or how its price should lower.. The devs are high experts of creating a mess and nothing else. _______ Why not design the MAX units into a tank/support role instead? In the left hand the subpar gun and in the right a support ability, for team play purposes... The devs already attempted adding some support ability to Heavy Assault but it's just silly to send this to an infantry class who falls in 1 second. Demeter Veil | PlanetSide 2 Wiki | Fandom Basically how could the MAX turn into a support role that wouldn't incentivize spam but rather a comp together with infantry?
I just wish they had a infantry class that had this role. Or even a new mode for Heavy Assault. HEAVY ASSAULT should have this role. Max can stay as the dps thing it is. However I'm not against turning max into a tank role either. Just that I'd be more entertained with a actual infantry class that can tank. Since no matter what Max's are so large their gonna be a target. Any " obvious target " is always never gonna be a tank, even with a buff, since it'll always be " targeted " first. Aka kick me sign class. The class everyone shoots when they see it, is tough to turn into a real tank. Tho yes, the thread reason is right. Their is no tank class for Planetside 2. Heavy Assault is a short Brrrt class that can barely tank themselves for longer than 0.1 seconds. That's how long their shield buys them. A half a second more >.>. So HA shield is only so they can dish out a second more of dps, and has NOTHING to do with tanking themselves or their team. Similar max's shield abilities for NC or NSO are barely for walking forward and more for backpeddling. Not tanky enough. If anything the devs might be catering to snipers over the years. " Oh but how do we keep 1 tap headshots, if we have a defensive infantry class ". But who cares? Who cares about 1 headshot players for any fps game ever? theirs literally video essays describing how 1 tapp headshots for snipers rifles have ruined the FPS format for decades. So why give a hoot about that? Better helmets someday in the future? no? Halo Infinite made you have to find the sniper at a rare location to 1 tapp, it wasn't something you auto equpped whenever you like. They also had a shield bar with ZERO hs dmg, till the shield ran off verse most rifles. So what does PS2 do to negate this phenomenon of 1 tapp snipers being lame for fps history? nothing. zip. Then again Halo didn't do enough either, still had too many 1 tap weapons, yet at least those items were rare to find. So ye if a sniper has to use 2 headshots to kill 1 out of 6 classes, whoop dee doo. Oh they got a counter class? Woww. ok. good. turn Heavy Assault into a REAL TANK. Theirs so many features for this game that would improve it with very little funds. Like things that don't even cost funds; unlike haven to make the map edited or make new cosmetics. Not even new ammo types. take adding extra tactical slots, extra tool slot, & extra implant slot. How would that even cost much funds? It's literally just adding a few lil new box slots to a infantry panel, isn't that cheap to do? Yet makes the game x4 better. Same goes for Giving NC the Hermes ability, asked for that 6 months ago, when? Why do we have to wait for something that literally already on the other factions. I've already proven that faction abilities, limited to one faction only, isn't fun. Isn't that something that would only take 2 days to implement? Same goes for adding a extra tactical slots and implant slot, a week to implement? Anyways back to topic. New Heavy Assault class type: Gains 60% hp & shield buff, yes buff to hp and shield, not just one or the other. both. x2 green bar x2 blue bar buff. For 40% less dmg. Yes I'd like to see a infantry class, who's not a big max, just a small guy, be able to absorb 60 LMG bullets before he dies. Who does half the dmg of other classes. Yet is able to idk use a riot shield as a Heavy Assault + tons of hp = to get his team past doors. Without needing a max suit either. When I want to save nanites to drive a harasser, not use them for max. & yes if they want to reform max into a new mode for this spec as well. Then sure. A max spec with 40% reduced dmg for 60% more hp. With auto regen auto given without needing to slot for max. Don't want to rely on engi repairs for this mode. Why not both? A tanky mode for max edited. & A tanky mode for heavy assault. Toss the mode for HA x2 duration of their shield abilitiy too. + Plus shield bar. + plus hp bar. More hp for medics to heal, then usual. For dps nerf option. ok.
Infantry classes are hard to distinguish. They can't be so much different. Infantry classes should stay infantry classes with different tools. MAX can be easily distinguished. Heavy Assault is a strange class. I have all the experience with it... Basically, you bring Heavy Assault only for the Launcher. The class itself is not designed for breaching really. Both Combat Engineer and Light Assault are better in the assault role, in breaching defenses, including infiltrator. Heavy Assault is actually a support role, and the shield realistically is to protect them from air to ground attacks, so they can actually engage the air target as deterrence without falling themselves, and for engaging ground armor. Didn't the vehicles used to do more damage in the past, including infantry launchers? If they did do more damage than Heavy Assault would make more sense, but now it's a painful mess instead. It's not reliable in infantry combat because after the first engagement, it takes an immense amount of time to regenerate the Overshield and therefore you lose your efficiency afterwards. Resist Shield is far better in this sense as it is based on your regular HP types (you would trade flak armor here and lose some defense against vehicle assets), but still, I would label Combat Engineer as superior in the ground based assault role because the Carbine is vastly superior to the LMG, pretty much negating the damage resistance Heavy Assault obtains, and Engineer's passive which regenerates shield 2 seconds earlier than any class, is stackable, which pretty much reliably keeps them up and running in the heat of the battle. Whereas Heavy Assault just often has to hide, even though it has the LMG. Once again it was likely supposed to be a support role, which if you were very talented or cheating could excel with, in infantry combat as a bonus.. Very creative design but now we have a mess as with everything lol.
For fantasy MMO's you don't have to pilot a ogre battle armor suit just to play the tank. They have regular size infantry as tanks equal size to the healer and mage. That isn't a mount. Just foot soldier. & he tanks huge 40 man raids solo. with healers. compare that to Heavy Assault. Which is a dps headshot hunter. Who dies fast, since he kills fast. & has lots of ammo. The shield bar or shield ability was never designed to tank allies; just for 1vs1 twitch duels. Which wth, this game isn't even BASED for 1vs1' duels, you play counter strike for that. This game IS for TEAM gameplay. So why the heck is the MAIN tank class, a 1vs1 dueler?? for 100+ fields of allies type of game. When I think of it, makes absolutely no sense. Other than trying to market the game for 1vs1's and none of us are here for that reason. Or else we'd play a battle royal game. We play for mmorpg standards & open fields with tons of people & strategy. Twitch gameplay isn't ps2's selling point. & when they tried with PS Arena, well we know how that went. Simply because the market is oversaturated with Battle Royals. Theirs 20+ battle royal games. Then lobby fps games have been over saturated since the 90's. I mean look at Valorant, that's just copying Counter Strike & Overwatch. 1) As for Light Assault. I'd say " flanking " is a better word, then " breaching ". Since every class sucks at breaching, their isn't even " breach items " for starters. 2) Game has a 1,000 narrow doors for a game with 300+ pop maps. LA isn't door friendly. HA isn't. Medic noobs die by the fleets at door walls. 3) Engineers are corner of the room campers. They need walking forward new tool items. Till then they just put a lil wall at the corner and wait. Mana turrets may help your team breach, if many people use mana turrets. Yet how often is that? Would have to be 6+ mana turrets. Who reset shop after dying. 4) Infiltrator? Even with smoke barrel attachment and cloak, rooms you die to still, soon after getting there. Actually you die immediately every time, after finding a box to hide around at the main fighting room. - HA: as it is is a twitch gameplay 1vs1 duel dps head hunting class with ammo. - Engineer: is the camping class. Until new forward walking offense tools. - Infil: is the sneak & die soon after class if front line melee smg infil. - Medic: is the paper headhunter class to have no defenses or situational awareness tools for, where as most noob medics don't even know how to head hunter that good. That's why before I've suggested to turn medic into the tank class. With x2 hp buffs. & that's why I've suggested to give medic motion pod dart spot sensors, since they are boring to use for infils I'd also turn Infils into 3 specs more well defined. One is scout / sniper. The other is SMG / Pistol. & the last is Movement Utility / Knife. Define the 3 Infil Classes. Not by stealth types, but by the weapons they use. Motion Utility means more ways to activate speed, jump height, juking, sidewinder turns, with melee Infil. Specifically jump height. Catlkike isn't high enough. Infils want " offensive tools " & not scouting tools. Trip wire, smoke pod, archer arrow feather bow, more knife skills, barrel roll, & throwing stars. Instead of a motion sensor or dart tool we Infils don't need, since A) it makes snipers more unkillable & all of reddit doesn't want them unkillable & B) us smg knife infils don't really want motion sensors cause cloak is good enough as it is for scouting & motion dart sensors are boring to use. Infils are a offensive class not support. Scouting is support, even if on paper that sounds like a infil style, in reality, it's not. Infils aren't support, they are ninjas. Medic is support. Give medic motion dart sensors to scout. Medics use scout rifle too, they are scout. Medics should be mid range more, thus motion pod darts sensor tool for them. Erase scout tools for Infil, give Medics the scout tools. Then give Infil a new offensive tool. Everyone wins. Medics die less, since they're able to scout for enemies. & Infils aren't bored to death shooting darts and laying pods down, when they want to run really fast & not be slowed down by these tools. With a new flash faster offensive tool for Infils. Seems Heavy Assault & Light Assault are the main classes for the few vets who have 100+ fps. Then medic too. I sure don't; laptop. Fps also allows them to zig zag run to dodge bullets swifter. Took me years to notice this. The LA vets with bounties who have 100+ fps are usually roof hs hunters. Always on the roof. It's the toughest time to deal with a vet, is when I see a LA on the roof of a hossin construction site with a bounty. Maybe mentioning this, just to say that ye, the HA is a twitch 1vs1 duel class that is made for 100+ fps users. Since the LMG takes so long to equip, anyone running at 60 fps has that animation slowed; verse other vets. & then yes HA isn't new player friendly for other reasons too, positioning. Still the new players should have a mode: given to them; that allows the heavy assault's shield ablity to last 30 seconds with 100% more blue bar. A tank mode for heavy assault or new medic type; would allow new players to practice their aim live, without dying too soon. So the benefit to building a infantry class to soak many bullets, yet dish out weak dmg. Isn't just to move teams past the rain of door bullets. Lastly medic isn't defined as the healer class enough. Ressing and some ress nades. Eh. few more options to heal, buff shields, mortor shell supportive buffs to rooms. & Utility buff effect weapons for assault rifles. That's why giving a class x2 more hp, means medics get to heal something more valuable to heal. They won't get that from a max tank mode. More likely your team will have 20 medics, then 2 engineers. Ok hear me out. What if Max's didn't get revives restores. So still no zero revives. ok. YET they got to be healed by medics instead of engineers?? Even if it's more interesting for a engineer to repair, to be unique. However theirs medics everywhere when many times no engineers are. That would probably be the budget friendly fix.
As I said before Heavy Assault is not a dueler, nor tank class. That is a mistaken perspective or a delusion, a dream. (I'm a heavy assault main) They are a support class, I would even put it behind the medic. You bring it for the launcher, it is to protect team from air strikes or ground, and the overshield is to allow user, together with Flak armor, to successfully engage back at a vehicle type ambush... The dueling capabilities are a bonus, but it's not their intended design. Their intended design is support against vehicle attacks... I don't want to explain other classes, just stick to MAX please. Basically, the Infiltrator, Engineer, Light Assault, breach defenses. Their equipment is much better suited for that, than Heavy Assault. Without medic they can't get far. But these ultra fortified point rooms where the only thing you can do is MAX crash to break through is an issue the game designers created themselves. Eh you'd need to also redesign the gunplay if you want to change the classes that much, which would need to be well thought out and clever... But you know why the devs attempted battle royal? Because they cannot handle anything more complex for now. Just stick to Planetside 2, until one recovers. And sure the MAX getting healed by medic could open a new perspective but it's too offensive, nevertheless.
Honestly they were onto something with the nso max ability. The one that makes a shield bubble to allow everyone to push. I'd rather they forget about ai and make maxes better at dealing with vehicles and air, and other maxes lol. Ideally the AI max loadout would just make it a moving wall, soaking up damage for allies pushing while allowing them to shoot through. Really I think they should explore that nso shield ability more and add it to the other factions.
Spot on. I was thinking of that as well but I would rather put this ability in their right hand using ammo or a HEAT mechanism and possibly bring back their old "Charge" ability as the togglable ability slot. To be more creative. The question is what should be in their left hand, what guns, what damage types? What if their firearms would all deal Heavy Machine Gun or Gatling Gun type damage, so they can engage both infantry and armor? But just in a supportive way... Because why would you need a MAX with AV or AA options when you've got Heavy Assault? I am not sure yet.
I'd say remove AI capabilities, give them weapons designed to deal with other maxes, and stuff infantry has trouble dealing with like air and vehicles. AA options suck, and av isn't much better. They should make maxes better against those and worse against infantry.
So, yeah that's how I believe the new MAX design should revolve around. Left hand weapon, right hand support ability, like shield or whatnot. And also include a MAX ability slot that'd somehow work with their design. But I have no knowledge or idea of how a right-hand support ability could function in PS2. lol I came up with something vague... VS MAX already has this slick design. They could be a melee tank/support unit, with a sword and maybe a drifter jetpack (So, they would have a jetpack in their ability slot instead). Not sure what would be in their right hand. Generally, this is a hard concept because it needs a complete design. Like let's say TR MAX would get a "Seraph Shield" like ability in their right hand and "Charge" as a taggable ability... What now? I don't know, I can't come up with anything right now. Not a bad idea. So, form MAX into a simple damage soaker, super tank but have no anti-infantry weapons. Just anti-vehicle.... Not bad. But how would infantry destroy this target is a question, because it may force more Heavy Assault users, but Heavy Assault use harms TR, it is their worst class in the game.
Aha I came up with an idea. What if the MAX unit will turn into our now Combat Medic? There have been complaints of the medic being highly OP. You make big plays, take down a few players but behold, medic arrives and revives everyone up in 3 seconds. Or that silly revive grenade strategy. Medic is a high priority target but cause of the cosmetics it's near impossible to differentiate and it is hard prioritizing targets this way. Before, I stated that infantry classes cannot be much different because of this issue, and MAX is easily distinguishable from an infantry class. I was thinking the MAX support role could be adjusted into this. A nanite cost armored unit that can heal and revive allies. So, in one hand the subpar gun and in the other, the heal/revive tool. And redesign the combat medic infantry class, into a whole new unit.
Could MAX get reworked into a tank / support role? Of course you can. Bring MAX back to the state he was 5-6 years ago. Bring him back to life, because it took twice as long to recover as another soldier. To the question - why and why? The answer is that if they destroy any ground or air equipment, then the driver / pilot can be revived. Why is there something wrong with Max? He is, in fact, a driver. And since MAX belongs to a soldier's unit, not a technician, he also needs to be revived by a medic. And MAX himself, as can be seen from the very description as a class, is a mechanized assault exoskeleton (for simplification - reinforced armor + heavy weapons + special skills).
