[Guide] Dear VS, before you whine about Aphelion < Vulcan...

... here are some helpful tips for you get the most out the monster that you were given.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I have over 200 hours of dedicated vulcan harrasser driving. I'm not the best out there, but I have my fair share of experience, so I would like to share some of my tips (although apparently you don't need any qualifications to post on forumside). I regularly run with my outfit in organised squad and platoon play that focuses predominantly upon vehicular warfare.

Now, I will be drawing on personal anecdotes accumulated over the past three days to illustrate my point. They are not indicative of VS faction as a whole, but are a good indication of what you should not do in a cqc-oriented harrasser.

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TL;DR: As VS always say to the other factions, your shortcomings are a L2P issue, so learn to play. I have full confidence that VS will abide by the remarks that they have thrown at the other factions. The Aphelion is simply AV Gold just waiting to be abused.

So here we go...

Vulcan crews generally abide by two general rules when crewing a harrasser. They are:
- Flank
- Play to your strengths

Flanking
Arguably the most important of the three, I cannot emphasise enough that flanking is not only recommended in a vulcan-esque harraser; it is a must. Contrary to popular belief, harrassers are fragile little buggies. Three shots from a main cannon will reduce the poor thing to a pile of ash. Multiple enemies firing upon you only make this problem much more evident. You might think that you have a lot of time between the three shots, but I guarantee you that if you are forced into an engagement that is not favourable for the harrasser, you won't survive long enough to even turn tail and try to run.

Flanking is very self-explanatory, but too often in the last three days I have seen Aphelion harrassers simply charge my friendly armour head-on. This was promptly followed by a facepalm on my part. Now, I think it's not entirely VS' fault. I mean, two years of having your vehicles wiped out by Vulcan harrassers would have inevitably developed a notoriety of vulcans, and it's not strange to think that they can mop the floor with any other vehicle in the game.

I kid you not, I reckon, as a result of this vulcan's reputation, the VS just drive into the thick of the fight and expect to slaughter everything in sight. I guarantee that this will not happen... ever. It has never happened for a vulcan, and will not happen for the Aphelion. Vulcan crewing is all about probing weaknesses in your enemy's line of defence and exploiting these.
Crewing is more than simply delivering the payload - half the job is also getting away. Now I have to admit that due to the sheer amount of power that an Aphelion user might feel, the weapon itself might tempt the users into stupid plays - into situations which are unfavourable for their loadout. Refrain, pls.

It goes without saying that you need to pick your fights carefully. Even for an experienced harrasser crew, a 1v1 with a Python-Heat lightning is a considerable threat to the vulcan harrasser. If you want to engage, make sure the target is:
- Isolated
- Preferrably weakened
- Retreating
- Preferrably unaware of your position

But most importantly, be sure that it is safe to engage. You don't want to engage that single harrasser when there are three anchored prowlers in the vicinity.
Be patient, wait for the opportune moment, and then make your move.

Stay smart and reap the rewards. Otherwise, you become easy certs for the other two factions.

Playing to Your Strengths
This is a game about numbers. Use numbers jesus christ mother of...

In the last three days of fighting extensively against VS, there was only one instance when there were two or more Aphelion harrassers in my proximity. They were scary yes, but it was obvious that they weren't coordinated. Every other Aphelion harrasser was by themselves, without support and hence, vulnerable. Vulcans thrive in packs. If you've ever played against TR on peak hour, you will understand why the TR perpetuate the 'pack' mentality - because it's f****** devastating. Several vulcans focusing fire upon a single target will melt them - often times without them having a chance to retaliate.

Furthermore, get a goddamn gunner. Out of every 10 aphelion harrassers I encountered, more than half of them were single manned (wtf). It became so obvious that this was so because as soon as the gun began to fire, the harrasser stopped moving, and was promptly blown up by every surrounding TR vehicle. The Aphelion alone is powerful yes, but the reason that the vulcan was so powerful was because it was mounted upon the harrasser platform, which allowed for mobility. If not for mobility, the vulcan would be virtually useless because of the vehicle's inability to close the distance effectively. GET A GUNNER AND STOP SOLO GUNNING IF YOU WANT TO SUCCEED.

It truly, truly is a L2P issue. The "Vulcan/Gatekeeper OP" cries are inevitable because this happens every goddamn patch. Just for once, I want a patch where the nerfhammer doesn't fall upon any victim - where we can enjoy the new content the devs have released instead of b******** about every little detail until we're all exhausted and something gets nerfed just for the sake of crowd pleasing.

Now get cracking and show us what you're made of and stop making these bloody stupid mistakes.
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I'll add to this as I think of new suggestions...

We learned well. Loyalty until death, strength in unity.

I don't think anyone is complaining about that, since it is obvious that the Aphelion has superior effectiveness at medium range and shorter exposure times, so it should be less effective at extreme CQC and complete exposure.

My only complaint is that a FPC + Aphelion Magrider is still AFAIK outDPSed in CQC by a Prowler AP + gatekeeper.

funny that i've seen a couple of posts whining about the VS one being a slightly worse vulcan, but i haven't seen any NC complain about the utterly dreadful box yet. its hilariously weak and hilariously inaccurate, it also deals practically no splash, so if anyone was planning on using it for AI they're out of luck too.
enforcer is better in every single way.

i'll gladly accept the VS gun! switch the lazers for normal tracers, replace the lazer cannons with scatmax weapons (because that is apparently passable now) and tadaa! perfect CQC AV

Well that's not surprising, an AP+Enforcer/Mjolnir Vanguard is out-DPSed by a 1/2 AP Prowler. Of course adding a secondary will only make that worse.

Op is right on every point, as a hardcore mag driver/gunner, the aphelion is totz op. It has a massive mag, excellent range, on-par AI conpared to the sauron, and great degrees of freedom. I joined a harraser squad yesterday, that was devoted to the aphelion, and all they did was pull harassers from a biolab, drive down a road into the enemy armor, die, then pull another. Repeat ad-infinitum. I told them several times that the harasser is not an MBT, and that they should try to flank, not engage head on, but they gave no heed. They're probably still pulling harassers from that biolab, because they were not making any headway against the enemy.

I agree with the OP I played it for the day and already knew a flank was desired on any MBT. Stealth is a must...it gets you into that position better. The power on it is just fine I don't have any issues with the Aphelion. I've also seen the NC on the field and it's pretty good on MBT but its slightly lacking against another harasser beyond close distance. So my opinion on that one is still out. However I'm slightly confused as to why the TR's new gun has such a high velocity. Just the things I've notice don them not an attempt to derail the thread.

This is a very nice guide - In the case of Harassers especially, the TR has had a few years to get used to the playstyle required (Although admittedly, there was a large break when the weapon sucked) - Naturally, dedicated harasser / vulcan crews will be much better at this. I havent gunned the Aphelion for long enough on live to say if it needs any changes yet, or if so, what those changes might be - so far, my only thought is slightly reduced CoF, or perhaps a small damage boost. From what i've seen of it so far - It's best on a Harasser, just as the Vulcan is. The Aphelion feels worse on the Magrider then the Vulcan does on the Prowler, mainly due to lack of DPS (comparatively speaking) The Prowler is already the most potent 1/2 MBT, so placing a weapon of the same general design that didn't work for the Prowler naturally won't do as well on a Magrider. On the harasser, however, it feels fairly good so far.

Having used the Gatekeeper for a good 18 solid hours, however - The zero CoF, zero recoil, zero bloom, 500 m/s projectiles (not to mention that they seem to be invisible at the moment, or that's what i've been told. They appear very dim / hard to see for me, similar to pounders, and only at sub 100 meters. Beyond that, they are silent and invisible, from the whispers I received.) ... It feels like an AV prenerf PPA without the CoF. When I can wipe out a hoarde of Raven maxes from a flanking position atop a mountain 650m away with 2x zoom, and take no damage... in a solo harasser - there's potentially some adjustments needed. Aiming at the head did not yield headshot audio cues, but rather standard hits (and an occasional headshot, when I moved my crosshairs slightly upwards) - I'm confident that there is drop, but so far, I've found it to be so slight that it doesn't matter at maximum render.

I haven't used the Mjolnir all that much yet on Live, so I can't speak to it's use on live in an encounter of any real size, but the potency of the weapon may make up for it's lack of accuracy when used at ~30 meters, as the Vulcan is. I've been obliterated by this thing a few times, but they were close enough to spit on. This is, however, the same range as the Vulcan is most effective - the inferior fire rate and number of projectiles means that it's not nearly as good against Infantry (not to mention the lack of splash) and the accuracy (or lack thereof) made me wish I had an enforcer every time I used it, regardless of range.

Just a few thoughts.

nice guide, you should get someone who's not an *** hole to rewrite it =)

This is a joke right? Please say it is.... If you are getting killed by 1/2 AP prowlers. And you are in a AP vanguard, with a secondary gunner, you should win every time. Unless said prowler locks down with surprise and range, you should win. With a secondary gunner, and your shield it should be easy. If it's not, you need to work on your tank abilities.

I didn't say the Vanguard would be certain to lose, I said the Prowler deals more DPS. Cover and peek-a-boom are amazing things, I'm just pointing out that the Prowler having absurd DPS is not a problem unique to the VS.

Ok, but still, vanguard, imo, has the advantage in a 1v1 unless the prowler is locked down at range. Vanguard shield is amazingly powerful when not wasted.

My math says that is incorrect, an AP prowler with a Gatekeeper will do (before resistances) 2953dps. A magrider with the stolen Vulcan VEX thing will do 3198.

I think.

Considering the Magrider AP only does 574 DPS before resistances, and the VEX does 1333 before resistances (and before reloading), I'm not sure where you got the other 1291 from.

Edit: Eh what the heck, I'll run the numbers with resistances.

Magrider AP:689
VEX: 600
Total: 1289

Prowler AP: 833 (1225 locked down)
Vulcan/Gatekeeper: 1002 (testing currently indicates that they seem to have the same post-resistance DPS right now, for some reason)
Total: 1835 (2227 locked down, though that might be more relevant to the Gatekeeper).

Does one of your people's math account for the charge shot every six shots or so with the aphelion, it significantly ups the dps.

I highly doubt it doubles it. Oh well, while TR and VS argue about which of them is more OP, NC will just be sitting in a corner with their Mjolnir.

Because while the magrider may only do 574dps. It does the 3198 in the first second of the fight, compared to the 2953. The Prowler will pull further and further ahead as the fight goes on but the magrider isn't exactly left out.

If that makes sense.

And for the record, I don't think the VEX is OP, I just hate how similar it is to the Vulcan, get your own ****, VS.

What I have been told, but not personally tested, is that it's possible to execute a "charge" shot every six rounds, and that this shot does 5x the damage of a normal shot, which, in effect, would damn near double the dps, if every sixth shot did as much damage as the five that came before it combined.

And, side note, I personally really like the mjolnir, vanguards are gonna be a lot of fun in close range tank battles now. Like stupid fun. Though I do feel it's more for the vanguard than the harasser as far as platform usability goes.

You mean you're counting the full 1875 damage toward its "DPS", but you're not counting the Prowler's 2500 double-tap? The Prowler will have both shots out by the time the first second passes you know. Also the Vulcan/VEX have a spin-up in that first second, the Gatekeeper doesn't.

So does that mean the Mjolnir is due for a buff? Because right now it can't really keep up with the Vulcan and the Vex. Or did we forget that this game has three factions again?

We didn't forget, we just aren't talking about the NC. Also the Prowler does have a cycle time, it can only shoot one shot per second.