Does anyone prefer the lightning over their empires main battle tank? Why?

I assume you certed it out as well?

I got the Mag and Lightning fully certed out (at least the certs I want/need), and at the vehicle spawner I almost always choose the Lightning. I don't know why really, I just like the feel and speed of it.

I currently have smoke, combat chassis and improved side armor. I switch turret setups depending on the situation, usually between HEAT and HE.

I don't want to have a gunner in my tank because evuntally I'll get tired of playing it safe and I'll charge into a group of heavys, so I avoid getting someone killed and stick with a fast lightning

I made over 1000 kills with it recently. I've fully certed up my Lightning and really do prefer it. Aside from it costing less resources and less of an acquisition timer to the MBT - it has amazing maneuverability and a super fast rate of fire which is really fun to flank a zerg and dominate with. The super low to the ground profile also makes it easy to slide in and out of cover. It's just plain fun.

i use both because they both have their situational value`; The lightning brings me fast to the point I need to go with a speed upgrade and can mount a skyguard; Whereas a vanguard is more heavy(slow) but is really armored up with 1 set of top,side,front armors(i got all 3 thinking i could equip them all) and a nano-shield

No because I can't afford to cert out my Mag and Lightning, picked the Mag, happy with that choice, don't think much of the Lightining.

i primarily use Lighting instead of the Magrider. my role as a solo player is generally to quickly flank enemy attackers/defenders and apply maximum firepower at key points with HE rounds. i am very slippery -- full rival chassis and smoke, with stealth.

i also try to listen to my teammates and watch the map and respond to all crisis points in battle, and the lightning has the speed to get me where i need to go quickly.

i also played Lightning a lot in PS1.

When playing VS i ALWAYS take out the magrider, if on cooldown I take a Scythe, when both on cooldown (it happens) I pull a lightning

on TR i ALWAYS pull a lightning, when there is a cooldown (not likely) i go sniper
Prowler is just a big pile of junk

Not play much NC, whenver I do I go infantry and maybe the vanguard

I got the HEAT barrel and the default barrel with 1.5x zoom and i keep finding myself going back to the C75 since it has much greater anti-infantry capabilities. I look forward to eventually getting AP and HE for it. As for the magrider, BORING.

Running Fire Suppression and Auto Repair for maximum survivability, as well as Racer Frame. Might switch to the Scrapper frame though.

Always prefer the MBT's if I have a gunner who's going to stay in there.

You can set them up to hard counter whatever your situation is, and let the gunner defend you. The lightning pretty much always has to load HE or HEAT and shoot at infantry or else get rocket/mine asploded. If you can trust a good gunner and be mindful of his up/down shooting arc when moving you can focus on placing big HE rounds from the main gun right into the zerg while they defend you from the individuals who come after you. You can put AP rounds into the sundy's rear armor one after another instead of using HEAT (lol HEAT does almost as much damage and has blast") and spending ammo and time shooting infantry and hitting the side/front armor. I kill the Sundy. He kills the troops.


90% of the time people just want to gun for a lift to the next base though, so I roll HE lightning and kill infantry most of the time. :/

Being a free-roam gunner's a hard life when the only MBT's you come accross are Basilisks or manned Sarons.

I did get to use a Halberd the other day though. That was fun. It was glitched and I couldn't see the rockets but I still hit anyways.

Lightning is very decent for what it does - I play NC and TR, and their MBTs have their own nuances. Lightning, however, is consistent. I am most experienced with the cannon arc since my time spent in an lightening almost equals the combined time I used Vanguard and Prowler

Also, when I lose my Vanguard / Prowler, I can always get a Lightning and get right into action.

I enjoy Lightning a lot. Vanguard (MBT) is certainly more powerful, especially with a competent gunner, but the Lightning is imo better for solo play.

My favourite thing to do at the moment when I'm not working with the outfit is to get an AP Lightning with stealth, smoke and racer and go looking to ambush inattentive main battle tanks (3 rear armour hits = good bye) or search out some Sunderers to kill.

I much prefer the lightning over my magrider,
I simply hate the fact that the magriders barrel doesn't turn individually from the tank Itself, the magriders also very fat and easy to target, i prefer being low to the ground.

Yes, I'm well aware that everyone thinks the magrider is better for countless reasons, but i don't care. :3 <3

I prefer the Lightning over the Magrider, because the Lightning is more traditional, I guess.
It's also way faster. The Magrider is still quite fun, but I prefer a more traditional approach when it comes to tanks.

I first thought its relatively weak armor was going to be a problem, but it actually isn't.
A Lightning can't win against a 2/2 MBT, but can actually win against a 1/2 MBT, which is nice.

The Lightning just combines all the essential things in a single package.
The Prowler comes close, but I dislike that the cannons are on the left instead of the right, and you're forced into multi-shot turrets(I greatly dislike the Lightning's Viper turret as well, but at least I'm not forced into it)

I usually use the Lightning as a tank hunter, because killing hordes of infantry got really boring after a while.
But killing tanks remains an exciting experience. Especially MBTs, because they have a huge advantage over the Lightning.

I use the lighting for some situations with HE against infantry or HEAT if there are many vehicles around. I dont like his default gun.
The lighting has faster reload time than a magrider or vanguard and can out dps them. Its also harder to hit (especially from air) and of course has faster top speed, acceleration and backwards speed. If you drive at top speed you become very hard to hit. Most of the time I rather have my main battle tank but it definitely has its uses. Especially if the main battle tank isnt available.

Before I fully certed out my Vanguard's racer chassis, I vastly preferred the Lightning. A stock Vanguard is just ungodly slow on even the slightest of inclines. It is unbelievably tedious. Just an utterly painful experience to drive. With racer I can stand to bring out a Vanguard again, but I still do like the Lightning more against infantry for its quick reload speed that still one-shots people.

I'm not completely sure why you'd use a Lightning over a Prowler or Magrider though. The Prowler isn't -too- much slower than the Lightning and is moderately adept at hill climbing, while being better against both infantry and tanks. It really just kind of feels like a Lightning+, with similar strengths and weaknesses. And the Magrider's maneuverability is so incredibly valuable that it vastly outclasses the Lightning's only real advantage over it - sustained DPS. Theoretically the Lightning is also faster, but that only applies on perfectly flat ground. Anywhere else the Mag is much, much quicker and easier to get around in.

I prefer the Lightning + Python over the Magrider, because it's 4 times smaller while having just about the same firepower, and it's gun has better elevation, so it can hit aircraft more often.

I also like the ability to drive backwards with the turret turned. Being able to retreat backwards from enemy fire while seeing where you're going is a huge boost in survivability. The Magrider sucks in that regard, if you want to see where you're going while retreating you need to turn your vulnerable back armor to the enemy...

The lightning is how the prowler should have been, fast and agile, with a perfect bullet "arc"
I always use HEAT and I snipe infantry from distances snipers may have problems hitting a moving target
I can do the same with Saron

I use the lightning more than the mag.. Mag is just too slow.