Is it just me or does NC have like literally the best items hands down?

The Best of Everything for Infantry List (excluding directive/cash only weapons)

Best Sidearm- TR's Inquisitor (24.57 KPH)
Best Shotgun- VS's Phobos (32.16 KPH)
Best SMG- VS's Eridani (24.87 KPH)
Best Carbine- NC's Gauss Compact Burst (26.33 KPH)
Best Assault Rifle- NC's Gauss Rifle Burst (34.29 KPH)
Best LMG- NC's Anchor (44.87 KPH)
Best Battle Rifle- VS's Eidolon (13.58 KPH)
Best Scout Rifle- NC's AF-6 Shadow (34.51 KPH)
Best Sniper Rifle- NC's SAS-R (34.08 KPH)
Best ES Heavy Weapon- NC's Jackhammer (34.26 KPH)
Best AT/AA Rocket Launcher- NS's Decimator (12.12 VKPH+AKPH)

Best AV MAX- NC's Ravens (4.4 VKPH)
Best AI MAX- NC's Mattock (35.66 KPH)
Best AA MAX- NS's Bursters (3.1 AKPH)

Data from June 2016.

At least as far as infantry things go, the NC has some of the best categories, though ironically they lose out to VS shotguns. NC MAXes are quite strong as well, being able to hit hard. They don't have the most effective of everything, but the list of infantry things is largely blue.

I might do vehicles later.

That's months ago though?

There are some things which needs to be considered;
1. Not many users of Burst weapons(most are of high BR)
2. Wide use tend to drag down weapons average KPU, KDR, etc. See default / cheap weapons in terms of certs.
3. Sniper / scouts are identical(with some small variation).

An example being the Terminus which is well known as the go-to AR for VS. It has a high number of users yet still place itself high up on the list. Used Oracle of Death monthly stats; http://ps2oraclestats.com/monthlystats/

TL;DR: You need to consider all stats and now they relate to each other. A weapon available to all will usually have the worst stats while directive, exclusive items, niche weapons tend to place themselves higher(or at the top).

Unfortunately the Oracle of Death froze in June and stopped collecting or displaying more recent data. That's the most recent data we have at the moment, at least that I know of.

Yes, this is true. Most people wouldn't consider the burst variants to be that great, and it's probably highly experienced players trying to Aurax the last things on their list which bumps them up the on the charts. There is also variation when factions use the exact same NS weapons, which shows that there are of course other factors in play.

But overall, the Oracle is still the best, most objective method in determining "bests". When players only analyse their own performance or the characteristics of a weapon on paper, I think that they miss out on many more things. At least the Oracle captures everything, so gives the best snapshot of real performance under field conditions.

>falling for the "le scatter pistol bad xd meme"
like literally the scatter pistol is the best if you are going for close range infiltrator play. it is effectively an instakill if you actually know how to aim the thing. and use the iron sights to lower the cone of fire with a smart choke.

Its just you OP!

Lets look at some of the things you talk about....

Tanks, NC = the worst performing
Phoenix - You need a group of them to be useful, one on its own is totally useless
Rail gun - by this i presume you mean the railjack, its the worst sniper rifle in the NC arsenal and all the other snipers are carbon copies for all three empires.
Jackhammer - is the special heavy weapon, i certainly wouldn't say its any better than the MCG purely because its a lot more situational.
Canister - I will happily swap you for the PPA, Saron or Vulcan - NC harry is by far the worst.
Magscatter - one use, Infil. Its very unreliable even then. The best pistols are still the NS which all 3 can use.

I could go on.

Yes the NC has SOME stuff that is good. But so do the other factions.

What is this nonsense about the vanguard "underperforming" that ive been seeing in the last few days? If you hop into your little prowler and magrider and try to kill me, you wont survive.

But EM6 has the same RPM/DMG, has more DPM, has a managable recoil and looks better IMO.
Anchor is just worse, than it's counterparts in what is was designed to be - CQC LMG, while being outshined by the other LMG in med-long ranges. Why it's so overrated - it's a mystery to me.

If by "instakill" you mean shot+knife combo, then revolvers can do the same thing.
If you mean OHK by headshot, then MS can't do that, since in has only 1.5x HS multiplier.
And you can't call it "the best" - MS is useless with every class, except stalker infil.

And who uses iron sights (outside of a few intusiasts), when RDSs are available?

NC by a mile have the most effective MBT

Superior HP
Improved Front Armor Baked in
Fastest Projectile Speed
Highest Damage Projectile
Fastest Turret Rotation / Best Range

That and their MAX AI is on another level in indoor fights compared to other empires. Other than that VS infantry weapons bettah than other empires all around, TR has the best ESF (lol) and AA max (lock down)

I mean thats really the main differences of the empires... everything else is *** for tat

All MBTs have 4k hp.
Front armor is only 5% better. That does incredibly little let me tell you.
Projectile of 275 over the prowlers 250... that's little to nothing.
Highest damage per shot I will give you. however that's generally not relevant in most situations (also prowlers two shots come out to above anything a vanguard can fire, just pointing that out).
How do you even measure fastest turret rotation? Pretty sure they're all on par with each other. Also best range is opinionated, 25m/s is hardly reason to call it best in range.

I'd hardly call this a mile. or a few feet.

All tanks may have the same HP but the Vanguard can take alot more than 5% over the other two empire MBTs. Factor in the shield ability on top and you've got a tank that will win vs any other vehicle. The prowler might have a similar speed when ANCHORED to the ground where as the vanguard is free to move without sacrificing accuracy. Try hitting a moving target with prowler vs vanguard, one is much easier than the other. Turret speed? One moves faster than the other without changing your mouse settings, its incredibly obvious if you spend some time in both and you can turn your turret a lot quicker than a magrider will ever turn with either TR or NC MBT.

It has the least amount of drop, gets to the target the fastest, and hits the hardest all while sitting on the tankiest.. tank platform. What it lacks in speed it makes up for in hill climbing ability easily. It has no weakness compared to other MBTs... it gives up nothing.

Prowler has the highest DPS and the Vanguard has long reload time. Also, hill climbing, lol. Yeah, watch out and observe as I slowly crawl up a hill and spin around my turret at BREAK NECK SPEEDS! Imma knock you out with the barrel! So fast! BOINK!

Prowler only has highest DPS if; (1) in full certed lockdown mode (2) both shots hit every single time

Otherwise vanguard takes the cake and doesn't have to root itself in place or have to be as precise aiming their shots. You haven't used tanks much if you think the other 2 are hill climbers.

Damn this thread is filled to the brim with grade-A bullcrap.

First the Vanguard. It's the easiest to use in 1v1's with a shield... Which instantly shows the complete crap that the Vanguard is. Without a shield it's easily the worst, even with shield it's only just the premier MBT killer, and trades this spot with the Prowler every so often. The base chassis of the Vanguard is simply terrible.
And really, the Vanguard doesn't leave a lot of room for improvement. The Prowler and especially the Magrider however... They have a much higher skill-ceiling. In 1v1's the Vanguard isn't going to automatically win anything.

For weapons people have pointed out the bad stuff of having high-damage weapons vs high-ROF weapons with similar DPS. The high-ROF weapons have lower punishments for missing a shot. Also people have already proven in other threads that the whole "NC weapons have a higher skillceiling" isn't true either, as at higher BR levels the NC weapons only get similar results, while at lower BR many NC weapons underperform if you check the whole shabang of statistics.
And really, with so many average players (duh, that's why it's the average) the most superior faction will the the faction that's the easiest to use by the average players. Which means the NC with it's arsenal of overall not-as-easy-to-use- weapons loses.

Again, Vanguards can be pretty good at fighting vehicles depend on the situations, but it's always absolutely atrocious at killing infantries. Thus Vanguards offers extremely little synergy in combined arm scenarios.

Case in point, Vanguard's Titan HE turret has the EXACT same splash damage and radius as Magrider's VPC HE gun, only it's got considerably slower reload, and without the benefit of smooth strafe aiming. And since Infantries generally need two splashes from HE guns to die, even disregarding the other benefits Prowler and Magrider's HE gun has, the inherently slow reload of Vanguard renders it useless. Yes, Titan HE does a bit more direct hit damage than VPC. But guess what? A direct hit with ANY tank gun will kill the infantry outright anyway, and with Prowler and Magrider's faster reload, a godly cannon sniper will still kill infantry faster in those tanks than in a Vanguard. In short Titan HE offers no anti-infantry benefit what-so-ever over any other tank guns.

"But, the canister!" you might say. Here's the crippling problem with the roof top canister turret on Vanguard, it's a god damned shotgun. If the infantry you're shooting at has ANY sort of cover that obstructs some part of his silhouette, 1/3 - 1/2 of your canister pellet will be blocked and deal no damage. While Prowler's Marauder and Magrider's PPA are both grenade style explosive weapons. With some finesse you can still deal the 100% damage by directly hitting the infantry with these weapons.

Not only that, the shotgun nature of the canister turret requires you to be relatively close to the infantry to deal full damage even when he's out in the open. And a fat MBT with slow reload, slow acceleration and slow traverse fighting infantries up close is just asking to be C4'd and rocket spammed.

This is why canister works way better on Harasser than on Vanguards, even with H version's gimped stats.

So what we have here is a MBT that's absolute junk at infantry support due to the lack of anti-infantry teeth regardless of how it's configured. And guess what, infantry is what wins objectives in this game. An MBT that's bad at killing infantry is nothing but a huge dead weight unless you're under constant vehicle threats. There's a reason that NC pulls considerably more Lightnings and battle Sundies than the other factions.

Vanguard needs a complete redesign, and NC will continue to lose in combined arm engagements before that happens.

Statistically...

Tank Combined Vehicle Kills by VKPH
Magrider- 26.62 (11.69 AP VKPH, 14.93 Halberd VKPH)
Prowler- 24.02 (13.22 AP VKPH,10.8 Vulcan VKPH)
Vanguard- 23.67 (10.97 AP VKPH, 12.7 Enforcer VKPH)

In terms of killing vehicles, the Magrider is the best 2/2 tank and the Prowler is the best 1/2 tank. The Vanguard is last on all counts.

Tank Combined Infantry Kills by KPH
Magrider- 144.72 (42.55 HE KPH, 101.72 Kobalt KPH)
Prowler- 125.53 (50.03 HE KPH, 75.5 Marauder KPH)
Vanguard- 106.97 (35.79 HE KPH, 71.18 Canister KPH)

Against infantry, the Vanguard is also the worst. The Magrider's excellent hill-climbing ability allows it to get to places where it can fire upon vulnerable infantry, and the Prowler has superior main cannons.

Essentially, the Vanguard does the worst at killing both vehicles and infantry. Its offensive power is very lacking.

Not really. Consider, for example, the DPS of a stock Vanguard versus a stock Prowler:

Prowler P2-120 HEAT- 666.7 DPS; 1,000 damage x2, 3 second reload (0.5 second refire + 2.5 second reload)
Vanguard Titan-150 HEAT- 400 DPS; 1,600 damage, 4 second reload

So a Prowler with no cert investment still easily beats a Vanguard with no cert investment (by 66% even). The Prowler by far leads other tanks in terms of DPS. I think I ran the numbers before and a HEAT Prowler can kill an AP Vanguard even under some situations.

On the other hand, if a Vanguard misses once then its DPS tanks considerably. The Prowler's DPS is actually significantly more consistent because 1) it can afford a ranging shot and 2) it has a faster reload time.

If a Prowler misses once, it still does 1,250 damage. If a Vanguard misses once, it does 0 damage.

Heh, preaching to the choir. I too prefer the Carv to MSWR and EM6 to Anchor. Comes down to the recoil pattern mostly. My post was comparing Anchor to the other cqc LMGs.

I have been called a hacker numerous times. Know why? Becuase i can snipe infantry with ease. I snipe them all day long with my good ol trusty ap and oh boy does it get the salt flowing from some people, and while you might be right about HE not being all that okay, does it matter? People who use HE are just cancer anyways. If you really want to farm infatry do it in style with an ap.

Again, if you're good at cannon sniping, then you would've do even better with Prowler's faster reload, and Magrider's smooth aim. Vanguard has nothing to offer compared to others, and is still at a considerable disadvantage.

All I know, is that the TR has some of the best Pistols, if not the best ES Pistols. The Inquisitor is just Dirty now.