TRAgainst air, you do insane damage at a very small amount of time, though you can only turn 180 degrees, so you can be shot from behind and killed before you can move. Unlikely i know, but it is doable. Against inantry and vehicles it's about the same, you do more damage, but are still a sitting target which is easy to hit. NC I'll be honest i need more insight on this from NC as i have no tried it myself, but from what i have heard, it doesn't take much damage ergo not that good, though it can get you right on the face on the enemy to enable the NC max to do what it's best at doing. VS With the first level you get infinite speed boost, later you get a massive damage boost, you are insanely difficult to shoot at, you do massive damage and it only takes 10% more damage. You can't kill it with rockets, you have a difficult time killing it with C4 and other maxes are way too slow to shoot at it. With the very much NOT welcomed change to the bio labs, the ZOE max is all the more beastly. I'll be logging back on after i hear the game is playable again. Feel free to celebrate VS, you can enjoy your turn having the most OP thing in the game after a long while of not having one. I welcome you to point out how the ZOE is not the single best thing in the game right now, but you will be wrong.
Yeah I think VS were the clear winners this patch unless I'm missing something. Tomorrow should be interesting after everyone gets a chance to play around with Max units tonight.
I haven't tried the shield yet but I like my ability to run away when the fight gets too tough too much. Doesn't sound very attractive to give it up.
Haha, such a objective post...not. "Infinite" speed boost. Right. Massive damage boost? 6 shots instead of 7 is not a "massive" damage boost. It's abssolutely nothing compared to the 40% fire-rate increase of the TR. Insanely difficult to shoot at, not really. Learn to track. Also, we take more damage while we well get hit. Seriously, this is such a whine-post. The TR lockdown is awesome, so is the NC shield and the VS ZOE. They are all just good at different things. Stop with all these "everyone else gets better than us! QQ" threads, they're getting repetitive.
So I logged in and instead of screwing with VR, I just threw 2250 certs into Zealot Overdrive for level 5 right off the bat and played through the alert on Mattherson. I found the ZOD (ZOE doesn't make sense as an acronym, and General Zod is a villain worthy of the electric pink glow, so ZOE is now ZOD) to be quite a bit better than many of the doom and gloom predictions. ZOD's forward speed boost is disappointing, and Charge is still vastly better for evading C4 and climbing steep inclines, but the lateral and reverse speed it gives is quite impressive and really does help in evading (and dealing) damage. The damage boost is quite perceptible with the AI weapons I've tried, though less so with Comets and Bursters. Reduced time to kill equals reduced time exposed and this, combined with the aforementioned speed increase (which brings you to standard infantry speeds) usually mitigates the extra damage you take when hit. The reduced number of rounds to kill also, unsurprisingly, helps conserve ammo, if you need to. As for the penalties, first and foremost is that glow. It's not too bad during the day, but at night, where solo VS normally have a significant edge, you standout like nothing else. I turned it on during a large night battle and was soon awash in a volume of fire I normally see reserved for fully loaded Galaxies (but I made a run for it and survived) Also annoying is that the glow from your weapons is bright enough to significantly reduce the apparent contrast of everything else to the point that it can be hard to make things out. I knew the glow would make me stand out, but I did not take into account how much it also impaired my ability to see and aim in very dark areas. ZOD's armor penalty is definitely noticeable. It may be "only" ~10%, but that's off an 80% base, so you take nearly 50% more damage from small arms fire. This mitigates ZOD's advantages by forcing you to be more cautious, especially in tight quarters. I'm not completely certain about the explosive damage armor reduction, yet, but I still cannot be one-shotted by rockets. I do seem to take noticeably more damage from grenades and proximity mines. All in all, I like the ability since I do normally "lone wolf" in my MAX, but it does not help group play in CQC (more fragile, more obvious, and if you can even use the increased movement, you get out of range or break LOS with engineers very easily), and to make the most of it, many will have to adjust their tactics. Relative to the other VS options (e.g. charge) and taking it's cost into account, I'd say it's well balanced. Regarding the other faction's new MAX abilities, I have seen TR's Lockdown used to excellent effect against aircraft (saw one max take out three oncoming Scythes from behind a spawnroom force field in about 15 seconds) and armor, though it seems fairly useless against infantry. I have yet to see the NC's MAX shield in use outside of the test server. Charge is indeed a difficult thing to give up.
I tried ZOE max rank for a bit, i like it a lot, the damage buff is nice and the speed buff is even better, but you take a lot more damage, i was use to be very durable against small arms because i use kinetic armor 5, but even with kinetic you take a lot more damage.
I don't use kinetic, since I'm normally alone, or at least cannot rely on having an engineer follow me around. I have to be very careful using ZOD. Of course after that last buff in GU8(?), Auto Repair 5 usually means that if I survive, I'm good as new in 40 seconds.
How is the NC shield "Awesome"? It turns you into a glorified practice dummy, you can't Shoot, you can't Attack, heck, you can't even turn around, as the shield is only frontal, meaning you can't even use it to retreat.
The NC have unmatched CQC weapons that annihilate any opposition within 5m. now you got a shield that lets you safely close in on the enemy. I'm sure you will manage to think of something.
The hook here is that when you see an NC MAX walking towards you with the shield up, you just turn 180 and sprint away, he has no chance to catch up to you since he can't have the charge ability and can't sprint while having the shield up. So my observations so far: TR Lockdown: With Onslaughts you will just get devastated when he can aim at your even if only for a second. Mercies are like long range autocannons from the AI turrets and the Bursters, yeah, never got blown out of the sky so fast without having a chance to notice where the fire came from. The weakness of having open flanks will only matter for MAX that dare to lock themself down when they are alone, which they almost never are. Although i can imagine if someone panics and hits the ability key in thought of charging to safety and then getting rooted in place he might bite his own *** off afterwards. 2 or 3 MAX with Engineer support at a hallway will make it a certain deathtrap for everything that tries to push that way. VS ZoE, or ZoD : Annoyingly fast, makes it harder to get away from them, the damage is terrifyingly noticable, setting the killing speed of dual Cosmos in the 0. margin under the right circumstances of range and no cover for the target. Then there is increased damage taken, may be noticable but when you try to take on a ZoE MAX alone you will die 100% of the times just through his sheer DPS. Also it can be mitigated by having a pocket engineer running with you. I saw a single MAX devastating a squad just with his Cosmos and 2 Engineers, because the Engies where ducking behind the MAX and he kept killing everything. NC Aegis Shield: Practical but situational. If you have a single enemy who can't run away from you infront fo you you can use it to safely close distance till you are in the lethal range of the NC MAX. Also pratical for pushing towards enemy positions if used in tandem with other MAX, when one of the shields start to fail he falls back and lets his shield recharge. Already did that one time, had 10 TR guys shooting at be but i kept pushing and since they where focusing fire on me, all my teammates could flank and rush them down. Also protects you from rockets and normally deadly tank shells to the face, although you still take the splash damage form every source, so it's best used in conjunction with an Engineer and Flak Armor. Also you can unload your Shotguns on the enemy, start the reload and hit the shield, you are protected from damage while the Shotguns keep reloading, very practical and a true addition to survivability. Note this is all from NC point of view, but i think i got it very bias free.
TR- Indoors/Close, stand still and hope your buddies live to protect you. When your buddies die.. wait to get rocket/c4'd and otherwise murdered in a swift fashion. Against other MAX types. Stand still and wait for the NC to push in behind a max or two, all the while shooting at you with pot shots while you try to get at any of them, get murderised. Stand still and watch a VS Max zip about, light into you, or circle around to your backside and let you take it from behind without even giving you station cash for the service. You are on par with the shotty max but only with anything in your 180 degree scope while your enemies are now planning on how to kill you,while you're pondering your time as a MAX. __ VS-You're fast and do a lot of damage. You take damage assuming anyone or anything can hit you and kill a lot of infantry in between restocking of ammo. Don't worry about the TR MAX, he's locked up in a corner. The NC MAX may be your enemy, but flank'em and frag'em, the end right? You are on par with the Scattermax, as long as you're moving, until you run into a Scattermax who lands some shots into you and even then you may get away to the safety of your Engineers and come back to take chunks out of the shotty max. ___ NC-You get to push in with a shield with people following you, kind of like a lethal conga line. Get another MAX unit to join you or more and have them either carry an additional shield, but basically, everyone else carries guns to hurt those around you..that you are supposed to hurt. Don't worry about the TR MAX, he's outside somewhere shooting in the air trying to flak down anyone who's hovering and otherwise just reenacting the early days of the 90's Gulf War. If you see one indoors, it's rare. Try to coax it out or just put up your shield and start the conga music. VS MAX may be your only real threat, as they can flank you and grease you like a fast food joints floor. You are a better asset to your faction buddies, given now you're less likely to OHK a dumb team mate who just happens to think the no clip between people makes you a door, because now you're holding a shield, that they can run through. That's how I've read things so far in the last few hours of game play.
Reload before popping the shield. It'll keep going. I've certed all three. Lockdown and Zoe to level 4 and Shield to level 5. TR - got nailed in one pass by a Scythe. Hit F forgetting that I changed it to lock down. Don't know if that increases damage but not used to being lolpodded in one pass. Tried it with Fractures, very noticeable buff in firing speed. Can see more use indoors covering an entrance. See limited use against air in the distance, not that useful when defending against air in your vicinity. VS - loved the additional speed. Haven't used it enough to notice any additional damage but then I only just certed up my VS recently and only have Blueshifts as AI weapons. Too busy having fun with the Vortex to focus on AI weapons. NC - spent 5 seconds with it to see if you can reload and flip on the shield, you can. Took some light arms damage before logging off. Was 4am in the morning on my main so not much around to shoot at. Will consider equipping it for AV work and AI work where I'll be covering a point, otherwise my go to will like be Charge. Personally, I favor Zoe, 50% SC and Zoe is what pushed me over the edge to also run a VS MAX. I'm sure I've hit two with Decimators but could have just been splash and been killed by the VS MAX which people are claiming should be a one shot kill. They were down to roughly what I would expect a non-Zoe MAX would be.. could be just coincidence that they were around that health anyway. Lots of tears on the forums about Zoe being a gamebreaker. Not feeling that way myself, I'd happily take one on in my ScatMAX on my NC main. Would love a duel between a Ageis MAX vs a Zoe MAX.
Sounds like ZOE makes the MAX play like infantry with an extra large HP pool and beefy DPS, but none of the utility of tools or other abilities. Easiest to learn, you just activate it and then play like a dumb, faerie fired, beefed up HA. Based on that I'm gonna say that, if the abilities are relatively balanced, ZOE will come out on top for the first week or so. Aegis shield is interesting, you can basically become mobile cover for teammates and can reload mid-combat with *relative* impunity when you are duking it out with another MAX or HA. Whats the activation time, BTW, is it fast enough to see a rocket fired and throw the shield up in time to block it? If so, awesome. Either way, this one creates a somewhat unique play style for the NC MAX, which will take some time to learn, so I expect the apparent power level of this to level off a bit later than ZOE, somewhere around 2 weeks from now. Lock down seems like it will take the longest of the three to use effectively, since most people don't ever bother to fortify a position, and that's where this shines, whether you are fortifying a vehicle choke point or an infantry choke point. I also think that the implementation of the Lattice system is likely to have a much stronger effect on this one, since it's likely to create a large shift in the defense/offense dynamic, and hopefully it will be harder for enemies to just go around fortified areas. Because of that, you won't see very much optimal use of this ability until people 1) Get used to the Lattice 2) Update their defensive strategies accordingly and 3) Learn how to position for Lockdown. Since all of those have to happen, it will look like the least used/useful at the beginning but, as people learn to use it better, it will continue to increase in apparent effectiveness for a good bit longer than the other two. Of course, by tomorrow there will probably be at least a few skilled players who are already consistently making optimal use of all 3 abilities, so yeah.
Depends on the distance, if the other guy is 20 meters away, no, you probably wont be able to put the shield up before the rocket hits you, but at 50 or 100 meters, sure, the questions here is, would you want to pull the shield out or just make 3 steps to the side, you still have to stay mobile, even with the shield, you are neither invulnerable nor lasts the shield forever. Direct rocket hits may get absorbed, but the resulting explosion deals full splash minus the part Flak Armor absorbs.
Since people actually using their brains a bit and thinking tactically is a bad thing... Yes someone sees a big shield they shouldn't charge in further expecting to do something useful lol. I mean with scattermaxes people already have the instinct to back off when encountered. You don't lose anything because of this... just like if I run into a room and survive a lockdown max defending a point or critical corridor I'm going to run my **** away as well. If you see a pink power ranger running at you then you'll probably fall back to a close quarters situation where your scatermax shotguns can rip him to shreds 20% faster now and mobility doesn't mean much. It's all tactics, people will learn to counteract them and people will learn creative uses for them.
And people will find ways to exploit the undead **** out of them so they get nerfed, i really hope the reload > shield is a feature and nothing that SoE deems to be changed. Btw you just gave me the solution to a problem i encountered today.
TR: Perfect target for C4. Does nice AA damage, which is nice. As if it wasn't already hard enough to fly if you're NC or VS. Oh well. NC: Cute shield. It's very blue. Kind of like acid. I mean blueberries. Charge infinitely more useful. VS: HOLY FREAKIN' CRAP HOW DO I HIT THAT BLUR OF PURPLENESS OHHHH CRAP I'M DEAD AGAIN!!!!!
NC lose to other AI MAXs if they don't have extended mags. Or if they do have extended mags and both are full kinetic and extended mags. Not entirely sure that is "unmatched" nor "annihilate any opposition" exactly.
