I'm not sure why my Vanu Engineer can get a one shot kill with a shotgun, I'm not sure why the enemy can kill my engineer with machine gun with two or three shots BUT and then, I get in my Max, which has a blueshift and a comet and it has to fire two comet hits and several hits of the blueshift before an enemy infantry dies, I'm not sure why that IS? THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! Furthermore the people who say the game should be more infantry based and balanced to make that happen are several beers short of a six pack, as all you accomplish by doing so, is making vehicles easy certification points! If they don't like vehicles they should go a play a game that doesn't have them, instead you pretend that an infantry is a SUPER ALPHA GOD and try to make it balanced with something that completely outclasses it. THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! One infantry can't be a counter to everything in the game THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! FIX MY MAX!
I believe the general thought is that people don't want to feel like constant pigs for the slaughter to everything around them. They want to have areas where vehicles are on "their turf". For the most part that has been done with various areas like some inner areas of bases, wooded areas, rocky crags, and the like. Probably what's happening with the one-hit-kill scenario is they are aiming higher than you. A shotgun of anysort to the noggin and it's a free trip to the respawn tubes. Aim higher. It's higher risk as it is more of a chance to miss, but higher reward. Or play like me and aim for center mass with an auto shotgun and hope they miss. As for the MAX, Vanu MAXes really aren't close combat specialists and shouldn't go off on their own. They are mobile fire-support turrets. If you give infantry a stationary or predictable target, or you in the open with no support, you'll get gunned down quick. Come to the understanding in your heart that every unit is supposed to excel somewhere, and to do so as a mixed-arms force, and you'll both come to grips with some of the outlying beliefs of people in this game, the give and take of classes in their various roles, and how they all have to be fit together with developer desires / stockholder expectations. Your MAX is probably fine. You just have to stop treating it like Knight armor from the medieval age as depicted in movies, but more like how they were in reality: shock troops that only really faired well when they couldn't be swarmed.
This is my issue with VS MAX's though. They arnt close combat specalists but their COF is shocking, they have strictly worse survivability than their counter parts and are outclasses as turrets at all ranges by the TR MAX and at short ranges by the NC. The VS MAX anti infantry choices are just horrible. I think its supposed to be a balance between TR ranged turreting and NC point blank annihilation but the end result is that its not really good at anything. To make it worth a damn at anything you have to have ZOE but because of COF at med to long range the extra damage you take is crippling and at close range we are still just an inferior NC max. I often just feel like a specced out HA that can dual wield with less versatility.
Which infantry is a SUPER ALPHA GOD against vehicles? The HA with his choice of Rocket launchers that may or may not be appropriate for the situation and must rely on ammo resupply in protracted battles? The engineer that can kill ground or harass air but must remain stationary to do so while firing his ranged, or rely upon kamikaze tactics or blind luck with mines? The LA that can bring hell down on any vehicle that lets him get close, but has very limited ammo? There are situations in which each one of those becomes a superior choice over another...and vehicles can....move....and change situations a lot faster then an infantry can create them. Btw there are games with vehicles and no infantry so that particular sword cuts both ways....
Try the new blueshifts or using Comets, or even dual Vortexes. Great covering fire weapons at range. If you use comets, don't make the mistake of firing both weapons at the same time as the recoil will kill your aim. Fire one arm, then the other. Might even try alternating arms if you can handle it. Much more capable aim with a small COF and the ability to kill an infantry in 2 hits. Certainly enough to keep heads down. Splash damage is pretty good, too.
Comets have had their blast radius hit so hard that they are basically useless vs inf. You used to be able to aim and the feet for the damage but since you have to direct hit and the projectile is both so obvious and so slow its useless as anything but a med to short range tank stopper....It doesnt even hit them that hard considering you fire 4 at a time. I do mean to buy the blueshift at some point because I generally value accuracy over basically all other stats but I cant see it being that much better realistically or it would end in the situation of it being an upgrade. The vortex damage vs infantry is ********. Its basically a starting pistol. 13 shots to kill a regular infantry. I can do it 3x faster with a standard SMG. The clip it to small to effectively shoot "at" infantry but to get any short of splash you have to charge the bloody thing up. This leave you s sitting duck to all infantry, completely. If you get caught out by a single LA there is a good chance youll die or suffer extreme damage in the process. The charge up is nice "in theory" vs vehicles and it does good damage but in practice it often leaves you standing out in the open begging to get shot. They have the range but the charge up time compensates for that because your target is usually moving and often lease LoS before you get full charge. Its basically strictly worse than the fracture. I know the idea that SOE had for MAXes was that youd take one AI and one AT so you could always compete but the reality is the VS options are so underwhelming its basically no an option. A single comet is strictly worse than launcher and a single Quazar etc. is strictly worse than a rifle.
Have you tried the Comets recently? I've rendered a video with some weapons for a comparison. Comets are rather fast and very devastating. The other weapons I tested, the Blueshift and Vortex, were rather disappointing. I also tested Nebulas and Bursters, and found them to be almost identical in effectiveness beyond 40 meters. The Comet was the only VS weapon that shined at long range versus infantry, and they are AV weapons. Blast damage was pathetic, of course. You would need to put about 20 directly at the feet of an infantry to kill him. I'll post the video link as soon as it is done uploading.
As promised. I don't think the projectile moves very slow considering the ranges. In my practical applications with the weapon, I've been able to pretty reliably hit tanks at 100-200 meter ranges. Sure it isn't as much damage as dual-vortexes, but you can run spam all over the place while on ZOE crack much more easily with Comets than with Vortices.
Comets "shine" by comparison at long range due to the arc of fire of the NC and TR variants. Any inf that takes a direct hit from a comet after about 40 m deserves absolutely everything he's getting. Tbh even 20 m direct hits with a comet are challenging. Its not a case at that point of "what damage does it do" but rather "can you hit", to which the answer vs infantry should be "no". Even vs a tank whos paying any sort of attention the answer should be no. Versus inf, the comet is effectively a double barreled shotgun that doesn't 1 hit kill. EDIT: The vid makes my point, even while your the only one moving you miss a good 80% of shots.
That's partially because I suck at aiming and wasn't trying to hard to do so. Others could aim much better, but yes it is still more difficult than killing infantry with a regular LMG with a different class. At long range I find it to be a handy weapon to lay down suppressing fire. It may be inaccurate, but no one wants to risk being hit by that thing, and many run away. In terms of suppressing, that's pretty good. And compared to other MAX weapons, that's about as good as it gets.
Verses tanks I just feel that my HA launcher does more damage than a comet, though granted I have yet to accumulate the 2.25k certs required to get lvl 5 ZOE, I only have lvl 1 atm. But ZOE should not be mandatory to make the VS MAX's competitive and atm it seems to me that it is. I know Im spoiled, I primarily played MAX's back in beta round about when your first two vids went up ( I remember you posting them) and the comet was brutal but I feel theyve just hit it was too hard. I know at one point it was single shot ffs so I suppose I should be grateful for that.
