So in the current state of the game we have these new intersting MAX abilites right? well I will get to that in a second. Everyone remembers the day that NC MAXes were nerfed and put on par with the other MAXes in terms of killing power and such. As everyone can see they are still competitive and they still retain their effectiveness in biolabs against infantry. And people remember the say the magrider was nerfed so that is was on par with the other MBTs and it was further tweaked to decrease the nerf. Now what do these two instances have incommon in today's PS2? Relax my eager beaver, we will get to that. Now, looking at the TR ability of lockdown, with MAX level you get a 35-50% fire rate, bullet velocity, and reload time incease. No matter the level though the animation and redeploy/deploy are still the same speed and you still have the 180 degree arc. With the NC we have the aegis shield aka the riot shield (I have been asking for this for every MAX for a while now.). Now this big blue beast of a shield at level 5 gets a 100% negate to damage with a rather fast deploy/redeploy speed and recharge rate for the lower levels. But the catch is, they can be shot from other directions and they cant shoot while its deployed. (There are strategies to work around this.) Now, the one everyone has been waiting for... the ZOE MAX. Now, they get the bonus of a faster movement speed and they do more damage, the damage depends on their level, the negative for this is they take more damage. Now, to how they react to each other and effect gameplay. Everyone will agree that the TR lockdown mode helps them with AV duty, but we will have disagreements on how it applies to AA. (The arc really does effect how useful this is, speaking from expierence.) and its nearly useless in a AI setting unless you have 2 engineers supporting you. (dont use biolabs as an example to fight this, all max abilities help in defense of biolabs.) NC's shield allows them to walk in the face of fire and simply laugh at it taking damage that would normally kill a MAX 10 times over. But splash damage seems to wrap around it on direct hits. The activation time allows the MAX to get into another MAXes or infantries face and then rip them apart with their shotguns. (I have a scatMAX with the shield.) ZOE due to its damage can take on other MAXes pretty well and it can avoid most damage by simply strafing side to side so the extra damage it takes is small due to it dodging most of the rounds. The added damage and movement allows for better AV and AA duty because they can easily adjust to the vehicles and they do extra damage. And thats where the problems lies. The ZOE moduale is too good against fighting other MAXes, admitingly the NC dont have as much of a problem with this because well, shotguns. But the ZOE MAX at MAX level can easily skirt most of the damage from a TR MAX in a 1v1 fight while doing alot of damage. In a straight on fighting with a level 5 ZOE MAX with KA5 and a lockdown 5 TR AI MAX , the VS MAX is going to win most of the time due to dodging most of the damage, flanking, and causing extra damage. The NC MAX with a riot shield or charge is almost as bad. NC MAX coming at you with a riot shield? ZOE? No problem, just back track to get out of range and strafe around them. I have all three MAXes with the highest rank or close to the highest rank of their new abilities. TL : DR - The VS MAX is too good in MAX versus MAX combat the same way the NC MAX was, and how the magrider used to be against MBTs. P.S. the point to of this thread isnt to say that the VS MAX is OP because you can work around it the same way every class does normally, but its to say that the VS MAX is better than the other two in combat. Please read the whole thread before posting and I apologize for any spelling mistakes.
Against NC MAXes if i can keep distance they are dead. Specially if they use the aegis shield. Against VS MAXes 1v1 usually i die or they run away because of zoe they strafe a lot and if damaged enough run for repairs. Lockdown is rarely usefull. I'm using charge more often.
The Aegis shield takes 10,000 damage at max (2250 certs) rank, which would kill a MAX one times over, at the expense of still dying because a lot of damage bleeds through and it turns you into a "KILL ME I'M HELPLESS!" egg. It's even less useful if you're running kinetic armor. See the above comment. Nobody fears the Aegis shield for the same reason nobody fears catching someone in the middle of a long reload. You can shoot them and they can't shoot you! That's the best thing!
Does even MAX vs MAX combat even happen? Usually when I engage a MAX in a MAX suit he has friends, or I have friends. Depending who has more friends I die or they die, or I die anyway. Lately all the VS do is swarm with MAXes so 1v1 MAX combat is irrelevant.
ZOE Strafing speed is too much. Everything else about it is fine. It should not be able to strafe faster than infantry. Give side and rear movement a 20% bonus over the standard MAX speed, give forward movement a 60% bonus and leave everything else the same.
all we need is a fix to stop ALL frontal damage as the description claims without the bleed through damage, right now as you said, the bleedthrough is so ridiculous that we'll end up dying anyway, we'll just die without putting up a fight. if we get that fix it'll make aegis a reliable ability choice.
That would make it OP. It's a better ability than some ppl are trying to make out (and NC maxes are still very good), but granted not near as useful as ZOE. Lockdown is OP against aircraft, but pretty much pointless in 99% of cases other than that.
Yesterday I killed two Aegis shield Nc Max in a row while suffering very little damage. I was using dual onslaughts, both with extended mags. I began firing at them while their shield was up and then moved in on them and fired around and over the shields. One of them was crouching with the shield. Neither attempted to max punch me and both died before my magazines were depleted (90 rounds each with extended mags). I've also killed a number of ZOE vs Max with dual fractures, and several with my onslaughts. I have maxed out certs for all abilities and rarely use the lockdown, preferring charge. I switch off on kinetic armor, nanite repair, and flak armor depending on the situation. Kinetic armor and nanite repair feel much better at doing their job than they were earlier in the game.
They can't punch with the shield up, and fractures are STUPID good against MAXes, they're just hardly ever used. Max autorepair is incredible.
