To steal a video from another thread. This is not possible with the 'best MAX' at short-mid range. You can even see one of these "short-mid range MAX" cowering and attempting to escape (and failing) at short-mid range.
NC max is hurt severely at short/mid by its short magazines. TR and VS maxes can both fire much longer without needing to stop to reload, especially with exmags on their CQC guns. That being said I don't think there's really anything wrong with NC maxes at short range; they just need to give us a proper medium distance weapon (make an NS MAX autocannon or something)
its better to phrase it "it is the better max within 10m, after you've paid the price" anything after 10 meters, the TR or VS max can and will outperform the NC max. the VS and TR max have far more sustained fire (lower reload and higher magazine), therefore it is far more forgiving if your hands slips for a second. As shown in this video, the NC max using duel hacksaws only wins at 5m. It even loses to the TR/VS max @10 meters, and only wins with extended magazine on both arms for those who are going to say get slugs then:- Extended mags cost 1000 certs Slugs cost 300 certs Grand total :- 1300 certs, and you say NC max just needs a little investment to be competitive.
When people talk about the NC MAXes they rightly remind NC MAXes have a wide array of weapons: Against infantry at short range you can use Grinders/Scattercannons; against infantry at range you can use Mattocks with slugs; against MAXes in CQB you use the Grinders, at a distance you have the Falcons. Really nice thoughts and yes, NC MAXes could be very powerful if it could switch loadout with a Key, like an Action RPG. The sad truth is, speaking about AI and AntiMAX duty only, you have a very situational MAX and you cannot compare to a VS/TR MAX. They both can kill infantry at CQB and at range and kill a MAX quickly because of the greater magazines and the very fast reload. Moreover, unless specific situations, as NC MAX you should always have flak armor so the enemy MAX doesn't need reloading too to kill you. While a TR/VS MAX can receive both your entire arms' magazine in the face and unless you are at hugging distance and have the Grinders with extended mags, you die. This morning I ran just behind a VS MAX, I started to shoot with my double Scattercannon with Extended Mag, unloaded all the magazines and added a MAX punch and I died. While he had a small but not tiny part of life remaining. Ah I forgot to mention I wore KA4 to counter the other MAX.
Me? The main balancing factor of the MAX is its poor mobility. If the MAX is accurate and lethal out to long *** distances, then the mobility issues aren't too much of a problem are they? And besides, not everything needs to be able to do everything.
No one is asking for NC MAXs to be buffed... we're asking for them to be balanced. While we DO NOT have the ability to kill as many people in a single clip as the other two MAXs we are just as strong within the ~15m range. Outside that range is where we absolutely blow and can't do anything. THAT is all we ask for... We're not asking for increased damage or anything to increase our effectiveness beyond that of the other MAXs... We only ask that we perform as well as the others. If this simply cannot be done, then give us other means to compensate. Bring back the sparrows from PS1 so we can dominate AA.
NC MAX don't need buff, it needs a slight adjustement to CoF bloom per shot. Drasticly cChanging the mag size should also imply a huge change to how NC MAX deals damage over this mag. We just need a reasonable CoF bloom per shot.
So you want your NC MAX to be able to win any 1vs1 at what 15, 20, 25 meters? At what range do you think its fair that the VS/TR MAX got the upper hand? There was a very good reason why the devs nerfed the NC MAX's range+reload speed, and yet the NC MAX weapons are still the most effective: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...QVFWS3hQQnZETWp1SmRZYk1oSWc&usp=sharing#gid=1 You got the single most powerful "infantry" weapon in the game, since most ppl run with flak because of the C4 fairies, any NC MAX will kill an enemy MAX in CQC, as long as you got the extended mags. And who isnt running with extended mags? The whole, "but it costs xxx certs" argument: a) the game is over a year old, everything under +10000 certs are pocket change. b) if MAX were dirt cheap then everyone and their mother would be running them, we got enough ppl in skill suits as it is. The NC MAX pays for that ability to instantgip enemy infantry and they pay for the ability to kill an enemy MAX in 3 sec's (hacksaw's.) in CQC.
not saying that the NC max needs to win a fight @15, 20, 25 meters, but it should atleast be able to get the enemy max down to half his health if it manages to unload the whole round. and again NC max cannot kill an enemy max unless he has extended mags. again the argument is, why does the NC max need to have extended mags to kill an enemy max when the TR and VS maxes can do without it. and ofcourse the 4 second reload in a CQC combat is an instant death. FYI all maxes can kill infantry at close range with extreme ease, its not only the NC max. 1000 certs is not a small price for most players (even for me a level 68) the game may be a year old but there are players whose characters are not even a week old. and again as every1 is saying, NC max doesnt really need a damage buff or anything. it just needs a smaller CoF, and free or cheap access to extended mags and slugs. (1300 certs is no joke) as for those stats, i wouldnt really call 300 more kills than the VS maxes outperforming, i'd rather call it that NC did 1 extra max crash. I do not think that SOE nerfed the TR max nor buffed the NC max in PU02. And the TR has more kills than the NC maxes before PU02. So as a conclusion i believe that the TR max and NC max are still as they were, just that the TR max players arent playing as much as they did before PU02.
NC MAX is fine. Shield could be looked at as any NC MAX player worth anything knows Sprint is far superior to shield. That said the NC MAX is for those that want to YOLO and if you keep that in mind you will wreck the **** out of everyone.
Forumside, or how some people trying to have a debate over a exagerate post have it ruined by other exagerate posts. Thank you, Konfuzfanten. Nobody wants an NC MAX overperforming, we just want to use our MAX outside of a biolab. I will be ready to trade some CQC damage against mid range damage. But it's something difficult with shotgun. That's what slugs are normaly made for, but are no accurate in sustain fire.
do we need to have the discussion about why score/minute is a bad balance metric again? The vanguard is low on the totem pole in that regard, but nobody thinks it needs a buff. All MAX weapons see an increase in KPH in short range environments; the short range weapons (nebulas, onslaughts) look the best on paper because they're used in those environments. That''s true for the NC MAX weapons as well, except that we don't get a longer-range option to swap to
cuz they cost you 300 additional certs, reduce your damage, and they are pretty hard to use. then in CQC against a max, you will say "why do you not use extended mags to kill it in one magazine?" Extended mags cost you a 1000 certs, not every NC player wants to invest 1300 certs to get a decent NC max. This is exactly what NC players want, they just want to have free access to slugs when they buy a shotgun in the max suit, and they want a cheaper cost for the extended mags (maybe 100 per arm) , 500 certs per arm is a very high price to pay, considering other maxes do not need to buy this to kill an enemy max in 1 mag (dual AI arms)
I use slugs with my mattocks, you need to space your shots and in the while they are shooting you back. Slugs are dependant on the spread of the weapon too, if I remember well, so you need the mattocks to gain sufficient range. Moreover the real problem, I repeat, is against MAXes: unless you are using Grinders with extended mags and without slugs, you cannot kill enemy MAXes with KA5 unless you get a lot of headshots
because slugs are terrible is why they're only remotely usable on mattocks and severely compromise your ability to kill stuff in cqc. The cert cost wouldn't both me if they were actually a solid medium range option, but they aren't. I'd rather just use falcons for AI/anti-max than slugs
You are looking at the wrong stats, total kills is a worthless stat on its own. You need to look at average uniques kills (average kpu), and then you will see that NC was clearly the 2. best MAX, before PU02. How often do you see TR and VS MAX outside towers, tech plants and biolaps? Yea, about as often as NC MAX's. Because even with Mercies/Blueshifts you are still going to lose a range fight over open ground against a single decent heavy at +30 meters. And most MAX run flak so whats the problem? Then lets look at how often NC pulls a MAX vs TR and VS: The difference between Vanu and NC Unique pulls are 177, thats 2,1%. Now thats for 2 weapons, so the real uniques ratio difference is (each MAX are using 2 weapons/uniques) 1,05%. The difference between having a range option(Vanu AI MAX) and not having a range option(NC AI MAX) is statistically miniscule, its 1%. Vanu and NC pulls around the same number of AI MAX's. The difference between TR and NC AI MAX's is 2,6%, again a very little number, so everytime NC pull 100 AI MAX's, TR Pulls 103 MAX's. So no, NC MAX's aint underused and yes you do better then other MAX's at AI. From a ingame point of view the NC AI MAX got some unique advantages/disadvantages (instant gib, fastest TTK on enemy MAX, sucks at range) and from a statistical point of view the NC AI MAX is overperforming compared to the 2 other MAX's. I see no reason to "balance", buff or nerf the NC AI MAX. You pay for your advantages. Unless we are talking about removing MAX shotguns all together and giving the NC MAX a Gauss Saw, high power/low RoF weapon instead, making their MAX the strongest range MAX.
