In a perfect world where people stand still and shoot back and forth with no attempts at dodging? Sure. In game, where people strafe constantly, run around and be evasive as possible? Hell no. Luckily for you though the TR MAX is kind enough to give itself an ability that creates the first condition for everyone shooting at it.
I don't think there is an advantage that you could say is significant across the three factions. If you think about it the NC max is at the biggest disadvantage of the three since they have a very short effective range, but they also have the aegis shield available to them for when they're getting shot out of their effective range, so it's not like they're at a huge disadvantage. I personally think that the TR max has more versatile weapons in general though, especially the pounders, since they're good against infantry (if you don't fight more than 1-2 at once), good against vehicles if you can get behind them, and great against MAX units.
Don't get me wrong, I like the shield.. but! - Often the shield will absorb little to no damage. - If you throw up the shield before you register a reload, you have to down the shield, hit reload, up it again. That's ~5+ seconds. - The speed penalty is excessive. - Lag can cause the shield to take upwards of 5 seconds to deploy and undeploy. That's my biggest problem with the shield. You can be killed while utterly helpless because the server is lagging. Happens often on Connery at peak. Highly recommend swapping to charge at those times.
The hole in the center of the shield can be shot through. While a bit more difficult, a rocket to the face can also bypass the shield in this way. There should be some consideration for lag too, but this may be what you're seeing. It's a narrow target, but I can often get enough bullets into an Aegis MAX to make him think about backing off.
Been playing lately with TR max (kinetic 2 and non certed weapons), u kill alot more ppl with it than with NC max just because the range is so much better and the ammo count is so much more, u dont need to reload every 1-3 kills. on NC max i got fully certed toon(kinetic 5 and extended mags), i would change anyday our "scatmax" to any of tr / vs AI weapons! Sure NC max is a beast to that 8m range, out of that 8m range every other AI max outperform it!
Has this changed? Because we've tested this gap in the past and proven this was not the case. I think it more likely that there's a bug in the calculation for splash damage.
But I've noticed this for bullets when on my NC alt and the tracers are coming in towards the head. I've also killed weak NC MAXes who put up their shield by aiming for that slit with small arms fire. I could be wrong, but some bullets certainly seem to get through if you aim there.
The hole in the shield for the NC MAX to look through cannot be penetrated by bullets or explosives. I don't know how this myth was ever perpetuated other than there's a hole, you must be able to shoot through it. The shield simply bleeds damage (seemingly) randomly. I've had squadmates test mine. Up close it seems to be reasonably reliable, the further you move away, the less reliable it becomes even if you don't change the angle at which you're firing from.
Iv been phasing out my maxed shield from the bleeding. Went back to an un-certed charge for AI work and am thinking of doing the same for AV work now that I got a few levels in charge. Still keeping it for AA though thanks to it being of use for sudden rocket pods. The shield WILL stop anything you want it to but for getting ran over. If it wants to. With client side hit detection you can't really block stuff on the fly and the enemy has to choose to shoot the shield from what I see using it. You can know the exact reload time for a MBT and pop the shield just before when he is able to fire, but on his screen he already shot and hit you. Try to use the shield to soon and you get hit with splash or the vehicle gets free time to do what ever it wants. More times than not lately Iv found that having the shield in a AV loadout has done nothing for me. I can bait or taunt a bit, but haven't had a time where it let me stay alive for longer than 1-2 shells if the thing stopped that damage. That's not enough time to kill a tank, but enough to do real damage to air.
Same thoughts here, maxes are actually quite balanced at the moment, exept your guys ZOE - they kinda ****** that up...
This is from a dedicated VS player. The following stem from in game experience solely. 1) ZOE is crap, don't use it. Charge is a straight upgrade of ZOE (Certed both to 2nd highest level and play tested for several hours) 2) Comets lose to pounders w/o flak armor (with its a more even contest) 3) NC maxes murder VS maxes super easy <= 10m approximately (unless the NC player is ********) 4) NC maxes @ 20m if know what they are doing can still melt VS maxes equipped with AI 5) Scared more of NC maxes as I have witnessed multiple times NC maxes melting full health VS maxes in 2 seconds 6) TR and VS maxes feel like a more even fight with perhaps a slight favor to VS but can only speculate w/o stats
1. True, but same goes on every faction, charge is superior(yes aegis still bugs half of the time). 2. how come.. u can 1 clip every max on VS and TR max, NC needs to reload once with Falcons, if someone is using flak 5 then the 1 clip aint gonna happen anymore(if i remember right). 3. True, u can 1 klip another max with on that <---10m marker if he doesnt have a kinetic on, if he has only Grinders will do that job. 4. NC max sure hell aint killing another MAX from 20m range if he has shotguns in hand, with AV weapons it might happen! 5. 2sec.. only with Falcons and it aint 2 sec, more like 3sec since the reload time is 2.1 sec and u need to count the projectile travel time. 6. Strangely i dont have any problems with my TR max against NC max since i dont go to that -10m range
Troll much? Trying to convince someone of the other when its contrary has been witnessed multiple times is not going to win w/o a more convincing argument. For the record, I have never seen a max 1 clip unless it was a NC max nearly insta-gibbing in cqc regardless of what loadout (I have 1000 kills with dual comets btw). I have never seen a VS or TR max burn through 1 clip of ammo and decimate 7 guys (not saying its impossible) but it has been occasionally observed when fighting NC. The difference with TR & NC with their ES ability is the fact it differs from charge. Consider ZOE, negligible damage increase for cqc scenarios, eat ~30% extra damage, and the movement buff is enough to sometimes escape or run down a target. With charge you escape better, travel faster, same cooldown, insert yourself into combat easier. ZOE is literally a watered down version of charge at this moment. If you cert into ZOE, it can't be for the damage as it is essentially trivial. So, it must be for the movement buff; however, as stated charge is superior in this capacity for combat purposes. The last ZOE user I saw only died miserably repeatedly. As far as the empire specific abilities go, I think SOE can consider them a fail for the current game state in terms it has been months since I last seen a TR max use lock down and on average I see one ZOE user every 1.5 weeks. I see about 6 or so every time I log on for NC shields. I now wonder about the br breakdown on usage of charge versus ES max ability since I can't recollect the last time I've seen high br maxes use the shield.
You've never seen a TR/VS MAX kill an NC MAX in one magazine?! Seriously?! I do it all the time. You've seen NC MAX kill 7 guys in one clip but never a TR/VS MAX?! Ok, here's 11 in one mag. I'd love for you to dig out a video of an NC MAX killing 7 in one clip. Most I've done is 5 and I have 200+ hours in my NC fat suit. I can do 5 standing on my head in my TR/VS MAX at significantly longer ranges.
I'm talking all at once in a room, not spread out taking out targets one by one. Just realized I was thinking AV instead of AI weapons
