Hey there, I'm looking at getting into PS2 when I eventually get back from working offshore and am interested in playing on the NC side. I have been keeping up with the forum posts and I know the NC side is considered "hard mode" and that's exactly why I want to play one, that and they look the best. I was also an avid NC player in PS1. I also realise from numerous posts that air has become somewhat of an issue? Considering this, would I best serve my empire by playing a kitted out AA Reaver (if there is such a thing?) to combat all this supposed air power that's hammering our troops? Which avenue can I go down to best serve my empire in the current state of the game and the NC? Cheers, Madscot
If you want to clear out air for your troops instead of just keeping them away from the base, I suggest you look into A2A ESF. They're pretty good against enemy air, especially against the ones that are only equipped for A2G combat.
The game doesn't force you down 'avenues'. You can swap classes and vehicles at will. You earn cert points as you do things (Well, you earn XP as you do things and you get cert points every X xp you earn.) that you can spend on things. What you spend them on is how you specialize beyond the base capabilities. The Reaver's AA path is very effective. The devs have openly stated that aircraft kitted out for anti-aircraft attacks are the ONLY true anti-aircraft in the game. Everything else is designed as a deterrent effect rather than a hard counter. The AA path is pretty straightforward, too. There's a dogfighting/maneuverability upgrade choice for your airframe slot (as opposed to raw speed or hover stability) and there is an AA machinegun primary weapon and A2A lock-on missile system for the secondary weapon. The NC weapons that are 'hard mode' are their exclusive 200 dmg/bullet guns. You will start with the NC6 Gauss Saw on the heavy, but for carbines and the medic you will need to unlock the Reaper DMR (assault rifle) and the AC-X11 (carbine). The AR and Carbine have short (20 round) clips. The NC6 Gauss Saw gets a full 100 round ammo box, but the slowest firing rate of any automatic weapon AFAIK. The Reaper DMR and AC-X11 can flip to single shot mode. The NC6 Gauss Saw can not. All guns also get basic attachments you can unlock like forward grips to reduce recoil or laser sights. What's rare and unique is what else each weapon gets. Some weapons get special ammo types, advanced and more effective versions of attachments, and some basic level attachments are not available to all weapons. The NC special guns with 200 damage per bullet all get access to advanced forward grips for controlling recoil on the 'rail' slot, they get compensators, also controlling recoil on the 'barrel' slot, and they get High Velocity ammo for the ammo slot which actually increases recoil a bit, but helps preserve your damage over longer distances. For the sight slot, the NC6 Gauss Saw gets access to an extra stage of magnification (6x) most other weapons don't get (they stop at 4x). This all adds up to a medium to long range bias through controlling recoil, and a weakness up close where low rounds per clip and low RoF give you no margin for error in close quarters. Exaggerating this is the fact that all of these weapons have HORRIBLE hip fire accuracy and must be used while aiming down the sights unless you're in knife range. Personally, I don't recommend these for indoor fights. Unless you are REALLY inclined to aim down the sights as your play style, even up close, I would point you in the direction of a CQC gun with more standard stats, or even a shotgun. One small quirk of the available attachments is that the SILENCER barrel option which prevents you from showing up on the enemy's minimap when you shoot has the opposite effect of High Velocity ammo as a trade-off, so if you wanted to use these weapons covertly you could use the silencer AND high velocity ammo to cancel out the drawbacks of the silencer and have -more or less- the effect of the base gun without showing up on the enemy minimap when firing. Having done this, I think it's a loss overall and the silencer takes more than the HV gives, but it's still better performing than most guns with silencers. It's important to note (for all guns in Planetside2, but especially for NC) that recoil is the actual forced movement of your crosshair and screen. There is a second accuracy mechanic at work however, called cone of fire. This is still in effect while aiming down the sights. This will reduce the weapons accuracy as you continue sustained fire, so you must burst fire appropriately for the range to get the best results from the NC guns, even after your advanced grip and compensator take much of the kick out of the recoil itself.
Wow, that's a lot of good info. thanks! Ok, so if I choose to be an AA ESF pilot do I have to be an Infil. or LA, for obvious reasons?
If you choose to roll AA ESF, you will want to swap to the engineer class while piloting because you will need to land and repair the aircraft. But you can swap classes at will, so you don't have to spec anything into engineer at all if you don't want to, though obviously improving your repair gun to a degree would be a good quality of life investment to make early on.
Ah yeah of course, forgot about that, thanks again. Cool, things are shaping up nicely. So, AA ESF Engineer it is, and when I'm not stomping nme air for the boots on the ground I can use my Engi. to supply and repair Maxes, sounds like a plan! Thanks again VKhaun, you've given me some direction!! P.S. What you recommend for an Engi. gun/attachments and the like? Cheers
And remember, the beauty of this game is that whenever you get tired of doing one thing, you can switch things up and do something completely different. Experimentation is very much rewarded in this game. So I suggest you have a taste of everything, all the classes and all the vehicles. You don't have to spend certs to do it as the default weapons and vehicle guns are pretty good. Once you've found you're niche you can start dropping some certs into it so you get even more performance.
The engineer has a huge weapon list actually. They get all the carbines, shotguns, shotguns with slug ammo (very accurate, turns shotguns into medium-long range guns), and battle rifles. Their utility slot also gets either ammo packs, C4 remote detonated explosives, self healing kits, proximity anti-personnel mines, or anti-tank mines. Plus they can swap their frag grenades for sticky grenades if they want to spend certs to unlock those as an option. It would be hard to recommend one setup. I personally do not find the battle rifles worth it. They require too many hits. I'd rather fire single shots from the AC-X11 or load up slugs than bring a battle rifle. The GD-7F is amazing and will spoil you because it's specialized for up close and hip firing, but still does okay at close-medium range aiming down the sights, and that's where all your base courtyard type fights will happen. It's also perfect for an engineer because it's major drawback is chewing through ammo, but you never run out of that! That's more of a TR styled gun leaning on rate of fire though. Note: The engineers always have a deployable turret that they can get in and shoot, but if you pull that out so you have the green placement template in front of you and press B (the select fire key) it actually swaps to a second ammo pack you can drop! - So you are free to use your utility slot for mines or C4 or heal packs, and still give people ammo. This second box however does not benefit from ammo box improving certifications, so you can take that as your queue to pass on those certs, or to pass on the mines if you want your box to resupply in a larger radius and last a long time (because you'll have to use the utility slot one for that).
Thanks for that, I will have to re-read that last paragraph a few times though to try get my head around what your saying. I haven't played the game yet so I can't picture what your getting at, lol!
Oh and I should mention under-barrels. There is only one carbine and one assault rifle per faction that can use under-barrel grenade launchers, shotguns, and smoke grenades. These are select fire weapons usually with full auto, burst, and semi mode, average stats, and can use all of the basic level attachment options including ammo types (though the under barrel launchers take up the 'rail' slot.). These are usually only to be used sparingly because they come with one shot in the tube and I think one extra, but the engineer's ammo box refills them so you could for example repeatedly fire grenades or maintain a smoke screen from a defensive position if you wanted to play with that. I have not used it or tried this personally, but I have heard the smoke screen from the smoke launcher, while short lived, can be seen through if you use an infrared night vision scope so you could be cheesy and smoke up a room then go in and shoot everybody who can't see or shoot from within the smoke where they can't see you.
