The default T1 cycler is a beast. In fact all default weapons are, except Infiltrator's 99SV. That thing blows. Personally, I'd say throw a night vision scope on that bad boy, as well a laser sight. This will allow you to still hit things at range (which medic's default gun is good at.), and not bother with aiming down sights for close quarters combat. Also consider getting a laser sight for your pistol too. It helps so much if only you aim well. TRV is frkin awesome, but its only gonna net you kills fighting close quarters, so get an advanced laser sight and maybe soft point ammo to increase your maximum range. Other than that, max your healing gun obviously. And if you score 1115 (IIRC) kills with any weapon, you get 200 certs for free. Good luck out there!
It's been a few weeks, so I thought I'd update my thread with the progress I've made, and ask a couple of follow-up questions. I'm loving the medic, it's all I play really. I do want to branch out eventually, but I usually end up choosing the CM. Last night was kind of big for me. I finally saved up the 500 certs for the level 6 med tool, and it makes a big difference. I also dropped some SC and picked up the TAR. After reading the forums, and a lot of testing in VR, I was convinced it was the best gun for me (mainly due to the hip-fire accuracy). I got 30 kills last night, and I'm happy with my decision. I do need a scope for it now though. I enjoyed the HS/NV that I got for the default Cycler, but I'm thinking I need something to help at bigger ranges, to make the TAR more rounded. I like the look of the DMO 3.4x the most, and I've found that switching to semi-auto makes the TAR incredibly accurate. Is that a good choice, or should I just focus on the weapon being short range only? That's one thing I don't get. When people talk about different weapons for different situations I understand it, but isn't it a hassle to keep finding terminals to change loadouts? I guess you could just wait until you die and then switch? After the scope, I plan to get level 4 flak armor (3 just now) and I suppose level 6 regen (5 just now). C4 looks nice too, but it will take a LONG time until I can get that.
Often times when you are assaulting a base there are plenty of sunderers about for you to hit up once you are ready to transition indoors from outdoors. Or yes, you can just wait until you die. Short of sniper rifles, most of the other weapon can still do "okay" indoors even if they are not true CQC weapons. C4 is VERY much worth it. Even one brick can be helpful. With one brick of C4 you no longer need to fear MAXes, you can now hunt them. Last night in a biolab defense I was, luckily, in just the right spot to see the VS preparing a MAX rush. One well placed brick of C4 equaled 3 dead MAXes and a bunch of engineers. Glad you are having a blast, and keep at it. Always nice to see more medics out there.
My reco on scopes is never go more than 2x reflex on an auto gun. If you need more scope than that you can't get enough damage on the target to kill him off before he runs.
Read, read, and watch tutorials. Play and observe. Join a squad and listen to their coms without talking. F2P is feasible, but put certs into most cheap categories for classes and vehicles. Pick a focus per category tho as you can only run with one at a time. Still... They made this awesome game and deserve to be paid for it. Buy yourself a couple things like a nice gun and use certs for the rest.
All stellar pro tips; totally agree. Don't buy a new gun. Most are expensive and hardly an upgrade; situational upgrade at best. Until you really understand your play style, and if your current gun's limitations fall inside of your play, should you bother upgrading guns. The default TR medic rifle is considered OP by many! Cardozo suggested some great optics; IRNV is a MUST have and works fine during the day. I love the 2x Reflex as well. If you are bothered by how it pulls to the right then get a Forward Grip on the rail and that will be greatly reduced. Learn how to pull your mouse as you fire to compensate for vertical recoil. You're right... you have to land several bullets from that gun to do any real damage; again compensate for the recoil and get a good optic to aid you in this regard but practice is king. As far as... can you excel without buying SC? Really depends on how often you play. If you play several times a week for several hours at a time you'll get plenty of certs for upgrades. However you'll likely feel as if it will "take forever" go get any of the big ticket tiems (1,000 cert items). Give it a month or three and see how much you really like this game. You will have earned over 1,000 certs by then ... and likely spent most of them =) Which is fine; there are plenty of effective, reasonable, upgrades that you can and should buy with certs. Again Cardozo has suggested some great ones. I found after a few months that it would take me at least a month or more to save up 1,000 certs. There were 8 big ticket items I really wanted..... 8,000 certs .... figured it would be 8 to 12 months before I got those things IF I didn't blow my certs on other stuff! So I bought some SC to buy the weapons and then use certs to buy upgrades. You're in luck; this weekend is a double XP and double SC weekend. Play as much as you can and you'll have a fat stack of certs by Monday! Got $15 to blow? Buy a wal-mart SOE SC card with the bonus 500 SC and you'll get 4,000 SC for $15! That should buy 3 or 4 nice new toys.... or maybe buy some boosts and REALLY rake in the XP (thus Certs) this weekend!
I decided to splurge on a 7-day boost, and with the double weekend, the certs are rolling in. 225 XP per rez + hotzone = WIN! I have the heal ability maxed now also, and flak at level 5 (prob as far as I'll take it). I picked up the first block of C4, and the first time I used it to finish off a 50% lightining I had a big smile on my face. I've had a few multi-kills as well, and I LOL'd when I threw it in the face of a MAX and detonated point blank (I died too obviously). I did end up getting the DMO 3.4x for the TAR, and it's proving very nice at mid-long range. I'm wondering what other accessories I should get for it now. I read a few suggestions about the advanced laser, but in the VR it doesn't seem to help hip-fire aiming that much. Sometimes it's fairly hard to see, but maybe that's my graphics settings? Why do people like it so much as opposed to just using the crosshairs?
Equipping the laser sight makes your crosshairs smaller, thus increasing your hipfire accuracy. The laser itself is just a visual effect.
Thanks. I just re-read the description a minute ago, and was thinking that might be the case. I don't see the advanced laser listed in the real world for the TAR, so I guess only the regular is available.
Actually, the advanced laser sight is available for the TAR. However, you can't buy it straight away, you'll have to buy the normal laser sight first and then upgrade it to the advanced laser sight.
Hm well yes you can play it free, but the marketing strategy is "look at all the cool toys we have, shame it takes so long to get them. Just a couple of bucks and you get em naow"... I also played free (HeavyAssault) till level 25 or so until i bought some SC on a multi-SC offer. Playing your chosen class is fun for quite a while but after some time you want moar. I bought my first weapon (AV missile launcher) with 1000 certs - 1000 SC weapons/upgrade are not really worth all the time you have to spent to get them if you don't use XP boosters. If you get a cheap 5k SC Nvidia bonus code, go for it if you think the game suits you. It's definitely more fun if you have more opportunities ingame (vehicles are fun). I now spent as much on the game as i would have with a regular new gametitle, if you do that on a mutli SC day that's going to last a long time if you only buy what you really need. Learn& level your medic first, then check out another class or vehicle. Prowler doesn't "need" a main-gun upgrade, so that could be a first choice. Always go engineer if you want use a vehicle for combat. Don't get Sunderer AMS for the experience. You get jack s*** in terms of XP from it. It is usefull if you want to play with your team, but most of time there are enough sunderers around, since basically everybody has it. Cert it later when 50 certs isn't "such a big deal" anymore.
What's the scoop on flash suppressor vs suppressor? I like the idea of not appearing on the minimap (suppressor), but less damage sucks. What exactly are the benefits of flash suppressor? Just visual effect?
In my experience, the flash suppressor removes muzzle flash, so it's definitely useful in night fighting where people can't see you as well (unless they Q-spam). It does increase recoil slightly, but not too much that it's too noticable. Like you mentioned, the suppressor does make you not show up on the minimap, but it reduces your bullet velocity, so your bullet drop is a lot greater. It's more difficult, if not impossible to take out targets at longer ranges, unless you have a really good aim.
I would like to recommend you to go to the VR area. Here you can try all weapons, including all different attachements. It is excellent for chosing the right scope, for example. Medic is the class I play most of the time. My personal favorite weapon is the T1S Cycler, because of its versatility, just try it out. Furthermore, everyone is talking about the Flak Armor. I cannot say I have any experience with it, although I really like the Nanoweave Armor. Especially when you are operating in the front line, it comes in handy when you become a (sniper's) target. Lastly, get used to use the Nano-Regen Device as soon as you get hit, it helped me to sustain fire dozens of times About SC, only recently (Eastern) I bought my first, while I already played approx. 140 hours. It is really nice to spend it on some expensive weaponry, like the Hailstorm and the G 40-F Ranger, and/or some camo. But necessary? Nah.
I play a F2P Medic quite a bit, and I do just fine. At this point, I wouldn't be overly bothered with the free weapon trials. I'd first go to the VR Training area, and use the weapons there. When you find a loadout that you like, get it in-game with certs. If you're still on the fence as to whether it would be viable for purchase, then go for the trial. Secondly, the starter rifle is good (if the TR and Vanu get a rifle akin to that of the starter NC rifle, except focusing on their aspects of refire rate and accuracy respectively, instead of the NC one of stopping power) but it is not excellent in any particular area. The other rifles the Medic can get are more tailored to certain tasks, and generally have more cert-able options to them (for example, the GR-22, which is the 250 cert Medic rifle for the NC, has the ability to get Soft Point Ammo, something that the standard one cannot.) In terms of cert priority, I would: High Priority: Meditool upgrades (level 1 - level 4) Nanoweave OR Flak Armor (level 1 - level 3) Nano-Regen device (level 1 - level 3) I put Nanoweave or Flak Armor as it depends on you. If you're getting shot more with bullets, Nanoweave is better. If you're getting rocketed, Flak Armor is better. Medium Priority: Laser Sight OR Forward Grip IRNV Scope Triage (level 1) Meditool upgrade (level 5) Nanoweave OR Flak Armor (level 4 - level 5) Additional weapon scope Laser sight is more important if you tend to fire without using the sights. The IRNV scope helps a lot during night raids, and the extra scope is again up to you. Short range engagements benefit from using the reflex scopes, and the 3.4x and 4x scopes are great for longer ranges.
i would always go with flak armor , saves your *** so often, dont notice any difference when playing without nanoweave
Agreed, flak armor is gives you those extra seconds that you can use to get to cover. Plus it helps with grenades, mines, C4, rockets, etc.
F2P through the whole game is possible, but you're going to have to spend those certs very wisely. This means planning ahead, and making sure you're absolutely happy with playing medic and medic alone, at least for a while. It also means purchasing new guns is something do be done only if absolutely necessary, as the certs can really go to waste here if the weapon doesn't work out. But at the end of the day, you don't even need to buy any of them, as the default weapons are - for the most part - perfectly adequete for the task at hand (especially the T1 Cycler).
