New to the Game - Advice?

I'm not saying it's hot garbage, but it does seem fairly sub optimal. I'd rather just have a rifle that excels at one particular range, then adapt my play style to that range, rather than being marginally below average everywhere.

I'm not blaming tools, I'm just arguing that all else being equal, weapon choice can tip the scales. The argument of "just be a better player" could be applied to any weapon, I don't really think it lends the Pulsar any more or less merit.

It's normal to be skeptical. Most new players go through this phase. I personally went through a couple of dozen of auraxium medals with different weapons before I returned to my starting weapons and realized how great they were all this time. If you haven't used NC's Gauss SAW, you don't know what a weapon that's bad in close quarters looks like.

Pulsar is more than marginally above average. Specialist weapons sacrifice more than they gain.

But if that's your mindset - and there's nothing wrong with it - you can always use your free starting shotgun, or get H-V45 for 650 certs.

Maybe I'll come around, but I have a hard time believing the Pulsar is on par with the Cycler and Gauss. I really am much more of a fan of weapons with defined strengths and weaknesses, rather than general purpose weapons, but if you're this certain about the Pulsar's adequacy, I suppose I'll continue trying it.

Thanks for the advice!

With a rare exception (mentioned Gauss SAW), none of the starting weapons have particular strengths or weaknesses. That's what makes them so great as starting weapons, as they don't leave the user hanging in any situation.

In your case, it's not even the fault of Pulsar, it's the "my faction must suck" syndrome. If you chose TR, you'd complain about lack of effective range, and if you'd started NC, you'd complain how Gauss Rifle is pointless and all fights happen within 20m anyway. Though I'd reiterate that all three are perfectly capable at any range, each in their own way.

The only real way to cure this "syndrome" is for you to go play other factions for a good while. A short session usually only confirms the bias, and it takes at least a few days of gameplay to gain enlightenment.

That's presumptuous. I haven't used the Gauss, but I have used the Cycler.

That's experience. I've been with this game since 2012, I've walked the path, and seen countless others walk it the same. You don't have to trust me now. I encourage you to discover the game for yourself. I'm just saying what will be on your mind a few months from now, assuming you stay for that long.

Regardless of game I've never been a huge enthusiast of generalist weapons, including games I do know extremely well, specifically because I prefer to tailor my arsenal to your anticipated field of combat, then playing to my accentuated strengths. On top of this, I do believe the Pulsar is the worst of the three default assault rifles.

Hopefully, you're right, because I actually love the Pulsar, aesthetically speaking. Just don't care for the recoil pattern because most FPSes ingrain vertical recoil compensation or 45 degree angle compensation into your brain.

The problem with pulsar is that it could be good weapon for LA, since it has good sustained fire. But the lack of good DPS (damage per socond) at CQC or raw damage at longer ranges makes it difficult (or should I say "inconvenient"?) to use with combat medic.

TR has the best CQC-to-med range ARs. They have 40 rds magazines and good DPS (damage per second) and TTK (time to kill), that allow you to miss much more bullets without serious consequences, but have a bit longer reload times. TR also has the best default pistol to use on medic.

NC has the best variety of ARs. They have fast firing low damage ARs as well as hard hitting slow firing ones.

The weird thing about the Pulsar is that when I'm actually allowed to be behind cover and engage at medium range, it's perfectly serviceable. The problem comes when contesting a base, avoiding CQB while also maintaining cover to avoid vehicles can be extremely, as you put it, inconvenient.

Is the Thanatos VE70 situationally O.K. to use? I really liked it in situations where I was often taking cover indoors and healing/reviving there. Its TTK was very convincing to me.

Still sticking to the Pulsar for general purpose.

Normally, I would advise against using shotguns, especially semi auto ones. However, as you made clear, you don't mind using specialized weapons, and actually prefer them, so sure, you can use Thanatos. A shotgun is a shotgun. You can look up some tips for using shotguns here: http://iridar.net/planetside2/weapons/shotguns/

A CQC automatic weapon, like H-V45, is usually a better choice for most players, but if Thanatos works for you, may as well use it for a while.

Now that I've gotten more familiar with the Pulsar's recoil pattern, I've started to really value its consistency. I'd say I use it 95% of the time, but the 5% is when I'm finding myself consistently in close quarters; hence the Thanatos.

Only thing is, if you really think the Pulsar is just as good as the Terminus, I'd rather just buy the HV-45 and use that with the Pulsar to cover all my bases, if you'll excuse the pun. Thanks by the way for all your help.

Yeah, that would be the sensible way to go about it.

Terminus is overall better than Pulsar, but not by a lot. For a new-ish player, it's hard to justify spending a 1000+ certs on it.

H-V45 is the go-to CQC AR for VS. It's a great and effective weapon - at close range. It's still usable at ranges where shotguns aren't effective at all, but you won't be able to participate in ranged combat with it.

In my opinion, any CQC automatic weapon is better than any shotgun for general gameplay, but if you specifically pull the shotgun out when you get in specific close quarters, it's not that big of a deal.

I know you're eager to buy new weapons, thinking you'll somehow kill more enemies that way, but honestly, for a new player new weapons are usually waste of certs.

I don't really expect to win significantly more fights with any other gun. Usually when I die I blame myself for doing something wrong. Plus, a lot of people seem to like HA, which feels like an uphill battle to win regardless of my weapon choice in a 1v1, which I really shouldn't be fighting alone as a medic anyways.

In any event, I maxed out my healing applicator and each of my abilities, and I unlocked my revive grenade. I plan to unlock and max a couple more abilities before even considering a new weapon.

Great, you're on the right path. You may also want to invest in a few basic logistics, like Deployment Shield rank 1 for Sunderer.

I'm pretty sure everyone has answered 1 but I just got to this thread so I'll answer whatever.
1. Basically, people get more territory, territory gives you more VP, the VP gives you the locks, hives also generate this VP.

2. Resources are used for vehicles, medkits, grenades and maxes, but more or less, yes vehicles. Everyone generally gets the base 50 though, so territory to this regard is generally irrelevant. The buffs however, were nerfed in a recent patch, making the buffs more or less also irrelevant.

3. If you like relying on people who are generally clueless, sure, it generates a lot of certs and has decent weapons.

4. Generally, like all tower defense games, you put certs into stuff that gets you more certs, if you kill a lot then maybe a setup that helps that, if you get a lot from dropping ammo packs (which holy crap is the best cert generator ever) maxing it out lets you keep two packs down for 7 minutes which is the entire fight or until you swap because it's boring. So if you like medic, putting certs into healing would not be a bad start. Suit slots generally don't matter because they are defensive and you're only in it for certs.
Default items are generally considered the best all around, the saw for NC has heavy recoil but boasts long range sustained damage and accuracy as long as you keep it down, the carv has a solid DPS rate for heavies and orion is the easy to control CQCr of the bunch, beyond that the rest of the weapons are generally middle of the road.

Edit: Whether or not you feel like swapping, make sure you try the weapon in VR first and try it on moving targets, VR is awfully deceptive (cough cough thermals, cough cough railjack, cough cough trap)