PPA Disbelievers 150/0 Kill Spree Video (Mattherson)

And many times, when you charge it fully, it only shoots 1 charge....
But I would pick that when you have teammates actually attacking the harassers. If not, then I'd use a lockon...to keep em back.
If you have a willing teammate, I'd get in an AV harasser.(even default gun will do, if you're fighting AI harassers)

Oh, look, it's a harasser doing the job of every other unit and vehicle in the game, all at once, and better.

Wow, that took an a** ton of skill!

I couldn't say. I honestly don't know where their sunderers were except for the one that blows up near the end of the video. Sure they had one somewhere on that side but we didn't know exactly where. Further, we were outnumbered. I have no boosters and I was getting a 35% increase (20% from participating in an Alert but an outstanding 15%). This was also only a segment of the kill streak. There was plenty of open field action but really nothing exciting. Kill a guy or two and repair. Our goal was to kill 100+ players without dying and without being too cheesy about it. I feel we accomplished that.

No actually we were all well aware that harassers have been doing this.

You see, they're way too difficult to destroy and they have AT weapons that are perfectly capable of farming infantry and tanks alike.

This is like watching the old pre-nerf HE prowler spam videos.

Now do it with the C85M.

The AT weapons are supposed to be sidegrades to things like the basilisk and kobalt.

They are not.

I'm in a dedicated infantry unit so no harassers for me.

In a straight 1v1 tank fight, the Vanguard is great. However I don't think this makes up for having an AI secondary which practically no one uses.

Most people I know who've got the E85M on their Vanguard don't have it on their Harasser and vice-versa - no one buys this weapon twice. Not only that, but most people who have bought it don't use it beyond that first test run where they're trying it out.

Proton PPA is a lot easier to use over longer ranges than the Maurauder. Because of the high arc you need to take for long range shots, against anything but short range targets or stationary targets at long range, the Proton PPA is a much superior AI weapon. I've seen the PPA used from 250m + away in the right situations to decimate entire squads in a matter of seconds.

PPA is a close second to the Maurauder with the E85M being a distant third.

If they want to make the E85M competitive, they either need to decrease that spread or significantly increase its pellet count to increase its OHK range against infantry, and they need to increase its magazine size. You would think that a tightly clustered group of infantry would be an ideal target for the E85M but its really not. Fury is superior in every way.

The harasser's success probably had something to do with the magriders having everything on lock down and the lack of camera guided/laser guided rockets from maxs and HAs. I don't think I saw a vanguard in the video.

maurader does this more often and has done it much sooner

You are asking for a clone of the Marauder (that fires a straight projectile instead of one with an arc) with a mag size that is 5X as large. You can't have it all. What it sounds like you are saying is the PPA is sub par at being a Marauder. Which it should be. The same way trying to use a Vulcan like a Saron at 200-300 M would make it seem sub par. (This game has asymmetrical balance)

Not really. Here is a super simple example.



In situation one, the Harasser makes a longer, wider pass allowing for more sustained fire. (Ironically, with the lack of drop its almost as if the PPA was better designed to have a little distance between itself and targets.)

In situation two, the harasser makes a shorter, quicker pass that would favor burst damage more.

Situation 1's risk is longer time to be locked onto, but near immunity to dumbfire rockets, c4, mines, etc. Situation 2 has more risk in the sense that you can still get locked on if spotted early, have a higher chance to get dumbfired and a possibility that someone will have mines down near them.

As for tanks, 9 times out of 10 they are sitting shelling a base at 200-300 M with enough cover to duck behind something when they get locked on. The fact that prowlers have anchor mode pretty (e.g. worst case scenario) shows how much sustained damage tanks can put out. (In the sense that you aren't moving, you pretty much have mandatory sustained damage.)

Does this honestly look balanced to you? And be honest.


To me, the PPA looks **** compared to the marauder

You should look at the bright side: it's not the Modified (shotgun) Enforcer.
The PPA is inferior to the Marauder, but is still a good AI weapon when put on a certed-out Harasser with a good driver: you will still go on massive streaks unless you are ganked by air or the driver does something stupid.

You can't compare anything to the c85. Even a tank mounted cerberus (now officially worse than the beamer) would be better than the c85.

You definitely feel the damage falloff when using the PPA. I'm not sure why the Marauder doesn't have it as well. Even if they made that change, I'd still prefer it to any other AI Harasser weapon. There is nothing like unloading 15 rounds of death into a group of players cuddled up against the backside of a tree.

Well lets see here. The PPA trades 25% slower ROF, 27-33% less damage over a 8% smaller radius (17% smaller ideal radius).

What does it get? Well a mag size that is 5X as large and a projectile with zero drop that is 2.4X as fast. These are much larger "advantage" margins.

Also, you can't just look at reload in a vacuum. The Marauder fires 3.3 rounds per second meaning it will be empty in about 3 seconds of sustained fire with a 3 second reload. That means if you are going full throttle with the weapon you will spend a staggering 50% of your time reloading.

The PPA fires at 2.5 rounds per second and will be empty in 20 seconds of sustained fire. Meaning you will be reloading only 20% of your time.

Lets go back and see what this does to RPM. The Marauder is doing 10 rounds every 6.6 seconds for a RPM of 90. The PPA does 50 rounds every 24 seconds for a RPM of... wait. what? 125. So this Marauder can mag dump faster but even with a slower reload the PPA puts out projectiles down field over the course of a minute.

((THIS is why just highlighting numbers on a stat sheet and hinting that having more red makes a weapon worse than one with more green. If you actually interpret the data before you rather than just thinking as far as "Hmmmmm bigger is gud, 1 point for OP weapon" you'd have a better grasp on the total picture involved in weapon balance.))

So, lets to back to our original "Does this look balanced statement"

The PPA would seem to trade a smaller, less damaging projectile for extended fire over greater ranges (with faster projectile speed). This is the very definition of asymmetrical balance. Thank you for showing me the stats so I could see for myself. The PPA isn't a Marauder, the same way the Vulcan isn't a Saron or Lockdown isn't ZoE. And if I'm being really honest here? The trade offs seem more than fair for the PPA.

It may not fit your play style when it comes to an AI weapon, but it fills a niche role. The same can be said with the Fury or the Kobalt.

*Note* I didn't touch on accuracy because I'd really need to sit in the VR and see what the deviation on targets is at a handful of ranges to see just what 0.1 and 0.3 means. Does that value even make a difference before the range the Marauder starts to become obsolete? If so, by how much, etc etc. For now, I'm going to write it off (possibly incorrectly) as the PPA has much longer range (No drop, faster projectile) at the cost of some accuracy.

If I had to guess, the damage dropoff is a result of the difficulty or lack there of when it comes to hitting targets at range. For a Marauder, you are looking at aiming 3 tic's above your crosshair @100 M and up to 7 by 150M. The PPA is your basic VS point and click mechanic. (The same way I think the lancer is the only launcher with fall off at range).


*Edit* In regards to the above post (that I can no longer edit) I did hop in the training room and as far as the accuracy of the PPA goes, it would seem that .3 stat (vs. .1 of the Marauder) starts to play a role somewhere between 150 and 200 M out. By 200+ M you can't expect reliable direct hits on infantry, but I also happened to notice the PPA has zero recoil, where the marauder definitely bounces up. Which can definitely have an effect when trying to keep your cluster of shots tight @100-150 M.

One significant difference between the two is the visibility of the projectiles. There's no mistaking where the PPA is firing from.

Currently working on a Kobalt video, but after that I will make a Marauder video that will truly upset the community. Watch out GOON. Look both ways before you zerg across that open field!

Actually, the Lancer is the best anti-harrasser weapon in the game.

I always chuckle when I see a Harrasser burning and running away at 130 kph thinking they're safe only to die to my fully charged lancer

I know it looks balanced and decent to you guys but nobody picked vanu for sustained fire capabilities, it clashes with our design philosophy and that's why it sits on the side.
I am still of the opinion that a sustained fire weapon that only mounts on hit and run vehicles (magriders are nor straight up fight vehicle) and the low damage and low fire rate makes no sense: Gauss saw low fire rate high damage, T9 carv high fire rate low damage. No bullet drop hinders it as misses are common and they become complete misses rather than oh well its splash, the splash is worse so aiming low and splashing them to death is going to take a long *** time. So you have two choices hit a moving target directly and never miss with a refire time that means you will often never get a chance to put out the second shot or splash to death with a ridiculously long ttk and he may also get behind cover (no ability to arc the shot behind cover either). No bullet drop would only help for longer ranges but having a third the accuracy of the spam launcher makes this improbable.

well lucky for you it seems the harassers you fight run away a little later, I guess the ones I go against are more cautious.