PPA is UnderPowered and UnderPerforming

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by vanu123, Nov 1, 2014.

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  1. Badname707

    Cheese and wine?
  2. ronjahn

    A guy with three BR100s and a k/d of 9 on average thinks the PPA, the biggest K/D farming weapon ever, was to powerful. I now have a bit more faith in humanity. (Kudos to your sig man, that's quite impressive)

    I am right with you. There is not enough time to look at statistics and say it is underpowered. Plus with a change of this magnitude and with this much visibility, there are all sorts of factors that could be playing a role in the stats at this early point:
    People relearning the weapon.
    People refusing to change their play style.
    People all together dropping the weapon that were previously super effective with it.
    A whole bunch of people jumping on alts to shoot a few disco orbs and then going, "meh, I'd rather play my main" and logging which then skews the early statistics.

    I'm not saying PPA is perfect as is, but I played about 30 minutes with it on release day, got about 50-60 kills, and felt that it is just as effective, or due to splash damage, more effective than the Cannister(which I auraxiumed, while soloing a harasser; so I have some experience here). Edit: I would like to point out that I thought the COF was a bit to unpredictable and that should be looked at.

    If a few weeks or a month goes by, and the PPA is vastly underperforming, then go ahead and give it a few tweaks, but as of right now the PPA is FAR from broken or useless; unless of course if you consider performing similarly to the canister and marauder useless or broken. In that case, welcome to the TR/NC club.
  3. Torok

    Oh now I know why I've been performing so well these past few days, no more PPA ******** spam!

    Thanks SOE, took you ages but better late than never.
  4. Rift23

    I lol'd at how you called the Vanu sociopathic then pointed out that they worked together. I guess from the NC perspective doing anything besides screaming at each other while spawn-shield farming is abnormal.
    • Up x 1
  5. Zotamedu

    I'm just going to leave this little picture here to give some context to your claims about how good the AI guns are on the MBT.

    [IMG]

    So for a couple of days just after they released the Valkyrie, some strange incident made the Marauder perform on par with the PPA and suddenly a full year of other stats are irrelevant? What's even more interesting is if you look at total kills. During that spike of Marauder effectiveness, the total kills rose to a staggering 3741 in one day from a more normal value of 1000-2000. Want to know how many kills the PPA got that same day? 13 720 and the day before it was 16 515.

    Be careful when you use stats, they might come back and bit you.
  6. boey


    The Striker was OP for a very long time and needed to be changed. The weapons i mentioned also need changes. You dont agree with me? Then feel free to prove me wrong.
  7. EGuardian1

    It finally struck me.

    The PPA is the Land Duster.

    YES!!!!!
  8. a-koo-chee-moya

    Same thing with PPA. The burst fire is not worth using since the first shot already has spread and the bullet velocity is bad, the full auto mode doesn't work past 5m, and Kobalt TTK at that range is really close, and better farther away. The anti ESF and harrasser option is useless due to spread and low bullet velocity, and Saron would be better anyways.
  9. a-koo-chee-moya

    Like everyone did for Striker?
    It got a new, gimmicky mechanic, too, and it got Buffs in 2-4 days.
  10. JudgeNu

    Ahhh yeah, I remember the days of the 300m Perchers.
  11. EGuardian1

    Okay okay - I've realized. As an NC main, i can't actually be a proper test vehicle for the PPA because well... it acts too much like the Canister at close range and employs the same kit of hit and run tactics at full auto. In addition, i'm actually quite a good shot with the Duster of all things and the COF and ROF are so similar it just naturally fell to me.

    So here Vanu Players - here's how you play the PPA now and get kills.

    Drivers:

    1.) KEEP MOVING. Unless you're using Gunner #3 tactic, KEEP MOVING. Drive right up to enemies, unleash a magazine, then run like hell. Your gunner will appreciate the close range shots to really unleash and your enemies will totally not be expecting a PPA barrage (at least not yet)

    2.) If bombarding at long range, use same tactics as previous PPA.

    Gunner:

    1.) Full Auto burst within 5-10 meters: It will do two things, it will wash your enemy in splash damage, and create an impassable wall for C4 prancers. It's also intimidating as HELL to see that much plasma fly at you.

    2.) 10-30m: Fire 4-5 shot bursts. The COF won't actually expand that much and the splash is big enough that you'll damage large groups of enemies. This is perfect for doorways, walkways, balconies, etc etc wherever infantry cluster. Experiment with 3-4 round bursts if you feel it's too inaccurate, or just the method below for constant stream

    3.) 30m+ Tap fire. Feather the trigger at about the same speed of the old PPA. It WILL remain accurate (not as accurate as the old PPA but pretty damn close) and still spawn lock to a degree.

    Key thing to remember. the Damage on the PPA HAS been nerfed. Using it with the long range 'tapping' option is no longer a quick kill. You need to direct hit 4-5 times, but since it's all splash damage, you hit multiple infantry. A 4-5 burst of PPA that actually hits is a kill .

    It is no longer a murder machine, but it's a damned good suppression tool and IMO still the best of the ES AI weapons, just not by as wide a margin as it used to be.

    I DID take the PPA into combat on Live with several buddies - got a KD of 25-8 (deaths were two harassers and some infantry play, all kills were PPA) in about 20-30 minutes (most of us had toyed with earlier PPA but never mained it) and we found we COULD suppress at range, but we could also wreck at close range with a 400 cert harasser because we could wash them with plasma at close range. Take this below with a grain of salt, I"m not a VS main but this was pretty decent IMO for only about 30 minutes in mid-sized fights. (the last kill was PPA as well, he was trying to c4 us and I shot the thing out of his hands)

    [IMG]
    • Up x 2
  12. vanu123

    Prowler has the speed to get in and out, the magrider is the slowest tank in the game. We have bullet drop, the infinite ammo is gimmicky considering they lose in any 1v1 situation to their faction counter parts.
  13. vanu123

    Why are there still HE prowlers if that were the case? People only used the PPA after the saron was hammer nerfed and even then the PPA was already nerfed 2-3 times in the past.
  14. vanu123

    So its just like ZOE. Karma isn't real.
  15. Flag

    3 hits with the Saron compared to 4 hits with the PPA? Oh yes.
    And you can still kill armour with it.
    Win-win.

    The coyote mechanic on the striker makes it good. Even if so many TR pretends that it's not.

    ****ing TR fanatics, wouldn't be happy until the striker is as OP as the first version was.
  16. Lord_Avatar


    Stay in your pants kid. I admire your magriding, but flailing madly at "TR fanatics" makes you look like a prime example of arrested development.

    The current lock-on range on the Striker is very small. So small in fact, that it could be dropped in lieu of a velocity buff.
    Think of it as a ZOE damage increase - it's there, but it changes nothing.
  17. Lord_Avatar


    What speed? The 5 kmph "advantage"? Don't make me laugh...
    It would be akin to giving the NC access to 148 damage tier (as opposed to the standard 147) and calling it a "damage advantage".
    It's so miniscule it doesn't even matter. Ever.
  18. lawn gnome

    on a 6 shot clip for the saron vs. the 12 to 18 shots that the PPA gets. also the saron has almost no blast and much worse bloom. i like the new PPA and think it is a lot of fun, it isn't as good for farming as it was, but tanks shouldn't be dedicated to farming infantry that hard anyway.

    the PPA is still way better than the other two faction specific AI weapons.
  19. lawn gnome

    actually depending on the TTK the damage thing might make a significant difference, but a well driven magrider can easily overcome that minor speed difference by simply driving over terrain other tanks are required to go around.
  20. a-koo-chee-moya

    1) What? My magburner can only be used once every 30 seconds, and I can only use it to either get in or get out. Not to mention the fact that getting close to infantry is suicide. C4, RLs, and all sorts of other things will wreck you.
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