So my buddy and I have been testing out the new MAX equipment. Here is what we found and my take on it. The NC MAX shield: Renders you impervious to knife hits! Takes about 26 hits from a repeater, 27 from a standard carbine and about 28 from a T9-Carv. It can take 3 missiles but the 3rd will hurt. Takes 36 rounds from a dual onslaught MAX (per gun) (roughly 1-2 seconds with fully ranked lock down at close range) It also seems bugged in that after using the shield your hit boxes do not take damage properly. (On further testing it seems that the shield is still there even when it is not raised, preventing damage if you are being shot from certain angles) Lockdown: We tested lock down against the NC max using anti-infantry weapons: A TR MAX with dual onslaughts in lockdown now out DPS's the NC MAX (dual grinders)at 10m. Both were equipped with full ranks of kinetic armor. Without extended mags on the grinders the TR max was left at roughly half health. With extended mags on the grinders the TR max was left with roughly 25 percent of its health. In full lockdown dual bursters are now reasonably effective against infantry at up to 80m. At ranges below 40m a locked down burster MAX shreds infantry. Cyclers are off the hook, the chain and the eye bolt they were tied down with. Frag Cannons: Just.. lol. Each one launches 4 frag grenades. If they land near you, they glow red, but seem to have a slightly shorter detonation time. Each round seems to do comparable damage to regular frag grenades but may have slightly less radius. They definitely tend to bounce and roll more than the standard frag. They also go further with lockdown (increased projectile velocity) Flame Throwers: 0 damage past 10m. You have to hold them on the target, they take longer than other AI weapons to kill. On the plus side they blind the heck out of everything in front of you. Sparrow: It takes 9 direct hits to down a stock VS max suit. 4 for infantry (unupgraded). 10 rounds in the rear armor to down a vanguard and 20 from the front. A magrider take 10 rounds to the rear armor. It has a firing rate of 1.25 rounds per second. It takes 6.25 second to kill a vanguard from behind. TR Max Breaker Rockets: With extended mags you can drop a stock sunderer with two full clips (24 rockets) It takes 11 rounds in the rear armor to kill a vanguard. It has a fire rate of 2 rounds per second, so it takes 3 seconds to kill a vanguard from behind. Fully cert'd lockdown decreases this by 40%. -I didn't get around to testing how many shots it takes to go through front armor b/c the breaker rockets were crashing my client incessantly. I didn't get to test the Vanu guns, the client just kept crashing every 15 seconds. I had a sad, I was really looking forward to checking the starlancer out. TL;DR - Lockdown is awesome, yes it works on bursters. I didn't get to use it on any planes. They were all mysteriously gone from the VR room. Breaker rockets have half the TTK against armor that sparrows do (without using lockdown) NC shield is relatively weak, but could be handy in big fights. The frag cannons will change the face of infantry fighting. Seriously, 2-3 MAXs spamming these should clear any amount of infantry out of pretty much anywhere.
