Should lockdown provide an armor bonus?

Lockdown, the TR max ability cuts all your movement speed in exchange for a 15-30% increase in fire and reload rate. It's all good except for one big issue.
The number one weakness maxes have are rockets and C4. The number one counter to these things are moving out of the way. With lockdown you can't move, so you're way more vulnerable to rockets and C4. So should lockdown provide some sort of armor bonus against explosives? Just so C4 wouldn't be instant death when you can't dodge it even if you were being repaired.

Well the way I look at it, ZOE gets a armor debuff for increased mobility on top of their increased damage output. So I don't see why lockdown shouldn't get an armor buff for its decreased mobility on top of its increased damage output. While you are at it, you also need to throw in quicking switching to and from the ability.

And the problem with lockdown isn't C4, its the peek a boo HA with rockets that can launch the rocket and hide back behind cover before you can kill them.

Yes, this is the one thing that the developers of this game can't seem to grasp. In shooters, movement equals survivability, and if you want to take away one, you need to boost the other. With ZoE, a MAX moves faster but takes more damage (or it did), with Heavy Assault shields, the player moves slower. The Engineer's AI mana turret has a full-body shield on the front that only allows damage to pass through a small window, which is why it will always be better than a lockdown MAX by a mile. If you want to take away mobility, you have to boost defense.

For MAXes, absolutely. I nominate a forward-facing resist shield.

For prowlers, no. They're fine as is. The range in which they operate gives the user the ability to position themselves properly with the ability.

I still think the Prowler needs some kind of defensive boost when it uses anchor mode, as they are just pathetically easy to pick off with a tank buster or ESF.

That aside, however, my biggest problem with lockdown with the Prowler is that my gunner is bored the entire time.

Pong mini-game? You get certs as you win against the CPU, and it could be competitive multiplayer if you wanted to and you could see who the top players on your server were. Pong tourneys and Pong-a-thons could be a thing. Or we could just release an AV weapon for the Prowler with better accuracy outside of 10m :|

Strictly I think it's not only a band aid fix, but it also steps on the NC trait of high armor vehicles. The only thing wrong with Prowler Lockdown is that the Vanguard shield negates the advantage. If the VGS worked on a resist mechanic then the Prowler would be fine and the VG and PR could be balanced to have a TTK within 2 seconds of each other for balance. Vanguard fires first shot before Prowler begins the 2s lockdown animation, VG wins. Prowler fires the first shot from locked down position, PR wins.

Lets not forget, this game touts MMO roots. The Prowler is akin to a Cloth Caster class, all-or-nothing, you either die to its ridiculous amount of burst damage, or it dies fairly quickly. The Vanguard is the opposite of this, it's a Plate Tank, average DPS, but above average damage mitigation means its strength is outlasting his enemy and winning the long battle. The Mag is like an Assassin class, not as much mitigation ability as the Tank, but high evasion ability and higher damage output to compensate (Saron at close range).

That and the Prowler needs a secondary that works. However, this is difficult because the main gun is so good relative to other MBT primaries that if the secondary is even usable, the tank as a whole can easily be OP.

That was before ZOE got butchered, now you also have to stay rooted for a set duration, and you cant lockdown again for a certain period of time.

I do think the benefit should effect the gunner seat as well. I might actually buy a ranger on my tank if it did.

Stop trying to balance the game around 1v1 scenarios.

And that's where you lost me. Also the term you're looking for is "RPG" not "MMO".

I guess buffing defense by adding a resist during lockdown is one potential solution. I have always been partial to higher levels of the lockdown cert tree giving faster lockdown/unlock times.

I would suggest increasing their suit slot bonus by an amount, which allows them to choose which area they'd be strong in and which to be weak. A lockdown max with flak armor would be immune to C4 (I also think max flak should provide a small bonus to explosive direct hits too). With kinetic, immune to bullets, with repair, rapidly get back into fighting shape.

It gives the max another upside without destabilizing the balance too much. If the max is eating too many bullets, settle down for rockets. Or vice versa. Repair speed on locked maxes might need tweaking after testing on live, just to make sure they aren't basically immortal bullet doorways.

I think lockdown itself should be instant with the delay attached to the weapons, not your mobility. So going into lockdown carries a delay of, say, 1s where your weapons don't work. Coming out of it carries a similar delay, but you'd be able to move again instantly. That delay could be shortened through the cert line down to 0.5s or so.

This prevents it being used as an instant buff every time you run into someone but still allows you to react to changing circumstances.

I would be down with that.

I would be fine with the gunner get the prowler bonus.
+48% reload and something m/s increase.
Just as long as it doe not make those aa guns more effective. The last thing ESFs need is a bunch of aa turrets on mbts.

If I'm going to sacrifice my halberd, those pathetic single-utility pea shooters had better be effective.

Anchored Mode/Lockdown are horrible and need to removed altogether. There is only a single circumstance in which rooting yourself to one spot in an engagement is useful, and that's when you're farming infantry in a tower. Otherwise, it's just awful. When would you ever want to use it? Certainly not in a close range brawl, because that's just a death sentence. How about long range snipe fests? Nope, because it prevents you from retreating to quickly repair in case you take more damage than you expected. Not to mention that it makes you a sitting duck for Liberators, and allows infantry to easily drop C4 on you or shoot a rocket up your ***.

The Magrider gets an ability that compliments its maneuverability. The Vanguard gets an ability that compliments its durability. The Prowler gets an ability that completely negates its superior speed.

No, sorry. Do not want.

That's actually a really good idea. Have you proposed that to SOE in one of their MAX change threads?

oh yeah and while we are at it we can give it 3 extra barrels double the splash and quadruple the damage, because why not buff the already best performing MBT more than it already is?

that seems perfectly logical

Fair enough. But by that logic, since we lose 100% mobility then we get 100% armor buff.