So it's been half a year since MBTs got new faction specific abilities, VS got given their Magburner as default, TR got given a nifty shield (which i've really been enjoying on my TR!) and NC got given a ridiculous inferior version of Nano Auto Repair. So lets talk about "Numbnutz Reactor". what is Nimitz Reactor? Nimitz Reactor is an NC exclusive defensive slot that replaces 16% of a vanguards health with a shield of the same value, when the shield is destroyed it will begin to regenerate again after 10 seconds (at a rate of 100 per second.) all factions have access to Nano Auto repair, which will repair the entire healthpool of the tank after 12 seconds at a rate of 75 per second. so we have: Numbnutz: only 16% health restored beginning after 10 seconds, 100 HPS. or NAR: entire health pool restored beginning after 12 seconds, 75 HPS. NumbNutz is an inferior NAR, it activates fractionally sooner and heals fractionally faster, but for only a minuscule amount of your tanks health, while NAR will heal the whole thing. in the past i've suggested a few possible buffs, firstly the shield could constantly regenerate, mitigating the damage of each shot. secondly instead of replacing 16% of the vanguards health with a shield it could simply be added OVER the vanguards health. NC was given junk just to tick the box "yep we gave each MBT something." and then this junk was forgotten about, but not all of us have forgotten. so some buffs would be nice! thanks!
Personally I'd like to see it made completely passive, such that NAR could be slotted alongside it if the player wanted. The Magrider got the defining Magburner passively, why can't the Vanguard get this? I would even alleviate the crappy extra repair time. I have to admit, I actually did forget that thing ever existed.
In many scenario's having this ability auto-granted means you are worse off than with normal health. Because you can exit the vehicle and repair much faster and be up and running sooner. Compare that to the VS and TR abilities. The VS one is the perfect one that simply allows you to slot something else, no drawbacks. The TR version makes you more visible and a larger target, but that can be leveraged to protect friendlies who are also able to shoot through the shield. The NC version is useful in a few edge-cases when you receive very little damage and are attacked within 5,33 seconds of the shield completing it's recharge. And the maximum health advantage over NAR is 450 health at that point which means that only a single Prowler HEAT round can be tanked more at the exact 5 second mark, any weapon dealing more damage will not have a higher TTK. This means almost all infantry rocketlaunchers won't be affected and only non-dedicated AV topguns will be slower. The shield truly is the Numbnutz reactor. If it recharged all shield health instantly after 10 seconds it would start approaching usefulness as it is a situation that you can actually leverage. Or if it actually recharged a small amount every second even if just hit and started charging faster after a while of no hits it would increase the longevity of the vehicle noticeably. The shield breaking soaking up all further damage would also be useful for the longevity... The problem is that the devs probably did not want to do anything to the Vanguard's lifespan. They didn't want it more resiliant, they wanted to keep it the same. So they replaced the health for shieldhealth and gave it a barely better regen. Which is weird since the Magrider just got it's slot freed up for Fire Suppression which gives it a basic 15% extra health or 750 HP for free.
I'd be down for that! TR got their anchor mode by default a few years back, VS got their Magburner by default last year, So Vanguard is the only MBT with a built in ability. and as Vanguard Shield shares a button with things like fire suppression it would be better if we have a passive, Even so I still find NumbNutz VERY weak, the damage absorbed is barely 1 rocket from any RL. But hey, something weak is better than nothing! Also yep, most people forgot it existed, I feel fairly confident that it was added simply because we were asking why TR and VS were getting new stuff and NC wasnt. So Wrel added this meme-worthy useless junk, just to troll NC...he likes doing that.
You don't agree it would be better to simply have an extra 1000HP passive shield like infantry? Sure, it's not exactly a game changer as you said but at least people would be using it. In my opinion it'd make the Vanguard slightly stronger/less weak to have it in addition to something else. At that point it could even be tweaked to be more practical, have it start regenerating after 8 seconds instead of 10 or something. If the shield was fully regenerated at roughly the same time as NAR could heal the rest of the tank, it would be more or less functionally the same as having just NAR, I think. It probably wouldn't boost the resilience much, but it might help the Vanguard survive a little easier. If nothing else, the drawbacks should be removed from the NR if it is ever to see use, as pointless as it is now.
I thought that "auto-granted" meant that it would still replace the current health bonus, but would leave the slot open for NAR and other stuff. Yes practicality is what I'm after. But I think that we should dtay aeay from ayto-granted stuff. While it can improve faction diversity it also make all the vehicles you fight more the same. We should have that faction-slot. A slot where you can equip one of a handful of faction-specific abilities. The Vanguard could get the Numbnutz reactor as one option in the slot, freeing the slot it currently takes for NAR or stealth or whatever. But they could also equip a charge upgrade for their main gun, allowing them to charge it for more damage and velocity at the cost of (relative) DPS. Adding the ability to let the shell pass through multiple vehicles at a time. The VS could get their Afterburner in there. But they could also forsake it for something else. A jump module that includes invulnerability to environmental damage for 2 seconds? Enough to jump and recover from a bad landing but not enough to safely jump off high cliffs. Or instead of a jump module the ability to offset their height from the ground, going up to the height that they can just pass over the top of another Magrider? The ultimate goal of such abilities would be to make each vehicle have their faction-uniqueness while still promoting various playstyles and encounters for each vehicle. Some of these faction-specific items could also find their way to NS vehicles, allowing the NC Lightning to charge its gun for example.
Nimitz should just regenerate constantly, instead of being an inferior NAR. The rate at which it regenerates is something to test and balance, but I think somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of an maxed engineer tool's repair rate would be reasonable at max rank.
I think a maxed repair gun does about 300HP/s? That would mean it would be better at repairing constantly than currently even at half rate? This would be too much I think. I would go for something like 25HP/s and after a small while without damage you can ramp up the regen to 100HP/S or something.
Just put the fool thing in as the free passive and give it a constant regeneration of 100 every 0.5 seconds with a 10 second recharge (at maximum rank) when broken. Then it would actually be useful. Not as useful as getting Magburner or Anchor for free so you can slot fire suppression but better than the smoking pile of horse**** Wrel tried to pass off as a "buff".
That would mean it functions as a fire suppression every 5 seconds. I want the Vanguard to be buffed, but this would be ridiculous. The Prowler AP has a base DPS of 266. You would effectively reduce all damage with more than 66%. A permanent Vanguard shield would be less powerful.
Hey that whole update is meant for VS. TR got a shield that made us a freaking big "hello there's a tank that won't move here" for 20% front armor NC got some useless NAR VS got built in mobility tool to outmanuver the other two tanks who can only move two direction even more in CQC
vanguard is bad, i almost all time spawn Lightning instead. Faster, smaller, less cost and in this harasser maddens is better than slow Vanguard. Best tank in game Magrider for sure. Even net-code prefer fast hit and run mechanics.
