I would say for AI MAX, Charge is the way to go. For AV or AA MAX, Lockdown. I've seen what 3 locked down Fracture MAXes can do when positioned so their guns are just above the rise of a hill so they have maximum cover with engineers completely covered from avenue of approach rearming and repairing. For NC, it's opposite. The Aegis shield is not particularly useful for AV or AA builds, so take charge for a quick escape ability, but in Biolabs it covers their greatest weakness (vulnerability during long reload) and can be tactically used with teammates to great effect. VS is more all purpose... but IMO while fun to have a fast MAX, the armor penalty means I turn that ****** off in all fights... it's more of a travel mode You can try dancing to avoid shots.... but in Bio fights the range is too short, you're too big (and glowy), and since they added acceleration/deceleration delays to MAXes changing directions it doesn't really work. It would maybe work fighting a tank with dual comets, or maybe dodging rockets at slightly longer than typical bio fight ranges... but it's far from the OP disco dance machine it was upon it's release.
For AV, I don't find it worth running around with normally, in most situations its better with charge. When I use it on AV, it is because I know I'll have a wide open area I can cover, and I know we have enougth fire power, to hold them. (a good example is defending jaegers crossing against attackers from the southern warpgate, on Esamir). In those cases it is really good. But in those cases I go back to the terminal and take it for that specific job. And I don't actually want lockdown buffed because in the scenario of defending jaegers crossing forexample, it would properly be OP if it got any better, and it wouldn't even solve the real problem, of it being too situational to use, outside of highly specialised loadouts. The only way I can see lockdown, be worth bringing around normally, would be by making it extremely powerful when used properly. So much infact that the sheer thought of "winning the lottery", by being at the right place at the right time, would make me bring it. Which leads back to the initial question, is that fun? Or is that just a lottery ticket waiting to checked? Summary: risk/reward is a good thing, but EXTREME risk coupled with EXTREME reward, turns everything into a gamble. Instead reduce the penalties of the TR ability, and reduce the buff, of the TR ability accordingly. And this is without even talking about how to make it still be unique or interesting. In otherwords..... New ability pl0x.
AFAIK most NC are just as unhappy with their ability and want something new. I know I rarely see glowing VS MAXes... or if I do, not nearly in the numbers we used to, so VS have also gone back to charge. Overall, that actually speaks balance to me. People are still motivated to take the common pool ability, while each ES ability has it's time to shine and a lot of time to sit wasted. Honestly, I think Lockdown is my favorite (I play all 3 factions and have been working on my MAX abilities.... ever so slowly ) ZOE is great for getting around, and I like how I can keep up with an infantry push, etc... but the firepower you can dish out when defending with Lockdown is crazy.
I'd be all over this shizzle. Please nerf the living hell out of it until its not a mind numblingly boring new version of the we-already-have-that Annihilator. You have no idea how much such a nerf would make me happy. Hint: my main is TR. Plenty of suggestions around toward making it a REAL weapon instead of the buggy air **** drool-in-your-seat gun we have now. LMAO Been there! Seen that! Pure' WTF' moment when the rockets turn around and run straight at you. I think my fav lock-on bug is the over the shoulder launcher though. That stuff is classic. They do a behind the back hookshot and whack on friendlies. Good times.
Any reasonable person sees what I see in this post. Remember what you actually show when you post garbage.
"underperforming" based on average k/d stats, in which you trail by literally a 10th of a kill. The stats show that the orion has the highest DPS, fastest strafing speed, highest ROF, 2nd best hipfire behind that terran weapon-blanking on the name, MSR or something-, and to top it all off, it's the easiest to control out of all the starters and easier to control than any NC/TR weapon. The stats say it's the best. "performance stats" are unbelievably stupid to balance by.
Don't forget, they trail by only a 10th of a kill while being the most used max in the game. Higher use being proven to lower averages.
Wait Higby said terrans use MAX more than the other factions? I was dead sure NC used MAX like twice as much as the others.
The TR MAX is fine, it's performance/guns stats are perfectly in line (with the exception of the Mutilator which is a driect upgrade over default and is an anomaly they can't seem to see.....). If there's anything wrong with it, using only AI weapons, then it's down to TR players being worse than VS, simple as that. To say nothing of the Fractures, which now people are experienced at using them for AI, are ********. Not just because they are AI capable, but because they are far and away too good AV at all ranges.
Never been the case. Don't forget there is pretty much 0 reason to pull a NC MAX outside of bio lab fight and tower outpost. There is AA of course but than again, TR and VS ability make them more effective at that job unlike the NC shield. Better pull a HA if you need AV as well. NC MAX are just a boring one pony trick class.
As far as I know, there are towers and biolab in Esamir. If you meant the only tech plant, than I am unsure what to tell you. There are pretty much 0 cqc area to fit perfectly a scatter there. There are so many plain open section outside and inside with no real tight funnel that if you are getting "destroyed" by a scatter(mattock I suppose), I am sorry to announce that you and those around are just plain bad which wouldn't surprise me. In the end, players being awful isn't changing that TR/VS MAX would be several time more effective than a NC MAX at farming bad infantry outside of the 2 place I mentioned earlier.
