The NC is in a good place right now

A serious question, where did all these complaints about NC weapons come from? The last few days I've been noticing more and more people complaining in #YELLISONLYMETA about how badly NC is disadvantaged by their weapons.

What?


I remember what the NC was like back when we WERE the toughest, picked-on, hard-mode faction. Our lowest low was post-launch 2012, when the devs went on holiday while we were saddled with flinch, and a heavy Indar-side coupled with sitting on the SE warpgate for months with extremely questionable base-design, and a faction-pop that barely scratched 25% server wide on the average day, no air-support and 24/7 bombing delivery runs from TR/VS Liberators. And even then, we had pre-nerf Hacksaws, remember those? The full-auto. 12 mag, roffle-god-mode farm-arms?

NC hasn't been THAT bad ever since.

NC has what is probably the most versatile gun selection between the three factions. Our MAXes have plenty of options, between our CQC dominance with our shotguns and our ability to suppress (!) and shut-down MAX crashes with Ravens. I'm not going to speak about the air-game but if you ask any of the top-pilots, I highly doubt any of them will even entertain the idea that NC is somehow disadvantaged by the Reaver anymore. Even the Canister is sweet, sweet, farmazing now. The Canister.

Why are people complaining about NC right now? What am I missing here?

If you're unhappy with NC's alert performance, go blame your platoon/outit leaders. That's got nothing to do with gun-stats, that's all player-driven. When your faction is able to redeploy 3 platoons onto an at risk hex at will, bean-counting gun stats becomes completely irrelevant.

Remember, NC used to be in a bad, bad place. Those of us who do remember, know just how good we have it right now.

I agree. I've played all three factions and my only issues with NC are:

• I don't like the color scheme
• The general player base seems a bit worse

Other than that I feel like NC is tied for best, or the best, or at least unique enough that there is no best, in every category, as well as just having the highest number of effective weapons of all factions. I probably use more weapons, at least only counting those I use on a regular basis, on my NC than TR and VS combined.

• Vanguard is great, best tank vs. other tanks usually and the most survivable and effective against air
• Reaver is great for general Air vs. Air, and while air hammer isn't necessarily the best for killing infantry it allows you to do so while staying strong against air.
• NC MAX is amazing for indoors/point rushes. Falcons and Ravens are the best "pair" of AV weapons I'd say as well, and double as ranged AI options when you don't need shotguns for CQC.
• Heavy Assault: Jackhammer best shotgun, Cyclone/Blitz best SMGs, Anchor is great for all ranges and only Orion/SVA really beat it for close range. EM6 or saw for mid-long range are also > VS/TR options. Phoenix is the most unique and fun ESRL.
• Light Assault/Engi: Merc is the best all-rounder carbine, GD-7F arguably best CQC carbine with some versatility from its high velocity, AC-X11(best bullet damage/drop-off range) or Razor(best velocity only tied with junky T5 AMC) are best ranged carbines along with Pulsar C.
• Medic: Carnage is a great all-rounder AR, Gauss Rifle is as well with more range, Reaper is a headshot longer range beast.
• Infil: Cyclone/Bliz, all that needs to be said. And Railjack is probably better than VS/TR's ESSR.

Overall there's just no area they're really lacking in, unless you count new-player friendliness 'cause of the SAW. VS and TR each have some areas where they're just not very good or only have a few options.

I would also add that NC's faction trait feels more valuable and substantial than TR or VS's. The better variety of higher damage guns add more to the faction than "more bullets" or no bullet drop/faster reloads do. I guess TR has high rate of fire but of course, so do the other factions if they want it in most cases, TR just has higher average RoF.

None of our "variety" or "diversity" matters when VS/TR has better guns and they all just use the same better guns.

If NC had one gun that was better than TR and VS's I'd use it all the time too, wouldn't mean all our other guns are terrible.

Maybe VS and TR can complain when Orion, Jaguar/Lynx, Terminus and TAR/TORQ are nerfed.

Neither of you probably even main NC.

You've got me. All my time spent on NC was a lie. This whole time, I've been a dirty spandex wearing VS mole!

How did you figure me out so quickly?

The NC have access to all weapons equal to us VS and TR in some-way (except the lynx and the 0.75 ADS from the Orion) while having exclusive access to the 200dmg tier model.

Why are people so "loyal" or defending about their in-game faction while taking shots at other players that disagree? Just a petty argument/crutch for a mad and very bad player.

I like their guns, but they are at a severe disadvantage in very CQC. TR's rpm is just to much.

Ermahgerd.

The NC have plenty of nice weapons, for instance the Pheonix, the Anchor, the GD-7F (Which TR don't get a clone of ) and many more.

The NC can complain when the Anchor, Razor/Mercenary, Gauss Rifle S, and the Tross/Carnage AR ge nerfs.
I don't, of course, want them to (get nerfed), I'm just illustrating how ridiculous your argument is. In case you don't get it.

I'm certain you don't main TR or VS.

I main VS, play NC/TR a little (more than before recently, but I deleted my NC/TR characters and put them on Miller so they're only about 10-ish BR). TR have some nice **** and I don't know why some complain about the CARV. NC get PLENTY of good stuff. They also get the BASR by default, can't argue with that.

About the only two things we lack from TR or VS are an 0.75x ADS LMG like the Orion, and a longer-ranged anti-infantry solution for our MAXes comparable to the Mercy or the Blueshift. We've got a more versatile selection of small arms than either side, and they have gaps in their selection just like we have gaps in ours. It's what makes the factions different.

My only gear complaint about NC is that the SAW is a crappy starter LMG. Good gun but you need some experience in-game to handle it effectively, it's much harder on noobs than the Orion or CARV. EM6 should be our starter LMG and the SAW available as a purchase (similar to the Mercenary vs. the AC-X11 for carbines).

I said this in /yell chat the other day in response to a mutual NC/VS heavymoanfestpetting session about how bad their respective factions were. Planetside 2: The game where in order to look good, you have to complain loudly about how bad your faction is.

Hold on a second. I fail to see how the shotgunz faction is disadvantaged in CQC.

Complaints about NC weaponry comes from the poor, sad ***, utterly incompetent players using them. Have you not played with the Emerald NC long enough to know they are the worst playerbase since World of Tanks 01/02 reds? I swear, AI BOTS would play better then 95% of the Emerald NC.

So, since they just plain suck, its no wonder they will complain about thier weapons being bad. NC weaponry, save for like the EM1, is a rather incredible set of Eguns.

Then, to make up for thier badness and make themselves feel llike they finally killed something, they resort to TKing each other cuz lord knows they cant kill an enemy who shoots back....

The only reason I see people might choose NC over other factions (balance-wise, not just because FREEDOM and stuff) is because of the GD-7F. It really is too good and too fast firing for a weapon outside of the NC's design philosophies. Toning it down to 70 RPM would be much much healthier.

While I agree that the NC have great weapons, I must insist that the Phoenix suffers about as much as the Striker does ATM.
If it worked properly, it would be a wonderful ESRL, but it's riddled with subtle issues, such as:

- Having a good 1 in 3 chance of flying straight through infantry targets without collision, and occasionally doing so on vehicles.
- If fired from any bucket seat you can hit yourself the instant the trigger is squeezed (The flash is far better now, thanks to the forward facing seats being elevated more, but the Valkyrie is difficult not to shoot when moving. Just 25 KPH or faster will almost certainly guarantee you hit your valk, and each shot does about 80% damage, immediately setting you from full health to a massive priority target billowing smoke).
- Cannot control missiles when area is too populated causing rounds to dive into the ground before you enter the camera guide. (So it's entirely useless at such places past 5m.)
- Often times rounds self-detonate for zero reason when fired from safe rooms (a good 30-40% of shots do this on the one way shield, especially when firing at an angle of any sort).

And many, many more.

143 damage, 70 RPM.
Yeah, no thanks!


In all seriousness though, I'd like to see the GD-7F be a 167 damage 704 RPM weapon (virtually the same TTK and DPS. The current 167/704 is 0.42604 seconds TTK, and 167/704 is 0.42614 seconds TTK. So it's 0.1 ms slower... That's 0.0001 seconds slower, or one ten-thousandths of a second.

Sure, whatever works! (I think I already explained why I like 143/750 [70 RPM though!]) But anything that gives TR back their high RoF traits is good in my book!

NC is the most balanced and well-rounded faction right now. I'm not sure they even have any garbage weapons ATM.

SOE, now that you've fully balanced the NC... Can you please bring the TR up to par and not treat us like your bastard step child for once?

'The Faction isn't bad, blame your players!' isn't exactly the most stellar of balance basics.

They're called Ravens.

It's not a call for balance, it's a call for the NC to get it's act together. NC leadership is almost universally the worst across all servers and player performance is the worst for NC, also across servers.

Players being the problem require players to fix. SOE can't cure NC-grade incompetence.

I have to agree that NC weapons are in a good place overall.

The only exceptions are these:

1) The Gauss Rifle Burst and Gauss Compact Burst.
They're 2x burst 600 RPM weapons.
TR and VS burst weapons get 3x burst, and are far more comfortable to use because you don't have to spam the mouse button nearly as much to get a kill.
IMO, all faction's burst AR's and Carbines should get both 2x and 3x burst options, as well as a single fire.
(They are intended to train the user to burst more after all, and they are called "Burst" for a reason! Let them have more than 1 burst option!)

2) The Mag-Scatter. (Warning: Incoming rant about how to fix Mag-Scatter and AMP.)

Before I get started in on this, I want to point out that the Mag-Scatter is the worst performing of it's generation of ES Pistols after the Spiker update made it a competitively viable combat weapon.

(Source)
Kills
http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=kills&weapon1=7390&weapon2=7414&weapon3=7402
Unique number of players using weapon on a per day basis
http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=uniques&weapon1=7390&weapon2=7414&weapon3=7402
Headshot kills
http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=headshot&weapon1=7402&weapon2=7414&weapon3=7390



True, the VS had to suffer through the horrid Spiker's original nightmare functionality, but the new Spiker is essentially a slightly better at range Desperado and is an excellent weapon (though sadly the charge still isn't quite up to snuff, yet).
And the TR's AMP is WAY too low on ammo.
It's the fastest fire rate, lowest damage per shot AI weapon in the game to date. And one of the TR's faction traits is high ammo capacity. Give that thing at least 28 rounds!
It also needs to be useful while moving, so lower the bloom per shot from 2.0 hipfire and 1.0 ADS to 1.5 hipfire and 0.75 ADS per round.

The Mag-Scatter though, it's technically able to kill in two shots.
But in actual combat, it takes at least 3, if not 5 just to drop someone at 6-7m while ADS with the smart choke.
Hipfire is useless past 3m, and without the choke it's pointless.

First off, it needs about 145-150 RPM.
That's snugly between the NS-44 and the Crossbow's RoF, and because you're almost certain to miss a pellet or two per shot at anything but knifing range, it lets you follow up quick enough to actually drop your target.

Lastly, all other pistols (except NS pistols, which are all high range pistols and will be getting 1x and 2x sights next update) have enough ammo to kill two non-max/infil enemies with chestshots and still be able to miss at least one bullet.

The mag-scatter cannot.
It takes at least 2 shots (Usually 3) to kill someone, and I feel that it really shouldn't require a 50-75% accuracy rate to kill one guy at 7m or less.


Additionally, with all other pistols I can fire and just barely clip the enemy's shoulder.
I still do 100% of the damage.
With the Scatter, if I don't fire directly dead center, I miss most all of my pellets.
With the same shoulder clip shot, I lose 66-84% of my damage!
It might as well be a complete miss.

Having the extra fire rate and a single round of leniency for missed pellets would actually make it a nice side-grade to the Desperado.

...

This is generally where I lose people, so let's use a hypothetical AMP as a comparison to help put it into perspective.

Think about it like a 720 RPM AMP that can only fire in 6 round bursts, at 100 dmg per bullet.
That's the damage output on the Mag-Scatter.

Now lower said AMP's range from about 8-10m to about 6-8m, but add an extra 3 rounds.
That's the Mag-Scatter's functionality as a whole.

We only survive by surprising our targets with the shock of hitting them with all that damage before they realize the weapon we're using.
That's called "Front-loaded damage".

So that extra one round per mag on the real Mag-Scatter would be like adding an extra 6 shots to that 720 RPM AMP.
And putting the Mag-Scatter's RoF to 145-150 RPM sets it up to an 840 RPM on the AMP's damage output.
840 RPM is still lower than the AMP's 937 (by 97 RPM), but that -97 RPM in our demonstration is just to offset the advantage of getting front-loaded damage.

(Oh, and the MS can't be silenced, which makes it the only faction specific pistol in the game that always shows on radar. And it's a CQC weapon. This is no small sacrifice.)


Well, that's how you fix the Scatter and AMP.
Scatter needs 145 RPM and an extra shot, AMP needs 28 rounds and 1.5 hipfire 0.75 ADS bloom-per-shot.



Oh, and...
The RailJack could use a delay change to about 75 ms so that it's break even point to the Longshot/RAMS/Paralax would be
150m, and it would be better the further out it got from 150, but that's a very minor concern.

NC does not require buffs right now. NC's average player is also on par with the average player of the other factions, no one is seriously claiming otherwise, or is being taken seriously if they do so.

NC's leadership and coordination, is below par.

Here's the difference:

1) There are so many players of varying skill levels and experience that averaged out across all factions, the individual player's skill matters rather little. The quality of the individual zergling's twitch skills does not matter.

2) Many battles are zerg fests where skill and gun statistics matter very little. When you are overpopping your opponent 2 to 1, the twitch skills of Mr. MLGALLDAY isn't going to matter, regardless of which side he is on.

3) The number of leaders is much much smaller. Because of this, the quality of leadership between individual platoon and (large) outfit leaders does matter.

4) The skill of the individual outfit leaders could all be on par and NC would still be behind because NC's leadership does not seem to coordinate on the level that VS leadership does. Teamwork is a force multiplier and NC's teamwork is weak.

No one is seriously saying that the average NC pubbie is worse than the average TR/VS pubbie. Pubbies are pubbies regardless of faction. But your top leadership matters, that's where the real skill in PS2 needs to be, not in your CoD twitch skills, but your ability to respond and steer the tiller of the zerg-ship to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there.

Here's an exercise. Give me a list of names of every random zergling you've ever come across and try to rank them.

You can't, there's too many to count and they're all equally pubbie.

Now, give me a list of the top 10 outfits and leaders across every faction on Emerald and rank them.

I bet that's much more doable.

See the difference?