I think you mesed up the math somewhere, my calculations show 300 dps pre patch and 325 post. pre was 750 damage with a 2.5s fire cycle (1.5 reload +2x0.5 refire), post is 1300 damage with a fire cycle of 4 seconds (2 reload +4x0.5). Splash damage sounds like it is unchanged though so that got a nice increase, from 300/2.5s (120 splash dps) to 600/4 seconds (150 splash dps)
I thought Blizzard were proud of it and thought it was great since so many people bought it. I know that players were disappointed though.
King of AV MAXes? I'm glad I wasn't drinking something when I read that. You're either someone who never played when the Cycler was AV or was on the receiving end of a LOCKED DOWN Pounder and has bad memories. If you got pwned by an Pounder, then you: A) Were stupid and just stood your ground while getting shelled by a MAX that had to walk his rounds to you. B) Were stupid and didn't repair after being softened up by infantry rockets or other vehicles before meeting Mr. Pounder. C) Were too terrible of a shot to one hit kill a MAX that is shooting at you. All a vehicle had to do was move and it was impossible to hit. I used the Pounder religiously and you had to guess where the guy was going to be when your shell landed. I can't say it was fun, especially when you were wrong and his cannon took you out with one hit. Comet and Falcon could still hit you while you moved your vehicle. Pounder can't hit a moving target worth a damn. Just go back to your TOW missiles and leave the conversation to someone who actually knows what they are talking about. They were decent against ANTS that were parked filling up the resource tank...
Nah, they said they regret putting in the auction house seeing as how it ruined the experience they were providing + the whole "Error 37 thing", and their creative lead (Jay Wilson) steped down not to long ago. So ya, they pretty much disowned it. It's all there on the internets.
Please read and comprehend. I specifically stated the timeframe I was referring which you appear to have not comprehended. I remember well the early implementation PS1 MAXes, but I also remember the inbetween state, and the final patch states.
So then because it is going faster it should even out a bit more. It is definatly made to be close range, but with 1300 damage in one arm (or 2600+ on rear tank) it would not be that hard to have a AI weapon on the other when assaulting a tech plant (for example). Otherwise 2x arms would be decent from a high position (like the old falcon was). These max's would also be very good at quick defence of sundys and fighting off tanks surrounding a base (then run inside and get some bursters for the swarm of aircraft after unloading massive damage to the hoard below). Are their bad things about this, yes. It is impossible to adapt, no. The real question is, do they feel more fun with all that power?
I saw the pounders being used earlier, the new gravity doesn't seem that harsh (at least not as harsh as people were expecting it to be). Then again I never used pre-nerf pounders that much when I did try out TR, or saw them used that much. They may not be good for long range vs vehicles but imagine defending a position like a tower or other vertical structure vehicles tend to flock around. With deploy mode you could potentially give tanks an extremely unpleasant time if they get too close to the tower (and no, don't tell me deploy mode is terrible. MAX units shine the most when supported by infantry, with support engineers repairing you and a medic for revives should you die a deployed TR MAX will likely be one of the most powerful mobile turrets you can spawn. You can't revive a Prowler if it gets killed while deployed, that's what makes it better on a MAX).
The new Pounder is plain useless. It is basically an artillery unit without any noticeable splash damage or aiming equipment. I mean, what kind of idiot designed those horrible settings. He basically took the worst from one of the worst weapons in the game and amplified it while giving it a minor dps increase. And I really hesitate to call it a dps increase, because once you factor in that the Pounder has such horrible projectile drop that the first salvo is nothing more than a tool for finding out how many hundreds of pixels you have to lead your target on screen, having a larger magazine with slower reload isn't really helpful. And the increased projectile velocity is actually more of a disadvantage than an advantage, as it makes it impossible to deal with even a single infantry soldier in the 50-100m range due to the convergence happing too slowly. Personally I am impressed at how well SOE managed to nerf it while delusionally thinking that they buffed it. It takes real skill to manage something like that.
Yeah, imagine getting killed in a couple of seconds from vehicle bombardment. How nice. Scratch that, make that one second. Oh, and please stop suggesting that weapons should be balanced around optional special abilities.
Or he played more recently than you, not everyone quit to play world of dorks. He, like many, saw how they ended up buffing the Pounder to be by far the best AV Max in PS1.
Pounders in PS1 was EXTREMELY annoying, especially ones that used the alt fire mode (bounces with timed explosion), GODJOEY is infamous for that. I tried using the Pounders for a bit last night on my TR alt and all I gotta say is... eeew. I and many other VS were getting pissed off with the new Comet changes, but the Pounder isn't any better with the changes either. I think whoever said that they did this so we can buy new MAX AV weapons in the MAX update might be right.
I think it's a bit late for that now, most people will have given up on AV maxes and just use them for AI and AA. With AI, people might still bite when they introduce new weapons.
The convergence on the pounders is really frustrating still. Well I guess I should say the convergence on all of the AV weapons seems even worse than before the patch. With no significant splash radius infantry will have a field day with you. Better stick to a burster so you can deal with air and infantry.
They just made the HEG horrible against everything, since it was decent against infantry, so people would spend cash on a second AI weapon. Then they nerfed the Mercy to get Mercy users to spend cash on other AI weapons. Then they will add new AV weapons to grab even more cash. It's a good plan if you look at it from a business perspective.
Pounders actually have lowest TTK when it comes to tanks now. Still not good enough, just like the other AV weapons.
