A new player has a carbine, an assault rifle, a pistol, an LMG, a rocket launcher, a sniper rifle, and a shotgun. That's plenty of variety. No weapon is flat out better than any other in every situation. All weapons are either side grades or situationaly specialized. Claiming that a new player needs to unlock new weapons to play the game, have fun, or be effective is the height of ignorance. Rank 5 nanoweave isn't even close to being necessary on any class.
Ever used an EM1 or ES equivalent? The three defaults are flat out better. What about a Magscatter? Your knife is the only sidegrade to it, everything else is better! Everyone likes to have options. What would you say is necessary? With the 1400 certs, a player can maybe max out one class ability or tool before they run out and go back to the grind.
ASC can save your life. Getting shields back 4 seconds faster can be even more useful than that one extra bullet.
Actually I do have the EM1 unlocked and it has very nice mix of large magazine capacity, fast reload for its magazine size, and very low recoil. This makes it very easy to control and a good weapon to go for head shots with at close'ish/medium range. In this respect it is similar to the NS weapons. For straight up damage up close the Anchor would be preferable and for longer range suppression the NC6 Gauss SAW is superior. The EM6 falls somewhere in the middle but sacrifices some controllablity and reload time for more damage. The GD-22S is a slightly longer range version of the Anchor and the Gauss SAW S is a sidegrade of the EM6. The Magscatter is pretty impressive up close if your aim is good but it competes with the Commissioner and Underboss in this role and they are much better at longer range. However 600 damage per shot up close is a lot and can usually drop a wounded opponent in one blast. The Commissioner and Underboss can only beat this if they land a head shot. The smart choke doesn't make a lot of sense as it just tries to push the weapon even more into the role of the Commissioner while actually hurting its main role of up close face blasting. Note that your knife only does 500 damage. has a lower rate of fire, and a shorter, but wider, reach. I would call the Magscatter a sidegrade to the knife except that it doesn't actually replace the knife. The LA3 Desperado is probably a better sidearm than the Magscatter overall but it does lack the massive single shot stopping power. In any case these weapons are not the defaults so the issues they have is an argument against new players unlocking weapons if anything. As far as necessary upgrades for new players goes? Two or three medkits, ASC or Nanoweave 3 or 4 on a couple of classes, class ability to 3 or 4 depending on the class, a few ranks in ammo pack, medkit and repair gun to 4 or even 5, some 1x and/or 2x reflex sights and other attachments for the default weapons, maybe sticky grenades, maybe some upgrades on the lightning, maybe a few other things that can only be bought with certs. If you are maxing out anything before BR 20 you are doing it wrong. All of the important things can only be bought with certs anyway. The only weapons that new player might consider buying are a G2A launcher as it lets them fill a new role or maybe an SMG as it opens up a totally different play style for infiltrator.
No, its not. ASC is far more flexible and potentially powerful if you play to its strengths and flack armor is just flat out better in many situations. And let us not forget the utility pouch and all the fun things you can do with extra mines and bricks of C4.
However, the EM1 has very low effectiveness in combat compared to many other weapons. With its OK RoF, and low damage without any redeeming qualities outside its magazine size and reload speed, most every other LMG is better. The Magscatter is truly an awful weapon. The damage of an Underboss-Commissioner with the range of a knife. The only way to actually have all the pellets hit is if you ram it down your opponent's throat. It really is the worse non-joke weapon in the game. ("Joke" weapons being flare guns and such.) You don't need to tell me about pistols! An argument that is further worsened for weapon due to their cost increases. A player couldn't cert half of those things with only 1400 certs. I don't think a new player would be focusing on what would be best to cert first and save for later. I think they'd most likely be getting new attachments and weapons first. Clearly you haven't spent an extended amount of time with max nanoweave, methinks. It saves me quite often.
But nanoweave can do so much more! Not dying and needing to respawn saves much more than 4 seconds. I daresay that is more useful!
The EM1 requires more skill to use than most other NC LMGs. As I said it is similar to the NS weapons. And like the NS-15M2 it is a gun that does not perform as its stats would suggest if you use it correctly. You seem to be totally ignoring its low recoil and excellent controlability. The Magscatter does much more damage than a Commissioner or Underboss at a longer range than a knife. Granted its range is rather short, but that is its role. There are other sidearms for when you want more range. You clearly need to be told quite a bit about pistols judging from your comments about them. And once again, these are not default weapons and as such not something new players should be worrying about. First you complain that newer players can't unlock enough weapons and then you point out weapons that you feel are worse than the defaults. I am confused here. I find it funny that you think a new player couldn't cert these things with 1500 certs plus the certs they earn normally in the first 15 battle ranks, because I certed pretty much all of it by BR 15 or 16 on my alts. I didn't max out anything or unlock any weapons, but that's the point. You aren't supposed to max out anything or unlock any weapons. You get a few levels in the things that are really important and then you start to specialize after BR 15 when you have a good baseline for all your classes. Only at that point do you start to think about unlocking a weapon if you want to move towards whatever play style that weapon is geared towards. If a new player decides to waste their certs on weapons instead of useful things like weapon attachments, medkits, and class ability upgrades that is their fault. I suppose a better tutorial could help here but messing with weapon prices won't do anything to fix the issue. Max nanoweave does not provide as much extra HP as even one early recharge of your shield and level 2 flack will match max nanoweave when dealing with grenades and other explosive damage, both of which are incredibly common. Flack armor past level 2 is just flat out better than max nanoweave in these situations. In the end flack armor and nanoweave is something of a toss up. Bullets are more common than grenades, but not that much more common, and flack armor is more effective at mitigating grenades than nanoweave is at mitigating bullets. Its hard to know which one you are going to run into more of when you run into a fight.
Umm, that early shield recharge can save you from death 10+ times if you are skillful/lucky. Unlike nanoweave which can only do the same thing 3 or 4 times max if you are packing medkits and have the same degree of skill/luck. If you add resist shield to ASC you can do some amazing things that nanoweave could never match. Nanoweave isn't bad, its quite good. But it only caters to one play style. Some people like this play style. Some don't. A newer player shouldn't max out anything until they know what play style fits them and what upgrades will work well with their chosen style of play.
Yeah if you're bad ... Nanoweave can save you form dying, sure. But only when there's a single extra -bullet- (so no explosions or knives or what have you - and HSs ignores it). If there's more than one bullet you're dead anyway, which is most of the time. Compared to surviving with whatever amount of health left, run around a corner and return to combat in around 2/3rds of the time it takes a non ASC user. Incidentally the ACS works wonders when paired with a gun such as the Betelguse, or any other high DPS low capacity weapon.
Look don't waste your breath on the forum, it's full of fan boys who will defend the game at all cost. I for one agree with you and alot of other plays who quite playing PS2 would also agrees with you, me being a person who like to play all 3 faction and it's such a pain know you have something awesome on your other chrater but not on this one. I only had fun in this game when I forget about grinding and play the way I wanted. All the weapon that use to be 250 certs are now 850 certs. Every weapons cost 8$ each for a digital gun that they have unlimited supply of and are super easy to make. Look a lot of people agree with you but you are not going to get alot of support on the forum.
Higher RoF, higher controllability and significantly less recoil, and it requires more skill to use? I ignore this however, because a weapon's ease of use can be mitigated by an individual's skill. In terms of killing capability, it just simply falls short of the other options the NC has available to them. Yes. Do tell me more about how wrong I am, and how the Magscatter is definitely the best sidearm in the game. --http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=kills&weapon1=7390&weapon2=301102&weapon3=301202 --http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=uniques&weapon1=7390&weapon2=301102&weapon3=301202 --http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=playtime&weapon1=7390&weapon2=301102&weapon3=301202 --http://ps2oraclestats.com/?stat=kph&weapon1=7390&weapon2=301102&weapon3=301202 And I'm confused why I'm arguing with you and Flag about NW vs. ASC, the EM1, and the Magscatter in a thread about weapon costs. Forumside works in mysterious ways. Really? Because according to your previous post: Let's see if you actually could cert these "necessary upgrades" using the 1400 certs given to new players, shall we? --Two or three medkits: 150 or 300 certs --ASC level 3 or 4: 41 or 141 certs per class --Nanoweave level 3 or 4: 61 or 211 certs per class --A few ranks in ammo pack: 160 certs --Medical Applicator rank 4 or 5: 90 or 190 certs --Nano-Armour Kit rank 4 or 5: 90 or 240 certs --1x and/or 2x reflex sights: 30 or 60 certs per weapon --Attachments for the default weapons: 0-300 certs per weapon --Sticky grenades: 100 certs --Lightning upgrades: 550 or 875 certs for HE/AP Python + additional slot purchases Total minimum: 1272 certs (As one sight and no attachments on only one weapon, and rank 3 NW and ASC on only one class) Total maximum: 2277 certs (As two sights and no attachments on only one weapon, and rank 4 NW and ASC on only one class) Unsurprisingly, it's only possible if you take the lowest costs and only cert suit slots and sights for only one class and one weapon, with no attachments. You've just been EMP'd. Your max rank ASC shields are just to begin to regenerate when you take a shot to the chest. Your shields are down, and you potentially took some damage. You've just been EMP'd. Your shields don't have a chance to regenerate, but your max rank nanoweave is still active, and protects you somewhat against a shot to the chest. In both scenarios, you've taken some damage and have no shields. Nanoweave will help you, and ASC will not.
So I'm bad if I get shot... in a game about shooting each other? A player with NW is more likely to survive in the first place, nullifying it. Incidentally as well, NW works well with such weapons as a player is much more likely to survive in a fight if they must pull out their sidearm if they were to exhaust their ammunition.
