[Video] Proton PPA - Farmrider

I think it's moreso the overabundance of liberators as a result of the buff that's making it so deadly. Prior to the buff you didn't see them nearly as often. The buffs didn't make them any deadlier against tanks unless they're hovering in front of you using the TB running composite. I see most libs these days still running NAR anyways.

Pre-update, if a lib was overhead, there was nothing a lone MBT could do as well because they can sit directly above you. We're just seeing a ton more these days so the probability of encountering one when by yourself is much higher.

I think there's going to be an inevitable nerf which will remove whatever alloy of mythril and adamantium that's in composite armor right now allowing it to take tank shells like a white girl takes pumpkin-spice lattes in October. Following that, it'll be easier to kill the dopes who fly low and you'll see a lot less liberators as people figure out they can no longer sit in front of tanks.

Until the XP for killing a tank gets nerfed, tanks will never be too weak for infantry.

I have already, repetedly, stated my opinions and suggestions about these weapon types.
Sorry if you missed it but in this case I am more interested in your (the communitys) opinions
rather then just say the same thing again.

Obviously you have missed what lead to why I made the video this way but even if you
haven't heard me say it in the past, if you want this weapon to be nerfed, there is nothing
new or complicated about how.

I don't like this video.

You spent the better part of it talking about how you're going to get flamed and not about the weapon itself. If you're going to go off on a tangent like that, just make a separate video. In fact, you hardly talked about the weapon at all. What was the point of this video?

We clicked on a video titled, "Planetside 2 - Proton PPA - Farmrider" not, "Matti whines about how he gets hate for his videos".

If you're gonna talk about the gun, talk about the gun. If you're gonna spend half of the video crying about the supposed, "hate and flames" then do that in a different submission. :/

In this thread or in the Video, you didn't mention why you exactly made the Video, you didn't mention anything other than saying that the PPA is potentially the best AI weapon in the game, only being rivaled by a Zepher.

Which is partially true, the Zepher is the way better weapon, there isn't even any argument about it. If we would only talk about the weapons directly without taking the platforms into consideration.

If than add the fact that the Zepher is on the Lib ... take it in what every way you want, but I would say the Lib is the better platform compared to the Magrider or any MBT at this moment.

But all that aside, what's your exact reason? Showing the next flavor of the month farming method to players hungry for certs ... mostly than resulting in this getting overused and than nerfed? Or to cash in easy views? Let alone you talk about 40%+ in the video how everybody harasses you or wants to kill you ingame ... which isn't relevant. Or did your Videos become SOAP boxes?

This weapon was for 11 months as effective as in this video, nobody complained and currently nobody here actually thinks it would need or deserve a nerf, the only thing that needs to happen is a buff to the other ES alternatives, aka C85 Canister and the P525 Marauder and most people in here said exactly that ...

"Why I made the video"

Are you serious? How in the world can this be complicated...really?
This is a 5+ minutes video showcasing the Proton II PPA
I am asking for your feedback and I'm grateful for the responses so far.

Thank you!

The feedback is that you're fannying about in your vids, not delivering enough relevant content that's sufficiently varied to use it as the main basis for a debate about the weapon in question.

That value came from the people in the thread knowing what they're talking about, not from your rather lack-luster video.
So if you want to improve, cut the entire pity-train-bait, and focus on how this weapon compares to other weapons on a similar platform.

Before you get any ideas about posting a second video, that's a contest the PPA will win. More thanks to the lack of decent competition than to it (the PPA) being OP.

I'm going to preface this by stating a fact. I'm a farmer. I farm vehicle kills using AV/AV loadouts, I farm infantry kills by using HEAT/AI, hell, I try and farm while playing infantry. The main goal of this game right now is certs, the way to get them efficiently is getting kills. So, in that vein:

Prior to this last Lib update, I wouldn't have strictly said the Lib is the better platform for Infantry farming. There is a concept I like to promote called "sustainable farming".

A good farming Lib comes into a fight, wipes everything out, then gets paltry kills around a spawn room for awhile before moving on or being chased off with AA. It has a high burst catch rate, but it can't stick around in a sustainable fight very long. You'll get a lot of high KDR, but lower KpH. It's advantage is that it can come into and out of fights quickly... can roam the whole map looking for fights.

A good farming PC/PPA Mag comes into a fight, kills infantry, but not so quickly that they think they can't take the Mag down. So they keep coming at the Mag. Pulling HA's, LA's, etc... come running out trying to flank and take the Mag down. Maybe they do, maybe they don't... but during the fighting, infantry is dying, the PPA is chewing them up and spitting them out rapidly. The good drivers are able to find those elevated spots, get those honey holes and then when the infantry starts coming for ya... keep backing off... all the while picking off 2-3 infantry at a time. The infantry keep coming because they find it a challenge, but an obtainable challenge. Eventually, the Mag might make a mistake and the infantry get the kill, feel good about themselves and celebrate. Woo hoo... (after the Mag has double digit kill totals for both driver and gunner )

Infantry farming happens. The key is to give the infantry some entertainment in the process. Why did the Libs/Prowlers get so much hate at release? It wasn't that they were killing infantry so well... it was that they were killing infantry without said infantry being able to have any way to combat them. They got frustrated, then angry and the nerfbats were called for. There are people who are willing to die 5-6 times if they finally get that one satisfying kill. If they have no way of getting that kill, they'll either go away, or complain loudly.

You call that showcasing? That was terrible.

You hardly explained anything about the weapon itself, it's in's and out's, it's stats, useful tips/tricks. You basically said, "Okay, this weapon is great for Anti-Infantry. Now I'm going to spend the rest of the video talking about how I'm going to get flamed." It's one thing to go off topic for a bit, but you went on a full-blown tangent that on it's own, could have been it's own separate video.

It's a tank mounted weapon which is actually effective against infantry. An outlier I know.

Not OP, honestly the basilisk/kobalt/fury/marauder/C85/Bulldog could all do with some improving.

Yup, how about the fact that due to splash damage, its best to have elevated position over the infantry. Shooting up at infantry on a hilltop is useless because of the slow projectile speed and reliance on splash damage... whereas shooting at infantry in a valley or on a hillside is death incarnate to infantry.

The fact that the weapon does damage to ESFs (although slow projectile makes hitting them difficult), Harassers, Flashes... but its useless against Lightnings, MBTs, Libs and Gals and only serves to put a giant "shoot at me" sign on ya. (unless you consider blinding them with the orbs, useful... lol)

The fact that between slow projectile, splash and large clip size.. you should never stop shooting when you have plenty of targets to go around.

The fact that using it in conjunction with the PC or VPC's splash can increase AI killing potential as pre-damaged infantry by near-misses of the maingun can be cleaned up with the PPA.

The fact that due to projectile speed, you might as well use thermal for the weapon at all times, if you are shooting zoom-required distances, you not going to gain a lot via zoom (your just getting lucky or the targets are unaware and not moving... they can dodge the orbs at zoom-distances)


Any of these points could have been highlighted in about 10-20 seconds of footage and been more useful than the self-martyrdom that was given.

I'm using you as an example here.

It does make me smile to see both TR and NC defend a VS gun in this way.
Tanker solidarity?

I'm still a fan of that idea. I'm not actually seeing enough enemy MBTs to care about them anymore, it's everything else that kills me

But I'm not saying it's OP, I'm only showing what it can do and obviously you get upset
and seem to want to win a debate. I't's a normal reaction, I get it a lot so I brought it up.

I didn't want this forum flamed with a bounch of misinformation...again.
I guess you are worried this weapon should need a nerf? Also a very natural
reaction if you are VS and use the Magrider a lot.

PTND (post-tramatic nerfhammer disorder) -- shared by MBT drivers, Harasser drivers... meh... pretty much any vehicle user to be honest.

Honestly, there are raw nerves going around right now. The game state for Mag drivers (and MBT drivers in general) is in a pretty bad state at the moment. A few things have been tweaked for the better, but mostly its been $h!^ sandwich after $h!^ sandwich for the past year. Chokepoints, restricted terrain, AV weapons, more abundant air, G2A "deterrance" status, etc... have all pushed tank gameplay into the push forward against a massive zerg of other assets that are pushing forward to you playstyle. Flanking and spreading out are rewarded by being owned by things you cannot fight against. The Mag's strengths are to spread out and use flanking angles. They have a hard time going toe-to-toe with the increased DPS of Prowlers, or the strength of front armor/shield of vannies. So even things that don't appear to be direct nerfs to Mags have drastically attacked the effective playstyle of them.

As for the video:

A video "showcasing" the only good AI weapon on MBTs at the moment is looked at strangely due to its timing so soon after the nerf to the AV secondaries. Not only did you see it coming (which begs the question, why did you release the video then?), but spent a good deal of dialog in the video to directly addressing it. You also used inflammatory language calling the PPA insane, making a passive aggressive remark about rocket pods (salty much?) You did this all while not putting forth any tactics, suggestions, or constructive criticism.

So, yea... there is my flame. As you asked for. To me, the whole point of the video seemed to be to stir up said flaming and controversy and not to "showcase" the PPA like you said.

Meanwhile, I'm just sitting here looking at Matti's stat page and wondering why he objects to "farming" weapons.

Mister twenty-thousand-kills-with-lolpods.

Or is it only farming when someone besides you does it? I'm sure all of those rocketpod kills are the result of honorable duels between consenting skygods, and none of them have ever been fired at spawn rooms.

Nor did I claim that you did, only that you could save yourself the time and effort from making a second video.

Unlike a lot of other people, I have 0 interest in meatbag hunting, so my own PPA sees minimal use. Doesn't mean I won't be open to debate the merits of it.

As for the part where you're pity/flame-baiting, just don't even do it. You may feel like you have something to say on the matter, but make a dedicated video for it. At the very least. That way people who may want to learn about a weapon won't have to sit there listening to what has little to nothing to do with what's in the title.

Would you get as many views on a video where you talk about how you expect people to react, or complain about how people did react to you in the past? Probably not, which you could take as a hint that the vast majority of people really don't care. Or you make yourself look worse to them than you than you may (or may not) deserve to the point where they're less likely to return to your channel later.

You know that you have a less than perfect reputation. And videos like this one aren't helping you remedy that "problem". So instead of complaining about the state of things, maybe you should look into a different approach?

Usually I would chime in and offer well-reasoned arguments and give feedback as to the quality of the video.

You bad.

You just won't give it up will you?

Normally I would say ignorance is bliss but in your case not even that is true.
It's not about self pitty it's about avoiding flame like this. Wheather the community
think the weapon is performing to good, to bad or anything in between I think the
fotage shows enough for them to make up their own minds. I have no hope for you though,
you clearly have decided to devote your time to pointless flame.

Luckily, this time there have been a lot less of this nonsens compared to my HE, marauder
and fury videos et.c.

Will you?

To be fair, if you wanted to avoid flame you shouldn't put that kind of stuff in your video.
And if the footage itself is what you're providing to the debate, at least don't talk about some unrelated nonsense that only serves to distract from it. And if you wanted it to be more than just footage (using the weapon in game is of a lot more use than some video-only thing on YT) you could have discussed the pros and cons at length. But instead you took the time to talk about something else.

To be more precise:

• You say the weapon is good, ok, but you never really explain why? You may not have intended to do so, but that diminishes the value of your video by a lot (reducing it to a "oh look at me rocking with this weapon" kind of video).
• You mention the value of getting into a good position, but you don't even mention what this could mean. Sure, good players can draw something that is generally useful out of it, but the people that benefit the most from these kinds if videos aren't the good players; They already know about these things (hence why they're considered 'good'). Bad players that look at this video will see it being put to good use, but won't understand why, and not learn much because you're vague.
• The 3 PPA weapons are all different, although for the H-variant it's not so much the different functionality to the MBT one, but it's notably weaker in damage values. The L.PPA (scythe) does damage to heavy armour, something the two ground variants don't (they can only do AI and anti-light-armour).

As it stands, your video is about as useful as a montage. What it brings to the table is only apparent to the good players, who should already know this stuff. Even infantry-only players, especially those on the receiving end (the good ones) should have managed to piece together more mental notes than just "this weapon is good".

So I guess my question is this: What are you trying to accomplish with this video? I know some would say "YT views", but let's assume there's more than that. What point are you trying to make, if any?