[Video] The BEAST of the BIOLAB | an NC Max montage | Slug ammo discussion

The NC Max is fine as is. The people who constantly whine and complain on the forums about the NC Max being horrible, and the worst Max, simply don't want to adapt a different playstyle then the other Maxs. People dislike it becuase its unique, similar to the Magrider. The people who take the time to learn the different playstyle that the NC Max requires massively reap the benefits. The NC Max is by far the king of close quarters, as it should be, but the worst at range, as it should be. The Aegis sheild really helps with the NC Maxs play style since you can put it up during your long reloads, and absorb damage to back away or advance on targets out of your range.

TL;DR
The NC Max shouldn't get a medium range "Guass Saw" like weapon. The people who whine about the NC Max's effectiveness simply refuse to adapt to the different play style that the NC Max requires.

By "different playstyle" you mean "worse".

The NC AI MAX was fine when it actually had an advantage at 0-8m, but it doesn't really now.

NC max is effective at 0-8m....

Any max that allow to get as close of 20m have a little chat with my decimator.

That's the problem with NC MAX. AT 20 M you expose yourself to rocket launchers. 0-8 you WILL be C4ed.

You gotta wonder, did anyone here actually watch the video. He was killing stuff past that range at some points.

If you watched the video you saw that wasn't a playthrough, but as he said it was a MONTAGE.

Just because it "can" kill past 10 meters doesn't mean it's good at it.

"the accuracy with the slugs is quite random, you may hit, you may not, but when you hit you do massive damage. Sadly even with slugs the range you can engage is still limited, that's why i almost only pull it in biolabs."
You clearly didn't watch or payed attention to the fact that he was putting the times it actually worked together, without ever showing more then 10 seconds at time.

Just a little bit different of a video like that

or this

By "different play style" I meant "different play style". Sometimes I feel the biggest thing thats keep a lot of people on these forums from enjoying their equipment is their own negative bias towards it, refusing to learn to properly use it. So whenever they jump into an NC Max, they use it with the mindset that it sucks, and as a result, they suck with it because they aren't actually trying. I've done it myself. I only stopped when I realized it was simply my mindset that was killing my performance. You're the kind of forumsider who would go on a 50 kill streak with the NC Max and still come to the forums to whine and cry about it. Get over it. Learn to use your equipment. If you refuse too, thats your own fault, not SOE's.

That was before the Mercy nerf just so you know. And as I said in a previous post, you are letting your own biased attitude get in the way of enjoying your equipment.

You have NC character? if you do please post a video of 10 minutes of gameplay and show us how NC max is suppa.

Until then the biased here is you.

I will check if I can trial a second Scat again, then I will do. At the same time, ill be waiting for your VS with ZOE and TR Max videos.

Why do people keep saying the Mercy was nerfed? It's TtK is exactly the same, the reload time was increased by a tenth of a second and it's bullet velocity was increased 10% (or was it 20%?). At worst it spun in place. Having used it before and after, the only thing I would've noticed if it weren't for the patch notes was the increase in velocity.

Slugs suck ---. Sure they enable an NC MAX to occasionally pop a guy at 25m out, but they also turn the MAX's weapon into a completely randomized luck based pea shooter that will cause you to be non-sensically f---ed over more often than not because they simply cannot be trusted. Having to constantly go into crouch mode and yet still have to watch as the pellets go God knows where.

@1:08 in that video is a prime example. NC MAX goes from being the King of CQC to not even being able to hit a guy standing 5m away despite popping off 8+ shots.

Slugs are bad. The fact that they make you craptastic in MAX vs MAX fights makes them doubly so. Save your certs and avoid them.

IIRC, it traded those with a reduction of damage. It's 125 regardless of range where I believe it used to be 143 within 10 meters. I don't recall if it had a damage drop off that went below 125. While I've only got ~300 kills with my Mercies, I didn't notice that much of a difference.

Slugs may be somewhat like rolling the dice, but the odds are still better than the guaranteed uselessness you get from buckshot in 80% of combat scenarios.

Slugs are more accurate than people let on (the reticle is NOT the COF, more like the max COF if you're magdumping) but less accurate than they need to be if they're going to be our long range option.

Fact of the matter is that common pool CQC MAX arms are already planned, whereas longer range NC options aren't. The "you're a CQC specialist" doesn't hold much water when the option is going to be given to everybody.

It sucks compared to the TR and VS equiverlents (and it does, tell me where it doesn't by all means).

It can still kill things, this is unquestioned, just not as well as the TR or VS MAXs in the same situations.

So again "different playstyle" in this context means "worse".

Slugs are basically the same as TR/VS AI weapons, only they have a tiny clip, huge reload and massive CoF, supposedly offset by high damage per shot.

Whilst they are certainly the least worst options in a lot of situations (for NC) they aren't better than the TR/VS options.



This will be shown beyond question if they ever bring in NS long range AI weapon arms IMO, because most NC AI MAXs will be using them most of the time (where as VS/TR will not need to bother).

Ironically I think NC AI MAXs might even have the higher uptake of Flamers (if they ever get them in) too.

Yeah, it is the least worst option we have. This is true.

But I'd rather use the least-worst mid-range option and have more engagement options from outside C4 brick range than play into TR/VS hands and only pull MAXes in biolabs. Because they got shotgunned once and that means NC MAXes should only be good in up to 3 bases per continent

And if they ever add NS machinegun arms (and I doubt they will, they're really only interesting to 1 empire out of 3) of course I'll own them.

It is however more likely they'll never add them, or add flamethrowers first, which will be of interest to at least 2 empires and possibly all 3 if flamethrowers don't have the crippling magazine size and reserve ammo limitations of shotguns.

Yes it does. Apart from anything else, one thing I find particularly advantageous is that I can keep from getting C4'd far more easily than I can when I use a TR Max (that particular 'gap' is much narrower between NC and ZoE VS now though). The ability to instagib should not be underestimated.

I will say though, that the majority of my own Max usage is indoors anyway. So maybe that's why I still prefer my NC Max, even after the nerfs. I can see why others, who prefer to use in a wider variety of ways, would prefer more effectiveness at range, but personally I wouldn't want better ranged ability at the expense of what we currently have. Better ranged ability plus the short range power we already have would be too OP (a bit like ZoE, but with no downside at all!).

Then you're using the wrong weapons.

The infantry TTK difference between the best TTK NC AI weapon and the best TTK TR weapons is 0.3 seconds (with lag, human reaction time and most importantly clientside hit detection this is the functionally the same).

What's more the TR MAX sustains that TTK out to further distances.

What's even more more is that NC AI MAXs have always died the most statistically (they just use to kill a lot too), most likely because it's easier to get into C4 range with them in the first place.

TR (and VS) have a choice of weapons from TTK to long range accuracy, the big problem is the most accurate still have ridculously low TTKs at 0m.

It's also very rewarding when you get a double slug headshot on some guy 20m away that thought he was safely out of range.

The problem is that's the Gamblers fallacy.

You remember those and forget all the times you hit nothing.