Vortex's buffed

• VS MAX Vortex balance tweaks have been made:
  • Increase damage fall off start range by 100 meters (300-400)
  • Increased charge 1 damage from 85 to 105
  • Increased charge 2 damage from 200 to 245
  • Increased charge 3 damage from 415 to 490

Viable now? I've heard that the VS MAX AV weapons wont receive a damage boost from the ZOE, so that seems like kind of a deal breaker.

Still won't convince anyone to use them. The whole point of using the Lancer was so you can ADS and snipe vehicles with it. You can't ADS with a MAX so the accuracy and thus range of the MAX Vortex is very limited. You are better off using Comet for better dps at hipfire range imo.

Isn't the zoom only about x1.5 anyway?

Or does the Vortex suffer from a cone of fire?

My lifelong dream of being a high heeled metal gunslinger is almost complete!

Now if only there was a lipstick camo option!

They're still ****. On the brightside you can instagib an infiltrator now if you land both shots. Yay. Everyone else got AV MAX Weapons, we got another sniper

Both reasons.
When your target is only a few pixels wide on your screen, any zoom is far better than no zoom.
Vortex does have a nonzero COF even when crouched, which makes hitting targets at the long ranges the weapon was designed for even more difficult.

Still complete crap, the dmg changes nothing, they are still the least accurate and still the weakest DPS.

Won't receive a damage boost from ZoE? Is that official?

It's still ******* ****. It's a monotonous charge up effect, with lazy *** design that very few wanted. Still not going to buy it, urge everyone else not to buy it so they get the message and not give us yet another charge up weapon like, oh, I don't know, pistols.

So hey, if it won't work with ZoE, does that mean fracture won't work with lock down? Or is it fine for one that already does more DPS (Not sure on new numbers but would expect them to still) and gain from a special ability, while it isn't for another. Also, don't ZoE increase damage taken? Unlike lock down, and yes, you're a "sitting duck" but max's aren't bad for tanking damage anyway.

Just as a note, vortex, like lancers, deal double damage to vehicles. The values listed are the AI values.
At an AI value of 105, that gives an AV value of 210.

The AV dps of uncharged Vortex is now 420. Or 447.1 if you you take advantage of the short refire by shooting 11 shots and reloading. Commets do 352 dps.

If someone can tell me what the charge times are I can fill them into my spreadsheet and pump out the dps of assorted charge levels as well.

this puts the uncharged vortex as the number 2 highest DPS AV weapon for the max, right behind pounders 425 dps. Though using short reload will put the uncharged vortex at the number 1 position.

Good, it was just sad.

Will have to try this out tonight. In my earlier tests I concluded the comet was superior, with the vortex having a niche at extreme long range vehicle sniping. Hardly worth spending 1400 SC for. Things might be different now.

Dont have spreadsheet numbers yet, but its teh same problem. It is still significant worse than commets and fracture. eg, flash still takes 2x full charged shots (aka 2 shots with left arm and 2 shots with right arm) and a single click to kill a flash. And you can't peak shoot like TR and NC can, and if you spray liek a madman you won't hit anything. And lastly still has the worst design of any MAX weapon yet.

sense when did a flash have 4000 effective hp to AV weapons?

Nevermind, now it takes 1 maxed and 1 single shot.

Still won't buy them. I already have a Lancer and won't buy one that has no ADS and is on a platform that costs resources and has a cooldown, no thanks (not to mention slower and a bigger target for the "shoot me arrows" you draw in the sky). I'm happier using HA.

Still crap guns, no VS wanted another charge up gun. I'm impressed they didn't just make the Saron a charge weapon seeing as thats apparently the VS faction trait.

No, the Comet is still better.

• Light assault (for comparison, I know it is an AV weapon)
  • Comet: 2 hit kill a light (approximately 1.5 seconds with 1 gun)
  • Vortex: 4 charged shots to kill a light (approximately 16 seconds with 1 gun)
• NC Max
  • Comet: 8 hits (approximately 10 seconds with 1 gun)
  • Vortex (charged shot): 5 charged shots (approximately 22 seconds with 1 gun)
  • Vortex rapid fire (no charging) 20 shots That's 4 shots short of 1 full clip while using 2 guns

If the Vortex had a zoom, then at least it would be as useful as the Lancer, but it doesn't. I don't know if it is that the Vortex isn't good enough it is that the Comet is so good. When the Comet was slow and harder to predict I would have taken the Vortex in a heartbeat, but now the Comet is good. Unfortunately, the new NC and TR weapons are much closer analogs to the Comet, which puts the VS max right back at the bottom of the heap.
I didn't experience it myself, but I was hearing squadmates talking about being one-hit-killed by NC and TR maxes with dual ES max AV launchers. Since the vortex borrows the lancer's tickling nature to infantry, it is effectively useless against infantry.
So at long range, lack of zoom makes it a much worse choice than a heavy with a Lancer. At medium range, enemy maxes have rough parity, and at close range, you are still going to be shredded by a scatmax. The only place the vortex is a little better is for popshotting in medium to close range. That is, if you can keep the at that distance. Mercys and Scatmaxes will eat you alive in most cases, however. That and you will have to buy dual vortexes to still suck, where as you only have to buy 1 comet to be ready to dual wield.
Vortex Version 2, as of May 9th: NO

1.5x makes a big difference, but I think it might be slightly more. The Vortex does not really have a COF. However the Comet's COF is so small now that it is effectively a sniper weapon up to a few hundred meters.

With my Lancer I can pick off fast-moving lightnings and harassers at about 400-500 meters. Harder with the Comet but still doable. The Vortex would be slightly easier than the Comet and harder than the Lancer, but the drawbacks of the Vortex (crappy infantry damage, no charge hold time, and price of buying them) means the Lancer and the Comet are much better AV options.

STILL completely useless - especially compared to the solutions which TR / NC received as equivalants.

Will still got a completely useless single target weapon with massive DMG drop due to a 3 second charge up which still causes the guns to do less dmg than a single rocket from the raven (while during the charge up of the Vortex, the NC Raven already fired 2 projectiles making it 900 AOE DMG instead of useless cheap 490 dmg from the vortex)

FURTHERMORE -

THE TR FRACTURE AND NC RAVEN DO AOE DMG - KILLING INFANTRY WITH 2 PROJECTILES!!!

You can kill a whole team of enemies in a room with the massive AOE dmg which the Fracture and RAVEN do to infantry soldiers.

Again a complete betrayal of paying and subscribing Vanu players from side of the Game lead design at SOE.

BUT who would have guessed it in advance - SOE decision makers and Lead designers play NC / TR exclusively.

The amount of time you have to stand out in the open is tremendous to kill anything with armor. I find it much easier to pop out, fire off 2 then 2 of comet, and get back in cover (first one arm, then the other). A vortex can be pop shot too, but with no charge hold time it is much tricker.

So even though it does more damage, the drawbacks don't make it worth it to me. Just the inability to significantly damage infantry alone makes it a weapon to only use with a significant crew running with you, and at that point you are better off with a pack of lancer users.

The Vortex needs a zoom mode to be competitive with other MAX / HA heavy weapons. I don't see it working any other way, because simple buffing its damage will start unbalancing it in some other aspect.