What to buy first in Planetside

second burster max arm.

Hrmm, Lets see. It will really depend of what class you want to play the most but a general list good for most situations would probably be this:

Second burster arm.

Av turret.

Automatic shotgun.

Sunderer bundle that has the walker/ranger and bulldog/fury.

Pandora with extended magazine as the autoshottys are still more useful than the pump actions or semi autos.

I trialed the pa when they were considered op and whilst the ohk facemelt is nice there is something to be said about having 10 rapid fire facemelts in a row between reloads.

Plus with slugs and a 4x scope its a pretty decent mid range sniper.

HEAT gun for the lightning.

Just trust me on this one.

High RoF Carbine or shotgun for infantry
Rocketpods for ESF or AMS for Sunderer (free XP/Certs if you put it in a good spot)

<3 pulse

2nd Burster
>or
new dual AV arms if either NC or TR

reroll if VS.

With certs? Anything 10 certs or less that fills an otherwise empty slot on a class or vehicle loadout, as having anything equipped is better than nothing equipped.

With Station Cash? A second Burster arm is never misspent. Most vehicle weapons that replace a Drake/Basilisk will make one happier. Rocket pods add a lot of oomph to the already good fighter craft, and only replace the extended afterburner tanks.

Don't forget cosmetics, either. You want people to remember you when they see you on their death screen.

When I started PS2, I went directly for the Medic Tool levels, and it has not failed me.

I have roughly half as many kills as my HA friend, but am pretty close to him in level because healing and rezzing is ridiculously good XP. I intend to grab Engi support stuff next, and then I'll kit out a HA of my own.

Shotgun is super situational. I'd hardly call it essential.

Second burster arm.
ENG AV turret.

Stock primary weapons are fine.

If your mean certs.. AMS for sunderer.

Personally, I like the Pandora for it's fast reload and tight spread. It has fewer shells though. Get extended mags and you'll have 10 shells, it's base is 6. If anyone wants a good over view of shotguns though, I suggest looking up Wrel on Youtube. Here...

What I suggest for most people is...

Go medic, cert your healing gun as much as you can, max if you can, and you'll make your certs for other things fast. Anyway...

It really depends on what you want to be. If you're VS... I'd say invest in Carbines first. I think it's the VX6? That's the best close quarters carbine we have next to the serpent. The reason I'd say pick up some carbines is because they are useful across two classes that are a lot of fun [to me.] Pulsar C is good if you want range.

If you want to go sniper, invest in a parallax. If you want to be more infiltratorish, look into picking up one of the SMG's. I prefer the Eridani, because I like to pretend I can hit things and want more power. The other one is just as good with less power but more bullets to throw out in a clip. Choose based on your play style.

If you're more keen on heavy? The orion is pretty awesome. Stick with it and pick up a rocket launcher. I honestly absolutely love the Lancer. Though if you see yourself doing more CQC with vehicles, then you probably want the decimator. Again it's completely a style choice. Later in your career as a heavy you might want to consider the SV8.

If you're keen on being a medic, there's a lot of good choices out there. I use the Equinox because I like the fast reload rate.

People say "Rocket Pods" but it's a myth. Once upon a time they were pretty OP and easy mode, but they've been balanced for a while now. You can't kill droves of infantry as the radius has been reduced a lot, and tank armor received a buff to help them deal with pods as well. For a new player though, I'd honestly recommend staying away from Air anyway. I think the Tank is the best vehicle to use as a new player anyhow. Easiest learning curve and you're not so fragile.

Infantry player? Most of the guns are side-grades, I would go for the second burster arm for the MAX.

Tank player? Stick with the HEAT rounds on the MBT for now and either get the HEAT or the AP cannon for the lightning.

Air pilot? If you want to do A2G, get rocket pods. If you want to help your team clear the skies, get A2A missile pods.

Agreed here, I use the **** out of my Commissioner.

As far as certs go:

1. Buy 1-point suit options for each class and all the 1-point vehicle weapon options and equip them.
2. AMS option for Sunderer.
3. IRNV sights for every primary class weapon that will take them.

I think the first thing I ever bought with SC was the Flash Bundle...

I just tried the Pandora in VR training..
I'm baffled really. At close range it is near instant death, slightly slower then one hit kill.
I just now understand all the comments about shotguns.

I always knew SOE is bad at balancing weapons, (I played Planetside and Star Wars Galaxies) but this really opened my eyes they really have no clue what the hell they are doing.

The only downside is that when you move around, some shots just don't register/hit. Which is negated by the extended magazine..

You mention carbines for close range, why bother with a carbine if you can get a shotgun?

Edit.
I just tried slugs. Same ttk at very close range it seems but better at slightly further away.
Am I correct in assuming slugs is a pure upgrade?

My best purchase was the SMG, by far.

Not necessarily. When you equip slugs you sacrifice having the "spread" effect that comes to mind when you think of how a typical shotgun works, and instead it is like you are firing a colonial musket with a heavy iron ball stuffed inside. You have a single projectile which is still bound by cone of fire, and its damage is less than if every pellet of buckshot hits. If the slug misses then obviously no damage is done, so you need to be more selective with your shots.

For pump actions, the slug completely negates the one hit kill effect at every range, but instead gives you a longer effective range and a 1 hit headshot kill without nanoweave. For the semi auto/automatic shotguns it matters less which you choose because you are not affecting the shots to kill in most situations except you still get the benefit of longer range effectiveness, although the semi auto/automatic shotties do have higher slug cone of fire than the pumps.

Xp boost.

The $20 dollar Vehicle Starter bundle is a good choice in my opinion. It gives you a lot of options and can allow you to spend your hard earned certs on things that money can't buy (directly). Also, besides being a fairly good deal, it also gives you some unlimited-use vehicle camos that will be a welcome break from the faction default.

Vehicle Starter bundle includes:

-Flash Basilisk
-Galaxy Walker
-Sunderer Bulldog
-Lightning Anti-infantry cannon
-Liberator Zephyr
-ESF Rocket Pods
-MBT Anti-infantry main cannon
-2x Vehicle Camo (unlimited)

sunderer horn, single most op thing in the game.

I disagree. The Harasser horn, at least the driver can participate in the harassment.