ZOE Isn't Gamebreaking, It's UP.

Basically because the VS never pulled maxes before this patch. Now they got a new shiny toy whereas the NC as had insane maxes since beta and are good with theirs.

The downside with ZOE is quite clear, autoshotties melt through them almost as well as NC maxes melt through a platoon in biolabs.

That comparison makes no sense whatsoever. Since whether a food is poisonous is a physical fact, it doesn't really matter what doctors' opinion of it is, it will always be poisonous.

Contrast that to game balance, which, unlike poisonous food, is completely subjective. Game balance is built from opinion and doesn't have an inherent state like a physical object does. Since balance is derived from opinion, and no single person can be trusted with an absolute opinion, consensus is used. Consensus being the average of a large pool of opinions. If most say something is OP, it probably is. If most say something is UP, it probably is. Mind you, we have to account the silent majority when gauging the vocal minority's opinion, as well as who benefits from the state of the game balance. If half the community says OP and half says UP, then obviously the consensus is balanced since the OP-ers only see the benefits while the UP-ers only see the downsides.

Definitely not under powered. but ridiculous when 5 of them rush a point.

Obviously the Vanu Maxes have reached true enlightenment.

Truly inspirational for us all.

Five maxes rushing a point with charge was ridiculous before, why should that change? Try facing a NC line of maxes and see whats actually OP, at least we don't have shotguns when we get close.

You tested that in VR. Good, now roll a TR / NC character, get on the battlefield and give it a try on the other side.

I'm not one of those who cries for a nerf all the time, but devs had been warned on Test Server forum at least 10 days ago: ZOE was not ready to hit live server. And it's now the best infantry unit of the game: it's fast, it's powerful, and ZOE can be toggeled off at will giving players back the traditional Max resistence. Unless the other Max Units the VS is versatile and still very good for aggressive gameplay.
That's my only complaint about GU09 so far, it has be tweaked exactly like players have been asking on Test Server forum: the ability needs a cooldown.
Btw what's the purpose of a test server if devs ignore the feedback?!

It being OP has nothing to do with its damage.

This thread is so full of weird tales and made up logic it hurts my brains.

My +5 zoe max feels really weak, i might notice a slight difference when biolabing in the chaos cause sometimes i get kills i dont feel i mightve gotten before. But in no way is this overpowered, i run about as fast as i did before with the normal shift-sprinting. But running with blue****s really defeats the whole purpose of having machineguns with good aim.

It's nice to have, but in no way will i use it always. mostly just for sprinting between points, cause as soon as someone is returning fire you lose out on using it cause timetodie is greater than what you gain from ttk...

The most interesting change ive noticed is the shotgunmaxes with that shield. its crazy seeing them slowly walking towards you and you know they will be in 2-shot-kill range before you even get the shield down. id easily trade my zoe for shotguns and shield hands down. that is awesome so grats for that

VS got an ability to effectively max crash bases while TR/NC got abilities to effectively get c4ed
Sounds balanced...

No. Bad. It needs to get the movment speed tweak slightly downwards but on a cooldown it's just a worse version of Charge.

I couldn't agree more, the VS max has always been underpowered compared to NC and TR and this mediocre ZOE ability has only increased the gap. Please buff ZOE or maybe I just need to re-roll to a scat max and snipe people 150 meters away!

The NC and TR would really have something to cry about if the ZOE mod was never nerfed when it was on the test server.

I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at anyone who thinks that ZOE damage is the problem in all of this. The problem, as many others have already stated, is actually the foot speed increase that ZOE grants the user, and the versatility and adaptability that increase provides them. Besides the warping it causes, the user is able to consistently maneuver as if they were a foot soldier, sliding in and out of combat at will without the drawback of a cool down of any sort. Meanwhile, TR lose all mobility and NC have 3/4s of their body completely exposed without the benefit of an escape tool.

I guess I'm just completely confused why the devs thought a damage AND foot speed increase were both needed in the same ability. Really, all this has done is convince me I need to play my VS for the time being until the devs give this situation some serious thought.

only difference i see from the VS now is that their maxes glow purple...and the shot beams are wider...thats about it...

The Phoenix should never have been sold as an AV weapon. I agree that the Phoenix was a huge mistake. This was corrected within the week.
The Vortek and Lancer were always supposed to be 100% AV and 0% AI. That's how they get away with being so much better at AV. Apparently the only part they didn't account for is how OP they needed to be to offset the 0% AI. They were buffed quickly.
For both of these, and other balance issues in the past, the NC items are corrected downward almost instantly. The VS items, exemplified by the Magrider, are all used much longer in an over-powered state. Correcting under powered items is similar for both.