AA maxs

[Peacemaker]

Ok so im a pilot. The tracking missles of the VS and NC are the scourge of my life. The VS I can loose in a sinch. I just learned how to advoid NC fire with ease. Now heres the issue. THEY NERFED THE GOD DAMN BURSTER. The god damn thing does not track, cant hit a moving target, cant kill infantry up close. The only thing the Burster had going for it was that it could spam an infantry man hiding behind a tree at long range. Thats a perfectly good trade off for the other AA maxs which can wipe an infantry out at any range with 6 near hits. Besides it fucking flack! Tiny pieces of shrapnel sailing through the air at high velocities should be ripping an infantry man to pieces. WTF!? I think the devs need to think about this one a little.

[dscytherulez]

Indeed. Before the burster was my favorite max because it wasnt the BEST AA, but it was totally universal enough to make up for it. Now...its just gonna suck. I'm so pissed.

[Lithpope]

Dunno, I have an alt with Uni-MAX and all I really ever shot with it was aircraft anyway and maybe a couple MAX suits. Never bothered with infantry, more effort than it was worth and a waste of my ammo. If you think about it in the long run it is probably saving Burster MAX driver's lives. With the Decimator going to AV there is going to be a LOT more AV floating around and at range AV owns MAXs. Besides, any anchored MAX is gonna be bait for AV now, if the Devs insist on TR MAXs keeping anchoring as a "special" ability they could at least make it an instant ability like other Empire MAXs and NOT "slightly faster." Screw that make it INSTANT. :mad:

[Rayder]

slightly faster for unanchoring.

[Cauldron Borne]

What??!?! They Are Moving Deci To Av?!?!?!? What A Load Of Bull!

[HawkEye]

that besid the point in this thread.

[MilitantB0B]

Ok so im a pilot. The tracking missles of the VS and NC are the scourge of my life. The VS I can loose in a sinch. I just learned how to advoid NC fire with ease. Now heres the issue. THEY NERFED THE GOD DAMN BURSTER. The god damn thing does not track, cant hit a moving target, cant kill infantry up close. The only thing the Burster had going for it was that it could spam an infantry man hiding behind a tree at long range. Thats a perfectly good trade off for the other AA maxs which can wipe an infantry out at any range with 6 near hits. Besides it fucking flack! Tiny pieces of shrapnel sailing through the air at high velocities should be ripping an infantry man to pieces. WTF!? I think the devs need to think about this one a little.
Realism isn't the key here or a sing decimator would kill infantry and death would be permenant. The object of the game is fun and balance, therefore, even though a AA gun would proably kill infintry in real life, it doesn't in the game, for the same reason that an Anti Tank weapon would kill a soldier in one hit but doesn't in PS.

[Peacemaker]

Thats not my point, im saying why the hell does ours get nerfed against infantry and theirs does not? Thats the STUPIDIST thing ive ever heard.

[Vick]

Because NC and VS AA MAXs are not super long range infantry spamming MAXs like the burster??

Edit: Burster is good AA, especially if you can lead with it, and TR also have the striker which is very nice versus air craft also.

[Peacemaker]

They can still do it with a little luck. They trade off the ability to shoot really far at infantry to the ability to kill them at short and medium which is where they pose the threat.

[Madcow]

They nerfed the ginormous splash damage, you can still damage them by hitting them directly. Saying that the Starfire is good against infantry is laughable, you'd have to be a retarded amputee to not be able to avoid those slow shots even in a confined area. The Sparrow is a little better because it has some splash (nothing like the Burster splash has been) but the Sparrow is also worse than the Starfire at AA. The Burster was fun to use as a spam machine, but it was also bordering on being more effective on the ground than in the air. It needed some tweaking, and I say that as a guy with the cert on both his TR characters.

Plus, the other 2 TR MAXs are on the verge of getting some attention, and we have no idea how that will work out. If their AV and AI improve, why should their AA stay the same?

[Jagd]

Starfire rips through infantry, I prefer it for indoor fights over the Comet. Obviously, the Quasar is still the king in general though.

I'm pretty happy with this burster change, and it seems to me that if there hadn't been so many llamas out there spamming spawn rooms and racking up insane grief with the Burster, they never would have bothered with the change.

[Veteran]

I hope when the AI DC rolls out, it makes up for this. TR MAXs getting a nerf while VS MAXs get a buff (COF during jump) seems somehow cruel.

[Madcow]

Starfire rips through infantry, I prefer it for indoor fights over the Comet. Obviously, the Quasar is still the king in general though.


Wild. My experience has been vastly different, Comet has a larger projectile and seems to have a larger splash. Comet also has the bonus of chewing up other MAXs you might encounter in confined spaces. I rip through aircraft with the Starfire (for a long while I had more Reaver kills than agile kills) but I've not found it to be much use in AI situations when I've been forced to use it.

[Jagd]

I think it might be the comet's delay before firing that threw me off. Yes, the Starfire orbs travel more slowly, but I find it easier to lead targets accurately when there is no spin up time. Same reason I can't stand the lancer.

[2mthsTheSniper]

I'd really love to follow this conversation and comment on it but I just don't know what the different MAX's \ Weapons are called :-(

Still I've read it twice and will try to post something half meaningful.

RED (TR?) MAX
AA - Actually quite useful against aircraft - The first one I tried (by accident) which made me get UniMAX to try the others. Some occasional use agains Infantory but not really in my experiance.
AV - Totally pants. The only thing it's good for is making lots of bullet holes on the wall of towers. Never managed to kill a vehicle with it, even anchored and many reloads.
AI - Ok when anchored but otherwise rather run of the mill. 2 inf against 1 MAX and I think the max is dead. Good for getting grief. I'm still loosing the 1000+ I racked up without realising it. The 30min weapons lock was a shock (and a pain).

Summary - I'm going to lose the UniMAX but might get AA MAX again - Though I think this thread is saying that it's goind to get worse (is that what nerf means?) so maybe I won't bother. Have to say of late driving an ANT gets me more XP than a MAX.

[Jagd]

The Dual-Cycler (currently Anti-Vehicle) is far and away my favourite TR MAX, so I think it has a lot to do with personal preference and if you have some luck initially with a cert. You can get owned quickly by infantry in any MAX if you let them flank you, but I tend to put my back against a wall and hold my ground, rather than circle strafe around a guy who can pivot and sprint twice as fast as me. A dual-cycler in a spawn room tends to make the badguys pee their pants.

[gonnagetyou]

If you grab an AA MAX you should be focusing on using it just for that. I use the Burster for both my TR alts and I get pissed everytime I see some idiot shooting infantry with it instead of all the Reavers and Mosquitos flying over head ripping us apart. I don't waste ammo on infantry. If I see infantry getting too close I move away and let the tanks and other infantry deal with it. Otherwise you typically wind up doing just as much damage to friendlies as you do to the enemy with all that splash damage. The Burster will still be a great MAX for killing aircraft and the fact that you have to directly hit anything else will be no different than the Starfire.

I use the Starfire and Sparrow a lot when I'm VS or NC. My tactics are the same. I focus on aircraft which is what they do best.

[Acaila]

I like anything which makes Burster MAXs point at the air and not fucking come inside bases, they hurt their own troops almost as much as the enemy. This is from a TR point of view.

[Jagd]

I concur. I almost popped a deci into Burster once for being so reckless. Then I realized we had already lost 5 friendlies, and losing 1 more could cost us the tower.

[KIAsan]

If you grab an AA MAX you should be focusing on using it just for that. I use the Burster for both my TR alts and I get pissed everytime I see some idiot shooting infantry with it instead of all the Reavers and Mosquitos flying over head ripping us apart. I don't waste ammo on infantry. If I see infantry getting too close I move away and let the tanks and other infantry deal with it. Otherwise you typically wind up doing just as much damage to friendlies as you do to the enemy with all that splash damage. The Burster will still be a great MAX for killing aircraft and the fact that you have to directly hit anything else will be no different than the Starfire.

I use the Starfire and Sparrow a lot when I'm VS or NC. My tactics are the same. I focus on aircraft which is what they do best.

I've certed all three (in my different alts). I agree the flack explosions on the ground were too powerful (I could chew infantry up at a great distance). However, the fact that the flack shells arm after traveling a bit, caused this to be balanced. You could spam infantry, but if they got too close, you couldn't touch them. This is not the same with both the starfire and sparrow. Each of these are quite effective with infantry at close range.

So, I don't mind elimination of the flack burst at ground level, but make sure it's accompanied by instantly armed flack shells (so they can direct hit an infantry at very close range). Other wise, they are creating a max that is completley helpless without somekind of troop support.

[Furluge]

Not to mention that it's extreme range buff which is it's bonus for not being able to track, isn't very useful due to slow projectile speed.

[Candle]

the VS MAXs are like this:
starfire (AA): no splash damage at all, you need to hit them directly, hence it homes in on aircraft.
Comet (AV): quite a lot of splash damage, definatly my preferance for indoor battles when I can't get my Quasar (normally after some b*****d with a deci blows me to smitherines (sp?) just after I've left the spawn room :() it is also my preferance for when I'm outside, as I find I can hit low flying aircraft with it and obliterate them from the sky :D
Quasar (AI): easily the best, as the alt-fire can take down an nme MAX with relative ease (except nme AV MAXs) the only problem is that it chews through ammo too quickly - maybe make it use the 3x3 green ammo, yo know VS vircility (sp!) and all that.

the COF improvement will rock!

[JakeLogan]

No the quasar is good enough, It doesn't need this cof buff I mean come on several hundred pounds of metal flying through the air and you expect have good aim? To tell you the truth I think they should be nerfed so they can't fire when airborne. (all VS MAXs) But then again that would stir up to much shit so I'm not going there. hey candle I'm not sure but I think your about to get owned by sig bot. (just warning you)

[Madcow]

The Quasar could use an ammo change, that thing chews up ammo faster than any of the other MAXs at least in my experience. It cracks me up to see people saying things like they got annoyed seeing people 'waste ammo' with the Burster by firing it at infantry, as if running out of Burster ammo is easy to do. As a matter of fact, running out of ammo with any AA MAX is quite a feat. One night I was in a hilly area and had taken out 20 or so Reavers and a few Mossies without dying in my Starfire. I looked down and had over half my ammo left.

[JakeLogan]

I've run out of ammo several times in my burster its actually easier then you think.

[Jagd]

Quasar definitely has the biggest ammo problems of all the MAX units, however it also seems to be the most effective at killing things so it really shouldn't get any increases. Using the secondary mode is a surefire way to run out of ammo, but since it's the only AI MAX that can actually kick out significant armor-piercing damage, its totally worth the trade-off.

[DarkSeraphim]

It cracks me up to see people saying things like they got annoyed seeing people 'waste ammo' with the Burster by firing it at infantry, as if running out of Burster ammo is easy to do. As a matter of fact, running out of ammo with any AA MAX is quite a feat. One night I was in a hilly area and had taken out 20 or so Reavers and a few Mossies without dying in my Starfire. I looked down and had over half my ammo left.

I imagine you did - you have a lock on target capable aa max. TR does not - we have to actually aim and lead with our maxes. And short of a no lag and perfect aiming situation - you do miss alot. I've had to reload mine several times during a base defense.

And in response to whoever made the comment about our av missles being effective against planes - well its not too effective on lib's at the ceiling because they dont make it there. And I've dumped 3 reloads into a lib before and not brought it down - not real effective imo.

[Jagd]

I think he means emptying the entire backpack of all ammo, not just needing a reload cause the clip is spent. In my experience, this is very rare for any of the AA MAXes. The Dual-Cycler can be pretty good against aircraft too, as long as they're stationary. Get up to the top floor of a tower, and clamp down in the doorway when you see one of the Reaver spam cadets start shooting at infantry on the ground, unless they are very quick to react and get out of your line of sight, you will take them down them in short order. Of course, clamping down outdoors is a very risky proposition, especially with enemy aircraft in the area.

[Queensidecastle]

I dont think I have ever run out of ammo in a Sparrow MAX, but in a Quasar you could run out of ammo in less than a minute. Also I found it extremely annoying watching Bursters constantly shooting at stuff that was not airborne. I am glad Sony nerfed that spam attack and with the fantastic changes coming to the other 2 MAX suits, people dont have anything to complain about

[Madcow]

I imagine you did - you have a lock on target capable aa max. TR does not - we have to actually aim and lead with our maxes. And short of a no lag and perfect aiming situation - you do miss alot. I've had to reload mine several times during a base defense.

News flash: the lock is easily slipped by pilots who know what they're doing. Downing 20+ aircraft doesn't take only 160 shots, there are plenty of people who slip the lock. It's not fire and forget, you take your 8 shots and pray that they all make it to the target because in most cases all 8 are needed to take them out. You can't reload and you just have to hope the pilot is too braindead to get out in time. It's easier than the Burster, for sure, but I also find the Burster to be easier to use than the Sparrow. Even missing in a Burster often times does damage due to the flak, I've used it plenty with good success.

[Peacemaker]

Yea loosing the tracking missles for both MAX's is childs play. The ONLY issue im arguing about here is the fact that TR maxs got nerfed against infantry and the other two are still deadly to them.

[Angel_of_Death]

Saying the Starfire and Sparrow are deadly to infantry is like saying it's safe to jump in front of oncoming traffic. I had both AA MAX certs, and they are both amazing at AA, true, but are useless against infantry.

[Peacemaker]

Then you were a bad shot man, they can take down an infantry man with some difficulty. (the NC one ALOT better than the vanu one)

[Jagd]

AA MAXes are only really good against infantry at close range. They just have too huge of a CoF, and too slow travelling speed when not locked-on to be effective anywhere else. Try strapping on the MAX for a base defense and stay inside, they do the job quite nicely.