Faction Defection

[Khrusky]

Essentially, I'm considering changing factions from my PS1 one and I was wondering if anyone else was in the same boat. PS1 players remaining loyal ought not to post as I'm sure they are in the majority here. I'd also be interested in hearing from any new players that are as yet undecided and are vacillating on their eventual faction selection.


I played Vanu in the original PlanetSide, mainly because they had much more tactical flexibility than the other factions. Their MAXes could use jump-jets, their tanks and jeeps could travel over water, and they had a simplified system for swapping their weapons between anti-armour and anti-infantry modes. I also felt that they looked the most interesting as they were clearly a human military but with an alien twist.

However, in PlanetSide 2 the AV/AAr switching has been removed, and the jump-jets have been outsourced to the light assault class. The increased draw distance has also made the magrider's hovering over water less useful in bridge battles as I'm pretty sure you'll now be a much bigger target than when you could emerge out of the fog.
I'm also not a fan of some crucial art design decisions for the new Vanu, particularly the Magrider and the Scythe. I also don't think the MAX is as cool as the other factions', but I could live with that.

My essential dilemma is that the Vanu still have the best looking basic infantry in the game, and a tactical advantage in the amphibious nature of the Magrider, but their aircraft just looks not aerodynamic enough, the Magrider looks a bit too ineffective without the turret, and they've lost a lot of their key combat advantages. (I'm unintersted in the relative combat differences of bullet-drop, RoF, individual hit damage, etc. as I like the strategy of the game more than the immediate tactics, and I could get used to any particular style).

I'm thinking of going TR as I really would rather not look like the paramilitary wing of Ryanair, and the Mosquito and Prowler look a lot better this time around.

I would like to hear any analysis of the factions that other people have done, particularly where the relative merits seem to be close for the factions they are torn between.