My thoughs on ZOE

[Badjuju]

As a TR player, ZOE is not OP in my opinion. The damage increase is a direct trade off for the decreased in durability. Yes they put out a ton of damage, but you can also burn them down quickly. It is the speed increase which really makes the ZOE shine, and provides a legitimate trade off for giving up sprint. This is something I cannot say for any other ability, which I believe is the problem.

The NC shield is ok. There is some tactical use to it but I can't justify giving up sprint for it. Maxes biggest vulnerability are their lack of mobility. Because of this, sprint is an incredible defensive ability which you are gauranteed to find a use for in any fight. Whether you took an unexpected rocket, over extended, or your getting the call out for a pesky LA hovering above you, it will save your hide time and time again. It also is a very strong offensive tool for NC, allowing you to instantly close a gap and dish out the pain.

I think we all can agree that lock down is laughable as predicted. It compounds a maxes biggest weekness and leaves them begging to be dismembered by any method the attacker chooses. It doesn't matter how much damage you do when you can't escape the death constantly being hurled at your face. I actually had a similar idea to evil pig here. Instead of lock down it may be interesting to play with an ability which gave the TR max a several second drastic increase in ROF which cannot be stopped once activated. If necessary maybe slow the max during the process or slow it during a spool up (which would be loud to give it away) and have it briefly stop to brace itself at the peak of the burst to add a timing element. Just an idea that sounds more useful and fun than lock down. Back on track, the issue with lock down is that you not only give up the incredibly underrated ability sprint, you are immobilized even further on top of that. The damage increase just does not make up for your succeptability to death.

It all comes down to a lack of options. VS has two very effective abilities to choose from, one which is very shiny and fun to use. NC and TR on the other hand have sprint, incredibly effective and underrated but shared by all factions so no shiny factor there. Their unique abilities have some shiny factor but they are simply sub par to sprint.

Two great abilities give the VS max versatility, making it the best max right now and most fun for me personally. But I wouldn't go as far to call it OP. Instead of changing ZOE, I would take a look at improving the other factions max abilities.

[Reaver]

To me I think the biggest issue with ZoE is not the ability itself, but the fact you can toggle it on and off. Making it a passive ability which the MAX user is permanently stuck with would go a long way I think to balancing the ability.

[typhaon]

I'll give TR that lockdown is relatively useless... However, there is some use in certain AA/AV situations.

[Taramafor]

Originally Posted by typhaon

I'll give TR that lockdown is relatively useless... However, there is some use in certain AA/AV situations.

On the other hand, what's the point in lockdown against infantry when they die in a few hits from max weapons anyway? The ZOE and NC max use their abilities against all targets. Now if that TR MAX had the rate of fire of the chaingun when locked down... Or had their grenades explode in a larger radios... Probably a bit over powered for an idea but you get the idea.

[KesTro]

Remember, it's not really the damage of the ZOE people find OP. It's the versatility and maneuverability that people think needs to be toned down.

[Jaybonaut]

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

I'm not. It's the ZOE's ability to handle groups of infantry that I judge it on. The data that we have shows the VS MAX AI weapons as having a higher KPU than either TR or NC, I would guess that the difference is largely because of the ZOE.

That's a good guess; I stated it based on the graphs Sony tweeted showing how closely balanced the MAXes were after the ZOE nerfs hit, since that was factual proof.

EDIT: I think they should speed up the Lockdown and Shield transitions, that's about it.

[ChipMHazard]

Well the data we can collect is more up to date than that and that's what I'm basing most of my opinion on.

[Jaybonaut]

I would like to see more of a reason to max out the ZOE - the tier tree doesn't seem to do anything noticeable beyond tier 1. I had mine maxed before the nerfs but I'm not sure it was worth it.

[ChipMHazard]

Aye, certing more into anything should always be worthwhile. Obviously it depends on how much one values the increase in damage output. Personally I got it for the increase in speed.

[typhaon]

Originally Posted by typhaon

I'll give TR that lockdown is relatively useless... However, there is some use in certain AA/AV situations.

This is exactly why lockdown IS a "good" (balanced) ability. It is relatively useless - like Aegis Shield - but has a few special moments when it can be useful.

ZOE, on the other hand, is very useful in almost any situation. ZOE w/Comet not only decimates vehicles with ease... it's a miracle to even hit the MAX shooting at you because he's strafing all over.

[Nur]

ZOE MAXES AND all the MAXES in general are destroyng this game.

the sooner you understand this, the sooner we tell SOE, the sooner we hope they make something about it.

It is not planetside

it is MAXSIDE now.

[Blynd]

O e thing your no thinking if is as a Zoe user the speed and strafing makes us miss loads as well as avoid hits so its not as though the speed doesn't have its drawbacks to its users. But I agree with pred but is suggest the NC sheild is on 1 arm and the other arm can still be used to fire with giving it a bit of an offensive use. As for tr make them play in their pj's

[Jaybonaut]

Originally Posted by Nur

ZOE MAXES AND all the MAXES in general are destroyng this game.

the sooner you understand this, the sooner we tell SOE, the sooner we hope they make something about it.

It is not planetside

it is MAXSIDE now.

No, they still require a buttload of resources so it certainly isn't anywhere near Maxside, and without a pocket engie they go down quick enough.

[bites]

Originally Posted by Nur

ZOE MAXES AND all the MAXES in general are destroyng this game.

the sooner you understand this, the sooner we tell SOE, the sooner we hope they make something about it.

It is not planetside

it is MAXSIDE now.

Its not going to happen bud. You're on a fools errand.

[GreyFrog]

I love the "Its only 1-2 less bullet argument", thats a massive difference in TTK especially when its only 4-6 to kill anyway.