Pounder Tips... take 'em or leave 'em...

Cease · 2003-08-11, 06:45 PM

I've picked up the Pounder cert, again, recently and thought I'd post some of my thoughts. You can agree, disagree, or whatever. Im by no means an expert, but I thought I'd share.

A max pounder is hands down one of the most effective Anti-Infantry weapons in the game. But a Max is not a solo machine. To maximize your potential, you should have the proper "support" grunts with you. Not just enigneers, but you'll see what I mean as I explain.

Locking Down

I'll probably start off with the tip that will garner the most disagreements. My view on locking down, is unless you have a dedicated engineer behind you, locking down isn't a really good idea. You're just too easy of a target for anyone with any sort of AV. Not to mention its pretty easy for someone to surge out of your locked down firing arc. You are severly limiting yourself if you lockdown, so make sure you got someone who can keep your armor in shape if you decided to do it.

Enemy Maxes

Despite what the enemy will say, the Max Pounder isn't good vs enemy maxes. You have 30 rounds. If you face off vs a full health Max, you will go through a reload or two to take them out. And most enemy max users know that the Pounders biggest weakness is its own splash damage. So they will make a beeline to get right in your face. Depending on what Max you face off, and what sort of support you have with you, will depend on what you want to do.

As a general rule you want to leave the enemy maxes to your AV guys. In the common scenario of a Max with grunts following them, just ignore the max and concentrate on wiping out the grunts. Classic examples are in tower battles and trying to get into spawn rooms. Do what your best at... taking out grunts. Plus a grunt with a Decimator can take you out faster than any enemy max can.

Grief

Before I picked my Pounder cert back up, I had gone on a little TK binge on someone that liked TK'n our Outfit members. After I was all said and done with him I had about 600 grief. My grief is now down to about 65. You can use a Pounder and not be a grief machine. You just gotta let those idiots that cut you off to get in the room first get killed by the Jackhammers and Lashers... let them die to the enemy and then go in behind them and clean up that they left off. You will get grief from time to time, but just use your head and you won't have any problems.

General Tips

- Audio Implant is one of the best compliments to a Max Pounder. With the ability to see the enemy coming, and good use of the secondary fire mode, you can often kill some enemy before they even see you. If you use the Max Pounder a lot, you really should pick up this implant.

- One trick I really like to do is clearing out base spawn rooms being camped by the enemy. You need to have a tower nearby for this to happen. And since you probably died once or twice in the room, you should have a good idea of what sort of numbers are in there. But what I will do is spawn at a nearby tower, grab my max, and then de-con and re-con back to the base spawn room. Come out of the tubes firing and keep moving. Don't make their job of hitting you back easier. And again, if there is an enemy max in there, ignore him till you take out all the grunts 1st. A good compliment to this trick is having a support grunt doing the same thing as you did, but have him about 10 seconds behind you. Clear out all the grunts and let your support guy come in and take out any maxes(that will most certainly be concentrating on you) and also repair you. But you have to know what your going up against. This works great when for those times when there are like 5 people camping it and one max. This doesnt work when you got 15 grunts and 4 maxes in there.

-Be careful when firing down hallways, and especially if you got grunts following close behind you. The Max Pounder can get flaky in hallways and you can end up doing a ton of damage to the folks right behind you. Its not wise to spend much time in hallways anyway. Just makes an enemy grunts job easier to hit you with AV weaponry.

- Dont be predictable. I really don't like the typical spots maxes stand. A good example of this is the base CCs. Many maxes stand right in front or next to it. Doors are generally right there, making it pretty easy for a grunt to duck in and out, or run through while hitting you with an AV weapon. Often times you can catch them off guard by not being the the predictable places most maxes post themselves. And I might add that this is another handy thing about the Audio Amp. With the Audio Amp you dont have to be sitting on the CC in order to know someone is trying to get in there.

Eliaas_Demens · 2003-08-11, 06:52 PM

I hate Pounders so much. Two pounders sitting at a CC in a tower will garuntee you hold it for quite some time. Normally I answer any MAX with a Decimator, but those Pounders kill me before I can even take a decent shot. They're definate killing machines.

But the splash damage is harsh. When I'm not prepared for a Pounder, I simply charge him. Hopefully some of the splash damage he annihilates me with will kill him.

Lonehunter · 2003-08-11, 07:06 PM

Tips for the AA Burster MAX users

- Lock down: Find a good place to lock down so you can camp the skies. This doesn't mean out in a field or on top of a hill. An enemy aircraft could circle around you in a heart beat. Try to have your back up against something.

- Vehicles: When locked down most vehicles flying in your view are toast. If you see an aircraft hovering towards you in the distance, don't scare him off, it's like fishing. Let him get close and unload on him. Reavers and Skeeters can be taken out with one clip, so reload frequently. Vehicles are aren't as veulneravle as aircraft, but your weapons will give them plenty of damage for them to consider not attacking your turf.

- Infantry Taking out infantry from a distance is ok, not as effective as the other MAXs but it's ok. If you have a good spot in a battle, and a enemy grunt sneeks up on you and starts unloading his Jackhammer, lasher, or even a Beamer! You unlock from the ground and kick in the auro-run. For some reason the dual flak cannons on your arms won't hurt infantry if they are within 10 meters.

- Tips

- Locking down on a tower or base in a heavy seige is my favorite thing do with my Burster. Every once and a while though you need to relocate. Those pissed off pilots aren't going to be happy when they have to respawn every 30 seconds.

- Indoor combat is useless, stay outside

- I have had a wierd bug lately where my armor and health will go down every 5 seconds, with no explosion around me and the only sound I hear is a high pitched motor type of sound. Next thing I know I'm dead and the kill window says it was a pheonix. I /tell the guy who did it and he says he didn't even see a MAX and that he was firing at something completely different. This only happens every few days.

My streak is 9 reavers, 2 skeeters, and 1 Gal without getting killed. I also got a couple land vehicles, 2 or 3 maybe. Let me know once you beat me

BigTexas · 2003-08-11, 07:06 PM

Originally posted by Cease
And most enemy max users know that the Pounders biggest weakness is its own splash damage. So they will make a beeline to get right in your face.

Heh, I love doing that, more often than not the Pounder will kill themself before they kill you.

I used to think that MAX units were only for "noobs" who wanted to pick up some easy kills, but when I picked one up myself, I was suprised at how difficult it was to use a MAX to its full potential. Maybe I will try out a Pounder and see how I do, although I prefer the Dual Cycler because its as straightfoward and user friendly as they come.

Cease · 2003-08-11, 07:14 PM

I have had a wierd bug lately where my armor and health will go down every 5 seconds, with no explosion around me and the only sound I hear is a high pitched motor type of sound. Next thing I know I'm dead and the kill window says it was a pheonix. I /tell the guy who did it and he says he didn't even see a MAX and that he was firing at something completely different. This only happens every few days.

I call this the lost kill bug. This has happened to me quite often. I think basically is what happens is this guy actually killed you in a previous fight, but with the way TCP/IP works a couple of packets get lost and eventually find their way to the server considerably later... and then you die.

Which also might explain those odd occurances when you dump a clip of ammo in someones back and they turn around and kill you. I bet in these cases they die later from your mysterious rounds

JetRaiden · 2003-08-11, 07:22 PM

I used to fear every TR MAX I saw. but then I got the pheonix. BRING EM ON!!!

SandTrout · 2003-08-12, 03:38 AM

I can kill any max with a sweeper or gauss except the pounder. Strafeing around a Pounder doesn't work because he will just shoot his feet and the splash will get you. Can't take him at range because he'll just kick in run mode.

Best bet against a Pounder is deffinately a Scattercannon that knows what he's doing, or a phoenix.

Fingerbob · 2003-08-12, 12:45 PM

burster tip for you :

the shells don't explode near infantry (they're only prox for aircraft) but the burst radius is about 5 meters. so if you get infantry close to you, just shoot the ground about 5 metres in front of you (or a wall, if you're in a tower / base). the splash should do you minimal damage, but should start wearing away the infantry. shoot closer if you'd like to do them more damage, just be aware it'll take you down just as fast as it does them.

you can do the same with a pounder, against inf or maxes : if they get in your face (especially in towers) just back them up to a wall, then shoot the wall instead of them. splash damages them, doesn't hurt you. note, this is a lot less effective than hitting them directly, so if they're doing you a lot of damage just ram the nades down their throat, and hope.

CrazyCrazy · 2003-08-12, 01:08 PM

I dropped AV and picked up the MAX falcon, specifically so I can take out pounders. Every other MAX I can usually kill with a decimator faster than they can kill me.

I normally hate being in a max suit since you're like a little baby, dependent on everyone else to do things for you ( open doors, repair armor, hack terms, transport you in only a suderer or gal). And the auto-run pisses me off, since it takes 5 seconds to turn off after you press the button. You also get hit by unmanned wall turrets if you go in run mode near them. Walking in a max is slow as ass, and except for the VS, you can't jump in a MAX. You spend a lot time going around the long way or waiting for someone to hack a door for your.

Use manual binds and deconstruction, since you can't get a MAX suit at an AMS. Strafe a lot when you go up against a decimator. Now that I think about it, this is maybe why pounders can kill around corners ( since they have to anchor to be useful). Most of the maxes I kill with a decimaotr at medium range, don't know to strafe. They just stand there shooting, thinking they're invincible.