So, you think you can play planetside? well you can't chump! you know nothing!
I read Pants' diary from Friday and was slightly dissapointed to hear that you guys had a shit time (I guess I know how Friz feels every time THAT FUCKING SPACE GAME gets brought up and folks like me don't make it out of the tutorial) but from what I read I think that you had a shit time because you were just in the wrong place. I'm here to change that, think of me as your friendly purple lycra DI (thats Drill Instructor maggots) a kind of Mr Motivator for your certs. You WILL learn the power of Ten Magriders.
First things first, pick a class and stick to it. By all means try out every class, and switch to appropriate ones when neccessary - medic running about but everyone else is in tanks? switch to engineer. Aircraft bothing your tank column? switch to an AA max...but if you do that continually you will end up being bland at everything you do and you could be the difference between a complete rout and a fucking heroic fightback. I'll suggest some good starter classes later.
Help the fucking cause. Medics - fucking heal and revive (don't revive somebody who is only going to die again straight away though) engineers - resupply and repair, etc. Doing this nets you more certs and helps your faction fight on which means you might just turn this defence around or make the push to capture that facility and objectives mean more fucking certs!
Pick your fights carefully. Don't go chasing down an infiltrator in an empty facility - the chump will give you the run around when you could be doing something more productive and will probably kill you - don't give these fuckers easy kills. Check the map out, see where the big fights are going on - the bigger the better because the more folks running about the more chances you will get a kill or critical assist which is more xp and more certs and better gear. If you are facing superior numbers and you can't use the terrain to even the odds then get the fuck out of there. Or...
Redeploy, redeploy, redeploy. Took me ages to learn this. On your map screen there is a button at the top left hand corner of your scree which will redeploy you to another location within range. It takes ten seconds to count down and if you move from the map screen the redeploy will stop. This means that even if the enemy has overrun your position you can sit in the spawn area and harass them from inside (yes you can fire OUT of a spawn area but not IN) Most of my sniper kills are achieved this way as greedy bastards look to mow down anybody straying out of the spawn and quite often overreach. Keep an eye on that timer, when it gets to 20 seconds until facility captured you redeploy the fuck out of there.
Stay away from vehicles for a while. Unless part of an armoured column. That said, I have an uncerted scythe/liberator I often use as a taxi and attempt to throw at enemy positions before I bail out and jetpack safely to the ground.
Don't worry about looking like a chump. Seriously, this held me back for so long in this game. If in doubt, follow the crowd and you will see Battle Ranks far higher than you doing stupid stuff - especially if you squaded with me, sometimes I get away with it mostly I just die in spectacular and often amusing fashion.
Pay attention to alerts
Alerts are a good way to judge where the fighting will be taking place, they give the factions an objective to fight over. These can be to simply capture one of the continents or to have the most of X facility captured by the time the alert ends
My personal favourites are the capture X facility, these can lead to some intense fighting - yesterday I saw an Amp station battle involving all three factions at one station with over 120 fighters involved.
So, you think you can play planetside?
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So, you think you can play planetside?
Last edited by Anery on December 8th, 2013, 14:39, edited 1 time in total.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
I've split this out because it's good advice. Planetside 2 is a hard game to get into if you're used to other shooters, partly because the scale means you need to learn to find the fights, partly because it feels different to other shooters. I remember the first time I played it. I spawned as an engineer because I thought it was the AT class, fannied about trying to work out what I should have been repairing, and then everyone fucked off and left me. I was left alone in a Tech Plant being badgered by a handful of enemy Infiltrators and Light Assaults who were back-capping, had a shit time, and didn't go back for six months. As Anery says, it's like Eve in that you really start to appreciate how unique and impressive the game is once you get the hang of it.
You can also check out my beginner's guide, which is a little out of date now but still fairly good advice (if I do say so myself). And in case there's anyone on the internet who hasn't heard me say it yet, location is everything in PS2. Choosing the right battle is key to enjoying the game, so if you're not enjoying getting spawnkilled every twenty seconds, find a different fight.
You can also check out my beginner's guide, which is a little out of date now but still fairly good advice (if I do say so myself). And in case there's anyone on the internet who hasn't heard me say it yet, location is everything in PS2. Choosing the right battle is key to enjoying the game, so if you're not enjoying getting spawnkilled every twenty seconds, find a different fight.
Re: Planetside 2
So, I said that I would suggest some good starter classes. Bear in mind that ALL classes are good to start with, it just depends on your play style but some are better at early cert production that others.
Medic
#3 is your healing gun, point it at people and heal them. This earns you XP as you heal. Point at dead people to revive (small timer circle thing will appear keep the gun pointed at dead person and "firing" until circle completes) Avoid ressing early on as you will bring folks back to life with not too much health - this will increase as you cert the ability, up to 100% health at full certs. ALWAYS fully heal a target once revived.
F ability is an AOE heal around the medic. This throws off a green glow so try not to do it if you are playing at night in the open and trying to stay stealthy. Really good for health generation for groups of people underfire whilst you triage. Can be used in a pinch to keep yourself alive too. Used in conjunction with a revivie you can decrease the time taken to put that person back in the fight.
Battle rifles are your friend, these are effective at medium to short range. Avoid trying to snipe with them as the recoil makes this very difficult. Shotguns can be good in certain situations but I wouldn't bother wasting certs on a new rifle straight away, the Pulsar is good enough out of the gate.
Cert recommendations
First cert, Nanoweave Armour. The more health you can get for yourself the better, when it comes down to it you don't have the ability to remove yourself from danger as the infiltrator or light assault do so you have to face down any enemies or at least endure enough to get your arse out of the way. Only costs 1 cert for +10% health.
Nano-regen Device, also only 1 cert, this increases the rate at which your F ability regens by 9% for only 1 cert
Tool Slot costs more but this is your bread and butter for mediccing, fully specced the revive time is reduced to mere seconds and the subject is revived at full health.
Juggling these three lines of certifications will make you an effective medic in no time
Certs to avoid - any of the universal medical or resto kits, Triage, all other suit certs apart from Nanoweave, C4.
Healing and revive grenades can be picked up whenever you feel you can spare the certs (if your tool slot isn't maxxed, you can't spare the certs)
Good areas for mediccing
Biolabs - get BEHIND the advance and pick up any casualties and aid the push by keeping everyone topped up, there will be plenty of meat for you to revive. Remember to revive intelligently (don't revive under fire and heal target up to full afterwards)
Large defenses/attacks - I don't mean large facilities, I mean large groups of defenders/attackers - lots of meat.
Medic
#3 is your healing gun, point it at people and heal them. This earns you XP as you heal. Point at dead people to revive (small timer circle thing will appear keep the gun pointed at dead person and "firing" until circle completes) Avoid ressing early on as you will bring folks back to life with not too much health - this will increase as you cert the ability, up to 100% health at full certs. ALWAYS fully heal a target once revived.
F ability is an AOE heal around the medic. This throws off a green glow so try not to do it if you are playing at night in the open and trying to stay stealthy. Really good for health generation for groups of people underfire whilst you triage. Can be used in a pinch to keep yourself alive too. Used in conjunction with a revivie you can decrease the time taken to put that person back in the fight.
Battle rifles are your friend, these are effective at medium to short range. Avoid trying to snipe with them as the recoil makes this very difficult. Shotguns can be good in certain situations but I wouldn't bother wasting certs on a new rifle straight away, the Pulsar is good enough out of the gate.
Cert recommendations
First cert, Nanoweave Armour. The more health you can get for yourself the better, when it comes down to it you don't have the ability to remove yourself from danger as the infiltrator or light assault do so you have to face down any enemies or at least endure enough to get your arse out of the way. Only costs 1 cert for +10% health.
Nano-regen Device, also only 1 cert, this increases the rate at which your F ability regens by 9% for only 1 cert
Tool Slot costs more but this is your bread and butter for mediccing, fully specced the revive time is reduced to mere seconds and the subject is revived at full health.
Juggling these three lines of certifications will make you an effective medic in no time
Certs to avoid - any of the universal medical or resto kits, Triage, all other suit certs apart from Nanoweave, C4.
Healing and revive grenades can be picked up whenever you feel you can spare the certs (if your tool slot isn't maxxed, you can't spare the certs)
Good areas for mediccing
Biolabs - get BEHIND the advance and pick up any casualties and aid the push by keeping everyone topped up, there will be plenty of meat for you to revive. Remember to revive intelligently (don't revive under fire and heal target up to full afterwards)
Large defenses/attacks - I don't mean large facilities, I mean large groups of defenders/attackers - lots of meat.
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Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
I think it's worth adding that as a medic, it's well worth doing triage, your job is to maintain the horse of your team, so avoiding deaths and respawn timers.
Injured guy > recently dead guy > long dead guy > that prick who shoots at you because you're ignoring his 99% health arse (who, incidentally should be executed for being a twat)
Saying that, lobbing a revive grenade into a shitstorm never hurts.
Injured guy > recently dead guy > long dead guy > that prick who shoots at you because you're ignoring his 99% health arse (who, incidentally should be executed for being a twat)
Saying that, lobbing a revive grenade into a shitstorm never hurts.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Since it's my class of choice (218 hours), here's a quick Anery-style guide to Heavies.
Heavy Assault
The Heavy is a bit of a bruiser, and the anti-vehicle specialist of the game. It isn't an easy class to play, and the best thing you can do is forget both those things I just said. You see, despite having shields you can't take much more damage than any other class, your LMG doesn't do more damage than the other classes, and your anti-tank weapon can't kill tanks. Sounds shit, don't want to play it? That's fair enough, it's not for everyone, but Heavies are invaluable for a different reason - they scare the shit out of everyone. Fuck infiltrators, those guys are fannies and aren't scary at all. They do knob all apart from arse about behind enemy lines pissing the bad guys off, and are as useful as tits on a fish. No, the Heavy is the psychological class. Here's why:
Vs Infantry
Remember how I said the LMG isn't much cop? You don't, because I didn't say that. I said it doesn't do more damage. What it does do is put loads of purple spunk down range. Most of your shots will miss, but they'll keep enemy heads down and fired in bursts they'll ding enough shots off them to take it seriously. You're no match for a sniper, but you shouldn't be on your own as a target for one anyway. Up close you'll probably lose one-on-one to a Light with an SMG, even with shields, so don't go toe-to-toe. Harass them, keep them in cover and blat them when they poke their heads out. The advantage you have is a massive magazine, which means fewer reloads when they're spaffing all their ammo at you. Keep them under pressure at arm's length then finish them off when they're reloading. It isn't easy, you'll die loads, but it's satisfying when you do. Do remember to put your shields up, even though they're next to useless. They give you the psychological advantage of making the enemy think you can outlast them, and they'll often turn and run so you can gun them down.
Vs Vehicles
Remember how I said the AT launcher isn't much cop? Course you don't, you've learned that trick now. It won't kill a tank in two shots so don't try. In fact always assume that you won't kill anything, because this isn't Battlefield and you probably won't. What you will do is scare the shit out of the tankies. They have limited visibility, will struggle to work out where they're getting fired at from, especially in the heat of battle, and will often fuck off to safety. That's your job, crowd control. The S1 isn't a bad weapon as it happens, good accuracy at range and enough damage that the bad guy will think twice about sticking around. That's pretty much it in the beginning. You might be able to get the odd lucky shot in a tank's arse, but rest assured that he'll kill the shit out of you for your trouble. If you want to kill tanks dead then go Light Assault and upgrade your C4.
Cert Recommendations
Nanoweave armour is a must, because you'll be right in the thickest of the fighting all the time. Don't wait for ages saving though, because you'll want to get a few upgrades for your Orion too. I like 1x or 1.5x holo sights, stabiliser, and extended mag. With these you'll start being able to hold your own toe-to-toe, and you won't feel as much like a martyr. Grab some C4 if it makes you feel better, but I've had very little success - they're mainly useful for damaging deployed Sunderers. If you're going to spend some real cashmoney, or you fancy saving up a bunch of certs, the Nemesis AA launcher is my weapon of choice. As with tanks, you won't kill that many aircraft but you will give them the shits. You can also dumb fire it at tanks for the fear effect, since it looks exactly like the S1. Don't be tempted to upgrade your shields, it only decreases the recharge time.
Where you should be
You'll be racking up the most certs in big standoffs. You can suppress the enemy with your LMG (careful of standing about too long though) and spam scary rockets at vehicles. You won't get many kills, but you'll get lots of assists and if the enemy rout you'll be able to sustain your fire longer than your buddies, so you can mow them down as they run. Let the Lights go in first, keep your head, don't get greedy, and you'll get your certs. In time you will become a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus. Just like me.
Heavy Assault
The Heavy is a bit of a bruiser, and the anti-vehicle specialist of the game. It isn't an easy class to play, and the best thing you can do is forget both those things I just said. You see, despite having shields you can't take much more damage than any other class, your LMG doesn't do more damage than the other classes, and your anti-tank weapon can't kill tanks. Sounds shit, don't want to play it? That's fair enough, it's not for everyone, but Heavies are invaluable for a different reason - they scare the shit out of everyone. Fuck infiltrators, those guys are fannies and aren't scary at all. They do knob all apart from arse about behind enemy lines pissing the bad guys off, and are as useful as tits on a fish. No, the Heavy is the psychological class. Here's why:
Vs Infantry
Remember how I said the LMG isn't much cop? You don't, because I didn't say that. I said it doesn't do more damage. What it does do is put loads of purple spunk down range. Most of your shots will miss, but they'll keep enemy heads down and fired in bursts they'll ding enough shots off them to take it seriously. You're no match for a sniper, but you shouldn't be on your own as a target for one anyway. Up close you'll probably lose one-on-one to a Light with an SMG, even with shields, so don't go toe-to-toe. Harass them, keep them in cover and blat them when they poke their heads out. The advantage you have is a massive magazine, which means fewer reloads when they're spaffing all their ammo at you. Keep them under pressure at arm's length then finish them off when they're reloading. It isn't easy, you'll die loads, but it's satisfying when you do. Do remember to put your shields up, even though they're next to useless. They give you the psychological advantage of making the enemy think you can outlast them, and they'll often turn and run so you can gun them down.
Vs Vehicles
Remember how I said the AT launcher isn't much cop? Course you don't, you've learned that trick now. It won't kill a tank in two shots so don't try. In fact always assume that you won't kill anything, because this isn't Battlefield and you probably won't. What you will do is scare the shit out of the tankies. They have limited visibility, will struggle to work out where they're getting fired at from, especially in the heat of battle, and will often fuck off to safety. That's your job, crowd control. The S1 isn't a bad weapon as it happens, good accuracy at range and enough damage that the bad guy will think twice about sticking around. That's pretty much it in the beginning. You might be able to get the odd lucky shot in a tank's arse, but rest assured that he'll kill the shit out of you for your trouble. If you want to kill tanks dead then go Light Assault and upgrade your C4.
Cert Recommendations
Nanoweave armour is a must, because you'll be right in the thickest of the fighting all the time. Don't wait for ages saving though, because you'll want to get a few upgrades for your Orion too. I like 1x or 1.5x holo sights, stabiliser, and extended mag. With these you'll start being able to hold your own toe-to-toe, and you won't feel as much like a martyr. Grab some C4 if it makes you feel better, but I've had very little success - they're mainly useful for damaging deployed Sunderers. If you're going to spend some real cashmoney, or you fancy saving up a bunch of certs, the Nemesis AA launcher is my weapon of choice. As with tanks, you won't kill that many aircraft but you will give them the shits. You can also dumb fire it at tanks for the fear effect, since it looks exactly like the S1. Don't be tempted to upgrade your shields, it only decreases the recharge time.
Where you should be
You'll be racking up the most certs in big standoffs. You can suppress the enemy with your LMG (careful of standing about too long though) and spam scary rockets at vehicles. You won't get many kills, but you'll get lots of assists and if the enemy rout you'll be able to sustain your fire longer than your buddies, so you can mow them down as they run. Let the Lights go in first, keep your head, don't get greedy, and you'll get your certs. In time you will become a goddamn sexual tyrannosaurus. Just like me.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Thanks Pants, I wasn't going to suggest that class for a while as I find it a tad unwieldy - requiring multiple weapon unlocks to be versatile at what it is supposed to do. But as a man killer it is pretty effective right from the start.
Last edited by Anery on December 10th, 2013, 3:51, edited 1 time in total.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Good starter class #2
Engineers
Job title says it all, your job is to keep the machinery up and firing explosive sperm at the enemy, this includes all vehicles, stationary turrets at bases as well as the terminals inside bases that requesition new vehicles or resupply/change classes AND the generators that power some larger facilities shields and enable spawns AND MAX suits.
#3 is the repair tool which will do this. It looks remarkably like a glock but it repairs stuff instead of breaking it, as with the medic gun you get XP for points repaired. However, unlike the medic this tool builds up heat and will overheat if used for too long and you will be forced to let it fully cooldown - do not do this unless you really have to or have time to let it do a full CD, it is more effective to let off at the last minute and let it cooldown to halfway and resume. Because of their ability to repair a MAX suit, MAXs LOVE engineers, an effective MAX and engineer team is a scary thing in close quarters.
#4 is your ammo packs that can be dropped on the ground to resupply troops in the vicinity (or drop mines when you unlock them) and 5 is a deployable turret (only usable by you) of which there are two flavours anti personnel or anti vehicle. It is worth noting that you can only drop ONE ammo pack at a time and only ONE turret and pressing B whilst the turret is selected for deployment will change it to an ammo package so when you do take mines later your squad need not be unsupplied - and you can reap the XP of supplying people and blowing folks up too.
Carbines are an engineers shooter, these are mid-short range weapons with a fast rate of fire that are most effective at close quarters.
Cert Recommendations
As your job is to fix the stuff that the enemy is trying to destroy you can expect to see quite a lot of explosives lobbed at you. For this reason the Flack Armour cert under your suit slot is a must have. Just one point into this reduced damage from explosions by 15% - but don't stop there, when you eventually max it out it gives a massive -50% to explosive damage taken.
Nano Armour Kit - your tank healer, your designated team role, certing into this not only increases the rate of repair but it increases the overheat threshold, reduces the time it takes to cooldown and when fully certed will disarm enemy tank mines. Do it.
Ammo Package - Put 10 certs in it, increases the package uptime to 2 minutes. Not a major downpayment so worth doing.
Medical Kit - You have no self heal and your only real option for escaping danger is to either kill it or jump into the nearest tank which is not always possible due to folks locking their vehicles to guard against ammo wasters. For this reason you should cert into the Medical kit. It takes the utility slot - #6 - and provides an instant health hit.
Anti-personnel Mine - Infiltrators love to fuck up engineers who are repairing or using base defences. They do this by placing mines behind whichever base turret you are using and then hacking the turret forcing you out of it and into the mines. Fuck them up by placing your own mines a short distance away on the approach to the turret. Works well in choke points, good for defending capture points, good for boobytrapping terminals (with the added bonus of damaging or destroying the terminal in the blast too) Needs to be fully certed to carry two mines before fully effective.
Certs to avoid - all other suit slot certs and C4 (you very rarely get the chance to destroy anything up close that requires C4) everything else has its uses but put high numbers of certs into the above before you do.
Good Areas for a bit of Engineering
No particular map area is good or bad for an engineer but large scale assaults (if you can find them) are an excellent place to set up shop and fix some tanks. If you don't have a resupply sundy then find one and stick around, damaged tanks will come to you.
Biolabs are great for some MAX healing, for both assaults and defences. Assaulting units will also be glad of the ammo if you switch out your mines (not much use in this situation) your AP turret should be put to good use in here too.
Large facilities can provide a lot of XP if you don't mind mopping up after a battle. Amp stations have a large amount of turretage on the perimeter that will need repairing when the fight has moved elsewhere.
Basically if it is a small scale assault then fix the sundy or find a friendly MAX (their all friendly and love engineers - like twinks and bears)
If it is a large scale vehicle incursion then sit outside of range at a place handy for the tank drivers
ALWAYS BEWARE FLEEING TANKS AND OTHER VEHICLES SOMETIMES THE GUY YOU JUST REPAIRED IS THE cupcake THAT RUNS YOU OVER
Fuck, that was a long post
Engineers
Job title says it all, your job is to keep the machinery up and firing explosive sperm at the enemy, this includes all vehicles, stationary turrets at bases as well as the terminals inside bases that requesition new vehicles or resupply/change classes AND the generators that power some larger facilities shields and enable spawns AND MAX suits.
#3 is the repair tool which will do this. It looks remarkably like a glock but it repairs stuff instead of breaking it, as with the medic gun you get XP for points repaired. However, unlike the medic this tool builds up heat and will overheat if used for too long and you will be forced to let it fully cooldown - do not do this unless you really have to or have time to let it do a full CD, it is more effective to let off at the last minute and let it cooldown to halfway and resume. Because of their ability to repair a MAX suit, MAXs LOVE engineers, an effective MAX and engineer team is a scary thing in close quarters.
#4 is your ammo packs that can be dropped on the ground to resupply troops in the vicinity (or drop mines when you unlock them) and 5 is a deployable turret (only usable by you) of which there are two flavours anti personnel or anti vehicle. It is worth noting that you can only drop ONE ammo pack at a time and only ONE turret and pressing B whilst the turret is selected for deployment will change it to an ammo package so when you do take mines later your squad need not be unsupplied - and you can reap the XP of supplying people and blowing folks up too.
Carbines are an engineers shooter, these are mid-short range weapons with a fast rate of fire that are most effective at close quarters.
Cert Recommendations
As your job is to fix the stuff that the enemy is trying to destroy you can expect to see quite a lot of explosives lobbed at you. For this reason the Flack Armour cert under your suit slot is a must have. Just one point into this reduced damage from explosions by 15% - but don't stop there, when you eventually max it out it gives a massive -50% to explosive damage taken.
Nano Armour Kit - your tank healer, your designated team role, certing into this not only increases the rate of repair but it increases the overheat threshold, reduces the time it takes to cooldown and when fully certed will disarm enemy tank mines. Do it.
Ammo Package - Put 10 certs in it, increases the package uptime to 2 minutes. Not a major downpayment so worth doing.
Medical Kit - You have no self heal and your only real option for escaping danger is to either kill it or jump into the nearest tank which is not always possible due to folks locking their vehicles to guard against ammo wasters. For this reason you should cert into the Medical kit. It takes the utility slot - #6 - and provides an instant health hit.
Anti-personnel Mine - Infiltrators love to fuck up engineers who are repairing or using base defences. They do this by placing mines behind whichever base turret you are using and then hacking the turret forcing you out of it and into the mines. Fuck them up by placing your own mines a short distance away on the approach to the turret. Works well in choke points, good for defending capture points, good for boobytrapping terminals (with the added bonus of damaging or destroying the terminal in the blast too) Needs to be fully certed to carry two mines before fully effective.
Certs to avoid - all other suit slot certs and C4 (you very rarely get the chance to destroy anything up close that requires C4) everything else has its uses but put high numbers of certs into the above before you do.
Good Areas for a bit of Engineering
No particular map area is good or bad for an engineer but large scale assaults (if you can find them) are an excellent place to set up shop and fix some tanks. If you don't have a resupply sundy then find one and stick around, damaged tanks will come to you.
Biolabs are great for some MAX healing, for both assaults and defences. Assaulting units will also be glad of the ammo if you switch out your mines (not much use in this situation) your AP turret should be put to good use in here too.
Large facilities can provide a lot of XP if you don't mind mopping up after a battle. Amp stations have a large amount of turretage on the perimeter that will need repairing when the fight has moved elsewhere.
Basically if it is a small scale assault then fix the sundy or find a friendly MAX (their all friendly and love engineers - like twinks and bears)
If it is a large scale vehicle incursion then sit outside of range at a place handy for the tank drivers
ALWAYS BEWARE FLEEING TANKS AND OTHER VEHICLES SOMETIMES THE GUY YOU JUST REPAIRED IS THE cupcake THAT RUNS YOU OVER
Fuck, that was a long post
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
You're right, it's not a great starting class. I probably should have made that a little clearer, but I figured I was in a good position to contribute. Sorry if I'm fucking up your feng shui with my posts (this one included).Anery wrote:Thanks Pants, I wasn't going to suggest that class for a while as I find it a tad unwieldy - requiring multiple weapon unlocks to be versatile at what it is supposed to do. But as a man killer it is pretty effective right from the start.
Oh, and locking vehicles to stop ammo wasters. I do that. It's amazing how many twats will otherwise jump in my Maggie and blat off all my AA ammo at nothing. How come that's so common?
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Pfft, I'm not in a position to comment too much on how to cert up a heavy and the best ways to play anyway. Feel free to have a crack with the sneaky cupcake too if you know anything about it.Dog Pants wrote:Sorry if I'm fucking up your feng shui with my posts (this one included).
Internet Fucktards. Occasionally I will get a good gunner and I find that my usual role as front line skirmisher changes to something of a more defensive position around sundies and other high value targets.Dog Pants wrote:Oh, and locking vehicles to stop ammo wasters. I do that. It's amazing how many twats will otherwise jump in my Maggie and blat off all my AA ammo at nothing. How come that's so common?
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
The last infantry class I am going to cover (the infiltrator can fuck right off, sneaky cunts) is the Light Assault. Not one I would recommend right away as it requires a bit of battlefield knowledge in order to be successfull and a few certs to get you started off. However, once you have picked one up you might well stick with it - they are immense fun and the mobility is addictive.
Light Assault
The role of the Light Assault is that of a skirmisher, you are a thorn in the side of the enemy. You are master at popping up in unexpected places and then popping away again, constantly moving and never staying in one place for long your jetpack is used to get yourself to places that nobody dreamed of and to launch devastating hit and run attacks.
As Light Assault you should find yourself using the scenery to your advantage, jump over barriers to attack the enemy from the rear, attack from above using the rooves of buildings, trees, vehicles...never stay still because that means death, use your jumppack to escape hairy situations and if all else fails - land in a large group of them, you will kill one or two but they will probably kill three or four with friendly fire.
Light Assaults also terrify tank drivers, one light assault armed with c4 is enough to blow a tank and tank drivers will veer out of the way to avoid you - in doing so they risk running their own folk over in their panic.
Like the engineer carbines are your friend so if you have unlocked sights and attachments for your engi then you can use them here.
Cert Recommendations
Jump Jets: I favour the up and down of the normal jump jets over the drifter jump jets, moving forwards is not a problem with timed bursts so cert into the normal ones.
Advanced Shield Capacitor: You should be shooting and scooting and using your jets to get yourself out of bad situations, as such the shield capacitor is far more use, letting you get out of cover and back into the fight far quicker. Fully certed this reduces the recharge time on your shield by 4 seconds which sounds like nothing but it can feel like a lifetime.
C4: As I mentioned earlier, tanks shit themselves when LA are in their vicinity. Two of these bad boys is enough to take out pretty much any vehicle apart from a Sunderer.
Flash Grenades: These have no effect on yourself which makes them slightly over powered, but these can disorient anyone caught in their blast making them very easy pickings for a quick LA.
Best Places to JetPack
Everywhere APART FROM big tank battles. In vehicle war you have no place unless you want to waste 10 minutes trying to flank the enemy and then still likely failing.
Bio Labs are monsters of verticality with plenty of rooves from which to launch ambushes - watch out for enemy LA trying to counter you.
Lean the battlefield and you will know when and where you will be most effective.
Light Assault
The role of the Light Assault is that of a skirmisher, you are a thorn in the side of the enemy. You are master at popping up in unexpected places and then popping away again, constantly moving and never staying in one place for long your jetpack is used to get yourself to places that nobody dreamed of and to launch devastating hit and run attacks.
As Light Assault you should find yourself using the scenery to your advantage, jump over barriers to attack the enemy from the rear, attack from above using the rooves of buildings, trees, vehicles...never stay still because that means death, use your jumppack to escape hairy situations and if all else fails - land in a large group of them, you will kill one or two but they will probably kill three or four with friendly fire.
Light Assaults also terrify tank drivers, one light assault armed with c4 is enough to blow a tank and tank drivers will veer out of the way to avoid you - in doing so they risk running their own folk over in their panic.
Like the engineer carbines are your friend so if you have unlocked sights and attachments for your engi then you can use them here.
Cert Recommendations
Jump Jets: I favour the up and down of the normal jump jets over the drifter jump jets, moving forwards is not a problem with timed bursts so cert into the normal ones.
Advanced Shield Capacitor: You should be shooting and scooting and using your jets to get yourself out of bad situations, as such the shield capacitor is far more use, letting you get out of cover and back into the fight far quicker. Fully certed this reduces the recharge time on your shield by 4 seconds which sounds like nothing but it can feel like a lifetime.
C4: As I mentioned earlier, tanks shit themselves when LA are in their vicinity. Two of these bad boys is enough to take out pretty much any vehicle apart from a Sunderer.
Flash Grenades: These have no effect on yourself which makes them slightly over powered, but these can disorient anyone caught in their blast making them very easy pickings for a quick LA.
Best Places to JetPack
Everywhere APART FROM big tank battles. In vehicle war you have no place unless you want to waste 10 minutes trying to flank the enemy and then still likely failing.
Bio Labs are monsters of verticality with plenty of rooves from which to launch ambushes - watch out for enemy LA trying to counter you.
Lean the battlefield and you will know when and where you will be most effective.
-
buzzmong
- Weighted Storage Cube
- Posts: 7167
- Joined: February 26th, 2007, 17:26
- Location: Middle England, nearish Cov
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
I would do a sneaky bastard guide, but considering Inflitrator is meant to be getting a class revamp soon™ which'll effect a great many cert choices, I'm wary to do so right now.
Also to be aware of is the headshot/nanoweave changes: Nanoweave will soon no longer protect against headshots (+ nanoweave is being changed to a small arms % resistance, not a health buff), and inflitrators will get a 100% one hit kill on a headshot within 150m soon with bolt action rifles. After that it's not guaranteed, but due to aforementioned nanoweave change, it'll be better than it is now.
These are some general class pointers:
Also to be aware of is the headshot/nanoweave changes: Nanoweave will soon no longer protect against headshots (+ nanoweave is being changed to a small arms % resistance, not a health buff), and inflitrators will get a 100% one hit kill on a headshot within 150m soon with bolt action rifles. After that it's not guaranteed, but due to aforementioned nanoweave change, it'll be better than it is now.
These are some general class pointers:
- 1) Cert your basic cloak. Even if other stuff comes out later on (Stalker cloak), having it recharge fast is a lifesaver and is the main strength of the class.
The resistance cloak is only useful if you're being shot at, and you should only get shot at if you're playing the class wrong.
2) There's two ways of playing the class:- A) Marksman aka the Anti Sniper.
Repeat after me: Infiltrators are not snipers.
Do not fit a x10 or x12 scope to your rifles. You'll be better off and get more kills by staying x6 and closer to the action. Enemy snipers who try and use x10/x12 often stay in one place looking down their scopes and can be easily sneaked up upon.
B) Upclose uber rage inducing bastard.
Get an SMG. The NS one seems to be the best. Get close, hit one or two people, get out. Hack some turrets/consoles on the way if you can.
Max cloak is a must here as you really to need to spend as much time as possible cloaked and moving. Make sure you've got nanoweave at 4 or 5 before considering this as even with the SMG it's hard to go toe to toe with any of the other classes.
Best used on suicide runs when the enemy are camped on hills. You can take out quite a few people and break statemates with brief burst of action. You'll die a lot though.
4) Fire off your recon darts into places where the enemy are or frequently run through.
You'll get a suprising number of points for this if you get a high traffic area.
5) Mines are fun. Drop them on staircases or just around corners/doorways but out of plain sight. They also pesist in one location for ages unless you plonk more down.- 5B) If choosing to play as an upclose rage inducing bastard do the following: Find an enemy occupied turret. Put a mine down behind it. Hack the turret. Watch as enemy gets spat out onto mine and blown up. Watch the chat channel
- A) Marksman aka the Anti Sniper.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Some folks have got wary though...buzzmong wrote: 5B) If choosing to play as an upclose rage inducing bastard do the following: Find an enemy occupied turret. Put a mine down behind it. Hack the turret. Watch as enemy gets spat out onto mine and blown up. Watch the chat channel
You invisible bastard you.Anery wrote: Anti-personnel Mine - Infiltrators love to fuck up engineers who are repairing or using base defences. They do this by placing mines behind whichever base turret you are using and then hacking the turret forcing you out of it and into the mines. Fuck them up by placing your own mines a short distance away on the approach to the turret.
Must be said that teamplay infiltrators are a good to have, fucking things up for the enemy right where we need things fucking up. Sadly they are few and far between.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
So, you want to be able to drive around Auraxis in style huh? want to shoot some Red and Blue scum with the windows down and the music on full? I'll be providing full listing on the vehicles and how to make the most of your certs.
Starting wiiiiiiith...
Sunderer
Sundies are the ground based party busses of Planetside. Out of the box they come with two machine guns that are pretty good at deterring infantry and enough armour to survive a wrong turn into an armoured column - providing you turn around sharpish. Once certed they can become mobile spawn points, vehicle repair points or rearming stations. They can also move at a fair clip and provide the with blockade armour and they become seriously difficult to kill off.
Depending on how you cert your sundy will dictate how you play it. The rearm and repair sundies are essentially front line support vehicles their role is relatively simple - find a secure area near your advancing armour and stay there, they will come back to you to repair/rearm and repairing and rearming = XP. The spawner requires a little bit more knowledge of the battlefield and where the best places to deploy (press b) are.
As you approach the target of your advance you should notice a red circle placed over your map - this is the no-deployment zone. It was implemented to stop teams deploying their sunderer in places that would cause an insurmountable problem for defending horses - like inside their vehicle spawn areas or inside buildings. You might also notice another circle on your map, this time a clear circle with a white border - this is a friendly sunderer, you can't put deploy within that zone either, thats not to say you can't park near it but you can't deploy.
So where are the good places to deploy? Well, anywhere out of sight of the defences really. This means the gun emplacements and out of sight of infantry and rocket launchers - against NC and their fucking TV rockets this won't always be possible. Be aware that buildings are a double edged sword, they can provide good cover from structures and infantry but unless your side has enough people to control that building then some necky bastards might swoop down with some C4 and then it could well be tears at bedtime.
Also, sundies can climb mountains and I've never seen one rolled.
Certs
Sunderer Advanced Mobile Station (S-AMS) - This should be your first upgrade, sure other things are cheaper but this is the most use to your team and as I said in my first post - this game is about working, well maybe not as a team but at least as a cooperative mob. As Planetside is wont to do, it rewards you for doing so - every person who spawns on your sundy will earn you a small number of certs (2?)
Acquisition timer - spending a few certs here can't hurt but there won't be any time where you can't wait to pull a sundy.
Blockade Armour - A must have for deployment sunderers. Improvements to your armour mean a lot and can really improve the lifespan of your vehicle.
Racer High Speed Chassis - I feel the need...Speed is your friend, with this chassis you can get out of range of lock ons quicker, you are harder to hit whilst moving and you can dart into deployment positions before defences can bring their guns to bear.
Proximity Repair System - If you are running a deployment sundy do not pack this, take the armour instead. This is used to run up to the attacking line of armour and act as a repair station. If you do this as an engineer all you have to do is stay with your truck and the damaged vehicles will come to you. Repairs done by your truck will grant XP.
Vehicle Ammo Dispenser - Like busses you go ages without seeing one then two of the fuckers turn up at once. Like the repair system only it supplies ammo, XP granted for resupplying. Worth pulling as an engineer and sticking with your truck to repair anyone who comes to rearm. Will show up on the map to friendly horses.
Gate Shield Difffuser - An interesting choice if you are taking part in an organised assault - and I mean really organised. This ability is only active for a short while and will allow you to run your sundy through enemy gate horse fields. This cannot be taken at the same time as the spawner for obvious OP reasons. Note that this does not include ALL forcefields, just gates.
Avoid all other certs.
Weapons
I didn't run through the weapon selections for infantry as it is a "right tool for the job" kind of choice. With a sundy there are only two weapons you should aim to purchase (either with certs or real cash if you want)
1. M60-G Bulldog - Grenade launcher, short range fucks infantry up. Cheap at 250 certs
2. G40-F Ranger/A30 Walker - Both AA. Ranger is a flak cannon with a fast rate of fire but does less damage though the rounds explode in proximity to enemy aircraft increasing chance to hit. Walker is a heavy AA machine gun, slower rate of fire but does more damage - rounds have to impact target to do damage. Both cost 750 certs, if you don't have the spare certs either keep the standard basilisk or fork out for a second bulldog.
A whopping 2 certs for each weapon will buy you level one zoom and increased ammo capacity. A sure way of knowing you are in the truck with somebody who doesn't care or doesn't know any better is no zoom on weapons - get out of the truck you are probably going to die.
Good Places to Sunder
You'll know when you need a sunderer when you die and you have to trek all the way back to the outpost you were attacking. Good to have one when taking part in a 5punky road trip, even if others pull magriders or lightnings.
Starting wiiiiiiith...
Sunderer
Sundies are the ground based party busses of Planetside. Out of the box they come with two machine guns that are pretty good at deterring infantry and enough armour to survive a wrong turn into an armoured column - providing you turn around sharpish. Once certed they can become mobile spawn points, vehicle repair points or rearming stations. They can also move at a fair clip and provide the with blockade armour and they become seriously difficult to kill off.
Depending on how you cert your sundy will dictate how you play it. The rearm and repair sundies are essentially front line support vehicles their role is relatively simple - find a secure area near your advancing armour and stay there, they will come back to you to repair/rearm and repairing and rearming = XP. The spawner requires a little bit more knowledge of the battlefield and where the best places to deploy (press b) are.
As you approach the target of your advance you should notice a red circle placed over your map - this is the no-deployment zone. It was implemented to stop teams deploying their sunderer in places that would cause an insurmountable problem for defending horses - like inside their vehicle spawn areas or inside buildings. You might also notice another circle on your map, this time a clear circle with a white border - this is a friendly sunderer, you can't put deploy within that zone either, thats not to say you can't park near it but you can't deploy.
So where are the good places to deploy? Well, anywhere out of sight of the defences really. This means the gun emplacements and out of sight of infantry and rocket launchers - against NC and their fucking TV rockets this won't always be possible. Be aware that buildings are a double edged sword, they can provide good cover from structures and infantry but unless your side has enough people to control that building then some necky bastards might swoop down with some C4 and then it could well be tears at bedtime.
Also, sundies can climb mountains and I've never seen one rolled.
Certs
Sunderer Advanced Mobile Station (S-AMS) - This should be your first upgrade, sure other things are cheaper but this is the most use to your team and as I said in my first post - this game is about working, well maybe not as a team but at least as a cooperative mob. As Planetside is wont to do, it rewards you for doing so - every person who spawns on your sundy will earn you a small number of certs (2?)
Acquisition timer - spending a few certs here can't hurt but there won't be any time where you can't wait to pull a sundy.
Blockade Armour - A must have for deployment sunderers. Improvements to your armour mean a lot and can really improve the lifespan of your vehicle.
Racer High Speed Chassis - I feel the need...Speed is your friend, with this chassis you can get out of range of lock ons quicker, you are harder to hit whilst moving and you can dart into deployment positions before defences can bring their guns to bear.
Proximity Repair System - If you are running a deployment sundy do not pack this, take the armour instead. This is used to run up to the attacking line of armour and act as a repair station. If you do this as an engineer all you have to do is stay with your truck and the damaged vehicles will come to you. Repairs done by your truck will grant XP.
Vehicle Ammo Dispenser - Like busses you go ages without seeing one then two of the fuckers turn up at once. Like the repair system only it supplies ammo, XP granted for resupplying. Worth pulling as an engineer and sticking with your truck to repair anyone who comes to rearm. Will show up on the map to friendly horses.
Gate Shield Difffuser - An interesting choice if you are taking part in an organised assault - and I mean really organised. This ability is only active for a short while and will allow you to run your sundy through enemy gate horse fields. This cannot be taken at the same time as the spawner for obvious OP reasons. Note that this does not include ALL forcefields, just gates.
Avoid all other certs.
Weapons
I didn't run through the weapon selections for infantry as it is a "right tool for the job" kind of choice. With a sundy there are only two weapons you should aim to purchase (either with certs or real cash if you want)
1. M60-G Bulldog - Grenade launcher, short range fucks infantry up. Cheap at 250 certs
2. G40-F Ranger/A30 Walker - Both AA. Ranger is a flak cannon with a fast rate of fire but does less damage though the rounds explode in proximity to enemy aircraft increasing chance to hit. Walker is a heavy AA machine gun, slower rate of fire but does more damage - rounds have to impact target to do damage. Both cost 750 certs, if you don't have the spare certs either keep the standard basilisk or fork out for a second bulldog.
A whopping 2 certs for each weapon will buy you level one zoom and increased ammo capacity. A sure way of knowing you are in the truck with somebody who doesn't care or doesn't know any better is no zoom on weapons - get out of the truck you are probably going to die.
Good Places to Sunder
You'll know when you need a sunderer when you die and you have to trek all the way back to the outpost you were attacking. Good to have one when taking part in a 5punky road trip, even if others pull magriders or lightnings.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
Oh they can roll. Ask the dozen or so passengers of mine. Possibly they can't since the physics optimisations.Anery wrote:Also, sundies can climb mountains and I've never seen one rolled.
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
I should really wiki these, but I have no idea how.
Anyway. It seems I was jumping the gun somewhat when I started on the vehicles. I forgot one last infantry class, not sure how - it is a pretty big one.
Mechanised Assault eXosuit - MAX
First things first, we need to talk about the equipment slots, you can save a certain weapon, suit and ability configurations. For example my Heavy has three configurations, one with the AA launcher, one with the unguided S1 and one which uses the S1 and the lasher (sperm gun) for some interesting effects in bio-labs. With the MAX you are definately going to want to do this to make switching between anti air and anti infantry easier.
Secondly we need to understand that a MAX is not an invulnerable tank on legs, C4 AV grenades, rockets and sustained small arms fire can all bring a MAX down. A MAX is a walking weapons platform that can bring lots of death but only if supported correctly, a MAX all on it's lonesome is a waste of infantry resources. If not playing with 5punkers then find yourself a friendly engineer to repair your suit and supply more ammo, usually there are enough around that this isn't a problem.
A MAX is a large investment of infantry resources, about 350 I think (will check later, servers are down for patching) so you are going to want to keep hold of it for as long as possible, using the redeploy option from the map screen will ensure that you redeploy as a MAX and resupplying your will switch between weapons without incurring any extra cost - this way you can swap from AA outpost defence to bio-lab anti infantry monster, use the saved loadouts and you can do this very easily.
Each MAX has two abilities, one which is faction specific and one which is common to all. The common one is a charge that can be used to damage enemies or get yourself out of trouble quickly. The faction specific ones are vastly different from each other, NC have a riot shield that the unit can hide behind, the TR have a lockdown mechanism (that used to be common for all MAXs in the first game) that increases their rate of fire and accuracy but they can't move whilst it is ative and we get the Zealot Overdrive Engine. ZOE was the most complained about mechanic regarding the Vanu, it increases your damage output for each level of the ability certed, it increases the speed at which you move but it also increases the amount of damage taken. Predictably the crying has seen SOE take steps to nerf this ability. Now the ZOE is toggleable and lasts for a set period, this would be fine but you cannot untoggle it, you must wait for the ability to run out. Therefore I am changing my earlier recommendations to cert into this. It is now only valid in certain situations like AA defense. Charge is much more viable.
Thirdly, you need to understand the psychological impact of seeing a MAX. First thing most people will do is run the fuck away. This is good, make sure they stay away by shooting them.
Certs
Flak Armour - You WILL be the target for everything explosive, you are big and obvious and if you use the ZOE you glow pink. Flak armour is a must if engaging outside or if there are lots of heavies around.
Kinetic Armour - More expensive than Flak, it reduces damage from small arms fire. It need to be considered if you are going into spaces where there will be lots of infantry running about.
Charge - When you are starting to cert out your MAX this should at least be raised one level. Charge WILL get you out of trouble and keep you alive, at the least it can get you into an area where a medic can revive you safely. Continue to cert into this until you are happy with the cooldown.
ZOE - Once the cert of choice for a MAX the nerf bat has hit this hard, only spec into this if you find yourself in situations where it would be useful, otherwise cert into charge.
Avoid the ammo cannister ability, it replaces ZOE/charge and is really not worth it. Likewise avoid the Nano-Armour Accelerator, there should be an engineer nearby.
Weapons
These need to be talked about, not just because weapon seletion is important but reload rotation needs to be considered too.
No beating about the bush, the MAX weapons are expensive. They cost 1000 certs each to unlock, thats a lot and for an AA MAX you really need to be packing two bursters. Thats not to say you should avoid playing your MAX with an AA cannon (you get one AA, one AV and one AI cannon to start) any damage to aircraft is good but bear in mind that one of your first weapon purchases should be the burster.
Anti vehicle is pretty shitty. The out of box option is the Comet VM-2, it has a magazine size of 2, does very little damage comparted to a rocket launcher and almost no splash damage. Even with ZOE this sucks balls. Replace this when you have the spare certs, put an AI weapon in there instead.
Rotation, rotation rotation. If you only fire off one weapon at a time the reloads can be carried out whilst the second weapon is firing meaning you can put out a constant stream of fire if you juggle them correctly. IF you have fired off any of your second weapon when you hit reload for your first you will reload both weapons at once - try it out in the VR training first to get the knack of it and trial and error in the field will tell you when to open up with both at once and when to keep some back.
Good Places to deploy TO THE MAX!!!
Bio-labs are great for concentrating large amounts of infantry into small spaces. A good MAX/Engineer combo can really do some damage here. Be ballsy but not too ballsy, lead the charge but make sure that folks are following. Watch the verticle spaces here, C4 from above can ruin your day.
Base defences are normally good to deploy a burster MAX. Stick to areas where you have a good view of the sky, be wary of liberators hiding at the top of the vertical limit - you can't hit them but they can hit you (more whining about that at a later date) ZOE does make you a target but it also means that you can put out enough damage that the Reaver or Mosquito pilots will turn around before they get to finish their attack run. It also means that you considerably up your chances to bring one down - and that is a fucking good feeling.
Just remember you are not invincible.You WILL scare the fuck out of people but there is always some cupcake with a rocket launcher
Edited to reflect changes made to ZOE mechanics
Anyway. It seems I was jumping the gun somewhat when I started on the vehicles. I forgot one last infantry class, not sure how - it is a pretty big one.
Mechanised Assault eXosuit - MAX
First things first, we need to talk about the equipment slots, you can save a certain weapon, suit and ability configurations. For example my Heavy has three configurations, one with the AA launcher, one with the unguided S1 and one which uses the S1 and the lasher (sperm gun) for some interesting effects in bio-labs. With the MAX you are definately going to want to do this to make switching between anti air and anti infantry easier.
Secondly we need to understand that a MAX is not an invulnerable tank on legs, C4 AV grenades, rockets and sustained small arms fire can all bring a MAX down. A MAX is a walking weapons platform that can bring lots of death but only if supported correctly, a MAX all on it's lonesome is a waste of infantry resources. If not playing with 5punkers then find yourself a friendly engineer to repair your suit and supply more ammo, usually there are enough around that this isn't a problem.
A MAX is a large investment of infantry resources, about 350 I think (will check later, servers are down for patching) so you are going to want to keep hold of it for as long as possible, using the redeploy option from the map screen will ensure that you redeploy as a MAX and resupplying your will switch between weapons without incurring any extra cost - this way you can swap from AA outpost defence to bio-lab anti infantry monster, use the saved loadouts and you can do this very easily.
Each MAX has two abilities, one which is faction specific and one which is common to all. The common one is a charge that can be used to damage enemies or get yourself out of trouble quickly. The faction specific ones are vastly different from each other, NC have a riot shield that the unit can hide behind, the TR have a lockdown mechanism (that used to be common for all MAXs in the first game) that increases their rate of fire and accuracy but they can't move whilst it is ative and we get the Zealot Overdrive Engine. ZOE was the most complained about mechanic regarding the Vanu, it increases your damage output for each level of the ability certed, it increases the speed at which you move but it also increases the amount of damage taken. Predictably the crying has seen SOE take steps to nerf this ability. Now the ZOE is toggleable and lasts for a set period, this would be fine but you cannot untoggle it, you must wait for the ability to run out. Therefore I am changing my earlier recommendations to cert into this. It is now only valid in certain situations like AA defense. Charge is much more viable.
Thirdly, you need to understand the psychological impact of seeing a MAX. First thing most people will do is run the fuck away. This is good, make sure they stay away by shooting them.
Certs
Flak Armour - You WILL be the target for everything explosive, you are big and obvious and if you use the ZOE you glow pink. Flak armour is a must if engaging outside or if there are lots of heavies around.
Kinetic Armour - More expensive than Flak, it reduces damage from small arms fire. It need to be considered if you are going into spaces where there will be lots of infantry running about.
Charge - When you are starting to cert out your MAX this should at least be raised one level. Charge WILL get you out of trouble and keep you alive, at the least it can get you into an area where a medic can revive you safely. Continue to cert into this until you are happy with the cooldown.
ZOE - Once the cert of choice for a MAX the nerf bat has hit this hard, only spec into this if you find yourself in situations where it would be useful, otherwise cert into charge.
Avoid the ammo cannister ability, it replaces ZOE/charge and is really not worth it. Likewise avoid the Nano-Armour Accelerator, there should be an engineer nearby.
Weapons
These need to be talked about, not just because weapon seletion is important but reload rotation needs to be considered too.
No beating about the bush, the MAX weapons are expensive. They cost 1000 certs each to unlock, thats a lot and for an AA MAX you really need to be packing two bursters. Thats not to say you should avoid playing your MAX with an AA cannon (you get one AA, one AV and one AI cannon to start) any damage to aircraft is good but bear in mind that one of your first weapon purchases should be the burster.
Anti vehicle is pretty shitty. The out of box option is the Comet VM-2, it has a magazine size of 2, does very little damage comparted to a rocket launcher and almost no splash damage. Even with ZOE this sucks balls. Replace this when you have the spare certs, put an AI weapon in there instead.
Rotation, rotation rotation. If you only fire off one weapon at a time the reloads can be carried out whilst the second weapon is firing meaning you can put out a constant stream of fire if you juggle them correctly. IF you have fired off any of your second weapon when you hit reload for your first you will reload both weapons at once - try it out in the VR training first to get the knack of it and trial and error in the field will tell you when to open up with both at once and when to keep some back.
Good Places to deploy TO THE MAX!!!
Bio-labs are great for concentrating large amounts of infantry into small spaces. A good MAX/Engineer combo can really do some damage here. Be ballsy but not too ballsy, lead the charge but make sure that folks are following. Watch the verticle spaces here, C4 from above can ruin your day.
Base defences are normally good to deploy a burster MAX. Stick to areas where you have a good view of the sky, be wary of liberators hiding at the top of the vertical limit - you can't hit them but they can hit you (more whining about that at a later date) ZOE does make you a target but it also means that you can put out enough damage that the Reaver or Mosquito pilots will turn around before they get to finish their attack run. It also means that you considerably up your chances to bring one down - and that is a fucking good feeling.
Just remember you are not invincible.You WILL scare the fuck out of people but there is always some cupcake with a rocket launcher
Edited to reflect changes made to ZOE mechanics
Re: So, you think you can play planetside?
So, you want to cruise round in smooth looking, badass tank?
Stop ogling that Vanguard! Eyes front.
Listen closely as I explain the power of ten magriders.
Magrider
The magrider is the weakest of all the Main Battle Tanks. There are no ifs and buts, it is that simple. In a straight up fight with another MBT driver of similar skill and certifications you will fucking lose, not saying that you won't win every now and then, but the numbers are against you and your will lose a damn sight more than you will win.
The sooner you get to realising this, the better your game will be as you start to avoid certain situations, wheel out certain builds and weaponry to make up for these shortcomings. Infact, the majority of my kills are Magrider kills, I'm a tank whore.
So, if the magrider is the worst MBT whats the deal?
You are an infantry killer, aircraft harasser and general pain in the fucking backside. Just bear in mind some 3 rules:
1. Stay away from 1v1 MBT battles.
2. Don't push your luck with damage - your tank is made of crepe paper.
3. If you can, get a top gunner.
Supposedly the Maggie utilises manouverability to get the better of the enemy, in reality the Maggie uses strength of numbers and never allows itself to get too close. We are slower than the enemy, though we do have a short nitro style ability, our side strafing can help us avoid incoming fire and will save your ass on more that one occasion but enemy MBT drivers know this and if they are good will have already placed a round into your strafe position - so again, stay away from MBT fights.
So, infantry whoring. Here's the deal
Certs
Utility slot - Magburner, this is your get the fuck away button. It provides a big boost to speed for a short time, packing certs into this will decrease the cooldown. It can also be used to pull off crazy mountaineering and defense climbing stunts - however this is increasingly nerfed every patch.
Defense slot - I have no definte advice here, it comes down to a preference and maybe situation. I've maxed out the Mine Guard certification, as you might guess it reduces the damage taken from mines. Now it may be the guard is working but I see mines being used in the conventional way less and less. They do get dropped on you and shot at so they explode however, but this isn't mitigated as the guard is from the bottom only. If you find that is happening a lot, then you might want to use the Reinforced Top Armour - I'm certainly debating it.
Performance slot - Rival Combat Chassis, yes we are slow but our strafe is what makes us unique and gets us out of trouble, this improves that manouver.
Weapons
Main gun - Supernova PC, best of both worlds. Decent damage to infantry and can be called upon to shoo off the odd vehicle too. Use the Thermal Optics and try to max out your reload speed. I did say that we are infantry killers but the loss of direct damage when equipping the VPC is not acceptable, likewise the loss of indirect damage with the FPC is unacceptable.
Secondary - Comes down to what you want to do.
Anti-Air - Two flavours, the fast firing but direct damage only G30 Walker and the slower but indirect damage capable (it's a flak cannon basically) G40-F Ranger. The ranger is my AA of choice as often getting rounds directly on target is very difficult, don't expect enemy air to die but do expect them to fuck off and lolpod somewhere else.
Anti-Vehicle - Again two choices, the Saron HRB is a semi-auto quick firing AV laser with 6 rounds, the Halberd fires one round at a time but devastates armour if it hits. I'm currently packing a Saron to try and deal with the harrasser threat, saving up certs for a Halberd to battle test the difference. I'll update this post if neccessary.
Anti-Infancy - I honestly see nothing wrong with the default Basilisk, it does decent damage and the fire rate is ok. A case can be put for the M12 Kobalt, it fires faster and does slightly more damage and it's pretty cheap at 100 certs to unlock. Proton II PPA should be chucked out of the game, it's fucking useless.
We are everywhere
Apart from BioLabs there are very few places that don't benefit from a mag rider or two. Sieges are pretty good if you want to rack up kills and pretty soon the infantry will stop leaving their spawn as you decimate them whenever they leave.
Be aware of overhangs, as I said earlier, folks like to throw explosives off them
The power of Ten Magriders
A hunting pack of magriders is a thing of beauty. Strafing and surrounding buildings like some fucked up choreographed dance of firey plasma death. The composition of the vehicles should only really vary with the secondary weapons - AA and AV cover has to be your main priority in a pack, infantry only if there are 5 or more of you. A pack like this will destroy everything in front of it - it very rarely happens that you get a pack but it is a thing of burning fireball beauty.
Mostly magrider pilots (we are not drivers you red neck fuckhead) tend to be on their own, picking off enemies during attacks. during a defence a maggie has no role at all, too much enemy armour will destroy any hastily summoned magrider.
Watch out above you, your main weapon is fixed; it has no independant sideways movement and the elevation available is pitiful, top gunners can mitigate this.
A magrider can climb mountains better than most MBTs, popping up in unexpected places and often behind enemy fortifications. This element of suprised can invigorate a flagging attack - often to your expense but hey.
Press 'T' it shows you a third person view of your tank, useful to raise awareness of your surroundings.
Oh and just as a side note, despite our anti-gravity engines producing enough horse to propel a tank attempting to run down infantry will result in them ducking underneath completely unhurt.
Stop ogling that Vanguard! Eyes front.
Listen closely as I explain the power of ten magriders.
Magrider
The magrider is the weakest of all the Main Battle Tanks. There are no ifs and buts, it is that simple. In a straight up fight with another MBT driver of similar skill and certifications you will fucking lose, not saying that you won't win every now and then, but the numbers are against you and your will lose a damn sight more than you will win.
The sooner you get to realising this, the better your game will be as you start to avoid certain situations, wheel out certain builds and weaponry to make up for these shortcomings. Infact, the majority of my kills are Magrider kills, I'm a tank whore.
So, if the magrider is the worst MBT whats the deal?
You are an infantry killer, aircraft harasser and general pain in the fucking backside. Just bear in mind some 3 rules:
1. Stay away from 1v1 MBT battles.
2. Don't push your luck with damage - your tank is made of crepe paper.
3. If you can, get a top gunner.
Supposedly the Maggie utilises manouverability to get the better of the enemy, in reality the Maggie uses strength of numbers and never allows itself to get too close. We are slower than the enemy, though we do have a short nitro style ability, our side strafing can help us avoid incoming fire and will save your ass on more that one occasion but enemy MBT drivers know this and if they are good will have already placed a round into your strafe position - so again, stay away from MBT fights.
So, infantry whoring. Here's the deal
Certs
Utility slot - Magburner, this is your get the fuck away button. It provides a big boost to speed for a short time, packing certs into this will decrease the cooldown. It can also be used to pull off crazy mountaineering and defense climbing stunts - however this is increasingly nerfed every patch.
Defense slot - I have no definte advice here, it comes down to a preference and maybe situation. I've maxed out the Mine Guard certification, as you might guess it reduces the damage taken from mines. Now it may be the guard is working but I see mines being used in the conventional way less and less. They do get dropped on you and shot at so they explode however, but this isn't mitigated as the guard is from the bottom only. If you find that is happening a lot, then you might want to use the Reinforced Top Armour - I'm certainly debating it.
Performance slot - Rival Combat Chassis, yes we are slow but our strafe is what makes us unique and gets us out of trouble, this improves that manouver.
Weapons
Main gun - Supernova PC, best of both worlds. Decent damage to infantry and can be called upon to shoo off the odd vehicle too. Use the Thermal Optics and try to max out your reload speed. I did say that we are infantry killers but the loss of direct damage when equipping the VPC is not acceptable, likewise the loss of indirect damage with the FPC is unacceptable.
Secondary - Comes down to what you want to do.
Anti-Air - Two flavours, the fast firing but direct damage only G30 Walker and the slower but indirect damage capable (it's a flak cannon basically) G40-F Ranger. The ranger is my AA of choice as often getting rounds directly on target is very difficult, don't expect enemy air to die but do expect them to fuck off and lolpod somewhere else.
Anti-Vehicle - Again two choices, the Saron HRB is a semi-auto quick firing AV laser with 6 rounds, the Halberd fires one round at a time but devastates armour if it hits. I'm currently packing a Saron to try and deal with the harrasser threat, saving up certs for a Halberd to battle test the difference. I'll update this post if neccessary.
Anti-Infancy - I honestly see nothing wrong with the default Basilisk, it does decent damage and the fire rate is ok. A case can be put for the M12 Kobalt, it fires faster and does slightly more damage and it's pretty cheap at 100 certs to unlock. Proton II PPA should be chucked out of the game, it's fucking useless.
We are everywhere
Apart from BioLabs there are very few places that don't benefit from a mag rider or two. Sieges are pretty good if you want to rack up kills and pretty soon the infantry will stop leaving their spawn as you decimate them whenever they leave.
Be aware of overhangs, as I said earlier, folks like to throw explosives off them
The power of Ten Magriders
A hunting pack of magriders is a thing of beauty. Strafing and surrounding buildings like some fucked up choreographed dance of firey plasma death. The composition of the vehicles should only really vary with the secondary weapons - AA and AV cover has to be your main priority in a pack, infantry only if there are 5 or more of you. A pack like this will destroy everything in front of it - it very rarely happens that you get a pack but it is a thing of burning fireball beauty.
Mostly magrider pilots (we are not drivers you red neck fuckhead) tend to be on their own, picking off enemies during attacks. during a defence a maggie has no role at all, too much enemy armour will destroy any hastily summoned magrider.
Watch out above you, your main weapon is fixed; it has no independant sideways movement and the elevation available is pitiful, top gunners can mitigate this.
A magrider can climb mountains better than most MBTs, popping up in unexpected places and often behind enemy fortifications. This element of suprised can invigorate a flagging attack - often to your expense but hey.
Press 'T' it shows you a third person view of your tank, useful to raise awareness of your surroundings.
Oh and just as a side note, despite our anti-gravity engines producing enough horse to propel a tank attempting to run down infantry will result in them ducking underneath completely unhurt.