A-tross
The first shot recoil multiplier is what really sets the SABR apart from just about any other weapon I've used in Planetside, and both the Reaper and Tross have 1.5 and 1.33 FSR respectively, while the SABR only has 0.75. The great thing about the Reaper and the Tross is that they have 167 damage
at maximum range, they are essentially little siblings to the lauded NC6 Gauss SAW.
Honestly, the whole reason I like the SABR so much is because of how similar it is to the NC1 Gauss Rifle, which I've used quite a lot, so it just felt more natural for me to use as opposed to the Cycler.
I was thinking of starting up in PS2. Any class/faction tips or recommendations for someone just starting out?
- What server are you on?
- Without membership you get three characters by default, and there are three factions to choose from, so it's impossible to make a 'wrong choice'.
- Personally medic is my favorite class, but engineer doesn't need to rely on teammates being hurt/killed to get experience, as long as they're firing their guns (in or out of battle). If you choose medic you need to get the medic tool upgraded at least to the second-to-last upgrade. While the last upgrade is very nice it is very expensive for a newbie, and when you revive with a non-maxed-medgun you can squeeze a bit of healing points on people you revive (as they won't have full health) which means more ribbons, which means more XP, which means more delicious CERTS. The downside is you can't go and revive 5 guys in a chain and continue on like I usually do with the full upgrade, as you don't have to stick around to heal each one.
- Although, your playstyle may vary, always try to be in a squad whether that means being in large platoons (my preferred choice) or in a smaller squad that does smaller fights, people may have 'squad boosts' activated that grant more XP, and XP-based interactions with squad mates (spotting an enemy that a teammte ends up killing, reviving a teammate etc.) gives more points than a random pug. Plus, you get a bit better sense of direction with objectives, and you can ask people questions. Typically people are friendly to newbies as far as I can tell. Be sure to have voice enabled, even if you don't have a microphone, as most communications in the game comes over voice chat (well, the important comms anyways)
- Don't get the 'command channel' certification in the 'squad leader' certification list, and if you do have it muted permanently forever till the end of time to infinity.
NC MAX
One of the things I've noticed after having spent time playing as all three factions... rarely have I seen NC pull maxes for anything other than a MAX crash or a biolab. I don't really find NC MAX to be that enjoyable, as my only real option for enemies out of spitting distance is the Falcon (default AT weapon), and while I haven't tried the Mattock I can't imagine it would fare much better. Plus, the other two MAXes just feel a bit better simply because you can hold the mouse button(s) down for a constant stream of death for several seconds, while the NC MAX you have to click each time (with the exception of the Hacksaw), and while that may seem to be more of an annoyance than anything the fact that they're such short range just makes it that much worse. it's a shame because the objectives in most bases are inside buildings, where an NC Max would excel, it's just the typically open nature of the rest of the base and actually getting to that point that makes the NC Max so vulnerable. People don't want to be unable to fight back against threats out of their range on the way to the objective, so they don't bother pulling them in the first place... at least that's how I imagine people think.
It also seems that, at least with the platoons I run with the most, the NC tend to favor infantry play over combined arms. They will get 'stuck in' a fight and won't pull vehicles as they are lost, which leads to them being pushed back when enemies mass redeploy or send in their own vehicles. It just seems that NC is more conservative with their Nanites than the other factions, which is silly since they regenerate so quickly the way they are now.