Well, we have to have something to make up for not having a factional advantage-trait like NC or TR.
Doesn't the Scythe have perfect hover, something the Reaver and Mosquito cannot do?
If you use the level 3 hover module, yeah. Otherwise you play the same thruster-tapping game to stop from diving into shit while trying to bombard it. It's a bit better at hovering by default, but a fighter-bomber that's slightly better at hovering is not preferable to one which is faster, more maneuverable, and faster firing, or one that can take a bigger pounding and do more damage per shot. Especially when the others get factional advantage on their weapons and it doesn't (see lolpods, it's really obvious there), or when it's designed such that it catches on obstacles and blows up instead of bouncing off.
Well, we have to have something to make up for not having a factional advantage-trait like NC or TR.
Factional advantage? Those exist? I thought everyone was generally balanced with certain niches but all around OK? 
* Tiruin plays on the Briggs server.
I've played all three a decent amount, and VS is definitely the worst off, partially by originally design and partially because people whined until they lost the one thing they really had going for them.
Here are the things that were nominally among VS's advantages back in the day:
1. No bullet drop.
2. Balanced weapon stats.
3. Magboost.
1: Only applies to some types of small arms. Does not affect dumbfire rockets, bolt action sniper rifles, or most vehicle weapons (barring one or two that are energy weapons). Combine this with how most VS small arms have average or worse damage falloff and you've got a situation where the primary VS advantage is that it's slightly easier to harass people with really low damage shots from outside normal engagement ranges. But they still aren't hitscan, either. So in effect it eliminates one of the three aim-offsetting factors (the others being flight time and recoil), but ranges where damage is meaningful are so short that you'll never need more than a millimeter or two of elevation anyways. That, and it doesn't get applied to anything where it would actually be useful. Sniper rifles still have drop, tank shells still have drop, rocket pods still have drop, &c.
Compare that to TR and NC. TR get high RoF and large magazines (which equates directly to lower TTK and more kills for each reload) applied to
all of their weapons including MBT cannons and rocket pods. NC get high damage (with lower RoF and generally heavier recoil). This also applies to all of their weapons, and their downsides are things that can be compensated for. Lower RoF is tolerable if your guns can kill with fewer shots, and recoil management is basic mechanics. The GodSAW, even post-nerf, is still one of the best weapons in the game for a reason: it's a one or two-tap kill LMG that's functionally also a sniper rifle.
You'll see people talking about VS weapons being more accurate or some shit, that's pretty much entirely false. In effect they're slower firing than TR, much weaker than NC, with a tiny advantage that doesn't apply in 95% of fights. Leading in to...
2: Nominally true, insofar as that VS weapons tend to fall into the middle of the road. In other words, they're typically shit at everything. The Orion is considered to be one of the most powerful VS guns because of its high RoF (mainly)--it's a noticeable
underperformer when compared to TR guns. The SVA-88 is the other useful VS LMG, because it's like a shitty weak knockoff of the Gauss SAW. That's what you see repeated throughout, the VS have a lot of mediocre guns that don't do well in any role, and a few that are almost as good as the average for other factions.
3. The Magboost. Which no longer applies because people cried until it was nerfed into the ground.
Okay, so here's the deal with the Magrider: it's a shitty tank. Why? First, it's turretless. This means that you
must be pointed directly at your target. A Harasser flanks you during an armor battle? Either you can't shoot it while it shoots into your side and rear, or you turn to shoot it and give your side and rear to the enemy tanks. You can't effectively fire on the move unless you're going straight for the enemy. You don't get your factional advantage
at all; VS tank shells still have plenty of drop.
Your gun is mounted on the bottom of your tank. That means that a Magrider driver has to expose their
entire vehicle to take a shot, and any irregularities in the terrain or obstacles can prevent you from firing. Going hull-down is impossible.
In short, the Magrider is essentially a tank destroyer with none of the advantages thereof. No stronger frontal armor, no stronger gun, no ability to hide more effectively. It had two things going for it: strafing and the Magboost. Strafing is still there. Specifically, ADADAD strafing where you move perpendicular to a target you're facing. In that respect it's better, since you have better control and don't have to turn side-on to do it.
Magboost, though, that was what really made the Magrider good. The big weakness of the Magrider is that it can only be effective either in great numbers or operating in choke points, but the same reasons for that also meant that it was shit at pushing through enemy lines and flanking. The Magboost made flanking not only possible but easy, even in really rough terrain. The south-east of Indar was prime Magrider territory for a reason: you used to be able to boost straight up a lot of those cliffs and get around to the side or rear of an entrenched enemy while other Magriders held the choke point. It also reduced the danger in crossing open ground by allowing to to cross it faster.
But people cried and it was nerfed into uselessness. Now we have shitty tanks that can't do anything better than their counterparts. Oh, except for one thing: the hovering means that you can drive over friendly vehicles in traffic jams! Boy, that sure does make up for everything else!
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When I started playing my NC toon I had some trouble because of the recoil. Once I got used to it, I started to like how easy it was to kill people with a couple good shots. I fell in love with the Vanguard, a proper (high-performing) MBT. When I started playing TR my first life with totally default kit sent me on a higher killing streak than I'd had for weeks on VS or NC. And it never changed.
That's the tl;dr of PS2 factions. You play VS if you're a masochist who likes spandex and weird-looking vehicles and can handle having the shittiest version of everything. You play NC if you're a good tech player who can control their weapons since they reward good play the most (or just a dedicated tanker, because in that field VS sucks and TR is a niche gimmick). You play TR if you're a CoD player who wants to be able to kill three people in as many seconds by holding M1 and looking in their general direction. I'm not even kidding. My TR toon is what I go on to relax and have fun when I'm getting stressed playing VS or NC, because it's markedly easier to do well.
My feelings about the ESFs are this: Reaver = lol no fuck that I'm getting in a tank; Scythe: So fun to fly but god damn do I die a lot if there's AA around; Mossie =
D.Va.exe
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Topic: Planetside 2: Free-to-Play MMOFPS. 2000 players/server. (Read 1136751 times)