Ok so for a long time my main character has been an NC. Mostly engineer, but I dabble with HA and infiltrator depending on the situation. For fun I have a couple other characters (TR and VS) of course, and I use them when I feel like goofing off and dying a lot.
Today I had a breakthrough - nay - a revelation: I absolutely LOVE playing medic for TR. I never even tried the medic before because, you know, medics right? They gotta be sissies. They’re the nurses of the battlefield. But the rifles that the TR medics have… I don’t know what it is, but they’re the first guns that have really clicked this quickly for me. I just get a complete blast out of playing a medic in a base defense/assault, running up through a deluge of gunfire and healing/rezzing guys and then cappin’ some schmuck in the face at close-mid distance.
This game has taken on a whole new look to me. Anybody else have any experience like that with the game? When you just try something for the heck of it and it changes how you approach the game?
Not really, but yes, medics and engineers are not helpless in this game.
Don’t get too full of yourself and start thinking you can go head to head with heavy assaults though. Of course this isn’t the same as not being able to kill them, but you of course need to make the situation favor you.
The thing about medics/engineers is that they are experience machines. Healing/reviving or repairing/rearming give massive amounts of experience and you can still fight well.
I do think that medic cannot fight as well as engineer though simply because they lack the turret which is of huge strategic importance in the stalemate meat grinders that many big base fights between even numbers turn in to though.
From my experience, the medic is better at medium range than the engie is, as might be expected upgrading from a carbine to a full rifle. I’ve taken out quite a few heavies, don’t you worry. Focus on support (duh) and the opportunities for pop shots at the distracted opponents will present themselves.
Probably the best part of medic is that experience of dodging shots just to heal that one guy cowering at the front line who is at touch health. Cinematic.
Teiman
1645
The turret… is not that usefull. I completelly forgot it existed for a long time (maybe since the game was released) and never missed it, … It has a few uses, but you are normally more usefull moving around and doing things.
Houngan
1646
About the only real use is in holding a Biolab from air pad invaders. You can get it on a narrow enough angle so that it isn’t instantly burned down and still get a mess of kills. Otherwise it’s good as a distraction or for momentarily holding a corner from a long distance.
Houngan
1647
Hrmph, I think they tweaked the AA Burster so that it can’t damage ground vehicles at all. Completely unnecessary.
You guys must be using the engy turret wrong, because it’s been a lot of fun and tons of kills for me so far. I look for high ground good cover locations to pop one in meat grinders and then start racking up the xp. I set one up on an assault on a tech plant the other night where I was up on a second story rampart with a great view of the inner courtyard right outside the spawn area. As NC would rush out to engage my VS brothers in the courtyard below I would rain fire down from above and most never even realized I was there until they died, either by my fire or that of my brothers who got in the killing shot after I knocked sheilds/health down. Another evening I had great fun setting a turret up on a rock outcropping overlooking the vehicle bay in a base assault. As TR would attempt to do the “pop out from the sheild long enough to get off a shot at a tank/soldier” thing I would spray them with the turret, resulting in a lot of partial credit kills. I also took apart several MAX units that thought they could come outside the sheild to take pot shots at tanks or infantry, as the turret is great against MAXes. The best turret placement I ever had though was in the main generator room on defense in a tech plant. As TR soldiers and MAXes attempted to swarm the gen room defenders I poured fire into the narrow stairway down into our loaction and had a constant stream of partial kills and MAX kill shots. With turrets it’s all about location and placement.
That said, I wish I could find am engy gun for my VS guy that didn’t suck. The default one is Ok, the Eidonlon sucks, and I’m not really a fan of the solstice one that has a grenade launcher. I just want one that is accurate and does decent damage at mid-close range. Maybe I should be looking at a shotgun?
Most of the time I use the Pulsar C I think it is, which is shared with the LA. Or a shottie, usually the Nova, which is good with slugs at medium range. I do like the Solstice SF, but it’s a short ranged weapon for sure.
Houngan
1650
Shotguns are funny. First, you do really need to have the mag extender before they are worth comparing with regular weapons. 8 shots just isn’t enough to get things done and discourage the next guy while you’re running. Slugs are great for aimed fire, but I wasn’t having much luck in knife-fight range with them; that may just be me. What I do like is I can give out three hard pieces of damage during an assault (as far as working with a team and laying into a defending force) or I can go head-to-head and get one kill and one “oh shit!” before having to reload. I’ve switched back from slugs to regular but I’m not at all sure what’s right yet.
I like the Thanatos as my shotgun, purely because it’s used by all the classes save Infiltrator and Max. I have slugs and extended mags for it and it makes a mess, though I take the slugs off if I’m fighting indoors.
Other than that, when not using the Solstice SF with grenade launcher, I like the Serpent, for its spectacular rate of fire.
Teiman
1652
Shotguns with slug make a weapon that is superior to others in closed distance, and adds the ability to snipe, counter-snipe and make head-shots onekill people… while it still retains the ability of kill people in cqc. I am NC, and I use the piston, and is so reliable that it always kills in 3 successful hits. And it sounds good (to me), the “thumb thumb thumb” is satisfying meaty.
The best weapons in the game atm, are *shotgun with slug ammo, breaker rockets, scatter shotgun, zephyr and the saron.
Can you change ammo type ‘in game’, ie not during customization?
Teiman
1654
Nah. If you are infantry, you must go to a terminal. If you are a vehicle, you are stuck with whatever choices you made when spawning.
Don’t think you can change any of the add-ons on the fly. Would be interesting, but it seems they mean for you to find a station to do that.
Tell that to all of the people i kill with it.
There are basically two situations where the turret is good at.
[ol]
[li]The Meat Grinder: There is a huge battle going on. the terrain is not super supportive, but you can use the engineer shield to block most of enemy fire and the enemy is somewhat funneled in to a narrow arrow, allowing you to focus on them. You will get tons of kills if you’re good, but there is a chance of getting grenaded (i can mostly dodge these as long as i get an ingame notification), rocketed (generally this doesn’t one hit you, so just repair), flanked (generally you can kill the person and hopefully you have allies to also kill them) or your greatest danger, snipers killing you from the front.
[/li][li]The Turret Ambush: In large base battles that are still contested on the outside, you can set your turret up in a hidden location and just ambush people, getting tons of kills. This is more risky than #1 because you’re generally alone in a field of enemies. You will likely need to move around every so often because people will try to flank you. Mines help. I like setting up under the legs that are under bases and facing the portals protecting the vehicle garage. People run out of their “safe” spawn point and i gun them down.
[/li][/ol]
#1 is basically every base assault ever so it is a super common situation.
Mostly though, turrets are high risk/high reward. You’re a stationary target and very visible. Your turret can take a lot of damage, but people know this and they will try to flank you. You have to be prepared for this and not tied to your turret at the hip.
Slainte Mhath: Highly recommend vx6-7. I bought it after doing some research (everywhere i looked, this was pointed to as the best vanu engineer weapon) and have loved it so far. It is pretty short range, but then i think all of the engineer weapons are from what i remember.
I use an upgraded Serpent (IR/NV & soft point ammo), which is very accurate and very fast. Basically, if you draw a good steady bead on a guy without missing many rounds (none, preferably), you will drop him pretty much every time. Aim at the head and it’s even more of a sure thing. Miss so much that you have to reload while someone is shooting at you, though, and you’re in real trouble.
That gun is also why I tend to be dismissive of the turret: in almost any situation where the turret would shine, I can do better by dropping a secondary ammo pack and using the serpent while squatting behind something, which kills faster at most distances while also being much harder to spot than the big green “look at me!” shield.
Alan_Au
1658
The turret has its uses. However, with the way firefights work, it’s usually better to surprise someone, which is difficult with the great big “look at me” shield. Instead, I tend to use them as obstructions/distractions while I lie in wait nearby.
As an engineer, I love using mines; they’re worth every cert. However, restocking them is expensive, so it’s best not to deploy them frivolously.
If you spend your whole clip during a firefight, I’ve had good results switching to pistol and finishing off opponents while they’re reloading.
Teiman
1659
About mines, it helps if you do something like driving vehicles or healing, and from time to time you empty the infantry points, so you convert these 750 points into mines, even if you are not going to use mines today. This way you will have a stock of ~40 mines that you can use when needed.
cousine
1660
Is it completely free? I mean WOW is also free for beginers…
