Yes, this "pair bonding" is a problem : always shoot the one that healed last, then run. The only drawback is that even Hornet pairs take awhile to move in tandem, so this is where a shaft or railgun can split the pair. On Rio, we just shot them both when they were in the same line of fire. Isida should NOT be able to heal an Isida. That would put an end to THAT.

Yes, it is insane to have one holding you from 15 meters away. They are trying to keep it on a competitive basis with other M3, but high M2/low M3 are too effective against average upgrades. If it could not also attack other tanks as strongly (powerfully in some cases), Isida would be less of a problem. Facing a Railgun-Isida pair with just Twins, I realized I would be wasting my time shooting the Railgun. But the two seemed genuinely surprised when I turned, charged, and killed the Isida! And was then killed by the Railgun, as I would have been in any case.

Is it weird that I have a different favorite weapon for each different battle? Sometimes you might want to use shaft at say, Berlin, if there are campers on the other team. On Noise, it is usually strictly a "watch your flag" weapon. But I did venture into danger by hanging from the stairs looking down on the Blue Team. Fortunately only one defender could "shoot up at me." On Polygon, with enemy spawning *behind* you, you might only get one shot.

The Viking, as impressive as it looks in the Garage view, looks like it was squashed on the overhead view, then the "Cobra" look from the side tells everyone what you are using. Titan and Mammoth look like elephants dragging their tails. Shaft looks fine with Hunter, a little big with Hornet, and ridiculously outlandish with Wasp -- there's a flip waiting to happen! :P

Here's a puzzler: twice I have scored kills while "evading" that seemed to be more than a 40 "arcade" hit. Are these "snap shots" eligible for "critical hits" like other weapons?? The spec sheet is noticeably silent on this.

Noob tube -- Hah! - maybe you would be happier back in smoky kiddie camp forum with the other "I can't figure out how to use shaft" crybabies. All I see the kiddies using is "braille gun" because you don't have to look where you're aiming.

Classic Shot many shaft players have made at Rio (can be done from two spots). Time is running out, your team leads by 1 flag, but a tough enemy has your flag and is running across the rooftop for home. At the top of the roof, with no one blocking his escape, he is hit -- not just hit but exploded -- just as he was contemplating capturing your flag. A shaft at the far left, or sitting at the back of the right alley, has aimed upward as far as he can and made the shot. Warning to shafters: this is putting a target on your back the next time someone comes over the roof, so be ready for them.

As someone who doesn't use Smoky, I can tell you one thing --- it is annoying as hell. I hear all these "pop" "pop" "pop" and after three hits my Viking is down about 1/4 (he's hoping for a critical?) but I'll do anything to stop that annoying drip! If smoky *had* a real frag effect like Thunder, it would be more acceptable to more players who want to get bang for their buck. (* I just got to watch my first live-action Shaft multiple kill. Usually you can't be sure you did more than the one you aimed at.)

Yeah, you can get a 2.00 or higher with Wasp-Shaft but sometimes any fast turret can get into position before the enemy ranks know you are there. I used Hornet-Shaft simply because my armor is too expensive on Wasp. Also, you need weight if you are going to fire cross-body, otherwise you flip over. Then there are the infantile teammates who see any Wasp or Hornet and think it's fun to flip them over. :angry: Babies must play.

I think there is a MAJOR problem with Vulcan : the M0 and M1 shots hitting my Viking seemed to be *BUILDING* my health not removing it! I cruised in a Hornet completely around the Monte Carlo battle scene without a lick of damage! There were 3 Vulcans being used and they were like peashooters against a battleship. The railguns were as effective as usual, so it doesn't seem to be a battle glitch.

I only know a couple of noob shafters. I know a lot more noobs that couldn't use it if they wanted to. It think it's called "aim envy..." The hardest part is figuring out if you can hit a target because your field of view is so restricted. The next hardest is to keep your teamies from bumping you off target. :(

I saw an example of a shaft user today at Monte Carlo, and I can only characterize his actions as "pure chicken" or what comes out of chickens. He would wait until I shot one of his teammates, THEN stick his head out and shoot me (not even a really powerful shot, so he's cheap, too). Then hide again, risking other attacks while he waits for his next shot at me. Now that may be a wise way to get more kills, but if somebody was doing that on my team I would not give them an "attaboy" for their wiles. Now I'm stopping all of their guys from crossing the bridge, covering our guys that try to cross, and keeping respawns from reaching the upper deck -- so he figured he would take advantage of my open position and lack of backup by taking three shots to kill me while I killed three of his team. Now, you can say Shaft is basically shooting guys that can't shoot back, but that seemed even more cowardly. Jump up, let's shoot it out. That's what I do when somebody has a shot on our base. Don't send your teamies out as cannon fodder, wait for them to die, then sneak out for a potshot. Eventually, I just moved, shot him dead, then went back to sniping and covering our base. Later, a member of the same team drew me out of my great spot by spawn killing my teammates. More of the same. :angry:

All in all, a bit disappointing. The M0 and M1 Vulcan are pitifully ineffective against my Viking. The M2 takes more than 15 seconds of fire to kill me. In the same time, you could fire Thunder 3 times, so it is more of a threat... unless you have the capability to rapidly re-aim, or pivot like Twins while firing. I expected a more powerful "minigun" but I can see where it might be useful if you could get cover. I can probably add it to the turrets expected on Monte Carlo.

This turret needs tweaking. When you fire, it does not accurately "track" your movement, but tends to stay firing at some random point. I cannot get it to stop firing and re-aim, possibly due to induced lag when there is more than one Vulcan being fired. Twins is much more stable and maneuverable. I would like more control over the bursts (2-second, 3-second) because you can't fire indefinitely (unlike Twins).

Not the most exciting photo, but I can guarantee not 1 tanker in 50 has been there (under the forest). http://s1127.photobucket.com/user/dfoofnik/media/falling%20forever.jpg.html

The other topic was locked, which means they intentionally want this, knowing full well it is an impediment to play. I still don't understand the reason for it. Why let us go to the garage during a battle and then ask us if we really want to go? Worse, some people seem to think THIS POPUP is what lets us go to the garage, not realizing that this update comes MONTHS after the utility was in place, and just complicated the process. Who does this benefit?

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I sent in a video, but all you have to do is go to Monte Carlo late night US time and there he is.

I like to use Hornet now because if I have to use speed boost to jump on Monte Carlo, I want to survive the landing! I see all these guys jumping the ramps with Hornet, and it's too bad we have to boost to do it. I am trying to upgrade my Wasp to make the jump, but the speed increments are TINY...!

Well said. Shaft is like an arrow, while railgun is like a heat-seeking missile: one takes a lot more ability to aim. What I see mostly from railgun is "point, roll out from cover, shoot, duck back" -- try that with shaft! :o I would like to see shaft given the ability to *move* the tank when pointing. Sometimes you line up a shot, then find that your target is NOT visible through the sight. Then you either fire and move, or wait for another target. The faster rotation was a godsend.

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No. You adjust your training to accommodate your BEST equipment, the one you use the most. This isn't cross-training, where you *have to be good with slow stuff too* -- that sounds vaguely game-fixated. We use the turrets we enjoy, not the ones we need to get better at. That's like saying you should keep going into battles that you suck at just so you can "learn how to get killed more slowly." I had a lock on Noise, then I started seeing these trolls come up and push me over the side to get the spot. Never play that spot again. :(

As I mentioned peripherally in my other posts, you should play as shaft even if you don't like it: you can learn what locations can be hit from other locations "to the foot" such as the 3 places that can hit the roof in rio, and how exposed each one is to certain attacks. You can use this later, to some extent, with other turrets such as rail and twins that also can fire with some elevation. The worst elevation that I found was with Railgun (6 to 9 degrees) as compared to Ricochet (WAY too much at 15 to 18 degrees). Railgun has the range, though, to make that elevation work on battles like Monte Carlo and Berlin, where I saw railguns taking out barely-exposed shaft snipers, or shooting into Blue's home area (fortunately not the spawn points :o

Any player that is in multiple battles simultaneously should be removed from the site. It prevents players from playing battles they enjoy. Will they do anything? Only if it affects the dropout rate of players.