Let's Discuss Vulcan!

[Truthteller 4,204]

Developers seriously hate Vulcan. How do I know? Well, rarely has there been an update which made me think about getting it, since most of the updates consist of the addition of dumb mechanics or more nerfs.

 

That time when its new burning alteration had just been released gave it a decent popularity boost, but sadly it turned out to be pretty overpowered and was quickly abused by the help of many healing isidas, so it required yet another nerf.

funny thing is poor isida also got caught up in the nerf fest of vulcan

[wolverine848 13,097]

Developers seriously hate Vulcan. How do I know? Well, rarely has there been an update which made me think about getting it, since most of the updates consist of the addition of dumb mechanics or more nerfs.

 

That time when its new burning alteration had just been released gave it a decent popularity boost, but sadly it turned out to be pretty overpowered and was quickly abused by the help of many healing isidas, so it required yet another nerf.

 

Devs have no clue on how to actually FIX turrets. 

 

They perform a knee-jerk tweak and ruin things for players.  Then they repeat this 2 or 3 times.

 

funny thing is poor isida also got caught up in the nerf fest of vulcan

[Kill_the_Propaganda2 684]

Developers seriously hate Vulcan. How do I know? Well, rarely has there been an update which made me think about getting it, since most of the updates consist of the addition of dumb mechanics or more nerfs.

 

That time when its new burning alteration had just been released gave it a decent popularity boost, but sadly it turned out to be pretty overpowered and was quickly abused by the help of many healing isidas, so it required yet another nerf.

I'm getting these great scores with it because:

 

• It's in the low ranks.
• It is M1.9 going on M2 so I have a direct advantage over the M1 hulls I encounter. Maybe not a big one but it's an advantage. 
• My battles are filled with light hulls, most noticeably Wasps, which gives me many kills because they seem to want to destroy themselves by putting their relatively low-health hulls in the line of fire of many tanks just to drop a bomb. 
•  Mammoth allows my survivability to be heightened for more efficiency. 
• I use the Reinforced Aiming Transmission alteration almost wholy now. The vertical auto-aim decrease is noticable and I sometimes can't hit players that are really close to me. I tried it in a Polygon CP and I couldn't properly lock on to the enemies capturing the point without rocking my hull back and forth. I'd rather that extra rotation speed while shooting than more vertical auto aim because ti was too easy for them to circle me when I wasn't using the alteration. 

 

My time of dominating there will come to an end and my performance will mellow out when I reach maybe . 

 

The decreased damage does bother me though. There was an instance where a Firebird + Dictator was attacking me. My teammate activated their Hornet's Overdrive so I saw ho fast it was going down. My health was low and my energy was almost depleted and so was the Firebird's. Its teammate had my team's flag and I could have went for it if I killed the Dictator.  What I do to make sure I have enough energy for another encounter, I'd time how long I've been shooting and then stop shooting in hope that the last few bullets I've shot would kill it. It has been more or less successful but I did it in that Firebird+Dictator scenario and I stopped shooting a little after the damage nerf kicked in and he was left with 1 HP. It then took me down and use a repair kit after that. 

 

It's a bit frustrating but for now, I'll accept that this is the new Vulcan.

 

 

 

I'm not sure what is going on but I've been seeing Vulcans that are overheating and still shooting when they are not Incendiary Band Vulcans. Had a battle yesterday where an M4 Stock Vulcan + Mammoth was shooting and then he/she kept overheating and he wouldn't stop. I kept telling him/her to stop but he/she kept on overheating (probably he/she doesn't speak English). I abandoned the player and went to my other teammates in need. 

 

Incendiary Band Vulcans may also need a slight buff. Or at least decreasing the damage penalty on all modifications. The direct damage feels so small. I guess it's a good alternative since they would need two protections against it and would have to take off a crucial protection module for it.

 

[Kill_the_Propaganda2 684]

funny thing is poor isida also got caught up in the nerf fest of vulcan

It seems like they're slowly making Isida more and more offensive-purposed. Maybe they just want kills and kills for days. Playing as a healer these days isn't profitable anymore for me.  

[Michael828 816]

Devs have no clue on how to actually FIX turrets. 

 

They perform a knee-jerk tweak and ruin things for players.  Then they repeat this 2 or 3 times.

I agree, even though there are some exceptions, the process of balancing a turret is still rarely done in a smooth manner, and frequently upsets players. This is what I generally dislike about all these fixes.

 

 

Interesting story, I believe after you get your Vulcan to M2 (and upgrade it a bit), it should be able to handle M2 hulls with ease.

 

About the alteration, best thing to do is avoid maps like highways where there's a lot of differences in elevation, and stick to maps which have minimal elevation. It's also great for countering enemies who try to circle you when you're firing.

 

Overall, that damage nerf it received after overheating is too much of a punishment, and it was unjustified to also apply it to normal Vulcan users.

[u812ic 1,629]

When a new turret is put into the game, it's always OP and stays that way for at least a couple months or more. Then it's nerfed and nerfed again. It seems the Devs aren't concerned with the parameters of other hulls or how that turret is going to affect gameplay. They don't do the math or maybe there's no math involved that's why there are so many nerfs and buffs. 

 

When it was discovered that Vulcan's burn can affect Firebird's burn, why did they nerf the Vulcan instead of putting "stop" or a wall of some type in the programming that isolated the two turrets. I don't know anything about coding, would isolating the Vulcan from the Firebird all that difficult? Are nerfs and buffs over and over easier?

Edited May 18, 2019 by u812ic

[E_polypterus 2,374]

Because of the recent update in Vulcan it would very hard to play with and boring without the incendiary band due to the damage decrease.

Edited May 18, 2019 by E_polypterus

[Kill_the_Propaganda2 684]

Because of the recent update in Vulcan it would very hard to play with and boring without the incendiary band due to the damage decrease.

I find it hard to play without the Reinforced Aiming Transmission alteration. I haven't taken it off for a week. I would just have to give up if a light hulls strafes me far less a medium hull. I do miss the vertical auto-aim but that makes up for being able to put those pesky Wasps in their place. 

 

It's kind of bad that we don't have an accurate idea of how fast the opponent's health is going down. We can only count the seconds we hit them for and multiply that by the damage stat of the Vulcan. 

 

Also, are you experiencing this as well?: Sometimes, my Vulcan would deal a fixed number of damage to enemy players during that particular stream of bullets. For the modification I have it at now, it deals 125 per tick. I am not sure if that is increased damage or decreased damage but I don't know how it looks for the player being hit. Does their health go down in chunks? How does Vulcan's damage even work? The numbers fluctuate. 

[Kill_the_Propaganda2 684]

Well with the next Vulcan buff, at least I won't have to look at the damage being just under 500 anymore. That taunts me every time I go to the garage. 

 

[Orion2600 9]

To be fair, I don't think this turret gets the recognition it deserves. Personally, I like this turret due to it's fairly​ consistent DPS, and not having to guess where my shots are gonna land. I like having fully automatic turrets in this game so I made sure I get my kill before someone else does. Although, that spinup time nerf in early 2019 is killing off any chance of anyone using it besides as a counter to another Vulcan. I also think newer players aren't using this turret due to them all never turning their turrets. I've even seen Warrant Officer 1's doing this. I can't tell if they just don't know how, or are stuck with the mindset of "I don't need to turn it, he's right here, I'll just turn so I can shoot him." And with a turret like Vulcan, where you have to turn your turret to actually use the thing, they're gonna be put off by the fact they can't use their newbie tactics. I once saw a player in 2017 using Vulcan to counter my Vulcan, and he was just spinning around trying to move it while shooting, which was actually kinda amusing, but it was just a poor display. I think what I'm trying to get at here, is that the game should inform newer players to try using z x and c, or , . and /, instead of just spinning around. 

[I-Hate-Druggers 192]

I think vulcan is underwhelming compared to practically any other turret out there. The damage is something to shrug off. Viking overdrive with vulcan is a joke. Getting your kills stolen all the time is vulcan's special trait. The first alt allows it to shoot faster and quicken the reload but it doesn't seem to be doing much for the damage. 

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

I think vulcan is underwhelming compared to practically any other turret out there. The damage is something to shrug off. Viking overdrive with vulcan is a joke. Getting your kills stolen all the time is vulcan's special trait. The first alt allows it to shoot faster and quicken the reload but it doesn't seem to be doing much for the damage. 

Those two damage boosts it received really helped. I have it M2 (M1 10/10) at and it does really good if the enemy is unprotected (like all turrets, really). I use it with Mammoth so that I can withstand enough damage to finish off the enemy. 

 

About Vulcan's kills getting stolen: Yeah, this happens, but not often enough for me to complain about it. other turrets take HP off in chunks while Vulcan does it smoothly. Perfect timing (impossible to voluntarily do, it just happens) will allow your smooth damage to take the kill from an ally or enemy using a chunk-damage turret. 

And I expect my kills to be taken so what I do is when I'm about to die by a group of enemies, I'll sray all of them to makie sure I get a damage number on them so that I can get 5 points (and some Overdrive charge) for an assist. Vulcan is the best turret for "tagging" players to obtain assists. 

 

Vulcan with Viking's Overdrive is indeed a joke but it's good when the enemies are grouped up and unprotected (which is rare unless an ally Hunter EMPs them). If you're attacking a medium hull (with double armour enabled) that is outside of your maximum damage range, it may take almost your entire Overdrive to kill them (if they use a repair kit). I find that Vulcan should get maybe 5x damage boost. It requires constant interaction with the enemy to deal the damage with Vulcan so if your aim is being knocked off, you can get it back on the enemy but it'll be wobbly and you'd be missing out on even more damage. 

 

If we're going by unlock rank, then you're talking about its 3rd alteration Shooting Speed Regulator. I don't like the idea of my damage being reduced constantly but that spin-up time decrease is heavenly. I constantly use Reinforced Aiming Transmission on my Vulcan because I can't stand players circling me and I can't do anything about it. That alteration gives me a chance to defend myself. The vertical auto-aim decrease is rather noticeable though. I know my limits and it usually taunts me when the enemy gets out of my auto-aim range but I still love using it. 

 

On a good day, I can achieve scores like these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note that that is paired with Mammoth. Not all of those kills were by my Vulcan. 

[XxStriker 519]

I tried shooting speed regulator on the test server and I find it amazing, you have basically non existant spin time/cooldowns, so you can continously ram the bullets onto enemies, plus it shoots for ages!

 

I don't think it's all that bad since you pretty much don't have to worry about hitting the overheat treshold and losing all of your damage if you're in a tight situation.

 

Of course, this was m4/m4 and I was using uh... Driver drone I think (The plan was to reload titan's dome to heal back from the overheating :P )? I thought it would help with incendiary band, but it performed pretty bad against those other m4s/full drugs. Maybe I just don't have the mindset for it.

[C.O.N.Q.U.E.R.O.R 3,845]

How should I be using Incendiary Band? I'm doing fine with it but I feel like I shouldn't become a slab of Chinese roasted pork every time I want to deal some real damage....

 

[wolverine848 13,097]

How should I be using Incendiary Band? I'm doing fine with it but I feel like I shouldn't become a slab of Chinese roasted pork every time I want to deal some real damage....

 

 

With a "side of" Isida.   Can't fight physics and physics says you gonna burn if you want others to burn.

 

On the other hand... seeing fewer Vulcan Incendiary, but still a fair amount of Smoky Incendiary. 

Sure they give up some damage on the critical - but - so does Vulcan when they equip the alt.  Plus smoky has no other consequences.

[sezze100 416]

How should I be using Incendiary Band? I'm doing fine with it but I feel like I shouldn't become a slab of Chinese roasted pork every time I want to deal some real damage....

 

IMHO , incendiary band alt is not worth it anymore , allthough most other vulcans i see still use it , but they do get much worse scores then me . Baseline damage is now good , only you need to ckeep close eye on your yellow band , and stop before it starts overheating . The good thing about it is that i do not need to stock the firemodule as standard also , since i do not want to overheat . I might try the faster spinning up alt , but in case of the incendiary , do not use it ( try it for a few games and witness the difference ) .

[FrozenRailgun 1,771]

How should I be using Incendiary Band? I'm doing fine with it but I feel like I shouldn't become a slab of Chinese roasted pork every time I want to deal some real damage....

 

Nom nom nom....

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

How should I be using Incendiary Band? I'm doing fine with it but I feel like I shouldn't become a slab of Chinese roasted pork every time I want to deal some real damage....

"If you're going to be using Incendiary Band, you use it to burn enemies" - TheCongoSpider after the pet Isida massacre. 

 

The way I initially saw Incendiary Band, I had assumed it was for Vulcans that wanted to have an incentive for overheating. They would use the regular damage most of the time and then, if necessary, they'd overheat and deal the damage. But the Firebird rework made it very unappealing to overheat if you didn't have Firebird protection. I had assumed they'd be by themselves and not with an Isida all the time...until it was starting to become abused. I remember the first day it came out. I was in a Sandal battle adn the enemy had an Incendiary Band Vulcan on mammoth. And when you got touched with that for a second, you were marked for death. Its heating rate was 80% of maximum temperature for 1 second of exposure. Meaning you'd receive 8-9 ticks of afterburn damage after being shot by them for 1 second. the guy took first place with a high score. I had remembered seeing an Isida on their team but I don't think it was actively healing the Vulcan. 

 

 

 

 

 

With that few a number of deaths, he probably had the Isida healing him throughout. So with an Isida and the high ignition rate, they could have achieved these scores. Then, they reduced the ignition rate to 20% of maximum temperature per second. With Isida, then then got these results:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had deleted my other Incendiary Band Vulcan-helping screenshots some weeks ago. But it's a good thing I had posted them in the thread already, here they are. 

 

Then, they decreased the direct damage by 20%. That still wasn't enough to deter them because afterburn damage itself was a high number and couple that with Vulcan's direct damage, it would melt enemies away very quickly. Its effectiveness on the battle field was heightened by its pet Isida's healing. But along the way, they took away Isida's ability to obtain EXP and score from self-damage. That, as I had witnessed, discouraged Isidas from sticking with the Vulcans. That didn't stop me though, because I knew the damage they could cause. I knew that they could change the outcome of a battle. I sacrificed score, for my team's victory. 

 

So Vulcans lost a good bit of their pet Isidas there but they were still doing reat in battles...but then, the unfortunate (for other types of Vulcans as well) happened. The Overheating damage was nerfed. There was no comfortable incentive to overheat now. The incentive could be to finish off that enemy with the little damage you're dealing before they round the corner with your flag but that wasn't promising. Incendiary band Vulcan, in light of this had an incentive - being able to deal afterburn damage which was still strong. But beause of them (and Firebird because of its "rework"), Fox modules had been appearing all over the place so your avenue of their damage became a cul-de-sac more or less. With all those factors considered, they'd been obtaining far less score and no longer top the scorebaord. Players were more willing to go out into the open and be damage because they have Firebird protection and because the Vulcan's damage was so heavily decreased. Their survivability was heightened, much to the dismay of Incendiary Band Vulcans. 

 

So is it worth it today? For the number of crystals it costs, yes. If you're self-centred and want the best score possible for you, it isn't. It's still effective at dispersing enemies since that afterburn damage is horrendous if you don't have protection against Firebird. But with Isida's healing statistic decreased, their ability to obtain score from self-damage removed, Vulcan's decreased damage in regular mode and when overheating, and the new fast-paced and unstable gameplay with Overdrives, it's definitely not looking up to Incendiary Band Vulcans. If you're planning on overheating the enemies, know that your Vulcan would be at a disadvantage with regular mode and focus on overheating. It is best used with heavy hulls because when you overheat for 2 seconds as an M2 Vulcan, you'd receive 9 ticks of afterburn damage and if it's upgraded enough, you'd receive 10 ticks. So I always wonder why these Incendiary Band Vulcans (when they're on 30% HP after overheating for so long), stop shooting while overheating and die anyway when they can keep shooting and do afterburn damage to anyone that happens to cross their path before they succumb to the burning. If you're going to die, you might as well be doing damage to anyone unexpectedly passing by. 

 

Now let me lighten the mood up a bit. I did calculations somewhere on the forum stating that Vulcan with its direct damage decrease, + the 2 damage buffs Vulcan received recently, would make Incendiary Band Vulcan deal damage very close to what Stock Vulcan did before the 2 buffs. So when you're shooting in regular mode, just think of it as if your Vulcan didn't receive the 2 buffs. Think of it as if it was Stock Vulcan months ago. Hopefully that puts you at ease. 

[sythos 87]

Rip Vulcan. Incendiary band is the only dangerous module

[wolverine848 13,097]

Rip Vulcan. Incendiary band is the only dangerous module

The poor spin-up is still annoying but I get good results with my Mammoth-Vulcan(stock) at Brigadier.  Save the OD for when melee turrets try to ambush you, as 5 seconds is not really useful for prolonged firing.

[sythos 87]

The poor spin-up is still annoying but I get good results with my Mammoth-Vulcan(stock) at Brigadier.  Save the OD for when melee turrets try to ambush you, as 5 seconds is not really useful for prolonged firing.

I guess. Thought when an m2 incincindiary Vulcan trains on you and keeps firing, you heat up a lot and you health pretty much drains way. I see your point about this support turret. You usually have to have another teammate like an Isida to back you up.

[sezze100 416]

I never and have never counted on isidas helping me . Im a very mobile vulcan user and will do that anywhere on the playfield . Isidas hampered me more in many times then being helpfull . They like stay very close , but since im very mobile they bounce on me many times making me get more incoming shots , or miss my shots .

The incendiary band , i took it on  the 1st day it came out , since i witnessed 1 other vulcan in game who did have it . It was a blast festival , 99.99% of the players didnt know the Alt or the power of it , and they were doomed . Killsnr were extreme , im talking +30kills / 1 or 2 losses , no isidas helping .

After the nerf which def was needed , things became more normal , but then the new users showed up , since they all wanted to have the OP power of the vulcan and they came slightly dissapointed . They wanted a isida on their ass , because they used it on a different way , ass being a more static user . Also , other people now knew the vulcans strength , so they did try to stay out the line of fire.

After a few more nerves , things were becoming very bad , and people stopped using the vulcan alltogether again .

Then good things came along , with a buff on the normal damage side and this became another game changer . Vulcan now has good base power , and you can kill many enemies . If you use the incendiary band , your basepower is much lower (20% ) and those cannot be made up by the very slow heating rate vs overheating .

Let me tell you again , vulcans do not need the alt now , it simply isnt worth it . The new stats are way better for using without alt , and most ( nearly all ) vulcan users i see still do not realise it . All is fine by me , everybody should use a weapon or hull how they want , but unless you prove me wrong , i know i will get better nrs in game then them .

Im very experienced vulcan user , started with it when i became marchal ( it was my 1st m3 turret ) . and now got +1.8 million of experience on it , so i do know what i'm talking about .

[XxStriker 519]

 

Have you tried shooting speed regulator? Would you recommend it? I'm curious.

[wolverine848 13,097]

Have you tried shooting speed regulator? Would you recommend it? I'm curious.

The -20% damage nerf is not compensated by the better spin-up.

 

I have it - used it 2 or 3 times ... meh.  Waste of crystals.

[sezze100 416]

Have you tried shooting speed regulator? Would you recommend it? I'm curious.

 

 

The -20% damage nerf is not compensated by the better spin-up.

 

I have it - used it 2 or 3 times ... meh.  Waste of crystals.

 I loked at the alt stats and yes , you lose again 20% power , same like with the incendiary band . Those 20% is what makes it from a good and very usefull weapon to a underpowered , not very usefull 1 . I can see it work in some cases , but i am not spending my crystals on it any time soon .