I am not generally a support player but in the last build (when you could check suit layouts in the market windows) I got pretty fascinated with the fitting possibilities in the advanced and proto Logistics suits. So this iteration I skilled for the Logi suit and decided to try out the Mass Driver (I did this in the last build with the shot-gun .. apparently I never learn). At first I just wanted to go demolitions, Mass driver, Grenades and RE .. all things that go boom. I never did go RE, I am all grown up and can only grind the sp for so many hours and realized early on that the vehicles on the skirmish map could easily own a team of well equipped Assault players.

Essentially, I got sick of being red-lined so I skilled up drop-uplinks and once I had equipped the Mass Driver I realized its literally impossible to offer meaningful fire support without a nanohive. So that ended up being my build, Mass Driver, Nanohives and Drop Uplinks in a Type-II Logi. After the 1 mil sp and isk bonus I skilled up to a basic level gall dropship for added mobility on the field but I'll leave the dropship feedback to the more dedicated pilots.

Since the Mass Driver is the new addition I will stick to that. After several weekends of play I can say that I think faulty explosion animations have led to a good number of the 'my-shots-don't-hit' complaints on the forums. In one match recently, while waiting for the B Objective hack to finish I parked myself by the spawn point to pop anyone who spawned in to retake the objective. This was an educational experience. First dude to spawn was in assault gear, I missed with every shot (don't judge) and got no explosion animation on any of the 4 shots I squeezed off .... but the fourth round still killed him. Second spawn was another Assault, nailed that dude dead on and insta-popped him, again no animation. Third dude was in a heavy suit, don't know whether it was militia or a more advanced model. I also nailed him directly with the first round, again no animation and he did not insta-pop, he got some cover and an ally in an Assault showed up Creodroned him, I got an assist.

So that was three dudes, 7 rounds and no animations but every shot obviously registered. First dude took only splash damage (works out to about 120 hp per round with my Freedom and two med slot dmg modifiers). Second dude took full damage, probably over 500 hp with a direct hit. Third dude I know I hit directly with the first round but I don't know if I caught him with splash.

To me, this makes the Mass Driver a bit under-powered. At least as far as the splash damage goes. 4 rounds to kill an assault suit? I would like to see the Mass Drivers splash percentage somewhere close to that of missles (which do roughly half as opposed to the mass drivers roughly a quarter). 4 grenades to kill an assault player with splash seems kinda silly. I sometimes park myself on top of the central structure on the skirmish map and drop an uplink and nano up there cuz I can lob grenades onto all three objectives from there (though A Objective took some practice) .. it feels very frustrating to empty my magazine into the spawn point for B objective while there is 4-5 guys in there and not kill anybody. It isn't a hit detection thing (or at least not primarily) its a Mass Driver splash damage is weak as **** problem. Keep in mind I think direct hit damage is totally fine, but the splash is just sad and ridiculous.

Feedback welcome!