AV weapons are entirely different from secondary weapons, no comparison. AV is a player class, though everyone should have at least basic AV. That said, a full team of basic AV against a train of top tanks will do absolutely nothing. So, you are saying everyone should have to spec fully into AV so they can keep up with the new vehicles coming out? An assault/logi/scout player should have to spec into both heavy suits and forge guns JUST so they can handle tanks too? No, we shouldn't have to do any such thing.

Make a new game mode, the whole issue goes away.

This part:



I read it wrong. I thought you were comparing the two, not expounding the importance of your sidearm when equipped with an AV weapon. You are correct in that. However, sidearms importance to AV is still not a proper comparison to AV-Main weapons. For an AV player, sure. But for those of us who specialize, AV is a waste of SP. I'd rather spend a whole match avoiding vehicles than wasting SP on it, I do it quite often and it suit me fine.

But at the same time we should have the ability to take a break from all being tank fodder for high level tanks when we want to. Getting the ground behind me razed by tank fire while I mop up infantry gets old after a while, and honestly I've been burnt out on dealing with tanks since the missile spam hell from 3+ months ago. I cannot remember the last time I went into a match and there were NO tanks whatsoever. No matter the match type, some guy always brings one in. In skirmish, I have no issue with it. In a forcibly CQC ambush however, it's stupid to force people to play with tanks on the field if they don't wish to. If someone doesn't spec AV but wants to play, they have to play skirmish to have a chance. There should be an ambush mode for them too.
Again, if you have such a prevalent problem with vehicles you're suppose to use anti vehicle weapons or just live with it, your choice
Edit: And swarms are crap against shields, and many armor tanks have some decent shield buffers as well.

Yes, except that those 16 AV players would have to deal with the other 12 NON AV players on the field to try to kill the tanks.

Sinboto= ignored

12 ground units shooting at AV, plus 4 large turrets. Too much for AV to handle. If each tank has one gunner, that just means instead of using an AR they are shooting a blaster, and turret skills for everyone in the tank stack together. Yes, they might get one or even two, but this is in a hypothetical situation where EVERY ONE of the other team is running AV against top tier tanks. In the typical match you have maybe 3 at most with AV on the field. Even if they are running full proto AV, 4 top tier tanks is too much. It's not the HP or even the power of the turrets, but the hardners as well. a swarm on a shield tank with it's hardners activated, even a full proto swarm with 3 complex mods, isn't going to make a huge dent in the shields of a top tier shield tank with it's hardners on. Hell, I have a Soma that can take 5 swarm volleys when it's hardners are active.