PlanetSide 2 Magrider Tips and Tricks

PlanetSide 2 Magrider Tips and Tricks by Baleur

A simple quick & dirty tips and tricks for the Magrider. Some tactics, mostly about maneuvers.
The main thing to remember is to play it like a roguelike. Play it as if you only had 1 life, be safe, be strong.
If you are below 60% health, you do whatever it takes to get out of the hotzone. I don’t care if you have to magboost over a rock to jump over friendly sunderers with troops deploying, you need to get out of there.

Of course, a disclamer. ONLY pull off such maneuvers once you are absolutely confident in your ability to avoid friendly fire. If you’re not, choose another route. Even if you’re surrounded by friendly soldiers, you can’t simply run them all over to get to safety. Your death is acceptable, friendly deaths are not.

The point is that you play smart and never suicide rush into an area unless there is reasonable benefit by doing so. Such a benefit may be a stalemate where both sides are locked down, then your Magrider can do something far more valuable than racking up kills after kills, you can break the stalemate. You can ensure that your teammates get an opening to push in.
This is your job, your job is not to sit back on a hill as if you were a sniper.
You’re not a sniper, you’re a hovertank. Your advantage is mobility and shock factor, blitzkrieg.
Use them. Stalemate examples at the bottom.

1 – The Magrider.
This is the meanest, baddest, “ground” fighting vehicle in our arsenal.
It excels at maneuverability and getting where your enemy does not expect you, and does not want you.
If you do not use the maneuverability, you have no advantage.

2 – Boosting onto a building.
Position yourself on a nearby rock or hill and aim. Rear up a bit but make sure your nose is still pointed up slightly, then boost away! Be quick on the brakes when you land, alternatively swing around to one side wildly while also strafing in the same direction, to brake faster for those hard to land places.

3 – Benefits of high vantage points.
The entire battlefield becomes your target, even rooftops which were previously the Magriders greatest nemesis due to Heavy Assault troops raining down rocketfire. Be aware that you are of course more visible, but the advantage in clearly seeing where each attack comes from, with no surprises, outweighs the risks.
The Magrider, for me, is not a sniper nor a tiger lurking in the shadows, it’s a mean killing machine with the sole purpose of achieving maximum target coverage with the gun.

4 – Outside perspective.
Make sure your rear is facing your own territory, preferrably some allied troops, or a Sunderer behind the building you are sitting on which makes for a far more tempting target than the Magrider. If you hear gunfire, you swing around, magboost off the roof and over the Sunderer if neccessary, and take out the hostiles.
The Sunderer is safe thanks to you, and you are safe thanks to the Sunderer acting as a diversion.
If you are ever threatened, or go below 60% health (see above), always always swing around 90 degrees from the enemy and hit the magbooster to get away and off the roof, usually landing you behind some buildings in safe cover.

5 – Making a turn in hostile areas. The bad.
Many people simply turn, without strafing.

6 – Making a turn in hostile areas. The good.
Always strafe, always. In every turn, every move you make, you need to be strafing to get the most of your mobility and keep that gun towards any danger zones.

7 – Sieging a building.
Don’t just sit idle shelling a building, try to (if there are no friendlies around) move around in a clockwise or counter-clockwise movement, rotate the W A S D keys to keep mobile as you shell the building. Dance.
You’ll be easier to miss and in case you need to get out of there, you already have some momentum to rely upon.

8 – Boosting on another Magrider
Can be done on pubbies without any coordination at all, just use your wits and common sense.
Don’t get in their way, and if you’re gonna do it, do it fast so you don’t bog down their time.
It can be a great way to gain access to rooftops and other hard to get locations.
NOTE: You do need to have a higher level of Combat or Racer chassi than the other Magrider, or you might end up bumping turrets instead of you actually gliding on top of it. So for gods sake check that you can safely glide over it before you activate your magbooster.

What to do during a stalemate. Don’t rack up kills. Break the stalemate!

Example 1.
Half-circle indicates magboost. T shape indicates your turret facing, strafe and reverse as neccessary.
In such a situation, make sure you can fit through your friendlies, then do a quick short magboost (not using more than 40%) to get up to speed fast and get into the middle of the field before Heavy Assaults have time to react.
Then proceed to shell as required while you strafe and reverse around to keep your front and/or sides towards the majority of the enemy forces.
Once you are in a flanking position and have caused chaos and havoc in the main enemy ranks (allowing your infantry to push forward now), use up the remaining magboost to close in on their rear and take out any Sunderers or encamped snipers, turrets and medics.

Example 2.
Similar situation, this time focusing on the Sunderer.

Example 3 (risky).
In this situation, rather than boosting into the open road which is seen in advance and gives the enemy HA time to pull out their rockets (and the engineers to place mines), strafe behind a friendly Magrider..
You may need to slightly nudge yourself on top of them sideways, as the rear is impossible to climb even with max level Racer or Combat chassi.
Magboost about half of your boost to get onto the rooftop, and continue full speed over it while shelling the biggest clumps you can find (turrets are a big priority, they pin down your friendly infantry and prevent them from pushing forward, which is your final objective).
Once you are in the middle of the mayhem, cause more chaos by shelling as needed and quickly find a nook or cranny to do a quick final magboost through, preferrably towards the enemy sunderer and try to finish it off.

In either example, if you die it is still worth it.
You caused enough havoc and madness on the battlefield to break the stalemate. Your insane breakthrough caused the enemy troops to lose all their concentration for 10-20 seconds, leaving all their focus and attention on your madness.
This allows your own infantry to push through and easily overwhelm the enemy, rush into buildings or flanking positions while all other heads are turned towards the maniac Magrider.

This is your job soldier. You support your team, you cause havoc and confusion.
You glide across rooftops, take out snipers and turret emplacements, shell enemy spawnpoints.
You break stalemates in times of need and give your infantry openings to break through.

Max level Combat Chassi was used in the screenshots, giving the highest possible hover height.