For breaking through chokepoints and clearing rooms: Grenade bandolier. Flash grenades are still pretty unreliable, at least if you only throw one of them. But toss 2 or 3 of them into a room, maybe add some concs, EMPs and frags and there is absolutely no reason to pull a MAX anymore.

Against air: Skyguards, base turrets, Walkers, G2A launchers, to a lesser extend Basilisks and Decimators, or you could just pull your own air. And you wouldn't believe how much mayhem a single walker harasser with an Annihlator heavy in the back can cause. We've taken on multiple ESFs and even Shredder Libs with that setup. Or a fully crewed Valkyrie with a Wyvern, 2 lockon heavies and 2 engies repairing. Almost unkillable as long as you avoid Daltons/Decis/AP shells, etc. There are so many options to deal with air.

Tank columns: Fill a Galaxy with LAs and Engis, drop right on top of them and stick as many explosives on them as you can. Dalton/Shredder libs. Set up a nest somewhere on high ground and bring Lancers/Phoenixes or MANA AV turrets and Annihilators if you're TR :P Or just grab a Valkyrie, drop a single infiltrator with a spawn beacon behind enemy lines, hack the vehicle terminal and pull your own tanks to fuck the enemy from behind.

There are a few problems with all that though: It requires teamwork and coordination. I know, people like to whine that there are not enough leadership tools in the game. But at the same time, hardly anyone uses the things we already have. I see maybe 2-3 /orders commands per week. Nobody is using region chat to organize. People don't seem to understand that sometimes the best way to defend a base is to fall back and prepare a counteroffense. And there is just an overall lack of leaders. In-game voice chat is terrible most of the time and not a lot of people use it. I try to join public squads every now and then, but there is just no real leadership. No strategy, no tactics, no communication, just a waypoint at the general area where the SL wants people to go. And a lot of the good players that could actually make a difference are too busy farming because KDR is love, KDR is life. So right now, even though there is nothing that I'd like to see more than MAXes getting removed/reworked, I don't think it's a good idea just yet. There are a lot of other problems that need to be solved before that, like a more meaningful resource system, leadership overhaul, territory 2.0, etc. But I think a step in the right direction would be to have MAXes only be spawnable at the warpgate and maybe some major facilities/larger outposts. MAXes should be a valueable strategic asset that needs to be brought in by an organized squad to do a specific job in specific situations. Because right now MAXes only trigger escalations. Oh, I can't get into that building, better pull a MAX from the sundy. Oh, the enemy has a MAX, guess I should get one as from the spawnroom as well. Oh, now they got their own MAX guarding that door, better tell my friend to pull a MAX as well. Suddenly there are 5 enemy MAXes on the point and the only way to get rid of them is to pull even more MAXes. Now both sides have more MAXes than regular infantry and the fight will be decided by which faction controls Hossin at the moment. It al comes down to numbers. Having MAXes would be completely fine, if there weren't so fucking many of them, replaced so quickly and so easily once they go down.