Seems that stalkers depends on the power of ur weapon,and watching guides in youtube im going to do my own guide. So,lets start. If u are Vanu u have Beamer,either if u are NC,the same way,Mag Shot. This is the worst pistols for stalkers in his respectable factions. So,the best pistols of three factions was,judjing to all ive tested and watched: Vanu have Spiker and Manticore,Spiker seems to have the worst rate of fire than the equivalents in NC or TR,but its a burst pistol,that this is good,and his architecture form either reload was cool. Manticore seems to was a Cerberus (not his power) but with better rate of fire and his sound while shooting was cool. Terran have the AMP and the Repeater,AMP was VERY GOOD for kill one simple unwarned guy (all stalkers must evade face to face combat,and always face to unwarned bad guys),Repeater have two equivalents in Vanu and NC and was burst pistols that was good in close range combat,but u need to be quick. NC have the Mag Scatter and Desperado,Mag Scatter its unique,its a pistol/shotgun,seems that was the best (in my opinion) for close range combat. 2 good landed shoots in the enemy and good bye enemy,the only bad point was the magazine,only 4 cartridges,either u only have 24 shoots to recharge. Desperado was like Spiker and Repeater but have better power. In my opinion the worst of those three pistols was the Spiker,that have worst rate of fire of the three. Repeater have better magazine than Desperado but Desperado have better power. Spiker have low rate of fire,and never,NEVER put a silencer on this weapon,either on those 3 weapons,it cause lowering the rate of fire. If not,test urself. Its low,but this low quantity of rate of fire lowered by silencer means that enemy have time to leave from ur shoots,so u need to be quick. TR stalkers have the advantage of start with Repeater,while other factions start with the bad Beamer and bad Mag Shot. I say bad compared to other sidearm weapons. Of course u can kill with those weapons but u need to be quick. And well,finally all factions have the 3 revolvers,Underboss,Commissioner and Blackhand. Underboss have the best rate of fire,either better hipfire,i recommend it for close range combat if u are running. Commissioner was the most popular,but dunno why,have power,but lacks on rate of fire either long range fire than Blackhand. I think,in my opinion that was the worst of the 3 revolvers. Finally the Blackhand,if u play from medium to long distances its the best pistol. But dont play it in close range,first because have low rate of fire,and second if u have longer fight,the magazine have only 4 shots. So if u consider that ur playstyle was close range stalker (the close range stalker its the essence of infiltrator,because have "infiltrated" in enemy base) then consider the faction pistols or the other two revolvers. Manticore costs 325 certs,its the lowest expensive if u want a new pistol. Others if i remember correctly costs 1000 certs. And the last sidearm,was the ballista. Its silence and its futuristic medieval weapon!!! But have lower rate of fire than any other sidearm. Most of the people pair this weapon with EMP grenades or in close range combat with knife. If u try to only shoot at enemy probably the enemy runs living,other case if u have luck to land two shoots at moving enemy. So i not recommend this weapon at start. I personally prefer of all writed,the Underboss for close range fights,have very good rate of fire,power,and good aim at hip fire,paired with laser sight was better. Now u have an idea of the actual pistols for newbie stalkers (23/06/2015) Maybe in forward we have new pistols. And this guide was created in my own opinion. I accept others but all in respect. So,take care of what pistol u buy,u have in ur hands the triumph of the enemy kill or ur dead. Take advantadge (and remember this date) of a new chars,u have 1500 certs to spend at BR 15. So i recommend,if u dont like to spend the 1000 certs for a new pistol,to buy a pistol with real money. The major part of players spend real money with cosmetics and appearances and skins,so dont be afraid to waste real money. U can spend the 1500 certs in upgrade ur stalker cloak,one lvl less than maximum and buy mines (Claymore/Bouncing Betty/Proximity Mine of Vanu) or if u prefer,buy med kits. And thats all!! See u in battlefield!!!
Suppressors do NOT lower the Rate of Fire on a gun, they simply lower the Velocity of which the bullets fly. Aka how fast they fly, so you should ALWAYS have a Suppressor on a Stalker Cloaker, because you will almost always be in a CQC situation.
I think the reason that the Commy is so powerful (and loved) in comparison to the Underboss comes down to its range potential. The Underboss is a great weapon don't get me wrong with a slightly higher ROF. However the potential to score kills outside of close range really makes the Commy shine since you can blast people well into medium ranges with less rounds required then the Underboss. Now that the Blackhand exists, the Commy has been knocked down from its previous niche as we have a much better alternative when it comes to extended engagements. Blackhand is easy to use, has great range, but lacks enough overall damage to hold its own CQC. (Not even possessing enough potential damage to kill a shielded HA unless a significant amount of headshots are made.) I think this is where some people may find the Commy a favorable option and still use it. Crossbow (or Ballista as you like to call it) is still very much a high skill weapon with a very punishing learning curve. However it is (in my opinion) the most powerful weapon in my arsenal. All of its drawbacks save for projectile speed can be outplayed. No other weapon save for the Mag Scatter has high enough alpha damage to enjoy the bolt - knife combo. All other pistols must open with a headshot + knife in order to enjoy the same low time to kill. Ultimately I think your guide is pretty decent. Burst fire weapons are always going to be very loved by all skill levels from starting to seasoned stalkers. They really do help you unload during that critical window of time before a HA turns on their shield. Higher Rate of Fire weapons like the Mag Shot and Beamer can be used as tailing weapons. They favor good use of cover in order to come out on top. In the Beamers case cover is required on targets like HA's. Tailing is a pretty low risk activity and the higher rate of fire is useful for people who do not have very good aim. They allow the player the ability to miss a few shots, without punishing them. For these weapons to work people need to use cover and work out on resetting the engagements. I'd also recommend the new active knives to compensate for weaker CQC ambushes. In contrast weapons like the Cerberus and Rebel are much slower firing, and require incredibly good aim to make them work. For every time a player misses a shot the enemy has more time to react and return fire. The small ammo pool also brings home the importance of landing E V E R Y shot. These pistols are great for up close, silenced executions. However they are not often used because of the higher skill requirements. Unfortunately everything these weapons can do, a revolver can do much better and easier. The only downside of course to revolvers being they cannot be silenced.
As someone who's auraxiumed the Magscatter, I assure you the weapon is only good on paper. In reality, actually doing more than 300 damage per shot is uncommon, and doing 500-600 damage only happens past 3m if you're ADS with the smart choke or neither you nor the target are moving when you fire. As such, the fire rate is also too low. Also, you DO NOT want to go for headshots unless your target is not moving, and you're practically point blank while ADS with the choke. This is because if you miss 2 pellets, all your extra damage is gone, and the head is about 1/6th the size of the chest. The scatter also has horribly, horribly low ammo (lowest ES pistol killing potential in the game), because all ES pistols are designed to be able to kill a minimum of 2 people (do 1,000 damage each), with one bullet left over so you can miss 1 shot and still kill the target. The Scat was designed to only kill 2 people if at least 83% of your damage lands on every shot in the mag, and even if you have 100% accuracy, it's a shotgun so you cannot save the remaining 17% damage for another target, it's simply wasted. The TR's AMP is no better. It's killing speed is slower than the default pistol, it has significantly less damage per mag, and it doesn't stay accurate enough for even the CQC ranges it's intended for. Now, the killing speed is a bummer, but overall it's acceptable. The ammo per mag absolutely needs to be increased. The weapon's bloom-per-shot must be lowered (it's the lowest damage tier infantry weapon in the game, yet gets a BPS of a 125 damage weapon!) Here's how to fix these weapons: Mag Scatter- +24 RPM +1 round per mag and 1 extra per reload from the reserve Pellet spread from 3 to 2.5 (With choke) ADS CoF from current to jackhammer hipfire stats. Hipfire while stationary from current set to jackhammer while moving set. This will give it the 2 shot killing potential of a shotgun out to 8m that the stats lead you to believe but don't currently actually give you in combat, and will allow ADS to kill effectively out to the intended 12m max damage distance. AMP- +7 rounds per clip (yes, this is the only weapon in the game that uses clips instead of mags!) and extra 7 per reload from the reserved -25% bloom-per-shot. From 0.2 | 0.1 to 0.15 | 0.075. These aren't nearly as many changes as the Scatter, but they are just as powerful if not more. This will allow the AMP to kick out more damage than the default repeater, though over just a slightly longer period (TTK is just under 1.5% slower than the Repeater). The lowered bloom will also allow it to fire it's newly increased clip capacity with very nearly the same inaccuracy as before for the final round.
The Crossbow,as seen in video,must need two shoots in medium distances to kill an enemy,with the risk of the enemy leaves at first shoot,so u must be quick and have a good aim at the second. In close quarters combat,is good,the shoot + knife combo works well,but there are newbies that dont remember that have knife so use shoots every time,and this weapon have low rate of fire. This is why i not recommend for newbies. Other case was for little experimented or veterans,that starting to familiarize with the game. About putting silencer,yeah it lower the rate of fire,if not,test ur self in VR room. Put to Repeater/Desperado/Spiker a silencer and u can see that u do shoots more difficult. But in general those weapons (maybe Spiker not) dont give a chance to enemy to escape before dies. Didnt test the Commie in medium distances,i tested in closer,and his rate of fire was worse than Underboss. Usually,the stalkers go to close range distances,and that excels the Underboss,or at least thats me only,that i feel better with Underboss than the other two revolvers. The bad point as u said,that u cannot put silencer. I have in present the Crossbow,since i like medieval games too,but i need more skill than revolvers. And well,thanks for saying that this guide was decent. I thought that trolls starting to appear here,caused im a magnet of those people.
It depends on the skill level that you have. If you are accurate with the high risk high reward shots, then the blackhand/Commissioner/Crossbow is for you. But if you are like me where you waste half your 100 round magazine trying to kill one guy, then something with a high fire rate like the AMP or Spiker would be better. There is no "best" weapon, because there are different play styles and skill sets among different players. ATTENTION: I have a YouTube channel that is just starting out and I would love feedback/constructive criticism to improve my videos. Thanks for checking out my channel if you have the time. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/user/AnoculoptGaming
U have reason,there are playstyles,however there are more effective weapons than others. But if there are a "best weapon" for me,this is the Underboss. I dont test in combat,but i starting to have an idea how it works. It have very good hipfire aim,power,and paired with the laser sight,ur hipfire was lethal. Its a good option for quick runs and u dont like to push the aim every time u face an enemy. Seriously,i always i test this weapon in VR room,makes me feel that im going to be a good stalker infiltrator. However i have the risk with that weapon of beign spotted,caused it dont have silencer. But all i want its the quick kill,and that excels this weapon. About ur channel,thanks for share,im going to see it when i have time.
Maybe many pistols dont lower the rate of fire with silencer,but test on Cerberus if u are Vanu,or NC with Rebel,or maybe Repeater if u are Terran. U notice if u want to say it with other name,that does more difficulty to land continue shoots. If not,test ur self. The only pistols that doesnt lower the rate of fire,was on pistols like Manticore or AMP. Not bad,continue with that line.
I'll have to VR Test that theory. But i'm pretty sure you are wrong in that Silencers do not reduce firing speed, simply reduce velocity. I can triple tap people at low HP with my Mag Shot just as fast with or without the Silencer. It could be a percived ROF difference due to the lower Velocity, but In practice you don't lose any ROF.
The AMP is very underrated. Ok the damage is low but this weapon reloads and fires brutally fast. Maybe the old good Commissioner is more forgiving, but the AMP is a nice alternative and it's a great side-weapon for "panic" situations when your primary is out of bullets.
Test it,but now ive build the Spiker,its a difference. VR room makes ur guns slower,or maybe,because there are a lot of things in the map my FPS falls and then i shoot slower with some guns. Maybe its a myself problem,but if not,the VR room's pistols,shoot slower than in true battle.
Commie is the best pistol outside of t4 the reason for this is that the commie doesn't need too many bullets also it's accurate as hell
