HC-1 Cougar - Completely Garbage From the Dev Team

Actually its slightly worse in terms of stats, but it does get more attachments such as the laser sights, and SPA.
I would say its more of a side-grade.

You gain some, you lose some.

I don't understand why there are vanu here saying the Zenith is terrible lol. The Zenith (if it stays as it is) will be be the best carbine in the game! stopping power of the trac-5 and nearly the accuracy of the T5 -_-. its ridiculously good.

The only terrible part is it looked just as boring as every other VS carbine. Though that may change. I agree though to an extent, perhaps not the best in the game but it will probably be really, really nice.

Honestly its not that much of a big upgrade over other high damage weapons. The merc pulls 32 ROF less but its more damaging at range it looks like, and a good player with a high ROF weapon or SMG like the cyclone could probably match that, not to mention pump shotties.

What TR needed was an effective long range carbine, and with that muzzle velocity this one isn't it.

Actually I'm surprised they haven't touched it yet, given the NS LMG, but they figured they'd have to nerf the SVA as well and that's just too much work.

There's only one component missing: SOE actually reading the feedback and acting on it.

That gun is kinda boring.

Remove TR.

The Cougar isn't bad at the role intended for it. However, it's a role that the NC arguably needed, not the TR. 167/632 on a TR gun? What? Even if it's balanced out statistically it doesn't make sense. Performance-wise, it's going to be no better than the Jaguar, which already performs similarly to the TRAC-5. And there's still the new Lynx. The Cougar won't be bad, just pointless, so I'm not going to waste my money.

Just make it a SABR carbine. It'll be better all-around, it's what TR players actually wanted, and it won't step on the toes of NC flavor for no apparent reason. Keep the model though, that thing is sweet-looking. Do this and I'll buy it at full price. Not that SOE is paying the slightest bit of attention, of course; we'll get the four carbines this Thursday with not so much as an inkling of player input mattering.

Oh well. No complaints about the Bandit and Zenith (people saying the Bandit/Zenith are the true OP ones might well be proven right in the end) and the Lynx looks fun. So there's that at least.

I can talk about the Bandit.

A neutral approach:-

Actually the Bandit is just a re-skinned AF-merc, that is statically worse but has access to attachments like ALS and SPM to make up for the loss.
Not really upgrades, just side-grades.

A negative approach on bandit:-

The Bandit is garbage, why would any1 buy a gun that is literally the same as the AF-merc just worse and its priced a 1000 certs. It doesnt outperform in CQC like the Cougar, neither is it good at range like the Af-merc. THIS IS GARBAGE, NC needs a cougar.

Neutral Approach on Cougar:-
This gun is pretty decent. That high RoF, ALS and SPM really makes it the best 167 damage carbine to use in close-mid. The damage does degrade fast, but I mostly use my carbines within 65m, so its not a huge problem for me. I would like if SOE added a compensator and x2 reflex sight. It does add weapon variety to the TR arsenal.

For negative approach on Cougar, you can flip through pages behind.

They can maybe consider giving the NC the cougar, and the TR the bandit. Problem Solved.

Ultimately, the new carbines look like a good addition to the game. They seem to be balanced, at-least thats what it seems like.

The Bandit excites me less for ALS and more for SPA + 75% ADS on a sorta-Mercenary. If the actual Mercenary had 75% ADS it'd basically be overpowered, so this is ever-so-slightly close to that. I've never been a fan of 167/600 hipfire, which is part of the reason I don't run ALS on the Anchor. If I'm grabbing a 75% ADS weapon I intend to ADS with it; that's why I run Grip + SPA on my Jaguar. I'd do the same with the Bandit and I bet it'd be grand.

Now the Zenith... that I don't know about, but near-Orion/Eridani damage output with AFG and a Compensator and better-than-average hipfire to offset the Comp? And 75% ADS besides? Oh goodness, yes. Not overpowered (the reload's a bit long for the DPM), but finally a VS carbine other than the Pulsar C that I actually want to use.

Nah, giving us a Merc tweaked for close range doesn't solve the problem of TR's lacking mid-range+ carbines.

I've got a better idea: Give the Cougar HVA, comp, advanced grip, tossing soft point and the advanced laser of course. Change it to no-angle bias recoil. Remove the extra drop-off penalty and extend its minimum range. Increase its moving and hip-fire CoFs.

If you think that'd be overpowered, well then first take a guess what gun I'm balancing it to perform like.

Then give the current style of Cougar to the NC, balancing in the .75 ADS so it's competitive with the Zenith.

And of course the other TR carbines would need some rebalancing/diversification, as they have for awhile but with new and more competitive close range carbines on VS/NC the need is even greater.

TR has a high ROF as a faction trait, and the sooner that happens the sooner NC will start to get some guns over the 200 mark on damage, at the sacrifice of some ROF.

And I'm okay with that!

If you want to solve the TR problem on mid-long range weapons, they need the ACX-11, or Razor.
Personally i do not mind them having either of those.

AF-merc is not the best mid-long range carbine. So its not the best way to solve the TR problem.
As for the cougar, i would love to have one.

Sure if ACX-11 is all the TR wants they can have it.

And about your idea, they would need to reduce the RoF, if thats gonna happen.
Reduce it to 577 or 550, and I'm fine with it.

The TTK of a 577/550 gun is considerably below the AC-X11.

Cougar's current RoF/bullet damage is actually pretty in-line with an AC-X11.

The 167/632 might be better against nano-targets granted, but of course nano is broken and stupid. I'd take the 200 damage/500 RoF gladly but NC would flip/SOE would probably never blur faction traits to that degree.

TTK is not what matters at range.
I would actually a prefer a Razor over a AF-merc if I'm going long range.

If you think TTK matters most, then you should probably stick to Cougar.

They can always give the TR a bandit, and the NC a cougar.

Bandit will solve the TR's long range problem to a huge extent while being a new gun. (no one wants a reskin)
I will give up arguing if your gonna say that this gun is terrible at range compared to the AF-merc, considering that its basically a reskin with slight changes.

The Cougar, well its awesome IMO. I would love to have a cougar in my NC arsenal, regardless of how useless TR has presumed it to be.

Bandit is better than the Cougar at range, cougar is better upclose. TR needs range, NC needs CQC carbines.

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