Battle rifles need some love

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Ixidron, Oct 6, 2014.

  1. Ixidron

    So I bough one because I had some certs and I was bored, first I though it would be like a long range shotgun, but then it turned out that I was way better at killing stuff at long range using shotguns with slugs, which surprised me and also surprised a Vanu heavy assault who took several slugs to the face.

    Anyway, the point is battle rifles are underperforming, due to the range you can land 2-3 shots, but people will be taking cover before you can kill them.

    Damage drop is also really stupid, battle rifles deal 250 damage at 8m or less, (funny thing is shotguns with slugs deal more damage at range and they also have higher range before damage drop (18m)) which means a 4 shot kill at knife range (5 with any level of nanoweave) which is pretty funny considering it takes less time for you to kill someone with the knife than with your rifle at point blank, but after that is 225 damage, which is 5 shot kill (6 for HAs).

    Landing five consecutive shots with the battle rifle is hard, even against an unsuspected target, they run away and take cover (people don't like bullets, for some reason), and they even dare to shoot back.

    My proposal is increasing damage (so it takes one less shot to kill) and the range at which damage drops:

    So it should be 350 damage at 65m or less (3 shot kill, 4 with any level of nanoweave), and 275 damage beyond that (4 shot kill, 5 with nanoweave level 4 or 5).
    Headshots will reduce the amount of shots needed to kill by 1 (as current multiplier is x2).
    • Up x 8
  2. patrykK1028

  3. FateJH

    For starters, we can ponder why these weapons are in categories that are obviously not named after the kind of weapon they are intended to contain.
    • Up x 4
  4. ColonelChingles

    Kinda funny how the FA "scout rifles" are closer to battle rifles and the semi-automatic "battle rifles" are closer to scout rifles.

    This is a battle rifle:
    [IMG]

    This is a scout rifle:
    [IMG]
    • Up x 3
  5. Nintyuk

    I personally Love my warden, While slug mauler or sweeper is better at killing things the unpredictability of the shot's means you nearly always need at least 1 shot to range in the arc for your particular target plus the slow projectile speed means your more likely to miss moving targets at range. The warden while weaker is considerably more consistent than slugs at most ranges and you can use HVA.
  6. Warlyik

    IMO, BRs don't really need love, it's that most other weapons are overperforming compared to it. With such a low overall TTK, it's hard to give different weapon classes actual niches that they excel at because a certain sub-section of weapons are dominating multiple niches at the same time. LMGs are just as or more effective at range, for instance. They're also much easier to handle in general than the precision needed for a battle rifle.

    Raise the TTK for most other weapons and the BR will naturally begin to shine. Simply buffing things isn't going to do much for the game unless you really like being dropped in 1 second by everything under the sun.
  7. Ixidron


    It's too late to nerf everything, people already adapted to low TTK, maybe during the beta since we had less vehicles and weapons, with more defined roles, but now it's too late, it would be a nightmare to balance.
    • Up x 1
  8. Axehilt

    Guess I could see battle rifles getting a little buff. I feel there's a sweet spot where they're amazing, but outside of those ranges they're lacking -- so I end up seeing better overall performance from long-ranged carbines on the engineer loadouts where I would consider a battle rifle.
  9. Skooma Lord

    I think the T.R.A.P. "Sniper Rifle" should of been how the battle rifles behaved from the start.

    The Battle rifles currently could use a bit of a bullet velocity buff in my opinion. Maybe a lower ADS cone of fire too.
    • Up x 1
  10. Alkezo

    The main problem I have with Battle Rifles is how long they take to zero back in after firing. The bloom is massive on those things for being semi-autos.
  11. TripleVasectomy

    I love the Warden. I love the iron sights and feel of it, and do better with it at range without a scope. I just use it with the flash hider and am very comfortable with it outside of 8m. The AMR-66 is the same rifle but I don't like the irons as much. The Eidolon is just not as nice as these two. The default muzzle velocity is weaker (not by much on paper but 30 is significant). To use it well at range I needed HV rounds and optics. The zero muzzle drop is mildly useful for counter sniping, but it usually just makes you a priority target for someone with a much nicer rifle. The iron sights are bizarre and it puffs out odd plasma bulbs that are very easy to trace back to the shooter. The only reason I really use it is for my engineer because the carbines are kind of sad. If there was a NS alternative I'd be using it instead. It's an odd weapon in a gallery of odd choices for the VS. If they wanted to increase the usage and utility of these rifles they could probably just add a select fire burst. It would make attachments like the compensator and forward grip useful. Of course the Eidolon would get the charged shot delayed release version just to make sure nobody ever used it again.
  12. Nintyuk

    Try the 3.4x scope red dot, That's my personal favourite.
  13. SeanFree

    You see that window over there? Throw logic out of it.

    I keed I keed, this is pretty odd though...
  14. ColonelChingles

    It's almost like this game involving firearms was made by people who know nothing about how firearms work! :eek:

    [IMG]
    • Up x 6
  15. BobSanders123

    To make things interesting they should make the NC one do more damage and less damage dropoff, the TR with a lower delay between shots and 4 extra bullets, and the VS with higher velocity rounds and already existing trait of no bullet drop.
  16. IamnotAmazing

    step1.use hsnv
    step2.headshots
    win
  17. Erendil

    Battle Rifles are currently one of the worst performing weapons in the game. Out of all primary weapons (aside from BASRs which you can't really compare due to their OHK), they have:
    • the lowest DPS
    • the slowest TTK except for the Corvus, and even then the Corvus is only slower w/in 8m
    • the lowest KPH except for the 3 starter carbines (due to new player bias skewing the numbers)
    • the lowest KPU
    • the lowest KDR except for the 3 starter carbines (again new player bias)
    So they're the lowest damage, slowest killing, worst performing primary weapons in the game. And now they're in an even more difficult spot with the recent 1x-4x scope fix. You'd think it'd help out Battle Rifles, and it did. They are now more accurate than before.

    However, the fix helped out almost every other primary weapon in the game as well.

    The end result is that the range where your average player can use a Battle Rifle and remain competitive has been pushed out to longer ranges, and its usefulness has shrunk since most objectives don't involve long range combat, and it's getting pushed more into the realm of sniper rifles which completely outclass BRs at long range combat.

    So, here are my suggestions (which I've stating many times before):
    • Tighten its ADS CoF from .1 to either .03 or 0 - BRs rely on headshots just as much as sniper rifles, and this will reduce/remove one RNG from what is supposed to be a precision weapon.
    • Remove the recoil bias that makes it pull to the right - Since it's semi-auto, recoil that pulls to the right is harder to compensate for and still retain the accuracy that's required for this weapon to succeed. This will make them more user-friendly for new players.
    • Increase its Max/Min damage from 250/225 to 300/240. That'd reduce its STK by 1 against Nanoweave 5 at all ranges, while extending its 4-shot kill against non-Nano targets out to 50-60m. At the same time, Semi-auto Scout rifles will still get to keep their STK/TTK and 2-headshot-kill-at-all-ranges advantages over BRs.
    • Up x 12
  18. Tuco

    Open field battles where the battlerifle ruled no longer exist because of the wraith ATV cloaking cheesers.

    Buffing the battlerifle won't change that.
    • Up x 2
  19. Ixidron


    Well, with that numbers I would add 350-400 RPM, and muzzle speed to 650.

    I've checked the wiki, and it appears that HV ammo decreases damage drop pass 40m, but damage or true range are not specified, so maybe we should change numbers to 40m without HV ammo, and 70-80m with HV, with a muzzle speed of 700.

    It would be nice to see some versatility added to battle rifles, well, soft point ammo won't do it (it reduces damage drop between 15-40m), but explosive ammo could do some tricks for picking MAXes at range (as long as damage against vehicles is removed).

    Also, why don't battle rifles have advanced forward grip?
  20. FateJH

    Nothing does anymore. SOE merged All "Advanced" attachments and their basic variants in a previous update. Granted, the Battle Rifle never had the variant for either the Laser Pointer or the Foregrip so there were no stats for them to inherit.