GD-22S Vs. Anchor, AGAIN.

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Gundem, Jul 17, 2016.

  1. Gundem

    Yes, I know, this thread's been done a billion times, but I just can't keep my mind off it, and none of the other threads really seem to know what they are talking about/


    I own both the weapons, and plan to Araxium both of them, for the NC LMG Directive. But, even as the Anchor is touted as perhaps the best LMG in the NC, nay, the entire game, I can't help but feel, well, disappointed by the Anchor.

    I know, how blasphemous of me. How dare I speak ill of the Anchor!

    Sure, I do "well" with it, but it's recoil feels like I'm trying to draw abstract art in my foes' skull. At medium range, it feels practically hopeless.

    And then, I bought the GD-22s, and it was like a bright, glorious light of unbiased recoil shined down upon my loadout screen. The thing handles like liquid butter in my hands, not hot butter, just lukewarm piss-your-pants-in-relaxation warm. The pathetic and minuscule RoF reduction was easily compensated by how much more effective it was at range, and even was somewhat countered by how much easier it is to burst for the head at close range.


    Am I using the Anchor wrong? I've tried Laser and Grip, SPA, but nothing makes me want to use the weapon over the GD-22S.

    People always talk like the Anchor and the GD are neck-and-neck, but from what I've experienced, it seems to me that the GD has already won the race. Many will say that the differences between the two are negligible, but the GD just handles laps around the Anchor.
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  2. MurgNC

    My last auraxium was the Anchor, and I'm making good progress on auraxiuming the GD-22 right now.

    I liked the Anchor more, because it SEEMED like I was getting better TTK with the Anchor, and to me TTK is the most important thing to consider for guns.

    That being said, the GD22 is not bad at all, and in terms of cert investment it's certainly the better pick if you're on a cert budget.

    The reload speed is clearly superior on the GD22. The engagement range is a little further out on the GD22, but that seems to be more of a help than a hindrance in most battles. I put the forward grip on the GD22 and ADS 99% of the time - accuracy is pretty good and chaining headshots is very doable.

    I put the advanced laser sight on the Anchor and had accuracy issues. Chaining headshots was hard. In retrospect I think I should have given the forward grip a try? But, as stated earlier, as long as I could land hits, the TTK with the Anchor was better.

    Just my two cents.
  3. Campagne

    I'm using the Anchor now, and I don't really see why it gets such high praise.

    I mean, sure, it's a good weapon, but its got a pretty bad CoF bloom and range. Good TTK, but a bit overhyped.

    I sometimes miss my SAW.
  4. Gundem


    Oh man, I love my SAW, the reason I'm heading for the GodSAW is because it's a 200 damage weapon.

    Ironically, I found that the SAW was actually pretty easy to use in CQC, since it has such a slow RoF you get plenty of time to reset your aim on their skull and chain headshot kills. Plus, nothing else like a 400 damage headshot to keep your enemy on their toes.



    Overall, I agree that the Anchor is a nice gun, much better then anything like the Orion, or Vanu forbid, the Flare, but it's just not living up to the expectations that I had for it. And after using a gun as reliable as the SAW, it's much less satisfying to use with it's recoil bias.
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  5. Eternaloptimist

    I gather that the Anchor gets a lot of praise because it can take down headshot victims like a demon at close range. I haven't played HA for a while but on one of my forced visits to VR Training (and with the default log in class being HA now) I had the opportunity to try it - and it is true. As to performance in other ways, can't comment.
  6. FriendlyPS4

    Both are easy to Araxium, but as a (PS4) go-to GD22 is the best all a rounder, hands down. Anchor behaves a lot like the TR Lynx; I used to LOVE that weapon, but these days I crave accuracy and ammo count. GD22 gives me those good time feels on both.
  7. DrakeFang

    GD-22S ->Solid and flexible LMG with a "jack of all trades, master of none" design philosophy.

    LA1 Anchor ->Solid and specialized LMG, lacking versatility, but dominating CQC and building fights.

    The GD-22S is a very well rounded weapon designed for medium to close combat. Its got a lot of controllability to help it fill that medium range assault role, but it also balances this by slightly lowering its DPS and thereby raising its TTK. This is the "rushing the barricades" sort of gun. It is made for transition combat, allowing you to push through mid-range defenses without sacrificing the ability to carry a competent CQC weapon.

    The LA1 Anchor is specifically designed to be a beast in CQC. It sacrifices controllability and range for a potent torrent of high damage fire. This fills the traditional "Door-kicker" role. It isn't designed to get you through mid-range defenses, but rather to be utilized once you've successfully broken those and have pushed the fight consistently into CQC combat within buildings, in towers, or on points.

    For the Anchor I'd suggest always having an Advanced Laser Sight and a 1X Sight. The Soft Point Ammo depends on your preference and circumstance.

    The GD can effectively run whatever attachments best fit your playstyle and situation, though I wouldn't suggest anything over a 2X Sight.

    Which of these weapons will serve you better is entirely dependant on your playstyle and the scenario you find yourself in.

    Personally, I still prefer the Gauss SAW for most combat scenarios, but that's more a matter of my playstyle and preferences (and the SAW's incredibly high skill ceiling), and it's probably not the best choice unless you have built the proper skillset for it.
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  8. FriendlyPS4

    My god I so want to 1v1 you to witness your incredibly high skill ceiling with the SAW. Lets be friends on PS4 so we can make this happen. DM me your PSN. Pretty please. I s uck with the SAW so you should conceivably have no problems. Lets find out!. : )

    Also I haven't played NC in awhile I been busy having fun with the Gatekeeper. So I'm rusty, another advantage for you!! : )
  9. Pikachu

    I thought anchor was a direct upgrade to GD-22s. The firing sound on the other hand is so bad you have to play with sound off and listen to music or youtube instead. Making it a less fun weapon to use. Have to do the same with all NC carbines but the fast one. I enjoyed using gd-22s and I did not enjoy using anchor. The anchor looks nice though, doesn't have the gimmicky grips of gd-22s.
  10. DrakeFang

    Sorry, but no. I already don't as much time to play as I'd like, so I'm not gonna waste it doing 1v1s.

    I'm not saying I'm better than anyone else either. Anyone can build up the skill to use it if they're willing to put in the work. It just seems most don't care to.

    If you actually want to get good with the thing, I can post some tips on Forum. I'll put up a new thread though since it'd be a bit off topic here.
  11. PatateMystere

    Anchor is a close range LMG. Very high first kick. Worst first shot multiplier of all LMG. Dont go with more than X1 scope unless you can manage this high recoil. Beast is CQC.
    GD-22S. Very low first kick. Smaller first shot multiplier of NC LMG. The easier LMG to handle, you can easily go for a x2 scope. It's decent in CQC. Better than anchor in mid range fight because recoil.

    Basicly the anchor is assault LMG, very oriented CQC. Beast in building and biolabs. GD-22S is easy to handle mid range LMG. Effective in most situations.
  12. FriendlyPS4

    This SAW debate is about as eyerolling as the TK debate. There should be no debate! SAW is a bad weapon for new players. Period. TK is a bad experience for all players. Period. But there is always THAT guy who argues otherwise. So we get politics instead of positive solutions. /rant
  13. Gundem


    It's got a slightly higher RoF, but it has much more random recoil, worse FSM and a slower reload.



    Now, I get what most of you are saying, Anchor=CQC, GD=Midrange...

    But is the Anchor's 23 RPM really worth the all-around lower accuracy? More horizontal recoil, worse recoil angle and higher FSM, and a slow-*** reload to top it all off.


    This is the one question I keep asking myself, and why I wonder people consider the Anchor to be so god-like.
  14. DrakeFang

    I never said the SAW was good for new players. In fact, I think it's a terrible weapon for new players, and have said so several times on these forums. I have also said that the GD-22S would likely be the best replacement.

    The skill floor on the Gauss is too high for a weapon that is being given to new players.

    I've never argued that it is a good weapon to hand to the newbs, what I've always argued is that when a player does learn to use it properly, it is one of the best LMGs in the entire game. Once a person can meet that skill floor and begin advancing towards the skill ceiling, the Gauss SAW is extremely potent.

    No one is saying that it is a good gun for beginners What we're saying is that it is a good gun, but one that requires more of its operator than most others.
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  15. DrakeFang

    The thing is that 23 RPM matters in the range the Anchor is built for, but the recoil and bloom don't.

    You can see this very well with Serversmash in particular. The events tend to have many, many high pressure CQC engagements on top of points, and the Anchor is the weapon most NC competitors go to for that scenario. It seems to work as well, considering it is normally at the 1st or second place on the killboard, and almost always at the top of the NC weapons.

    The GD has advantages over the Anchor, don't misunderstand me, but at the range that the Anchor was designed for, it is a beast and the trades it makes do count for something.
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  16. Gundem

    I can understand that, but IMO it's not quite enough advantage to justify maining the Anchor over the GD-22s. Perhaps if the Anchor had a few special traits that helped it in CQC like slightly higher bullet damage to combat it's awful TTK drop without perfect headshots(3 headshots vs. 2 headshots and 3 bodyshots), or better hipfire, but currently I'm pretty much in love with the GD-22s.




    On a side-note, would working with the Gauss Rifle help me to get used to the Anchor's recoil? I know it's a bit superficial, but I'm kind-of being a stat ***** on the NC Alt I'm araxiuming on, and so far I'm pretty disappointed with my current performance. I've heard that the Gauss Rifle and the Anchor have the same recoil pattern, so that might help me be a little more precise with it later on?
  17. UberNoob1337101

    HERETIC! You should be burned on a stake! :p
    It kind of is. As odd as it may sound to most, once you get used to the lower accuracy and worse reload, it's arguably a straight upgrade. Some people I met praise the Anchor and frequently say that it's the best LMG in the game, while others just think that it's a decent gun and prefer accuracy.

    These drastic differences in point of view might be because people are accustomed to different weapons.
    I, for one, started with and frequently played with guns that have some of the worser, if not the worst, recoil patterns, recoil in general, CoF bloom and CoF stats in the game (It's what you get for maining TR, lel), so maybe I'm accustomed to the randomness and bad recoil and know how to wrestle the harsher recoil patterns and kicks, and I've used CQC guns with higher magnification scopes (Back when I started PS2 for the first time, I used the TRAC-5 with a 3.4x sight up until I auraxiumed it, because I was a noob and didn't know that most CQC guns should be used with 1x)
    But I also know some people who have, through most of their PS2 career, used guns with very easy recoil patterns and accuracy stats, and all of them seem not to understand the Anchor praise, probably because it's simply not their type of gun and they're used to aim at the head from the start instead of going body shots first, then going for the head as the gun kicks.

    I personally think that head-shotting is over-rated. I mean sure, it doubles your DPS, but for me (and probably some other people, since I assume the Anchor praise comes from similar people) unless you're at close range, it's hard enough to track and directly aim at targets' heads at medium range, and considering that while moving guns aren't accurate in general (because CoF says so), it's often not worth it at range and it's safer to land bullets on the chest. And let's not forget the ADAD crouching that completely destroys you if you aim at the head.
    And this is where the Anchor shines. Because it's a gun that is accurate enough at mid range so you can still kill targets without too much trouble (If you're used to the recoil, of course), but in CQC, where targets are pretty big, the recoil isn't going to stop you to stomp your targets with consistent fire, and it can easily finish with headshots.

    Word of advice, if you use any gun with an unwieldy recoil pattern like the anchor, start at the chest and let the recoil work up to the head. That way you get consistent accuracy without bursting and it maximizes your DPS without much effort. It might be because you're used to the controllable recoil pattern guns.

    If you can't seem to headshot things properly or get the best aim with a CQC/unwieldy gun, always focus on the chest or the waist, it'll improve your consistency a lot, and while you may be better with mid-long range guns that can headshot easily, consistent accuracy and DPS even with body shots is nothing to sneeze at, especially because CQC guns have better DPS to compensate for no headshots.

    You'll still love, adore and prefer the GD-22S over the Anchor, but you'll probably be as good with the Anchor with this advice (I hope) :)
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  18. DrakeFang

    I get that. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of "maining" guns in the first place. At least if we're looking at it from an effectiveness standpoint. Unless I'm just playing for fun, I tend to take whatever I feel best suits the task.

    Some time on the Gauss Rifle might help, but I'm really not sure. The recoil patterns are fairly similar, but (at least to me) they feel very different to fire. It's a little hard for me to describe, but something about the Gauss Rifle just feels very light. Almost floaty. I hope you can get my meaning.

    Give a shot and tell me what you think though. It might just be me.
  19. \m/SLAYER\m/

    Anchor is better, once you facing an HA, you don't have downside of any other NC's LMG.
    GD-22S has COF, in panic situation, it becomes useless. its typical NC weapon - marksman's choice. i even prefer EM6 over GD-22S, it feels more flexible.
    Anchor is all around, it puts you on line with other factions, Orion or MSW-R doesn't matter, you can use skill or luck, depends on you.
  20. The Shady Engineer

    Something no one in this thread mentioned that I think is a huge plus for the Anchor is that it can equip soft point ammo. Those 5 meters may not seem like a big deal on paper but in practice they're a huge advantage in CQC.

    That said, I prefer the GD-22S too. Just a much more versatile weapon and easier to drill headshots with. Not to mention the almost assault rifle like short reload speed.
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