The garbage weapons... Even worse than the bad

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Tycon, May 26, 2015.

  1. Tycon

    I'm surprised so many of these still exist in the game in their current state. I'm not talking about underdog weapons that specialists can use like the battle rifle, yea it under preforms and could use a slight buff but its far from useless. I'm talking about the real trash of the trash. Keep in mind this is my opinion but I highly anticipate at least several of the weapons here are hard to debate. I make this list not as a fun way to look down on the weak weapons but plead with the community and Day break to find a way to turn these neglected awful weapons into powerhouses or at least usable states.

    TLDR Version at the bottom.

    G40-F Ranger: Holy @*($ this thing is awful. Yea the indirect explosion makes aiming at air slightly forgiving but the damage is pitiful at best and the bullet velocity is only slightly faster than the E540 Halberd rocket launcher! The angle of aim isn't worth anything since the Walker is far better in damage, bullet velocity, cone of fire, rate of fire and magazine size (really? all those areas? the flak explosion is the ONLY advantage). The kobalt is a better anti air gun against ESF with a better angle for infantry, faster bullet velocity, a much tighter cone of fire and about the same time to kill an ESF. Unless you're shooting at a liberator or galaxy the kobalt is better than the ranger, but taking multiple clips over a long period of time to barely damage a liberator is all you will get with the Ranger. This is not even mentioning the walker can hurt armored vehicles along with men decently, the ranger cannot even damage tanks (what?) and barely hurts men. This gun is the absolute worst

    I'd give this gun a 0.5/10 it's IMO the absolute worst in the game, but hey it only goes uphill from here.

    All Fixed Burst Variant Guns: If not for the ranger, these would be the worst guns in the game, however they are awful and under preform even in Battle Rifle standards. Stat wise they appear better than their full auto counterparts but suffering from first shot multiplier recoil after every trigger pull, poor grouping on the burst at medium + ranges and poor dps. These guns simply aren't worth the certs and I would consider them challenge guns. I unwisely bought an Equinox burst years ago thinking i could just semi auto like a scout rifle for full auto but was sadly mistake. The accuracy of trying to auto this weapon is terrible and due to over sampling and human error will almost always be worse than a full automatic gun.

    Burst variants get a 1/10 for being a fun gimmick to maybe use as a feat of skill.

    T2 Striker: One could assume based on me being a VS player I could perhaps be bias in this comparison of the absolute worst weapons. While a bias might exist i'm not going to overlook a gimped faction weapon when I see one and the TR really got a turd here. While the phoenix isn't good at all, it has very situational merit where it can be useful and the lancer I'd say is solid but a side grade at best. The striker is AWFUL!. I've tried this in VR and on a friends TR account. What a disappointment, the lock on gives your position away, has incredibly short range and the damage done over the period of shooting the missiles makes you better of using a default rocket launcher or even an annihilator for flexibility.

    1.5/10 for the striker, **** yourself for the challenge.

    TR Fracture: I can't say much that hasn't been stated on the forums recently about this piece. Tr have no good AV Max Weapons, the M3 Pounder is basically an anti infantry weapon and close range AV. The rockets are slow as hell too. There isn't much more to say, this weapon is just an inferior version of the raven. Between the low rate of fire, pitiful damage, low missile velocity and horrible feel this gun is just a crappy version of the Raven. I'm not saying falcons are great either when compared to the raven, but the Fracture is in a category of it's own.

    1.5/10 here for me also, it can shoot stationary sundys but that's about it.

    VS Pistols (minus the manticore): I couldn't decide which was worse, the Beamer, the Spiker or the Cerberus (also the immortal is crap too). The manticore is basically just a copy paste version of the mag shot so it's decent. I decided to call it a draw as they are both equally useless, the beamer for it's legendary low damage per shot despite its accuracy as well as not being automatic leaving vs out in the cold; and the cerberus for being a very poor substitute for revolver or power damage pistol. It's no secret for most factions bar TR's Repeater are sub par compared to the NS pistols, the commissioner is just the ace of all trades here (it even outshines some battle rifles it feels). But the fact that the VS pistols are so bad in their own right, VS are essentially required to buy an NS pistol. The spiker is a poor man's automatic pistol, it's like the TR trap were a pistol with a terrible mobility limiting charge up mode.

    they get a 2/10 for being slightly usable until replaced. The only purpose for vs pistols are for a suppressor

    Honorable Mentions
    With my limited experience here are a few guns I can't with good conscience say are utter garbage, but are so bad they deserve to be mentioned.

    PhaseShift: It's nick named the "phase ****" for a reason, horrible bullet velocity, poor distance scaling and a charge up sound not suppressible. However with dedication this gun can be used moderately well, albeit inferior to the parallax in nigh every way. A cool gimmick of double bolt shooting and using heat instead of ammo, prestige guns replace that gimmick. If this gun had a low powered scope such as a 4X for ranges more suited to it's attributes it might be decent, sadly it's a scout rifle trying to be a sniper rifle.

    C85 Canister: I know it might seam like I could be bias not including any NC specific guns on this list. The thing is NC have some under preforming variants but lack the bottom of the barrel trash weapons. Most of their guns at least have a function even if very situational, the NC seam to have the largest pool of medicore guns. However even the mighty NC have a few turds in their arsenal. Short ranged AI for the NC, probably one of the worst guns available to them I see no reason to take this over the enforcer even for AI or a kobalt at that. Shot guns on vehicles just suck (the reaver one is passable)

    Corvus VA55: Probably the worst gun in the VS primary arsenal aside from previously mentioned guns, this gun has poor dps, slow rate of fire and horrible horizontal recoil, only having access to a regular forward grip when comparable assault rifles of other factions have advanced forward grips. The damage per shot is a nice upgrade at 167 vs vs standard 143 but with such a low rate of fire and high recoil it feels like a poor man's NC gun port. The gun is bad but at a sweet spot medium range of about 40m this gun sort of has a purpose.

    Trap-M1: This gun has the same problem as the Phase shift. With such high zooms on the 2 bullet burst and poor range scaling compared to other sniper rifles, this is a scout rifle trying to be a sniper rifle. Maybe with a 4X this might be a decent gun. I hear people say way to often the gun's name suits itself, it's a cert trap.

    Phenoix: I mentioned this with the striker, its far worse than the lancer and you're better off using a default launcher most of the time but there are very few times where the guided missile to finish off tanks behind cover is useful. Outside of that situation, this gun sucks. However this gun is no where near as bad as the striker.

    TLDR Version: There are plenty of awful guns. I play VS but I must say the TR have the largest pool of ****** guns. The VS are a close second and the NC have a few ****** guns. However the NS Ranger is the worst gun in the game, and it's a vehicle gun. The Ranger makes the basilisk look like the pre-nerf Sauron.

    *Edit: Typos*
  2. Keldred

    Cant agree with you on the cerberus. In all situations were i need to use it as a finisher it has never failed me. It feels like the perfect middle-ground between fire rate, clips size, and ttk.
  3. Liewec123

    TRAP is highly underrated, its 2 "shot" kill in tri-burst mode and thats body shots, if you can land the tri-burst on the head it is insta death (good if you sneak up on someone)
    how would i change it?
    i wouldn't really, maybe lower the horizontal recoil.

    fractures are bad for long range, but for mid range they're not as bad as everyone makes them out to be, after the pounder ammo nerf i've started using double fractures again for the delicious 110 reserve ammo and they're not as bad as people make them out to be.
    how would i change them?
    remove the wobbling that occurs while firing, they're accurate but your character wobbles when you fire which makes sustained shooting at long range targets impossible.

    phoenix, get that off this list ;)

    striker, great for AA, sucks for AV.
    how would i change it?
    increase velocity, allow the coyote lock function to work for ground vehicles as well as air.
  4. Towie

    Well the Phoenix for me rates as one of the coolest weapons in the whole game (the camera-guided mechanic is just great) - even statistically it's performing OK.

    But agreed - Striker is pants !
  5. Psykmoe

    Original post started out good but quickly veered into highly subjective/not knowing how to use gun territory. I'm agreeing that the Ranger and Striker are pretty bad right now, and there's no real compelling reason for the Cerberus to be worse than the Rebel (still adequate tho). The slow velocity of the Striker makes it bad at AA vs anyone but complete idiots and its long exposure make it riskier at AV than say a Decimator. The Ranger's damage is awful and the only thing it does better than the Walker is potentially obscuring vision for enemy planes without thermal sights.

    Corvus could stand to have 550 rpm like the Razor/Cougar/Ursa but is fun to use due to being so controllable. Its quality of life features are great but it's hard to imagine they could be made so great that it would make up for the awful rate of fire.

    The current incarnation of the Canister is actually really really fun to use, my Harasser gunners love its high damage, its good uptime and it's better vs other Harassers than Marauder/PPA.

    I know a lot of good players who love the Phaseshift for the versatility and infinite ammo.
    • Up x 1
  6. Tycon


    I can agree with you here for the most part. The first guns I've stated in the static bolded categories I felt were undisputed garbage. The latter perhaps that could be my lack of knowledge or personal distaste but they are titled as "honorable mentions" with a disclaimer since I am ignorant of their specifics. However I still feel they are very weak guns, even if my evaluations for them are more subjective than objectively stated. The Phaseshift, trap and phoenix have their selling points and in talent hands can work but they still feel vastly inferior to the competition. The talented individuals that use these weapons would usually do better or just as good with superior weapons, save for very strange gimmicks like the infinite ammo you stated.
  7. FateJH

    Not to take away from your core argument about how the Fracture is underwhelming, but your arguments against it are way off mark on most accounts. I could easily focus on "low rate of fire," or "pitiful damage," but I'll look at the third complaint you listed for the sake of brevity. You say it is "low" but Fracture projectile velocity is better than all other MAX AV except the Vortices, is better than all rocket launchers except the Lancer (no compeitition) and the Striker (for which it ties), and is also 5m/s faster than every MBT's HE cannon. In the case of Lightning cannons, only L100 Python AP is much faster than it, and C75 Viper and HEAT are only 20m/s faster. Fracture muzzle velocity is not something to spit at, comparatively-speaking.

    You were best when comparing it against the Pounder because that is its basic issue: due to difficulty in applying it at "second generation MAX AV" distances, the Fracture may as well be a sidegrade Pounder.
  8. Psykmoe

    Well, full disclosure, I can only go by friends I know who love these guns (for example I am also an awful Canister gunner but I've made hundreds and hundreds of certs driving the car with the Canister on it so who am I to argue?)

    Specifically for sniper rifles I personally only use the SAS-R/TSAR/Ghost because I prefer the shorter ranged iron sights to 4x bolt actions. So I can only go by having seen people praise those other guns highly.

    Oh, and I forgot to mention this in my first post, I am in full agreement regarding Burst variants. Yes their ADS accuracy is awesome but their first shot recoil gets in the way too much. The SABR-13 works moderately well because it has a first shot recoil modifier of 0.75x, making its first shot kick LESS than the second - it doesn't have the same super ADS accuracy of dedicated Burst guns but its shot grouping beats every single other burst mode in the game.

    Also goofy: Gauss Compact Burst has a two round burst. Gauss Compact S has a THREE round burst mode AND lower first shot recoil, making it smoother to operate and more competitive up close. So you have a better burst mode on a gun capable of fully automatic fire. There's only like 2 guns in the game with a 3x167dmg burst and the Flare has more recoil and a way worse First Shot recoil than the Compact S.
  9. Mythologicus

    It's not even a copy of an NC weapon. It isn't even trying. NC get two 200-damage hyper-accurate ARs and the TR get a 167-damage burst fire with almost legendary accuracy and 600 theoretical RPM. The VS get...the second lowest DPS weapon in the game with no benefits? The only things it has had going for it are were the price tag and new player quiz freebie.

    The other long-range AR for the VS is the CME, which is basically trying to be an NS-11A only it has none of the awesome features of the NS-11A. The TR's second long-range AR is, believe it or not, the TORQ-9. Comparing the CME and the TORQ-9 (or even the NC-9 A-Tross) is a joke, even if the TORQ-9 is pretty far from an effective long-range bullet hose.
  10. Tycon


    When you mention the projectile speed in comparison to neighboring AV options especially for TR or HA I guess I must say I may have overlooked this fact and stand corrected. When I mention the low projectile velocity I meant two points. The first that when compared to the VS with vortex incredibly fast projectile speed and raven guidance system insuring hits for the other 2 factions, the slow projectile speed of an unguided missile is not up to snuff with extended range AV. You are right however when comparing the speed to NS weaponry, HA launchers and pounders they are comparable in PV.

    The second point as well as the better statement would be low projectile velocity in respect to ability to land on non static targets and fulfill it's intended role. The raven and phoenix are slow but have ways to insure they connect their payload. I do stand corrected however.
  11. _itg


    The Spiker is always a great indicator of whether a VS player actually knows what they're talking about or is just parroting outdated complaints. You do know it's a direct upgrade to the Desperado in virtually every stat, right? The Spiker's only drawback is 4% lower RoF, a difference that hardly matters in practice, since you can't hit anything with the Desperado beyond 5m if you fire as fast as possible.
  12. Tycon


    To be fair the Desperado is a much closer comparison to the spiker than I imagined (being a VS player I've had personal experience with the spiker) where I only browsed over the stats for the desperado. The rate of fire is still slower but the spiker reloads .02 seconds faster. The spiker loses more damage over range than the desperado but does have a 10m max damage range over the desperado 8m. Perhaps I unjustly excluded the desperado from my post however I stand by my previous statement. The spiker is a very poor side arm along side the other VS alternatives.
  13. _itg


    The Spiker also has a 25% better hipfire CoF, .1 degrees less bloom per shot, and 2 more rounds in the magazine--a big deal, since the Desperado often fails to kill HAs before the reload. On top of all that, it's got the charge mode, which no one really uses, but it's still technically an advantage, and no drop, which is about as relevant as the lower minimum damage (not very).
  14. y3ivan

    I do use striker, all i can say its a spawn room warrior AA defence weapon typically against low flying esf (AH reavers). Unlike the other traditional lockon, it does not require a good lock and spamming it at a general direction will deal some damage (enough for any ESF to buzz off). It works better when combine with generic lock-ons and burster MAX. Its a easy-to-use, spammy weapon, not an Annihilator 2.0 and people have to remember that.

    All been said, its needs to be must useful against ground targets (lock-on on MAXes)

    Cannister is still a rather silly weapon, on a harraser why would you pick it over fury is beyond me. Funny that NC are all crazy about cannister right now, when its not that effective.

    Trap-M1 needs a buff, magazine size increase from 18 ->24, first shot recoil multiplier reduce.