Let's get this out of the way, this is mostly a complaint. I'm sorry. (i am also on mobile so pardon my typos) I play on Connery, pretty well known to be the cheesiest and saltiest server Ps2 has to offer. So it's no surprise to see that the vast majority of high skill players tend to gravitate toward the easiest weapons to use, alongside the easiest class to use, namely Heavy Assault. Lately i've noticed within the past month, there has been a HUGE increase in the amount of low BR players, and primarily the amount of heavies running around with the NS-15M2, and all other variants minus the Gallows. After 2 weeks of playing and studying connery player behavior, 1 in every 3 heavies i saw, attacked, or died to had one form of it. I know the NS15-M is a solid LMG, and thats the reason players flock to it, but i cant help but feel, in my opinion that the weapon is too powerful, too many positives, not enough negatives to balance it out. With the heavy assault having access upwards of 6 LMGs at its disposal, each with one aspect better than the other, the NS-15M tends to take their roles and do it slightly better. Yes, i know what you're thinking "You dont know what youre talking about, its not op, Get good, loser." but hear me out. The NS15M combines all of the aspects of a firearm and does them very well, to the point that you shouldnt even bother with faction specific lmgs anyway. It has superior accuracy to almost all, has better mobility, it has a quick short and long reload, and it has excellent recoil. The only thing the weapon trades for all of this is rate of fire (and mag size if you count 55 rounds a downside) which can easily be compensated for by chaining headshots or even simply staying on target. I find myself encountering NS15Ms more often than any other lmg in the game right now, more than the EM6, Anchor, pulsar LSW, Orion and even the MSW-R or Carv. Frankly its been ridiculously flustering. So i have to ask, whats the deal? Why so many NS15M heavies? Why is it so good? Why should you even bother with your own empire's LMGs if they are just going to be less efficient than the NS15M? And if anything, what kind of negatives should it pick up to balance it out more? Keep it constructive, please.
I will take a stab at answering your question. I think it's more constructive to look at the players you are talking about. These are mostly experienced vets who have PS2 gunplay fundamentals down well. Good gunplay has several core fundamentals, and the two that are most relevant to weapon selection are accuracy, and tendency to bias your aim to the head. Or shorter High Accuracy + Headshots = Extremely Short TTK. Now we can talk weapons. The NS guns (LMG, Carbine, AR) have low damage & low rpm, also have very low vertical and horizontal recoil. If you consistently aim for the head these guns are fairly easy to keep your following shots in that area.
http://ps2oraclestats.com/monthlystats/ has the default lmgs at 34-36k kills each. NS-15 is at 10-12k per faction, so about a third of kills of the default lmgs. Msw-r, betelgeuse, anchor and gd-22s are ahead of the ns-15 for their respective factions. If you look at br100 only you have betelgeuse, msw-r, anchor, butcher and godsaw ahead of the ns-15 for their respective faction.
I've never really used the NS-15M really, I think I trialed it once. However, I do have a theory as to why it is so popular and why it seems to perform so well, which is its unparalleled full-auto accuracy. A SAW could mop the floor with a NS-15M any day of the week if all shots hit at any range with automatic fire, but due to the bloom the SAW has, the shots quickly go astray at no fault of the player. I really think this theory is sound, because it is very true for the Emissary. On paper is a rather terrible weapon, even moreso as a sidearm. However in practice I was able to auraxium the pre-buff Emissary with ease, as I found it strongly over-performing against my other sidearm options, simply because the thing had basically no recoil and near pin-point full-auto accuracy when fired from its effective range. (Say, no more than 30m ish.) With headshots, I was even able to take heavies head-on as a stalker if I surprised them. If I was to change anything about it though, I'd say maybe make it slightly harder to use, or perhaps slightly less accurate. (Assuming it is like the Emissary, anyway. )
The NS15 has one outstanding trait - 0.75 ADS. That along with it's superb accuracy make up for its lackluster damage output. It's a rather demanding weapon, however - headshot, or die.
I personally think that the '15 is in a bit of a weird spot ATM. For being designed as an "All-Rounder" LMG, it has some of the best accuracy and the lowest DPS of any LMG currently, normally traits for a support oriented ranged weapon, yet it's also been bestowed with the coveted x.75ADS speed multiplier which is a godsend in CQC. But, at range, you will still be beaten out by AR's and at close range you will still loose to players of equal skill due to the massive TTK disadvantage it puts you at, since it's recoil might be easy to control but a skilled player can still learn to control a weapon with difficult recoil and be just as accurate at close range. I think a slight RoF buff and a slight accuracy nerf would be in order for the '15, to help it be a little more "Rounded" then it currently is, since it outclasses the dedicated ranged LMG's but looses out to CQC weapons by too great of a margin IMO.
The reason you are seeing it so much is because of faction switchers (4th factioners) being at an all time high due to pop balance. This gun is NS so can be used on all factions, it is a decent firearm but not the best for any faction, but if you switch factions often, you want to use it because: 1. decent gun 2.single purchase 3. you can get used to using it. There may be better guns on all factions but they all function differently. If you can get awesome with just one gun and use on all characters, why not? People who only use one faction will prefer to use ES guns that are better but skill with them doesn't translate perfectly across factions.
I think it's a combination of weapon traits and player perception. Much of this has already been mentioned: Its low vertical recoil, low bloom over time (due to low ROF), high recoil recovery, .35 ADS Moving COF, .75x ADS movement, tight hipfire, and fast reloads all contribute to making it a weapon that's good for general-use and adaptable to most situations and playstyles. Can it be used for CQC hipfiring? You bet. Long range marksmanship? Sure! Mid range mobile ADSing? No problem! It's a good choice for newer players since it's easy to use (low skill floor), It has no glaring weaknesses that would hinder your efforts to land bullets on your target regardless of how it is used, and it's quite forgiving of bad firing habits (i.e. - not burst firing, having poor recoil control, getting caught mid-reload, etc). New players can spend less time fighting to control the weapon and learning PS2's weapon game mechanics, and more time concentrating on just getting their crosshairs on target. It's also attractive to vets due to the headshot meta because its easy handling makes it a good headhunter. It's available to all 3 factions so it's a cost-effective purchase, and gives you a single LMG you can master that's always available to 4th factioners no matter which faction they're fighting for at the time There are six(?) different models, which I think all look the same except for color variation, and medal-chasers will need to get six times as many kills to Auraxium all of them as they would for any other single LMG. Most ES LMGs all look almost identical from a distance so it's harder to distinguish between them, whereas the NS15Mx sticks out. It doesn't follow faction-specific colors or artistic design. And our brains are hardwired to pick out visual anomolies like that so you're naturally more likely to notice and remember getting killed by the NS15Mx than most ES LMGs that all look the same. Since it's available to all 3 factions, there will always be enemies shooting at you with the NS15M regardless of which faction you're playing on or fighting against. You perceive more NS15Ms because it's available for purchase to every HA player in the game so it's always present on the battlefield
