It's a great weapon but it's basically a Gauss Rifle Burst with double the starting cone of fire and 3.2/2.67 reloads compared to GRB's 2.6/1.95 long/short reload. The GRB also has biased recoil (aka consistent) and lower horizontal tolerance/shake even though the Sabr can equip a compensator. Maybe give it better cone of fire and bump the magazine size to 36? inb4 "just use the T1B" I don't care for it. The unbiased recoil still sends shots all over the place at 100m.
I'd be interested to hear more on this topic from other users. I have the T1B as a long range back up to my CQC AR on one Engie and I am debating the T1B or the SABR on the other (I am at the point where I have certed up most classes on all my avatars with just about everything else I want). I also have the burst ARs for all factions. The GRB is pretty handy and I was going to go for the SABR but now I'm not so sure..................
I've said it before and I will say it again. After the burst rifle buff, the SABR is a more expensive, downgraded GRB. At the very least, the SABR deserves to get the same reload times, after it already has the same capacity... Not gonna happen though, until there's another pass on ARs at some point in the distant future. New features are more attractive than re-balance passes and if the devs give one weapon attention, players from other classes and factions will cry. A lot.
I know the SABR was pretty much the bees knees a while back, but I guess since they mega-buffed burst weapons it might actually be in need of some love right now. I have also heard that NC Burst weapons are disgustingly good, so it might be an unfair comparison in the first place...
Yeah, it's just not the same since the Burst upgrades. The T1B out performs it imo and thats a shame...even the NS AR is a better range option at this point for me.
Current T1B user here. I also played with GRB in my NC break. While I really loved standart Gauss Rifle and it's burst variant, SABR looks kinda weak for me. I take T1B to normal fight and if I feel like shooting on longer distance, I take AMR66. There is not much place for SABR as it is now. Maybe it could get closer to AMR, having more potential for shooting while sacrificing tactical attachments? 2-shot burst Reaper DMR?
I auraxe'd the SABR a while back, really enjoyed it and found it very easy to handle at most ranges. This was before the burst-weapon changes. I was a little bummed said changes included giving them all the same first-shot multiplier of the SABR, as that felt like a neat little thing that only it had. Now the GRB basically does the same thing (but arguably better) one can be left wondering, what is the SABR's niche in the grand scheme of things...?
.50 FSRM and better accuracy(like 0) when aiming. That would make it a better marksman rifle by a huge margin. Personally I'd rather see it get made full auto and become an actually good weapon. That being said; the best way to run this seems to be laser and 1x scope. It's not really qualified to out shoot anything it can't reliably hit with a 1x anyway.
Are you kidding me? I've aurax'd all the assault rifles and the sabr is already by far the best one! It needs no more buffs, and if you think it does, youre not using it right.
No one was saying it's a bad gun. I agree it works pretty nice as it is - but since the tweaks to burst-fire weapons it's been outclassed by the Gauss Rifle Burst.
Not sure I understand. The SABR is a burst rifle so didn't it get buffed like the others? Or has it stayed the same and the others have caqught up to it a bit? I didn't use any burst weapons until after the buffs so I don't know what things were like before. But I like the SABR and like the Gauss Burst, I think the 2 burst 167s seem to be a bit more stable at long range than the 3 burst 143s
~~Haven't read any posts besides the OP so please forgive me if I've restated an earlier opinion~~ I'd love to see the SABR buffed. I picked the gun up a long time ago and haven't really felt a niche for it since. It's out DPSd by almost every AR available to the medic and really feels lackluster. Almost like the TRAP, but still better. Perhaps they could reduce the recoil / refire time.
It's the burst variants of the default assault rifles that got tweaked - the T1B, Equinox Burst and Gauss Rifle Burst. Being a separate thing, the SABR didn't see any tweaks (not a complaint - don't think it needed any). Said burst variants all inherited the SABR's first-shot multiplier of 0.75x. It was arguably a quick-and-easy way of increasing the burst variants' efficacy, which has now left the SABR outclassed by weapons such as the GRB. Faster refire time would be interesting. Its current [theoretical] DPS ain't too shabby really - 600RPM @ 167 damage, although squeezing out the max RPM from a burster is a little more fiddly. Of course at mid-long range you aren't gonna be spamming bursts like a loony anyways. Maybe just a few extra bursts in the mag, or a touch faster reload time would do the trick. Just my two cents.
Thanks for the info. Interesting point. I'd noticed that TR were the only faction to have a choice of two burst ARs but I hadn't made the conneciton you just pointed out - about SABR being a stand-alone rather than a variant
"Choice of two burst ARs" More like "only faction that gets crippling drawbacks for 167 weapons" But yeah yeah, thats us.
Yeah, it's an odd one. Before the changes to default bursters it had a pretty cool niche of being the only weapon with a negative FSRM, to my knowledge. I would still recommend checking it out - it's somewhat of a black sheep amongst the TR arsenal, but even despite being inferior to certain other factions' burst ARs it still works rather well. T1B is cheaper for sure, but SABR does the job better in my book. Maybe I'm just an obnoxious hipster! Hehehe. Spoken like a true Terran!
What can I say? I'm growing bitter in my old age. As far as balance is concerned for the SABR; it's at least too expensive compared to the very similar Gauss Rifle Burst, a weapon that does everything the SABR can do at 650 certs while the SABR costs 1000. I'm still of the opinion that the weapon needs a stat buff, be it accuracy, reload speed, mag size, ROF or FSRM, something to set it apart from the other burst weapons like it used to be.
So, what's the verdict on the SABR since those changes in the last patch? I'm not able to play at the moment, or would check it out myself. They certainly look like a step in the right direction!
After playing with it for a while yesterday I can answer my own question - it definitely feels like an improvement. Anyone in two minds about picking up the SABR, I would say definitely give it a try; you won't be disappponted
