For starters, yes, I did take the idea from Wrel. I want to start by stating that I am about a 1 K/D player on average, with a little bit better with certain weapons, and a little worse when I get into certain fights. While K/D isn't the greatest metric of someone's performance with a weapon, I figure it will be something people want to know before reading this review. I have about 450 hours in Planetside so I'm experienced but not to the level that many other players are at this point. My NC character is level 52 at the moment. This is a long review, and there is a tl;dr at the bottom for those who don't want to read the full experience. Finally, I admit to biases based on my own personal playstyle that may have affected my perception of the weapon, as well as my individual skill level. At any rate, let's talk about the SAW. Like many players who started playing the NC (My first character was TR), the Gauss SAW is an uncontrollable mess of a weapon without attachments, meaning that to get it running to where it's supposed to be, you'll need to spend about 330 certs on a forward grip, compensator, and at least one sight (a 1x reflex sight, or 2x depending on the situation, as this gun is sight dependent). New High Velocity Ammunition is also good for use within the weapon's intended role. Without these modifications the weapon is, in my humble opinion, inferior to other options that exist both within and outside the NC selection of LMGs. For these reasons, I gave up on the SAW fairly early into my play in favor of the GD-22S, a weapon which better fit my more aggressive playstyle. The SAW's defining characteristics are its high damage, high recoil, bad scatter while moving or hip firing or during sustained automatic fire, high magazine size, single shot accuracy, and extremely long reload time. In short, it is a weapon of extremes and paradoxes that I found difficult to handle as a player. The role of the Gauss SAW is as a long range light machine gun that functions more like a burst fire battle rifle in practice than a proper LMG. To use the SAW effectively, one needs to have at least some distance between himself and the target, because the lack of hip fire accuracy or control coupled with the low 500rpm cyclic rate of fire means that close range engagements are difficult to succeed in. The SAW has great first shot accuracy, meaning that carefully aimed shots are rewarded, especially given the damage. The gun will kill theoretically in 5 hits within 10m, or 6 hits at any other range, but given that most people run max level Nanoweave, especially other Heavy Assaults, expect this to take an extra round or two to kill your target. This can be a weakness of the weapon given its recoil and RoF, since the 200 damage at minimum range really becomes 160 damage to full nanoweave, and the 167 at longer ranges becomes 133 in reality. This means that without headshots it will actually take 7 shots to kill someone at close range, and 8 shots at longer distances. Against a heavy shield, this becomes 10 shots to kill at close range and effectively 12 shots to kill at longer distances, assuming the target is running Nanoweave. The gun requires fewer headshots to drop targets, but this can be difficult to achieve because of its high vertical recoil. The primary strengths of the SAW are its high base damage and effectively larger magazine given that each shot does so much damage. Reloading with the SAW is rarer than with most other weapons in the game, which is good because the SAW has the slowest weapon reload in the entire game. The weapon is somewhat paradoxical, however; it's a long range gun, but it has high recoil that prevents the use of optics past 2x without extreme care for the recoil. The weapon is weak at suppression because of its inability to have sustained fire without losing its accuracy to its dispersion. The weapon is weakest in duels with other players, because the low rate of fire coupled with the necessity for controlled bursts means that perfect accuracy is necessary not to excel, but to compete, and this means that weapons like the Orion, CARV, and MSW-R can and will defeat you regularly in close to mid range. It is imperative that a SAW user support teammates at a distance, because it is outperformed by opposing weapons at anything other than long range. This is because the gun loses a great deal of accuracy to movement, which means either choosing between sitting still and allowing your enemy to get easy headshots, or moving and trusting that RNGesus will allow your shots to still land on target. Even at long distances, the necessity of sitting still while firing the SAW often means becoming an easy target for enemy infiltrators. Many people swear by the SAW, and its defining characteristics make it easy to understand why. It has an extremely high skill ceiling and as a result, doing well with the SAW is extremely rewarding. While playing, however, I found myself being constantly outperformed by Orions, CARVs, and MSW-R's, and this was quite frustrating at times, especially because the SAW does not have the fire rate to get instant surprise kills. Even if you get the jump on someone, they will often have time to spin around and start shooting back because of your low rate of fire. The SAW is an extremely specialized weapon that only skilled players can use effectively. That being said, my final opinion of the weapon is that, well, it's simply outclassed in a large number of situations. In dueling, it loses almost guaranteed to other weapons. In close range, this weapon typically loses. In mid range engagements, this weapon is about on par with others. At long range, while this is the gun's specialty, you're still not able to out-snipe a sniper, and hitting targets behind cover with a 2x optic at distance is also quite difficult. The SAW is also mediocre at suppression, with the inability to have sustained fire other than bursts, and the recoil prevents easy shifting from target to target on a firing lane. Conclusion/tl;dr In my humble opinion, the SAW is a bit of a cult weapon whose definite weaknesses outweigh its definite strengths. It is a weapon of extremes that has difficulty performing in many combat situations typically required of an LMG. The GD-22S is better at close to mid range because of its controllable recoil (as is the Anchor), and the EM1 and EM6 are much better at suppression and controlling a firing lane, and as general purpose weapons the EM series surpasses the SAW in performance in multiple combat situations, including dueling, CQC, suppression, crowd control, and mid-range firefights. On a personal note, I am happy to be done with the weapon as I found it to be quite unpalatable for my playstyle, simply being too inflexible in its role to help me prevail on the battlefield. Rather than working with the weapon, I often found the weapon working against me, and that lack of user-friendliness proved to be a hindrance even in the final 200 kills when I was experienced with controlling the recoil and burst fire required of the weapon. For those looking for an alternative to the SAW, the GD-22S is the cheapest option for close to mid-range encounters at 325 certs, and will provide marked improvement over the SAW for those struggling to control it. The Gauss SAW S provides a similar experience to the SAW with much, much easier to control recoil, without breaking the bank at 650 certs to buy. The EM1 is also much more user friendly at 650 certs. If you're looking to get 1000 cert weapons, well, you probably already have experience enough with the game to know what you're looking for, though my personal preference is for the EM6.
Time out: Slight Thing, you forgot the New Player Buff. The Gauss Saw (being NC's Default LMG) is subject to the new player buff, and comes with the Forward Grip unlocked and attached automatically, as well as a 1x reflex. I do not remember if the 1x reflex is equipped by default. http://planetside.wikia.com/wiki/September_7,_2016_Update
I found that by equipping the SAW with a x4 or x6 sight you can engage snipers at long range (up to 300m) and achieving sustained fire (continuous) in the 30-60m range providing you learn to manage the recoil. The negative side is tunnel vision at CQC meaning you have to avoid it at all costs.
Gauss Saw is an amazing weapon for me. At CQC, you will have to go for headshots since it doesn't outdps other starter lmgs and missing shots is a death sentence with a lower firerate. But from about 20-30m it really starts to shine. I can kill evrything i see, unlike with other weapons with wich i sometimes don't even fire at a target because i know it won't kill him and not worth the exposure on the map. I just use it with 1x-AFWG-COMP setup and it's great. Just don't go full auto, let it reset after 5-8rounds.
Like most NC weapons it has great accuracy that is helped by its low rate of fire which means bursting is a lot easier , Personally imho NC weapons have a clear advantage in CQC to mid ranges and it needs to be addressed or balanced up with other factions.
Unless you aren't standing still to ADS (Strafing under ADS is severely affected) , which improves the likely hood of a head-shot for anyone firing at you. In CQC ranges... the sheer number of bullets fired at a faster rate, with a 39 difference of damage, will kill you faster. By the way, that's a TR gun with the faster firing rate, with only 39 damage difference. As due to the range, less bullets will miss, and with a fire rate severely higher unlike the damage which isn't severely lower... The target will die faster. The odds of a head-shot due to sheer volume also increases. If TR or VS get a buff to their ability to out DPS NC, it'll be even easier to farm NC.
I don't think they need buffs just NC need to be bought in line with the other factions which of course wont be popular as the game tries to be distinct when it come to faction weapons , I actually find it harder to headshot with faster ROF weapons than slower more accurate weapons but that might well be a personal thing that's down to me. If I bump into VS or NC HA I normally lose on my TR heavy not all the time but the majority in CQC but if you look at TR LMGs there more for mid range anyway apart from the Carv or MSW where as I would say NC can do both.
And how exactly do you bring NC in line... when NC's best trick is "better headshots", while out preformed DPS and accuracy wise. The faster the weapon, the less time needed to send another attempt, and the more bullets available in the same time frame. In order to use most NC LMG's, you must further reduce the fire-rate by near single fire bursts. And for those to actually hit, you must generally ADS & not move: This makes head shots on the ADS user easier than on target. Mid-range, NC can hit harder than TR bullet wise, but every miss for NC is brutal. IE I found that for every bullet I sent on target, let alone anything less than a head shot, TR & VS fired enough bullets to hit me twice as much, twice as often, and twice as fast. And that isn't counting the Beetle-gun-from-hell. But I can say TR's Butcher is... not all that dangerous outside of the closer-ranges, sure lethal there but just a faster carv further out. VS's Directive LMG, oh gods. Fighting VS, any time one of those is present, It has at least taken 20-50% of my health if not killed me. So I am really curious how you'd bring in NC's slower firing weaponry, that only has a 20-39 damage advantage over TR. As I can't figure out how any reductions to NC, since no Buffs to TR & VS wouldn't further doom NC weaponry to prayer-required. This isn't sarcasm, as I am curious for real. (Prayer-Required, is a reference to needing to out-preform the opponent with better shots faster, against a faster firing weapon constantly)
To be honest with you I'm not sure m8 , Maybe increase ROF on NC LMGs while at the same time lowering there damage output that would certainly bring them in line with TR and VS also give NC less reloading times . Its Tricky with LMGS the TR advantage is the extra MAG size but that doesn't make sense as most LMGs have bigger mag size so TRs advantage is wiped out in that aspect as for poor VS they just get gimped for there faction trait.
Reload speed & ROF isn't directly related; IE increasing one doesn't increase or decrease the other. To reduce NC's damage, is to basically lose their trait of higher damage... for getting closer to TR & VS's firing rates. TR's traits include mag size & fire rate. Do recall they literally have higher or highest firing rates for most weapons, besides the VS's Orion in the LMG category. IE Your plan is to reduce the one factor in NC's favor, for a slightly higher ROF?
Well if it works yes but I doubt the devs would go for it as you stated its taking away what makes the NC distinct.
How exactly would it work? That damage advantage is one of the few things allowing NC to actually kill TR & VS before dying. So I'd say its more of the whole "Whom has superior DPS Wins" with NC losing the one thing they had preventing this than losing one of their limited fac traits: Which surely is a factor.
Tonight, i was defending biolab aganist vanus. Although we lost due to enemy zergling, i still found that equipping 1x sight with a compesator and forward grip makes this gun a great ambusher at middle range. I was able to suprise and kill quite a lot of enemies. This gun is also great at squad killing and supressing due to ability for long sustained fire. However, i usually run with 3.4 x sight since the zoom provided by the 3.4 suits this gun's playstyle.
SAW is an amazing weapon. No offense but I blame your lack of aiming and recoil compensation for your results. Its my most preferred weapon and my KDR is over 2.2 with it. (fyi I'm using grip,compensator, HVA and a 3.4x scope. I don't use godsaw for CQB fights like biolab, and If I find myself in one of those CQB fights, I just stay in backline. any target closer than 10 meters means I gotta switch to sidearm) If anything, other LMGs in NC need massive buffs because none of them except the anchor(CQB) has any value over the gauss saw. I recently bought the promise and it is basically useless compared to godsaw. So what I'm trying to say is, while I appreciate your POV, please don't try to get the gauss saw changed, it is an awesome weapon that needs no changes to how it works. If there is a new player reading this because he is confused with gauss saw, don't give up. Just learn to handle that recoil(don't forget to grab attachments), and don't try to use this gun in Close range combat.
