Thoughts on the new ES Assault Rifles?

The Lacerta feels very accurate from my little bit of playing with it, didn't feel strong enough but that might just be my crappy computer making everything seem bad.

I've been using the Vanquisher a bit and I do quite enjoy it. However there is a the obvious big problem of nanoweave.

Past 10m (where the Vanquisher is most effective) the damage drops below 200 per shot, requiring a full 6 shots to kill. With nanoweave 7 shots are needed, requiring a third burst if all shots hit the chest.

Headshots are key.

Unless I'm mistaken these guns do not show up in the out-of-game player profilers. At least I can't find it on my characters, and I would really like to be able to check the stats out on this as I rarely remember to do so in game. :/

Always happens with new gear, don't know how long it takes to show up.

From these specs, T.R. wins again. The Arbalest is a Fusion Rifle or the Heaven's Vigil. The names are just fine.

The disruptor ammo is for the NC Vanquisher, not the TR Arbalest which got a buff because it didnt win.

6% isnt much.

Against a resist shield heavy you need 16 shots (a bit less due to the shield degeneration while active), he's dead by the time his resist shield fails.
Against a normal overshield it deals 6% damage or 27 damage. Basically it means it'll deal 227 damage a shot for the first 3 shots (overshield gone), then 2 more shots for the remaining 275 shield and for the last +/-450 health you need 4 shots of 125 damage. Assuming the shield damage bypasses the overshield it requires 9 bodyshots to kill.
At 90m distance where the Vanquisher deals 167 without disruptor damage it takes a whopping 9 bodyshots to kill a Heavy...
So not only do you deal less damage against non-Heavies, you hurt your headshot potential that this weapon benefits from and have no advantage against heavies.

So once again the NC receive an ammo type that effectively nerfs the weapon alongside the sabot ammo that is so niche it is also effectively nerfing the weapon. The Vanquisher is a solid weapon, but there is no reason to add options that nerf the weapon. Make them sidegrades.

Second impression+ : Great weapon, easy to handle, TRAP's big brother from another mother, if you're not a high aim/headshotter do not bother with it, 600m/s bullet velocity mmmmm, and if you're Mr/Mrs Cool As Heck feel free to rock that 1-2x sight and delete people up close.

The special ammo is situational (sidegrades, after all) but I prefer to run it vanilla + laser sight (noticed little to no difference with a grip) + scope/sight of choice/situation.

The NC AR Arsenal is pretty much complete after this addition.

I tried the Vanquisher (VR room), it is impressive because it almost no recoil so you can headshot like hell

Did not understand however the distruptor ammo because with those the weapon looses the One-Burst-Kill thing.

I'll also add my $0.02 after trying these guns out for a second outing this weekend:

Using it for the first time after the buff the gun feels light-years better at medium range. I was comfortable engaging targets at >50m and consistently winning fights that I was struggling with before. Such a small change but now I can land more damage from each burst on target, take less time to do so and do it more frequently. Did get punished badly every time I tried to hipfire though, so don't do that.

Still a team damage machine, although honestly that can't really be helped. After a little while you adapt and the problem mostly goes away unless Marvin jumps in front of the barrel.

Second impressions were kind of..mellowed for the Vanquisher. Still a fantastic weapon but I definitely didn't have as many "surely this can't be OK?" moments in the second episode. I guess this time I was facing a lot more good players and had to work for my kills a bit harder. Still not 100% sold that the recoil should be so low, but it's definitely not as much of an issue as I initially thought.

Certainly looks like this was the direction they went, so hopefully they'll give it some time and collect data on the guns as they are now before deciding on any further changes.

Having tested the Arbalest in VR I can say that it really needed that buff if it was worse before. It has less accuracy than the Vansquisher and is less of a BR-that-bursts that the Vansquisher fulfills.
It seem better at hipfire than the NC's version, but that is a small boon for a weapon designed for long range since it's hipfire isnt that fenomenal.
The impact ammunition seems like a no-brainer. 36 bullets per magazine is more than enough and the lack of damage degradation is incredibly important for a ranged weapon like this. Yes its one burst less but since you are likely to need one burst less and have a higher chance of finishing enemies before they hit cover it seems like a win to pick it. After all in long range fighting you have the most chance an enemy can just pop behind cover and hope to win a sudden DPS and accuracy fight with you the next time both of you pop up.

All in all maybe its accuracy could go up a bit or the maximum COF for individual bursts could go down. Lets say that only the first 4 bullets have COF bloom and the last 2 dont, giving more control as its the length of the burst without trigger discipline that forces the shots to go off-target.

I went ahead and got the Vanquisher, using it with x3.4/4 sights and laser.

That thing is terrifying with almost zero recoil: I killed targets at sniping ranges.

The only negative trait is that you can't spam the trigger, trying to fire as quickly as possible make it imprecise.

This time NC can't complain, they got the Kindred of assault rifles.

There is a fairly massive difference between The Kindred and the Vanquisher, and I don't think it's fair to compare the two.

The Kindred has an insane DPS advantage over other similar carbines while the only thing particularly good about the Vanquisher is the accuracy and damage combo. Not to say it's at all bad, but in a straight fight the Vanquisher will lose to most weapons if not at range.

The Vansquisher is a very good weapon similar to how the Bishop, Obelisk and Dragoon are miles above the "regular" BR's and semi-auto snipers. I find it playing like the Bishop in many ways so in that sense as a long-range AR it is definitely one of the better weapons around. So I think the comparison to the Kindred isnt that far off. Ofcourse because the Lacerta, Bishop, Dragoon and Obelisk are there the Vansquisher isnt as powerful as the Kindred that definitely outstrips its contemporaries.

Again, the Arbalest could use a buff so that it is more consistent. I think the idea of giving the last 2 or 3 shots no COF bloom would be a perfect way to put it on similar ground to the Lacerta and Vansquisher.

Perhaps on a set-by-set comparison the Vanquisher being the clearly superior of the three ES rifles is akin to the Kindred, but that's as far as I can see the line go.

The Vanquisher is definitely one of the best non-SR long-range weapons in the game, but it's not hugely better than a gen II BR in my opinion. The purpose it serves is't as significant as the Kindred's and relies heavily on skill to perform well at any range, whereas the Kindred of course it pretty close to point-and-click DPS.

I wouldn't be against that, but I don't know how easy that'd be to code. Maybe have it with a set 0.25 standing CoF/0.3-0.4 strafing CoF and 0 bloom? Accurate but not pinpoint, best for its current mid-range long bursts while still more accurate and controllable than other ARs firing similar burst lengths. Very easy to implement at the very least!

so retested the arbalest after the buffs .... i like it ... 2 burst kill capabilty to the body, 1 burst to the head relyably up to 40 meters ...
not too much kick up with the burst, compensator helps even more with that ..
..
sooooo overall i´m quite happy with the burst assaultrifles ..
medics however still need some splody options