Devs should revisit a number of these weapons to improve their variety and/or balance. These weapons are designed as a holy grail of patience, yet are frequently quite underwhelming.
I tend to agree. They should be retooled to better reflect their faction's goals, and should receive changes to make them more competitive choices and/or seem like less of a necessity. It's no secret that all of the stereotypical sweaty tryhard Heavies almost exclusively use the NS-15, the Naginata or their Empire's Directive LMG (I should know; when I'm not using the Naginata I'm using the Betelgeuse). Meanwhile you never see the empire specific directive pistols (the NS options are just better all around) or battle rifles (you should be using the Gen 2s or the Vandal). Occasionally you'll see the Carbine, AR, or SMG, but not nearly as much as the LMG. Or at least that's my experience with directive weapons. I could be talking out my rear.
They should also change how they are acquired from flat kills to kill xp/assist xp with the weapon. Rocket launcher directive for example, in an mmo fps it is unlikely that you will land the last rocket on a vehicle, if you do 90% of the work and someone else deals the last hit, you get no directive credit. It should count vehicle kill assist xp with the weapon, so every rocket that you land is progress. But yup, directive weps need looking at, most are bad downgrades, Only a few have quirks that make them interesting.
For casual players like me directive weapons are basically impossible to get. Not in terms of kills - I have more than 16k kills but spread over 7 characters, classes (MD, HA, LA,...) and associated weapons. I would suggest two things: 1. Have directive weapons available for trial so people can figure out whether those are worth the grid (or maybe not). 2. Make a different variant (reskin) of each directive weapon and make it available on a non-permanent base (e.g. a week) : for example based on cumulative kills per week or so much XP per week or else. When you are below the threshold you can't use that weapon anymore until you make it again.
i still say ribbons and directives should be made on damage dealt than kills, especialy if you have weapons more meant for supression than being specialiced on quick kills .. can´t speak bout the directive weaponballance, for obvious reasons ..
