Which directive weapons are worth getting?

No one is trolling anything, nor is it misleading. It requires a tanky build and it goes a long way. I mean you can sit and whatever your way thru your opinion on the other 2 as well but they are solid. It all comes down to play style what you feel like grinding anyways! If they work for me they can work for someone else.

Godsaw, Fortuna, Betelgeuse. Rest are junkers.

Fortuna (NC carbine) is the best all around carbine in the game. It is the Merc with SPA and laser sight + emergency shotgun. Perfection.

Oh, and the BG is pretty good.

I gotta say, I really don't love the Fortuna. It's really nothing special.

If an NC wants a CQC-mid 167 carbine, the Bandit is just much better for that. Soft point is good, but not really a major game-changer. Any situations outside the extra 5 meters it's not likely to do anything. The lack of a grip is an issue as the base Merc is a very decent all-ranger carbine, but the Fortuna isn't because of the horizontal recoil. Otherwise it's just a normal Merc with a laser. Why it gets such stupid high praise is beyond me, people just parroting the same response.

The shotgun is a gag at best, I can think of exactly one situation in which it actually mattered that the base gun couldn't, in which I was at half health and no shields against a guy who shot me in the back as I ran for cover in a building. Wasn't ever going to win that fight without the instant kill. But beyond that? It's usually better to just shoot them like normal.

It just means your opinion is not special and we'll continue liking it regardless. The Fortuna's (and the merc) got a really good default recoil tolerance whereas the Bandit does not, so the lack of a grip ain't much of a problem. Plus, the 15 meter range makes a whole lot of difference in CQC and the laser sight makes its hip-fire useful. All in all, it just feels right.

The shotgun is not something you rely on but it'll do in a pinch. It is really good for peeking or going after someone you know is already wounded (thus making a half-decent shot enough for a kill). I'd say you should give it another chance or just embrace you got your own way of enjoying PS2.

I'll agree that the fortuna is nice, although it's true it gets oversold. It's the best of the 3 directive carbines yes, but that's not saying much. There's no reason to take it over the gd7f in cqc, or the 3 hk 200dmg cheese carbine for mid-long range engagements.

Like campaign said, the shotgun is a joke. The randomness and the fact that all pellets must land to deal the kill means you'll most likely die from using the thing than anything else. The swap time is really long, so it's got really no advantage over a pistol unless you want to gamble. Also the fact there's only 3 rounds in reserve doesn't do much for it's cause, at best it's a gimmick that'll net you a kill or 2 before you're out.

You said it yourself, the only time it might get you a kill is if the enemy's practically dead aleady, in which case there's 0 reason not to:
a) finish him off with your primary
OR
b) finish him off with your secondary

if you use your shotgun in that situation, it's more because you want to force yourself into thinking it's useful, than actually killing efficiently.

Even when turning corners, you could just have the pilot equipped for that 1hk, which will be more reliable and forgiving than risking the shotgun. The commi and underboss would also be solid choices. If you have asp, you can even run a pocket cyclone (although you'll suffer in swap time, so I recommend pistols instead).

Don't get me wrong, the fortuna isn't BAD. It's built off the mercenary, which is already a pretty good carbine. As I said, it's better than a trac-shot or even the eclipse. It's not a weapon I ripped my hairs out auraxing, or that I didn't enjoy using...but there's just better options in the arsenal, like the epic gd7f and that sweet ac-x11, paired with a good pistol.That's why I'd say it's not really worth the grind, because it's not the best in any situation, all it's got different is an underbarrel shotgun, which is more a gimmick than anything else.

I'll agree that the fortuna is nice, although it's true it gets oversold. It's the best of the 3 directive carbines yes, but that's not saying much. There's no reason to take it over the gd7f in cqc, or the 3 hk 200dmg cheese carbine for mid-long range engagements.

Like campaign said, the shotgun is a joke. The randomness and the fact that all pellets must land to deal the kill means you'll most likely die from using the thing than anything else. The swap time is really long, so it's got really no advantage over a pistol unless you want to gamble. Also the fact there's only 3 rounds in reserve doesn't do much for it's cause, at best it's a gimmick that'll net you a kill or 2 before you're out.

You said it yourself, the only time it might get you a kill is if the enemy's practically dead aleady, in which case there's 0 reason not to:
a) finish him off with your primary
OR
b) finish him off with your secondary

if you use your shotgun in that situation, it's more because you want to force yourself into thinking it's useful, than actually killing efficiently.

Even when turning corners, you could just have the pilot equipped for that 1hk, which will be more reliable and forgiving than risking the shotgun. The commi and underboss would also be solid choices. If you have asp, you can even run a pocket cyclone (although you'll suffer in swap time, so I recommend pistols instead).

Don't get me wrong, the fortuna isn't BAD. It's built off the mercenary, which is already a pretty good carbine. As I said, it's better than a trac-shot or even the eclipse. It's not a weapon I ripped my hairs out auraxing, or that I didn't enjoy using...but there's just better options in the arsenal, like the epic gd7f and that sweet ac-x11, paired with a good pistol.That's why I'd say it's not really worth the grind, because it's not the best in any situation, all it's got different is an underbarrel shotgun, which is more a gimmick than anything else.

Well it's worth as much as yours is princess.

I'm not saying it's bad. But it's not really better than the base and it's not really even the best short-range carbine for the NC. The recoil is still bad enough without a grip that it can't be used as well as it should be for mid-long range, and at that point it's just worse than some of the other options for the same range.

Is it worth auraxing five other carbines? No, by doing so the player already has at least two better guns. It's just a Merc with soft point and a laser, taking a mid-long range gun and shortening the effective range. It works but it's not as good for either purpose as non-directive carbines are.

As Suspended said, the shotgun's just not useful. Too many times has someone survived the shot to the back from point blank, I eventually just stopped using it altogether and shot them like normal.

Your entire argument is that it "feels right" and has 5 extra meters of maximum damage. Right.

I guess in the end it depends on your skill-level/mindset/priorities.

For me, it takes on average a week to complete a (infantry weapon's) directive from start to finish, regardless of the faction - a bit less if I go full tryhard or if there's a lot of players and good fights during my sessions. On most of my characters, I don't have to worry about getting certs, and it's ok for me to spend them on what I want, since I have all I need unlocked. I don't mind the challenge, and I usually have fun grinding towards that objective.

Now for some people, an aurax is not a simple feat, and perhaps dumping over 4k-5k certs on weapons and attachments to complete a directive isn't the top priority. For these people, who are hoping to get a super rewarding weapon that they can main with after their ordeal, it'll be a shock to realize that in most - by that I mean nearly every - cases that's not the case.

To those people who don't do a directive for fun, and who expect something (useful) out of it, don't bother doing it; you'll be saving yourself a disappointment.

That's exactly right. Since the NC have a really nice lineup of carbines the road to purple ain't particularly long or hard, so worth it.

Unless you're looking for an all-around carbine which doesn't overspecialise.

When I say the shotgun aspect of it "can do in a pinch" I do not mean you should rely on it. It doesn't make the gun.

lol do you work for dbg? I swear that's pulled out of a weapon's description.

Anyways, gd7f or acx11 outperform the thing in nearly every scenario, there's even the bandit that fits a better role. Not really a "reward" weapon anyone would main with, even if that seems attractive to you, you can run the same build on the mercenary variant for 650 certs.

There's 0 reasons to ever put a grip on a Merc/Fortuna in the first place. They go straight up lmao.

It isn't, which is a shame cause it'd be an accurate description (for once). The official description makes a big deal out of the shotgun though.

The latter part of that statement is why I enjoy the Fortuna. It is based on the already great Merc and the laser sight/SPA gives it more edge in CQC than the standard Merc while still handling well at mid range. But I think we've hashed this out at this point, you don't find it special and I do.

it's not about personal opinions, although you just said it's a mercenary so idk how it can qualify as special, given it's the starting weapon!

Objectively, when someone asks if it's worth it or not, I look at the stats, I look at the reward/effort it takes to get it, and conclude. Then sure, I can throw in some personally experiences just to confirm that what anyone can pull from the numbers hold true.

The NC does have a good handful of nice carbines for sure. But to aurax five means either choosing to use them in situations where they're not the best choice or to simply not reach the Fortuna with any particular time efficiency. And then there's the factor of similar niches, such as the Merc--Razor--AC-X11. I personally aurax'd all three more or less just for fun, switch things up for a while, but if I had a fresh start for the directive It's be taking guns with a very similar purpose when all I really needed was just one.

Bandit and GD-7F are at least very different in how they approach the same problem.

But then we just come to the point of it not being a very natural thing to aurax five different NC or NS carbines. It might be a passive thing as it was for me, I tend to just aurax random guns for something to do. But when I actually need a good gun I use probably one or maybe two of each weapon class because they're mostly doubling up on the same tropes.

I just don't think it is worth it for the base gun but with soft-point. Not when other guns exist to do the same job better already.

I mean... Just shoot at a wall in the VR? Have you literally ever used either before?

^

I forgot about the razor, I knew there was a more accurate, faster reloading, better version of the mercenary.

On the Carbine discussion:

https://voidwell.com/ps2/oracle?sta...,7174&startDate=2020-10-29&endDate=2020-12-18

The 3 directive Carbines have relatively low users but reasonable consistency, and are fairfly close to each other in KPU. Interestingly the TR have a much higher amount of people who use their directive Carbine (and thus have it unlocked) than the other two factions.

The UB shotgun is just bad. One thing that can happen, as Iridar for example showed on his site, is that pellets hit the player's weapon and dont count as hits. This can mean that a full hit with the UB shotgun can deal almost no damage at all. On top of that it is a deliberate weapon: it takes half a second to switch to it, a moment to fire it and then another 0.5 seconds to switch back should there be targets left. This is a problem with all UB weapon types and could actually be solved.
We have most things easily accessible. Quick knife, grenades and even weapon switching is a keypress away. UB weapons are too seperate: first switch to the right weapon, then switch to the UB setting, then fire it before you have to reload immediately or switch back to your original weapon. Its not accessible and makes you jump through unnecessary hoops to use it. This is especially problematic because there's no introduction to it and newbies could equip it without ever realizing how to switch to them, or accidentally switch to it and be stuck with the UB setting until they die.

UB weapons should be easy and accessible. For example press X and you launch the UB weapon, press X again to reload it. Naturally that would give you a lot of power so the UB shotgun shouldnt OHK anymore. It would be very useful: fire at someone while approaching them, fire the UB weapon which interrupts your normal fire and adds a COF increase that needs to settle, then continue firing (before the COF settles if you are close) on anyone that remains.
This also opens the way for many more weapons to have a class-specific UB attatchment. Something I advocated a long while before the devs decided to waste it on selling a single SMG. It would also make it much more useful for players to actively have them equipped, a Medic would be able to fire that heal-grenade without the bothersome switching and be able to fire at enemies with little interruption.
This has a lot of power in making current weapons more class-specific and could be a good boost to weapons that are currently used little because they have bad stats. This becomes especially good if you add a choice between different class-specific grenades.

I have used the Merc plenty. There's perhaps a handful of guns total on NC where a grip gives a tangible benefit.

I'm not sure how "it'll do in a pinch" or "emergency shotgun" sparked such a strong reaction but ok.

Fortuna is a Merc with SPA and a laser sight, the Merc is a great weapon, so people like the Fortuna. It might not blow your mind with a cool extra mechanic like the BG does but it was well worth getting.

I unlocked Betelgeuse and Eclipse as VS. Betelgeuse is good in 1v1s while Eclipse is meh. I recommend unlocking Betelgeuse if you are VS, it's a meme weapon anyway.

Eclipse should have been 750rpm as well. Currently it loses a lot against high rpm TR carbines and NC's GD7-F. The only good side is its infinite ammo that allows you to stay on roofs without searching for ammo. Otherwise if you don't need heat system, there are a lot better choices as light assault.