AM7-ARCHER is lop-sided and bad, how to fix

I did full trial today with a squad of 4 who also used the archer with me. Before on the test server I tested this gun quite extensively and I said over and over do not release it like this, fix it. I do have some more insight now that I've trialed the gun as to what it really needs as opposed to before when it was just on the test server.

PROS
Fine against maxes, flashes, AV and mana turrets.

Cons
Sucks against literally everything else. Not just a little suck, a WHOLE lot of suck.
Takes primary weapon and since you suck against any infantry you either die with ease or are forced into the mountains to hide with the rest of the AM7 hermits.

Review
-I was in a group with 4 others using the same gun ( lowest is BR 88) and I would try to pick good spots, but out collective experience was pretty pitiful with this gun.

-Fine against maxes, effectiveness here should not change at all. Didn't mind this gun when I was using it to shoot maxes.

-1 dude could literally kill us all since the gun sucks vs any infantry due to slow firing and low vs infantry damage as well as zoomed in to shoot. Snipers were a REAL challenge and were ALWAYS killing us. Counter sniping them with this slow weak piece of junk proved ineffective.

-Even with 4 guys we killed very few vehicles, any other AV group load-out would have been much more effective, period. Takes just take toooooo many shots to drop and it is just so slow to shoot! You can't get close enough 99% of the time to enjoy the higher max damage because you will be killed by anything. You have to sit away and therefore endure the min damage most of the time.

-You can shoot infantry, but killing them takes forever. You will obviously be quite far away if you want to really shoot at infantry. Don't use it for this, it's just terrible at it. Should not be this bad.

-XP income sucks. I was constantly shooting during the trial at things I though would be most ideal for certs, I only made 15 certs.

-5 shots per clip was not enough. Reloading is an ok speed, but I really felt stressed at 5 shots in a clip. Really needs more.

-Some of the scopes felt off according to my team mates. They were not landing the shots where the cross-hair said they would in tests.

-You must be very far away to use. I pretty much already mentioned this, but you will 99% of the time be doing the min damage. You can and should not get closer than 100 meters to like... ANYTHING If you want to live.

NEEDED CHANGES!
Everyone in my group agreed fully with these ideas after our testing.

-700 velocity. Against vehicles this makes no difference, this is for aircraft and to help out with infantry.

-ADD SUPPRESSOR OPTION! You can NOT get remotely close without one, ADD IT PLEASE! I'M BEGGING!

-Improve damage vs vehicles, I donno, like 25% more at least! Right now it's simply not enough, even with 4 people!

-Improve re-chamber time some, like 1.75 1.6ish.

-Add 1-3 more shots per clip for 6 or 8.

-Double the max and min range dropoffs.

-Consider other classes, as well as consider making this take up the slot with the turrets and not the primary weapon.

-Moving CoF needs to be the same as standing still. I don't remember what the current numbers on this are and I don't want to open the game right now to check.

Pretty much mirrors my experience. It's pretty great against maxes, so mission accomplished. If anything, I'd be fine with it doing basically nothing vs MBT/Sunderers but maybe an increase against Harassers? Considering regular rockets can have a hard time hitting fast moving Harassers this gun could fill that niche as well, and still leave it fairly specialized.

Would be nice but those changes really need to propagate to most all vehicles. bottom line even with some extensive damage buffs vs vehicles it's not going to be so great unless you use it in a fair sized group which is not exactly easy to organize.

It simply has to be more than just ok vs maxes and nothing else.

I think I agree with Hyperk2 more.

I haven't tried this weapon out outside of the Test Server. But I think that this is a niche weapon that should stay niche. Make it good for "soft" vehicle targets like MAX's, Flashes, Harassers and ESF. You could perhaps add some abilities to it, such as a shortened concussion effect (2 seconds?) for non-MAX infantry hit by this weapon. Gives it a nice additional punch without giving engineers access to a true sniper rifle. Stuff like that.

Also, not sure what classes it is available to aside the Engineer... But when is the LA finally getting it's update? Engineers now get a new toy to play with, however bad it might initially be, but what about the LA? At best we got alterations to our Jumpjets, but no new weapons (except for shared weapons with other classes such as new knives) and no additional abilities to deepen the class.

Try it out.
It must pack more punch vs mostly all vehicles.
It's still a crazy specialty weapon, making worthless against flashes MBTs and Sundys is stupid and wont help.
(it kinda already is worthless against those, which is why it needs a buff here.)

I'd like to see it with maybe two fire modes

Mode A: As now for Anti-Max

Mode B: A slightly weaker version of a battle rifle mode, but losing it's Anti-Max dmg

So it doesn't entirely leave you with your pants down against Infantry , but you are still weaker versus those that went Carbine loadout.

It should not be doing significant damage at all to MBT's or Lightnings. There are too many infantry weapons that already wreck armor. I'm fine with it doing significant damage to Harassers, but we don't need groups of engis hiding in the mountains annihilating tanks with more mobility than the AV turrets. Those groups with turrets are still a pain, but well-placed AP shots take care of them. No thank you to trying to hit infantry at render distance pelting you with rifle fire and being mobile.

It's an anti max weapon, designed solely for killing maxes, of course it isn't very effective against MBTs.
This is a gun you carry while tanking in order to deal with AV maxes you'd have a very difficult time with otherwise, not something you'd use to actively hunt down armor.

No it certainly should not do significantly more damage to those vehicles. You fail to understand that a 25% increase, even a 50% increase of damage to those vehicles is still pretty dang low damage.

Interesting, I like the idea of fire-modes, but I think the idea needs some more fleshing out.

no dev probably listens to your suggestions because they're overkill. you want to make the AMR a supergun but it's supposed to be niche.

right now, the AMR is a DIRECT counter to Maxes (hence the high damage) but it should not be able to deal with both non-Max infantry and vehicles as well. the damage against light vehicles is fine. it is a serious threat to Flashes and Harassers. low-flying/hovering ESFs are also pretty good fodder if they're damaged already. moreover, you can even deter heavy armor with it. especially shooting MBTs in the back is good method to make them 'panic' and run off.

with that in mind, i wont go through all of your suggestions, as i said most of them are overkill. chamber time and magazine size are fine. damage against vehicles is okay, after all the AMR should NOT replace rocket launchers or other AT weapons. velocity is okay too. suppressor isnt needed on a weapon like this. the only thing i can really agree with is to make the weapon accessible to other classes, above all, the Infiltrator. other than that, it is fine in my eyes.

Why then does it take the primary weapon slot.
Also a weapon that is designed solely for that reason sucks and there is literally no reason to buY it considering there are plenty of other good anti max measures you can take WITHOUT MAKING YOURSELF COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY WORTHLESS FOR ANY, OTHER, FREAKING, TASK.

It will still be pretty sucky on its own with my proposed changes. Super-weapon is an uneducated vast overstatement and is false.
Go test the weapon and come back.

Directly for maxes huh?

Did you miss the part where I said tanking gun? You really don't need a carbine when you have cannon, the gun exists so you can jump out of your lightning or MBT, quickly clean up those nasty maxes and then keep on trucking.

This is what I was under the impression the AMR was mainly developed for. It sounds perfect for me to carry in my tank, jump out when I run into a nest of AV MAX's, and actually fight back. My carbine does nothing but carry smoke grenades for me while I'm tanking at this point.

-This weapon will not sell hardly at all in it's current state.
-Too much niche is a >BAD< thing, it makes you worthless for ANYTHING else BUT doing
only ok vs maxes.
-This weapon, even when used well makes almost NO certs.
-This weapon is a >BAD< value and not worth handicapping yourself with so you can do only 1 thing "ok".

HA! Good luck with that!!!
You've clearly not tried trialed it yet! It's rather difficult to use and you MUST be far far away if you want to be safe!

Then don't use it. It clearly wasn't designed with your playstyle in mind.

A suppressor? On an anti-materiel rifle? Sounds pretty silly, not so much for gameplay, but just in principle. A suppressed anti-materiel rifle...So what, instead of ear shattering it calms down to a more tolerable engine-knock noise?

I don't think it needs to be good against vehicles, no one said it would be. "Primary role: Anti- MAX" is what they said and what they delivered, damage wise. The game has plenty of AV options already. Harassers aren't that durable, they don't need to be snipe-able too. Rockets and many other AV weapons currently take some considerable skill to aim (barring lock-ons) at any decent distance. A scoped rifle shouldn't be dealing even moderate damage, that's too easy and fast firing. (Yes, fast, compared to a Rocket reload at least) Also much less dodge-able than rockets and most other forms of AV.

The rest of your changes sound fair enough. Imo it should remain Engineer only though.

i did. both in VR and live.

also, you dont understand the concept of SIDEGRADES. if you take the AMR you gain anti-Max/anti-vehicle effectiveness but you are supposed to be more vulnerable to infantry by losing carbines. if the AMR was in the turret slot you'd be extremely powerful against both infantry and vehicles/Maxes. that is an outright terrible idea.

the weapon is fine. and i am fairly certain the devs wont buff it. if anything they MIGHT nerf the damage against Maxes a bit.

I don't like crappy weapons.
I wont buy crappy weapons.

But all the crappy weapons seem to be the most unique weapons and have really good base ideas I'd LIKE to use if they were any good! Therefore I can hardly tolerate them sucking so I try to help fix it!