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

Thank you for taking the time to do a very thorough review. I must say, I completely agree with you. This weapon feels far too niche, and overly situational. It's horrific weakness vs Infantry is laughable.

Shooting infantry multiple times Chest and head at close range and watching them shrug it off is somewhat dissapointing.

That which will effectively kill a MAX should also kill infantry, however the opposite need not apply.

well you know DBG they make an anti max weapon to help vehicles against maxes ends up damaging heavy armor and is weak vs infantry.

it's a niche anti-max and vehicle harassment weapon. instead of just being an anti-max semi-effective infantry killer.

I'd be okay with the Archer being turned into a single-shot anti-materiel rifle. Like the old PTRD



Have it do increased damage to MAXes per shot, but with slower RoF. Currently it is 4 STK, with each shot doing 564 damage (after the 88% MAX vulnerability) at maximum range. It can do this in roughly 6 seconds. So keeping a MAX TTK of 6 seconds could be maintained by having each shot do 800 damage but have each shot come with a 3 second reload.

Against infantry it would be 2 STK, but three seconds to do so. This would make it relatively inefficient against infantry due to the single-shot nature and need to constantly reload... outperformed by bolt-action sniper rifles.

As for an anti-materiel rifle against heavy tanks... don't make me laugh.

Players ask for anti-MAX weapon, even if inconveniences them against standard Infantry classes.

Players complain that they got an anti-MAX weapon, one that inconveniences them against standard Infantry classes.

Sometimes I wonder about all of you. You all always compare stuff in a vacuum. If you're going to do that, just go use a Heavy Assault with its default weapon and never look back. Seriously just stop playing anything else.

For those of you with a bit of thought process, consider this. The Archer is a weapon for Engineers. With that comes options. If you're using an Archer you realize your primary weapon is long range and anti-max. So carry a decent side arm. I carry a suppressed Rebel with a laser sight. Normally I use a Commissioner. But since my primary weapon isn't great against enemy up close, I need something a little better at flexibility.

Now.. normally when I use an Archer I'm dealing with vehicles, I'm also supplying ammo to my Phoenix Squad. While also carrying mines and a AV MANA turret. I'm actually supporting a goal within a team Those that like to evaluate weapons in a vacuum are usually useless, lone wolf, cert farming zerglings that go about soloing. So they need a carbine to stay relevant.

If I'm needed up close to deal with MAXes, again.. I don't need a carbine because I'm with squadmates who can deal with non-MAX infantry. They need me to damage those MAXes because a MAX by itself can take down 2-6 people on its own in short order.

If you like to solo, stick to the carbine (i'd actually like if you'd stick to another class, but that's a pipe dream). If you play in group play, then the Archer will actually serve you well. Niche stuff works well in groups.

Though the majority of this game are solo playing, useless, lone wolf, cert farming zerglings. Those of you who believe they can help the 'team' by playing support are being 'cute' at best. Just keep to using the carbine and do us both a favor.

The Archer has it's uses. It can damage reliably, even though it is low damage, at great distances. It is good against MAX units. It is actually the first weapon that can reliably and quickly destroy MAX units from a distance. RL? Too slow. AV turret? Requires you to fix yourself in place and can't be fielded at any terrain or in cover. All others are too close range or not damaging enough.
It doubles as the first long range AV support with a high speed bullet. I mean sure you have the AV turret too, but other than that it truly adds to the arsenal of the engineer.

So we have a primary weapon that is used for AV support, focussing mostly on anti-max and thus the infantry side of battle. It does more damage to light vehicles and actually damages heavy vehicles. Its muzzle velocity is double that of even the AP vanguard, making it quite capable of hitting aircraft, despite what OP is saying. Should this weapon gain more damage against infantry..... hmmmmmmmmmmm.

No not really. It has its uses and downsides. As it is a great long range extra damage against anything but heavy armour and especially good against MAX units, I think it is well balanced. Get some other support against infantry with you or die with your 4 friends in the hills as you came ill prepared to face other threats than the ones you where prepared for.

I wanted the archer originally to replace the turret for the engineer, so they could keep the carbine. That being said the few times I've pulled it (admittedly not much) I enjoyed it. Pick the side arm you are the best at, stay behind your team mates and make any max you come across very sorry.

It's a rather unique playstyle where you try to avoid direct confrontation with other infantry but actively seek out the bigger threats, Max units, and take them out quickly. Make good use of your turret as well.

as some one who owns the gun, these are all bad ideas.

700 velocity - will lead to a major nerf as the thing then becomes and everything sniper, and people will complain like hell because then every engineer will use it.

supressor - no you should not be in closer quarters with it anyway, and it already has no trail to let people know where shots are coming from. this would make them impossible to find.

improved damage vs vehicles - dumb we have enough AV options and more damage would make it eclipse the AV turrets and launchers due to the lack of a trail to your shots.

rechamber time - this i can actually support even with the straight pull bolt it is very slow

larger clip - not a bad idea but will take the skill out of the weapon 6-8 would let you kill 2-3 maxes before reloading that imho might be too much with any of these other changes (alone it might not be so bad)

damage drop off - not a bad idea onits own without any of the others excepting clip size

more classes is a ******* nightmare can of worms, do you want heavies using it? how about infiltrators? this is just a huge bag of dumb imho

cof - no other weapon gets this, and it makes even less sense for a gun that can damage everything and is that damn large

then don't, i have bought it and i love it as it is. just because it isn't the new Fotm overpowered b.s does not make it a worthless weapon.

plenty of people have bought it already.

Nothing wrong with the gun, leave it as is, just increase velocity a bit.

I dont think archer need a buff, instead they need to nerf Phaseshift.

Archer is fine as is. It provides good max damage, can scare the pants off an esf in a pinch, and gives a bit more threat against things like max crashes.

It isn't a solo man weapon and works wonderfully in a squad.

It is also fun to carry if you run ejection seat on your esf. About to die after a good fight? Drop out, and put a round from the archer into the enemy esf! If he is low already that's death =p

This player still loves the Archer, it still does exactly what I hoped it would do: Terminate the annoying Maxes that are trying to destroy my Harasser, it even helps me scare off the average Joe pilots.

I find the Archer is pretty decent against infantry on range, at least for an engie weapon.

For close combat I just take my secondary weapon, which actually also works quite well.

As an engie you don't want to engage so much in combat anyway, but rather repair MAXes.

If you want to engage combat, then you want to take HA or whatever, that's why being very specialized fits to engies, imo.

A good way to kill infantry with the Archer is also to lay down tank mines on corners and shooting them when infantry comes around.

this guy, aside from his terrible intro card, makes the argument better than i could.

This is a specialized weapon that is fantastic at its only purpose. Instead of making a squad of users, i would have two or three as engineers, and the rest as other classes doing most of the work. It is a support weapon on a support class. do support things instead of trying to do all in one

I thought the archer only took 2 shots to kill...

Ok so the sniper in me automatically aims for the targets head so...

I agree with some of what he said but his reasons against an infiltrator i thought were incorrect, bad analogy.

Are you insane? It's already a bad idea to have this in the game. I can only imagine who the slurring drunk was that decided this gun was a good idea, even worse, the imbeciles that agreed with him!