I know this has been a suggestion that's been brought up often. But i personally feel like LA can benefit from AR's while still being balanced. I've always found that overall AR's are better then Carbines. when i play Engineer i always run AR's over Carbines. However when i play LA i do think Carbines are viable on them since they have the benefit of flying and hip firing. As much as i enjoy the close quarters skirmishing of Light Assault. I still feel like they could really benefit from being able to engage at range. So i think having Assault Rifle's could be a good idea of trading away your effectiveness at using a gun while airborne so you can have a weapon that's more versatile in most situations. I know some people may not like the idea of LA going on high places and sniping with AR's. And i can understand why, but at the same time Infiltrators can do the same thing + the ability to cloak and hide while also having a weapon that can 1 to 2 shot kill you at any range. where as a Light Assault can only run/fly away and would need to spray you with multiple shots to kill you. I personally don't feel giving LA access to AR's is game breaking and I'm honestly hoping that this new Class Rework can do just that for LA so they can have more versatility. Because as it stands LA is mostly just a flanking class who can be countered if you pay more attention and they are also the more effective class at taking on Sundies. Which with the new changes they are making, i feel like it might make LA less versatile. So i really feel like AR's is something we could add to give more range and play styles. Because at the end of the day your taking away a Light Assault's more stronger abilities in retaining a portion of your carbine's accuracy at the cost of a gun capable of fighting in all situations. I have also been dealing with the dilemma of Light Assault being my favourite class while the Gauss Prime being my favourite gun in the game for it's velocity and easy handling in comparison to other weapons. And giving LA's would certainly fix this problem i am having. I still feel like it wouldn't be a bad balance and would give LA's a different playstyle while still using the Jetpack to it's advantage. I feel like with an AR i would likely use Icarus a bit more since i won't be hip firing in the air as much. It really does have the potential to give us more play styles.
i think SoE didn't allow LA to take longer range weapons because it could be too potent, great angles from rooftops and potent long range weaponry is a fiendish combo. thats why LA are the only class who can't use battle rifles. and these days we have nbew toys, like Lacerta which has access to lashing ammo (making it the deadly "Lasherta") i don't fancy the idea of lasher weapons on rooftops, lasher weapons rely on your enemy standing near a surface that you can shoot. for an LA on a rooftop they can just shoot down on their enemy, the floor is that surface!
