The gauss saw is pretty good once you upgrade it with your favorite optics, compensator, adv. forward grip and personal preference for high-velocity ammo. It is generally accepted as the king of mid-long range LMGs.
overall balanced best gun the nc heavy has isn't as good at super long ranges as the Gauss saw is the GD-22S 100 certs for unlock and it's worth every cert EASY. i find ADS with a forgrip it is FAR easier to use at all ranges. it just can not really compete at very long ranges like the Gauss saw that's it. also it has less damage but it's a far more usable option in cqc and medium range than the saw IMO
Part of me wants to say the EM6, but the other wants to tell you to save your certs and merely upgrade your default weapon. All NC weapons are **** in any role other than mid-long range and the default gun excels at it.
Drop 7 bucks on the Em6, its a pretty good gun. Save the certs to quickly upgrade it and go to town. However, a good early unlock is the GD22S, its a very reliable killer at pretty much all ranges. However, the 50 rounds will seem to be troublesome at times. I know it is slowly wearing on me. 50 rounds isnt enough lol NC guns have little left and right recoil, hand grips dont seem to be a neccesity, instead, work to improve the CQC of them with Lasers and x2 optics. If you do, they then become pretty much all rounders, capable of delivering death at all ranges.
If you're a compulsive reloader the Anchor is a very good choice. It reloads quick, and has a better RoF and velocity than the GD-22S. It has a pretty strong kick on the first round fired but if you know it's coming it's easy to deal with.
I was VERY skeptical about upgrading the default Gauss SAW but I have to say of all my guns its my new favorite by far. Mid/Long range it stomps every other gun in the game when properly certed. If you have cash burning a hole in your pocket.. wait for the patch tonight and see how the jack hammer buffs turn out. I bought the anchor and certed it. I'm not impressed by it as my CQC weapon and wish I'd picked a shotgun instead. If the JH buff is even respectable it will replace my Anchor.
Despite the tooltip's description, the forward grips improve vertical recoil in addition to horizontal recoil. Several NC weapons become awesome ADS weapons once you upgrade them with compensators and adv forward grip. NV scope works well for CQC ADS since it is the NV scope and is pretty much overpowered. This is my opinion as well. Upgrade the Gauss SAW to a mid-long range beast and use it with a variety of optics for most conditions. Use a shotgun (ideally, a buffed jackhammer) for knife fight situations. Shotgun for short SAW with NV for short-mid SAW with x2 for mid-long SAW with x4 for long
I'm running with the GD-22S and loving it. It packs a great punch, has enough ammo capacity for a few kills before reloading and actually works reasonably well from the hip in a crazy CQC moment. It's also a pretty good choice for shooting at a distance, and best of all: It looks incredicbly cool! My K/D with the thing is 2.7 so I'm doing reasonably well too! I have the 2x optics and a foregrip on it. Default gun is quite reasonable though, with a few upgrades on it I would say as good a choice as any. I can't personally recommend a shotgun at all, especially not the Jackhammer. If the buff is reasonable, maybe it would indeed be worth it... Use a few 30 minute trials on it though! Shotguns (not counting NC MAX) are extremely rarely used for a VERY good reason. Any high-ROF rifle outperforms them on their home turf. I actually got killed today by a shotgun, and that's the first time since the BETA ended.
Not putting a laser on your NC lmg ***** you terribly in cqc. Not putting a front grip on it is still a very good medium range gun. Ads inside 30m unless your opponent doesn't see you and there is no chance of being flanked...is bad. I will post some game play of the kind of hip fire the 22s and EM6 are capable of.
If you want an LMG you can use in any situation, get an EM6, it is inferior to a Gauss Saw at medium-extreme range and inferior to an Anchor/GD-22 at close quarters, but it's the best all-rounder the NC have. Personally I would say to cert up your Gauss SAW for outside/defense fights and use an Anchor/GD-22 for base/tower assaults, but some people prefer to be able to do everything with one gun, even if it is slightly less effective.
I was using EM6 for a long time, because SAW was rubbish after launch. Apparently they buffed SAW later on, and I checked it once again a while ago. It really is much much better now. I dropped EM6, just to play a while with SAW and right now it's my main weapon. EM6 is much more forgiving especially in CQC, but if you'll take some time to learn and adjust, SAW will be great choice. My settings for SAW: trueshot x4 / IR scope adv. foregrip compensator If you want to unlock something nice I would suggest Piston shotgun or annihilator launcher.
Im working with the SAW atm, have a laser for better CQC, x2 or x3.4 red dots for optics. I prefer the x2. Its working fairly well. 301/106 atm. I am hoping for cert resets in the near future so I can reset and dump my certs into the EM6 when im able to get that. GD22S is aight as is the SAW. EM6 seems like it will be a mix of the SAW and GD22s in terms of badass-kicking increased ROF rapage.
I added a foregrip to the SAW and it handles much better now. I was also wondering if there was a better LMG to use though, SAW packs a punch but has the slowest ROF. The EM1 looks tempting on paper, anyone tried it with upgrades?
The default Gauss SAW is by far the best LMG in the game - put alot of certs into it. I unlocked every single option for it, and it performs well in almost every situation. Heck you can even use it as a sniper rifle. And it has by far the best iron sights in the game. Works as a sniper, works in CQC (laser helps alot there), devastating at medium range. Only drawback is the reload time. ... When I want to snipe people from distance I don't go Infiltrator, I go Heavy and equip my SAW with 6x Optics. 100 bullets in the clip, option to go fullauto, heavy shields, rocketlauncher and only a tiny bit less damage than the other semi-auto snipers.. And it has no scope sway - makes headshotting really really easy..
