Like some people have already said here, the Flare once fully certed beats out the VS LMGs by a longshot, Orion and Pulsar LSW are great as stock, but the Flare has much greater sustained damage and super accurate when certed with it's atttachments.
If you think Orion is that good, you're going to get blown away by the MSW-R. Better attachments and easier to control recoil(one directional recoil). Advanced laser sight and IRNV scope. Seriously, get it. It is amazing. Having the 0.75x ADS multiplier on the Orion is nice but the adv laser sight and how accurate the MSW-R is up to mid ranges you will not miss it. If you are TR and still whining about the Orion. Save up 100 certs, get the MSW-R. You will not regret it.
I tried to love the Flare. I fully certed it out and tried it CQC, Medium and Long Range but I just couldn't make it do what I wanted it to do. I wish Vanu had a TMG-50 or a SAW, but apparently the closest they get is the Ursa. I guess if you're the only player who likes the Burst Carbines then you'd love the Flare's 3-shot burst mode? I've stuck with the Pulsar LSW because it's just so reliable in every situation. I do plan on buying the Ursa once the next 2x SC event rolls around. I can't see dropping 1000certs on it, or anything for that matter, even though after this weekend i'll be sitting on 3000certs.
I have to agree w/ FnkyTwn. I've got a upgraded Flare. Every time i fight below mid range, 90% of the time I get sympath'ied killed. When I fight with the Pulsar, I do not have that sympathy'ied killed feel. I've added HV ammo to the Flare and it seems to help, but I still feel that in-game the Pulsar wins out most of the time. I would like to see more attachments for the Pulsar, because honestly anything inside a tech plant, esp. a bio dome, its either shotty or smg time. I kinda feel like the HA weapons have become a bit more lackluster. Or maybe its my play style with the amazing lag I've been getting since the last couple of GUs... Just my 2 cents.
Fair enough judgement on the Flare. This is also how I experience performance with the Flare which is why I use HVA with the LMG. It's definitely no hip fire weapon In CQC it does pale in comparison to T-9 CARV, T-9 CARV S & MSW-R. I have yet to find an NC LMG which compares to it in CQC when certed up with HVA. In saying that NC Carbines have better success in taking me down than NC LMGs.
Unless you absolutely must have the alt fire modes, the only real argument in favor of the flare is that it's cheap. The ursa outclasses it at medium/long range, the orion/LSW are much better at short range, and if you want a do-it-all gun the sva-88 is a better option.
I tend to pick my LMGs for longer ranges. My main is TR, so I wanted something that felt liek the TMG-50. The Ursa is the closest thing to that. Loses a little RoF, but feel slightly more accurate to me. I'm loving it.
I have more than 1000 kills with the Flare (fully certed the necessary attachments). And then out of curiosity I switched back to Pulsar (which I bought with my starting 1000 SC). My first impression: wow easy mode. CQC the Pulsar is capable to win, in fact it is very good. I regularly kill SMG players also with hipfire (without laser sight). And long range Pulsar short bursts are more accurate than Flare. Flare recoil is worse than Pulsar. So the best LMG is either Orion (short range), LSW (all around) or SVA-88 (all around). Each has a drawback: Pulsar low ADS speed, SVA-88 - no flash supressor, Orion- 50 ammo clip, no 2x reflex. Ursa - I do not know if it is worth it, while recoil is very little, the ROF also very low and CQC it is simply very bad (huge cof on hipfire). I do not feel that shotguns or SMGs effectively replace the LMG, with shotguns you can only fight in small rooms (even biolab needs better range unless you camp/assault) and SMG eats ammo, you run out and then die.
Okay, so I tried the Flare, and after around 500-600 kills I switched back to my old Orion, and holy ****, the Flare sucked, I'm staying with the Orion, no more experimenting for me.
Vedabug, a friend of mine who has auraxium on all LMG's save the LSW (300 kills off auraxium), swears by the Polaris being the best CQC LMG for the VS with the Ursa being his favourite mid range weapon.
i'll try out the sva 88 and the lsw when i get to it - already bought them iirc. either that,or i'm going to have to change up my orion to make it effective..
as far as lmgs go the flare is the best weapon but lmg all have a draw back - all of them are not ment for cqc if your a heavy n complaining about dying in CQC combat with an lmg your dying because of either lack of proper weapons , or your playstyle no lmg in the game is good in cqc - COMPARED to other options especially shotguns but also including smg's so TL;DR 1. get flare - deck it out ( personally i run it with fg nv cp hv ) 2. get a shotty - personally i like the autos w/ em n nv 3. kill everything 4. profit certs
Thing is, there are many places (almost every place really) where you'll both fight in CQC and in mid-range, and you can't switch between your LMG of choice and your shotgun, in those situations I find the Orion the most all-around weapon, it's actually pretty good at CQC, of course, a shotgun/SMG would be better, but it's not that big a difference (except against the shotgun at really close ranges)
I'm a polaris user here. I feel like having the ability to have an adv laser sight and an adv fgp along with the compensator makes it an all around beautiful weapon. The problem I have with the URSA compared to the Flare, which I use the flare occasionally, is that the ursa's flash it really annoying. When using a 2x reflex, you can't see **** after firing like 20 rounds.
The SVA-88 has it all: 698 RPM although not in the realm of the 750 RPM CQC hoses, works well enough in CQC to win in a pinch 0.75 ADS multiplier One of the best bullet velocities in the game for long range, before HVA which is an option (coming after only to the Rhino, Ursa and NS15) Really even recoil thanks to low 1st shot multiplier, of-setting the relatively high normal recoil magnitude (though it's not monstrous recoil) 15 recoil decrease, tied with the TMG-50 for best in the LMG class Best (0.35) moving ADS cone of fire, tied with the other mobile LMGs (Orion, MSW-R, Anchor, GD-22S, T32 etc) It basically takes advantages from all CQC, long range, and mobile LMGs and rolls them into one weapon.
Guess what LMG has the most kills per hour and the lowest deaths per hour when used? The SVA-88. For damn good reason. Link right here for you to confirm yourself. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmUavphHXmIxdFhHUzJfN1VYalRnWS0xMnBUdTJpM1E&output=html Conclusion: Holding and using the SVA-88 shortens the life span of TR and NC and dramatically increases VS. EDIT: I am aware of other factors contributing to the stats that do not make these stats 100% confirm that x LMG is better (generally) than y LMG because of greater kills and/or lower deaths per hour, but it is a convincing factor.
