VS burst variant, I tested it on a playtime on the PTS... It could be usefull, but I find the recoil pattern far too hard to control (going up-right) making it performing not very well at long ranges. It also has a 3-shot burst and not 2, so It's that more difficult to control at range. Better use dedicated 250 cert long range AR (corvus) with additional attachments and far better control at long range.
You can't really compare the Gauss Rifle Burst to the SABR-13. They function completely differently and are meant for different things. The Gauss Rifle Burst, like the other burst rifles, is meant for retaining accuracy while ADS strafing and isn't primarily intended for long-range combat. The SABR-13 loses its moving ADS CoF bonus in exchange for a negative FSRM, and is primarily intended for long-range combat. The Gauss Rifle Burst should be compared to TR and VS faction weapons intended for the same role; namely, the T1B and Equinox Burst. The SABR-13, on the other hand, should actually be compared to the Corvus and the Reaper.
In that case, the Gauss Rifle Burst should have a 3x burst option, like the T1B and Equinox Burst. A 2x burst should ONLY be for ranged combat, not close range encounters. Personally, I would like to see ALL carbine and AR burst-only weapons (Excluding the SABR) have both 2x and 3x burst options. They're a BURST variant, so they should have more than one burst option and semi-auto, no?
You can get virtually the same rate of fire out of burst as with full-auto. I'm not opposed to more options, and I would personally enjoy another burst setting on some weapons, but there is no real rationale, nor many real world precedents to support such a change. It would be pure,, arbitrary, preference...not that there is anything wrong with this.
Actually, as long as you can click the mouse once every 0.23 seconds thanks to how chamber times cycle (The average human reaction time in this situation is 0.19 seconds), you can get the maximum fire rate out of a burst weapon (Essentially making it full-auto) with any weapon EXCEPT 2 round burst NC weapons. NC 2 round burst weapons have slower fire rates than their 3 round burst counterparts, and thus, slightly longer chamber times between bursts. This makes it impossible to achieve the maximum fire rate. By no small amount, I have found simply from experience. This also lowers the maximum sustainable DPS.
They're not completely useless, and they're pretty good on medium-long ranges. But I wouldn't suggest them for CQC or anything else. I'd suggest you to stick to your current gun, as they're pretty much effective in every situation.
which is good but doesn't stack up against a much higher effective fire rate and not hitting the 2.15x first shot recoil every second shot, yes.
It would be if human reaction times supported that. And they do, if the weapon is a 3 round burst (Or theoretically any burst 3 rounds or more). Sadly, the fastest you can squeeze out of the NC 2x burst Gauss Rifle Burst is only about 570 RPM, rather than the full 600. This is due to chamber speeds and human reflexes. You simply cannot spam the mouse fast enough to wait for the "buffering" of the chamber speed. It's easiest to show you what I am talking about by using the fast fire rate burst pistols as an example. The reason being is that the RoF difference between the Gauss Rifle Burst and the T1B Cycler is only 150 RPM. The RoF difference between the LA3 Desperado and the TX1 Repeater is 345 RPM. While you can certainly feel the discrepancy between the Gauss burst and the T1B Cycler, it's tough to pin down just why it doesn't feel right when you need to squeeze the full fire rate out of it, spamming the left mouse button as fast as you possibly can. Essentially, you know how the TR's 3 round burst repeater pistol can be spammed to fire full-auto? Now try that with the NC's Desperado. It feels incredibly off, difficult to aim, and jerky. This is because two round burst weapons fire the first and second round before you can hit the button again, so you get "bang-bang.......Bang-bang.....Bang-bang.....Bang-bang.....Bang-bang.....". With a three round burst, you can hit the button just as that third round fires, allowing for a near-seamless stream of bullets. Doing this, you get "Bang-bang-bang..Bang-bang-bang..Bang-bang-bang..Bang-bang-bang". With a 2x burst, you cannot get the full fire rate. I'd say I can squeeze about 570 RPM out of the Gauss Burst, but even though it's close, that's usually what gets me killed. I say, all the burst variants (T1B Cycler, Gauss Rifle Burst, Equinox Burst, and all the burst carbines) should get both 3x burst, and 2x burst. The difference would be the stats of the guns, and the ones that currently have 2x only, or 3x only, should start on the setting that SOE has them locked to now. I get the pistols not getting this, and the SABR-13, as they are uniquely designed, and fill their rolls perfectly. (I really do love the SABR-13, It is a wonderfully accurate sniping weapon!)
That thing about human reaction time is you not understanding what those human reaction times mean. It's the time it takes for the human body to react when they don't know when something is coming. For example, if I hold a pencil and you know I'm going to drop it, but not when, it will take you ~.19 seconds to react to catch it. This does not apply when shooting a burst fire weapon, because you know when you shot, and therefore theoretically know when you can shoot again. An example is if I hold a pencil and count down from three letting you know when I'm going to drop it. The human reaction time in that case is more like .05 seconds. I know for a fact that I can empty the Gauss Rifle Burst just as fast as the regular Gauss Rifle, meaning I can get the full 600 RPM out of it. You just need to practice your click timings better. The same goes for the Desperado, I can get the full 500 RPM its stats say it has out of it. It's a matter of practicing more to time your clicks better, instead of trying to pass off your inability to do well by blaming it on human reaction times.
I can sustain about 7 clicks per second, which means that I am not the limiting factor in how fast I can fire a burst weapon, even a 2x burst.
The game queues commands dude. I don't know the exact time value but gut tells me something like 500ms.
If you want to use Burst variants you should learn what oversampling is: As for the burst weapons, I feel they still need something more, I'm not saying they should be like the SABR but something in that direction would make them a more competitive option.
This should be obvious, but when using burst weapons, the only thing that matters is how many bursts it takes to kill a target. ATM all of them take 3 bursts to down a target so the only way the NC one would get a 3 round burst is if the damage was lowered to 143, since otherwise it'd kill targets in 2 bursts which would make it far better than it's counterparts.
Except with it's slower fire rate, this is not the only factor. Both weapons are burst versions of the starter weapon, yet they are balanced even with full-auto fire. Both the starter weapons can be used to burst manually, and I don't find the NC1 unfair at all.
Wrel's tips for burst weapons are great, and I have been doing this (Or at least something quite similar, though I never went any further into the thought behind it than "Spamming seems to take longer"). As Wrel mentioned though, this is quite more effective with 3x burst weapons than with 2x. As the NC medic Burst variant (And the burst option for the Gauss Rifle S) is 2x, this is yet another inadvertant downside to the use of NC weapons, rather than every other side's equivalent.
