Right off the bat, I'm going to say TAR. While I don't have any experience with the TRV, I think I can say the TAR fits the close-range AR niche pretty well, and it's a great, cheap gun for newer TR medics. I usually use the NS7-PDW or Farmistice for CQC stuff, but the TAR does give a bit more range than the TR SMGs. I usually run a 1x RDS, Laser, and Soft Point ammo.
If you ADS, id say TRV. Its a real monster. It feels like your cheating using it. If you can get the first shot off pretty much any oppenent is going down. Ive not used it for a while now, when i used it the first time i just couldnt stop till i auraxiamed it. Now I miss not allowing myself to use it! TAR is still an awesome gun tho, and has superb hipfire. I tend to run a grip on mine as im not very good at forcing fights on my terms so have to be ready for longer range confrontations, and its hipfire is good without a laser, where its ads accuracy is terrible without a grip. I did find the TAR was a bit disappointing to start with, but it grows on you. It taught me hipfire is good Personally id say the TAR is the slightly more flexible gun, where the TRV is a fight winner if you know where your enemy is. They pretty much match the numbers, the TRV has 50rpm more which drops the ttk considerably. And both are plenty accurate within 20 metres. With the tar having a noticable hipfire gain. Im getting fedup of that gun, i dont have it but ive found myself getting taken out at 50+ metres when im returning fire with the most accurate auto weapon we have (torq 9).
TRV is close range ADS monster that can reach to medium range if competently handled, while it can equip Adv. Laser, its hip CoF isn't that good to begin with so Fwd. Grip all the way. When you have to hipfire this gun, treat it like a shotgun. TAR is more of a run-and-gun style weapon that is all about hipfire, slap Adv. Laser on it and you get almost SMG like hip CoF. At shorter ranges you may be tempted to slap Fwd. Grip due to its 0.75x ADS speed but the gun is too jittery to reliably hit anything past 30m (0.3/0.3 stock horizontal shake the last time I checked).
Is the TRV more versatile than the TAR? I like the T1 Cycler's midrange ability but I want to do better in CQC
Both TRV and TAR lose that midrange ability for supremacy in close quarters. Pretty much any weapon can be used at short range with some degree of effectiveness. But not every weapon can be used at range. So the term "versatility" pretty much equals "long effective range", and both TAR and TRV have notably shorter range than T1 Cycler. Cycler already has a very strong stat allocation for close quarters, while not sacrificing too much accuracy for it. If you want versatility, stick with the Cycler.
I have arxiumed the TRV and am in the process of doing the same with the TAR. The TRV has a ROF of 845 this will shred people in the 0-25 metre range however you end up needing to quick switch to pistol a lot as the reload is very long. Accuracy after 25m with micro bursting is not great either, many is the time I wished I had a longer range rifle that could punch futher out. The Tar is nice its 0.75 manuveriblity is helpful but really its just a slower RPM TRV that has the same problems along with a left right shake that will throw your aim off. Both guns are helped slightly by having Grip on them although you can mount a Laser on the TAR and run it like an smg. x1 refex for sights anything bigger is just unrully.
As others have said, I'd guess it depends on whether you prefer to hipfire or ADS. Despite that .75x movement speed bonus the TAR's ADS accuracy is quite nasty; prioritizing hipfire with the advanced laser always worked best for me. I found the Cycler TRV with a grip, 1x reflex and SPA a real monster out to mid-range. Its biggest downside for me was the lengthy reloads coupled with the rate at which you'll burn through a magazine. Its left-side recoil pull can also feel a bit weird at first, as most other weapons in the game pull to the right.
