So, today I decided to finally pick up the Eidolon, and I'm pretty happy with it. The 225 damage out to any range truly is amazing. There's just one thing that bugs me about it: The sound... When I got this I expected it to sound like it was packing a serious punch (250 damage and all that), instead I got something that seems to resemble the sound of the Artemis scout rifle (143 damage), which sounds like you're firing farts rather than high-velocity plasma bullets. It suits the Artemis pretty well, because it was probably designed for a stealth role, but it's just completely out of place for the highest damaging weapon for the VS medic. I'm not sure what the Warden and the AMR sound like, but I hope for my blue and red arch-nemeses that it sounds like something that really hurts your face if you try to catch a bullet that it fired with your mouth.
You'll find that the sound of Eidolon is a big boon, since it is so low you can go undetected a lot of times where other VS weapons will make peoples heads swivel right to you're location. It would be nice for it sound as beefy as it is, but with everything else this rifle has going for it there really is no reason to complain.
I kinda miss the old sound the Eidolon had from launch. It was a much louder, piercing shot that combined w/ the increased recoil made it feel like it really had some bite to it. I really like its current sound w/ a Suppressor attached though.
Unfortunately it really does sound a bit like a wet fart. The NC BR has a decent bark to it and though I can't recall exactly what the TR one sounded like, I do recall thinking it was the best of the three. *pnk* *prnk* *phnk* *pnk*
Damage degradation on the Eidolon used to be pretty bad. Minimum damage was 167, so after ~35m or so you'd need 6 shots. Thankfully SOE got smart about 6 months after launch and removed the extra degradation suffered by the VS from all but a few select weapons.
its my favorite gun in the game. i got bored of it a while back and jumped from gun to gun, only to pick it up again recently, and realize it really is just that great. its incredibly verstile, i never should have stopped using it. once you become accustomed to using it in CQC, you won't need another gun. i'd love to have for my infiltrator.
Have you tried the Nyx for infil? It fires slower than the Eidolon and has more recoil but it does more damage per shot and generally kills in 1-2 less shots. It's a 2-headshot kill at all ranges too. In almost all other aspects (CoF, TTK, velocity, etc) its close or identical to the Eidolon. It even uses the same sound when it fires.
I like them both but prefer the Eidolon for the reasons you mention. In fact I wish they'd increase its RoF to 400RPM or so. I keep running into the 333RPM barrier at close/medium range and end up dying a few times every session against bullet hoses solely because it won't fire as fast as I can click the mouse even tho I hit every shot.. This game rewards spray and pray weapons too much over accurate ones IMO.
Well, SaP weapons don't exactly work at range, do they now? Being VS, I own a Commissioner (What demented Vanu idiot would not purchase a 44?), and using it at closer ranges is a pretty wise thing to do. Extra damage, same minimum damage at range, you know... The Eidolon is far better for longer ranges, but the 44 is what you want up close and personal
Every faction has at least 1 LMG/AR/Carbine that I've found to be effective out to at least 125m, and they are all significantly better than BRs at close range. Battle Rifles of course have significantly longer ranges than that tho. But I'd be surprised if you'll find anyone who honestly thinks they're OP, which is a red flag that something's amiss right there. The fact that it's pretty much the only weapon outside of sniper rifles where a pistol is a better CQC weapon speaks volumes (I use the Underboss myself). And yet it doesn't have a sniper rifle's optics, accuracy, or extreme range killing potential. Along w/ Semi-auto scouts they currently have the lowest DPS of any primary weapon in the game (outside of BASRs) as well as one of the highest TTKs (I think only the Corvus is higher), both of which they rarely hit even in the best of circumstances due to oversampling issues. Now that I do the math, a boost to 400 RPM is a little high. But I see no issue w/ 360-370, which would put it around 1500-1540 DPS which is still lower than just about everything else. If they did that and got rid of the the recoil pull to the right I think I'd be happy with them. That or give them a .75x ADS move multiplier like the Vandal. Buffing Battle Rifles certainly can be a slippery slope since you don't want them to be as good as bullet hoses up close. They do still need some sort of minor tweak/buff though.
What if they made them ES? For example: NC one deals 334 damage and has a velocity of 655, but has a far lower reload speed, and RoF is reduced to 275. VS one stays the same, but receives a small damage increase to 280 damage, but only 200 at max range. TR one gets the higher RoF (400-415), but it deals 250 damage, same as now. Reload speed would have to be lowered on the NC and TR variants, OR they can make the Eidolon reload faster for having balanced damage and RoF. BUT, the NC and TR versions receive an additional four rounds.
I've always loved the idea of having ES Battle Rifles. I like your suggestions (I've suggested similar things in the past). I'd increase the mag size for TR to 24 (6000 damage/mag) but decrease it to 18 for NC (6012 dmg/mag). Then bump the VS damage to 300 (6000 dmg/mag) so it can keep a 4-shot kill vs Nano5 (280 would be 5 shots for Nano4/5), and then reduce its moving ADS CoF from .25 to .2. Lastly, I'd bump the vertical recoil on the TR one from .6 to .58 to balance its RoF increase (essentially a free compensator). And of course I still think they should all get the recoil pull to the right removed. That'd give each empire a unique "bonus" in line w/ their faction traits beyond just damage/rof NC would get a 3-body shot kill in CQC VS would be more accurate on the move TR would get the fastest TTK outside CQC when hitting max ROF, but often would need 1 more hit to kill. For further flavor we could also tighten the NC's ADS Cof to 0, tighten the VS to .03, and keep the TR's the same at .1 but increase their recoil recovery speed from 15 to 16 to encourage more dakka.
I received my highest infantry kill streak with this weapon last weekend. I was an engineer and next to a terminal so I could always have unlimited ammo,resupply,and health if I switched to medic to heal myself. I killed 89 NC players in this streak without being killed once or revived. I respawned and then had a 56 kill steak doing the same. Finally we received VS reinforcements and pushed NC out of the area. I used a foregrip,6x optic,and high velocity ammunition. I was fighting from inside a building at level with the front line and engaging most targets around 200 meters. It was at night and they had tanks illuminating the infantry so shooting at silhouettes was a good way to rake in the certs that night .
Increase it's long range capability would be enough : increase min damage to 250 (the same as max damage) improve accuracy to 0.03 while standing. Done.
