Empire Specific Pistols - NPE opportunity?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Xervous, Sep 19, 2021.

  1. Xervous

    We have almost a decade of usage data on these weapons. We have knee jerk responses for what weapons to pick on a given class. The SAW got replaced with the GD-22S to be more beginner friendly, but notably the SAW and the 22 are both good guns. Meanwhile any new player who comes along is going to encounter the implicit or explicit suggestion to start packing an NS model sidearm.

    Obviously we just give everyone a starting commissioner
    The NS models all offer exceptional alpha damage and good accuracy. Their damage per magazine is generally in line with the ES pistols, and for many players the reload means Higby all since you only live to reload when the other guy is dead. Suppressors were the main exceptional feature of the ES pistols, at least until the Pilot arrived. Pilot vs Commie

    Voidwell stats for starting ES pistols vs. commie. Check the KPU (kills per unique) for all four quartiles. At all levels of play the starting ES pistols are behind.

    NC pistols against commie Note how the rebel is the best performing NC pistol with its 250 damage model,15m max damage range, and 1.25 moving hipfire.
    TR pistols against commie Note how the inquisitor is frequently a step above the other two ES pistols, practically on par with the commie for some quartiles. The inquisitor has a massive 4290 per magazine, the forgiving 143 damage model, and 1.25 moving hipfire
    VS pistols against commie Cerberus is the most outstanding VS pistol with, surprise, 250 damage model and 1.25 moving hipfire.

    Commie, Rebel, Cerberus. The message is clear, alpha damage is a winning feature on a pistol with the exceptional case of the Inquisitor. A sufficiently large damage per magazine (4290, basically a pocket VS carbine's worth of damage) is enough to give a pistol better performance.

    Magshot 3000 damage per mag
    Desperado 2338 damage per mag
    TX1 2352
    Emperor 3507 (emperor performs a little better than the TX1 on some quartiles, but is admittedly held back by the 167 damage model while the TX1 benefits from being burst fire)
    Beamer 2839
    Manticore 3000

    Bonus round, NSO pistols

    EGADS, the U200 Harbinger eclipses the commie for all quartiles. Obviously this is a very small slice of data with bias that needs acknowledging. But while the other two pistols trend below the commie, the U200 is still worth taking a look at here.

    Default: 2700 per mag. Extended mags: 3600
    300->200 damage profile. Unsuppressed 2shot headshot out to roughly 20m. Headshot bodyshot x2 against nanoweave in close quarters. Alpha damage and expanded magsize were two valuable features in sidearms posited above and IMO the short blip of data we have on the U200 supports this theory.

    So the TLDR for people that would rather not read:
    Give underperforming ES pistols larger magazines, especially the starting ones which new players are statistically and socially encouraged to drop for a 1k+ purchase of an NS revolver. You gave them default suit slots, you gave them default vehicle equips that were deemed must haves, why not tweak the base pistols so the NS revolvers aren't quite as Must Have?
    • Up x 2
  2. YellowJacketXV

    What about NS pilot?
    Isn't that high alpha due to the three-shot 200 damage burst?
  3. Demigan

    One big note though: starter weapons almost always have lower stats due to the amount of newbies still learning the game. The commisioner is usually bought after some experience is gained even at Q1. That said any comparison to other side-arms should be good. However, use more than just KPU. Singular comparisons rarely show the full picture.


    The first comparison is of the commie versus pilot, the Pilot has almost the same KPU over the entire period of time shown, although slightly lower.