I've been a bit curious about the gladius my self. I use a supped up Blitz now for my SMG build but I always felt I should have ran the cyclone instead. Really thinking about grinding out a Gladius. Hopefully some knowledgeable player's post all about it here. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*
I've heard the Tempest is closer to a carbine than a proper SMG. Would probably be better to just use the Cyclone instead. As for the Gladius, I could not recommend it any less. Even the Tempest would be leagues better.
I think the Gladius is fine, I have it on my NC and I enjoy using it. Theres something to be said for 200 damage at close range for an SMG. Its very powerful against entrenched enemies where its not so much how many rounds you put down range but how much damage they do so you can keep moving without being slaughtered in open territory. Now you can make the case that 160 something damage with an extra round going towards your target is better but at the end of the day its landing 1 round compared to 2 or however many. Assuming that you can hit what you're aiming for High Damage / Low ROF is better. But that is just my opinion.
I mean the argument was always that the faster ROF on these guns made the flinch mechanic go obsurd, but now everyone says running battle hardened is essential. I personally do not own this implant, but i often do think when they get the jump on me and flinch mechanic becomes obsurd, I was probably not in a winning fight anyway. That being said maybe because everybody is running battle hardened, maybe it doesn't really matter what gun you take and I hear ROF is gated behind framerate anyway so maybe you're just seeing full potential of a slow firing gun whereas you're comparing it to a hindered fast ROF gun.
