Is the Jackhammer ever going to be good?

Discussion in 'Heavy Assault' started by Garmr, Nov 21, 2012.

  1. Garmr

    It got a "buff" that only made its problems even worse.

    It fires much quicker now in semi (faster than you can fire in burst now, oddly) and reloads much quicker, but only has 6 shots (10 extended magazine)

    The original jackhammer was the quickest firing shotgun in the game, but it had a 16 round magazine so it worked, but giving such a high rate of fire to something with so few shots is a joke

    Range might have been increased or I may be imagining it, but its still pretty short, while i realize this is a shotgun and needs to be hindered by range, this is our heavy assault weapon, it needs to have at least some flexibility over your average run of the mill shotgun.

    Damage may have been decreased as well, but again, i could just be imagining that.

    All in all the jackhammer is worse off than it was before launch, and i'm hoping they aren't thinking it's "fixed"
  2. Garmr

    And their fix for the extended magazine is laughable at best.

    Originally it said "Gives double ammunition per magazine" which would make sense, it would give you 4 bursts before having to reload instead of 2, but the problem was the "double" was actually 4 extra instead of 6, so you got 10 shots. Which means you can burst fire 3 times and and have one extra shot just sitting there useless.

    Rather than giving players the double magazine the description promised, they just changed the description to say "gives 4 extra shots" instead.

    Which still doesn't increase the ammo carried, and often bugs, spawning you with 6 shots loaded into the gun, forcing you to reload to get that extra 4, then resupply to get the 4 back, as you have so little ammo you really cant go without it.

    I really hope the jackhammer is still a work in progress, because that's how it feels.
  3. Policenaut

    I think the faster reload time and faster firing rate did magnitudes for the Jackhammer, it's actually feasible to use in combat. Having said that, it's still a bit lackluster considering it's the factional chaingun. It needs more range, though I'm pretty sure SOE has already acknowledged as much. In addition I would say it need more ammo capacity. While magazine capacity is kinda small, I think the faster reload balances that out, but I run out of ammo waaaay too fast. It need 50-60 spare ammo, opposed to 30.
  4. Garmr

    Pretty much, now I feel like i'm on par with commonpool shotguns maybe, but certainly not on par with HA weapons.
  5. BobFromMarketing

    Except having to reload at the intended range for a jackhammer is death. Even if its just 1 second.
  6. Garmr

    Isn't that what i said
  7. Bags

    I tried using it and I walked away wondering why anyone would ever use it.
  8. Naj

    I actually find the current JH better than the post-nerf beta JH, but it is a very situational weapon. I generally only pull it out during tower defenses and biolabs where most of the battles are very close quarters. Tri-shot is fantastic against MAXes, it'll kill them faster than you can kill them with LMGs/Rocket Launchers.

    I find the extend magazine to be essential, the red dot doesn't improve the weapon enough to make up for 4 additional shots.

    I use it in a few scenes here, such as 14:17.

  9. Garmr

    You would have done just as well with a mauler.
  10. Playful Pony

    Give me a blue chaingun! Seriously, both the jackhammer and the lasher are jokes, ESPECIALLY the lasher! How the lasher just stops after something like 5-10 meters and has NO damage capacity after that point... Ohw, right. Jackhammer...

    Yeah, it needs a hand, absolutely. Not that I even bothered investing precious SC or Certs in it this time around, but my friends say its not much better at all. Generally I find the extended magazine absolutely critical for most rapid-firing shotguns though, as the semi-automatic mode seems to be extremely fast right now. Maybe one could give the jackhammer a much reduced rate of fire, but stick a 20-round drum mag on the thing XD. That would make it FEEL pretty awesome at least. It would require a pretty significant reduction in it's rate of fire, but lets think about it. Say the Jackhammer has 10 round drum mag standard, with 20 rounds after a magazine capacity upgrade. How diferent from the MCG's 200 rounds would it be then, if it indeed had a somewhat slow rate of fire? It's very much a close-combat weapon, with a good capacity for sustained fire, the thing that would set it apart from other shotguns..

    Well, I don't know. It may be too much, they'd have to reduce damage and firerate substantially, maybe it wouldn't feel like a proper shotgun anymore than. Something has to be done though, to give it a more interesting, unique and worthwhile feel. It shouldn't be BETTER than the other shotguns, just diferent. As diferent as the MCG and the lasher are from the other weapons available to VS and TR HAs.
    • Up x 1
  11. Naj

    That's better than what it used to be, where I would've done even better with a Mauler because it was just flat out superior. Now they are essentially equal, but the JH comes with tri-shot for anti MAX without the need to switch weapons.
  12. Garmr

    Burst doesn't increase effectiveness, especially now that it fires slower than semi auto fire.

    But yes, that's my point, now it's on par with the commonpool shotguns, but not a HA weapon.
  13. Meiu

    No, it will never be good. If it was good the amount of crying on the forums would get it destroyed, this generation of players are very.. vocal... about not having to learn to play.
    • Up x 1
  14. r1stormrider

    ^QFT

    if the jackhammer functions properly, it would be for only 2 days because people will cry it to uselessness. this has been going on since beta. look at those QQ scattermax threads that popped up all over the place. when i would use that beast, i had so many foolish VS/TR players rushing right into my cannons at pointblank. then they log into the forums saying its overpowered. if they didnt rush me down, they'd all be in a cluster hugging a doorway. seriously cmon lol

    the jackhammer arrives, and it was devastating at first (but was the same as any shotgun...). same thing happened, VS/TR once again just rush down instead of trying to stay at range. they get in my face, i would 1 or 2 shot them pointblank. its a shotgun, what do they expect? to survive 3 or 4 rounds and then be able to gun me down with their automatic? doesnt work that way. once again same conclusion, those same fools who rushed into a jackhammer at point blank log into the forums and then cry it to nerfbat hell.
  15. Maxi'sProteinPowder

    Well what a waste of SC the Jackhammer is, this will be now sitting in my inventory collecting cobwebs and dust! my mauler does more damage then this on my LA! Absolute waste of SC!
  16. Grotpar

    I can't believe they still haven't fixed the ammo issue.

    The Jackhammer needs a magazine with an ammo count equal to a multiple of 3 to function at max efficiency.

    If I were to design the Jackhammer, I'd go with a "long range" mode for the semi-auto mode, and a "point blank" mode for the burstfire mode.
    The semi-auto mode would increase its range considerably, it will not rival a carbine's range, at all, but it will be function considerably better at longer distances than a regular shotgun. Giving it an edge, without actually dealing more damage in close quarters.
    The burstfire mode would give it roughly the same range as a regular shotgun, but if "overfired" would reduce its accuracy and handling considerably. While retaining some semblance of accuracy when fired in controlled bursts.

    I'm no NC, but I believe your empire specific HA weapon should at least be competitive with LMG alternatives
    As a Lasher lover, I feel your pain, because the Lasher still isn't fine, either, though it is at least better than the Jackhammer at this point and capable of reliably killing enemies, but it's nowhere near the LMGs in power.