NC weapons have identical DPS if you hit every bullet at best, often lower.

So what warrants the higher recoil from a game balance perspective? Sure it takes one less bullet to kill, but since your weapon fires slower, you kill as fast as other factions at best.
So, since we do the same damage over time, why does one faction need to have a harder time inflicting that damage? If we burst fire, we hurt ourselves even more.
The only time we benefit from bullet damage is when both you and your opponent are forced to use single shots. And that accounts for how much % of total engagements? A pretty measly percentage.
I don't think we are disadvantaged by a big margin, but the difference is definitely there and having an impact.
Some of my more stubborn outfitmates think that NC guns have a higher potential if you're just very skilled, but even if you're a wiz and hitting every bullet with the Gauss SAW, doing exactly that is easier with TR or VS guns, just because the cone of fire stays tighter, and nets you the same power (default CARV lmg dps is even higher than SAW). So they're sadly deluded.

I know I've been making a lot of NC balance threads, and I'm probably biased, but this is what I perceive.

Eh, NC weapons have lower DPS if every shot hits.

What distinguishes the NC weapon is that the higher damage per bullet lets it do some serious burst damage via headshots(the only thing that damage per bullet actually matters on).

While I do think this justifies the lower overall DPS, I don't think this justifies the handling characteristics of the weapons.

NC starter AR and Carbine are fairly well balanced and the sniper is the best starter one in the game. The only problematic starter weapon for the NC is the SAW, that gun sucks balls. Low dps/TTK, bad cof, bad recoil. Just bad...

agreed. to slow to be viable in close quarters and to bloomish on med - long ranges.
and burst fireing 3 bullets with an LMG feels just wrong.

even bigger joke is that this thing has a forward grip as upgrade. it doesnt even have horizontal recoil XD