NS-AM7 Archer - Now that it is out for a while

Discussion in 'Engineer' started by XyNox, Nov 1, 2015.

  1. XyNox

    I bought the archer quite shortly after it went live. Now that the gun is out for a bit and you dont see it in the hands of every engineer just because of it being new, what do you make of it ?

    I try to play with it more regularly. I am not much of a person that immediately switches to the gear and class that is best suited in the given situation but rather use the gear I like using and then try to get the most of it for the current situation.

    The archer is kinda lacking though. Sure, against maxes it is extremely powerful and it can effectively damage every target in the game, still in most cases I feel it is quite useless. The weapon just shares traits that seem very counter intuitive for an ANTI MATERIAL RIFLE, such as the low inf damage but then again a 0.75 ADS movement multiplier for something that is suposedly very heavy.

    Discussions about giving the archer OHK potential with a headshot against inf revealed that a lot of people found that too OP, since the engineer should not be able to perform what is a specific ability of a sniper infiltrator. After playing with it for quite some time, I dont think giving it the damage tier of a gen 1 bolt action sniper or similar would make it too powerful.

    1. The rechamber time is so long, followup shots before the target disappears behind cover are not easy to land.

    This combined with 2. the bullet velocity of a mere 525 m/s ( hence high bullet drop ) is very slow for long range engagements that I cant even see people getting effective with it when the enemy jumps/dodge/spazzes out.

    3. Not having a cloak is obviously a huge disadvantage for long range "sniper duels", which anyone with a few auraxed sniper rifles will most probably agree with.

    In order to prevent overbuffing this weapon, the 0.75 ADS may be reduced to 0.5, which would have made more sense for this kind of weapon from the beginning anyway. Additionally, the hold breath time may also be halved for the archer, since again, it is an anti material rifle that has to be heavy in order to cope with the huge recoil, muzzle break or not.

    Now, I havent been posting in this forum a lot but pretty much evey thread I watched so for, it did take just a few post until everything derails into masshysteria followed by faction trashtalk and how everything the other faction uses is OP. I figured I'd try anyway, lets see how this goes ;)
    • Up x 1
  2. Scr1nRusher

    The Archer needs 2 really small buffs:

    1) Reduce the chamber time down to 1 second.

    2) Increase velocity from 525 to 550.


    Also 0.75 ADS should be removed from it, since it serves no rational purpose being on the weapon & 0.75 ADS doesn't suit the weapon type/role.
  3. JobiWan

    I quite like it, I like to try and have at least one run with it per session. In big fights, chances are an enemy soldier isn't at full health and it's quite good at finishing them off. I've killed a fair few Reavers and Scythes with it too and even a couple of Liberators and a Galaxy.

    My best Archer moment was when three NC Maxes were charging our Sundy, they must have all been damaged already because I one shotted them all in quick succession.

    You can kind of pretend to be an infil sniper if you step in and out of a cloaked Sundy bubble between shots.

    I use the Underboss for CQC and the Spitfire to watch my back while I'm sniping.
  4. RedArmy

    i dont like it - im happy i bought it with certs and not DBC
    drop on the weapon makes anything more than an 8x scope too hard
  5. JobiWan

    I use it with a 4x scope, no sway and still good at 'sniping' especially mid-range.
  6. Dakkaface

    I picked it up with all my refunded certs after dropping in recently - it's kinda gimmicky. Straight pull bolt is an unnecessary upgrade since you never really kill anything with it while ADS. Hipfire is surprisingly useful - I've blasted MAXes in CQC with it to finish them off, but that's pretty much the only real kills you get with it.

    What you do get, are a LOT of assists on vehicle kills. It's an annoying bee-sting that makes tankers shelling a position, stop and start looking around, wondering what the hell is hitting them. If a Sundy starts trundling away and you're in a good position, you can feed a whole mag into it to take off 20-25% of it's health and get a good credit when it gets wrecked by allied support later. It also does okay at blasting hover-pod ESFs. It's a support weapon and you are going to get very few kills with it, but it does well as a weapon you can use while babysitting some AV or AA MAXes and still meaningfully contribute.

    This is important advice. You're not trying for headshots with the thing anyway, so 4x is as much as you'll ever need.
    • Up x 1
  7. johnway

    My experience with the weapon is that its a bit lacklusture. Sure, you could do damage to maxes and armor, but its more like plinking away at them to shoo them away. I tried targeting normal people and ... meh, its a bit limited in that respect.
    • Up x 2
  8. cobaltlightning

    The only real change I'd make to it is likely up it's damage against infantry, enough that it would do 75% total damage on a point-blank headshot to an infiltrator. On the wiki, it's anti-materiel. According to Dictionary.com, 'Materiel' in the sense of the game basically any military equipment in general; arms, armour, weapons, MAX units, hover tanks, etc.

    If not damage, give the receiving player of an AMR shot a brief EMP'd screen, like maybe 2 seconds. It'd be enough to disorient the player (because that oughta be one bigass bullet to down a MAX in few shots) but not enough to deter them, because of the weapons remaining downsides of slow re-chamber, crap velocity, and stupid high bullet drop.
  9. Ronin Oni

    great for wrecking MAXes...

    I use it with AI Mana turret & AV Mines, and a fast firing pistol (finishing infantry after body shotting them in CQB)

    My main focus is to put hurt on MAXes with it. AI Mana turret gives me a solid AI defensive position weapon, and it kinda becomes a primary weapon of sorts.
  10. ParakeetLord88

    It's a solid gun for long range work as an Engineer. While obviously ideal for killing MAXes you can kill infantry in as many shots and I have done so, and it's very good for killing turrets of all kinds (base and engineer). I have a hard time hitting ESFs with it but it's pretty good for damaging larger aircraft and it's nice for damaging enemy tanks. It may seem like it's not doing much damage but given that you can easily hit with it, fire every 2 seconds and it's long range (and has no rocket trail) you can do a surprisingly large amount of damage to vehicles - that's why they move. Test it out in VR if you want, it makes a difference. Drivers know that they probably won't be able to find the damage source so they choose to move, and that's potentially battle-changing in terms of suppression fire.

    As long as you have a medic to keep you alive you will do pretty well with an Archer. It's not for running into buildings and doing cqc but I recommend either a SMG or your multipurpose underbarrel carbine for that.
  11. Capca

    I like it. It's now my go to engineer weapon for battles that take place between bases.
  12. Iridar51

    The Blackhand already sets the precedent of everyone having a pocket semi auto sniper rifle. Would it really be so bad for engineer to have a weak bolt action sniper rifle? Allow it to OHK on a headshot, but make it in every other way noticeably worse than a real BASR. I see no issues then.

    Sure it would suck to have more OHK snipers in the game, but hey, engineer could use a buff, and I don't see it as a bad thing if engi becomes the most versatile unit in the game.

    Because let's face it, currently Archer is still very limited against infantry. It would be more or less fine if there was a PDW-style sidearm, but current sidearm options are too inferior to primaries on already inferior class - in a straight-up combat, of course.

    Maybe they should release that NS Auto Pistol after all? If they make it a pocket version of NS-7 PDW, basically, it would partially solve this issue.
  13. RedArmy

    i got this wpn with certs, and not really happy with it
    the bullet drop is really bad and any scope beyond the 4x isnt really worth it unless ur up on a hill shooting down at ur target. Hip fire its cool, but still boring
  14. Skooma Lord

    I think they should increase the bullet velocity by a good amount if they don't increase the damage or lower the time it take to fire each shot.

    Or they could add different ammo types like: incendiary rounds(Damage over time), cryo-rounds(slow down target) , explosive rounds(small explosion when bullet hits), AP rounds(ability to kill infantry with a head-shot)
  15. Capca

    The last thing PS needs is another way to one-hit-kill from long range.
  16. Problem Officer

    1. Lower MAX damage to require 3 headshots. It's too easy to headshot with their low agility.
    2. Increase damage against all vehicles and aircraft. Currently it's not an anti-materiel rifle, it's a magical anti-MAX rifle.
    Flash should take 2 shots. MBTs should be killed quickly by a full coordinated Archer squad.
    Against infantry it should do increased damage to health but not shield. The logic being make energy shields the rifle's weakness.
  17. Pelojian

    It's an anti-max niche rifle by design, it's not meant primarily as an anti-vehicle rifle, the fact that it can damage heavy armor more likely has to do with the max's armor class then actually designing it as an anti-tank weapon.

    Increasing the damage to vehicles would make it a lancer 2.0 minus the obvious particle trail leading to the shooter.

    we do not need vehicle snipers at all, hiding behind every rock, tree or sitting on a hill/mountain.

    If you want an infantry only game there are plenty of them to choose from, but PS2 is not one of them.
  18. Azawarau

    Im not sure if youve seen the amount of shots it takes to even scare off a tank but i can assure you that an increase against vehicles would by no means make it an infantry only game unless it were pushed up incredibly

    Other vehicles and explosives will always be the option to go with

    Archer could stand to be at least a small deterrent
  19. Pelojian

    I'm a tanker and someone with an archer is a deterrent if the user is playing smart and moving around between shots, unelss you can find the shooter he'll plink away at you until you pop into cover and repair.

    archer is fine as-is, it's meant as an anti-max weapon, not an anti tank weapon. increasing the damage would be another nerf to tanks when infantry have plenty of viable anti-vehicle options already. archer is not an anti tank rifle stop treating it like one.
  20. Azawarau

    Ive sat and shot tanks for a very long time before they decided to go back for a heal. The archer isnt even a deterrent for tanks as it is now

    It does well against small planes and flashes

    Against the harasser its a death wish and against tanks its an annoyance more than a factor

    You can definitely finish a damaged tank off but you wont be doing anything to deter 1 tank let alone a convoy even after emptying the gun