Oh yeah, i should mention. I have the other 2 smg's already. I've auraxium'd the eridani, but the PDW feels meh and i stopped using it. I thought the sirius would be nicer. I also auraxium'd the serpent, and am now trying to do the same with the NS-11C, and i'm almost there but i still feel like having another CQC carabine would be nice, as i miss the fast firerate sometimes. I had a Nova for the longest time, but i didn't use it too much. After the recent update, where everyone got a shotgun, i've been using Thanatos and liking it way more, and thought maybe a pump action would be my kind of thing. Even though i don't play heavy that much, a lot of people i know praise the NS-15M and say it's a gamechanger. The NS Vandal is new and seems really cool; i like the animations and the sounds, and it seems to perform alright, too. Same can be said about the phaseshift, it just seems like a really cool weapon.
NS PDW is by far the best SMG choice if you´re VS. Fantastic ironsights so you don´t need to slow yourself down with scopes, 35shots, extremely good hipfire accuracy, very decent ADS for an SMG, as good as most carbines for medium ranges. Should give it another chance imho. If you havn´t the VX6-7 yet give it a try, I believe it received some hipfire nerf along with all carbines some patches ago but it should still be a good weapon. It was the first carbine I got to auraxium and is still the the gun I have the most kills with as infantry.
Sirius is the best SMG for any purpose, for Vanu at least. It has the fastest TTK to the head, it's TTK is tied to the Eridani's to the body when firing at someone with nanoweave 3 and 0.02s longer if firing at someone without nanoweave. It's headshot TTK is the fastest of any Vanu-available SMG. It has more ammo then you'll need in any fight, it's damage doesn't drop very badly at range, it's recoil is easy to control and it has no reason not to use the laser sight, making it the most accurate SMG. Phobos is a very good shotgun and you should definitely trial it, if you like it -- get it, if not -- pump actions aren't for you. It's a weapon that favors mobility and outflanking your opponent, as opposed to direct engagements. At least not in open areas, but it can be used almost anywhere if you have good awareness, knowledge of the map and snap decision making. VX6-7 is a very accurate weapon with a good DPS, but since I got the Sirius, I see no use for it anymore, as I'm not going to stand around firing at the enemy without a heavy shield or medic self-heal, which is where the mobility of the Sirius comes into play. NS Vandal is pretty good. Better then the Eidolon, however, it's not available to any class other then the infil. As an infil, I haven't found any use for a glorified battle rifle. NS-15M is nothing special and you're better off using Orion (default) or the Flare (250 certs), depending on your preferences. I'd not recommend buying the NS-15M for any reason other then to get auraxium on an other weapon. The Phaseshift is a wonderful sniper, but it's fairly difficult to use because of it's slow muzzle velocity and charge-up mechanic. It can also be used as a scout rifle if not charged, making it fairly versatile. However, I wouldn't recommend it if you don't like sitting on cliffs for hours to simply get some easy kills.
VX6-7, since you're familiar with the Serpent and don't mind a similar gun. Only detail to note is that recoil is in the other direction though, that's the only noticeable difference.
as someone with auraxium on phobos/thanatos/ns15m/vx6-7, now working ns7/serpent/pulsar i can give some of my advice based on personal preferences: ns-15m > orion except maybe very close range vx6-7 > serpent because recoil and sustainability phobos <3 (now working on deimos) sirius i find meh. as for snipers, i cannot help you here. ns15 was indeed a gamechanger as i could start making kills past 15m. phobos/deimos needs a playstyle that requires more than average skill (unlike many haters will make you believe, claiming pukps are for noobs). vx6-7 is nice, but not really ne essary over the solstice.
I recently switched to the Nyx over the smg and it is working well for me. I like it because I can 2 hit head shot anything. It rewards accuracy and with a silencer it's pretty beastly in close quarters. I am thinking of getting the Vandal since it has the white tracers and is very similar to the Nyx. This will help me not be identified in bio labs and other close quarter areas.
VX6-7 is a beast carbine. Some prefer the serpents slightly higher firerate, but this one is better rounded, easily controlable and super fast reload for a great allrounder for LA and ENG. In many regards it is really just a super-SMG that kills faster up close AND can do medium-range just fine too. Short of now having the magazine of an LMG it really has no flaws as a gun. (note: the VX6-7 does have more recoil than a serpent BUT the recoil is very predictable and controlable. Its accuracy at range does somewhat require that you have some basic recoil compensation skills and don't just hold down the trigger). Phobos ugh, shotguns... I really don't want to encourage people to abuse those things more than they already are. At least its not a spammable one... NS Vandal Great fun weapon. I like it a lot so far. You will still lose in a straight up fight like many other infil weapons, but this gun is very versatile and has a great skillcurve to get better at using it, so while its not super powerful pr se, it is one of the best of its class IMO (ie. semiauto scout/battlerifles). Ultimately hard to say this beats out SMGs in most cases but... the vandal does have the versatility that the SMGs don't quite have. If you like being able to be effective at any range and you also value situational awareness a lot so that you can make sure you have positional advantage or the element of surprise in most fights, then this just might be a great weapon for you. If you already have the nyx though then that is a very similar weapon. Vandal has some advantages like higher ADS speed, higher magsize ect. but if you don't like how the nyx plays then you won't like the vandal either probably, because they are very similar guns. Sirius One of the better SMGs overall. NC has better ones overall I'd say, but its hard to go wrong with this one. high firerate, high magazine and usable on all classes, so its a shame not to have it. The #1 rule for this gun moreso than even other SMGs is to always hipfire. This gun literally has the same accuracy in hipfire as in ADS (worse ADS than other SMGs), so just slap an avd. laser on it and never ADS again. That's definitely how this gun is meant to be used. (NV scope might be useful for rare cases where there is smoke you need to look through). NS-15M Depends on your preference if you love this or prefer empire specific weapons. It is super versatile, accurate and probably the most controlable LMG that exists. The major drawback is lacking DPS. I'd consider it a good fit for a highskill player who relies on hitting consistently and landing headshots rather than winning by the DPS of the weapon. If your aim is good this gun is awesome. NS tracers/sound is a big boon too. Considering you already have the Orion for free though I wouldn't consider it a high priority as the Orion is perhaps the best (in the sense of being the most straight up powerful) LMG available as long as you don't require super large magazines. The NS-15M surely will require more skill on your part to compete with it - but it can have some benefits to it if you can handle that - and is also a beast at greater ranges due to being incredibly predictable and easy to control even compared to the fairly low Orion recoil. Phaseshift Jury still out on this one. If you like semiauto snipers then its probably not a bad weapon to get. Its basically just a semiauto with a BASR-option built-in. For those people who love to camp somewhere and snipe until they run out of ammo it might be extra special just because... there is no ammo to worry about. If you are low on certs/SC then I'd say hold off on it for now just because it is ultimately very similar to weapons you probably already have access to. -Stigma
