LSW is close-med (though it's not terrible at longer ranges), the ursa is clearly built for range. The only other competition against the ursa in this range is the flare, though I have little experience with the flare so I cant really compare them well. The ursa has a pretty hefty skillfloor and skillcap though, it'll take you awhile to get the most out of it. Solid weapon though, rivals saw in most engagements.
I've gotten pretty good with the SAW on my nc (only gun I have over 2000 kills with) so I think the ursa seems like a tight gun. Looks awesome too.
The LSW is an amazing gun To date, it is the only LMG that I have ever gotten a kill with at a range of over 217 meters. I was in Indar Ex, advancing to Quartz Ridge, so I see this medic in the distance, and fired a few times. I got the kill... But that was a year ago You should get it if you like cheap weapons with plenty of controllability, effectiveness at all ranged scenarios, and a nice reload speed. Just DO NOT get the SVA, you'll regret it
The LSW is pretty bad, it's a downgraded SVA88 for new characters who can't afford it or veterans who want to get all the LMG Auraxiums. Of course, the SVA88 is also worse than the Orion, so if you're looking for a gun to use just slap a forward grip on the default and go to town. The Ursa's nothing like the SAW because it has an extremely low damage output. SAW's good, Ursa isn't.
The Ursa is the only VS LMG that's effective at long range. All of the others fall apart somewhere between 60-80m. If I had to rank them all according to their effective range I'd put it at Ursa > Flare = LSW > Polaris > SVA-88 > Orion. Honestly though, besides the Ursa they're all pretty close, and personal preference will make as much difference as any inherent long range ability. HA's best option for long range is the Eidolon though. But being semi-auto it's an entirely different beast.
Pulsar was alot like a weaker CARV-S. It handled fairly well, but seemed fair bit less accurate then the T9S.
The only reason you should ever use anything other than the Orion or SVA is if you're grinding auraxiums.
I don't get why Pulsar LSW (not why you should use it, or i, just why)? The gun has default weapon attachment choice, no advantage there. It does not aim particularly well, doesn't have a particularly good horizontal or vertical recoil, doesn't shine with a high capacity clip, not really good either in ADS or hipfire. It has no specific good point, or specific combination of good points. And thus no counterpart, it's just a bland weapon. Not bad, but not good either. It's like a default gun, except it costs something. Somekind of placeholder for the 100 certs LMG slot.
It was a rhetorical question, don't worry about it! i just don't know why SOE bothered putting as is. While you can't compare it directly to a specific NC LMG, the difference between T9 carv and the LSW is the same you'd find between between Pulsar VS1 and T1 cycler for instance. The closest thing to a NC archetype would be somewhere between the Gauss Saw/EM6/Anchor: it would've been some 600/167 gun with 75 rounds/clip no particular attachment, relatively fast reload (for a LMG). Except those 3 NC LMG all have a little something added (HVA, ext.mag, SPA, adv.laser sight, 6x scope, Compensator, etc...). The LSW could've had something, even not necessarily useful (adv. forward group maybe), but no it's just a purely archetypal VS gun. It's very bizarre for a gun you pay for, even at a humble price tag. I don't even know how i could write so many lines about it, considering there's nothing to write about, really!
I never bothered to get an SVA-88, so I use my free LSW as my bigger mag gun for when I will need to down 3+ before reloading. It is not terrible, but it is not good either. I consider it very "Meh". I have the flare, I dont really use it much.. I got it for when Im in an open field battle. Just picked up ursa the other day, I am really liking this gun, it has like no recoil. It doesn't do the damage of the saw, but it also doesn't seem to get me dead in CQC like the saw does.
I'm currently ~340 kills away from Auraxing the LSW and 250 kills away w/ the Ursa to finish the LMG Directive. And I gotta say, I can't wait until I'm done so I can throw away both LMGs and never pick them up again. They're both incredibly frustrating to use. I get out-flinched at medium range with the Ursa all too often in the stupidest of situations that wouldn't have been an issue if I'd had the Eidolon. And it can't even touch the Eidolon's long range ability... And the LSW, though not necessarily bad, just can't stand up to what you can do w/ the SVA. The tiny accuracy advantage given by the LSW doesn't stand up to the survivability afforded by the SVA's .75x movement. The LSW may be easier to use, but it's not enough to make it a worthy contender.
Just stick with the Orion, seriously, everything else sucks in comparison (except the Beetlejuice for close range), but if you're looking to get the directive, DO NOT use the Ursa, that's all. You two obviously haven't used the SVA-88 in a loooooooooong time
I can't say I am a fan of the LSW. As others have said it is a poor man's SVA-88. That said i am even less of a fan of the Ursa. I tried it a few times and gave up on it. If cert cost is an issue I would take the Polaris over the LSW or just stick with the Orion, and take the Flare over the Ursa. That said I Auraxiumed the Flare a long time ago and I know it has changed since then. If cert cost is not an issue then you can do a lot worse than the SVA-88. I think it is probebly the best all round Vanu LMG. Were I not focusing on mastering the Betelgeuse right now I think I would still be using either the Polaris or SVA-88 in all situations.
I actually have found one use for the Ursa: long range crouch firing, preferably from a flanking position. When crouched its CoF stays tight enough during long bursts (6-8 shots) that you can cut down even running targets at 150m or so. It requires a lot of recoil control, and it still doesn't stack up to the Eidolon at that range, but it's decent enough in its own right. I got almost 200 kills w/ it Monday night doing just that between Quartz Ridge and Indar Ex. The SVA is harder to use post-nerfs but it's still superior to the LSW once you get used to its rougher handling. The .75x movement ensures that.
Based on this I have to say that I disagree in pretty much everything he said in that video, except for the SVA being better at headshots, as always .75 ADS on LMGs is being overrated. The Pulsar LSW is definitely more accurate, I don't get the problem with "recoil angle", that's just a consequence of the LSW having horizontal recoil towards one side only, the SVA-88 has zero recoil angle on AVERAGE, but it has random recoil angle for both sides (which makes it unpredictable, same as every weapon without recoil bias), that's a disadvantage, not an advantage. That's the problem of using averages when the distribution isn't normal or close to it.
I don't think you know how recoil works in this game. All weapons have random side to side recoil. Recoil angle applied to the whole recoil plane is what makes it seem like a horizontal recoil has certain bias, but it's only a perception. Roughly speaking, on a weapon without a recoil angle, such as SVA-88, each shot's recoil can kick you up and to the left or up and to the right. On a weapon with a positive recoil angle (so the recoil plane gets angled to the right), each shot's recoil can kick you up and slightly to left, or slightly up and strongly to the right. Recoil angle does nothing to ease the recoil control. It's a placebo effect. I've got it all explained in detail in my Gunplay Guide, though some of the pictures aren't working because tinypic.com is currently down. I expect the issue will resolve itself in half an hour. If you don't believe me, record firing both weapons in VR and compare footage on low speed.
little reason to use either the LSW or the SVA over the orion, at this point. Their recoil stats aren't meaningfully better, they're worse at hip fire and give up RoF. The polaris is somewhat interesting if you want a more controllable middle-distance option (similar to the T16 for the TR), but it doesn't get an adv. foregrip so it's not anything special either really.
