Incoming wall of text : I finally unlocked the Darkstar, after some intensive play lately. Since i'm relieved now, i thought i'd share on that experience! Auraxiumed, in that order: Pulsar, CME, NS-11P, H-V45, Corvus and Equinox Burst. Yes that's 6: i was disgusted to discover that the "Platinum" weapons didn't count for the Darkstar directive, after i completed the Corvus. As it happened, i had significantly more kills at that point with the Equi-burst than with either Terminus or Equinox...and hadn't bought the NS-11A (thinking i didn't need it). I did it all not changing my usual habits: running and gunning, abusing redeployside (fleeing those 96+ fights, not interested in the metagame or lack thereof) as a sort of medium assault sharpshooter gifted with rez and healing abilities. As i have zero interest in trophy/achievements systems in general, hitherto varying my class/loadout a lot i initially wasn't going for it. Yet as i now have about anything i want infantry-wise (stats indicate i've gained about ~100k certs total), frequently run low on ammo in the field (field engineers are a rare bunch outside of the bigger fights), and play medic often, i set my sights on the Darkstar, which seems suited to what i do. I'd qualify my playstyle as a rather prudent player's, more versed in mid-range fights, where medics have the most chance against others, specifically HAs, and the range where the typical 698rpm/143 or lower dps VS&NS gun shines. After all that i must say that it made me step up my game significantly, and changed my perspective on a few things: i found my ideal mouse sensitivity (lowered it a lot=>went down too much=> increased it a little from the lowest point i went to find the ideal level) i discovered that 1x reflex sights were often a very good alternative to my formerly usual 2x reflex my aim consistently increased throughout the whole process, probably because i stopped changing loadout every now and then, which i'm really happy about. I was on some sort of skill plateau since about september, and finally managed to improve again! i gained somewhere around 1.5~2 points on my average accuracy rates (very close to 30% now) thank god for all the mediocre HAs out there, never could've done without them. The rarer good ones are such a huge pain... i used to dislike the H-V45, and had a blast with it, even managing to get quite a few long distance kills! I somewhat felt that the contradiction between my playstyle and the CQC playstyle it implies actually made for great synergy overall i kinda liked the CME before the whole thing, yet now feeling the exact opposite of the H-V45 with it: i don't like it anymore. I wonder if that's because it's penalized by the HVA scam (which i didn't equip, of course)? the Equi-Burst was soooooo tedious. Not that i did bad with it, but went with flash suppressor+HVA for the principle (if not, what's the point over Pulsar?). The Vrecoil on the first shot just screws the superb Hrecoil+high velocity so bad, it almost hurts About the Darkstar, i saw that its model has a barrel attachment, and its hipfire is inflated by 20%, so i'm wondering if that's a flash suppressor or a compensator. It does seem to have less Vrecoil than the Pulsar according to the PS2 weapon data sheet, but not by the usual proportion (should be 0.187 rather than 0.209). Anybody knows about that?
AFAIK, the reason the Darkstar's vertical recoil is only slightly lowered by the Compensator is that it has "HVA". Though the bullet velocity isn't higher, the minimum damage range is increased from 65 to 85 m. However, since it only drops 1 damage tier anyway, this is of limited use. I'm still trying to choose my last AR to Auraxium out of; CME, Eq B, Eq, and Corvus. None of them are particularly appealing if I'm honest.
HVA was actually removed when they implemented the heat mechanic, though they might've left the added recoil in, i didn't think of that. The numbers don't exactly compute with the data from the usual Googledoc spreadsheet but it's close enough. Then again i had not noticed, but the spreadsheet is completely oblivious to modifications on the auraxium weapons from the 29th of august patch, or Spiker. So the recoil might just be pretty standard, i'll have to test. I guess there's no other way to know unless they update this. As for the AR to auraxium, if it were me, and in hindsight, i'd go for the Corvus. It's bad (where my +24rpm at?), but the aim just stays on target so headshots. At the end of my run with it, i was having about a third of my kills as headshots. In those random CQC encounters, you're going to cry though: i felt bad for every one of them where my killer was left with a sliver of health. The Equinox is very similar to the CME if you don't use underbarrel attachments, and they're both weak weapons overall but very easy to use. I consider them weaker than Corvus, despite the latter's atrocious theoretical dps. The Equi-burst is mostly an annoying Pulsar: it's slightly deadlier at some particular ranges, which i estimate around 20~30m where the low CoF+Hrecoil combination is felt. Before that they're mostly equal, after that Vrecoil penalizes the Equi-Burst too much. I did feel the boon of the flash suppressor on it though: sometimes my adversaries were puzzled as to where i was shooting them from.
I have seen the light: i decided to aurax' the Terminus after all that, just for hell of it, and i was under the impression that my progress was good, i had a blast with it for the hundreds of kills i need up to 1160. Formerly, i had never used it much, and it felt kinda 'off' for some reason. I had stacked a lot of self-confidence with those, and then i switched to the Darkstar...i must say i've had to deal with nerfs (in other games) that felt better than this. The Pulsar/Darkstar is much less accurate than i remembered. I'm putting a lot of effort into it, tap-taping my best but it's not paying off in proportion. I've got the infinite ammo i sought, yet since i'm respawning more, that's become less of an issue! I'm actually wondering if that's because i'm being made to flinch more as i make the opponent flinch less, and if Papa Vanu has any heart, sending all those little BR1 medics in the wild with a Pulsar.
