The Polaris is no where near as bad as I was expecting it to be

So, I recently purchased the VX29 Polaris on a whim, already knowing from VR that the hipfire utility of the weapon wasn't very high, despite what the description implies.

However, with SPA, forward grip, and a compensator, I was amazed at how well it was doing at mid ranges while ADS. The thing has next to zero recoil in this config and quite manageable bloom.

I've commented negatively on this weapon before as the times I dabbled with it in VR and Test I had tried to get a hipfire setup to work as nearly every other LMG had superior paper statistics during ADS. Goes to show just how misleading specs can be. I suppose I should have known better to comment on it without really giving it a shot in actual combat scenarios on the live servers.

Anyway, this is what I managed the first time I used it out side of VR, without engaging in any overly lopsided battles nor any spawnroom camping. Not a particularly good showing relative to what some people can do, but an hour after unlocking it I had my highest headshot rate and highest KPM with any weapon in my arsenal:



To demonstrate I had just unlocked it:

Allah acksbox!

Or maybe you just had a really lucky first run with it. Cuz really, I always seem to have a really good first run with almost every gun or character for that matter. Then the true colors show soon after...

I auraxed it with that setup. It's a decent point defense weapon but not much else imo.

Based on this:



I say it's crap, clearly worse performance than any of the other weapons there (ignore the solstice, I have that one equipped when I'm tanking or flying so those numbers are heavily biased downwards)

I used the Polaris as a CQC weapon with ALS and SP (And a silencer) in a past, and got roughly 2/3 of the kills required for Auraxium that way.
I was always rather fond of that weapon.
Since the change, it's definitely a better midrange weapon.
It shines at 10-15 meters thanks to having access to Soft-Point, and out to around 40 meters because how any other weapons can fire accurate 15-round bursts at that range?
Sure, it's sometimes a bit cheesy, but it's still fun to use that way. With IR/NV if you really hate recoil. ^^
(It lacks an Adv. Grip )

It's damage is poor. There are so many situations where I find myself being killed by an opponent on very little health and know that if I had been using any other LMG I would have won. It is a nice and easy gun to control but once I have Auraxiumed it (about 490 more kills) I will unlock the Betelgeuse and never touch it again.

All of my kills are from Orion/SVA88 then i tried the polaris. Here the first time i bought it : http://www.noelshack.com/2014-36-1409987895-polaris.png
"I was amazed at how well it was doing at mid ranges while ADS" This. Try it guys, its a very good weapon, deadly accurate in mid range. And you can take any fight in cqc.

I have a sweet GODSAW streak on my feed, that doesn't make it a good weapon.

5000+ kills with the Polaris and counting (I've betrayed it a bit with the Betelgeuse and NS15M I admit )

It's 2 years I'm praising the Polaris when everybody else keep popping out screaming "ORION" or "SVA88".
That thing is super accurate and is THE ONLY VS LMG with 100 bullets per mag (unless you run a Flare with extended mag but WHY should you?!).

DasAnfall stats shows what we already know, people with poor aim can't use the weapon to its full potential.
If you have decent aim and can aim for the HEAD, Polaris wil give you much much joy.

I don't even wear a forward grip on the thing, it has so many bullet and a so controllable recoil pattern that I can kill people over 40m with minimum pain.
On mid ranges it shines if you shines aiming for the head.
On CQC you don't even have to pull down your sight: you can just hip-fire the suckers to death.
Plus, it's perfect for that moment when you run into a room after a conc-granade: you can kill 5 ppl with it without thinking about reloading.

I love the Polaris

Imo, people that hate Polaris are using it wrong...

My build with polaris : ALS, SPA, IRNV, suppressor. The amazing magazine size makes it a really good weapon for flanking a bunch of people without leaving them time to react. It's not as good as orion in 1v1 CQC but it is really underrated otherwise.
One thing is true though: Betelgeuse is the best LMG for vanu. I was doubtful at first about the heating mechanic, but as long as you don't try to go fullout on 150 bullets at once, the really good perk is: You never reload! There is a "sweet rythm" you can use when you burst without ever stopping as long as it would take to reload the orion. If you are suppressing an enemy, he can not count on your 2 seconds reload, as as soon as he peaks the corner, you are still adsing, ready to strike! That make all the difference for me!

Lol, amazing magazine size, what is it? 75? 100? Its almost sad your calling it amazing mag size because of how the VS dont get big magazines. 50 and 75 is their norm. A Weapon with 100 or 150 is only through exmags. 100 is norm for the other faction's LMGs. I find 50 rounds to be a real kick in the head, prolly part of the reason I dont do well on VS....in addition to other things, like their poor on the move accuracy.

Totally, you're right! So that's why Polaris compared to other VS LMG stands out! Even if it's not so unusual for other factions, its special traits are rare in other vanu LMG (SPA, ALS, 100 rounds mags...) so overall it's an underrated weapon IMO.

I'd say the Polaris is my third favorite VS LMG after the Flare and Orion overall and my favorite VS LMG for mid range and beyond. Super controllable, decent magazine size, damage could be better but with a 20% HSR it doesn't matter.

I'm going to take back what I said earlier in the thread. For those last 400 and odd kills with the Polaris it really clicked with me. I 'discovered' the night vision scope around this time (Previously I did not like it due to it's restrictive field of view) and with it found keeping on target realy easy. I have said many times that I am a low accuracy player, but using the Polaris with compensator, grip, soft point (I think) and night vison scope improved my accuracy no end. I was finding myself doing single shot sniping with it it was so easy to control. So much so that when I unlocked the Betelgeuse, I could not hit a barn door at 10 paces, I was so used to the bugger all recoil of the Polaris.

Where I not trying to master the Betel, I think the Polaris would now be my default LMG.

Polaris is my favourite LMG too but since I've unlocked the Betelgeuse, I'm going with it most of times (unless I know I'm gonna need those 100 bullets) or occasionally switch to NS15 for those pesky ranged combats.

Betelgeuse is BTW more accurate than an Orion with grip. You can try that on VR against the targets.

Oddly I was testing just that in the VR room last night. I was finding the Orion to be considerably more accurate however. I stripped one down to be like the Betelgeuse and was thinkining I wish the Betel was this accurate. I'll have another check tonight in case I was having a blonde moment.

I would desperately like to see a foregrip and compensator being available for the Betel (and other fractions guns) but fear it will not happen.

100 kills or so in I have got the thing under control, however it is just not a usable when tracking at speed or shooting at longer distances.

I'll update a couple of shots for comparison as soon as I'm home, but (unless was ME having a blond moment) I noticed a lower horizontal recoil in the spread pattern againts the target.

Having done some more comparisons, you may be right. I'm not sure it the Betel is better, but I concede that it is no worse.

Still needs a grip however, and a suppressor would be nice for playing heavy infiltrator. A compensator would be superb, but grossly OP.

Doesn't it have a grip already?
That's how I interpret the stats in the spreadsheets.