Like I can't even think of where to begin but people constantly say like "the VS have the worst arsenal" yet the stats and performance say otherwise, people constantly saying like the Lasher is one of the worst weapons in the game but they clearly don't go against it enough to understand that it is in fact possibly the most OP weapon for the VS Heavy Assault, despite being their unique heavy weapon it's used almost equal to their LMGs. Sure it may have some rather poor direct damage but that is meaningless when it can hit you from behind cover with its splash damage, and that's not counting the lack of bullet drop and its giant magazine. I can't count how many times I seen Lasher heavies holding down a hallway against a group of players by literally just spamming shots at the walls and floor cause if you try getting anywhere to shoot them you're gonna have at least your shield taken out by the splash damage and then either be shot by them directly or shot by another player making it nearly impossible to push without MAX support or overwhelming force. The TR Dragoon and its explosive ammo can not even compete against this. Seriously nerfs/reworks need to be drawn up with Wrel's bias now gone. If the TR had a weapon like this it would have been nerfed into the ground if not removed. The Thumper which some claim to not be as annoying as some others claim is even worse with its outrageous splash damage and quick reloads, basically increased the annoyance of grenade spam by giving Heavy Assaults a new way of doing it by giving them a grenade launcher, splash damage weaponry has been one of the primary banes of this game since the Alpha days. Can pretty much give up taking cover in heavy tight hallway and corridor fights cause that one HA is gonna still hit you and your squad by just shooting above the crates and barricades or hit you around a corner. Now I think grenade launchers are cool but there has to be some form of nerf to the splash damage and its ammo pool reduced.
The title is correct, the game would be far better off without spammable AOE weapons. That said. Other than NSO, VS absolutely have the worst overall infantry arsenal. Not that they don't have standout competitive options, but overall the arsenal has far less choices than TR or NC (especially NC). People say that the lasher is one of the worst weapons are saying it's bad at getting kills (and it is). It just has a niche at staring at a corner and holding left click and hoping people walk into it is extremely boring. It is absoluetly not equal to even the worst LMG's in a direct confrontation. Again, yes the lasher is cancer to fight against, but it's not fun to use either. Same applies to the Thumper. Low effort spammable AOE shouldn't exist.
Yeah sure they could get removed, not because they are OP, but because of ASP.... Lasher, Thumper are support weapons. You lose your offensive capabilities to instead support your teammates with unique supportive fire capabilities, if you imagine a team effort (though Thumper is pretty much in your face shotgun almost aggressive, it's not a good design). And this idea is genius, but allowing you to equip your primary firearm and also retain support fire capabilities with heavy weapon in your secondary slot just breaks the game... Chaingun and Jackhammer are offensive weapons. But from experience Chaingun has such questionable design to a point where overall T9 Carv is better in all occasions, which I already wrote about in that unstable ammo topic... Devs would need to figure it out. What they want out of Heavy Weapons. And there was mention of explosive ammo. I believe this ammo type is used primarily to cause enemy to flinch more... But VS does this better as well because their full auto assault rifles get explosive ammo named "Lashing Ammo" Lashing Ammunition | PlanetSide 2 Wiki | Fandom
Fix: Jackhammer given new AOE ammo type to deal with long distance hallway Lashers & Chaingun users. 10 Lashers verse 1 Jackhammer. 4 Chainguns verse 1 Jackhammer. Jackhammer has no hallway use. Overall Jackhammer is used x100 less than Lashers, in unison. & Jackhammer is used x10 less then Chainguns, in unison. for every 10 Lashers firing together, theirs 1 Jackhammer. for every 4 Chainguns firing together, theirs 1 Jackhammer. I've never even seen Jackhammers fire together. Be lucky to see a HA with a shotgun anywhere. Scale these guns for Nasons tunnel. Chainguns at least have a effect on Nasons tunnel. Lashers obviously do. Yet Jackhammer? I'm box hopping from box to box & still die to grenades and bullets. Helios and Thumper won't counter Lasher good enough. You can't Helios fire up stairs, if the enemy is lashing down. Without dying. sure you might score 1 kill at a time before you die, when using Helios, tho won't help your team move forward. & theirs always more Lasher vets than Helios vets. Same for thumper, more Lasher vets than Thumper vets. & thumpers aren't hitting upstairs that good either. What the heck is the point of Jackhammer, only seems 10% to 20% better than most other shotguns? If that. Since it's perk is ammo amount & not ness dps. Often times every other gun kills me just as fast as the Jackhammer shoots. Carbines kill me just as fast as my Jackhammer shoots. Chainguns go on more killstreaks than Jackhammers do. The Jackhammer shouldn't be a heavy weapon, should just be a LMG variant type for NC. That performs like a shotgun. Tho the solution isn't just to " give NC & TR counter AOE weapons " since VS is always gonna have 10 more vets than TR & 20 more vets than NC. Thus always more HA vets = Heavy Weapons for VS. Even if you gave NC lashers, it'd still be 2 NC lashers verse 10 VS lashers everytime. Aka how do you help noob medics; counter lashers?? That's why I've asked for new tactical items for hallway cover. unlock these tactical items for free for them. New items for door defense & door advances. Riot shields. Deploy sandbag. Deploy box. Other than just the freaking smoke barrel, shot at a door & hope you don't die to raining bullets. Or at least a 2nd version of tall engineer walls; that is skinny enough to not block doors; yet shields peoples heads & gives AOE resist. Another example would be a mini citadel shield grenade. Like the mini bubble shield item from the Halo trailers. A mini citadel shield grenade effect or crystalized shield mortor shell that shields a small area of the hallway for 30 seconds. Too many tiny doors & not enough ways to enter safely. 2nd new tool slot. 4 total tactical slots. 20 new tools & free auto unlocked tactical Items to siege doors safely.
