Flare is a longer range version of the orion, it isn't that it is more accurate really. (it does have a small accuracy increase) But it has 3 fire modes Full auto/3 round burst/ single shot. Because of this you can engage a little further then the orion by using burst fire and single shot mode. The attachments also help I run mine with the grip, compensator, 2x sight and do fairly well at distance targets.
If you have not used it why are you saying that. "Flavour text" is a terrible reason for your weapon choice. No. People say SVA88 because: It comes with the alphasquad package (a lot have tried it) It is much like the orion. Not as tight hipfire, but 50% larger magazine and nearly identical ROF and ADS. It IS pretty good, considering the alternatives. Few have invested in the 1000 cert / 700sc alternatives and thus arent here to champion those. The other cheap one (Flare) just doesnt compare.
I like the Ursa. 2X reflex + compensator, and ext mag or grip depending upon situation. I NEVER use the HV ammo, the added recoil does not justify the barely noticeable bullet velocity difference when using a 2X sight. The standard ammo with the compensator provides pretty good medium-long accuracy.
Ursa is the one LMG I've never had the chance to try properly =/ Heard mostly bad things about it but idk... trailed it once but with no attachments it's kind of meh.
Let me back off the 'which is better argument'. Yes, the LSW is your best buy if you dont have a sub/SC. Additionally, after this latest patch it 'feel's more accurate then the 88 now. will have to continue testing.
As far as my recommendation is concerned this assessment is correct. You asked for an all-round weapon and the SVA-88 is the closest thing. The LSW is a mutation of the Orion. It trades rate of fire for additional ammo and a lower climbing rate for higher first shot recoil. The reason the LSW is not as much of an all-rounder as the SVA-88 is the first shot recoil. Recoil (that includes both climb and first shot displacement) matters very little at ranges of up to 20-25m, if you are adept in not firing 50-75 round bursts, which is also known as spray and pray. In other words: If you are used to their characteristics and have some trigger discipline, then all three, the Orion, the LSW and the SVA-88 will perform very very similar in those circumstances. The further away your target is the more important first shot recoil becomes, because the deviation from target, which is hardly noticable and mostly irrelevant at close to medium ranges, translates to bigger and bigger deviations the greater the distance to target is. At long ranges you fire 3-5 round bursts. Climb rate, and, for the most part, the recoil pattern (left, right or left-right) doesn't matter until you fire longer bursts. First shot recoil, however, matters quite a bit. If the gun in question has a displacement of say 1cm at 1m that means it would be 80cm off target at 80m after the first bullet has left the barrel (numbers are obviously simplified to illustrate the point). Those 80cm you need to compensate for during your burst. The LSW has almost twice the first shot recoil and thus requires almost twice the amount of compensation to stay on target and hopefully make 1 or 2 additional bullets of the 5 you fired in total hit. That being said, this is what the papers say. In reality I am sure there are people who feel comfortable with their LSW, even at longer ranges, because they are used to it. And by no means is the LSW bad or anything. It is a great weapon and undoubtedly has the best cost-performance ratio once you get sick of the Orion or feel like 25 additional bullets could be helpful more often than not, but technically the SVA offers the broader spectrum overall, because it maintains close and medium range capabilities very similar to the Orion and LSW while also adding its inherent "sniper" attributes. Whatever you do, just don't get the Polaris.
To expand on this a little for less knowledgeable players. Polaris is a specialized LMG for CQC and short ADS range. It's the exact opposite of an all-rounder.
based on what the OP actually asked for he has trouble with longer engagements. Not really asking for an all rounder weapon. He wants a bit more range. So that is the 88.
At first glance on the attachments it looks that way. It was also my opinion about the weapon till I started to tinker with it. The attachments you choose makes a big difference on this weapon thus makes it very flexible in its role. The base stats makes it viable for long range too. It has a more managable recoil due to having a slightly lower RoF, and it has a high projectile velocity(only beaten by the Ursa). This, in combination with with a compensator and grip makes it very accurate at long range. I'm using 4x scope, compensator, and adv laser sight. This setup makes it a tactical weapon as I can adopt and perform well in any given situation. 100 rounds per mag is a real blessing too. I've pretty much stopped using any other LMG at this point but this may be becuase 99% time when I play HA I'm using it in a highly organised squad, thus being able to adapt is more important than to excell in any given role. So I'd look past the attachments and give it another shot. It manage to, pleasantly, suprise me.
I'm fairly new, and I haven't used all of them, but my current HA weapon of choice is the SVA-88. I'm a big fan.
The Polaris is in no way specialized for CQC, though it's attachments sort of are. It is similar enough to a Pulsar to use it as one, with lower firerate, lower first shot recoil, higher projectile speed, and the option to get a 6x scope and Compensator. Doesn't quite look like a CQC specialist to me. If one thing could be said about it, it's that with attachments included, it's all over the place, and if you pay in certs, it's really expensive for little difference to other LMGs.
Well, it's not horrendous at as an all around weapon, however, the point is that it's very similar to a Pulsar LSW and that weapon performs the function of all rounder better. The defining points about VX29 are its large mag size, access to advanced laser sight and access to SPA. You'd only really want a large mag size for CQC, if you're not fighting at CQC you can duck behind cover and reload, making the faster reload time of Pulsar LSW more optimal. Advanced Laser Sight is obviously a CQC dedicated attachment, as is SPA. Arguably there is very little difference between any of the LMGs by the way. If you're not willing to spend the money then you might as well ignore using anything but an Orion altogether.
The Polaris is an amazing weapon. Its he closest the VS have o the Carv. With a Forgrip on you can full auto for several seconds with a very tight cone of fire. And thats where the polaris seems to shine, its CoF is always tight, There is no large first shot reciol. Its got all the goodness that makes the Carv such a monster, Polaris + Grip + IRNV + SPA + Supressor is a great all round weapon. You can accurately place sustained headshots out to the range of the IRNV. You wont appear on Minimaps when firing (An advantage that cant be played down).
Another vote here for the SVA-88 as the best all-rounder. Anyone who's seen my name in any thread where there's talk about LMGs has no doubt seen my bullet list of SVA-88 perks. I like to help out my fellow enlightened VS souls whenever the opportunity presents itself, so I think I'll toss out my list here too.... IMO the SVA-88 is the best all-around LMG that the VS have. It takes most of the best qualities of the LSW and Orion and puts it into one weapon. About 90% of the time that I play HA I'll be toting an SVA. It's my LMG of choice for most situations, because it has: The 2nd highest RoF and thus Damage output (2nd only to the Orion - tied w/ the LSW) 2nd highest muzzle velocity (2nd only to the Ursa, and yes it's 5m/s faster than the Polaris) Lowest first shot recoil Fastest recoil recovery speed Fastest footspeed during ADS (.75x of the default, tied with the Orion. All other LMGs in the game for all 3 empires have a .5x multiplier so they cut your footspeed in half) Smallest moving ADS CoF (tied with the Polaris, Flare, and Orion) Smallest moving hipfire CoF (tied w/ the Orion) One of the largest attachment selections available (it's only missing soft ammo, Flash Suppressor, and the Level2 laser sight that the Ursa and Polaris gets) Compared to the LSW, its only real downsides are its high sustained-fire vertical recoil (the worst, tied w/ the Flare, whereas the LSW is much lower) but you can get a compensator to reduce it (which does help a bit) and can learn to manually counteract the rest via your mouse with practice. It also has slower reloads (4th place, the Flare and Polaris are worse). In exchange, it has more attachments, better ADS and hipfire CoF on the move, faster ADS footspeed, faster recoil recovery, lower first-shot recoil, and faster muzzle velocity.Compared to the Orion, it again suffers from higher sustained recoil and slower reloads, and a lower damage output. But you get more attachments, a larger mag and more spare ammo, faster recoil recovery, lower first shot recoil, and higher muzzle velocity. OP, if you're having issues with long range shooting but want to keep the Orion's CQC performance, the SVA-88 is for you. Slap on a 6x scope, foregrip, compensator and HV ammo and you can make some pretty long range shots. Note that of those attachments only the foregrip is available to the Orion and LSW. So IMO the SVA has superior long range potential. For close range, install a laser sight, suppressor, and scope/sight of choice. And of course you get that beautiful .75x ADS footspeed multiplier and tight hipfire CoF it shares w/ the Orion, but with the 75-round mag it shares w/ the LSW. Put those together and you get a top-notch CQC performer as well.
Best all around for most people? LSW or SVA88 Best all round for someone who knows how to use it? Flare.
Thank you for all the advice people. Again the overwhelming consensus seems to be: 1) It really doesn't matter. 2) The Orion is a fantastic gun and will get the job done. 3) As a new player, there are many more impactful places to put my certs than trying to upgrade from an already fantastic gun. 4) Should I find myself loaded out & floating in certs/SC, the SVA-88 is the way to go. I appreciate the input everyone!
The stats for COF and Bloom aren't entirely accurate, when you look at them, a lot of guns look the same, then you try them out and a lot of guns consistently show less spread from the same range as another that supposedly has the same stats as it. There was a thread that detailed all of this but it was in Gameplay Discussion and I'm buggered if I can find it now, all I really remember is that the top two were SVA-88 and Orion, in that order, and bottom 3 were Pulsar, Ursa and Flare in that order... which come to think of it only leaves us with the Polaris so I guess I do remember it ok They also seemed to come in pairs, the SVA-88 and Orion showed hardly any spread, the Polaris and Pulsar (even with a grip) showed a little more and the Ursa and Flare showed a lot. TBH I remember it kind of added more questions than it answered and since it was just some guy showing bullet spread patterns on a wall and claiming he'd done "extensive testing" I'd feel free to take it with a pinch of salt, however, in my own experience between the 4 VS LMGS I've spent significant time using, it goes SVA-88, closely followed by Orion, Pulsar with a notable difference and the Flare's spread is just horrible.
Hey guys, quick question again. So the Orion is a fantastic weapon & I'm going to stick with it until I'm floating in certs. My one issue with the Orion is I feel a pretty strong disadvantage at range. I'm wondering if this is because I've been running 1x reflex/HRNV. So I'm figuring I'll stick a x3.4 optic on there and see if that helps out, but first I wanted to verify this with the community. (In case the real issue is the gun, not the optic. Sticking a 6x scope on SMG for example isn't going to get you much.) Advice? And Holo vs. Chevron, what's the difference? Thanks!
