What About Battle Rifles?

I think he is trying to be funny.

Battle Rifles need a slight damage increase.

As a TR player, the shots at range to take down a target are too many.

The Battle Rifle ends up being a support gun, and that's fine if that's it's intended role.

Though it's a bit discouraging when you're at the distance where a battle rifle should excell, you take 2 good shots at a heavy- who then turns and gibs you in 2 seconds with a SAW.

I love using the Warden, it's one of my most used weapons. I guess people say that it under-performs compared to other guns, but I find it very effective in the right situations.

My only gripe is having to play a class I'm not entirely interested in to unlock the directive variant. I think exploring the effectiveness of allowing the use of all semi-auto rifles for all classes that currently use one would be interesting, as I enjoy the playstyle they offer compared to automatic weapons and diversifying the weapon choices available for that playstyle would enhance that.

They are ****.

Semi-auto mode on a number of other gun options are better stats and / or performance with way more ammo.

But then why use semi auto mode if you have the option to go full or burst?

I don't use them because they're overshadowed by pretty much everything. Automatics are just as effective at longer ranges ontop of being way easier to use at close range. A Gauss SAW is such a huge upgrade over the BRs that I felt hilariously overpowered when I swapped back after auraxiuming the Warden. Even the TMG/SAW S/Flare class of LMGs feels so much more powerful. And then of course ARs are even more accurate.

If you want to improve them the CoF bloom needs a reduction, as it does with any semi-auto, so balance that first. Then you guys could either reduce the recoil enough that it's super easy to control sustained fire at longer ranges, increase their projectile velocity or make them have no damage dropoff so that they have a 2 shot headshot. If you want them to be really good combine two of those to make them one of the best long range weapons in game.

Also crossing my fingers that you'll look at the scout rifles and semi-auto snipers. They're all at least as broken as the Battle Rifles and in dire need of some balancing love.

The Eidolon VE33 is my favorite weapon in the game. It performs well and is not really in need of any changes. Though this is from someone who uses it frequently and has the handling down well.

I really wanted to like the Warden, because I like the idea of Battle Rifles.

However, it's not practical. Battle Rifles are easy to escape from due their cone of fire and damage, and they are painful to use inside smaller structures. A shotgun with slug rounds, on the other hand, has more pronounced damage yet a severe range drop-off that can be controlled for use in most situations. At least, this is how it went for me, so I sorta kicked the Warden under the rug.

I agree. Best thing about warden is magazine size in my opinion.

I'm dead serious. BRs are super fun to use, and highly effective in the hands of a skilled player. The slightest buff outside of minor COF/recoil changes could turn it into something monstrously good.

The problem I have with the VS battle rifle is it doesn't have a role. "Its support..." No you mean its a plink 2 shots off and get mowed down. "Use it as a mid to long range rifle..." Why? If I am going to have scope sway and deal with trying to get headshots, why not use a sniper rifle to get that OHK? The cone of fire requires a significant reduction in rate of fire so hip firing is out of the question. There are too many other guns for VS that excel at whatever role this junk is trying to do.

The CoF, damage per shot and fall off all are impossible to use against typically higher number of enemies using fully auto guns that are more accurate. I wish I could get a refund on it.

7 to 8 body shots to kill yet you have to wait between shots to a point that a medic can empty two full clips before you can plink off 8 accurate shots? Worthless, better off with just a side arm!

Everyone has said all that I would say, so here is just another +1 to a veteren battle rifle user. I love using them when I can plan ahead and know I'm going to be doing long distance stuff on Esamir and Amerish.
I don't like losing to an LA using a full auto carbine at 75 yards, that seems silly to me but it would be disingenuous of me to just cry "buff plz!". We all want a buff to our favorite weapons...

Where's Erendil, and why hasn't he commented on this yet?

Anyway, this is my favorite series of guns to play with (and I've got the kills to go with it on the Eidolon). It's in a perfect niche for my playstyle, and I can play it on the three classes I play most.

If I could pick one thing to change about it, it'd be boosting the damage to something like 250/290 min/max to give it a little extra kick.

If there's something that should be done, regardless, it should be fixing that scout rifle directive. And why doesn't the Revenant have a heat mechanic?

Also, I must say, too many people play the BR at the wrong range. You shouldn't be using a 6x scope (dat sway), and you shouldn't be shooting past 70m.

Underrated, if over-specialised, weapons. An excellent accompaniment to the MANA AV turret or supporting an AV MAX. Extremely fun to use at close quarters, if exceptionally difficult to do so effectively (element of surprise and hipfire spam, or rapid headshots). Surprisingly underwhelming at mid-range, below 100m or so - not enough damage to pose much of a threat to approaching infantry as they are generally prepared to take fire and can reposition into cover faster than you can drop them. Very strong at greater distances against unprepared targets, including snipers to some degree.

Decent magazine size and reload speeds. The VS' 'trait' of no bullet-drop is actually useful here. Attachment options are not great, as the weapons are semi-auto yet have access to a Compensator which does almost nothing as you are generally required to wait for the weapon to recentre before taking another shot. In situations where you would not wait for the recentre, the target is too close for recoil to even factor into the equation. Additionally the Forward Grip does even less for the weapons than the Compensator, as horizontal movement on BRs is a random occurrence and is not overly strong at best.

The large areas where these weapons fall short: Versatility and usability. Battle Rifles are not versatile as they are designed as semi-automatic, extremely high-damage, high-accuracy long-range support weapons, which is an incredibly specific focus that leaves major gaps in their capabilities. They can be used to plink targets from a distance and get a couple of kills on unaware targets trying to run into the battle, or to take down distant threats to MAXes. They can be used solely for entertainment purposes and practicing 'quickscoping' at close-range if one desires, though they will be largely ineffective without godlike aim or the element of surprise at that distance, which leads into the issue with usability. They aren't that different to the CQC snipers or semi-auto Scout Rifles, but they are harder to use due to lower damage and their availability on classes that either don't have any real benefit to them (besides HA) or simply do not need them. They're great long-range support tools for Engineers and I personally love using mine for that purpose, but for Medics and Heavy Assaults there is very little reason to use them because they're simply worse than everything else on offer to varying degrees, and are designed for ranges that these classes rarely find themselves engaging at. Battle Rifles have massive problems in the NC's arsenal because they're blatantly out-classed at ALL RANGES by the NC's 200-damage Assault Rifles and the Gauss SAW, which can maintain respectable accuracy at great distances while remaining familiar to the user and still being competent in CQC engagements. They're a viable choice for TR and VS Medics and HAs, but they're too specialised to regularly be useful and can rapidly become obsolete as distances decrease to below 100m, where 167-damage long-range automatic weapons will come into their own and remain strong right up to point-blank.

They're only useful to Engineers, where their effective range band is slightly broader due to the limited effectiveness of their Carbines at a distance and where they are likely to be used as long-range support tools for covering allies (such as MAXes) or as defensive tools for holding AV nests on hilltops. On other classes, the long-range automatic weapons are more effective than the Battle Rifles at the distances they are likely to be fighting at and, unlike BRs, remain viable (and much easier to use) in close-range environments.

I use the Eidolon quite a bit, and it fits good with the Vanu quite well in terms of adding medium-long range capability to the faction.

I haven't yet had the chance to use the TR battle rifle.

As for the Warden, I don't really feel like it has its own special place among the New Conglomerate. The Medic has access to the Tross and Reaper, while the Heavy Assault has the Gauss SAW. The three-four shot damage model seems inadequate when you have 5-6 shot weapons with comparable range and and automatic firing modes. At longer ranges, the Warden may be better in the hands of a skilled player, but the other weapons I mentioned will perform better at anything less than that.

Battle rifles are ok, could give them to infi and LA as the black hand is basically a battle rifle anyway.

The infiltrator needs them since the directive requires mostly scout rifles only useable on infi to get a battle rifle you can't use on infi...

If you are going to buff them make sure they don't end up better than scout rifles and also have a little look atthe semiauto sniper rifles while you are in this area.

Give semiauto snipers 450 damage out to about 80 m so they can be used as the perfect counter sniper weapon and it doesn't change the ttk or spk against any other class. This would give more room for buffing scout rifles and battle rifles without making semiauto snipers even more useless. Scout and battle rifles should (and do) trade some damage for the ability to move while still remaining accurate, stick with that. Scout rifles should maintain slightly higher damage than the battle rifles the battle rifles should have larger magazines and higher rate of fire so the ttk is about the same.

And once again just let every class use them, if an LA with the xbow or the blackhand in a tree isn't an issue and LA with a battle rifle isn't either and infiltrator has no reason not to have them anyway.

Battle Rifles aren't the best choice for long range (you should use the Vandal if you want that playstyle) and they're obviously poor at short range. But they don't offer the flexibility to compensate for being not-the-best long range option.

Each faction has a long-range LMG that is always a better choice for HA.

The engineer's turret (either of them) is a better long-range anti-infantry option than the BR for engineers.

Medics too have their own great long-range Assault Rifles.

It would be nice for the battle rifles to have a little more R.O.F, damage, and/or velocity. Maybe they could have a full auto mode too, like B.R.s in real life. Maybe make Empire specific changes to the current ones or make new ones. If the damage is not increased they could at least make them more accurate.

I really want to like the Warden, because I absolutely love semi-auto rifles. But, it just doesn't have enough "oomph". It needs a meatier damage sound, higher damage, and slower fire rate. I haven't used the other Battle Rifles, but I imagine they'd need some more UMPH too.

I hate the fact that the scout riffle directive awards a battle riffle. The battle riffles should be removed from that directive and a scout riffle should be awarded.