The GD-7F is pretty great. People don't give it credit at med-longer ranges, but in burst fire it's pretty good (as in we really don't have any better all-round options). I use mine with the night vision scope (even in the day), the reason being the maximum view range is slightly longer than it's effective killing range, so I see no need for any other sight (and it feels like hacking when everyone is a light bulb).
I tried the AX-19 (starter weapon), the Warden (battle rifle), the Gauss Compact Burst and the Gauss S. All had rather severe deficiencies. There is a Carbine guide floating around on the LA class thread if you want to read more about them. I'm here to tell you about the scrumptuous GD-7F. Loaded with a laser sight and soft point bullets this thing is a hip-firing monster. You can wreck just about everything with its lovely RoF and decent damage. In short, I think I'm in love. Its not too good further out (at least, not with the soft bullets), but you can hit enough to scare people from charging you. After getting this gun, my fun factor went up exponentially.
I love the Gauss Compact Burst. Very good at just about any range, because of the 2 round burst you get per trigger pull you get almost no recoil from rapidly clicking. Its not a 1 hit kill weapon, but i can usually score decent kills in the 100-200m range.
Honestly, I find the Piston shotgun to be my favorite. I dislike the slug ammo, but mainly just hip-fire with an extended magazine and the IRNV scope for scouting. It blasts through rounds faster than anything, but I am able to maintain over an 86% accuracy due to the controlled spread. It also offers the chance to make headshots AND body shots in the same hit. Additionally, it is really great at damaging low flying ESF's - 10 blasts to the underbelly can really do some damage. Beware the reload speed and running out of rounds, however. With the extended magazine, your are using 10 rounds per mag with 36 rounds total.
I like the standard gun that you start off with, cant remember the name, but add a red dot and a foregrip and it is awesome!!
The AF-19 Merc starter gun is pretty good at most ranges, but gets outgunned in close range because of the lackluster RoF. I have ~1400 kills with this gun. The GD-7F is an amazing weapon and can be effective well into the medium range distances while being insanely good close range as well. I used the Soft Point Ammunition for a while, but I would actually advise against it. It slows the bullets down so much that it makes medium range much harder, yet it still takes the same number of hits to kill someone who is at full health. I use the 1x red dot and a foregrip and have racked up over 3000 kills with this gun. I haven't tried the Gauss Compact S so I can't really comment there. I do take issue with the idea that engineers have no business using anything other than a shotgun. For someone who loves infantry fighting, no other class has the capability of being a "one man army" if you will. With every other class I tend to run out of ammo just as I've flanked the enemy and have a clear shot at dozens of them. The engineer can just resupply himself and keep on shredding dudes until he's overwhelmed. For this reason, the engineer is the best solo class in my opinion.
I hate to say this but the starting nc carbine is fantastic. Just have to use the sights a bit and have decent aim. That gun with basic sights and a foregrip is just nasty. And yes this is from personal experience if I can go on a 6 kill streak there's no reason most other nc can't. (Yes I normally play tr.) You just have to remember it's not Cod where hipfire is as accurate as aimed fire. because it is not. The burst fire nc carbine is probably even scarier because it makes trigger control easier.
I have just brought the GD-7F, and based on what I'd read in this thread, I put a Front-Grip on it. However, I have tested it and the FG makes no difference to either vertical or horizontal re-coil whatsoever! I'll put a Vid up to demonstrate, but if you go to the warpgate and fire at a wall from exactly the same spot with the FG off or on, you'll see there's no difference? For the moment I'd say the FG on the GD-7F is a waste of certs and surely bugged?
I use the piston or the gd7f which is pretty much what I do on the other two factions. TR engi has as16 and lynx and the vs guy has a vx67 and a pandora. All three are br30 atm with fully upgraded weapons and it's heaven. tank mines + ap mines are great. Tons of micro though keeping them all topped off + nades.
Gauss S + GL + Soft Point, plop down an ammo pack and let the grenades fly (if it doesn't bug out), use the grenades to weaken them and then shoot them in the face.
shotguns with slugs are the way to go for me, great stopping power, quite accurate out to medium range, very workable in close range too
I prefer shotguns when I'm doing my normal job of defending an indoors control point. Usually, if they run into my bouncing betty and live, one hit with a shotgun will finish them. when I'm defending armor, I usually get sniped and have never seen someone run up and try to shoot me at close range. Normally I identify a tank with an empty top gunner seat and if i start taking hits i jump in and return fire. When I'm resupplying HAs though, i break out my Warden to pop off people at long range. there's nothing more funny than being accused of hacking when you notice a sniper on a ridge, break out your 6x scope and put a bullet in him. it normally doesn't kill him, but it does make him reconsider, or at least target me instead of the heavies. It's also fun to use the Warden to kill the occasional infantry who tries to mow you down on a flash.
Gauss Compact S is by far the most superior carbine. It has underslung (The only carbine with this), 30 rounds, and does the same damage as all other carbines except the AC-X11 (AC-X11 has 20 rounds and does 200 damage, whereas the Compact S has 30 rounds and does 175) The shotguns are amazing too. I prefer the sweeper due to it having the highest magazine size (12 with extended mags). 2 point blank shots will kill anything but max pilots. Slug rounds are controversial. They lower the spread to almost nothing at point blank, but you do full damage with hits at up to medium-long range. Slug Rounds make the shotgun feel like some twisted lever action rifle.
