To me, they exemplify how a infiltrator should work. If you just go in guns-blazing, you can't outdps them, and you die. They force you to think, and I think that they should do that. If you out-maneuver them, you generally win. Sure, they have a small clip, but to me, they do all that they should.
Because SMGs are more easy, hardly need to aim just strafe and shoot on the enemy direction, so they please the masses more. Scout rifles just confuse them, because you actually need some skill to be effective with them.
People that waste ammo with those guns by shooting at the body instead of the head. IMO it's the only weapon for the infiltrator that actually gives it any significant firepower at mid-range, beside the 4x bolt action rifles. As with many weapons in the game, this weapon is useless if you hit less than 30% acc with it, and is best if you hit 40-45% acc.
You don't even need to headshot to get two kills per clip. If you're taking on more than that, you're probably doing it wrong, anyways.
I find their damage lackluster and their bullet trails annoying compared to something like a Cyclone. It's not that you can't kill people with it, its just that other guns are plain better at it. If it actually felt like a rifle instead of a really big and unwieldy smg, sure, but with its lower base damage doesn't make up for the fact it occupies a weird middle ground I don't see myself at much as an infiltrator. I'm either 300m away sniping, 15m away submachine gunning. If I'm further, the chance of revealing myself across a court yard to fire with the slightly superior damage beyond 42m is much less useful than just staying hidden and getting to my objective. In short, when I need it, the submachine guns better. When the auto scout is better, I don't want to use it because I don't want to give away my position before getting there. Then again, I don't really play the infiltrator to just go on killing sprees.
They don't effectively fill a role. They aren't good at long range, they are at best mediocre for mid range and they aren't good at close range. It's a problem with pretty much any of the 143 Damage 652 RPM guns designed for mid-long range but the scout rifles being the worst guns in that category simply exasperate the issues. You can make them work and they'll do alright in the hands of a skilled player but ultimately they're still a flawed weapon design. They've been slowly improving them, but If they wanted to make these guns more useful they could do two pretty easy things. The first is give them a projectile velocity that's actually meant for guns at range. 500 is what you'd expect from a close range gun where bullet travel times means very little since you're right on top of your enemy. Ontop of that they could adjust the starting cone of fire and bloom values so that it's actually accurate at mid to long range. If they did that we might actually have a rifle that effectively bridges the gap between snipers and SMGs.
They get the flash muzzle. I don't like suppressor's effect on this weapon, and don't find compensator to do that much with headshot bursts. I play with the flash muzzle since I can't just cloak it away.
Love the sound of the Stalker its so badass, people will **** themself when they hear it. Killed a BR100 who said it is an art of psycological warfare^^
the Artemis isn't that bad, for me, but still feels lack a worse "Jack of all trades" than you can find in other classes... the bullet trail thing should go, we are not snipers, we are scouts, meant for recon and stealth... The bullet speed could benefit from a higher velocity, as a lot of non sniper weapons have a faster projectile (Weird !).
They definitely require skill to use, and practice (it took me 1500 kills to really feel comfortable with mine) but don't all of the infiltrator-specific weapons require a lot of skill? To address the OP's specific point, I think there are enough infiltrators who recognize the utility of the ASR's that it is a bit inaccurate to say "everyone is hating on auto scouts". They are situational just like any weapon, and rely on accuracy and the element of surprise to win fights. I've made two videos now that pull heavily from the SOAS-20 gameplay footage I've collected, I'll link them here in case anyone finds them interesting or wants to see the potential of the auto scouts in the right situation.
The problem with ASRs in the whole picture of an infiltrator is that they would be good, if the sound of the infiltrator cloak wouldn't be that traitorous at close/mid range. The volume level of the suppressed ASRs seems better than a SMG with suppressor (at least for the Artemis), but the cloak reveals your presence anyway so this advantage is non-existent. So SMGs and their overall better handling at close range seem to be a better choice, but still it's individual preference that matters.
Underrated weapon, beastly at medium range - of course you need to land headshots with it to make it work well. And no, it doesn't outdps the weapons of other infantry classes. Because giving infiltrators weapons as powerful as those AND giving them a cloak would be overpowered. Use your cloak - "Surprise!" - dead enemy. More difficult to use than an smg of course. Oh dear....
I use mine with a compensator (because it sounds scary on the receiving end) and nano armor cloak 5 (because I will get shot).
'Coz alot of ppl bought it for 1k certs, and when smg's came out they outperformed them big time. Now for 250 they are alright (quite alright actually)
I love my SOAS-20. Just found out about it a week ago. Still learning how to best utilize so sometimes I wiff with it, but it's MUCH more fun then the crappy TR smgs. Silencer + 2x scope + forward grip = fun sounds and much death for nc and vs.
VS - side, the best loadout all around is, IMO, 3.4 red dot, Silencer, Laser sight. An alternative is also NV + Silencer + laser sight or grip, but you need to tune your settings to not be blind on Esamir
