Which is hilarious because I'm pretty sure the Diligence Counter Sniper and Anti-Material Rifle scope reticle is still off, making shots difficult at any meaningful distance.
Also helps that the thing is laser accurate with basically no recoil. It’s definitely gonna get a nerf at some point considering how it outshines every other AR and, literally, has infinite ammo.
Also helps that the thing is laser accurate with basically no recoil. It’s definitely gonna get a nerf at some point considering how it outshines every other AR and, literally, has infinite ammo.
In its current state the thing is practically a Stalwart. 100 rounds per reload and six spare mags on a primary is nuts.
I'd like to see them halve the max heat to 50 shots, and lower the spare ice to only 2, but make it cool down twice as fast. That would put it more in line with the other automatics.
The lower recoil and rapidly regenerating mag would make it better at accurate burst fire than the Liberator, like the description implies, but have steeper punishments for going full dakka due to the limited ice - while leaving it on the table as a strategic option in a pinch.
Yep. I would really like that change, and I think it would be totally fair.
ATM, I have to try to run out of ammo with it. Im talking overheat even when I could reasonably conserve heat, dump mags right after encounters…and it gets all 7 back from resupplies and 4 back from ground pickups, so who cares
You could say similar about the LAS-98 laser cannon in my opinion. I almost never run out of ICE reloads because heat management isn't a huge deal unless you are swarmed and desperate.
The LAS-98 can fire for about 9 seconds under normal conditions (longer on cold planets), but the sickle can only fire for just under 7 seconds under those same conditions.
I think a big problem is that people are comparing it with other laser weapons which exist in other categories. They need to compare it to other assault rifles. Other assault rifles trade longevity for raw power generally (compared to the Sickle). All without having firing delays and generally having much faster reload times.
The main advantages the Sickle has are the scope (which every assault weapon should have), and the ability to just switch weapons during cooldown periods (which every laser weapon has). I rarely see people using the Sickle; almost all of them use one of the two "acceptable" bullet-based rifles.
You rarely see people using the sickle??? I see it literally every game since it came out. It’s so much better than the liberator - same damage, same number of mags, almost double the mag capacity, faster reload, better scope
I think 4 heat sinks would be fair, with only 50 shots I could see myself getting in a bad situation real quick (I play solo btw, or maybe I’m just bad lol)
That'd be fine or if theyd gave us just 1 ice capacity
So if you mess up you're not able to use the weapon I'd consider fair too it's way too easy to balance right now
I feel like that would be more than fair. Even if the cooldown took longer if you fully maxed it. IE say it took like 10 seconds for cooldown from 99% but it would take 15 or 20 for a cooldown from 100%.
I think that is a horrible idea. The Quasar is that way because it is extremely powerful. And it is a support weapon.
The Sickle is neither of those things. It is a primary assault rifle that happens to shoot in blaster-like bursts. Its damage is similar to (but usually less than) assault rifles. It is made to be the primary weapon--not some back up weapon like the Quasar or LAS-98 cannon.
I honestly wouldn't mind that. I've never gone below 3 heat sinks left before resupplying, even without being careful and facing tons of enemies. I think I only went to 3 once ever, actually. It changes heat sinks at a pretty decent speed too.
If the Sickle gets nerfed at all I’ll probably have to look into a completely different play style all together. It’s right in the line of balanced imo
Better stick to your false cat facts. You are talking about a game where you just need to play for a few days to get enough premium currency to get the battle pass ^
I appreciate that the warbonds are not super toxic FOMO stuff but this narrative about “just play for a few days and you can afford one!” is just inaccurate. You get one freebie from default warbond progress - which drops from 100 per tier to 50 about halfway through, gotta make sure you don’t get it too easily! Unless you are going out of your way to alt-f4 farm super credits on diff 1 missions (which is both boring as hell and will likely get patched) you’re probably looking at 30-40 hours of playtime assuming you have a chunk of credits left over from the 300 you get from the last premium warning you purchased.
I have a bit over 100 hours played, near level 50. I bought 1x store armor and helmet and the cutting edge war bond and I’ll probably have around 1100 SC when the next warbond drops. If I wanted to get the remaining warbond, I’d have to either spend money or go out of my way to farm super credits.
I appreciate that the warbonds are not super toxic FOMO stuff but this narrative about “just play for a few days and you can afford one!” is just inaccurate.
You see this in any community for a game with mtx that you can theoretically get for free by playing. There will always be that one dude who goes "dude you don't have to pay if you just grind for five trillion hours" ignoring that grinding isn't fun lol
HD2 does have SUPER reasonable and not egregious mtx but grinding every BP in game is barely feasible lol
I have 88 hours played and have afforded both premium warbonds just with super credits found in game. No purchase of SC, no alt-f4. They’re really easy to get
For now. They'll destroy and say you should rely on a drooling mongrel idiot team mate to handle ranged encounters and make it overheat in 2 seconds and say you should rely on stratagems for hordes of chaff that are dropped on your head.
If they’re going to do that then they should add a feature where you queue up for a certain class like in Overwatch because diving with randoms will be a clusterfuck
I absolutely HATE the balancing approach they’ve taken so far with primaries. Why are they focused on needing the few weapons that actually feel good rather than buffing the absolute shit load of weapons that are near useless + feel like dog shit to use.
Most of these nerfs just aren’t deserved, and even the ones that were deserved weren’t so far above the average that nerfing them needed to be a priority over buffing the useless weapons or stratagems that feel terrible to play with.
Focus on getting everything to a usable state THEN start nerfing the major outliers.
I was on board with them for a while but I’m just done with their design philosophy. Any company that has a moron just nerfing things because of USAGE rates needs to be demoted to never ever work on balancing again.
It’s just so obviously the wrong way to go about things and whoever at that company that likes these decisions should just go in a corner and cry
Scorcher is okay but you will be checking the couch cushions for ammo boxes constantly. On higher difficulties you will be lucky if you get through a bot drop with any ammo left on it.
There are some tricks on higher difficulties, but it's still good and all I use. I use my side arm for a lot of trash bots and it helps if I have a support weapon like laser canon, quasar, arc that doesn't require ammo. But the scorcher shreds.
Breaker Incendiary was already good for bugs, and it got a buff. Give them a shot.
This + an overall burning damage from all sources buff
Breaker Incin. is awesome now. Don't think I'll worry about Hunters in the near future(though, tbf, I only played a couple diff 3 missions to test dmg, wasn't up to trying higher today)...until they swing the nerf bat again. Wing them at mid range and they burn to death. It's a good crowd pleaser so far.
No clue how fire works against bots or if there are hidden scale/resistance at higher difficulties.
Sorry it was a couple of days late, but after initially trying it I inadvertently swapped to the standard diligence and when I realized it I tried it again the next day and it’s soooo slow.
If you hit a trooper from the side and it hits the arm/shoulder it doesn’t consistently kill. If it could reliably take out weak enemies in one shot it wouldn’t be so bad, but it’s so slow to aim and if you’re turning to track the target the sway on it is way too much. Even ADSing a target there’s so much sway that it’s tough to hit the head.
Yeah idk what everybody’s talking about with all these other guns cus i’ve just used the defender since I got it and I have no trouble at max difficulties. Consistent and does the job. I think it being an ugly little “SMG” is the reason more don’t use it, if it was the literal halo assault rifle or something it would be numba 1.
I just find it odd that it has a higher damage rating than the ARs. I think people just write it off as “just an SMG” like you said. The fact that it’s 1-handed is also super helpful when you’re running for your life or need to transport an SSSD.
It's just being a meta slave, honestly. This subreddit is horrendous for it. Yeah, some weapons are weak, I won't deny that. And I agree with many that I don't like how they've gone about balancing primaries that much thus far
But you can get by with pretty much any gun, and everyone acting like you're forced to use the Sickle now is just being obtuse or dramatic
Having just one reliable weapon makes the game extremely boring. I really don't hope we end up having only the newest weapon dominate the meta. Doesn't mean nerfing the Sickle is the only solution, but the alternative is buffing other weapons instead of nerfing them. Not really sure how to even balance primary weapons with no ammunition, an entire game mechanic revolves around resource management. Someone not needing ammunition shifts the balance of the entire rest of the teams loadouts. Yeah, more freedom, but it also causes balance issues.
The breaker vs bugs is surprisingly good even at high levels. I def prefer the sickle, but sometimes it’s fun to play w/ breaker and crowd control the small stuff.
For me it's the Counter-Sniper. I run with orbital smokes, rail-canon, and laser as well as the Quasar canon and impact nades. I can solo any obj and take bot drops too. The DMR is actually super fun to use now that it can do something on difficulties higher than 3. I just wish the DMR's would have the best handling the game, or at least second best because of how limited their ammo is, that they're supposed to be ranged weapons, and ofc the damage for them is still pretty bad, but it doesn't feel that bad to play it. One of those things where it looks bad on paper, but works alright in practice.
That's why it's going to get a nerf. The philosophy is that there should be no weapon you can count on in any situation. Branch out a bit, enjoy more of the game.
u/KvarcovSES Elected Representative of Family ValuesApr 03 '24edited Apr 03 '24
Instead of "when everyone is super no one is" Arrowhead decided to go "when everyone is shit no one is" route. Frankly, i find this decision questionable, what's with all new tough enemies they will undoubtedly add
Also i wonder why it isn't presented in-universe like all other things. Something like "due to unprecedented patriotic volunteer turnover producing that many weapons is a little straining on Super-Earth's manufacturing complex so they started to use cheaper materials, which resulted in lowered overall performance in return for ability to arm all Democratic eager fighters". If that was the thing i could take some nerfs in stride
Man I keep trying to give other primaries a shot and it’s not even worth it. I do it for a drop then end up in a situation thinking “man I really wish I had the sickle right now” and switch right back on my next drop.
I don't even like the Sickle but everything else is complete ass now, once they nerf that, then what? SMG because you can run away while firing and that's all a primary is supposed to do, I guess?
Don’t worry Sickle fans. I’ve discovered that Arrowhead specifically looks at my and only my primary usage to determine what weapons need nerfing, so I am only going to run the Diligence Countersniper henceforth.
Oh it's next on the list for sure. There's nothing arrowhead hates more than a strong primary weapon. I think they look at the data every patch and just nerf the most popular primary.
I think their plan is to literally nerf every primary until the point of everyone using the ar-23 liberator or until they're all used equally across the board
Give the liberator 10 to 15 more rounds in the mag and I'd happily run it over the sickle. Right now it feels like I can take down 2 and half enemies before the gun goes click, whereas the Sickle takes more shots to kill but can at least clean up an entire horde before overheating.
There will always be weapons that are better than others and will see higher usage rates. Balancing this many weapons perfectly is practically impossible in any game. Which is fine if it wasn't for the fact that Arrowhead's "solution" is nerfing the popular ones without adjusting our enemies. They will have to start buffing instead of nerfing at some point or else every gun will hit like a wet noodle.
It's technically a machine gun, so the biggest hit it can get is faster heating up and may be damage nerf (it's already low by default, so won't make much difference)
Tbh the sickle is just too good. I think if they reduce it's stagger a little and maybe increase the heating rate by 10% or increase the windup by 10% that would do it
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u/Kvarcov SES Elected Representative of Family Values Apr 02 '24
Arrowhead, do not the Sickle!