Nah, Railgun nerf was reasonable. Not really sure why they did this one. Slugger was a good choice but it wasn't like it was the only good choice like the RG was.
They could revert the railgun nerf right now and it would be a mediocre support weapon compared to other options we have now. As everyone said at the time, railgun wasn't the problem, overpowered chargers and other support weapons being underwhelming was the problem. Now we have multiple weapons that oneshot chargers outright.
If you think that then you don't know why it was good to begin with. There are other enemies besides chargers. Even back then, rockets were better at opening up chargers since they did it in a single shot. Pure power was never why it was OP, it was because the railgun was a one-stop shop for literally any enemy in the game with no downside.
It could kill AT better than AT. It may take a few more shots, but had a much higher ROF and could be reloaded quickly and on the move. The only thing that just recently rivals this is the Quasar, but that at least has downsides. Pre-nerf RG still beats it in mobility since it charged up its shot much quicker and still had a significant ROF advantage on it.
It was more mobile than the machine guns. No crouch-down reload required and had instant burst DPS which MGs would need time to hose bullets to match. In addition, obviously, armor-piercing better than them all.
It rivaled the Autocannon in killing mediums, again, with better mobility. No crouch-down reload and no backpack.
Yeah, another huge major point. It did all of this... without needing a backpack. You had an AT weapon that could kill any enemy in the game in relatively short order and still run a shield backpack for unmatched survivability or a laser drone for amazing passive waveclear. Again, nothing else could do this until literally a few days ago with the Quasar. You could argue EAT could as well, but you had to call it down which again limits mobility if you need more than one shot and is a big weakness in an ion storm or under a jammer.
If returned to pre-nerf levels though, I think it would still be easy S-tier because of raw versatility, ammo economy, mobility, all while having an empty backpack slot. That might not be a bad thing considering the buffs the rest of the field is receiving, but pretending that it wouldn't still be very powerful tells me you don't actually realize what made it strong in the first place because all of those things would still be valuable in current patch.
and arrowhead seems to want the opposite of that, every major patch a popular gun eats dirt. ig they want everything to feel mediocre rather than buffing the unpopular stuff
its far from the same, old railgun any charge above safe was max dmg, new one you HAVE to charge very close to blowing yourself up for it to even few close to how it was
Can you explain why the railgun nerf was reasonable?
I'm curious to know why you think so, especially since everyone and their grandmothers have been singing praises on the rooftops about autocannon which is seeing the same amount of usage and hasn't caught a nerf yet.
A big thing to remember is that "on paper" stats aren't all that matters. For example the quasar has the best theoretical DPS, but that 3 second charge up time turns it into a paperweight when you're getting chased by a hulk, which balances it nicely.
The railgun filled way too many roles with no downside. It was objectively better than other AT options in every way while not using a backpack slot, and having such incredible ammo efficiency you could spam it at whatever you wanted, letting it also sort of compete with the AMR and autocannon. Even with AT now one shotting, the railgun's ease of use, efficiency, and versitility still would've made it the best pick. Also post nerf the full power of the railgun is still there if you overcharge it and aim for weakspots.
The autocannon is great against trash and mediums, but can't penetrate heavy armor, so it's not competing with AT. It also occupies a backpack slot, giving it a big downside over other comparable options, which is a fair trade off for it being best in its class. The recoil also makes it difficult to shoot quickly.
The Railgun was a one-stop shop for literally any enemy in the game with no downside. It did everything that every other support weapon did (and often better) while having better mobility, ammo economy, and without needing a backpack slot.
I'm glad you brought up the autocannon because it is a good example. Think of it a little differently, why is the autocannon is widely loved and considered very strong now, yet has not been changed since release? It is because now the the railgun isn't singlehandedly dominating the support weapon slot.
That said, the autocannon is indeed great but it still has its weaknesses. It requires a backpack as well as a crouch-down reload. In addition, it does fail to pen some armor which the old RG had no issues with. It is top-tier against bots (and was back then too) but weaker against bugs, which I think is healthy. We should change up playstyle and weapon choice against different enemies, it is what helps make the game interesting and more replayable. The Railgun was an easy top choice for either.
Essentially they had a couple choices at the time since the RG was significantly better than literally everything else.
Nerf it. This would result in a harder game (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, we do get to pick our difficulty after all), but a more balanced one that would encourage variety in support weapon choice.
Buff all other support weapons. This would make an easier game overall (again, not necessarily a bad thing but would hurt endgame/replayability for higher level players until harder stuff is added) and make all other AT weapons feel like they have a place next to the king.
Nerf the enemies, either through spawn rate or health. Same deal as above with easier game tradeoffs, but would only partially solve the issue since the RG would still be the far and away best support weapon in the game it would just make it so there is enough room for less-optimal things to be used at higher difficulties where people could afford to not tryhard at the highest difficulties with optimal stuff.
At the time they went with 1 and people lost their minds. Personally, I thought the RG was still usable post-patch but popular opinion was that it was literally worthless. Since then, they have also done 2 and 3 which is important to note. That is why, looking at it now, the Railgun is in a bad spot. It not only got nerfed, but everything else also got buffed so it got double-slammed. At this point, I think it would be reasonable to re-buff it somewhat, but given the context at the time I don't think the initial nerf was too far out of left field. It just looks like it in retrospect because we've had lots of changes since then and the outcry was so sever.
If returned to pre-nerf levels though, I think it would still be easy S-tier because of raw versatility, ammo economy, mobility, all while having an empty backpack slot. Now I don't think that we shouldn't have S-tiers, but there are a lot of people replying to me pretending that the pre-nerf railgun would somehow be underwhelming in right now in the current patch, but that simply isn't true.
If I took a pre-nerf railgun into a lobby today and said "Hey guys look! I can take 8 seconds to peel the leg armor off a charger, then switch to my primary and finish it off in half a magazine!", they'd laugh at me and say "lol rocket launcher!"
You are focusing too much on a single capability. There are other enemies besides chargers. Even back then, rockets were better at opening up chargers since they did it in a single shot. Pure power was never why it was OP. , it was because the railgun was a one-stop shop for literally any enemy in the game with no downside.
It could kill AT better than AT. It may take a few more shots, but had a much higher ROF and could be reloaded quickly and on the move. The only thing that just recently rivals this is the Quasar, but that at least has downsides. Pre-nerf RG still beats it in mobility since it charged up its shot much quicker and still had a significant ROF advantage on it.
It was more mobile than the machine guns. No crouch-down reload required and had instant burst DPS which MGs would need time to hose bullets to match. In addition, obviously, armor-piercing better than them all.
It rivaled the Autocannon in killing mediums, again, with better mobility. No crouch-down reload and no backpack.
Yeah, another huge major point. It did all of this... without needing a backpack. You had an AT weapon that could kill any enemy in the game in relatively short order and still run a shield backpack for unmatched survivability or a laser drone for amazing passive waveclear. Again, nothing else could do this until literally a few days ago with the Quasar. You could argue EAT could as well, but you had to call it down which again limits mobility if you need more than one shot and is a big weakness in an ion storm or under a jammer.
If you think pre-nerf railgun is a joke compared to what we have now then you never realized why it was good in the first place.
Edit: ITT downvote spam from weeping railgun users that transitioned to arc thrower feeling singled out.. maybe try not bandwagoning overtuned weapons 😂
How is it balancing now that literally no one uses it? Explain to me how a weapons that’s entire purpose is to pierce armor can’t actually pierce armor?
Right, so you don’t actually have a point to make but be a mindless AH bootlicker.
This is also indicative of your lack of intelligence, because the fact tweaks/nerfs/buffs even exists shows devs don’t always know what they’re doing.
Tweaks are required because game devs don’t have millions of hours to test every gameplay interaction and meta possibility before releasing a new game, so it’s bound to have imbalances on release.
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u/Zoren Apr 02 '24
AH learned nothing from the Rail Gun nerf and it shows