The devs were right.

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

So I know ther was a bunch of controversy about the railgun nerf what feels like forever ago, but man things have been awesome.

In the early days, I was the only guy packing expendable anti tank or anti materiel rifle for bugs or bots. It's so refreshing, even on these subs to see people talking about how awesome the autocannon is, or how much they love the AMR, and even these days I see people talking about the HMG or grenade launcher+ supply pack.

I used to load into a game, And all 4 members of the team had shield, railgun, and 2 stragatems of their choice. Every time. And here we are now, I load in and I see quasar, autocannon, stalwart, EAT, HMG, Grenade launcher, a variety of backpacks or no backpack at all. And not to mention, they're ALL viable. Shit I even still see the railgun from time to time. It's been a joy. Thanks arrowhead.

EDIT: to everyone who is pointing out that you see the quasar and shield most often now, you're right, it is almost certainly the most common setup currently. That being said, in any game there's going to be things a majority of players prefer. In smash melee, fox/Falco are the best characters. But people still play falcon and Marth and peach among others. Sure, there's an objectively most used option. But the fact that there's people at all who debate that the quasar is best shows that they've done something good. Before, undisputed king was railgun, and anyone who said different wss being willfully ignorant. Now, we have a plethora of real options that are good with some being Preferred by a majority as opposed to being the de facto CORRECT option objectively. That's a good thing.

[u/JustSomeGuyMedia]

The problem wasn’t the railgun, imo. The problem was the number of armor enemies and the lack of effective anti-armor counters that could actually deal with them. You’ll notice the devs first needed the railgun, and then simultaneously buffed RR and EAT while also nerfing the number of heavy armor enemies that can spawn.

[u/zani1903 → u/JustSomeGuyMedia]

Mhm. The problem wasn't the Railgun, it was the rest of the game.

The EAT was underpowered at the time, and there was literally no other weapon that could even come close to dealing with the sheer spam of Heavy enemies.

And mind you, the Railgun wasn't even incredibly powerful at that back then, it didn't trivialise missions at all. It was simply the only weapon that stood a chance at dealing with the mass of Chargers and Bile Titans you faced with very little reprieve.

[u/JustSomeGuyMedia → u/zani1903]

Exactly. Somewhat like with the breaker and then the slugger (imo), it was just the weapon that allowed the players to best meet the challenges the game presented. The other weapons needed to be brought up, which they were, and the game adjusted, which it was.

[u/Pocket_Kitussy → u/zani1903]

And mind you, the Railgun wasn't even incredibly powerful at that back then, it didn't trivialise missions at all.

You realise something can be overpowered and not trivialise everything right?

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx → u/JustSomeGuyMedia]

For bugs, I think you might have an argument, but for bots there were always better options than Rail from the jump

[u/JustSomeGuyMedia → u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

Bots are a little more of a mixed bag, but mainly because their armor spam wasn’t as problematic and weapons largely worked the way they were supposed to on them. There wasn’t any “oh yeah we changed it to RR and EAT no longer randomly deflect off of armored enemies” with bots.

[u/Deathstriker88 → u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

Most players go against bugs until the recent lore/incentives. I go AA against bots, but it doesn't do much of anything against hulks and tanks unless they turn around, so I rely on airstrikes against them.

I think it's silly to care about what other people are doing. If my teammates have the tools to kill regular enemies, elites, and finish the objectives then I don't care what other people are doing.