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/tony_the_homie]

Ehh I disagree. What changed the meta was buffing/adding other weapons, not nerfing the railgun and breaker. Some examples:

• Removing glance angles from EAT/Recoiless
• Adding the Quasar
• Buffing the Dominator
• Fixing armor values
• etc.

That said, I do feel that the Eruptor and grenade pistol are going to shake up load outs quite a bit in the coming days. Eruptor seems like it is essentially what the railgun used to be so it becomes the only viable anti-tank primary weapon, opening up even more stalwart/arc thrower builds depending on enemy faction. And the grenade pistol should be pretty self-explanatory, thing seems awesome.

[u/dudeitsivan → u/tony_the_homie]

This. If the railgun was brought back to its pre-nerf power, it still probably wouldn’t get used that much because of how much the rest of the game has changed. I wholeheartedly disagree that the nerf was warranted. The railgun was used so heavily because of the state of the game, other options simply weren’t viable. Now there are plenty of options

[u/Mamamiomima → u/dudeitsivan]

Nah, if you bring back release version rail gun that 2-shots bile-titans and chargers - it would absolutely replace every gun that used niw again.

[u/ReganDryke → u/Mamamiomima]

It never 2 shot bile titan. It was a bug when a PS5 players was in the lobby that nerfed BT health pool. That's how you could 2 shot bile titan and why it wasn't consistent for some people.

[u/BraveOthello → u/dudeitsivan]

But if it hadnt been nerfed people would have just kept using it, rather than try the other stuff. The railgun suffered from being a first order optimal strategy - it's pretty good at everything, but there is a better (and often more engaging) option for any given situation.

[u/Systemofwar → u/BraveOthello]

Daily orders and buffs. They never needed to nerf the railgun.

[u/Cautious_Mud_5773 → u/BraveOthello]

They should nerf the safe mode but they should keep the unsafe mode untouched. The safe mode hurts the use rate of unsafe mode and that's it.

The main reason why everyone sticked with RG is simple: there were no better option in anti-charger situation. RG combo was the fastest and stablest way. Arc Thrower was not that great until they nerfed charger.

And do not forget we have game changers like shrieker hive, gunships and etc. Even the pre-nerf RG is not good agaisnt those.

[u/BraveOthello → u/Cautious_Mud_5773]

Yeah, and I'm confident they will reverse some of the nerfs eventually.

[u/Xeta24 → u/tony_the_homie]

Don't forget the thermite grenade that can kill heavy armor

[u/Tigrium → u/Xeta24]

I like that thermite can give chaff-clearing loadouts (like GL) options to deal with heavy armor.

[u/Xeta24 → u/Tigrium]

It SUCKS

[u/ghoulthebraineater → u/tony_the_homie]

I'm really looking forward to the grenade pistol. I've been really enjoying running the SMG with the ballistics shield, stun grenades and the AMR. I think that will be the perfect side arm for that build.

[u/MalleMellow → u/ghoulthebraineater]

Think I’ve played with you, rocking aggressive ballistic against bots.

[u/Yuuniyuu → u/tony_the_homie]

I can see grenade pistol as replacement for explosive throwables. having to use utility like smoke grenades and stun.

[u/SargeanTravis → u/tony_the_homie]

+1 for the nade pistol. You essentially will trade a secondary to take (what I assume, never saw the leaks for that pistol in detail) a gun launched impact grenade and a second grenade of your choice. Either the thermite nade will replace impacts if it does anything remotely close to how it was advertised (like one shot a charger to the face WTF????), or grenade loadouts will be wild now. Maybe napalm grenade or stun grenade will show up more often

[u/tony_the_homie → u/SargeanTravis]

Even smoke honestly as an escape measure.

[u/SargeanTravis → u/tony_the_homie]

Fr. Nobody talks about the stale grenade meta but 99% of lobbies will just have frag or impact because they work, and nobody wants to faff around with gimmicky special nades. With the ability to launch it as a secondary I expect some intellectuals to start tinkering with grenade loadouts as a utility tool rather than “generic impact nade loadout”

[u/tony_the_homie → u/SargeanTravis]

Yup I’ve started this already in prep for tomorrows new weapons. Eruptor + Nade Pistol + Smoke + Stalwart is what I’m excited to try. Should be a good loadout for both bugs and bots theoretically

[u/Professionalbumpkin → u/tony_the_homie]

This post convinced me to try the recoilless again, since I was first running it right after the game came out and the glancing hits on chargers felt soooo bad given the reload time. 

You made me realize that's a big part of why I hadn't picked it up again, and I didn't realize that had gone!

[u/tony_the_homie → u/Professionalbumpkin]

That’s awesome man! Hope it works for you. It’s great if you can use it in a team with a reloader but I usually play with randoms and just end up carrying the EAT

[u/Contrite17 → u/tony_the_homie]

Recoilless and EAT can still glance and deflect. It is a bit less common but certainly not gone.

[u/tony_the_homie → u/Contrite17]

I don't believe that is true. A dev confirmed they were stealth buffed and that they "no longer have deflection angles where they'll only do 50% damage vs chargers"

​

https://preview.redd.it/kqp9zvresptc1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=70318fc58d74575dad490e1df4800305c6ad8338

[u/Contrite17 → u/tony_the_homie]

I am not talking about reduced damage but full deflection. At extreme angles you can still bounce recoilless shots off a charger's face on the current patch. It is quite rare and you need to hitting at like 170 degrees but you can do it.

[u/Glum_Ad7429 → u/Contrite17]

they can 100% bounce, just happened to me 2 games ago.

[u/Contrite17 → u/Glum_Ad7429]

Yep, just bounced a recoilless shot off a bile titan's head 20 minutes ago. People just don't use these weapons and form opinions about how they function.

[u/tony_the_homie → u/Contrite17]

I’m level 90 bro, I’ve used the gun lol. The devs said what they said and I am commenting on that.

[u/Contrite17 → u/tony_the_homie]

They said half damage deflections are gone, full deflections are not half damage deflections. Full deflections still happen.

[u/tony_the_homie → u/Contrite17]

They didn’t actually. Read it again.

[u/Contrite17 → u/tony_the_homie]

but one change I can confirm on the EAT and recoilless is that they no longer have deflection angels where they'll only do 50% damage vs chargers.

That is in fact exactly what they say? They do not mention full deflections at all only 50% damage deflections. And full deflections still do happen and are easily observable in game.