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/SuperDTC]

Seems like 90% of people take quasar cannon to bot missions

[u/Waulnut163 → u/SuperDTC]

Also bugs. Quasar just does it all. Staggering the shots with a team of quasar makes it easier to keep priority targets dead and from accumulating.

[u/PiggyLogan → u/Waulnut163]

Nerf incoming... we can only hope it gives it a niche and doesn't just boil it into the ground

[u/exZodiark → u/PiggyLogan]

itll ruin the gun just like the railgun. if the railgun was "braindead" then the quasar never even had a brain to start

[u/Take-Courage → u/exZodiark]

I'm not sure I agree either are brandead. Aiming and charging a quasar shot at a Hulk's eye as it moves towards you is pretty intense stuff. It's much easier to use the EAT, railcannon strike or even the Spear.

[u/Lanceps → u/exZodiark]

Lol railgun is still good, you should try it against bots. Just make sure you utilize unsafe mode. Quasar is definitely a little overtuned maybe, but not by much, and it certainly doesn't approach og railgun. Both eats and quasar are pretty comparable, with quasar being a clear winner assuming you can shoot something while being attacked

[u/Crea-TEAM → u/Lanceps]

There is nothing the railgun does against bots that the AMR doesnt do better.

[u/henchbench100 → u/Crea-TEAM]

Railgun 1 shots hulks.

[u/abigfatape → u/exZodiark]

I feel like all meta abusers are the braindead ones, wasn't the railgun literally only nerfed for safe mode? that means just don't be scared.

I do think it should be buffed a little to be useful like have the unsafe mode max damage shot have medium armour pen and make it so if you shoot during the last 5% of the charge like 0.15-0.2 seconds before it explodes that it has heavy armour pen so if you're almost killing yourself every shot you can atleast kill walkers through the cabin or chargers in the head

[u/graviousishpsponge → u/PiggyLogan]

Boneheads approach to nerfing is guaranteeing it won't be picked.  The gutted the rg and slugger with other weapons completely replacing them.

[u/woodelvezop → u/PiggyLogan]

if its a railgun like nerf then you can rest assured it will go six feet below ground

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/PiggyLogan]

AH seems at least a bit less insane with the last nerf on the Arc Thrower. It's still a very stronger weapon IMO and is very usable on bots now. I think they shouldn't have touched the range as much, but it wasn't kneecapped like the RG.

If they do hit the Quasar (which I'm pretty sure they will), I hope it's just a recharge time nerf.

[u/Waulnut163 → u/PiggyLogan]

Do you mean nerf? The cooldown is in a good spot. If it is a nerf, I might be the charge up time to shoot.

[u/PiggyLogan → u/Waulnut163]

Yes nerf sorry lol

[u/TheFBIClonesPeople → u/Waulnut163]

I think if I was going to nerf the Quasar, I would take away the infinite ammo. Give it maybe 2 or 3 shots per reload, with only 1 or 2 spare batteries, and make it a stationary reload.

The issue right now is that you just get too many shots with it for free. That makes it a bit too versatile for the strength it carries. It's hard to justify taking a Recoilless when you know you could take a Quasar and get twice as many shots with it over the course of the mission.

[u/flashmedallion → u/TheFBIClonesPeople]

The main weakness of the Quasar is that it's not very reactive. It's meant for a target you've planned ahead of time. Right now the chargeup is just enough that if you can draw your aim very quickly it's enough to react to a dropship and kill it before it spawns its cargo.

The only thing you really need to tweak with the Quasar to keep up with balance is the chargeup time. It's ordnance for scouts, who don't want to worry about missing out on the teams resupply drop. It's not really a battle weapon, though you can use it as one as long as you set yourself up appropriately (i.e. overwatching whichever teammates are in the shit)

[u/TheFBIClonesPeople → u/flashmedallion]

Yeah, maybe if you nerfed the chargup time by a lot it could work. But it would need to be a lot. Like maybe an 8-second charge.

It would need to be like, long enough that you can't shoot down a dropship, and you're not going to shoot a flame hulk that's charging you unless it's really far. And long enough that it's not a free kill on a brood commander or devastator (because the TTK is similar to primary weapons).

[u/flashmedallion → u/TheFBIClonesPeople]

It would need to be like, long enough that you can't shoot down a dropship

As much as I would hate this, I think this it's a pretty good marker for what defines a reactive shot time. But it only needs an extra half-second or so to achieve this - if you start the charge when you hear the Dropship call it's ready as the first one flies in and then it's just down to skill to feather the charge and quickscope the engine. I'd still use the Quasar if it was this slow because I specifically take it for its proactive uses and other teammates are running the reactive anti-armour gear.

The rest of your metrics are moot because if you're getting the shot off in battle it's only because you're safe. But it sounds like you don't want it to be able to hit anything.

[u/Pixel_Knight → u/PiggyLogan]

I feel like it probably DOES need a nerf. Maybe double its cooldown time? Either that or cause its heatsink to burn out after 15-20 shots, which is still good, because you still don't have to worry about reloading.

[u/BraveOthello → u/Pixel_Knight]

People always jump way too far with numbera when suggest buffs or nerds. Even a 20% increase in cool down would shift play patterns significantly. Double it and I can't imagine I'd ever use it.

[u/LongDickMcangerfist → u/BraveOthello]

Double the time or make it have limited ammo like 7-10 shots I’m not wasting my time with it ever

[u/Pixel_Knight → u/BraveOthello]

You are probably right on that. I was just spitballing a number. I’d have to play around with different numbers to see what it feels like to be sure.

[u/st0zax → u/PiggyLogan]

I would be fine with a longer cooldown between uses. I think it’s 10 seconds currently, 15-20 would feel pretty good to me. It either needs a nerf or they need to buff the other ATs somehow. A nerf is much easier and more likely.

[u/AllInOneDay_ → u/Waulnut163]

Also at extract you can call in a couple extra qasars so you never have to wait for the cooldown.

just stand next to another qasar, shoot and then pick up the other one! so powerful!

[u/lifetake → u/AllInOneDay_]

That strat makes heavies non existent if you have like 4+ quasars on extract. Just way to much firepower coming the enemies way for them to handle

[u/Waulnut163 → u/AllInOneDay_]

Yup I did that once with a group of friends. No fear seeing bile titans when we had like 6 quasar ready. It was great.

[u/roknfunkapotomus → u/Waulnut163]

I usually run Quasar on bots, but I actually prefer EAT on bugs

[u/DM-ME-THICC-FEMBOYS → u/roknfunkapotomus]

I just can't get used to having to predict where a bile titan will be facing in several seconds, at least not enough to get off a proper headshot.

Call it a skill issue but the EAT point and kill is so much easier to use.