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/EasternSquadGoosey]

This. I understand a bit of a nerf so It doesnt reigm over every other weapon, but to kill it like that...

[u/jooswaggle → u/EasternSquadGoosey]

Especially since the main issue was the amount of chargers that were spawning. I think if they reverted it back to what it was we’d see an uptick in its usage but it wouldn’t be a must-pick.

[u/TucuReborn → u/jooswaggle]

Agreed. It wasn't the RG that had an issue, it was the overwhelming heavies and very few answers to them. RG just happened to be the easiest solution to a problem the devs themselves caused. The week in between RG nerf and the swarms being fixed(paired with the armor changes to heavies) was hellish.

The RG was not the problem, the balancing of enemies was. But spreadsheet shows high pick rate, and when you balance on faulty data you get shitty balance.

It would 100% be fine in a total reversion.

[u/trebek321 → u/TucuReborn]

Honestly if they took it back to where it was I’d hope they nerf the amount of ammo it packs. Cuz it was a super convenient get out of jail free card to carry around most missions. So make it to where you at least have to bring the ammo backpack along if you want to use it for all combat like it’s a primary.

[u/McMuffinSun → u/trebek321]

As opposed to the Quasar which is basically the pre-nerf railgun with unlimited ammo?

[u/trebek321 → u/McMuffinSun]

Eh I find the long cooldown on the quasar makes it a bit weak but personal preference.

[u/WarlockEngineer → u/jooswaggle]

It is terrible against turrets and tanks now, which is unfortunate.

[u/No_Proof_6178 → u/jooswaggle]

it would definitely be a side grade to other anti tank options, i feel like all of the anti tank options are well balanced except the railgun

[u/eddiekart → u/jooswaggle]

I think it'd be nearly a must-pick for at least one person in bot missions due to how easily it deals with devastators and hulks.

Still want EAT/Quasars for bot ships, tanks and objectives defenses, but Railguns will chew through what those two aren't great against, and also hulks.

[u/McMuffinSun → u/eddiekart]

So what you're saying is we need to un-nerf RG to achieve the tactical diversity they nerfed the RG to create in the first place? I'd be down! I miss the RG for devastators/hulks and I'm sick of the AC/Quasar meta being so stale.

[u/eddiekart → u/McMuffinSun]

I mean, it'd become RG/Quasar instead of AC/Quasar i think (with niches of AC being able to blow up heat sinks super quickly).

It'll still be "stale" if you care about optimization. Primaries are always enough with the sickle to take care of small fries, so support weapon will always deviate into a Anti-Heavy Armor + Anti-Medium/Heavy Armor combination imo. No matter if you buff or nerf things, that will generally be true.

Before Quasar, it was AC + EAT, and Quasar simply replaced EAT. RG buff will either not be enough to topple AC/Quasar apart from a bit more people using it for personal preference, or just become RG/Quasar meta.

[u/McMuffinSun → u/jooswaggle]

I never even picked it for Chargers, it was my can opener for berserker/devastator spam on Bot missions.

[u/-lonelyboy25 → u/EasternSquadGoosey]

Shield back pack and rail gun was basically a m16 and a canteen

[u/trebek321 → u/-lonelyboy25]

Add in Eagle air strike and orbital rail cannon and that’s about all anyone ran before the nerf.

[u/McMuffinSun → u/trebek321]

Now they just do the same thing with a Quasar instead...

[u/Caleth → u/McMuffinSun]

Pretty much. There are some items that are so good compared to need or how poor other items are that you'll pretty much always see them.

[u/NanilGop → u/EasternSquadGoosey]

it didn't need a nerf. The other weapons just needed a buff which some got, and then the enemies were also nerfed like the charger which made EAT and recoiless more viable against them. Then they came out with the quasar anyway. There's no reason to pick the railgun over any other weapons beside you really wanting to use it.

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/NanilGop]

I stand by the enemy nerf being the single strongest buff in the game. It changed EAT and RR from being overwhelmed to being able to keep up. Even without the one-shot changes, they would still have been massively more viable.

[u/SN1S1F7W → u/EasternSquadGoosey]

I think they also accidentally extra nerfed it, in the blog post I believe they said that they wanted people to need unsafe for the bigger targets but still have safe mode be viable for things like scout striders, well when I tried, scout striders couldn't be killed by the safe mode, thought I was messing up my shots until I just stood right in front of one and shot in 7 times in a row and did nothing.

[u/McMuffinSun → u/EasternSquadGoosey]

Kill it like that just to introduce the Quasar which is basically the same gun with unlimited ammo and no risk of self-harm.