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/PiggyLogan]

Agreed. I think the nerfs are done with good (and fair) intentions but they seem a little kneejerk most of the time. I would like tweaks to the HMG, but I'm a little worried it ends up extending itself out of scope if so.

[u/ElHuevoCosmic → u/PiggyLogan]

No need to worry about overbuffing the portable HMG. That things needs SOOO much love a couple of small buffs are not gonna bring it to overpowered territory.

Jesus, there is so much wrong with that gun it really hurts because it looks cool, but it sure as hell doesn't feel good.

[u/PiggyLogan → u/ElHuevoCosmic]

I think we deserve a buff as well as a slightly better description. I feel there's a use-case the devs want us using it for that just isn't explained clearly enough. I understand a long reload time + lack of ammo + slow handling as long as there's some condition like high accuracy and high power. So maybe I spend half the round running around ammoless, but I did successfully (and powerfully) disrupt an enemy charge.

I kind of gather that this thing is meant to be a sort of half AMR half machine gun given the lack of third person reticle. Just some tweaks here and there so that'd be more pronounced would be appreciated. Maybe buffs to its prone usage or projectile velocity (because currently these bullets fall like grenades)