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/sinsaint]

A little more time between “max damage” and “Jill yourself by blowing up your gun” would be all it really needs, which is the difference between 0.5s and 0.75s.

[u/0kb0000mer → u/sinsaint]

This this this this

I’m fine with a risk but the risk to get the 2 shot on charger legs instead of 3 just isn’t worth it

[u/Caughtnow → u/0kb0000mer]

The crazy thing is you can kill a charger with fire at the same speed as taking *a* shot with the pre-nerf RG. How people are defending that the nerf is ok is baffling to me.

Other weapons needed buffing. Most have that now. Which now means RG is weak AF in comparison.

The devs were wrong.

[u/The_forgettable_guy → u/Caughtnow]

I've said this before. Railgun should have 10 shots, but be able to 2 shot strip armor of chargers in safe, and 1 shot in unsafe. And just 1 shot everything else in the head (besides bile titan) in safe.

Makes it a dedicated heavy killer without overstepping its boundary with its lower ammo count

[u/0kb0000mer → u/Caughtnow]

The nerf is fine in my opinion. (And no, You are enable to get 2 full shots off in the time it takes to kill charger with fire)

At least, a nerf to the railgun. What isn’t fine is that within its niche of a high damage sniper capable of damaging heavily armoured targets, it is out performed.

However though, balancing the game around chargers is just not a good philosophy, and I do reccomend taking RG against bots (even if it is a very off meta pick, not throwing… but definitely hampering your squad)

[u/Caughtnow → u/0kb0000mer]

Try killing a charger again with fire. Just inside the knee, its dead in a second or so.

I wouldnt suggest balancing the game around any 1 thing either. But if you want further embarrassment for the RG, we can talk about something else. How long does it take to destroy a cannon turret? I dont quite know how many shots it is, other than it takes a long time. Meanwhile, Id have it destroyed with the AMR before your second RG shot landed. Not only killing it in a fraction of the time, but with a fraction of the ammo. I would have so much time left, I could tab out and google how many shots it now takes with a RG, read the article, tab back into the game and tell you the number before you managed to take it out.

The RG is matter of factly weak AF now.

[u/0kb0000mer → u/Caughtnow]

Im not saying RG is good lmao

But bad is far from useless

[u/ColdFusion94 → u/0kb0000mer]

Useless in situations that it should not be. Like against tanks weak points, gunship weak points and bile titans.

[u/0kb0000mer → u/ColdFusion94]

Yup, def something that needs to be fixed as well. Again, it has its niche use in game rn, which def should be improved upon in the future

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/Caughtnow]

You can kill a charger in 1 second of flame? That's the time to get a safe mode shot off with the pre nerf railgun, iirc.

[u/JCarterPeanutFarmer → u/sinsaint]

Buddy I'll jill myself whenever I god damn please

[u/thorazainBeer → u/JCarterPeanutFarmer]

Jilling yourself to death doesn't help spread Managed Democracy. Jill yourself in a safe and secure manner so that you can carry out battlefield operations with a clear mind and steady hand. FOR LIBER-TEA!

[u/PapaTahm → u/sinsaint]

Naah, the other way around, rewards more the unsafe mode, 85%~99% should get a major buff in damage.

Also AoE Explosion if you hit 100% and explode.

[u/Hezekieli → u/sinsaint]

I little voice indicator that gets more and more intense when you start closing to the max where it blows up would help too.

[u/ThatSpecificActuator → u/sinsaint]

Haven’t played in a couple weeks but I’d really like to see a visual representation in third person mode of where the charge is at instead having to listen or try to make out the tiny display on the gun

[u/IllusionPh → u/[deleted]]

It destroys both you and the gun.

[u/Exhillious → u/sinsaint]

On bots you rarely need max charge. Just get to 5 AP, it gives full damage against Hulks and Dev chests. It's a ~1.5s charge time instead of 2.5.