Is it only me or are "normal" Assault Rifles kinda underwhelming

I'm not talking about Blast Rifles,
those actually do a good job in PvP - but after hitting 20 with my assault rifles a few days ago, and trying different weapons for a total EGO amount 2660 I can't see any point in actually using those.

Walking:
Sniper Rifles and Shotguns (Fragger) have a more accurate walk-shot, this is just plain disturbing.

Aiming:
Yea, just let me grab my FRC Saw/LM-12 and deal twice the damage with the same accuracy, while having twice as much amo.
Hm, or simply a Wolverine Pistol (though I don't like those).

Crouching:
Pretty much the same.

When I started playing ARs I thought the aimed shot would make up for the trouble, but the fact is that only acceptable accuracy comes with less than 230 base damage and forces you into crouching, making you easy target for explosives/snipers/ any bunny-hopper due to low zoom speed.


Am I the only one who feels like he is gimping himself when he uses an AR?

Yeah I feel that too. I'm guessing they tried the "versatility" gambit with this. Want an LMG? High-cap mag. Want to hit accurately? Scope (though those do the opposite of making more accurate as I've heard). And so on and so forth. So basically it's a weapon that seems like it has ADHD, it wants to be a bit of everything but sucks at all of that.

Proud user of the EMC XAR-22 in PvP. I get kills with it, but I just feel like people who use shotguns or infectors do a lot more effective then me at any range that actually maters.

My AR in PvP is a FRC Assault Carbine with bio nano effect. Slows down the enemy, and at least when you fight hellbugs and they use bio snare on you, decreases damage output. Slows them down to help with the atrocious AR accuracy and basically makes them sitting ducks

For waterfront and observatory I would agree you would be at a disadvantage for most of the ars. However I would suggest trying a FRC heavy carbine. It makes no sense to me being its single shot but I tear it up with that at all ranges

FRC heavy assault carbine

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Originally Posted by Tiibalt

For waterfront and observatory I would agree you would be at a disadvantage for most of the ars. However I would suggest trying a FRC heavy carbine. It makes no sense to me being its single shot but I tear it up with that at all ranges

FRC heavy assault carbine

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I currently using one of those with a +3 Burst mod.
IF it actually hits it has quite punch, but it's more inaccurate than an LMG...

I played a loooot of mass effect 3 where ARs being bad was a running joke forever. That being said the ARs in this game are pretty nice, but the one thing iagree with is that the LMGs do soo much dmg with no drawbacks really other than longer reload. I love the lmgs so i think buff ARs and don't nerf lmgs!


Edit: then again the ARs are generally a lot more accurate

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Originally Posted by shadowkin

I played a loooot of mass effect 3 where ARs being bad was a running joke forever. That being said the ARs in this game are pretty nice, but the one thing iagree with is that the LMGs do soo much dmg with no drawbacks really other than longer reload. I love the lmgs so i think buff ARs and don't nerf lmgs!


Edit: then again the ARs are generally a lot more accurate

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Lol and with the preparation perk! The one that reloads your secondary weapon, you can carry two LMGs and NEVER have to deal with that reload time!

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Originally Posted by shadowkin

Edit: then again the ARs are generally a lot more accurate

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Not true.
They do have more recoil, but FRC Saws and LM-12s have pretty much the same crosshair size most ARs do have, even better than some (zoomed/crouched)

As a gun guy in real life I always have to shake my head at the guns in science fiction video games. You'd think that in the intervening years they'd have even better guns than we have right now, specially since some of them are designed by an alien race even more advanced than we are...far more advanced since they can build star ships. But no, they're about as accurate as a cold war Romanian made AK-47 and have the punch of the 22 rim fire rifle my Dad gave me when I was 9. And the scopes, for God's sakes don't even start me on the scopes.

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Originally Posted by 3rdpig

As a gun guy in real life I always have to shake my head at the guns in science fiction video games. You'd think that in the intervening years they'd have even better guns than we have right now, specially since some of them are designed by an alien race even more advanced than we are...far more advanced since they can build star ships. But no, they're about as accurate as a cold war Romanian made AK-47 and have the punch of the 22 rim fire rifle my Dad gave me when I was 9. And the scopes, for God's sakes don't even start me on the scopes.

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next are you going to tell us about how unrealistic driving a quad off a 100ft cliff and jumping off mid air doing a barrel roll and surviving is?

*rollseyes*

Assault Rifles are underpowered as hell and SAW lmgs (and one other, cant remember name) are just overpowered. There is no drawback to using a good SAW LMG. There isnt. "Oh god I have a 3second reload timer"...Prepardness perk reloads that nice SAW while its not being used but in the loadout, Overcharge can instantly reload it. 2 LMG SAW with Prepardness and you just switch weapons, done. a 7 mag pump action shotgun firing as fast as it can still reloads that SAW back to around 60+ and in the time it takes to shoot off those, your shotty is reloaded.

Heres the largest drawback on an SAW.....oh wait, nevermind.

Assault Rifles reload at a decent rate, their rate of fire isnt bad, their recoil is worse than a SAW in any circumstance, their damage is laughable and to take the cake, there are no iron sights so attaching a scope is stupidity (regardless that scopes degrade its accuracy anyways).

Yet for some odd reason I still find myself drawn to ARs more than LMG SAWs.

my rule of thumb... if it doesnt do at least 350 dmg, its trash.

sometimes for the hell of it i use that 375 burst AR, but rarely.

i generally stick to the frontier saw from the vendor. i do wish they would re-roll it though, it has been bio nano for like a week now. i wish it was fire or leech.

that 440 dmg AR would be nice if it wasnt semi-automatic.

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Originally Posted by Sdric

I currently using one of those with a +3 Burst mod.
IF it actually hits it has quite punch, but it's more inaccurate than an LMG...

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Yeah, take the burst mod off. The FRC Heavy Assault Carbine aka Frontier Battle Rifle is basically Defiance's (far less sexy) version of Mass Effect 2/3's M96 Mattock.

It's supposed to be semi-auto so the reticle resets after every shot. I'm sure the bloom on it is completely insane when using a burst mod.

Yea m8, LMGs are sooo much better.

They need to buff the accuracy of the assault rifles

i used lmg in beta mainly and ar after launch and i have to agree with mostly everyone. lmg beats the ar in EVERYTHING down right. cant testify to the 440 damage one though because i really do hate scopes on guns other then sniper rifles.

LMG has huge clipsize, but really long reload. It also has very high bloom so consistent firing from range is very inaccurate.
SMG has huge damage dropoff, but otherwise very nice and killer at close range.
AR is basically in between the above two with decent reload, good accuracy/range, and decent damage and clip sizes.

For PvP, I think you can use any of the above as a secondary weapon but at least for me, the one I find most effective is a Nano Fragger Shotgun that does massive damage and kills many with one shot to the face.

Either way, equip the right perks and you can make most any weapon work in PvP. I think only the Bolt Sniper is really hard (to find someone still enough for head-shots) and the Rocket Launcher just doesn't do enough damage.

Assault rifles can dominate PvE, but then again, any weapon can, just depends on the player.

I've tried AR's in PvP, and while they have their moments, are stupid-hard to hit with up close, and they are quickly outmatched by other weapons in quick matches, and not so great in shadow wars either.

Point is, they are ineffective compared to your other weapon options in PvP.

I was hoping they would be a viable choice, but they just, aren't. Which is why after running let's say, 10 matches on any given night, I see one AR for every 32923984239 shotguns, every 2934329 grenade and rocket launcher and 3 SMG's :P

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Originally Posted by cusman

LMG has huge clipsize, but really long reload. It also has very high bloom so consistent firing from range is very inaccurate.

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Oh yea, I had forgotten about that. But my LMG has a base .80 reload on it, on top of a lv 3 reload mag >:)
and the bloom on them really isn't bad at all

I LOVE my ARs and have quite a collection. They eat face when when properly modded and perked. In my opinion they are better suited to general combat - even better than the 'almighty' SAW. And yes I am referring to the standard VBI Assault Rifle/EMC Service Rifle types.

I don't mind regular assault rifles, in fact I prefer them much more. The VBI being my favorite of them all. EMC is okay too, I use it sometimes.

I have a orange FRC Assault Carbine that is pretty awesome, my main gripe about it is that there are no grenadier synergy mods to unlock my weapons bonuses yet. That extra recoil reduction would make a big difference.

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Originally Posted by cusman

LMG has huge clipsize, but really long reload. It also has very high bloom so consistent firing from range is very inaccurate.

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The EMC LMG is pretty nice, considering it gets more accurate as you fire it. Truthfully it's the only LMG I would use, I hate the others.

I use the FRC Assault Carbine.
it's really the only weapon i use and i rarely get out damaged.

I used lmg's in the beta, but the bloom when firing from the hip and jerky recoil drove me away.

I use AR's with Overpower and the Reload-Perks.
LMGs have too big a mag and too slow a reload. With a Rapid Reload Mag I can empty my clip 5-6 Times during Overcharge and therefore get a 50%+ increase in its duration, and the reloading animation is rather quick with the corresponding perks (60%+ upwards if I remember right) so this is where AR's shine imo. Otherwise - yes, SAW overtake AR's.

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Originally Posted by Cavadus

Yeah, take the burst mod off. The FRC Heavy Assault Carbine aka Frontier Battle Rifle is basically Defiance's (far less sexy) version of Mass Effect 2/3's M96 Mattock.

It's supposed to be semi-auto so the reticle resets after every shot. I'm sure the bloom on it is completely insane when using a burst mod.

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I've been looking for a Defiance version of the Mass Effect Revenant with no luck thus far.

I've got a VBI assault rifle that came with -0.20 recoil and x1.10 mag, I've modded it and am quite happy with the result. 68 round mag, 0.02 bloom and 0 recoil, it handles very well. It may not do as much DPS as my saws but its much nicer to use as I can put most rounds on target even while moving.