Hello All,
Tl;DR – The magnum’s ROF should be buffed a slight amount, it’s recoil in hip tuned down, and it will be a freaking sweeeeet weapon. Which it already is, but it will be perfectly balanced then (Arena)
Now, please actually read my reasoning before making a ridiculous post:
I’ve already let you all know how to properly balance the autos, and now I want to follow up with the Magnum. I’ve seen alot of arguments recently about what a utility weapon is, what the magnum’s place is, and how some feel the Magnum should be a 4sk.
I think this approach is dead wrong. As usual, I will be using actual data to support my claims. For a review, let’s start with the Kill times of the precisions. These are minimum perfect kill times. I use this source as it’s the only one that uses frame counting for exact measurements, and his method is proven to work on a ‘known’ quantity (CE Magnum 0.6 s TTK).
Magnum: 1.2s TTK, 5 shots.
DMR: 1.2s TTK, 5 shots. (Note this means the DMR and Magnum have the exact same ROF currently. However, the DMR has much more power, almost as much power as the BR, leading to a faster body shot kill, and also better for team shooting, etc)
LightRifle (Unscoped): 1.2s TTK, 4 shots
LightRifle (Scoped): 1.0s TTK, 3 shots (note this means that the LightRifle has the most power overall, both scoped and unscoped)
Carbine: 1.2s TTK, 7 shots.
BR: 1.28333 TTK, 4 bursts (11 bullets). (B/c there is still some shield left after the third burst, we know that the LR has more power per shot – it takes out shields in 3 shots exactly (hip))
H2 BR: 1.4333 TTK, 4 Bursts. (the time between shots within a burst is 2x as long for the H2 BR – note that the ROF between the first bullet of bursts is the same as BR and LR tho. It seems ‘faster’ b/c the time between 3rd bullet of a burst and 1st bullet of a burst is quick…that’s another story)
So, let’s think about this for a moment. The Magnum and DMR have the exact same size reticule, have the exact same TTK, but the DMR has much better power as well as effective range. To compensate, it has a little more recoil, in hip.
The argument for the 4sk is that each of the other weapons outclass the magnum. But I’ve already shown that the only one that has a faster Kill time is the LightRifle (Scoped). The rest are equal, with the BRs having slightly longer kill times due to their burst fire. So, the magnum is fine on paper, but it it is handicapped by range and the fact that it already has less magnetism/aim assist than the other weapons. It also can’t compete with the SR/SMG at close range.
We can see that making the magnum a 4sk would reduce it’s TTK to exactly 0.9s. That’s as fast as the SMG. And it would have the same power as the LightRifle (hip). ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? What would the point of the rifles be here? Basically they would only be used at long range, and the magnum would dominate at close and mid range.
However – my goal is to have the magnum useful at all ranges, and not dominate at any. It’s biggest area of weakness, I would argue, is defending in close range. It also needs little more help in long range.
Solution: We need to reduce the recoil on the magnum further, and increase it’s ROF slightly. It’s ROF should be somewhere between where it is now, and where the carbine is now. We need a magnum with a ~1.05s TTK 5 shot kill. This will make it useful in close range, while the recoil in smart scope will limit it’s spamability in long range (it’s overall recoil would be reduced, so that if you fire at it’s current ROF, it will be more consistent. But if you spam, it becomes unpredictable – SS only). Additionally, the recduced recoil in hip will make it more consistent for mid range hipfire, compared to the BR and DMR.
Problem solved y’all!! Let me know your feedback.
