Stark AR, underpowered or not?

[BlackFoxglove]

As a Kira lover I want to ask your opinion about this point.
When I’m using the Dreiss AR and the BR-16 I feel fine and I can put down everyone from Phantom to Rhino, but when I equip the Stark it feels like shooting with a needle gun, almost like the gun it’s not up to the declared stats.
It’s only a matter of perspective?

[Radford_343]

Well, everything is a matter of perspective, more or less.

I use Kira a lot myself, and I still favour the Stark AR and the BR-16 over the Dreiss. I know some people really dislike the scope on the Stark and the way it blocks much of your screen as you aim down the sights.

I have also heard some claims (unverified on my part) that the Stark sight is slightly off-point and may mess up your aim.

In the end I think some of this boils down to personal preference, but there is a case to be made from the Stark’s obstructive scope being a hindrance in gameplay.

[Indefinite]

The Stark is frighteningly potent once you learn how to use it. I know when I first acquired Kira and used the Stark I thought it was complete garbage for weeks — Until another player domed and dropped me with two bursts at medium range.

The trick with the Stark is to just hipfire with it in all cases, and only really seek out head shot connections. Moving target, sitting target, doesn’t matter, just try to make the burst hit your target’s head - then the damage goes from being a pitiful triple of 15’s, to a triple of 30’s, and even Rhinos will take a nap in short order.

The BR16 isn’t as perpetually accurate, it’s CoF blooms a bit more when hipfired, but it has one more burst and is usable in IS at medium range. I only ever IS the Stark at long range, and won’t if I think the enemy will hit me (getting aimpunched with the Stark in IS will throw off shots completely). Even then, just hip firing at the enemy’s chest will usually land one dependable headshot, and you get to stay at maximum mobility that way.

[CCP1151]

I’m not too sure bout this, but…

Kira has 90 health.
BR-16 and Stark both do 15 damage per bullet.
headshots multiplier is two.
A burst of three on bodyshot multiplier is 45 damage total.
On headshot, that doubles to 90.

I would like to point out that the BR-16 and Stark are insane burst damage guns, but that they’re incredibly hard to use. I have only once triple tapped someone, and that was sheer luck. I turned a corner, saw an Aura running straight at me, then I landed all three shots in her head, she died in about 0.3 seconds.

[BlackFoxglove]

maybe it’s the burst thing that is hard to master and I have yet to come that way.
I loved the precision of the single shot rifle, landing all three shots from the Stark can be a little tricky, if you consider all these bunnyhoppers that are around.
Sometimes I even resort to the pistol to finish off someone, magazine seems to never last long enough to kill the heaviest guys (but, with Kira, I’m proud of it, I knife a lot of people to death)

[Halosheep]

I think the Stark is a pain to use because it moves a lot during the burst when you’re scoped in. Scoped shots are very difficult with the gun because the recoil jumps around a lot, while the BR-16 seems to stay in place until after the burst has been completed. As raspberryBlender (nice name) stated, it’s a lot better if you don’t use the sight, and you’ll achieve a lot more kills. Try to find a Drilled loadout, it’ll save you some pain when you drop a burst and need to finish a guy but have nothing but a pistol to do it with, being able to dump your whole pistol and reload to do it again before they can finish shooting has saved me quite a few times.
I only wish it would reload a little bit faster, even with Drilled it just reloads incredibly slow considering that it has to reload after only a few clicks.

[Daergar1]

I’ve used the Stark on Kira (and Arty) since I got them. I tried to like the br, I tried to love the Dreiss.

Only the Stark returned my affections and let me pew-pew mightily at any range. Besides, we all know we’re just wasting time until we can worship the pillar of fire again!