Edit: after playing a bit more with both the FEL-IX and MoA I’ve come to this conclussion:
The MoA has always been superior to the FEL-IX. But now, it’s even more superior than before and the FEL-IX became literally trash. 40 RPM is still playable and really good and I think that the headshot damage nerf got it where it has to be. So I think that the MoA is now well balanced (but obviously we won’t know for sure until another month or so when people play it more)
Now back to the FEL-IX, it’s literally trash now. The increased damage is unnoticeable since it still takes the same amount to kill most mercs. Still 1 headshot kill and then a follow up bodyshot to finish, but at the cost of 30% slower fire rate, slower reload speed and decreased ammo capacity (both in clip and out of it). There’s now no reason to ever use the FEL-IX over MoA and if before it didn’t matter a lot, now it’s obvious that the MoA is way better.
My solutions:
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Increase fire rate to 36 RPM (from 32).
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Increase ammo to 6/24 (from 5/20).
OR
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Make it 1 shot every deployable
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Decrease damage to 70 (from 75)
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Increase headshot multiplier to 2.9, meaning headshots will do 203 damage. Allowing it to insta-gib mercs with 103hp (or less) and 1 shot Rhino (from 2.3x 172 headshot damage)
I think that both of these changes will make the FEL-IX a lot better and at least make it closer to the FEL-IX. The only problem I see with the first change is that it will make it pretty similar to the MoA which I think the devs wanted to avoid. The 2nd change however will make headshots feel more rewarding. The damage buff we got is not noticeable, but I think that instagibbing 100hp mercs will be very noticeable and make up for the HUGE loss in fire rate.
The MoA will probably always be superior, but at least this won’t make the FEL-IX feel left out and useless. I also don’t find it OP to instagib 100hp mercs because most mercs have more hp than that and with the new fire rate every shot counts. In the current state, a lot of times you won’t have time for the follow up shot to finish the enemy before they are revived, this isn’t the case with the MoA.
Original post:
It’s soooooooooooo slow now.
If I miss or bodyshot someone I basically have no time to try and shoot another bullet now.
The damage buff didn’t do anything, being able to instagib Aura and Sparks is nice but 75 damage over 63 (or whatever it was before) doesn’t make up for the slow fire rate and less ammo (5/20 instead of 7/21).
Maybe some people complained about snipers being OP and I don’t mind a small nerf, but this is just ridiculous.
If you make it fire so slow, at least make it 1 shot deployables (or at least Aura health stations) and instagib more mercs.
You are still required to hit an enemy twice to kill them:
1 headshot to down and 1 bodyshot to finish or 3 bodyshots (2 to down, 1 to finish)
Rhino still takes 2 headshots or 1 head + 2 bodyshots (head+body down, another body to finish)
Only ones actually affected by it are Aura/Sparks which only need 1 headshot now (but still 3 bodyshots) and Thunder which now gets downed with 1 headshot. But nobody plays Thunder anymore and the instagib on just 2 squishy mercs that already only needed to take 2 damage to be finished just makes the damage buff pointless.
MoA is basically the same except with no upside of increased damage
I can see an upside for Aimee since she can now 1 shot bodyshot all squishies with the debuff, but it’s still not worth it. And Vassili can’t do that
Please, give it back at least some of the fire rate (40 instead of the old 46 and MoA could get the 46). And if not, then at least buff it more in terms of headshots: make headshots do 200 damage (1 shot Rhino, instagib 100hp) and make it deal 200 damage against all deployables (so it can 1 shot health stations, turrets and etc.)
Why would you nerf the weapons that require skill and buff the auto noob (PDP) that requires no skill.
tl;dr: I’m salty that the FEL-IX got nerfed so hard. I still haven’t tried MoA but I assume it has the same problem.
#MakeSnipersGreatAgain
(and nerf PDP back)