Hi folks,
I'm starting this topic to encourage discussion on the assault rifle assembly. It's my opinion that, while it was arguably the strongest 'mid tier' assembly a player could make, it was NOT overpowered.
Further, it's my opinion that, in it's current form, it's a bit rubbish!
I'd like to talk about the option of getting the assault rifle assembly back down to 0.5s firing speed, and in turn preventing it from being built on to any weapons other than chainguns (we have the hyperblaster assembly for plasmaguns, and it's hard to balance an assembly that can be put on 2 vastly different weapons without being too powerful on one and too weak on the other).
The assault rifle was perhaps a little too strong when compared with it's rivals among non-rare mod asssemblies, but it's my impression that requiring 3 agility mods is just about as taxing as a mod requirement can possibly get, outside of nano or onyx. Preventing a player build tactical boots and tactical armour is a huge cost. Whether or not it was strong, though, the full half-damage nerf was too hard a hit, imo. It's only useful in games where the player takes levels in triggerhappy, but not eagle eye, which is a ridiculous build path outside of ammochain (given that triggerhappy only works with rapidfire weapons, and eagleeye is the most important trait for rapidfire weapon builds). It's greatest advantage over similar weapons (gatling gun, burst laser etc) is ammo efficiency, which makes it pointless even when taking ammochain, and it builds out of *3* agility mod packs. For a whizkid character, this means it costs you your 25% movespeed boots.
Overall, I'd argue that assault rifle needs strengthening dramatically. While 0.5s firing speed was extremely good, I'm tempted to suggest it's ok. The assault rifle / plasma assault rifle, back when it used to have 0.5s firing time, does indeed have among the highest DPS of all rapidfiring weapons/assemblies (losing out to tech-modded laser rifles and miniguns). That said, I'd prefer to have a higher single-burst damage than a high DPS, because 0.5s time between 2 shots gives a chance of retaliatory fire, depending on chance, whereas a more powerful burst can often kill the monster outright, making firing time irrelevant.
With that in mind, I'd say 'among the highest DPS, but not the very highest' is just about perfect for an item that costs a trait, 3 of the most saught-after modpacks, and has a reduced ammo consumption.
To be honest, the fact that this item was nerfed so heavily baffles me. I think, provided is can only be made out of a minigun, it was pretty close to perfect before.
