Another "Ranged Weapons" buff idea...

[Golden_Tatsuo]

Melee is king, but it doesnt need a nerf as its useful for the harder content DE has thrown at us. However, we all know most guns (primary/secondary) are trash in comparison. Here is my thought (when I say "buff", I mean addition to the weapons normal functionality): Give each weapon subclass its own special type of capped-stacking abilities. For this example I'm going to use the following, but they can obviously be changed.

 

Shotguns could have a "Pellet Ammo" ability, with each amount of pellets peppering the enemy giving a flat x% bonus PELLET damage per stack (max capped at say, 100, so that already strong shotguns like the Arca Plasmor take longer to get near that cap while weaker shotguns that fire more pellets/faster can actually get to a killing damage level this decade as opposed to at the heat death of the universe). 

 

Secondaries could have a buff giving headshot kills a stacking "Quick Slinger" buff that increases damage done to enemy bodies and removes 1 stack each time you do a body-shot. As there are trash mobs around for easy killing in most cases, rewarding higher accuracy in general for higher damage when you need it. 

 

Rifles could have a functionally opposite buff, where body shots give "Heavy Lead", accumulating to a max rank that increases headshot damage. 

 

Launchers could have a "Molten Rounds" buff, with there being a small max cap for the buffs (say max stack of 3), with each stack increasing the amount of damage taken by further launcher rounds, allowing more damage done as you keep using the same weapon. 

 

This is just an example list of the general idea of ideas that could be implemented across the board for all non-melee weapons to improve their usefulness, strength, and feeling of power that they have lost recently. 

 

I feel it wouldnt make EVERY SINGLE firearm OP, but that it could increase their usability over melee without removing melee's current power. 

[krc473]

25 minutes ago, Golden_Tatsuo said:

As an example, shotguns could have a "Pellet Ammo" ability, with each amount of pellets peppering the enemy giving a flat 1% bonus PELLET damage per stack (max capped at say, 100, so that already strong shotguns like the Arca Plasmor take longer to get near that cap while weaker shotguns that fire more pellets/faster can actually get to a killing damage level this decade as opposed to at the heat death of the universe. 

But what about the already high damage shotguns with many pellets and/or high fire rate? You wouldn’t increase the use of the bad shotguns with this kind of thing. It would just make the already good ones better.

The issue I see with most of your examples is that they are only likely to increase the use of the already good weapons. Meaning the ones that actually need to be buffed are still in the same place as they are now.

[Uhkretor]

I honestly don't know why people keep suggesting buffs or nerfs, when there are only 2 possible results: Buff everything indiscriminately or reduce all weapons to the same thing...

Not even a detailed list of individual weapon buffing/nerfing will provide a different possible result.

[Golden_Tatsuo]

Flat buffs or nerfs across the entire 'ranged weapon' spectrum will be pointless, yes. It'll simply shift everything in whatever new direction is 'OP'. 

My thought of adding categorical buffs was to allow higher MR and stronger weapons the ability to shine a bit more than they currently do, but create unique attributes to each category to make it an overall more useful weapon. It is not meant to make a low ranked weapon Steel Path viable, but to increase the damage of ranged weapons in a way that makes them at least worth using more so than a stat stick. The "already good" weapons are the ones that SHOULD be receiving the buffs. Every weapon in the game should not be across the board equally as powerful. 

A shotgun should feel different from a rifle, and a rifle different from a pistol, a launcher different from a bow. Rarely is that the chance anymore as you have secondaries that eclipse primary weapons of literally the same type, bows that are better launchers than what we have, and truly BAD Prime primaries. That is why I am suggesting the changes, in addition to hoping someone on the team sees the post and thinks "hey, thats something I can work with!", even if its not the same exact idea. 

 

There are plenty of weapons that I often wonder "WHY exactly was this chosen as a [gun type x] instead of [gun type y]?" Giving 'gun-type' changes would very much change that entire category of weapons and shift it away from all other types. The changes were just general ideas, and would obviously need workshopping to find what can help each class of weapons feel more like what it should be in terms of damage application, as well as usage. Even if you have never fired a weapon in your life, it should be easy to understand that different weapons handle and fire differently from each other. 

 

Constructive feedback is useful, just saying "why bother?" is not. That is why the community frequently gives feedback regarding whenever there is an issue with mechanics. Flatly increasing or decreasing everything across the board doesnt address the current weapon situation. In fact, almost all of their changes over the years have been to give weapons more personality, not make them clones of each other. That is close to what melee is now. A sword feels no different from a hammer or from a scythe or from claws or daggers. Melee is boring now as almost every melee weapon is functionally no different than the others. Your main choices are "crit or stats", and thats determined by the stats of the weapon and generally your best riven, not the weapon itself. If you enjoy a dagger being about as strong as a great sword, then I guess the flat buff/nerf would suit your tastes well. I, however, enjoy weapons that dont all feel exactly the same while doing the same damage. 

I also very much disagree that a detailed list would not provide a different result as very small changes to weapons in the past have made something go from garbage to OP. Most guns are in a current state that there is almost no reason to use a gun over a melee weapon, other than to prime the enemy for an increase in melee damage.