I personlly want the racial style weapon to be the best in class, (GAR, SCR, CR, RR) and the other variants to be not as good, pale imitations, so they are utility weapons if you like the "feel" or need to use one situationally. .

Excellent analysis, I very much look forward to the variant discussion.

And to my point of "pale imitation", I meant it from a lore perspective. Of course a weapon can never be viable by being straight up worse.

A good example good be the assault scrambler, it would have the scrambler range, maybe better accuracy but also has severe racial con, overheating, or a tiny clip, or anything that fits the lore. That way it is a longer range, shield damaging GAR with limitations, yet a purpose.

But I still feel that the skill tree should represent that a full specialization in the GAR should give you the best full auto efficiency, simply because the racial skill trees would not be granting bonuses to full auto variants, as that is not their army doctrine.

I'd argue that the ASCR doesn't suffer from nearly as much overheating as one might think it does. Not sure if it's been changed but if I remember correctly you could go through almost two entire magazines before it overheats, and that's just a non-amarr suit. You probably increase the overheat and have an excuse to make a bit more powerful in another area to compensate, if necessary.

The problem with the Plasma Rifle's variants is, to put it simply, they just aren't worth their salt let alone their price tag. I mean, the Tactical Plasma Rifle looks promising but it's got some major rate of fire stipulations, it's range was reduced in 1.7 and it's damage was reduced in 1.8; all in all it's taken a -LOT- of hits (though the Breach/Burst have taken even more) and it's just not worth it anymore. The 2% increase in damage might help to some degree but...

Let's be real here, if they're not going to be viable, it's probably best just to cut our losses and remove them. I really hate to say that because we've lost so much already in the way of content (vehicle/turret variations especially) but this is something that I feel deserves it's own thread that warrants plenty of early feedback if there are any plans to actually save them.

My hypothesis about the burst AR is as follows.

Back in the day, (Tuesday in fact) the Burst AR fired 5 shots per burst and and the game timed the trigger pull reactivation delay to coincide with 5 bullets leaving the game so that when it was done you could then burst again, much like the CR today. However the weapon proved to be a bit too effective, so they reduced the bullet count per burst to 3. What I think happened here is that they removed the command to fire the last 2 bullets for the burst but didn't adjust the timer so that you can refire (at least nearly) immediately afterward.

So what we're left with is that the gun fires 3 bullets, it waits for the 2 ghost bullets basically adding an additional 60% wait time before reactivation and then you're able to fire again.

I think the best thing for the Burst AR would be to either cut out the ghost bullet timer or vastly reduce it.

As for the TAC, I think it's honestly in a weird position. The gun is right on the verge of being useful, I personally use it at least 2-3 matches every day and I generally find it's decent enough to get me a minimum 14 kills or so up to above 30 when fighting lemurs. It's a good weapon, but it's not a truly competitive weapon. And it's a fine line with CCP in making weapons competitive and not completely brokenly OP.

(Pro Tip: Glu-5 Tac with a bolt pistol on an open terrain map is an extremely dirty combination. I highly recommend it. People always underestimate the Tac when they see it being used and they tend to run straight at you. Wipe their shields instantly with the Tac and dig into their armor a little with a few shots, then switch to the bolt pistol and finish them off with 1-2 shots as they bum rush you. I feel like I need to take a shower after using this build.)

I honestly have no idea how to balance the TAC AR without returning it to its old ROF. The bust AR however is just about the only rifle i ever run with (i'm a galmando). I get your point but I just don't see it surpassing the combat rifle at its intended range, with both the pause reduction/removal + the 5% bonus daamge. The ROF of the CR alone would trump the AR considering if they have the same pause delay, the CR will inherently fire faster as its 3 rounds leave the chamber much faster.

The AR is a CQC weapon, the 5 shot burst in my opinion is what it needs to give it back that potential it now lacks. With the 5% bonus you suggest at the very most it will gain 1.00 more damage which I feel is not enough to compensate for the ROF. I could be wrong however, if the numbers are off go ahead and call me on it as i'm not looking up the stats of the AR.

The 5% bonus I would only want applied to the Tac, although I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a better buff for the Burst AR as well, and perhaps raise the advanced tier to be in line with the proto in terms of ROF at 937.

The Tac can -not- have its ROF or its recoil adjusted, those are the only things keeping it from getting dominated by modded controllers. Make it the highest alpha light weapon single fire weapon bar the shotgun and charged ScR and call it good imo.

The ideology I hold for balancing weapons is make them all have at least one facet they're better than their cousins in.

In my perfect world, the weapons look like this.

Do I want the Tac for it's alpha power per shot and no overheat threat, or do I want the ScR which hits for slightly less per shot but gives me the ability to charge and risk overheating at slightly longer range?

Do I want the AR for a high ROF weapon in close to mid range range, or the ARR which deals decent damage at longer range with a slightly slower ROF and high per shot value for lower dps while being accurate, or do I want the AScR for near AR damage at long range with a high ROF but held back by its overheat potential and its hard to control kick, or do I want the ACR for its super high ROF and high dps but is hindered by a smaller magazine and low per shot value?

Do I want the Breach AR for its low ROF but very high per shot value and smaller clip, or do I want the RR for a low ROF weapon that hits at longer range with a larger magazine but with a lower per shot value and lower dps?

Do I want the Burst AR for its high per burst damage value, or do I want the CR for its higher ROF allowing for more bursts to be put downrange faster with a lower damage value per burst?

That's how I'd do it at least. Give every gun something it excels at better than all the others, and give them aspects that others do better at themselves. Provide real variety and you'll get better balance.