Originally Posted by CCP Cmdr Wang
Posting the following info on upcoming changes to weapon damage and HMG balance on behalf of CCP Rement since he's knee deep in making these changes. He will also be answer questions and discussing this topic in this thread as well.

Tl;dr version:
GÇó In the next hot-fix weapons will all get a 10% damage increase to compensate for the removal of the Weaponry skill bonus.
GÇó HMG damage buffed to 18 HP (including aforementioned 10% increase) and given a 5% dispersion buff.
GÇó In the near future, we will address range issues by removing the hard stop that currently takes place at maximum weapon range.

In Chromosome, the Weaponry skill gave an across the board 2% damage bonus to handheld weapons per level. Given the low SP cost of the skill (and the fact that itGÇÖs a pre-req for every weapon in the game) the majority of players would just skill straight to level 5 making the skill pretty pointless. So, in Uprising we removed the skill bonus. The side effect of this, of course, is that time-to-kill has increased.

This, combined with some of the control issues weGÇÖve been seeing, has led to combat feeling worse than it did in Chromosome. We will address this with a hot-fix that gives an across the board 10% increase to all handheld weapon damage to put DPS back to where it was. Additionally, weGÇÖve increased HMG damage and reduced the dispersion penalty when moving by 5% to address issues with the weapon.

The removal of the Sharpshooter skill (which gave bonuses to range) has also highlighted some issues with range in general. Weapon classes need unique range profiles. I doubt anyone would dispute that. And the sharpshooter skill was pushing far too many weapons beyond their intended engagement ranges. While itGÇÖs removal has caused some issues, the SS skill was a crutch and it hid more deep-seated problems with range in the game. It will not be coming back.

Right now, all weapons have an optimal and maximum range. Unfortunately, at its max range the weapon simply stops doing damage. This is bad for a whole host of reasons and weGÇÖll be addressing this with a point release in the near future by giving all weapons an optimal, effective and absolute range. Up to the optimal range weapons will do 100% damage (shield/armor profiles notwithstanding) and then drop off slowly towards their effective range. From effective range out to the absolute range damage will drop noticeably but weapons will still do incidental damage even at extreme ranges.

Some of thatmis old news, but im concerned they wanna decrease the ttk further its what makes this game different!!

There's something funky with the AR's, I know aim assist is helping them stay on target, but from experience, no other weapon bar maybe the laser rifle has had as big of an improvement from pre-patch to post-patch, and considering the AR was already good pre-patch, it's become insane afterwards.

Or more, have you seen CEOpyrex s video, he swipes across a guy three times and clunk!!

You'll likely see changes to the AR as soon as the Combat and Rail rifles are introduced. Remember, the AR is a blaster weapon, so you're going to get extremely high damage at close-to-mid range. After that, though, it will drop off significantly. The problem now, however, is there are no Combat or Rail rifles; meaning, there's no long-range rifles available yet, and the AR has to fill the role of "the" rifle (sorry SCR, that's the way it is--look how all starter fits (even Amarr!!) have the AR. What? Why doesn't the Amarr starter suit get a militia SCR?).

Once they get introduced, and Caldari and Minmatar longer-range, skirmish game play can be realized (which, btw, will make Caldari's and Minmatar's speed that much better (there's a reason shield suits make poor brawlers), you'll see some balancing for the AR. A merc using a Combat or Rail rifle can just stay at range, use their speed to mitigate some of the incoming fire, and pick off the target with their weapon's innate increased optimal range. I'm very much looking forward to seeing how the rifle line shapes up at the end of the day.