I meow at these claims.

This isn't to say it's over-powered, no. There's a lot of issues with TTK and DPS values (assault variants of all the rifles are too similar in the DPS department IMO) but this is just a personal standpoint from someone who's been on the field with both for quite a while.

As far as actually using them, there's little to no difference in actual playstyle in the short run but there are some major differences. ASCR has more visual recoil (which doesn't affect anything on a hitscan system) but lacks any muzzle climb at all. The AR has a faster fire rate but when their DPS values come so close it's very hard to notice any kind of differences in TTK. One such is that the ASCR is remarkably better than the AR at stripping shields but just in the same sense the armor damage isn't extraordinarily low.

What I mean by this is that in the time it takes me to die by the AR (I'm a Gallente Assault btw) I usually die about the same time, if not somewhat faster by the ASCR. This was a preponderance for quite a while but after a few skype discussions I can associate it with the fact that it has a lower hipfire dispersion, allowing you to apply more damage when on target but still mobile, there's no need to aim down the sights as opposed to the AR.

With the AR, it's best used when switching back and forth between hipfire and ADS when applying damage, trying to stay mobile but apply damage with as little rounds as possible. Being that the ASCR has much higher damage rounds and a more relaxed rate of fire, it's preferable in a CQC environment than the AR which seems to be firing all over the place.

At first I was discouraging the ASCR QQ, I thought it was just the end of an era from when Shield Tanking was the only viable option for survival and the community just couldn't get over it. But, yanno, the more and more I die to these things the greater my concern is.. It's not -supposed- to be doing as much damage to armor but I still die to it just as quickly as the AR, so while the TTK is still a pretty pressing concern for the entire game I kinda get the impression that the ASCR might need to tone back the damage a bit or even exaggerate the resistances from +20/-20 to something like +40/-40 or something. I'm not sure, but this is why I'm not a CCP Dev, lol.

TL;DR - It just -feels- like that the ASCR does more damage than it should to armor and is a more preferable CQC weapon than the AR.