Lately I have noticed more and more people using the scrambler pistols on both scouts and medium frames. After being killed by them dozens of times I started doing some research on them and I found most of the players that use these sidearms, especially the scouts, claim its the hardest sidearm to use in the game and it takes "a lot of skill." They also claim you gotta get head shoots.
Needless to say I didn't believe them especially after looking at all the stats and realizing most of them do more damage than the scrambler rifle and the pistols don't overheat like the rifle does. So I decided to make a new toon and try out these death dealing sidearms for the first time. (I have never used scrambler pistols before today as I only have SMG skilled on my main.)
My suspicions were correct about scrambler pistols being way overpowered and very easy to use. And you most certainly do not need head shoots to kill quickly. Most of my kills were not head shoots and they still dropped the target in half a clip or less. I also dropped several heavies without having to reload just by switching to my second TT-3. I would also say headshoots with the TT-3 was just as easy as with my SMG.
The following pictures were taken from games I played within about a 3 hour time frame both before and after today's downtime. Also i'm sorry about the quality. It was hard to take photos of my TV screen that allowed you to read the horrible font CCP uses. I made the toon "TT-3 is 0P" and immediately skilled him into the TT-3. I decided to use a medium frame since I suck at being a scout and with suck low skills I needed some HP to actually be able to test the pistols. Here is a picture of all the skills i used during this test. you will see this is a very low SP toon, about 475K sp.
http://i.imgur.com/Zkyb63S.jpgThis is the fit I used. Gallente Militia Medium Frame, Dual TT-3, nanohive, Militia armor repper and 2 militia plates.
http://i.imgur.com/i53YOYN.jpgLastely I ran completely solo. I had no help from teammates, no intel, no scanners, no logi reps and no backup. I only had my nanohive as the pistols did chew through ammo pretty fast.
After training everything I needed I entered my first battle, the academy. Even though the noobs in academy are stupid and easy to kill, I was surprised how easy it was to use this pistol that is supposed to be so hard to use.
http://i.imgur.com/HqUbdSj.jpgMy very next battle and first FW was a tough one against a full squad of Anonymous. While I did die a lot, I killed more. Also realize the suit I am using during this test is about 12K isk, so dirt cheap, compared to the advanced and proto I was up against during most of this test.
http://i.imgur.com/v3e98o2.jpg ,
http://i.imgur.com/8C3Ouyy.jpgAfter this match downtime kicked in but I came back for more when the server returned.
After downtime I played two average games but I came into both of them late. the main thing of note from these two games was my longest kill at 50 meters. 50 meters with a sidearm. While it did take 2 clips to kill him I still killed him at crazy range for a sidearm.
http://i.imgur.com/y233P4u.jpgMy next game was better,
http://i.imgur.com/dGhDyE2.jpg ,
http://i.imgur.com/GMGV2Yi.jpgAnd my last battle was my best
http://i.imgur.com/kBbmjHx.jpg ,
http://i.imgur.com/GSlgWxi.jpg. In this fight I was able to defend an objective from an entire squad with these hand cannons and I got another long ass kill at 43 meters.
Here is my final standing after only a few games, solely using scrambler pistols. 136 kills, 43 deaths with a 3.16 k/d.
http://i.imgur.com/cTitaNA.jpg With proper skills, gear and training I'm sure I could do much, much better.
I was able to do this with a toon only a few hours old. Now you see why proto scouts with fully speced viziams, damage mods, dampeners and squad support are able to murder so easily. Its not really because they are so good. It is because these stupid scrambler pistols are WAY too powerful.
CCP, please look into these sidearms, they are too strong.