Do they need buffs?

What can't they kill?

That's a part of the FG weakness. The FG is already outside of the range of everything other than Snipers, with the ability to one-shot every suit in the game, of course it has to lose something in close-range.

CCP had to buff the MD to mititgate the multiple nerfs the weapon is taking in 1.8. And I'm pretty sure FGs saw more use than Laser users and MD users combined in 1.7.

Tanks.

People will likely laugh because FGs have been so OP for so long, but 1.7 pretty much crippled the real intent of Forge Guns (anti-vehicle) while still allowing them to dominate infantry.

I'd honestly be fine with them removing splash damage if they buffed direct damage to actually allow us to kill a god damn tank. Hear me out, this is pretty much the scenario with Forge Guns right now in terms of tanks (keep in mind, I'm speaking about PC experiences where there's at minimum 3+ skilled tankers on the field, non milita):

• I get one shot in that takes their shields down + some minor armor damage.
• Hardeners are activated. Tank is pretty much immune to me during this time.
• Due to the charge time increase AS WELL AS a damage reduction, even with 2 10% damage mods and Prof. V there's no way to kill him. So I can either pester him with shots that do very little or wait for his hardeners.
• By the time his hardeners are down I can MAYBE get one shot in before he zips away for 30 seconds to wait for his cooldowns.

I understand the FG needed a nerf pre-1.7. In fact, I was one of the biggest proponents for nerfing the FG despite using the gun all the time. It was ridiculous how quickly I could kill dropships, but even worse how easy it was to blast infantry left and right if you had high ground (and still is).

Now though, what they've done is increase the charge time as well as nerf the damage by a good 20%. Before 1.7, I was able to have some pretty damn good battles with tanks that were good because they were still able to get away from me even when I had a good position. The charge time increase makes it god damn impossible to kill a good tanker if he has half a brain to just drive away while he's getting shot. The FG just does not have enough DPS even at max proficiency + damage mods to kill a tank nowadays. Compound this with the fact that the FG is probably the most effective AV weapon to deal with all the tank spam.

CCP as always loves to swing the nerfhammer too far in either direction and can never actually properly balance. It's like. Pre 1.7 all the tankers whine about OP AV, and now they're like "HAHA SUCK IT AVers!" and now all the AVers are complaining they can't do anything to tanks.

Swarms = Useless
AV Nades = Useless unless you have like 3 people simultaneously throwing them.
FG = Still effective but you need to be 100% accurate, be in a good position to land more than 6+ shots, and hope the tank is dumb enough to not just drive away and wait out his hardener cooldowns.

forge is spot on. nothing wrong with the tool. all the arguements ive seen have been but good tankers get away BUT they should. lay better traps.

to many people uin this game say to themselves when they fail to get a kill. its because of this and because of that whaa my gun isnt good enough. fact is you should be looking at your own tactics. yes i play av and tank and i use advanced av gear. forge and swarms and i get kills with both. and as one guy from rainbow effect said im just a ******* noob.

Yeah, the MD hasn't changed since 1.3. You can get away with that crap against scrubs in pubs, but people aren't going 40+ with the MD in PC where stacked proto suits with Rifles and Core nades do the job 10x better.

The AFG is still a powerful choke point weapon outside of AV. Like you said, the weapon already has splash damage if you miss your target. There is no reason the FG should outrange non-Snipers, while still being a good weapon in CQC.

I never stated Forge Guns need an accuracy increase, nor did I ever state I ever have a problem with hitting tanks.

The problem is direct damage reduction and charge time increase has made it nearly impossible to effectively kill tanks when their lolimmunity cooldowns are so low, and when they are on cooldown the tanks themselves are so damn fast that they can just zip away before a shot can be landed. The damage nerf was justified, the charge time was not.

And to that idiot who thinks I'm a bad forge gunner complaining: Exhibit A.

That was 99% infantry kills and some dropship kills. I don't bother targeting tanks unless I have help because it's a waste of ammo with how ridiculously easy it is for them to get away.