I am a little concerned about the proposed changes to the proficiency skill in 1.8. The skill will no longer buff damage across a weapon's damage spectrum, instead, it will now buff either damage to shields or armor, based on the weapon's profile. IMO, this is going to make for some necessary playstyle mechanics that will effectively make two out the the four battle rifles very undesirable to use.

(Reasoning)

When it comes to "assaulting the enemy", so to speak, most player will have at their disposal a light weapon and a sidearm. A ranged weapon like the RR, with a damage profile bonused to armor and deficient when performing against shields, will be an extremely ineffective weapon for the way combat will play out on the field. Example:

Merc caries two weapons: light and sidearm

Merc #1

Light: rail rifle
Sidearm: scrambler pistol

Merc is ineffective at range due to the rail rifle's damage profile, bonused against shields, because the shields of all enemies must be dealt with first.

Merc's sidearm has a damage profile that is bonused to shields but, in most cases, cannot close the distance to engage the enemy with this weapon.

Merc #2

Light: scrambler rifle
Sidearm: mag sec SMG

Merc is extremely effective at range due to the scrambler rifle's damage profile, bonused to shields, because the shields of all enemies must be dealt with first.

Merc's sidearm has a damage profile that is bonused to armor, and can VERY easily/effectively close the distance on his enemy and make the kill with his/her sidearm after his/her enemy's shields have been taken out with the light weapon at range.

So, what you end up having here is one set of weapons combinations (rail/projectile light, laser/blaster sidearm) that will be extremely impotent, and another (laser/blaster light, rail/projectile sidearm) being extremely potent.

If these changes go through in this manner you will very quickly see nobody at all ever using rail rifle and very few people using combat rifles, for the very simple fact that they cannot get kills with them. On the other hand you will have people like myself who will take advantage of these facts and run nothing but scrambler rifles and mag sec SMGs.

The potential for these changes to slip through the system unaddressed causes me a great deal of concern, so I hope that CCP is reading this or has already considered it and is taking steps to address this very serious issue.

Thak you for reading.

NO.
This is a really weird way of thiking.

And RR is only 10% less on shield.
And shield is low on almost all suits.

I don't think a 10% malus would make "impossible" to strip shields off.

The proficiency change is still a "maybe" as far as I know. Maybe they'll hold off on that to see how the other damage changes go first?

You are assuming the proficiency will increase the stat the weapon is already good at, but what if it makes up for its weaknesses by increasing the damage against the tank type it does less damage against?

-OP Snip-

Nah, I have pro 1 in SMG but no other weapon and I can kill just fine even without damage mods.
If you are an assault and you can't kill with a rifle then, I'm sorry to say it but, you really just need to get good.

This change in pro will simply increase the TTK for players that actually specced into pro. Those that have yet to reach that point won't see a difference other then they won't die as fast. This could potentially aid the NPE actually.

It's not about being able to kill with a rifle. It's about some weapons will be far more suited to be an all purpose type weapon while others will come up extremely short in this regard. No one will use the latter set of weapons because it is not efficient.

You are not understanding properly what I am trying to get across here.

So some weapons will become FOTM, this is DUST so there is always a FOTM. I will agree that this will bring problems but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens

I was not aware of such a change. If this transpires, then I will certainly help with fueling the respec $hit$torm. This to me would be another change to a skill that I had absolutely nothing to do with and will completely change my play style. This would not be just an update with added content, it will be a complete change again to the skill tree for weapons.

i'd rather have them decrease the % of damage mods instead

This change Promotes teamwork if I have a CR hitting for 135% against armour and 80% against shields it makes a lot of sense to hang about with a scrambler who hits 135% against shields.

Then al you do is give WP on damage
so a kill assist at 90% of EHP earns +45 and the killer earns +50
= Profit + Teamwork +Stratergy -FOTM

With my ScR and MS SMG, I will not have to rely on and potentially be let down by anyone. Anyone who wants to be self sufficient will be doing the same.

I've been being self sufficient for a long time now. It's the main reason I currently run logistic suits with my own scanners and hives. I got so tired of going into matches way back and almost no one on my team ever using a scanner (back when they relayed scans to the entire team not just squad) and no one ever bringing in ammo resupply that I just started carrying my own. I'll just keep on following my self sufficiency path after this new patch. With my upcoming plans to convert to Amarr Assault in case of a logi cpu/pg and slot nerf, a magsec and Viziam will take out people by the ton.

Only FotM chasers will use this. I'll still use RR+MagSec/Bolt Pistol.

This is silly and heres why:

I can rock your face with a RR and I have 0 prof in it. The 15% doesnt matter much.

The reason proto weapons outshine standard isnt because of the damage difference, its the range. Most engagements happen around 50-70 m, exactly where the ranges of std-adv-proto begin to come in to play. The small % diff in damage isnt enough to change the effectiveness of these guns, and neither is a 10-15% reduction to half the enemies health only for those with the right skills.

It will be slightly MORE impactful on top of other TTK adjustments, but still not a ton.

but the assertion nobody will be using the RR or CBR due to them is whats silly.

Sidearms are only back up for when you dont have time to reload and cant get in cover...