It's not all completely awful but there are some serious problems.

For example, the magsec SMG does more damage at range than some rifles.

The assault combat rifle is even better relatively then the plasma rifle than it was.

The ion pistol is terrible.

The damage mod nerf means that everyone will dual tank and it further functions as a nerf to AV, which is absolutely unnecessary. You note that it pushes the damage mod vs extender balance further in the direction of the extender - it was already technically favouring the extender. Now, it massively favours the extender to the point where if you are picking a damage mod over an extender you are probably doing something wrong or using a very specific fit.

The proficiency changes will make dual tanking pretty much the only way to go. It doesn't increase variety - coupled with the damage mod changes, everyone is just going to brick tank. Having weapon affinities sounds cool on paper, but it doesn't work when you can always have the strong defence against all weapons.

The lack of an HMG nerf to ensure it doesn't immediately become a huge outlier in terms of DPS means that the HMG heavy will fail to create a 'longer TTK'.


In short:

There will be no variety. It will just be brick tanked suits with shield extenders and armour plates and a handful of the best weapons.

Here are my thoughts on the new TTK/Brick tanking situation

- One flux will wipe out all shields, regardless of tier or who throws the grenade
- M1 (possibly) and Core (surely) locus grenades will still eat through all shields, save for heavy and commando
- Laser Rifles and ScR's will eat through shields

etc.

additionally, consider the different ways that people can counter brick tanked suits

- "ScR / SMG / Locus" for Shield tanked suits
- "CR / ScP / Flux" for Shields
- "Laser / MD / Any" for either situation (Commando)

etc.

My guess is that there is going to be a shift from people using the same light weapon / sidearm for every engagement, and put more emphasis on bringing multiple different weapons to a fight. That is to say, I think players will do less of "Start every fight with my CR, switch to sidearm if necessary". Instead, they will be rewarded more for thinking "I'll open up with my ScP, then hit his armor with CR".

If players can do the above, especially taking the new proficiency stats into account, TTK increases won't be a worry for those who try to plan ahead for their engagements