I think looking at the damage profiles would be a good start as well. Right now they're a little out of whack with Projectile being too good and Laser and Explosive being too far gone in either direction.

The projectile damage profile needs to be changed to 95% / 105%, and I think Laser and Explosive weaponry should be brought 5% closer to the middle. Meaning the Laser profile would be 115 % / 85% and Explosive 85% / 115%.

Shotgun ROF isnt the solution... DPS on shotguns is already amazing.

What should be done in the case of ALL weapons is introduce an additional skill that comes available after some proficiency that gives like 2% boost to that weapons off damage type. (for example: AR is good against shields so its additional proficiency skill would be 2% bonus to armor damage)

Prof skills currently favor anti armor weapons.

I think proficiency should just be changed across the board.

Could give ScR's a bonus to charge time, and scrambler pistols could get a ROF bonus. Shotguns could get a marginal range bonus. Just a slight one as too big of a range buff would break the weapon. ARs could get a buff to mag size. Rail weaponry could get a bonus to charge times.

There are so many cool things that can be done that would also not tilt the game to heavily favor any particular weapon.

I'd like to initiate a discussion to perhaps change the proficiency skills for some weapons, namely the Scrambler Rifle and the Shotgun.

The Scrambler Rifle does not need an increase to shield damage and the lowering of TTK, damage mod nerf and proficiency changes have basically turned all but the Viziam into a glorified flux grenade. The shotgun has a similar nerf in changing proficiency skills from an increase to ROF to an increase in shield damage, another equally useless skill IMO. So far I propose the following;

Scrambler Rifle Proficiency: 2% or 3% Reduction to Heat Build Up per level.

The uses for this change would be two fold; ScR users can now more viably main the ScR without the gun immediately overheating after one volley shot, this would allow suits like the Amarr Scout to considering using the ScR as their main weapon by having a small but useful heat sink. Furthermore this would compound with the Amarr Assaults existing heat sink and make the combination even more useful. I think this would be a good balance without having to give the ScR direct damage changes.

Shotgun Proficiency: 3% Increase to ROF per level

Simple, change it back to what it was for it was more useful. But with the emergent viability of the Cloak coupled with the Shotgun this might make the Shotgun overly powerful but I'd like to hear what you think

Again remember this is a discussion but I think the weapons need unique bonuses and not damage modifiers to give some flavor, variety as well as viability to all weapons.

Please post any other weapons that you think could use a change to its proficiency skills

Charge time on ScR would be useless, for something like the Knives its awesome but for the ScR it would likely screw up with my muscle memory more.

I say a heat sink is still a better bonus. I agree with your other suggestions though

So more investment for CCP to continue changing things? A CRG can hardly drop a STD heavy before they are able to turn around and kill you in 1/4th of a second with their 800 DPS weapon. That's with me spending the time to get behind you, doing absolutely everything right.

Proficiency skills were great as is, they just needed to adjust the percentages instead of making laser/explosive damage types completely useless against their counter HP type, which happen to be the least useful out of the other, more used, types (projectile/hybrid)

*Chuckle*

Honestly the only struggle shot guns have is against armor tanks. I run a cal heavy and shotguns frequently two shot me. And yes it should be hard for you to kill an ARMOR tanked heavy because the shotgun gets its bonus to shields. Instead of asking for a bonus to shotgun ROF when it already massacres what is supposed to is pointless. Go tell CCP that you want a racial shotgun that gets bonus to armor. Additionally instead of increasing ROF on the shot gun I would DROP the rate of fire a SMALL AMOUNT and BUFF the damage SIGNIFICANTLY. Shotguns should be a HIGH ALPHA but low sustained DPS. And shotgunners should be rewarded for getting into good position. Blasting suits apart with a high alpha would do that... ROF would help you kill ALL suits faster while a damage buff with ROF reduction would fix your problem with not getting heavy kills when you get the drop on them.

see how constructive that was?

Shotgun ROF isnt the solution... DPS on shotguns is already amazing.

What should be done in the case of ALL weapons is introduce an additional skill that comes available after some proficiency that gives like 2% boost to that weapons off damage type. (for example: AR is good against shields so its additional proficiency skill would be 2% bonus to armor damage)

Having a 15% heat sink on a non Amarr Assault suit would be really nice

And really broken when stacked with the Amarr Assault's heat sink.

It'll probably be as viable as a CR on any suit then

There's a difference between being viable, and being broken.

I like the ideas but Overheat Damage Reduction would not be worth that much SP to skill into. The damage is just salt on the wound; the seizing of the ScR and Laser weapons is the true wound.

If not an additional heat sink bonus then the Proficiency skill should unlock different focusing crystals that could change the damage profile of the ScR, giving it a layer of customization for multiple situations.

I'd like to initiate a discussion to perhaps change the proficiency skills for some weapons, namely the Scrambler Rifle and the Shotgun.

The Scrambler Rifle does not need an increase to shield damage and the lowering of TTK, damage mod nerf and proficiency changes have basically turned all but the Viziam into a glorified flux grenade. The shotgun has a similar nerf in changing proficiency skills from an increase to ROF to an increase in shield damage, another equally useless skill IMO. So far I propose the following;

Scrambler Rifle Proficiency: 2% or 3% Reduction to Heat Build Up per level.

The uses for this change would be two fold; ScR users can now more viably main the ScR without the gun immediately overheating after one volley shot, this would allow suits like the Amarr Scout to considering using the ScR as their main weapon by having a small but useful heat sink. Furthermore this would compound with the Amarr Assaults existing heat sink and make the combination even more useful. I think this would be a good balance without having to give the ScR direct damage changes.

Shotgun Proficiency: 3% Increase to ROF per level

Simple, change it back to what it was for it was more useful. But with the emergent viability of the Cloak coupled with the Shotgun this might make the Shotgun overly powerful but I'd like to hear what you think

Again remember this is a discussion but I think the weapons need unique bonuses and not damage modifiers to give some flavor, variety as well as viability to all weapons.

Please post any other weapons that you think could use a change to its proficiency skills

So does that mean the CR, most used weapon in PC right now, is broken? and the ScR, used by a very small select group of players, is unviable?

Thats what I'm saying. Again man I'm not asking for a buff I'm just asking for more viability and incentive to main the ScR than just using the CR.

I would also like to reiterate; if you balance weapons based on Pubs then you will ruin it at the PC level. Just because a few people can **** face with the ScR in pubs doesn't change the fact that the ScR is less than viable in PC games than all the other rifles.

Scr OP is already cooldown speed, and i don't think you want a 15% bonus to heat cap when Amarr assault has 25% to top with that, you'd get 100 shot Laser clips and 35 shot Scr clips(which is like 2.4k damage, even post nerf)

I propose we have Prof make up for the weapon's weakness, by applyibg to its' off damage.

No, it doesn't. In fact, that's a Continuum Fallacy.

How is increasing the heat sink not a buff again? There already is an incentive to use to SCR over the CR. It's the high alpha-damage and charge shot.

I'm not really sure how an item gets balanced for one mode and imbalanced for another, but I'm not basing my arguments on seeing a few people do well with them, I'm basing it from personal experience. The only reason why SCRs aren't as viable as the other rifles is because of the popularity in Armor tanking, which is a problem due to the Shield/Armor imbalance, not the SCR.

The Scrambler Rifle already excels at what it's designed to do (annihilating Shield Tankers). When it becomes ineffective against Shield Tankers, then it will need adjustment. If you cannot handle the fact that you aren't able to kill Armor tankers before overheating, use the Assault Scrambler Rifle.

Also, what your asking for will break the SCR. Allow me to echo Lynn Beck's thoughts here:

Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle?

Instead of tweaking each specific prof skill we could just wipe them all and have new skills to replace them. (branching off of the handheld weapon upgrades skill) -

Energy weapon prof. - +5% per level to headshot multiplier. 1.875x instead of 1.5x for most weapons, 4.6x instead of 3.75x for ScP. This would help all energy weapons with their biggest weakness: finishing off people in armor. But only if your aim is good enough. This would also make up for the ROF nerf for the ScP.

Plasma weapon prof - +3% to ROF and +5% to mag capacity. Plasma weapons should be THE CQC weapons. Upping ROF and mag cap would ensure that gallente tech can go harder AND longer than any other weapons in CQC. The range on them will still be **** so I doubt it would break them.

Kinetic weapon prof - -3x per level to dispersion.

Rail weapon prof - -2x per level to charge times.

Launcher prof- (since they don't fit neatly in with any other category) -3x per level to reload speed. And yes, this would stack with the individual weapon's reload skill. Launchers include the PLC, Swarm, and MD.

Changing prof skills to being for all weapons of the same type would help with the crazy SP sink that the prof skills are now which would help newbies become competitive with vets by reducing that insane grind to prof V, as well as upgrading both their sidearm and main weapon if they are willing to stick with racial tech.

Headshot damage would be an interesting addition, that could be a viable change damage at the price of player skill is a good concept but I fear it will still be overshadowed by the CR

Again, this coming from someone who has all the proto rifles at high proficiencies, I am trying to be as little biased as possible but there is no denying the ScR is my favorite weapon. Thats why it bothers me when I see that all my PC fits have CRs on them.