I was thinking about the Ion Pistol recently, and how I feel it should be a miniature shotgun.

Here is one proposal:
- The Ion Pistol should fire 4 rounds in the time a Shotgun fires 3 rounds.
- Damage from an Ion Pistol shot should be 75% of the damage from a shotgun.
- Range equal to a Shotgun.
- Clip size of 6. (Shotgun has 8)
- Charged shot should do double damage.
- 1 Charged shot + 1 normal shot within 5 seconds should overheat the pistol.

In the time that a Shotgun fires 3 shots the Ion Pistol would do the same amount of damage with 4 shots, but that means having to hit 4 times rather than just 3, meaning it would require a bit more skill. Against suits that have just enough health to survive 1 Shotgun blast, the Ion Pistol would have a slight advantage over the Shotgun as it could get a second shot off more quickly to do the equivalent of 1.5 Shotgun blasts.

The Charged shot setup would allow the Ion pistol to get 2 shots off, with the equivalent of 3 shots of damage (or 2.25 Shotgun shots) but would then overheat. It would also provide the option of switching weapons after the charged shot. (The charged shot would do the equivalent of 1.5 Shotgun blasts worth of damage.

Still mad over 1.8 scrambler pistol changes. I still keep trying to trigger it as fast as I used to but to get caught in the clucky wait for it before you can pull on it mechanic. Not even the animation syncs up with it which is jarring (firing and recoil compensation animation completes well before you're allowed to shoot it again) and under proper conditions I can trigger the pistol fast enough to get a second shot in before intended lapse of time between shots. To which I fear that only a modded controller can only take advantage of consistently.

I have always regarded the scrambler pistol as a service type pistol; one that boasts reliability, accuracy, good mag size, and fast triggering but lower comparable damage. Basically the equivalent to a 9mm pistol. The 1.8 patch tried to shove it into the magnum/revolver state at a severe cost to rate of fire and overall the pistol does not feel like fitting that bill. Such type of weapons in video games generally offer smaller magazines and much longer reloads as well as significantly much higher damage.

Bolt pistol is odd but still perfect from my perspective. Fits the bill of mangum perfectly.

Ion pistol doesn't fit any traditional pistol mantra; it seems to be a horrible mix between all four normal classes of pistols taking the worst aspects of all three; long down time; highly inaccurate; low magazine size; high inaccurate rate of fire and low damage.

Flaylock is supposed to represent the rarely seen class of pistols in games known as hand cannons. Mass Effect is the only other game I know which such pistols. These types of pistols are supposed to help bring immense amounts of power at the cost of reserve ammo; magazine size, and difficulty of use. There are many ways to go about this difficulty of use and Flaylock has most of the down traits needed for it to be the hand cannon but it does not feature the damage it needs. Direct hits should be very lethal from this weapon; splash damage should be well reserved to be threatening but not lethal.

Mag Sec feels about perfect; it hits hard but fires slow enough to make it a disadvantage allowing some of your faster scouts to weave between the shots.

SMG does feel its a bit too versatile but its up there with the Mag Sec in terms of proximity to perfection.

A bigger clip size is needed and also maybe having the same blast radius as the core flaylock to both adv and basic or an increase in damage and still retaining the blast radius in each tier.

flaylocks are good they just need more clips anything else is not needed

I would love the flaylocks to actually be decent again.

Competent players simply dodge the shots and jump most of the time. I know that its OK on a scout suit but anything is when your enemy doesn't know you are there.

5 per cilp I'd like at least. Maybe a clip size per level increase like the scp?.

After constant use, I like the Ion Pistol a lot - just wish the charge up was a bit more forgiving considering that it is 100% a skill-shot weapon. If you miss, or underestimate how much HP they have left, the seize is incredibly punishing.

Magsec SMG is -very- good at what it does and IMO, feels very well balanced for what it's designed to do, at least to me.

Bolt Pistol is incredibly powerful if you land shots but it's difficult to do with the rate of fire and charge-up considerations. The low mag capacity is not something you want to underestimate when considering those two factors.



I'd personally love to see the Flaylock Pistol be the only true AV sidearm.

Id like FP all around buffs, bolt pistol range fix+slight faster RoF, ion pistol needs greatly reduced overheat

SMG needs a range nerf

magsex needs a kick/dispersion reduction

the whole point of having a larger blast radius on the core flaylock is to intice people to put more then 1 or 2 points into it, if the stats were the exact same at all tiers then it would be pointless to skill into proto

I just added that as a suggestion. I'm more leaning into an increased damage in the flaylock and retaining the blast radius. This is the only sidearm that requires skill and we have to keep it like that. Increasing damage and clip size is the only option to make the flaylock pistol viable again.

SMG is far to easy to equip as the goto weapon that does everything well.

SMG is far to easy to equip as the goto weapon that does everything well.

Correction.
The SMG is RELIABLE.

Tired of the concept of "balancing" in this game, to be making something a frustrating pain in the ass to use.

You should be able to take any sidearm you want, and start spamming peeps with it. And it should be able to PUT DOWN.

Not empty a whole clip, and a dude still has his shields up (Ion Pistol).

Lets make things competitive with the SMG, not wreck the SMG to be garbage like the rest.

I never saw the logic of calling the flay lock a skill shot weapon. Generally, area effect damage is anti ethical to the concept.

I consider the scram pistol to be a skill shot weapon, since it rewards accuracy so much more.

Have you ever used the flaylock now. I'm pretty sure the scrambler pistol support aim assist i think. The flaylock is the only sidearm that can't kill at full health. However, this can be false if you put proficiency in it, but it would be difficult. Definitely need skill to use it. Imagine if the flaylock supported aim assist.

SMG is far to easy to equip as the goto weapon that does everything well.

SMG is far to easy to equip as the goto weapon that does everything well.

SMG is far to easy to equip as the goto weapon that does everything well.

I use a mouse, so I don't get aim assist.

Or even proper aiming.