Umm people who complain about the shotgun are generally not very good players...its a very easy weapon to counter, considering it doesn't shoot past 10 meters, and is about as effective as an ACR or duvolle in CQC.

The burst HMG, however....

Agree entirely! They focus too much on pleasing call of duty players instead of encouraging them to run as a team!

Shotguns hit further than 10 meters

shotgun isn't overpowered by itself. It's the shotgun + the current iteration of the scout.

Bluntly the Prototype SMGs are just as bad so far as it goes, and nova knives.

But it's the current iteration of the scout suit that makes it seem OP, pure and simple. The ease of getting into shotgun optimal is the killer, not the weapon itself. Before the current scout meta shotguns were niche weapons operated by solo opportunists who were incredibly sneaky without the EWAR buffs.

i agree, instead of catering to whiny scrubs that get killed by stuff they dont like in pubs they should buff or nerf based on what gets used the most in pc games. so for example projectiles and rails are obviously op because thats all that gets used, blasters and lasers never get used and should be buffed

The Ewar passive buffs were what always made the scouts so OP but with the addition oof the cal and ammar scouts that was where they started to stand out.

Shotguns were always a niche weapon like you said and before they changed the proficiency skill the extra RoF was very much needed, and is still needed because like you said if you miss the first shot your just another dead clone for the biomass chambers.

Shotguns hit further than 10 meters

It's not really about the PC part. It's just the only place where (in most cases) 50% of the players aren't complete idiots.

Good players have tactics they use to farm idiots. Why should you balance around that? Why not do something to try to push those players into squads? Why not push them with incentives to try and actually win matches?

The passive scans being so powerful along with active scanners are what make the Gal Scout so powerful. When you can see 95% of the players that one that is invisible is going to tear some stuff up.

Let me assure you that we are monitoring the situation very carefully. Every indication is that our Hotfixes are changing the landscape/meta slowly but surely.

We are measuring Kills/Spawn and Kills/Death ratios for dropsuits and weapons, and also Spawns/Consumption and Market Sales data to gauge player preference. Admittedly, most of these balancing and engagement data dashboards have been implemented over the last 3 months.

1) Blaster Tanks - Took a KDR hit, but 10-20%, nothing grievous
2) Seeing Gallente and Caldari Scouts make way for both Minmatar and Amarr
3) Assault Rifles, really amazing actually how closely they perform but we are now seeing some bumps we would like to smooth out
4) HMG Sentinels, also seeing them and HMG efficience go down, but just right down to other suits and the HMG is on par with the Rifles.
5) Racial parity within each frame is something we keep an eye out, and it seems, even though Amarr is touted as the best of the bunch, that they are all on par. Minmatar overall do slightly worse and we will take note of that.
6) Sidearms, we see that they are unbalanced, but the numbers aren't crazy, the Assault SMG is OP, and the Flaylock is UP, but overall, nothing crazy. It's just that everyone grows up with the SMG in their Starter fit and stick with it.
7) Dmg mods needed a tweak and got one, other shield mods in high will need a buff to compete with extenders.
8) Armor plate stacking is definitely on the way out, seeing way more reactives, ferros and repair modules, regulators need a buff.

So again, the playerbase and engagement is actually as healthy as it has been for a long time, and I sincerely believe in making DUST 514 a better game for us all.

P.S. I try to play one or two Domination matches every morning, after the boys go to school and before the baby wakes up, it's around 7:30-8:30 Shanghai time. So if you want to kill me, that's where you can find me, but bring your A game, you don't want to be killed by a dev