Will test before commenting. I'm not seeing anything that'll make the weapon subpar. Just less instablap.

I'm slightly worried that the increase in fire rate will mean that some people that previously managed to dodge part of a burst will now be completely hit, so I would like to hear how many people have had that happen or it's already so fast that it's not a factor right now.

On the other hand, with this change the actual damage per burst is going down so there might be some people that should just survive that didn't before.

I'm slightly worried that the increase in fire rate will mean that some people that previously managed to dodge part of a burst will now be completely hit, so I would like to hear how many people have had that happen or it's already so fast that it's not a factor right now.

I'm slightly worried that the increase in fire rate will mean that some people that previously managed to dodge part of a burst will now be completely hit, so I would like to hear how many people have had that happen or it's already so fast that it's not a factor right now.

Dodging bursts is not really a thing. The intervals we're talking about here are fractions of a second. It's much more noticeable when you miss part of a burst when you're actually firing the weapon - it's very difficult to tell how much of the burst you took when you're on the receiving end.

Also, you tend to be dead.


I'm in favour of increasing the burst interval. I can't see it making much of a difference in 'dodging' bursts but it increases the possibility of user error and missing becoming slightly more significant rather than just tap-tap-tapping and then receiving +50, regardless of the target.


I do have one concern though. Increasing the RoF in a burst, then increasing the delay between bursts, leading to the same overall RoF.
This approach leads to more alpha, does it not? That's mildly terrifying considering the already impressive alpha capability of the weapon.

I would simply increase dispersion. I assume it's meant to be the close range high DPS slaughterer, so increasing dispersion mens less bullets will hit a target at a known distance than now, meaning bursts must be closer to have the same applied DPS they have currently.

No actually, it does not. The ROF increase just compresses the burst into a shorter timeframe that was already previously very short, but overall each burst now will actually do less damage due to the decrease in damage per round. In some cases this will result in more rounds hitting the target than would otherwise, but for the most part it's already so fast that it makes no difference, and the reduction of damage per burst makes more a difference in most situations.



Due to the fact that's it's a HMG dispersion actually decreases the more you fire the weapon. I could look at lowering the rate that the dispersion drops and increase the maximum starting dispersion however, but I want to see how just tweaking the damage numbers plays out first. I am open to arguments though.

No actually, it does not. The ROF increase just compresses the burst into a shorter timeframe that was already previously very short, but overall each burst now will actually do less damage due to the decrease in damage per round. In some cases this will result in more rounds hitting the target than would otherwise, but for the most part it's already so fast that it makes no difference, and the reduction of damage per burst makes more a difference in most situations.

I'm slightly worried that the increase in fire rate will mean that some people that previously managed to dodge part of a burst will now be completely hit, so I would like to hear how many people have had that happen or it's already so fast that it's not a factor right now.

On the other hand, with this change the actual damage per burst is going down so there might be some people that should just survive that didn't before.

Hey guys

So with Hotfix Charlie, we made some substantial changes to the Burst HMG. The changes made the weapon perform much better than in the past, becoming an effective option against single targets. However, it became just a bit too effective overall, squeezing out the regular HMG and many other weapons. So it's time to bring them back a bit (but not so much that they go back into obscurity).

First off we're reducing the damage per round by 10%.

Next is the more complex bit. We're decreasing the fire interval from 0.01 to 0.005. However, at the same time we're increasing the burst interval from 0.225 to 0.45. This change means that the effective rate of fire (that is, the rate of fire including the burst delay) does not increase. {(45*0.01 + 0.225)/45 =0.015 and (45*0.005 + 0.45)/45 = 0.015}. What this just means is that when you pull the trigger, you have less chance to spray and partially hit a target. It also means any opponents have a longer window between bursts to attack back (though it's still pretty short).

I am open to going the other direction and making the burst delay shorter and the fire interval higher, and would like to hear your experience in the matter. But keep in mind that the effective fire rate should still remain higher than the standard HMG, and any decrease in effective fire rate means that damage per round would be increasing to keep with the new DPS level.

Heat per second is also increasing to 96/91.2/86.4. Now while this might seem completely excessive, remember that heat is only generated while firing, and not during the burst delay window. The actual result of this change means that you now overheat about 40 rounds (or just under a single burst) earlier. Note that heat per second will also change if the fire interval changes, so as to make sure that the firing time before overheating now sits at about 3.5 seconds for the Six Kin Burst HMG (down from 4.1)

As always, I am looking for your feedback, especially in this instance. Many of you have had a fairly decent amount of hands on experience with this weapon since Charlie, and I would love to hear your thoughts.

As always, everything is up for changing, so if you have other thoughts on how to balance the Burst HMG feel free to share them.

Sure, you're getting slightly less damage per burst (still looking at something like 550-600, off the top of my head) but that burst is being delivered twice as fast. If the burst HMG user can aim properly, this gives even less time before someone gets instasplatted if they're not stacking HP or are another heavy. Even if it takes more bursts it's an advantage to have a higher alpha mix because shoving all your damage up front works really well.

The burst time drops from almost half a second to just under a quarter of a second. Twice as fast, that's really significant.
Even with the doubled burst fire interval that's an advantage. Here's why:

Assume a target takes two bursts to kill. If it only takes one the new burst HMG is at a massive advantage but let's ignore that for now.

Old burst HMG: First burst (0.45s) --> Burst interval (0.45+0.225=0.675) --> Second burst (0.675 + 0.36(this is 0.45*0.8 to account for damage advantage) leading to a TTK of 1.035 seconds.

New burst HMG: First burst (0.225s) --> Burst interval (0.225+0.45=0.675) --> Second burst (0.675+0.225 = 0.9s) leading to a TTK of 0.9 seconds.

That advantage is true for almost all types of target. You're getting slightly more of an advantage over the old burst HMG. I see this as undesirable considering the current burst HMG is already massively powerful. Even with the damage reduction the TTK of the weapon actually decreases.
That example was for multi-burst targets as well. For lighter targets which only take one burst, it's going from lightning fast kill to instakill and helping the burst HMG even more.

I currently use and have always used the Burst HMG.

The trick to being effective with it is to hit a target with as many bullets as possible before you can let them get away.

decreasing fire interval just means less time that I need to keeep my reticle on a person. This makes it MUCH harder for an enemy to escape or react. Heck, with how it is now I sometimes kill people as they run around corners because of how fast the thing fires.

The problem is that decreasing the burst delay makes the weapon fire similarly to a standard HMG...but I guess if it had increased heat buildup and the higher RoF it would at least be a different feeling weapon.

It is such a massive drop in overall efficiency, probably 30-50%