The thought of significantly buffing the bolt pistol after the previous fiasco makes my blood run cold.

No. Both the Scrambler Pistol, Ion Pistol and Bolt Pistol are great in close quarters. When I'm running a Rifle I generally switch to a pistol for close quarters. They're stronger than the light weapons of their respective fractions within their effective range.

The MagSec is bad against shields but as long as you get through those and attack the shields then you have a good weapon.

The Flaylock is in a similar place as the MagSec. You can't really take out an advanced or proto suit with one magazine, but you can finish off any suit without shields disturbingly well.

other side arms are definately not lacking

e.g.
SMG: 385 dps
MagSec: ~370dps, 50% more range, easier to fit.. yes 4% less dps (minor, you wont even notice) with huge benefits.

only "slightly" worse than ACR? ACR has almost double the effective range and ~14% more dps. fitting is about equal, depends on your suit (ACR is less PG heavy, require more CPU though)


reasons to not use the SMG:
-you need an SMG with more range
-you need a sidearm that require less fitting cost

I want you to take a look at the Breach SMG and compare it to the Magsec. There is no way you can tell me with a straight face that there is any reason to use the Magsec. Literally EVERYTHING is better! Except damage, which is only 1 point better for the Magsec...

it is the same as with the regular SMG, Magsec iseasier to fit, has 50% more range in exchange for minor ~3,4% less dps.

beside that, there was a bug with the magsec skills not working which made people stay with SMG.
simple.

Did you even look at the stats? Because the fact that you are still trying to defend yourself is making me believe you haven't.
Its a complete wash. The SMG is just hands down the superior sidearm.

And I'm going to be brutally honest. If you actually believe the others are performing on its level, you have mental issues(are ********).

do you even math? because the fact that you still not grasp it is making everyone believe that you dont

Its official. You're ******* ********. Welcome to my long ass block list. Bye.

No. Both the Scrambler Pistol, Ion Pistol and Bolt Pistol are great in close quarters.

Then explain to me why the SMG sees 7-8x more use than the Magsec.
And more use than ALL OTHER SIDEARMS COMBINED.

ItGÇÖs a wonderful spray and pray weapon. People like that. Even the Mag requires more aim than that thing. And thatGÇÖs probably the ultimate reason for the disparity; a lot of sidearms require precision aiming. Any pistol requires you to follow the target. Against those GÇ£Mongrels on crackGÇ¥ (or whatever they were affectionately called not long ago) a pistol doesnGÇÖt feel so good if you canGÇÖt track. And Flaylock is not to everyoneGÇÖs taste. SMG is simply very easy to use, to stay on target (mostly anyway) and has a favorable damage profile. Most people use sidearms after using their main and usually youGÇÖre chewing through their armour at that point. But thatGÇÖs just my take on it.

I use a lot of different sidearms, each of them has good and bad qualities. The only one that I donGÇÖt really use is the Flaylock. Should probably give that a go sometime. And Magsec is a very good sidearm, I use it on my heavy fits as it has better range and more importantly, better accuracy at range. I didnGÇÖt use it for a while because it had broken bonuses and probably a lot of people abandoned it for that reason. I recently started using it again (well, I recently started playing again) and it is a very strong gun. Will test it on my AV fit again when I get home.

Why use anything but SMGs right now?

Give me some good reasons. Ones that are better than the reasons to use an SMG.

Provided that you have a good trigger finger the Ion Pistol can kill targets very quickly (faster than the SMG, even). Then there's the headshot damage, which lets you OHK quite a bit of suits with the BP/BSCP.

Then there's personal preference, etc, etc.