I do not believe that the AR (Assault Rifle) needs any sort of balancing, or lowering. It is suppose to naturally be that go-to weapon, and the undeniable all-purpose weapon. What I have noticed this build is that due to CCP slowing the game down a slight bit between lowering the character speeds, and strafe (for purpose speculated) that the 'Scout' variant is a lot harder to take to the front lines. Almost an undeniable liability to play unless you are literally armed with a stealth module. Also I took to noticing that the SMG has seen a slight balancing in which it now is litterally useless nigh without passive skills to enforce it's natural killing ability. Having a steady hand helps a lot too. The shotgun is still naturally brutal and even more so when that stealth module wielding player nails you in the back while you are unaware of his/her prescence. The forge gun is beyond deadly, and so is the mass driver. Ran into someone wielding one infact last night and they were able to dispense of me before I could get comfortable enough to fire properly. A direct hit like that of the forge gun is lethality at it's finest. The swarm dismantles armored and non armored vehicles to ashes, and speaks for itself. The scrambler pistol is again still relevent as well. Infact I may as well just say that all weapons are still capable and lethal killing tools. However! They are nonetheless tools and only as powerful and/or lethal as the player/merc/Duster whom is wielding them.

Spouting that the AR, the go-to all-purpose weapon needs to be rebalanced is nonesense. It's your opinion, but it certainly does not need one. Even the laser rifle is getting plenty kills and use by Dusters on the battlefield. CCP makes all of the dropsuits in terms of armor plating and shielding the same, and people still complain. If anything the game is increadibly balanced at the moment. The only problem apparent is the flaws in the players, and unfortunetly it's these said players blaming everyone and especially the game for their problems other then themselves.

Are there legitimate issues to be concerned about? Yes. Is this thread detracting from them? Yes.

You must know your meters. I've yet to see someone do that with an AR. So I think you are simply exaggerating. There is a little recoil, but how much should there be? As for how accurate it is? Shooting a straight line is a good thing in my opinion, but then again it's not a scattergun. I do not see people complaining overly about the laser rifle and it shoots just as straight. Same with the scrambler pistol. The reason for the low accuracy though of the SMG is simply due to it having almost no barrel, which equals less spin on the bullet itself.

The dropsuits are fine as they are now, and very well balanced. The only reason for wanting the higher tech level gear is for more options, and generated power -- CPU (Central Processing Unit) and PG (Power Grid) -- and more module, and equipment options. If you want more or less shielding/armor pick-up a different subtype -- 'Scout', 'Logistical', 'Assault', and 'Heavy". Which again all have their own pros and cons.

Has the 'Scout' lost it's niche' though? I could not tell you. It's not a front line runner, or shock trooper anymore like it has been in the past, but it still a great recon, assassin, and sniper. Infact they are superb in those areas. I'd like more data on it, but then again I doubt I'll see that data ever.

Back to the topic at hand though; the AR is fine at the moment. People are just unruly, complaining griefers. Who are all too willing to lay blame to everything other then themselves for the most part.

Then I suggest, and this will go against everything CCP has built so far, make all the weapons projectile based. Forget fancy futuristic weapons, lets revert back to brass and lead, and get CCP to take real world weapon descriptions then we can be just like all these other FPS games. There's your recoil, then all this bickering and blah, blah, blah can stop.