Ive been using scrambler for a while and Id have to say, the reduced charge time really does help in a pinch. It sets up well for ambush shots and following it up with a few more in rapid succession. This got me to thinking, what if we made the operations skills applicable only to the "alpha" versions of assault-type rifles. Thus,

Less kick applies only to the automatic variants of assault rifles
less charge shot time applies only to the semi-auto variant of scramblers
etc for combat rifle
etc for rail rifle

This would accomplish a few things.

1) it implies that the alpha variants should be the best performing rifle in relationship to their variants
2) it would also imply that the extra-racial carbon copies of the alpha rifle should be slightly inferior since they do not receive the ops bonus that the alpha rifles do have (ie. ass-scr does have less kick and tac-ar does not get a charge)

I hope combat rifle ops is 10% ammo in clip per level (starting off with 3 bullets and ending at 5) and the rail rifle ops is 1% per level to range

I also hope combat rifle does 80/120 and rail rifle does 90/110 to shield//armor

It's... considerably more scattershot than an AR. That may be related to the lack of dispersion decreasing skills on the SR, but it wider than even an unskilled AR to me.

I'd heard the heat build-up is per-second instead of per shot. Changing that would probably count as a "nerf" to the S-AR as-is, but it would make a heat build-up passive more sensible. It seems preferable to me to have a separate dispersion (sharpshooter) skill like the AR, since they seemed to establish that already for some of the other fast-firing automatic weapons.

On the subject of "nerfs", if the SR is intended to be a TAR-like weapon, but the "alpha" version that other races copy, then it might make sense to make other changes to the semi-auto version as well.

Heat per shot (as opposed to per second) can control the fire rate already to some degree. The clip size on a standard scrambler is already very generous for a "TAR" equivalent sort of weapon. I rarely find myself reloading except by gameplay reflex. They're already adjusting the range, so you probably don't need to look at that.

Altogether, I'd recommend changing heat build-up to per shot instead of per second. I'd accordingly change the passive to heat build-up reduction, which would appropriate reward people taking it to proto with respect to operation. I'd either reduce the clip-size on a standard, or possibly make charge shots expend more than one ammo.

Building the passive and the gun around the "heat" mechanic would also work for the unreleased variants: breach and burst. Managing heat with burst and breach fire, and becoming "better" at it with higher Scrambler skill would gel well. They have said they intend to release variants of each race for the other races. The "charge" passive wouldn't really work for a burst rifle either, and I'm not sure about using it for Breach... (maybe I guess).

Justice for the empress's weapons takes no breaks.

At first I really disliked the bonus for the SCR, but then after using the rifle more I've noticed just how often it's let me drop somebody from being able to let off that charge shot just fast enough to kill them before they kill me.

I use the charge shot pretty heavily, but another poster did point out that every other weapon skill always has a positive effect for all variants and you also notice the bonus every time you pull the trigger (or there are the clip size increasing skills) giving us a pretty definite pattern.

The scrambler breaks that pattern though. It's passive bonus is only useful when doing charge shots on the basic version of the SCR.

The Assault SCR does not get any help from the passives, nor does the basic version receive any help from the bonus either.

Here is my take on a good change of the skills

1. bring the charge time down to 1.5.

2. change the passive bonus to +65 (maybe lower, no higher) heat capacity. this lets you fire more shots before overheating for all weapon variants and fire modes. I suggest raising the amount of heat it takes to overload the weapon as opposed to slowing the rate of heat build up as that is the Amarr suit bonus and I'd rather have a new skill that does something slightly different.

upping the amount of heat the weapon is able to take would guarantee non-bonused suits would be able to get that third charge shot, but also letting bonused suits (Amarr assault) maybe get a fourth vharge shot or be able to keep firing after the third charge shot.

5% per level to overheat would be nice. A 0.5 second reduction to a 2 second charge time isn't really that useful even for the charge variant.

That's about all though.

DISCLAIMER

[FEEDBACK/BUG?] Scrambler rifle passive does nothing for Assault variant https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=77250&find=unread
Update: This is by design for the charged scrambler rifle.

Well, it made this weeks feedback list:



So, the scrambler was designed to have a passive only impacting the semi-auto, and marginally at that.

a¦á_a¦á

So, I guess that's that.

It pissed me off when I first read it, I messaged Wang and Frame on twitter in response.
Seems odd that one racial rifle (Gallente AR) has an operation skill that is useful for it and all its variants, yet the other racial rifle (Amarr SCR) has an operation skill that doesn't do anything for variants; it basically punishes using variants on the SCR.

I dont suppose you got a reply?

I guess "by design for the charged rifle" is sort of the point.... that it ONLY helps the charged rifle. I get the impression they didn't actually read the topic.

The more I use the carthum assault variant... I feel like a 5% reduction to kick would really help, esp since the duvolle, at ARO5 feels like it has no kick compared to the carthum.

Charge time redux on semi auto and kick redux on auto variants... would really help.

it shouldnt have any kick.

I imagine this problem will get even worse when more variants are added. Presumably a "burst" scrambler wouldn't have a charge, and I wouldn't think a breach would either...

Just trying to make the scope of this passive skill actually encompass all the weapons it governs (like every other weapon skill in the game).