I've been in beta for a long time, and I've literally heard every weapon be called overpowered (well, the plasma cannon was one of those things where people expected it to be OP before it was released). More often then not, it's an exaggeration.

But the real overpowered weapon? That's not hard to find- and it's the gallente assault rifle.

First, let's look at what it's meant to be.
It's a gallente weapon; that means having the shortest range, highest damage. It's also an assault rifle, which means it's supposed to be OK at everything. While its overall effectiveness in different situations isn't something you can prove easily, let's look at the Gallente side.

I'll be comparing the Duvolle assault rifle with the Imperial Scrambler rifle
Optimal ranges (according to the range thread): since the Duvolle is plasma and the Scrambler is a pulse laser, the scrambler should have significantly more range.

• Duvolle assault rifle: 42m
• Imperial scrambler rifle: 50m

8 meters isn't very significant, especially considering the (SoonGäó) Combat rifle has to fit between them, while it's also much easier to hit with the duvolle, since it's fully automatic. Outside of effective range, the duvolle is currently the bigger threat.

Now let's look at damage:

• Duvolle assault rifle: 34.1 per shot
RoF of 750
doesn't overheat, so it does 10230 in the 24 seconds before having to stop to reload
In 5.5 seconds, that's about 2344 damage

• Imperial Scrambler rifle: 79.2 per shot
max RoF is 705.9, but it's semi automatic, and can overheat. Firing at a RoF slow enough to conserve heat, I managed to fire 16 shots in 5.5 seconds before overheating (which does damage)
Counting the overheat as a reload, that's 1267 damage in 5.5 seconds before the user has to stop.

Going off of that, in the time it takes for the scrambler rifle (if fired carefully) to overheat, the duvolle does nearly twice the damage, at nearly the same range, while taking much less practice to use.

A few quick, less in-depth comparisons to other weapons:
Compared to the HMG, the assault rifle has more range and is more accurate. With the spread of HMG bullets, the AR also seems to deal more damage.
Compared to the shotgun, the assault rifle hits much more consistently (against a moving target), and at a much longer range.
Compared to the mass driver, the assault rifle takes less practice, or more effective against shield tanked people (almost all of them) and lasts longer before running out of ammo
Compared to the laser rifle, the assault rifle has comparable range and damage, while lacking the overheat and being more effective in CQC
Compared to the flaylock pistol (I don't want to compare it to a sidearm, but someone is bound to bring it up), the assault rifle has much longer range, is easier to hit with, and can fire for much longer before reloading.
On the current maps, most sniper positions can be now easily shot by assault rifles


The gallente assault rifle needs to be gallente- short ranged. It already has gallente damage, and takes no skill to use.