So after spending the entire weekend on one of my alts (Minmatar Assault) with dual flaylocks, Flaylock/AR, Flaylock/SMG, I have some thoughts to share. The idea of an alpha strike sidearm is interesting and creative, making the flaylock a fun to use weapon. If balanced properly, the flaylock should be at least powerful enough to be considered as a main weapon but with enough drawbacks to add some risk to the rewards of getting a kill with it. As of right now, we have a highly damaging weapon that's easy to fit, has plenty of ammo, and can be spammed for ungodly amounts of DPS. Personally, the damage and blast radius are fine, but it's the lenient fitting, high ammo capacity, and how easy you can spam shots that make the flaylock a problem:



Overall, the CPU/PG requirements have to be raised so everyone and the mother can't equip it and go buck wild. I'm thinking we make the costs significantly higher while taking a page from the specialist shotgun sub variant with more lenient requirements for the specialist pistols at the cost of ammunition capacity. (9~12 rounds) This way, you get a variant that's easier to equip, but doesn't have enough ammo to go around spamming while the standard ones have a decent ammo supply but require more CPU/PG so they have to give something up to fit it. This would be a good way to diminish a dual flaylock user's ammo capacity since they wouldn't be able to fit dual prototypes as well. The breach could probably benifit from a revamp as well, with a CPU/PG requirement similar to the specialists, but a splash or damage buff to make it more viable at the cost of the smaller clip.

Splash radius scaling is another issue that might need to be addressed since explosive weapons are more consistent in the the latest patch and the desynch issues are completely gone. But keep in mind that if the splash damage is reduced, damage might need to be increased across the board to compensate to keep the reward side of risk vs reward consistent while keeping the flaylock viable.



As I've already mentioned, it's not the damage that makes the flaylock imbalanced- it's the spam. So one good option would be to simply reduce the weapons RoF. (somewhere in the neighborhood of 60~70 rpm) This would cut down the rocket spam significantly, allowing someone on the opposing end to have a chance to fight back while forcing the user to aim. The flaylock already has a slower moving projectile compared to DoT based weapons, so this would force the user to make those shots matter more in an encounter instead of lobbing missiles in someone's general direction, hoping for a kill. Reload speed and ammunition capacity can remain untouched, but the damage might need a slight increase to keep with the weapons spike damage theme, keeping it more viable in CQC/Close engagements while requiring skill at mid range and beyond. Making this change would also significantly affect people using dual flaylocks as well since the advantage of having two of them is significantly reduced.

Another option to prevent spamming would be to reduce the ammunition capacity. One of things that keeps the MD balanced is that it has terrible field longevity. With 18 rounds (24 for the assault) you have to really choose your engagements with the MD while either staying in proximity of a supply depot or keeping a steady supply of nanohives. With 21 shots in reserve, the flaylock doesn't have this problem and has field longevity comparable to a riskier spike damage weapons like the shotgun. Reducing the reserve ammo down to maybe 12~9 rounds (9~6 for the specialist) would force a flaylock user to carefully choose when to engage and make nanohives a requirement when using it as a main weapon. Damage and splash could stay relatively same with this option because the weapon would be significantly starved, cutting down its field longevity. This wouldn't affect dual users as much at a glance, but with my idea of increasing the CPU/PG requirements as mentioned above, they would most likely be restricted to dual specialists anyway.

Reducing the reload speed could be another route. As of right now, the flaylock has a 0.5 sec faster reload speed than an AR. For as much damage as it does, there's no real risk in spamming rockets since you can simply pop in another clip in 2.5 seconds. By increasing how fast you need to reload would be a good way to give someone on the opposing end a chance to fight back and force the weapons' user have to make sure those 3-4 rockets connect. Now with this idea, we have to consider how it would affect players using dual flaylocks. So making significant changes to rate of fire or ammo capacity would still need to be considered as well. This is still a viable option, but would require the most work in the long run compared to the others.

These are only a few options I have in regards to spamming. I have some more in regards to splash damage and falloff. I'll probably get around to it after some more testing. But whatever changes CCP makes, I hope they keep it as a highly damaging weapon, but make it riskier to use outside of its niche situation because it really is a fun to use weapon.

Subjected to periodical edits for grammar.