Interesting ideas my guess is the majority of the populous will outright throw out this idea due to its popularity and then proceed to insult you. Do like the breach idea specifically but does not fall in line with other breach weapons.

Haha I'd love to say anything to balance the assualt rifle but were a minority. The breach variant are high damage low rof and are in need of work, AR side. The ar users make this claim often. I would say simply up the damage on breach halfway between its current stats and the tac damage. Adding recoil to this gun would indeed make it a skilled weapon, but any increase would send the community into a frenzy, even though i think its needed.Welcome to dust btw.

TBH there used to be a greater difference between standard - proto weaponry/suits/etc....CCP decided that they wanted only small differences between the standard and proto gears. So with that philosophy in mind this will never be done.

I especially like this bit where you disguise making the gap between newbies and proto-users even greater, seem like you're doing them a favour "feel like they are unlocking something".

Lulz.

@OP:

Updated numbers here: http://wiki.dust514.info/index.php?title=Assault_Rifle

I updated that 6 days ago from in-game Marketplace data. Some numbers have changed, just glancing briefly at your OP.

What I would have loved to see was a corresponding graph of AR kills superimposed over the flaylock graph.

Stats can be tricky that way and CCP didnt show a full picture, only what they wanted to "prove" their point.

Yes I go into matches with many flaylocks but more times than not only some players have them and other players have ar's snipers, mass drivers since their buff and scramblers. You see a few tacs still and some shotties. One laser and no plasma cannons.

Thats what I have seen over the past weeks and I play mostly every day.

More recoil for std AR.
More dispersion for Breach AR.
called keeping them in their niche

Only thing that is wrong with standard AR is the clustering of hip fire is too tight, i know alot of people may see a larger cone as a buff to the weapon for CQC but what is happening now is the AR is almost able to put like 80% of its damage on a target up close while moving full speed due to the clustering or the cone of fire being small, this is the main reason it can out perform the SMG and HMG if the user is good at shooting they can put more bullets on target on other hand the SMG and HMG has a large cone of fire therefore more shots miss no matter how accuracy the user is.

This dispersion of bullets should be made wider as you move also, its possible that you can move a little to fast while aiming down sights a little too quick while having no effect on you weapon

As for the recoil thing to add this would put the weapon so out of balance that it would need sizable buff to damage so that it can kill people quickly enough so you dont have to re align about 7 times, also as far as iam concerned the weapon is fine at most ranges except close is a bit too effective it is also perhaps a little weak at medium pushing long range around 70m but i wright that off to being a plasma weapon and rail and projectile variants will likely be better over longer ranges.

This is coming from someone who uses AR almost exclusively.

1 flaw, u cant have tac ar have most recoil per shot if its a single shot weapon....u need to lower recoil or increase first shot recoil multiplier for standard AR. Burst AR n Tac AR should also get less damage drop off over distance in order to enphesise its long range role

breach AR is useless, has the lowest DPS of any of the assault rifles and the worst range to boot and is completely outperformed by the regular AR in all facets
burst AR is not worth using at all, it needs to be changed back to the 7 round burst it used to be so it's viable again.
regular AR is actually balanced but they're going to nerf range on it when the other AR types are released
loltacAR is also useless with joke DPS and recoil