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12/16/2015 7:04:42 AM
6
Well, Front Lines actually [b]does [/b]work now... it is very noticeable...
...but damage per bullet goes down.
But is it any good?
It's basically the opposite of Focus Fire.
Focus Fire trades RoF for damage per bullet. Overall DPS is roughly the same, but you [i]save ammo[/i] doing Focus Fire. Arguably it also makes the weapon easier to control, but saving ammo is the real reason Focus Fire is useful, especially on guns with small magazines.
Front Lines trades damage per bullet for RoF. The stability goes up enough to keep the gun controllable. I haven't done extensive testing, but my gut feeling is that the DPS is roughly the same -- except now you chew through ammo much faster. Guns in the high RoF archetype have larger mags to compensate -- Fabian Strategy does not.
Saving ammo is a benefit, wasting ammo is NOT. Yes, it is [i]different[/i] now but where's the benefit?
If the Cryptarch dropped me a high RoF auto rifle with a small magazine, I'd junk it immediately... so why would I want my exotic to be like that?
It needs either actually higher DPS with Front Lines active OR there needs to be some magic with ammo expenditure, e.g. fire two shots per one ammo. Or link it with Mulligan or Triple Tap or something like that.
English
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https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/192513914
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@Bungie: This gun needs a unique Magazine profile. I like the direction you've gone, but it needs a Mag size somewhere in between the archetypes (~56-60--ish). Your distance from an enemy is less in your control than Focus Fire (flanking, spawning, etc.).
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The thing is that with ARs, each variant of AR excels in a narrow band of range going from point blank to mid range. Also, as you go from low RoF/high impact to high RoF/low impact, bullet damage goes down but time to kill goes up. ARs like the Vanquisher VIII and Pest Control Matrix have low time to kills, but high bullet damage. The only AR that is more extreme is one of this archetype that has focus fire (like the Suros). On the other end of the spectrum are the ARs like Nechrochasm and Atheons Epilogue -the bullet hoses. These guys chew through ammo, and chew through enemies too. The rounds hit for less damage, but the massive rate of fire brings the damage per second back up and even beyond what ARs like the Vanquisher can manage. However they only work well from point blank range. The damage falloff and accuracy on these guns is abysmal, their recoil tends to make longer engagements impossible as well. But up close, they eat people. Then you have the medium RoF and Impact ARs like the Fabian Strategy, Zhalo Supercell, and Hardlight. These guys are the most flexible of ARs and have good time to kills if you can land a steady stream of criticals. They wont beat a Vanquisher at long(er) AR range, nor can they compete with the Necrochasm from point blank range, but they are a good middle ground workhorse AR. So now you have the Fabian Strategy which has (very thankfully) been improved. Like all middle ARs, it excels in close/mid range. But when something closes within point blank range, it automatically switches to the bullet hose variant of AR that excels in that range. In other words, its band of range within which it excels is wider than any other AR, and it is the perfect tool for the job in more close quarters engagements. No, its exotic perk isn't flashy or game-changing, but it excels in more situations than any other AR.
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In essence you're saying the DPS actually goes up when up close. I need to verify that. And it still doesn't have the mag capacity to keep up with the real bullet hoses. If you run out ammo your time to kill goes down the drain...
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True, but because it only is a bullet hose while within the optimum range, its not taking as many bullets to get the job done. The boosts to stability and reload speed help this as well.
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I took the Fab5 out for a spin last night. Shooting up some knights on Dreadnought patrol I found out the following: Body shots without Front Lines active do 359 points of damage. With Front Lines it's 287. (The actual numbers are not important -- the ratio is). Now assuming the regular RoF is 600 RPM and higher RoF is 900 RPM as I read somewhere, this comes down to: Regular DPS: 3590 Font Lines DPS: 4305 So yes, it IS actually beneficial, roughly a 20% increase in DPS. The cost is running your ammo supply dry, which I managed to do twice during less than 15 minutes of light testing. As a side note, the range does not seem to be affected. As soon as Front Lines procs, you are already within effective range and getting close does not affect damage (could be just my perk setup though, I have it set up for range). Incidentally, I also tested my Focus Fire Dealbreaker. Regular Damage 443 points. Focus Damage 596 points. Now, I don't know the RoF for the focus fire. The regular RoF for a high impact AR is supposed to be 450 RPM. So to break even, the focus fire RoF should be about 335 RPM. Can someone with easier access to video capture check this? P.S. And the Fab5 is still bugged... I'll post that to the the bug forum.
