The viability of “off-meta” weapons in late game needs to be addressed

I’m gonna start by saying that the solution to this is NOT nerfing or ruining the already good weapons in the game. This is a complex matter and it will never get better by ruining the only viable options.

The problems

In STW’s current state, if you ask what are the “best weapons” you will get about 20 comments telling you “tHeRe iS nO bEsT wEaPoN itS aBoUt WhAt gUn yOh lIke tHe moSt!!”

Im here to tell you: that’s not exactly true. There are weapons that are CLEARLY AND STATISTICALLY better than others and there are some weapons that are just not good (I’m looking at you Masters Driver)

The thing is, most “bad” weapons can be bumped up to mid or even ok by using a hero loadout made of for that weapon. So like the nailer you’d use a rifle build. The problem is, not only are these guns bad on their own, you are exerting SO much extra time, materials and ammo that you could save by using a “good” gun (with or without a build)

That’s what I wanted to tackle today. The problem with STW’s weapons is the fact that there is only a certain amount that are actually viable

A good example is the plasmatic discharger vs the bazooka. If you want to kill a 140 smasher you can just use the plasma gun once or twice and it will kill it. But you need A LOT more shots to kill it with the normal RPG. Even with an explosive build, the plasma gun is STILL much better choice (in fact, it’s even MORE powerful with an explosive build). That’s what I mean by not viable or “bad”. Just guns that aren’t worth your time

Perks

This is something that I feel contributes to this issue MAJORLY. The best build for guns is a crit build (double crit DMG, one crit rating, reload or mag size). Nothing really tops that build.

This is where perks become a bit of a problem. A lot of guns (and a lot of “bad” guns) are essentially handicapped by having bad or mid perk selections. A “bad” gun can become an “alright” or “ok” gun with the best perk setup. And once again, a lot of them are made worse by the fact that they CANT run the best build

This applies to weapons with lower handling time the most (like the Bald Eagle or the room sweeper) because you want to give your gun a reload perk or a mag size perk or even a fire rate perk! But in doing so, you sacrifice a crit DMG or crit rating perk. Once again, making it less useful

Enemies

This is something that’s not talked about a lot. High powered enemies (specifically smashers) are SUPER strong. Like a bit too strong. Especially smashers, Lobbers and zappers/blasters. These husks not only have a lot of health, but they deal great damage to you and structures

This makes it EVEN MORE IMPORTANT to always use the best stuff, because you need to deal the maximum amount of damage possible before they deal maximum damage to you, or structures

Superchargers

•Supercharging weapons is NOT a solution to this issue either. Because not only are you much better off supercharging the best guns, AND not only does max supercharging only give about a 15-20% flat damage boost, superchargers aren’t super easy to get. Unless you no-life ventures you aren’t gonna just get enough superchargers to supercharge more than 2 guns let alone 200+

Solutions

There’s a few things that we can do here:

•All guns can have any perk.
No perk slots (except elements) are locked to a certain type of perk. This would make it where no gun is handicapped by perk builds

•Overall enemy nerf
If I’m being honest, a good chunk of opponents are very strong. A bit too strong. If weapons don’t get an adjustment I’d like to see husks get one

•Superchargers buff
Making them WAY easier to obtain, giving them a buff, increasing the amount we can put on guns, there’s a good amount of options here

•Overall weapons buff
All those mid weapons that deal mid damage with mid reload and mag size? Give ‘em a buff! There’s hundreds of weapons in STW, yet there’s only MAYBE 50 that are worth your time

ThYs about it! Let me know what you think and if you agree!