4Game

Alright before you downvote please give me a chance to proof my point. I’m not a val gamer, I don’t wanna say that the val is bad all I’m saying is that the way battlestate approached the situation was wrong. The val ( i will keep using the term val for both guns ) was op before the wipe but there are issues right now that no one mentions.

Let me give you some facts to start on:

Current meta val cost round about 90k for the gun + 80k for the mods + 25-35k for the mag ( barter ).
That’s a sum of round about 200k for the gun and a 30 round mag without the bullets.
This Val has :
62 ergo
54 vertical recoil
78 horizontal recoil

Now let me build a HK with the same price. I can mod you a 60 round one with following stats :
72 ergo
47 vertical recoil
124 horizontal recoil

Alright so far you can see the HK has slightly better stats and also double size mag right ? Now you probably think about the bullet advantage but let me tell you something you might not know yet.
In direct comparison you currently pay 650 Roubles for sp-6 for following stats :
43 pen
58 damage
60 armor damage
10% fragmentation
305 muzzle velocity
+10% recoil debuff

A fair comparison in my opinion would be m855a1 that currently has a price of 2.1$ ( last time I checked from peacekeeper ) which are roughly 258 roubles.
You get following stats :
43 pen
45 damage
52 armor damage
34% fragmentation
945 muzzle velocity
No debuff

Pro val: slightly more damage ( ~20% )
Pro hk: Range, lower recoil, cheaper, 60 round mag

Even if you say that BP/SPP have better stats than m995 ( which I totally agree ) they still received a huge recoil debuff nerf ( of +20% and +22% ) that really increases the recoil a lot compared to a meta m4/hk.

Overall you will always get a better outcome with the HK for a “normal” raid.
Yes you might say “but the val has more damage !” But I’m very sure most of you know that having more bullets to spray, lower recoil and being able to shoot on range is at least enough to compensate that.

Now let me get to the point why I think battlestate’s way to nerf the val is wrong.
Currently they nerfed the recoil a lot ( bullets and stock val ) but also the ergo. They additionally increased a lot the price for the val and decreased the spawn rate to be found in raid.
Overall this Leads currently to way less people running the val which can be proven by the constantly decreasing prices for all bullets.
I do think the val was 100% op before the wipe but I think they could’ve done a better job to fix it.
I think in a game like tarkov there should be multiple viable assault rifle for the endgame and not just hk/m4/sa58.

Here is what I would do to fix this situation :

Idea number 1:

nerf the stock val – buff the kitted val.
Force the players to kit out the val and spent money on it and not just run the stock val. Same as most other guns the gun should only be viable in top tier fights if it has top tier mod parts.
Like this the val will still suck on range, still have more expensive bullets and mags but at least has the old close distance domination factor back.

Idea number 2: decrease the price for the mags.
The current val is in my opinion kinda ok if you don’t have to pay double the gun price for mags. 10k for a 20 rounder and 35k for a 30 rounder are just way too expensive for such a gun. Everyone who cares about efficiency will immediately switch to m4/hk or other meta guns as soon as you want to run top gear.

I run all assault rifles especially to get rid of all the bullets and guns that I collect from restocks and pvp. But running the val always kinda hurts a little bit just because of what I mentioned when it comes to price.

TL;DR:
Val was OP. Val got nerfed. Val is now barely used and it can be brought back into the meta pool without hurting “balance”. Val is not cost effecient anymore in higher tier loadout.