Talk:AF-4A Bandit/@comment-108.84.77.227-20170225135952

AF-4A Bandit is a good weapon now, where before I was dubious about it. Before the Oct. 24, 2016 update, the weapon was underpowered with it's minimum damage being so short. Giving other weapons a unfair advantage and giving cross-faction equivalents a uncharacteristic advantage of being superior at longer ranges when it's a NC weapon. With it's 70 meter minimum damage, the Bandit's hitting power is in line with cross faction weapons like the TRAC-5, LC3 Jaguar, Zenith VX-5, Solstice VE3, etc. Giving it the same 38 meter range to it's secondary damage tier. It has more medium range capabilities than it did before. A lot of engagements happen over 34 meters. It's tertiary damage tier is still work-able, but only if the enemy is not firing back at you. Don't bother with it's minimum damage. It's not a long range weapon period. This means the Bandit is balanced now and has more benefits than simply 0.75x moving ADS speed and damage per magazine than the GD-7F. The increased damage range allows the Bandit's controllability and cone of fire to shine more. It still drops one more tier than most carbines, which acts as a hard cap on effective range. TRAC-5 and other weapons with similar damage models technically are more effective beyond 38 meters simply by firing faster and after certain distance requiring the same number of shots.

Bandit despite the increased minimum damage is still a side-grade to the AF-19 Mercenary. Mercenary maintains hitting power before 44 meters, or at 43 meters. Bandit is much more unwieldly than the Mercenary with muzzle velocity. Headshots will be more reliable with the Mercenary, where the Bandit is going to rely on body-shots. Bandit basically plays similar to a typical TR weapon. Bandit is not a overly accurate weapon like the Mercenary, where you can look for quality shots. It's not that reliable to let you do that.

Mercenary focuses on medium range, while the Bandit focuses on close range as both weapon puts different emphasis on the close-to-medium range roles. For engineer class, this weapon is useful for it's 0.75x ADS moving speed, when you don't need the range of Mercenary, and longer range carbines. Engineers don't have much offensive abilities and the Bandit makes a good personal defense weapon for that class without sacrificing too much range, and magazine economy of the GD-7F. It fits a nice niche on the NC carbine arsenal.