Copying this from a thread I made on Reddit and adding some additional thoughts from my Discord and other CMDRs about the Plasma Assault Rifle, the Manticore Oppressor:
Thread Summary:
We're at Update 8 now in Odyssey and the Manticore Oppressor has got to be the most underwhelming weapon of any of the weapons added to the game in Odyssey and requires some immediate attention to bump it up and make it feel worth using.
1. The Rundown:
TL;DR The Oppressor is quite literally, and I'll be honest, the worst of the Plasma weapons and probably the worst of all the weapons in the game right now.
I get that it's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades assault rifle that's meant to be good for both shields and armour without the need to swap to another but it doesn't really feel like it does all that good at either of those roles. I see why Frontier wouldn't want it to be too good at both roles but right now, it just straight-up sucks at doing either role when compared to it's kinetic and laser equivalents or even the other plasma weapons. I spent a few hours helping my faction over the past week running around with a Grade 5 Oppressor (no modifications) to try and get a feel for it and see what was up and where it falls short.
The weapon itself often requires a single magazine to break the shields of one person AND kill them, you may be able to kill TWO NPCs in a CZ with a single clip if you get lucky and land your shots. Compare this to the Laser SMG where I can burst down 3 or 4 NPCs shields, switch to a Kinetic AR and kill those said 3 or 4 NPCs with a single mag.
The other three plasma weapons are wonderful with the Manticore Executioner (Plasma Shotgun) taking one shot (on weaker shields) and two or (on stronger ones) to kill, the same goes for the Manticore Intimidator (Long Range Rifle). The Oppressor however is lucky if it can kill a single person in one magazine, maybe two if you land all your shots.
2. The Issues the Manticore Oppressor has:
TL;DR Slow Bullet Velocity, Lower Rate Of Fire, Low Damage Stat (even when G5'd) and outclassed by every other weapon.
The slow bullet velocity and low fire rate as well as the incredibly low damage, even at full engineered Grade 5 just feels so bad and unwieldy at times. Hell, at Grade 5 it has the same DPS stat as the Grade 3 AR-50 (Kinetic AR) with no modifications on either.
Even when I was in a conflict zone, seeing an AI fire an Oppressor at me and watching as 90% of their rounds miss is laughable and if anything, a sign this weapon needs attention. The other three plasma weapons at least hit like a truck and feel good to use, hell, I run the laser SMG and kinetic assault rifle in combat zones most of the time and that feels way more consistent than whatever the Manticore Oppressor is supposed to be trying its best to be.
3. How to fix the Oppressor?
TL;DR Increase the bullet velocity and tighten the projectile spread/jitter, increase the damage stat enough so it performs on par with its Kinetic/Laser combo equivalents.
I feel Frontier needs to take a look at the weapon balancing regarding this gun, increase its base damage slightly and increase the bullet velocity so it doesn't feel like shooting nerf darts at someone.
Its largest issue is that it simply can't compete with the equivalent of running the Takada SMG/Rifle and the Kinematic AR/SMG in terms of damage output. The projectiles fire so slow that you miss half your shots trying to figure out how far ahead of a target you have to lead and the slight spread/jitter really doesn't help, even with a Stability mod installed.
Suggestions:
The alternative idea I saw suggested by a squadron member was to make it simply hit harder and rework it to function more like a light machine gun rather than an Assault Rifle. High damage, low fire rate, high accuracy, large clip size.
4. Final Thoughts
TL;DR It needs a buff of some sort otherwise the weapon is simply going to remain unused by practically everyone. Nobody I know is seriously running this thing for missions or CZs, it just straight-up sucks compared to the alternatives.
This weapon could have the perfect place as the "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" rifle but it's just far from that right now and I'm kinda sad we've gone through 8 updates (soon to be 9) and haven't seen any kind of pass on the Oppressor, leaving it still in that miserable state it was at launch. It's a shame because, in terms of aesthetics, the Oppressor has got to be one of my favourite weapon designs out there at the moment, it's just a shame the weapon has the damage output and bullet velocity of a wet sponge for its role and purpose.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this weapon and maybe try and get some feedback out there for the devs.
CMDR Delta_Vee (Whitetip Operations Lead)
Thread Summary:
We're at Update 8 now in Odyssey and the Manticore Oppressor has got to be the most underwhelming weapon of any of the weapons added to the game in Odyssey and requires some immediate attention to bump it up and make it feel worth using.
1. The Rundown:
TL;DR The Oppressor is quite literally, and I'll be honest, the worst of the Plasma weapons and probably the worst of all the weapons in the game right now.
I get that it's meant to be a jack-of-all-trades assault rifle that's meant to be good for both shields and armour without the need to swap to another but it doesn't really feel like it does all that good at either of those roles. I see why Frontier wouldn't want it to be too good at both roles but right now, it just straight-up sucks at doing either role when compared to it's kinetic and laser equivalents or even the other plasma weapons. I spent a few hours helping my faction over the past week running around with a Grade 5 Oppressor (no modifications) to try and get a feel for it and see what was up and where it falls short.
The weapon itself often requires a single magazine to break the shields of one person AND kill them, you may be able to kill TWO NPCs in a CZ with a single clip if you get lucky and land your shots. Compare this to the Laser SMG where I can burst down 3 or 4 NPCs shields, switch to a Kinetic AR and kill those said 3 or 4 NPCs with a single mag.
The other three plasma weapons are wonderful with the Manticore Executioner (Plasma Shotgun) taking one shot (on weaker shields) and two or (on stronger ones) to kill, the same goes for the Manticore Intimidator (Long Range Rifle). The Oppressor however is lucky if it can kill a single person in one magazine, maybe two if you land all your shots.
2. The Issues the Manticore Oppressor has:
TL;DR Slow Bullet Velocity, Lower Rate Of Fire, Low Damage Stat (even when G5'd) and outclassed by every other weapon.
The slow bullet velocity and low fire rate as well as the incredibly low damage, even at full engineered Grade 5 just feels so bad and unwieldy at times. Hell, at Grade 5 it has the same DPS stat as the Grade 3 AR-50 (Kinetic AR) with no modifications on either.
Even when I was in a conflict zone, seeing an AI fire an Oppressor at me and watching as 90% of their rounds miss is laughable and if anything, a sign this weapon needs attention. The other three plasma weapons at least hit like a truck and feel good to use, hell, I run the laser SMG and kinetic assault rifle in combat zones most of the time and that feels way more consistent than whatever the Manticore Oppressor is supposed to be trying its best to be.
3. How to fix the Oppressor?
TL;DR Increase the bullet velocity and tighten the projectile spread/jitter, increase the damage stat enough so it performs on par with its Kinetic/Laser combo equivalents.
I feel Frontier needs to take a look at the weapon balancing regarding this gun, increase its base damage slightly and increase the bullet velocity so it doesn't feel like shooting nerf darts at someone.
Its largest issue is that it simply can't compete with the equivalent of running the Takada SMG/Rifle and the Kinematic AR/SMG in terms of damage output. The projectiles fire so slow that you miss half your shots trying to figure out how far ahead of a target you have to lead and the slight spread/jitter really doesn't help, even with a Stability mod installed.
Suggestions:
- Increase the base damage across the board so that it can compete more with the dedicated laser/kinetic alternative
- Increased the shot velocity so it's easier to hit targets at mid-range
- Decreases the spread/size of the jitter to prevent bullets from going everywhere but where you want them to actually go
The alternative idea I saw suggested by a squadron member was to make it simply hit harder and rework it to function more like a light machine gun rather than an Assault Rifle. High damage, low fire rate, high accuracy, large clip size.
4. Final Thoughts
TL;DR It needs a buff of some sort otherwise the weapon is simply going to remain unused by practically everyone. Nobody I know is seriously running this thing for missions or CZs, it just straight-up sucks compared to the alternatives.
This weapon could have the perfect place as the "jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none" rifle but it's just far from that right now and I'm kinda sad we've gone through 8 updates (soon to be 9) and haven't seen any kind of pass on the Oppressor, leaving it still in that miserable state it was at launch. It's a shame because, in terms of aesthetics, the Oppressor has got to be one of my favourite weapon designs out there at the moment, it's just a shame the weapon has the damage output and bullet velocity of a wet sponge for its role and purpose.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this weapon and maybe try and get some feedback out there for the devs.
CMDR Delta_Vee (Whitetip Operations Lead)
