Having come from Vermintide 2 and playing Darktide since the Beta, honestly I feel like there are a lot of problems with the Ranged Combat in Darktide 2 where it feels like it’s squarely in the favor of the enemies (Considering numbers, essentially aimbot, and the fact that suppression seems to affect players more than enemies), but the biggest problem getting in the way of fun with Ranged Combat in my opinion is simply that there aren’t many options. Lasguns are the king of ranged combat unless you’re a Psyker in which case you’re probably using either the Voidstrike or Purgatus staff.
I feel as though this has been a problem since the Beta and while the skill tree rework has been great (except for maybe the Veteran which has become a bit lackluster), but the weapon “balance” has remained the same which is very problematic.
I feel as though if there was to be a “quick fix” that could be implemented right now to make gunplay feel much better while working on a better rework these are the changes I’d say should be made:
Generally speaking, just let us modify and add scopes to our guns. Even if there are no further plans to add weapon mods to the game, the only one I feel is absolutely necessary is to allow us to add scopes and sights to our weapons because the fact that the Helbore Rifles, as what seems to be the only intended sniper weapons, having one of the worst sights in the game is probably one of the worst game design choices ever.
Give all Autoguns passive Rending, give them at least equivalent damage to their lasgun counterparts, give them faster reload than their lasgun counterparts, and give them each the ability to penetrate at least 3 more enemies than they currently do. (I don’t want them to just be better than lasguns, I want them to play a different role than the lasguns).
Give all Pistols passive Brittlness, making them a bit more of a support weapon.
Buff the fully charged damage of the Helbore and Plasma rifles to at least be as powerful as the Ogryn’s Grenade Launcher. Give the Helbore Rifle large amounts of enemy penetration and armor penetration based on its charge level and give the Plasma Rifle lots of Armor Penetration and a much larger explosion radius based on its charge.
Decrease the time it takes to switch to the Boltgun.
Overall I think these changes would do a lot to increase the health of the gunplay of the game, this way we have more options than just the Infantry Lasgun as kind of the definitive best weapon for most situations.