So the question is then: Do we nerf the bolter? Or start to balance the rest of the game around it?
XII is the gold standard weapon.
The Bolter is just the cool guy that gets all the cheerleaders.
12 Likes
IMO the Bolter needs an ammo reserve nerf. The firepower is great but I don’t want to see it changed, instead they should make you be more picky with your shots.
Anytime you miss a single shell of the God Emperors Holy Bolter ammunition, you should be chastising yourself and making a mental note to submit to flagellation post-mission.
5 Likes
XII is love, XII is life.
Bolter is fine. Clunky af and ammo inefficient.
4 Likes
I would lean to performance > nerfs/buffs.
The game needs to get into a playable state before any balance changes.
3 Likes
It really isn’t when you pick your shots. The only time you should ever full-auto the bolter is for groups of ragers and crushers in your face.
Given that a fair few Preachers run Bolter, nerfing the ammo would make it a really hard sell since they don’t have the Veteran’s 40% ammo buff (the only other class that gets access to it); I honestly don’t think that’s the way, and the much-longer draw animation compared to basically every other range weapon is a balancing mechanic all its own.
I think Bolter is fine where it is and some of the real underperforming weapons could potentially use a bump up the way they just tweaked Quickdraw and the Helbores.
3 Likes
Exactly. The bolter isn’t a pull out and win button. It can’t save you from hordes or very intense situations and the clunkiness makes quick swapping impossible unless you pick your shots. It’s great against elites, but veteran’s passive isn’t giving him infinite ammo, it’s just barely keeping him going until the next ammo drop.
Zealot is even worse, and rightly so. There are other jack of all trade weapons that offer stability where bolter is all in on burst damage and no utility or QoL.
3 Likes
I can almost agree to that. I think it shreds carapace a little too well also. Like if it dealt 10% less damage than it did to carapace and had the limited ammo reserve, I’d say it’d be about perfect. Taking something like the Thunder Hammer to deal with carapace has enormous drawbacks with being overwhelmed and it being a little clunky to use. Being able to bypass that with the bolter: a safe and reliable way to dispose of those enemies as well as having it delete anything else it targets seems like a great deal to me. Especially when you consider that meleeing hordes is almost a boon with the toughness it gives back, you give that up by being able to deal with carapace effectively since there’s not a lot of ranged weapons that can do it. I think plasma should be the primo carapace killer and yet the bolter wins out on that imo.
Considering all that, I don’t think those are unreasonable changes. It will make the bolter more lucrative for vet who gets more max ammo and extra ammo from killing specials (which the bolter excels at) while the Zealot can take it to mostly use it against armored while taking a melee weapon that is highly effective vs hordes with an opposite but similar specialization in the flamer + thunder hammer combo.
Kantrael MG XII looks at bolter and laughs out loud. Because MG XII is the true gigachad of all weapons.
The bolter itself is not a problem. Its the bolter on the vet becomes the problem.
If i could nerf this thing i would do it thus.
Increase magazine count to 20 per magazine
Reduce total ammo pool by probably like…30sih rounds.
Reduce the stagger effect on ogryn
Remove penetration of round because lore wise it should not be penetrating anything more then the first target.
Possibly reduce the damage output by like…15%
Why would we trivialize the game by making everything OP… What fun is that? Oh I play Damnation, because my weapons are so strong they let me… Screw having skill.
No. If something overperforms so much that skill is no longer necessary to succeed, that needs to get nerfed.
It isn’t the best gun. It is good and fun, though. And many of the weapons need buffs and QoL tweaks.
1 Like
A Boltgun should be powerful.
Nerfing ammo seems fair, it is a fairly clunky weapon/mags for a normal human to carry around.