I disagree, As I said there will always "THE" Build on a patch by patch basis. FoTM loadout if you will depending on what is and isn't strong. You're just fooling yourselves if you think otherwise, no game has ever been able to pull it off.
Of course a master crafted bolter is going to be more accurate, the quality of its manufacture is unmatched. But you can achieve a little bit of balance by reducing its clip size. Say make the bolter have 40 rounds and the mc bolter have 35. Something like that so even though its a more accurate weapon it would still have a tiny downside.
Planetside 2 right now has great balance amongst its infantry weapons. There are very few poor weapons to choose from.
That's straight up untrue especially for VS and TR. Master-Crafted means it's pretty much better in all regards, there is no reason for it to have less ammunition. Despite that, small tiny downsides don't offset those kind of bonuses. Look at Planetside for example, You have weapons with 150 in a reload for example but no one uses them because the 75 is much much much much better in all respects but ammo count.
Agreed, but due to load out points (plucking an example out of the air) the Chaos marine you are fighting could have spent his points on MC power armour and a standard bolter, while you spent your on an MC bolter and normal power armour. Net result is even mitigation, your build will give you an advantage against anyone in normal armour and his build will give him an advantage against anyone with a normal weapon, the tweaks do make you better but only against certain targets, who haven't tweaked to defend against your setup specifically.
In an ideal world yes, However as I said from patch to patch there will always be FoTM. Taking the Armor will be better or taking the gun will be better. There has never been perfect balance between gear ever. There has always been equipment that will be better than other equipment in every single situation you can think of.
There never will be a perfect balance, the balance can be better struck by vulnerability, you take the armour or the gun because it is slightly the better option, but you forget that it means you are then screwed if attacked by assault because you have no points left for anything better than a combat knife and I've got a terrible gun, terrible armour but a jump pack and powerclaw that will simply slaughter both of you if I move to fast for you to target me. Hopefully the equipment of the different factions will be so different that balance will not be required because they will all operate differently. And if you are going to make a loadout that protects you against that MC boltgun and the powerclaw someone is going to shoot you in the face with a lascannon...
This is exactly what the devs seem to try to do actually...something closer to real life... To explain this, think bolter is the equivalent to an assault rifle...good all around weapon... But in mass combat, a support weapon is good to have also, like a heavy bolter, for suppression... If you go against heavily armored enemies , maybe take with you a lascannon... Every weapon in W40K has it's uses... Sure, FoTM loadouts will exist, but if the weapons are balanced around their use mechanics, and not around some silly stats mechanic, everything will work out fine. The real problem with FoTM loadouts exists due to the silly stat mechanics that most RPG systems use.If there are no silly stat mechanics and there are strict loadout limitations (no Space Wolf Terminators with autocannons and cyclone missile launchers, for the older TT gamers here...), FoTM is more of personal opinion, or maybe around the new shiny item available on store...but the P2W is another thing...
The Faceroll of the Month will always exist, min/maxers and math nerds will figure it out, always. That loadout still requires a competent player to use effectively and requisition to deploy with, however. Some idiot with any combination of shitty hand-eye, poor reflexes, poor situational awareness, limited grasp of infantry tactics and a lack of common sense can have the best equipment in the world but it still won't save them once they enter the field. This isn't a tab-targetting environment where your character's stats determine the winner, it's a third person twitch shooter where player skill (should) have the most impact on your combat effectiveness.
