Don't get me wrong, the wind-up is definitely a disadvantage, but I find it can mitigated by planning ahead much of the time. Overall, I'll rather have an AC than a Bolter in close combat because enemy goes down fast and reliably when I shoot at him with the AC, whereas the Bolter feels like a toy gun in comparison. Thus I don't count AC as one of the weaker close combat weapons. (Might also be that my preference is impacted due to lag, AC with low TTK is far easier on high ping.)
Not that the recoil isn't manageable, it's just heavy in comparison to almost every other weapon. Which, it should be, it has a devastating effect on targets. My point is that it has enough drawbacks to it's benefits to make it excel at what it's meant to be good at without truly being broken. I kill folks with heavy weapons like the AC all the time as an assault when I'm not playing Chaos. Mobility is the biggest thing that heavies lack. All it takes is getting around behind them and the game is over. You cannot turn, brace, begin firing, or accurately aim at close range against a highly mobile target. More often than not people that bitch about these weapons are the same folks that walk head-long into oncoming fire and then say they're "Broken" because they did what they were supposed to do. But, this has been an age old argument. Back when the HB was the ONLY viable heavy weapon during Alpha/Beta people bitched that it was broken because of the exact same reasons. They've made the HB better in many ways since then and no one complains lol. They do what they are meant to do with extreme efficiency. People would rather complain about how they can't figure out how to counter something and say it needs to be fixed so they can win rather than hone the skills necessary to avoid the dangers presented by assault these kinds of targets.
I understand. But, that's what I mean lol. If you do what the weapon is good at, you will win. It excels are being set-up in a stationary position waiting for targets to stupidly cross it's fire-lines. They excel at repelling and eliminating targets that step into their FOV. However, as someone who also plays a ton of assault on both LSM and CSM I have 0 difficulty eliminating these targets. If you single them out from a group and it becomes a 1v1 fight I, personally, win 90% of the time. You don't possess the mobility to kill me in close combat. I won't rush you head on, because that literally just plays into your hand. If and when I flank you from behind you're dead.
Being someone that uses both the Heavy Bolter and the AC I find the AC honestly isn't that different in how quickly it can kill in most instances. The upside the AC has however is accuracy while braced and the fact that a single shot does as much damage as several bullets from the heavy bolter. At long range you can snipe with the AC but you can't really with the heavy bolter. By the same token however ACs don't suppress as far as I can tell.
Fank Mork itz not a 'Nerf da Rokkit' fredd. If yer stand in da open, Da big dakka's supposed ta zog ya! It'd bein shot bein'd a uumie wiv wun o' dem big bolters i don't understan'. I a saw ones bullets fly backwards wen i rolled beind tha git wivit, da bullets went backwards an' sum'ow zogged me?! I also fink da use ov da normal wun be sumfin rare, given da prolifik use ov dat burny one an ya can't add gubbinz to da normal wun.
This. The spray of the Heavy Bolter when not having anything around to mount it upon just makes the weapon useless in mid to longrange engagements. Ofc AC and HB have the same dps on paper (at least thats what ive read) but realistically the AC will always be superior because of its accuracy. To achieve the same dps on my HB as on an AC i have to spamfire it. To achieve the same accuracy as an AC i have to burstfire it. Notice something? The weapons are alike on paper, but because of the firing pattern, the AC is superior. On every range but point blank. And yes HB has suppression, but with the AC you dont need suppression as 2-3 hits kill you. Nobody would dive into a firing AC. They do so though towards a HB, wonder why that is...
Wait...so the foam darts explode hitting things in an area with foam flake on the NERF brand 40k AC? Ammo might be a bit expensive for a toy.
