I have put a large amount of time into the game without using the Ace Dakka (133 hours according to Steam), and ever since I got it, the diffrence has been staggering. Unless I've been insanely lucky, I cannot imagine "more" time changing what I have experienced that much. I have been shot back by bolters, heavy bolters, probably an auto cannon or two, certainly stalker bolters. There have been times where I've been the only one shooting at them. They are being stationary, standing in a building, mostly covered from fire. Heavy Bolters have almost always braced against a wall. I noticed a bit of the suppression effect on me, but it has been (apparently) not enough to stop me from killing them. I've engaged some enemy Heavy Bolters in long-range duel where we were both braced. Most of the time (probably more than 9 out of 10 times), I come out on time. I can only think of one time where I couldn't get the guy and I had to pull back from the cover.
Play more, this experience is quite different to mine and 2 hours isn't the most time to play with a weapon and assess it's strengths and weaknesses. You might've been playing against newer players, you might not be noticing other people shooting at the guys who you're suppressing, there's a load of things that might be going on. If you're enjoying it, keep using it and see how you get on. If you consistently finish mega high on rankings (in comparison to how high you finish with other weapons), have very few deaths and have noticed your game improved massively since before you got the weapon I guess you can put it down to either the weapon being too strong or you've just found your ideal weapon.
It was more than 2 hours. I'd guess it was somewhere between 4-6 hours. And while I've certainly been hankering for a long-ranged semi-accurate ork weapon (I even tried making Snoipa class with the shoota, scope, and some other gubbins), I would not expect finding my "ideal" weapon increases my K-D by a factor of 10 or so. (And I am not exaggerating much, if at all, with that statement.)
I don't know what to say man, maybe you've just found "your jam" or perhaps you've just clicked with the Loota role? Or perhaps the weapon is just OP as all fuck. Reading your OP again you state "with the high ground and a good vantage point I can do the work of 3 or 4 players combined" which I believe is true of any weapon in the proper circumstances. Next time you play stick with the Dakka Deffgun and see how you get on in comparison? If you're noticeably worse then we can certainly put it down to the Ace Dakka. I do think players are more scared of the Ace Dakka because it deals such high damage per shot and this can lead them to make daft decisions (such as retreat too early, leave the safety of cover or run towards fire) which might be what you're seeing.
I've already kinda compared it to the Dakka Gun. What I've found is that the Ace Dakka increases my range significantly. I think the reason it's so good in comparison is a couple of things: Burst damage with X DPS is usually better than continuous damage with X DPS This generally seemed to be the case because you need only a fraction of the time for that burst damage, but you need the whole time for continuous damage. It reduces the number of things that can happen (if you can consistently hit). The low rate of fire lends to better controlled shots. I can manage my spread more effectively since I can do one shot and stop. Given spread is more manageable, I'm able to put more shots onto the target more accurately. Because of the 3rd point, I can be farther away, which means I'm less likely to damage damage. It just kinda spirals out from there (I think). Edit: I just thought of something that might really be the determining factor about my improved performance with the Dakka Ace: recoil/spread recovery. I'm not 100% sure how things are coded in the game, but I would imagine that different classes of weapons will have different rates of spread recovery; that is, I would expect a gun's spread to recover once you stop shooting at a rate determined by the class of the weapon. I would assume that most "rapid fire" weapons have a quick recovery so that if you're shooting in short bursts, you have a fast return to normal. If I'm shooting the Ace Dakka slower than it's full rate of fire (I almost always am), then it may be that the gun is returning to full accuracy (or close to it) before the next shot is fired. This would sort of "artificially" reduce my spread per shot and would let me shoot the weapon effectively at long range solely due to a good trigger discipline. I'll have to run the maths when I get home, but I think I've got an idea for a graphic that would get the point across.
@Gazrick : So, spurred on by this little discussion, I've settled on recording my successes (and failures) with the Ace Dakka. I am to play only with the Ace Dakka, and screenshot the scoreboard at the end of every game. I've also been taking screencaps of situations which I particularly reveal how disgusting the thing can be at times, although these have, so far, been in situations where you'd expect an Autocannon (or any heavy weapon) to excel, so there's not much to look into that. So far, I have completed four* rounds with the gun, and the results have ranged from pretty damn good (and that was an off game) to "Oh sweet Jesus, why do I have 50% more points the the person in second place?!?!". Highlights have included: (apparently) pissing off the enemy team so much people would come assassinate me, shooting down a hallway as their entire team comes down it trying to defend the point, somehow managing to kill people at melee range with my lead rain (I have no idea how I did this), mowing down their entire team as they jump down a cliff to defend the point (are you seeing a theme here?), shooting into their building and cleaning out their 2nd floor, etc. I imagine things are only going to get better/stupider as I just unlocked the max level of armor.
Glad you're enjoying the weapon. Right lets look at your highlights and particular concern about the points. I would ignore the point differential for now, it's likely you're consistently positioned on a capture point which means every tick you're earning 15 points or whatever it is and this sounds like nothing but over the course of a long game it can add up. In addition you're likely disrupting capture attempts and defending the point which nets you more than average points. You might also be paired with awful players Don't worry too much about this for now. Regarding the assassination thing - this is normal. If you're a problem the enemy team should focus you down and stop your game (as much as possible). The same thing should happen whenever any heavy weapon finds his ideal spot, be them Kannons, Autocannons, Heavy Bolters or Grav Cannons. I went through a phase of hunting Plasma Cannons back when they were OP, just to kill their OP asses but that's neither here nor there. Not sure what you mean about shooting down the hallway at their entire team? I assume it was a last stand scenario where you picked up a few kills before dying yourself? Again this is normal. You can kill people at any range with the weapon, same goes for any heavy weapon actually. It doesn't matter if they're in melee range or not. It's one of the (many) big problems with melee vs ranged at the moment, melee hits no longer disrupt a ranged players' aim (or if they do the disruption is negligible). Mowing down their entire team as they jump down a cliff to defend a point...sounds like real poor play by the opposition team and excellent play by yourself. Clearing a floor can be done with any weapon, I've even done it with the Klaw recently - it just depends on numbers of players and situations in which you attack them. If you get the jump on them you can rack up serious kills, same thing goes if you use the Rokkit. I'm not sure you will notice much of a difference with extra armour if I'm honest. Lootas and other heavies tend to die when they are found/spotted/routed unless you are very quick to retreat or relocate so I'm not sure it has much of an impact. Did you say you had recorded gameplay? Would be worth linking to that if you get chance as we can properly see what you're talking about and better understand the situation. Have you had any failures of note yet?
Preaching to the choir brother. As a CSM player, we have been hit with the nerf bat more times than anyone. I wouldn't hold any hope as for what LSM lack in battle, they make up for in crying on the forum and the end result is never good for us.
This is a nice theory and all, but the game where I had 1.5 times the next top player, I was on offense/assault. So there was no 15 points every couple seconds. Although I guess you could argue I was really defending my team mates who were assaulting the point; most of my kills involved shooting enemies that trying to defend the point, reposition to defend the point, or trying to get to the point. I don't doubt it's normals. It's just not something I'm used to. With elites, I know I'd get more shots my way because I have the giant "Frag me" symbol above my head to the enemies, but this... This was a new experience to me. No. It was their last stand. THIS is what I mean. What I was more meaning, and this did not come across well, is the enemy was trying to avoid being in front of me. It just didn't matter as apparently you can turn and back up and not be considered "moving" for purposes having to let a heavy weapon settle. It has caused the death of more than one marine in a fashion which I felt particularly bad about. I don't know the map names, but it's the one where the southern point (A I think?) overlooks the entire rest of the map. Jumping down the cliff is essentially the only way to get to B from their spawn; landing puts them into a brief state where they're "stunned" in a landing animation and it makes them ripe for the slaught. Demonstration here. I have no doubt that it can be done with any weapon, but it seems a fair bit different doing it with the Klaw and putting yourself at risk... and doing with the Ace Dakka and "sniping" enemies inside a building through windows. Sometimes I wouldn't actually be able to see 95% of the enemy (I am not exaggerating at all), but I'd still be able to land the 3-4 hits needed to down them. There were a few humorous cases where a follow-up shot would (apparently) head-shot them before they fall down into the crawling state and instantly kill them. The armor will give me a bit more of a buffer before I start taking damage that matters. The higher my armor stat, the more regenerating health I have (effectively). Sadly, not recorded in terms of video. I've just been doing screenshots, but I do have a recording program that I could try to run during my next couple runs. Other than spawning in between enemies? Nope. For the most part, it's been gravy.
