There's no way to balance a weapon that is such low risk high reward in nearly any state without completely ruining the weapon. The best option would be to just remove it.
Reduce the firerate to a degree thats comparable to the other snipers, maybe a TAD BIT faster because the others are bolt action and this one is not. Change the accuracy with scoped shots to make it less forgiving if you arent deadon with your shots. Change the accuracy with unscoped shots to making it comparable to other snipers in CQC gameplay. boom done literally just fixed the sl8
I have an idea, make the SL8 a pickup only like the double barrel. Perfect. Also take the grenade out of the shop so people who have billions of points stop spamming it.
Played a map or two using different guns and still top scoring. Aug, P90, Famas, Shotgun, and a couple of other ARs. Mostly competing against the sl8. Point being the majority of guns are good in a good player's hands. If we went back to nerfed sl8 and nerfed AK47 then those above average players who spam the sl8 would stop using it, but it still makes the sl8 good in good player's hands and that won't change. That's just how the gun is and how source engine works when it comes to gunplay. The majority of the guns are good. And balancing should be around actual guns and not because a few people understand how to use said gun. pre nerf or post nerf SL8 wouldn't change what people are mostly complaining about.
how full of yourself are you jesus christ "oh ill still be good with the sl8 so no point in nerfing it lol"
That's not exactly what I'm saying. but ok to elaborate: It would be like when Blizz nerfed Widowmaker because top tier players utilized the scoping mechanics better than the majority of players. It was a misguided decision based more so on player utilization and not the actual thing itself.
That is such a bad bad comparison. Widowmaker isnt an all around character that is the best pick at every fighting range, like the SL8 is. The thing about SL8 is that its good in EVERY situation, not just mid/long range where you would expect a sniper to be good at. Rice it really makes it hard to take you seriously when you cant grasp that idea. The SL8 just shoots way too fucking fast (and accurately with no recoil) with 1-hit kill mechanics to be considered any kind of skill weapon. The M14 is the only comparable weapon, but it it becomes really inconsistent at longer range.
C’mon @Rice and Chicken even you know that the sl8 is fucking too poggers. Large clip with 1hit headshot. I’m for what @jonnyallen3 suggested and making it a floor loot item like the double barrel. What say you @MiGGo
My thread has feelings A good player being good isn't the problem. It never was the problem. As I stated from the beginning, good players only make the unbalanced state of the gun even more apparent. And if your stance is that changing the sl8 won't affect the good players, WHY ARE YOU AGAINST THE CHANGE? Considering the fact that you "top scored on every map", the changes presented shouldn't affect you in the slightest. And don't act like you "understand" the sl8. You point and you shoot. Everyone "understands' the gun, that's why most people use it. In fact, it seems that you are actually arguing FOR there to be harsher changes for the sl8, since post nerf wasn't enough to affect the "good" players. The gun is unbalanced, and because of that there is a meta in which the sl8 is used by everyone who knows how to aim. Lowering the fire rate/clip size would mean you cant spam the gun and the good players would still be good with it, but those who rely on the fast fire rate and high clip size would take a hit. They would most likely have to switch weapons. How is that a bad thing, rice? The changes people have presented would not impact the power of the gun and its one shot capabilities, so why are YOU the one resisting the balance?
even a shit-tier player like me that misses half a mag of almost every gun I use because spray and pray, can get a solid 6 kills easily with the sl8 (Tried today, was curious to see how it was) that tells ya somethin it go pew pew really fast and hits like a truck.
Why not just decrease the fire rate, increase the spread and make it a 2 shot to the head? That’ll mean more time to kill and at mid-long ranges the cone of the bullets will be bigger so a lot of shots won’t connect to the target.
