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Killing Floor 2 Winter Beta is Live! Read the Changelog here.

Sniper is my main and favorite perk, and I can safely say that the new rifle needs to be nerfed. And it is desirable to completely remove from it the ability to kill and stop several zeds. She is able to stop any angry zed, this is already too big a plus. Some bosses, like the Abomination, just twitch and don't move when they're shot at, long enough to reload and stop her again. For example, I suggest one of the following:
1) Leave the characteristics as they are, but increase the weight by 1kg, this will put it on a par with the railgun and it will become a new heavy weapon and will not allow you to buy the M14. Also slightly reduce the amount of ammo.
2) Remove the ability to stop more than 1 zed, and it is also desirable to remove the chain damage after the shot so that neighboring large zeds do not get angry. There is an idea to completely change the mechanics of weapons: When killing with a headshot, an explosion will occur, stunning nearby zeds (as a skill for a survivalist)
I liked this weapon, but if something is not done with it, then I will remove it from my server, just like the locust, kaboomstick, frost fang, thermite and hrg dragonsblaze.
Sorry for the double-post, but I've finally tried everything the update has to offer (which includes the Storm Cannon) and I must say I fully agree with you Anapa. That gun is truly a sight to behold.

It's absolutely insane that the last two updates alone gave us the Locust, Ballistic Bouncer, ZED MkIII and Storm Cannon. All of which are insultingly good, to the point where I wonder if the team even test their updates before launching... I know that's the whole purpose of a beta, but there are some things that you should have noticed while coming up with the new guns. The visual bug we already mentioned while you use a skin (and the sights are totally obstructed) is also part of that : how did you launch the weapon without even noticing that you can't ADS?

As for the gun itself... It's yet another gun that has everything going FOR it. It's super powerful and melts a trash crowd with ease. It has next to ZERO recoil, allowing for follow-up shots bloody easily. You can totally use the sniper rifle from the hip and it will barely impact your performance. And the stun mechanic works on everything. Including bosses ! Including raging zeds ! It just does it all, and that's a huge problem. I'm coming back on the problem of power, but honestly : you can kill a Scrake in three headshots, a Fleshpound in four. That might sound like a big deal for a Sharp weapon, but considering you can stun with a single headshot AND can quickly mash the fire button to unleash the rest of your mag... It means you can kill two big zeds in a single mag. And hurt/kill trash zeds that walked by too. Way too much.

I can picture at least three ways to make the gun a little fairer :

1) Make it a bolt-action rifle (it would probably turn it into a cranked-up Mosin-Nagant rather than a better M14 EBR... But it would also make your shots matter more. Even if you manage to stun a big zed, you have to crank the bolt to land that much-needed follow-up shot. It's less lenient in a way)

2) Increase the recoil, so you can't pepper zeds as easily. It's ridiculous how easy it is to hipfire with a damn sniper rifle. It's already an oddity in the Sharp's arsenal (only the M14 EBR is really efficient doing that... and weird weapons like the Beluga Beat), but it even becomes a nuisance with the Storm Cannon. And if you add the semi-auto capabilities of the gun, it quickly becomes surprisingly easy to rack up the maximum bonus of "Rack'em Up". Add some oomph to the gun : it would FEEL better, and make shots a tad more difficult to land !

3) Remove the stun altogether? It seems like the core concept behind the weapon is to be able to electrocute multiple zeds as an extra reward for scoring a headshot (not a bad idea : it gives you even more reasons to aim for the head!). Having stun in addition to that just makes it a little too extra to score a headshot, which is already what you should be doing with most perks and especially the Sharpshooter. The fact that you can just mash to make the most use out of that stun is also problematic. At least make it totally inefficient against bosses and raging zeds, and make it so you have to at least land two shots in the head of big zeds (and even that would be quite easy to do really...)

You don't have to do all three, but I think a mix of only two of those attributes would put the HV Storm Cannon more in line without compromising its gimmick. Because as it stands... Yeah, it's definitely on-par with the Railgun and M99. You might not one-shot priority target, but you're so versatile anyway that it doesn't really matter. You're trading instant stopping power for more liberty in the way you play. Again, hardly a problem in most games... But yet another factor that favors selfish players in KF2.
 
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