Hemlok - How do we improve this weapon?
I've read and heard before that the Hemlok was a strong weapon a couple of seasons ago, with the hip-fire being the main reason for its strength due to how accurate it was. Reading the old patch notes, Respawn proceeded to heavily nerf the hip-fire in Season 8.1 (Chaos Theory patch), make it a gold kit weapon in Season 9 which no one bothered to use, and in Season 10 introduced a hop-up (Boosted Loader) for it and returned some of its hip-fire strength. However, the weapon still feels lackluster to use.
In my games, I've seen people pick it up on drop and then exchange it for a Flatline/SMG immediately. And I wouldn't really fault them for doing that... It has a ~1.24s Body TTK against a Purple Evo whereas the Flatline has a ~0.96s Body TTK, nearly ~25% slower than an easier gun (Flatline) while requiring more attachments to be worthwhile to use. And with the nature of Burst weapons in FPS games, they can be hard to use while tracking someone, having only 1/3 or 2/3 of the burst hitting your enemy at times. This is especially so against strafing enemies too.
My question to everyone is this.. How do we improve the Hemlok so its a more fitting weapon to use rather than being outshined by the Flatline or other SMGs? I weighed some thoughts:
- Hemlok can now fit either a standard stock or sniper stock (akin to the CAR being able to fit a Light/Heavy mag)
- Boosted Loader reworked to provide more ammo (+6 to Mag size) on Hemlok rather than on a Boosted reload. Additionally, you no longer receive a Boosted reload while low. Instead, you get a Boosted reload after you down or kill an opponent.
- (New) Improve TTK by ~8% (or shedding ~0.10secs off TTK) by increasing Rate of Fire. (~1.24s on Purp Evo -> ~1.14s on Purp Evo)
Ideas from others:
- Reduce the ADS penalty for the Hemlok
- Increase Bullet velocity