The Truth About Gun Stats? An in-depth Gun/Stat guide

[rorriM]

So let's get real
There are many guns in iEra, and unfortunately too many people simply don't understand them. This guide will explain what each stat affects, how to choose a suitable gun, as well as some clarifications for specific guns, and stats in general. A lot of research has gone into this guide, and I encourage you to ask any questions you have, and point out any errors you see.

The Stats
You could probably find all of this information in separate threads, but I'm here to bring it all together, as well as explain them with a little more detail. Clear things up, ya know..? Throughout this guide, keep in mind that you can't argue with stats. Many people suffer from a strong placebo effect while judging the strength of a gun. This guide, however, is based solely on stats.

There are 8 stats which affect the functionality of a gun: Damage, Freeze rate, Fire rate(rof), Spread, Reload freeze, Reload sleep, Bullet placement, and Clip size.

Stats are represented through small numbers. Stats referring to a duration of time(: freeze rate) are in milliseconds.

Damage- Had to start off with the obvious one. Whether a gun has "good damage" is heavily dependent on all the other stats.
•A gun's description will tell you its damage in "good" shape.
•The gun always deals 1 more damage in perfect shape than in good shape.

Freeze rate- After firing a gun, your character is unable to move for a brief period of time. This is called "Freeze rate"
•Lower freeze is obviously better
•Low freeze is from around 0.085 to 0.14
•Moderate freeze is from around 0.14 to 0.2
•High freeze is 0.2 +
For example, M4 has 0.185 freeze while vector has 0.15. This is a rather large difference when referring to freeze rate.

Fire rate- After firing a gun, there is a short period of time before you are able to fire again. "rof" stands for "rate of fire".
•If a gun has higher freeze than fire rate, you are unable to move at all while firing(example: ak47, AA-12)
•Fast rof is from around 0.13 to 0.2
•Moderate rof is from around 0.2 to 0.27
•Low rof is from 0.27 +
•Automatic guns generally fire slower while holding the fire key down, as opposed to tap firing.(you can shoot a bar faster by tapping than by holding the fire key)
For example, dual P2K has 0.19 rof while mp5 has 0.26 rof. This is a notable difference, yet not major. Flamethrower has 0.138 rof, which is significantly faster than mp5.

Spread- This refers to the accuracy of the gun. Higher spread means less accurate, and the bullet is more likely to shoot at a higher angle.
•High/low spread is neither and advantage, nor a disadvantage. It is usually down to the preference of the user.
•A spread value of 0 indicates that the gun is 100% accurate, and shoots completely straight (example: M107)
•High spread is generally good for spar, while low spread is generally good for pk(but not always, ex: pbp shotgun)
•Spread is a very sensitive stat: 0.15 spread is massive while 0.09 spread is moderate.
For example, Vector has 0.09 spread while ion carbine has 0.01 spread.

Advantages of High spread
•Complicates dodging for opponents
•Makes it easier to break out of top half of spar arena
•Requires less emphasis/focus on aiming
•Bullets cover a larger area, useful for pk

Advantages of Low spread
•Able to accurately hit far away opponents
•Bullets won't accidentally hit walls
•Easier to plan and hit opponents
•Experienced opponents know how to dodge spread, which may make it more of a disadvantage

Reload Freeze- After reloading, there is a period of time before you are able to move again.
•An example reload stat is 0.4-0.45, the first number(0.4) is the reload freeze.
•Low reload freeze is 0.1 to 0.3
•Moderate reload freeze is 0.3 to 0.4
•High reload freeze is 0.4 +
For example, M9 pistol has 0.1 reload freeze, while mp5 has 0.4 reload freeze.

Reload Sleep- After reloading, there is a period of time before you are able to fire again. DO NOT mistake this with reload freeze.
•An example reload stat is 0.4-0.45, the second number(0.45) is the reload sleep.
•For some it is less confusing to look at this stat as "after reloading, the period of time after being able to move before you can fire"
Some guns do not have reload sleep, because the reload sleep is equal to the reload freeze. For example, the M9 pistol's reload stat is 0.1-0.1; notice how the two numbers are equal. You would be able to fire immediately after being able to move. This is /very/ uncommon though.

Bullet Placement- Ah, this one is very confusing. Basically, this refers to the point of origin of the bullet(where does the bullet start?). This stat is in the form of (X,Y). X being the horizontal distance from the center of the player, and Y being the vertical distance from the center of the player. So what does this actually do?
Take sniper rifles for example, if you stand next to a wall you are able to shoot through it. This is because the bullet originates on the other side of the wall.
•In pk, this stat is useful for hiding behind barriers and shooting through them, but only with sniper rifles
•Interestingly, vector and m4a3 each have highly disjointed bullet placement, meaning they are similar to sniper rifles. Gives a slight edge in spar
•Bullet placement is also known as right/left wielding. A gun that right wields will have an advantage on the bottom left corner of the spar arena.
•Guns like m4a3 can change their bullet placement through the wield flip perk
•Dual wield weapons have two bullet placement stats, one for each bullet. These guns have the advantage on both sides of the spar arena

Clip size- Not much to say about this.
•Whether a gun has a good or bad clip size is generally dictated by the reload stats.
For example, a gun with a clip size of 12 is good with a reload stat of 0.1-0.2, but bad with a reload stat of 0.7-0.75


Well.. Which gun?

To know which gun to use, you need to ask yourself some questions first. To be honest, this is mostly just my recommendation. I consider myself qualified though.

1. What will I be using the gun for?
If you plan on sparring
•Low freeze, this is the main stat to look for
•Moderate Damage
•Moderate to high spread. This makes it difficult for your opponents to dodge
•Moderate to high Fire rate, however this does not always matter.
•Low/Moderate Reload. Avoid high reload like the plague

If you plan on pking
•Freeze does not matter
•High damage per second, whether it be low damage and high rof, or high damage and low/moderate rof
•Reload does not matter

If you want a versatile gun, go with all moderate stats(example: M4, BAR)

2. How much am I willing to spend?
We aren't all made of money. So I recommend you check out the stats for the guns you are interested in after question 1, and then narrow it down till you find the gun that personally suits you best. Don't go along with "well the most expensive gun is obviously the best for me"
I get more wins with my tar21, which costs 35k, than I do with my GM4.

Sadly, this game is unbalanced. The PBP shotgun outperforms the minigun by far for pking(except in fort killer). The AA-12 shotgun is debatably better than the pbp shotgun
Minigun: $200,000
PBP Shotgun: $125,000
AA-12 Shotgun: $60,000

Do not automatically assume the most expensive guns are the best for you.

3. Regular guns? Auction guns? EC guns??
Think of it like this, the harder a gun is to get- the stronger it is. When people say "blahh this game is pay 2 win", they are only half correct. It is true that a $200,000 gun is stronger than a $8,000 gun.. but statistically event guns and auction guns are /much/ stronger than their regular gun counterparts. I include reward guns with auction and ec guns, because they are also much stronger than their price tags.
I'll elaborate on this more later.

Personally, i would recommend you just get a bar. It's great for sparring, pking, and basing. Contrary to popular belief, i believe it's better than a gm4 for sparring. This is merely my personal opinion, but I've never met someone to regret buying their bar, unlike the many many people who regret their Gm4s and Miniguns(including myself). Call it biased, yep.