Are smart weapons even good?

[[Slayer]]

Just seems like Tech or Power weapons will still out DPS them while tech weapons can bypass cover.

[AOD_Shinigami]

Yes Smart Weapons are good. With the correct spec and cyber implants they are overpowered.

[yahboi1988]

So far from what I have experienced in my many builds is if you focus in on a mechanic you can make it OP.

[[Slayer]]

I have tried the yinglong with maxed int. I am basically a netrunner and everything dies to quick hacks, but sometimes if I want to run and gun the smart weapons make you take damage too much since you have to move out of cover compared to tech weapons.

Tech weapons -> Ping enemies, shoot them.

Smart weapons, wait for lock unless you are overclocked, can't shoot pass cover, gets shot at.

Playing on very hard mode level 45 atm.

[ImHelping]

Far too much investment to get any meaningful use out of them. Though the smart weapon hands is a great low cost source of +ram even if you never bother with smartguns.

Power and Tech weapons can help out even without iconic versions, and even without dumping a ton of points into perks to make them work right (varies per weapon category. AK/SMG can be rough without pity perks while shotguns are great regardless)

Smart weapons are the most desperately screaming "but the iconic makes them overpowered!" category of weapons in the game. Can't even help with car chases when riding something without built in weapons because they seem to act dumber on purpose never aiming at heads. (also feels like stuffing the chimera core mod for explosive ammo in a power SMG gets neutered for car shooting though).

They can be fun, and the +ram on kill earlier perk can help out for an action combat hacker roleplay. But that trait never helps you against minibosses/bosses, everything you wish the chimera core smart weapon mod would help on is basically immune to those debuffs, etc.

Hell one of the more fun concept new smart guns, the silenced spy one? (still too weak per shot to kill before an alert but ramping crit values) Drops from a guy in a boss fight that smart weapons are gaaaargabe against, but you might forget that using it on his spawned adds.

Smart weapons basically suffer doubled up MMO guns problems of "The easier it is on your index finger, the less effective it is." Like how a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ iconic 5++ machinegun kills slower than an uzi. I only use the DLC LMG to make a game out of "Can I kill all these trah with no manual reloads?" with the 20% ammo refill perk. (Which also counts hacking someone to death).

If your main concern is adding some extra mechanics to killing fodder, smart guns can help give you some fun because as useful as double tapping very hard idiots with two healthbars to death with a tactician shotgun is, that does not give you the extra brain juices feel of "Oh boy, even MORE ram for shooting that guy!" when you have bottomed out your 35-40 ram in a long series of reinforcement spam. (Part of why I value the 250% regen below 7 ram skeleton part over the cooldown refill when low chrome.)

Also, remember. This fanbase is the same one that cries shooting someone in the back of the head execution style for over 1,500 damage actually killing someone ruins their immersion (but also if you don't bleed out from a 9mm pistol shooting your dermal armored shins you hate a challenge). A white grade liberty pistol would be called overpowered by the same people who call smartguns as a weapon category overpowered.

They can be "okay", but will always feel like a letdown for the amount of effort you put into them compared to "Even 4 cool can deal 1.5k damage with headshots with the right power pistol (once you get an orange silencer)." or shooting somebody in the head with tech/explosive ammo power weapon so hard their legs fly into the sky while their body falls down.