What is the point of the LR-037 Harris linear rifle?

[PlutonArioch]

The only thing it is better at than the LR-036 Curtis is single shot damage and range, but with its lower fire rate their DPS is about the same uncharged, and the Curtis absolutely smashes the Harris in charged shots.

I can fire one charged shot from the Harris, then fire 3 charged shots from the Curtis before the Harris is ready to fire again, because the Harris has to cool down after every charged shot, while the Curtis can charge again immediately, as it produces way less heat. Only after shooting 3 charged shots as fast as possible does the Curtis have to cool down, but waiting a split second lets me continue to fire, still doing about twice the DPS as with the Harris.

Impact and accumulative impact is also much better with the Curtis. In the test arena I needed 4 charged shots of the Harris to stack the same amount of acc. impact as 3 charged shots from the Curtis - because it takes so long that the enemy starts to regenerate before I can fire again. Almost 3 times the ammo cost and takes 4 times as long. And yes, I know I can keep the pressure up with a second weapon, but the Curtis can do it on its own, making the second weapon an addition not a necessity to make the weapon viable for staggering.

If I stagger an enemy using a charged shot from the Harris, I usually can't fire it again until the stagger is over, wasting the damage potential. So again, I need other weapons either to do the damage, or to trigger the stagger, so I can get one (charged) shot in with the Harris - while with the Curtis I can usually get at least two charged shots in while the stagger lasts, even if I triggered it with a charged shot from the same weapon.

I guess its got a bit longer range, but those ranges are not really a factor to seriously think about in this game so far.

I was excited to finally see another linear rifle appear in the shop, but after trying it out, I am disappointed.
The only way I see it work efficiently is to switch it out with the Curtis, for a bit more damage roughly every fourth charged shot, while sacrificing a shoulder slot... so not really viable either.

Maybe if it did not produce quite as much heat so you could at least start charging it again after the first shot, it would be more viable.

[GhostNickel]

Don't think I ever even tried the Harris. Is is better non-charged maybe? Do you even have the ammo for that to be viable?

[Grimshot]

I use double Harris on my mid/long range wheelchair tread mech. It deals damage more effectively at longer ranges uncharged so I can just spam it while run away on my wheelchair treads. At closer ranges I'd go with the Curtis rifles though.

Funnily enough that setup was how I beat Cel 240

[ZTL-Altima]

Hmm, you noticed same thing as me. I'm still trying to find a real advantage. Main selling point is probably 40% more charged shot impact damage. But I don't know, the overheat is atrocious as you said.

[BKo]

Long overheat can be countered by using it as a shoulder weapon but I don't know if harris is worth all that.

[robruckus65]

Ive found its normal shot to preform better so its really good for just blasting mts then its charged shot still deals some hefty impact so its not bad on ac's either.

[Xaelon]

I use the Harris as an offhand in the quad build I use for defense missions. It does a good job at picking off anything that happens to live through a volley from my back weapons. I don't use it anywhere else though.

[frowningmirror]

The first patch for these games are always unbalanced, I hate to draw a comparison to Elden Ring, because this is really nothing like it, but maybe the players here will remember Rivers of Blood and understand that from typically balances things by patch

[PlutonArioch]

Publicado originalmente por GhostNickel:

Don't think I ever even tried the Harris. Is is better non-charged maybe? Do you even have the ammo for that to be viable?

Uncharged it does a bit over twice the damage and impact per shot(112 vs 239 dmg and 135 vs 285 imp), but also shoots about half as fast(2.5 vs 1.3 rps), so the DPS is very similar. Ammo costs twice as much for the Harris, but you get a decent amount for both (360 for the Harris, 420 for the Curtis). Ammo shortage is not an issue with either of them, unless you keep rapid firing at nothing. I guess technically if you don't charge any of the shots, with more than twice the damage and more than half the shots, the Harris has more long term damage potential, but if you don't charge any shots at all, whats the point of using a linear rifle? And I have yet to ever run out of ammo for the Curtis, which I have used as my main gun for pretty much the whole game so far.

Charged damage is 689 vs 850 and charged impact 850 vs 1250. So the Harris does a good deal more impact damage, but not as much more as 2 shots from the Curtis which would cost the same, or 3 shots which take about the same amount of time.

Publicado originalmente por Grimshot:

I use double Harris on my mid/long range wheelchair tread mech. It deals damage more effectively at longer ranges uncharged so I can just spam it while run away on my wheelchair treads. At closer ranges I'd go with the Curtis rifles though.

Right its got more effective range, but if I want to be at that range, I might just use lasers instead, and those usually do more damage.

Publicado originalmente por BKo:

Long overheat can be countered by using it as a shoulder weapon but I don't know if harris is worth all that.

Yes I tried that, and it kind of works, but takes away the shoulder slot, which I usually have a laser cannon on. So, I am missing massive amounts of damage doing that. I can just tap the Laser Cannon for more damage than the charged Harris, and use my main hand Curtis to do more impact damage in less time.

Publicado originalmente por robruckus65:

Ive found its normal shot to preform better so its really good for just blasting mts then its charged shot still deals some hefty impact so its not bad on ac's either.

Thats what I use my offhand Laser rifle for, and it does much better as most MTs seem to have much less energy defense than kinetic.

[Sigs]

I mained the Harris on my first play. The charge shots from akimbo either full-staggered or very nearly full staggered every boss and heavy until the convergence dive, for a pretty solid pile bunker charge follow up. They also were a decent stagger buildup with normal shots, but their damage and the damage on the handguns was disappointing.

They're pretty good at clearing mobs during that kind of mission, and not running out of ammo is useful for longer missions and getting ranks. Their damage doesn't quite hit the breakpoint to kill some mobs in one hit or a double akimbo burst, it's always just a little bit short when you expect a kill and move past. Alternating shoulder buttons lets you have a more constant fire rate than slamming them both at the same time, and speeds up mob kills.

In PVP akimbo Harris is also just shy of performing well, as it *almost* staggers with double charge akimbo, and you have to cycle to a different weapon. The damage is disappointing, but consistent.

Double charge akimbo, songbird or 2nd weapon, pile bunker, harris normal shots worked ok. I haven't tried the Curtis.

[PlutonArioch]

Publicado originalmente por Grimshot:

I use double Harris on my mid/long range wheelchair tread mech. It deals damage more effectively at longer ranges uncharged so I can just spam it while run away on my wheelchair treads. At closer ranges I'd go with the Curtis rifles though.

Funnily enough that setup was how I beat Cel 240

Well I beat Cel 240 just now too (and it took me quite a few attempts). I did try the Harris again (among lots of other things), tried two of them, several times, I also tried uncharged shots, but it was just not reliable enough for me.
What won me the fight in the end was 2x Curtis and 2x Laser Cannon - I could pretty reliably take about half his health in one stagger before he could move again, alternating charged Curtis and double laser cannon, while with the Harris I could again barely get a single shot in while the stagger lasts, unless I managed to stun him with another weapon, leaving only the cannons (or whatever else I had equipped besides the Harris) to do the damage.

After that fight I sold the two Harris I had. Until a patch makes it more usable, I don't think I want to ever touch that gun again.

Publicado originalmente por Sigs:

I mained the Harris on my first play.
...
I haven't tried the Curtis.

Are you sure you are not confusing them? You get the Curtis after the 2nd training mission, and the Harris unlocks in Chapter 4. How can you "main" a gun in your first playthrough that you only get towards the end?
Even if you did not confuse them, none of what you said does not apply to the Curtis, and the question is basically what makes the Harris worth using over the Curtis, which you get for free, much earlier, and which outperforms the Harris in almost every way, despite lower stats on paper.

[Aldain]

The sad thing is the Curtis is also better than the 3rd Assault Rifle in basically every way aside from the AR having an auto trigger so you don't need to mash to rapid fire, and also reloads pretty much an entire SECOND faster than the AR too with only 3 bullets less in the mag than the AR.

Weapon balance is a mess in AC6.

[robruckus65]

Publicado originalmente por PlutonArioch:

Publicado originalmente por robruckus65:

Ive found its normal shot to preform better so its really good for just blasting mts then its charged shot still deals some hefty impact so its not bad on ac's either.

Thats what I use my offhand Laser rifle for, and it does much better as most MTs seem to have much less energy defense than kinetic.

I havent really used the en weapons much since i put my os points into kinetic and explosive damage but Ill have to try it out. Ive been wanting to do a laser/plasma loadout instead of shotgun, rifle, missile, and grenade/spike. I really enjoy the laser drone from competing the arena ill have to try out a full en build.

[Silamon]

I was really disappointed with the Harris rifle... If you make the recharge that long it should be doing way more damage.

[MadArtillery]

It's slightly more effective against Baltaeus and his pulse shield but overall worse in general for sure. Only recently started using them on my NG+ jailbreak run so can't say I'm super experienced or anything.

[Chaoz]

Well crap, I've been using the Harris over the Curtis this ENTIRE TIME without knowing it was this bad. I guess the cooldown after every charged shot never bothered me a ton because I had 2 other weapons that were for direct damage. Guess its good it never hurt my main build *too* much, thanks for letting me know to just go back to Curtis. Sucks there's not much choice in linear rifles.