140s just don't have a place in this sandbox, especially on console. 150s generally have more aim assist, more handling, higher recoil direction, and almost identical range and yet have a faster TTK and are more forgiving in terms of follow up shot time if you miss a headshot.
The 140 RPM and 150 RPM archetypes must be separated.
On top of all this, Ace of Spades has been absolutely neutered on console. It has ben nerfed in the following ways:
1. Range cap of 28 meters with SEVERE damage dropoff;
2. Memento Mori damage nerf;
3. Memento Mori suffers damage dropoff;
4. Ace with Memento Mori active [i]seems[/i] to have more severe dropoff than while it isn't active, making all the bonus damage dropoff very quickly; and
5. Memento Mori deactivates upon weapon swap, ghost is pulled out, emote, etc. Only other gun that does this is Tarrabah. Even Soul Devourer stays active on Thorn if you do any of these things.
All these things while Ace has NEVER had more than 3% of kills on console. These nerfs were all done for the sake of PC balance and have made Ace usless on console. 140s in general became useless when they essentially became worse 150s.
On top that, they're now competing with autos with a 0.7s TTK firing at 600 RPM, making follow up shots to account for damage dropoff very fast. So melting a target at 30 meters is nothing for an auto right now.
Personally, I'd like to see 140s have a body shot damage [i]or[/i] crit damage increase to allow them to kill guardians in 2 crits and 1 body shots. Body shot buff would be to avoid 2 taps with kill clip or Memento Mori, but I wouldn't be against two taps considering where autos are right now. But I think a body shot buff is more in line with where HCs should be. So, no two taps from Ace, sadly.
A damage dropoff point of 30-32 meters should be fine, considering autos are both more forgiving and more lethal at this point.
Memento Mori needs to suffer damage dropoff at a much less severity level. No reason why it's exotic perk should be null and void at 30 meters. It also shouldn't go away when you swap weapons, but infinite kill clip might be a little much. We'll have to see on that one.
Let us put Icarus on it. All that needs to be said there.
That's all I got. Let me know what y'all think.
And before someone says "NOOB CANNONS WERE META FOR YEARS!!!! LET SOMETHING ELSE SHINE!!!", a sandbox update isn't meant to just "shift" the meta. Its purpose is to narrow the gap between meta and non-meta. That, and I hardly think this change to 140s with no change to autos will kick autos off the top either. It'll just make 140s more consistent, which they desperately need.
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[quote] All these things whole Ace has NEVER had more than 3% of kills on console.[/quote] I'm not against buffing a specific weapon on occasion, but this just jumped out at me as a bit odd to focus on, even briefly. That's still a shitload of kills out of all weapons to be attributed to Ace of Spades.