Recently TC have been thinking about removing the active reload effects from the Lancer, just like the Gnasher.
Purely because of how powerful it is with actives and the fact that you don’t know when someone has an active.
I feel like this is only a problem because they changed the way actives work since Gears of War 4.
I never liked the change personally and don’t even think it makes a lot of sense, i think if they changed actives back to how they were originally, this wouldn’t even be a big problem.
I also think the original style was far more skillful, let me explain why.
If you wanted the advantage of an active reload it came with risks such as;
Revealing your position
- Firing your gun to empty your clip could tell your opponents where you are if you’re trying to hide but want to be able to active reload your next clip when you see an opponent.
Waste of bullets
- Wasting bullets to have the benefit of the next clip having more damage with an active. Currently you start with 240 in the Lancer and 30 in the Gnasher, if you fired a full clip you would waste 40 bullets in the Lancer and 6 from the Gnasher currently, meaning you’d have to keep an eye on your ammo.
Being caught off guard
- You could be caught with no ammo in your gun because you had previously emptied your clip to wait to active reload when you see an opponent. Or be caught with only a bullet or two in your Gnasher giving you a huge disadvantage.
Late to a position on the map
- If you wanted to get an active reload at the start of a match but also wanted to grab a power weapon, you would have to waste time emptying some bullets instead of getting to the power weapon first. A lot of players used to fire when running around cover back on the original Gears so it wasted as little time as possible but they had a small advantage going into the fight.
You can’t chainsaw
- If you’re out of bullets and your character starts to reload you can’t instantly chainsaw to kill your opponent, you have to hit the reload before being able to chainsaw, which takes time.
Not getting the active
- You might simply miss the active or even the entire reload and jam the gun, meaning you just wasted a bunch of bullets and jammed your gun when you would’ve had a full normal clip if you hadn’t tried.
(I know this is still applicable to Gears 5 but it’s exaggerated with the old system)
The new style of active reloads, since Gears of War 4 i think removes a lot of skill and is too forgiving, you can active reload over and over again with no real risk. You don’t waste ammo or give away your position and you can reload as much as you want without having to fire a bullet, meaning there’s no punishment for failing.
I also think the original way to active reload would sort out a lot of the problems people are complaining about. It would reduce the overall power of the Lancer as people wouldn’t be able to active reload as frequently, and you also know at the start of the round you’re not going to run straight into a wall of active bullets.
The 8 bullet Gnasher would be better suited than the 6 bullet Gnasher to the original active reload system also, you could even add back the effects of an active on the Gnasher. (He says cautiously)
Also a personal reason i don’t like the new active system is the fact you can’t always hit the active because it’s not always there and faded out. It doesn’t feel good to not hit an active when reloading.
I heard Octus say it looks silly to a new player if someone is randomly firing their gun which was one of the reasons for changing the actives, but i don’t think this is a good enough reason considering the skill/risks the old system has over the new. Simple thing, probably overlooked but i think it would increase the skill gap overall and sort out the issue with the active Lancer being too overpowered as you would active far less frequently.