Atlas Optimized Q-System vs. Rebel Yell

Borderlands 3 Loot and Weapons
#1

I am spending a lot more time playing with Atlas weapons in BL3 then I ever did in BL2. My interest started when I picked up a Rebel Yell, but truth be told, I like the Q-System a lot more. The Q-System tracker grenade is more generalized to an area than the Rebel Yell tracker dart which needs to be right on target to work properly. Then there is the damage number…Once zeroed in, even at a relatively lower fire rate, the Q-System can take down a fair number of enemies.

I have seen a couple of examples of the Rebel Yell, but they all seemed underpowered compared to the purples. Does anyone have additional examples?

atlas rebel vs Q
atlas rebel vs Q1790×968 223 KB

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#2

It’s the Q-System for me…I haven’t really cared that much for the Rebel Yell and never really tried the Carrier. I just picked one up doing the Slaughtershaft.

My Q system is 1193x 2, also have another one that’s 1136x2, those are the highest i’ve seen. Wonder how high damage goes on it.

I think those ARs can spawn with different types of trackers. Mine has a tracker puck that homes to the nearest enemy, then after I kill that enemy it finds another. Lasts for 27 seconds too.

Badass!

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#3

Wow.
I will have to keep an eye out for that.

#4

The Q-system is my #1 slot gun all the time.
Took about 10 hours of game play to realize how good this weapon is in the general-purpose space. It takes the place (for me) that Lyuda’s held in BL2.

And that’s even with the reality that I rarely trigger the tracking grenade. Since I play with “classic” controller layout switching to tracker mode is a pain in combat, so my love for this gun is purely based on natural handling, aim, and damage.
–RoA

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#5

Hol’ up…

A Q-System can come with any of the three tracker types: darts, pucks, and grenades. Here are my thoughts on these:

  • Darts are great because they make it easier to tag fast-moving enemies, but they only hit one at a time.
  • Pucks travel slower, but upon tagging/killing the target, the puck will fly straight up a little, and search for a nearby target. If they find one, they’ll tag the enemy, and you can resume firing. As long as enemies are near each other, the puck will do this until the timer runs out.
  • Grenades travel even slower and have limited travel distance, but a decent explosive tracker range (which appears to be able to tag behind walls, though I need to re-confirm this). Direct hits with a grenade will also automatically cause it to detonate and tag… I wasn’t a fan of grenades before, but they’re starting to grow on me.

The Rebel Yell only spawns with (shock) darts. If you don’t care about ammo efficiency, it seems to kill enemies as fast (if not faster) than my high-end Q-System. I think the mechanism here is the white health damage, which will fade away with a little time between shots. The Rebel Yell’s fire rate is so high that one can drag this white health line to the end of the health bar with no ‘gaps’ in damage (where the Q-System’s fire rates aren’t as high, and there’s a little recovery).

I find myself using the Rebel Yell more because enemies die as fast as with my Q-System, but it’s way more fun and intense re-targeting enemies so fast (and I don’t care about ammo efficiency).

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#6

I don’t care too much for either but before I started getting alot of anointed gear I used the Rebel Yell on quicker enemies and militant faces for that purpose. It did feel sub par on Fl4k outside of high crit builds with Two Fang though.

#7

Thanks for the info on darts, pucks and grenades.

#8

Rebel Yell in M1-M3 is really good, the lower damage is more than offset by the firing rate. It tanks hard in M4 :frowning:

Carrier is pretty good if you have the ASE bonus element damage on shield/grenade

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#10

I thought Q-system only came with the Puck. That’s all I’ve ever seen them with.

#11

Love Q-systems and still curious why my green one with like ~40 accuracy and handling (perhaps somewhat exaggerating, away from game) is sniping better than proper snipers. Recoil seems to be minimal…

#12

The Rebel yell finds itself in this wired place with how its put together. Its Critical Hit Modifer suggests that you want to always land Tracker Darts on a crit then fire away. The rate of fire is passable for this playstyle but the mag size means your reloading often. On top of the guns less then impressive base damage and fixed element it’s not much of an end game gun. Fine for leveling or without Mayhem Mode. If the gun could be a variety of elements that would he amazing because Atlas guns can’t be elemental. Having one that not only allowed you to fire from cover or while moving around and still hitting crits would be fantastic. It would also help if the gun got a bit more extra crit damage to better incentivize its playstyle.

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#13

The Q system like any other white to Purple atlas can have any bottom attachment iv got ones with Grenades, ones with Darts and Pucks to. It dose seem like puck is more common on purple for some reason but that could just be my rng.

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#14

@RavenOfArisia …i haven’t been able to figure that out on xbox yet, so have avoided atlas guns. how do you initiate tracker mode on the xbox controller while in classic mode?

#15

I believe it’s by holding ‘Y’ (same for switching fire modes for Vladof and element on Maliwan guns).

#16

As @CharmlessBee says, it’s a press on the Y button. A long press, like the press you do to go to a Fast Travel.
Which completely messes me up in combat. I’m pressing buttons fast and moving around, long presses really mess that up.
Imagine, as an example, if you had to long-press to jump, jumping would be really difficult. Same for me with mode-swapping, a long-press doesn’t keep up with combat.
Irritatingly, they left short-press/tap on Y to be next weapon, which, when you’re using the D-pad for weapon selection, you don’t need at all.
The proper method should be short press/tap on Y for mode switch and I know I’d use it. As it is I only switch weapon modes (on all weapons that support it) prior to combat to set up, not during combat.

Of course this begs the entire question of letting us free-assign all controller settings on consoles, which I find irritating that they don’t (must be a platform requirement). I fix that somewhat by setting up my Xbox Elite in non-standard ways for Borderlands, but it still doesn’t help with long-press.
Went on a bit about this, but it continues to irritate me, I feel like I’m missing a dimension of the game by not being able to, or being comfortable with, a new aspect of gun play.
–RoA

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#17

That was a reason I actually bit a bullet and switched to non-classic/default layout. I’m sure I’m paying a price by not being able to get to the gun I want quickly, especially in FFYL.

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#18

Not being able to get the correct weapon is always a pain. Lag in multi player seems to really affect it as well. I really wish we had another option.

#19

The one @RavenOfArisia outlined above would work just fine: let quick press of ‘Y’ switch firing mode, instead of doing ‘next weapon’. You already have fine grained control of weapon selection with D-pad in this scheme, why do I need ‘next’ option on top of that…

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#20

I think it works for element selection on Maliwan since these are quite permanent, but on Atlas and Vladof not so sure.

IIRC tracking shot for Atlas fires once and then it goes into smart bullet mode, which kind of makes sense.

For Vladof I think reload resets it as well - you go from underbarrel attachment to primary fire.

#21

With this discussion, I am interested in what people’s impression of the Atlas pistols may be. I have seen them, mostly in purple versions, but never picked one up. I do remember that they spawned pretty regularly with golden keys, but now that I am interested, I cannot seem to find a single example–even with the golden keys.