When thinking about balancing, we need to consider how things stand right now, especially when we know that some sort of balance changes will be implemented, but we don’t know which.
Also, these are not necessarily “broken” builds. A 25% buff to damage & accuracy of ARs perhaps warrants being replaced with something better, but it’s not really broken.
It’s part of the game design that weapons utility largely depends on the characters wielding them and how they use them. There may be adjustments, but this approach in general is not likely to change. And the point with SRs is that they benefit less from the skills & gear of the characters wielding them than other weapon types.
Regarding the table, unfortunately it’s only of partial use. First, accuracy and mobility are basically the same thing in PP: the capacity to reduce distance to target is the same as increasing accuracy, and both can be buffed a lot.
Regarding armor, it’s more nuanced than mid game enemies have 20 armor, late game enemies have 40 armor. For example, Chirons never have any armor on the heads. Crabs and Tritons, especially after Leviathan, tend to have much less armor and even in the late game have spots covered by just 10 armor.
And then again, you have to take into account the use of combined tactics: you are not going to shoot your AR at a highly armored target. First you will strip the armor using any of the multiple ways available, and second you will attack with the weapon that delivers most damage… And that is not going to be a SR.
SRs = easy, very suboptimal. Nerf them to be less “easy” and I don’t know where that will leave them taking into account the game as it currently is.
On that note, @conductiv I think the changes you suggested elsewhere to accuracy/damage/mobility buffs is really the right direction for balancing. As long as the hellcannon can be used with laser point accuracy and as a hammer and as everything in between…