I've spent a week analyzing and play-testing the strongest guns for every class. I'll include the well known powerhouses and how to build them, but the main focus will be on the missed picks. For a 12 year old game you will be surprised by not just how many there are, but how good they are!

>!Quick primer on weapon mechanics: horizontal recoil is random in this game. Past a certain point, this is functionally like spread because as much we'd like to believe that any amount of recoil can be managed with skill, the weapon randomly bouncing left or right every frame makes that impossible to accurately account for without missing some bullets. Weapons with a difference between their left and right recoil amounts can feel less consistent than more manageable because it can randomly go the opposite way it trends for multiple bullets in a row. Meaning your attempt to control the horizontal recoil can just add to the offset than help.!<

>!Vertical recoil only has a 10% variance from its value so its easy to manage, except for the first shot. Each gun has its own first shot recoil multiplier, This amount being multiplied can make it very extreme depending on the gun and attachments. !<

>!Suppression penalties for full auto weapons are the following: you get more spread increase per shot, up to double at max suppression. Both vertical recoil and first shot multiplier are increased up to 33%. These spread values ignore your weapon attachments so spread very quickly gets out of control. The first shot can jump wildly making you miss even in closer engagements depending on the weapon. The main takeaway from this is that you must burst fire your gun at the midrange if you are in a gunfight and you are suppressed. Even while suppressed, spread goes down super fast, starting to reduce in a mere 200 milliseconds. The spread increase being multiplied also heavily rewards lower spread guns in midrange engagements, which I'll get to starting now!!<

Assault

• ACE 23 [no barrel/flash hider, stubby] Appears to be one of the top guns in the game with its bigger mag size at 36 and fast fire rate of 770 rpm. But its horizontal recoil can be inconsistent and its first shot vertical is jarring. Misses out on the heavy barrels halved starting spread and reduced spread increase, because of the barrel's 30% vertical recoil penalty. Makes room for the flash hider which has no practical downsides at range [only downside is the amount of spread reduced per frame but it does that insanely fast regardless]. Not the best at range but definitely really good short of that.
• L85A2 [heavy barrel, ergo, sometimes laser] 750 rpm, reduced and far more consistent recoil than the ACE 23, its slight vertical recoil stats make heavy barrel a go to. It has less movement penalty which allows you to be a devastating strafer at the midrange when using the ergo grip and heavy barrel. For reference, with the ergo's halved movement penalty, and the heavy barrels reduced movement spread, it has an ADS movement penalty of 0.4 compared to the ACE-23's 1.0. I've read that because dispersion is in a cone shape, halving the diameter reduces the area by 4x. So this gun is literally multitudes better at moving and shooting than most AR's.
• M416 [suppressor, stubby] Not to be confused with the burst fire gun, this 750 rpm full auto is very similar to the L85. Its recoil and movement spread are slightly worse but it has one main advantage. This is one of three ARs that reloads 0.7 seconds faster than all the rest. This combined with its fast fire rate make it a great close quarters weapon. I included the suppressor over the heavy barrel for that reason alongside the guns 0.5x higher first shot multiplier.
• AR160 [heavy barrel, ergo/stubby, sometimes laser] 700 rpm, one of the fastest reload time and bullet speed among ARs. With no recoil and better than average spread stats its a beam at range. Most of the time I'll go with the L85A2, but if I'm in the mood for the longest range AR I'll slap on a stubby for the 20% reduced spread increase per shot and lay it down.
• AEK-971 [compensator, stubby] The must have for sweatlords everywhere, its extreme 900 rpm delivers some of the fastest TTK in the game. Definitely not uncontestable, there are some guns later on that can compete with this gun. I have to admit it kills surprisingly fast at range, if you are immensely disciplined and skilled at bursting, as well as can aim dead center of their body to minimize spread misses. But its recoil even with a compensator is bad, and its spread increases twice as fast as other guns.
• SCAR-H [flash hider, stubby] One of my favorite guns though not necessarily the best, this gun dishes out 33 damage bullets at 620 rpm. Quite a bit of vertical recoil to deal with so using just a stubby grip is best. Can 2 shot with 1 headshot up to about 15 meters. Reloads fast at 1.9 seconds but only has 20 bullets. Excellent at range if you can play around the 100m/s slower bullet speed since it will 5 shot anywhere on the body up to about 50 meters.

Engineer

• PDW-R [heavy, laser] 750 rpm. Deals slightly more damage than other engineer weapons. Not bad at midrange either. But more importantly its cracked at strafing. With the heavy barrel this gun starts out at the same accuracy while moving as some guns do standing. And here's a crazy thing about engineer weapons. They all have super hipfire accuracy. Even better than pistols. For reference AR's have a hipfire of 3.5 degrees. But this gun starts with 1.0, and is 33% better with a laser. You will dodge the most bullets out of any gun if you know how to move and shoot with this one.
• CBJ-MS [heavy, laser] 700 rpm. This gun might look like a nail gun. But looks can be deceiving. This gun has the most bullets out of any gun outside an LMG at 51. It has the fastest bullet speed of any engineer weapon by far. Its spread increase is top 5 lowest out of all AR's, engineer, or carbines. As an engineer weapon its hipfire is ridiculous. You can't go wrong with this gun.
• UMP-45 [heavy, stubby, laser] Kills in 4 bullets anywhere on the body under 22 meters with a fire rate of 600 rpm. For a lot of engineer/carbine weapons you are locked out of some attachment slots but not for this one. The heavy/stubby combo makes this gun quite accurate and it has no recoil. It has a very slow bullet speed though. The 26 mag size is pretty good with its slower fire rate alongside a super fast reload speed. If you play hardcore, it 1 shots to the head to about the 25m mark.
• AS VAL [stubby, laser] 900 rpm. This gun will 4 shot at point blank range. It has the huge downsides of 21 bullets to a mag and some of the worst recoil in the game. But it actually has very little spread and a 1.9 second reload makes it possible to use. You definitely need a strong secondary like a G18 or deagle. This gun is for the recoil gods out there.
• MPX [compensator, stubby, laser] At 850 RPM and 31 bullets, this gun is a contender for the best close range engineer weapon. It has some recoil with a compensator but its equal to both sides. The first shot recoil is certainly a lot too. Its damage profile of 24.5 starting means it has slightly more range than other weapons in the class but it's spread would still be bad. The only thing holding me back from running this gun is not being able to find a Chainlink server to unlock it.

LMGs

• QBB-95-1 [heavy, ergo, laser] This gun is easily missable due to there being like 4 guns that start with QBB. And the fact that it has an rpm of 650. But that doesn't get in the way of how INSANELY accurate this gun is at range. It has some of the best spread stats out of any gun in the game. That's not something you are used to from an LMG. Due to firing heavier LMG rounds, it also has a farther 5 shot range than any assault rifle at 55 meters. That is 3x further than a carbine. It has the best strafing accuracy out of any LMG by far. Its moving ADS accuracy is insane with an ergo grip. This gun beams people at ranges where its basically the only gun allowed to strafe and fire, aside from a few assault rifles, giving you a massive advantage. If you get the first shot in a gunfight at range, due to how suppression works you will simply win the gunfight. Especially if you start out with a headshot which has the most suppression. 76 bullets per mag, a useable 4 second reload speed, there's simply nothing this gun is bad at aside from close quarters. But guess what, the XM25 dart launcher is insanely consistent at hipfiring under the 10 meter mark. And you can get more darts from an ammo box. So this support gadget covers this guns one weakness perfectly. I've had KDR's higher than 3, getting 60 kills running around capping bases the entire match. Do not miss this gun!
• RPK [heavy, stubby] 600 rpm. You want the RPK that has 41 bullets per mag. Why? It 4 shots anywhere on the body to an insane 40 meters. Its accurate, it has good recoil, it reloads relatively quickly at 3 seconds. Its a fun gun to use.
• M240B [heavy, stubby] You'll see this gun recommended by youtubers a lot as one of the best LMG's but I don't see it. Yeah it has a slight 50 rpm advantage over the RPK but other than that its markedly worse. Worse recoil, worse bullet spread, twice as long reload speed at 6 seconds. The only thing going for it is that to 10 meters you can 2 shot with a single headshot. But there's a carbine which I think is better at this which I'll get to in a moment.
• M249 [heavy, stubby] 800 rpm. For when you have the flank of all flanks where you need 200 bullets.
• AWS [heavy, stubby] 780 rpm. Something of a pattern for battlefield 4, the starting gun in the class has a number of advantages. It has a reload speed of only 3.3 seconds which makes its 100 round mag beefy. Its fast fire rate and damage profile make it competitive at all ranges. Its recoil is a bit inconsistent and due to how fast the gun fires, bursting will be important at range. Pretty good gun all things considered. Would be insane with a bipod but every LMG is insane with one.

Carbines

• ACE 52 CQB [heavy, angled] 650 rpm. This gun 4 shots to a surprising range. And even better, you get a 2 shot kill with only 1 headshot up close. This gun has very high first shot recoil even with an angled grip which reduces it by 33%, but that can actually help you hit the headshot you need. Slightly faster fire rate than other 4 shotters but it only has 26 bullets to work with. Use if you think highly of your headshot accuracy.
• Groza-1 [laser] Not to be confused with the other grozas, this gun has faster TTK than the AEK being able to 4 shot at 725 rpm. All the way up to 25 meters. But don't get too excited because it has the worst bullet spread in the game and there's no attachments allowed. If they shoot back and you are suppressed, you can forget about your bullets going anywhere near where you aim. Its one hell of a close quarters gun though, being able to wipe out 5 players in one 31 round mag in the blink of an eye. And if you have excellent recoil control and burst discipline, it can be used up to 40 meters.
• MTAR-21 [compensator, stubby, laser] 900 rpm. Similar to the AEK, including the insane recoil, but it has much less range. Has better hipfire but is otherwise even less accurate. Not recommended.
• ACE 21 CQB [flash hider, stubby] 770 rpm. Has better spread than other fast firing carbines mostly due to not requiring a compensator for recoil. Has lots of bullets at 36 with a fast reload. Don't expect the range of the real ACE assault rifle since it has reduced damage and higher starting spread, but this will do in a pinch.
• AK 5C [heavy, stubby, laser] 700 rpm. Fastest bullet speed by a longshot and least recoil of all the carbines. Fastest reload speed as well. Good spread but range isn't crazy. Carbines are below average since they start 6 shotting at around 19 meters to 38 meters. But due to this guns accuracy, it can outgun some AR's and faster firing weapons from other classes. When you are expecting a lot of midrange engagements, its a strong contender for #1 carbine.

Shotguns

• 870 MCS [full choke, buckshot, laser] 1 more pellet than other pumps. Its super strong close quarters but both the hipfire and moving ADS accuracy are terrible. Though all you have to do is remove your hand from the movement keys and you're set. Flashlight isn't a bad option as it really does disorient people especially the damn flir users. The shotgun can feel inconsistent, partly because defensive loadouts take 85% damage from buckshot to the chest instead of the normal 93%. So shooting in the stomach can be one way to help with this but its not something to hyper focus on.
• Saiga 12K [ergo, laser, buckshot] I don't really recommend semi-auto shotguns outside of hardcore but the addition of the ergo grip makes the hipfire somewhat useable.

DMRs

• ACE 53 SV [heavy, stubby] What makes this gun unique among DMRs is it has the largest mag size at 26 and the 2nd best spread at 0.16 with both attachments. The only downside is that it has about 10% less bullet speed than some of the other DMRs. I'd say that spread is far more important though since those other DMRs increase spread 50% faster (with the exception of the 2 DMR's I'm about to list).
• SVD-12 [heavy, stubby] This DMR has the best spread increase out of any DMR at 0.11 with both attachments. Though its balanced by having 16 bullets but that's still useable with a DMRs fire rate. I'd use this gun over the ACE 53 when I'm expecting more long range engagements since its spread increase is twice as good as most DMRs.
• SKS [heavy, angled] This gun has a fire rate that is 25% faster than other DMRs which means it has a 100ms faster TTK. But the catch is that it only 3 shots to 56 meters. After that its a 4 shot with substantially more horizontal recoil and 20% slower bullet speed. Surprisingly, its tied with the SVD for most accurate DMR, so it can put in some work... if you plan your ambush carefully around the 40 meter mark. I recommend the angled grip but be careful, if you spam at the absolute max fire rate it will only affect the first shot.

Snipers

• SRR-61 [straight pull] This gun magically has 40% less bullet drop than other snipers which can throw you off at first. It has a good mag size at 8 which is 2 more than most snipers. Pretty average bullet speed. Has about 50% more range as the next gun on the list which only really matters when changing to a secondary to clean up hitmarkers.
• JNG-90 [straight pull] Almost 10% faster bullet speed than the SRR which will definitely make your shots more consistent. But it has a higher learning curve since bullets drop substantially more. It also has the benefit of the biggest sniper mag size of 11 and a fast reload speed of 2.7.
• FY-JS [straight pull, maybe flash hider] The last two snipers will be close range angle holders or quick scopers. This sniper will stop headshotting after only 100 meters but it comes with the advantages of a big mag size, fast bullet speed, reload speed, and reduced bullet drop like the SRR-61. If you point it at someones head under 50 meters they will instantly die. No worries about bullet drop or bullet speed.
• CS5 [straight pull] 25% faster fire rate than any other sniper makes it great for holding angles if you are a good head clicker. But its 33% slower bullet speed make that the only thing its good at.

Pistols

• 44 Magnum [heavy] Easily the best long range pistol. Its substantially more accurate and has the best bullet speed. Also the best ending damage allowing you to 3 shot at any range anywhere on the body. Makes headshotting a breeze and very satisfying.
• Deagle 44 [suppressor] Super fast TTK of 270 up close and mag size of 9, those extra 3 bullets help a ton in sticky situations compared to a revolver. Good reload speed as well. I'd like to put a heavy on this one because it could use the accuracy but the extra 0.6 degrees of vertical recoil for every shot just feels like too much. The suppressor reduces the bullet speed by 50m/s which is pretty insubstantial though it wasn't good to start with. Hipfiring pistols is super accurate, even this one, so you can get very easy headshots if you get surprised up close.
• G18 [heavy] When you think the sweatlord ran out of AEK ammo, they actually didn't because this gun exists. Its almost identical at a 900 rpm 5 shot kill but the spread increases insanely fast, and it has less range of course. Reloads quick as hell and has 18 bullets.
• CZ-75 [heavy] Due to its increased damage and range, this gun deals twice as much damage after the initial range as other semi-auto pistols. Shoots pretty quick for a pistol at 360 rpm but its 4 shot kills still take 500ms. With its good bullet speed and low spread increase its potentially the best pistol for cleaning up sniper hitmarkers. The 44 mag might do it in less shots but the reload speed would really slow you down.
• FN57 [heavy] Another gun that is used mostly for cleaning up hitmarkers. It shoots faster at 455 rpm and has bullet speed that is actually less than 10% slower than the 44 mag. It 5 shots to only about 10 meters so its definitely not any good as a close range sidearm. The CZ is much better before 60 meters because of its higher damage, but the damage evens out after that. After 60m this guns even better spread increase, similar to a DMR, and fire rate give it the edge.
• Mares Leg [heavy] All this talk about sniper secondaries made me realize, wait a minute this meme gun just might have a use. It has faster bullet speed than a 44 mag and the same damage profile. But it reloads a bullet in only 0.7 seconds instead of 4. It's great at hitting headshots on its own. When using the SRR, you can wipe up a hitmarker from 110 meters and when using the JNG, from 70 meters.

Wrap-up

As you can probably tell I love this game to death even with all its faults. With no more balance changes I figured it would be worth writing this up since I think this game has 10 more years in it. If you have any questions leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

It would be fun to have a 3 story vacation home where we don't have to worry about loading times or efficiency