[Discussion] Is Leveredge getting outclassed in Nightmare?

I've spent quite some time on all five main weapons, levelling them up to Prestige II - V. And I feel like Leveredge, the bolt-action marksman rifle, is getting outclassed by others.

Crowd Control: Let's be honest, Leveredge is the least efficient main to kill small enemies. Its bullets do not pierce, so it's one kill per shot at best; the per-shot damage is too high for smalls so the potential DPS is far from realized. The round-reload makes it not ideal for CC; the only other round-reload main, Shotgun, actually reloads faster than Leveredge and kills multiple per shot. Stacked Lever mitigates this, but you're spending 5 joker slots just to get it on par with ... the base Minigun! Alternatively, you can spend 3/6 joker slots on Reload Mastery, but Long Ranger needs only 4 mag upgrade slots reaches the same 10-round-mag and reloads faster.

Heavy Enemies Control: Bulls, Deadeye, and Lich. Leveredge does have high single-shot damage, but it's not high enough to one-shot Bulls and Deadeye even with Crit hits, not without Glass Cannon. (Eagle Lever isn't always reliable.) Long Ranger, on the other hand, can easily one-shot Deadeyes with body hits, and Bulls with crit hits. That leaves the Lich. Here Leveredge out-DPS Long Ranger, but still loses to the Shotgun which simply shreds the Lich at close range.

Boss Fight: This sounds like something Leveredge should be good at, especially with Eagle Lever, but it really is not - again, being crippled by round-reloading. And Stacked Lever can't help here. While active shooting, Leveredge DPS may be better than Quad Cylinder, but the latter is much faster to reload, resulting higher sustaining DPS. And, let's be honest, Minigun and Shotgun do a much better job at melting bosses.

In short, the current (0.1.1.18) Leveredge is in a really awkward position; it's a worse Long Ranger in many ways and best at nothing.

I propose the following buffs to Leveredge:

• Increase base reload speed. It shouldn't reload slower than Shotgun.
• Eagle Lever: Consecutive shots without missing grant +10% damage, stacking up to +50%. At max stacking, the bullets pierce.
• Stacked Lever: Instantly reload 2 bullets from your reserve ammo on kill, and 5 bullets from 5 consecutive critical hits.