The AR has poor on-hit output but Reliable 2 makes it a useful tool for securing kills on high evasion/invisible enemies, and even high armor/low HP NPCs if you grab Walking Armory 2.

Only Andromeda and Gandivas truly compete with it in the ranged heavy slot space, the former being a side-grade that trades flexibility (due to its heat cost) for superior range and a damage code that can be alternatively more consistent or enable a HA core bonus or OpCal rather than Autostabs, while Gandivas are an excellent long-range delivery platform for Nuclear Cavalier and Overpower Caliber with its fantastic tags at a bargain 1sp, allowing for very consistent damage output on a QA with no downsides.

While damage buffs are in almost all cases 1/round affairs, Accuracy is easy to obtain and in a repeatable fashion with Autostabs or Prone or Lock Ons and effectively with the Nanocomposite mod that ignores cover (and let's not forget Hyperspec or if allowed the Accuracy Reserve), all adding up to negating the Inaccurate downside becoming an effective damage buff that is also compatible with most other available damage buffs. You don't even need to invest in it to be good. Unaided it's better at firing into increased Difficulty ie Heavy Cover since when most weapons are eating the +1 -> 0 -> -1 Accuracy/Difficulty jump for average -3.5 each step, HMG is simply going from its base -3.5 to -4.2. Inaccurate is also the best possible downside for a damage code, because: Its basic damage code not only beats all mains but also beats or matches every other heavy weapon, and with no Heat/Ordnance/Loading downsides so it's repeat fire-friendly with Overcharge/Initiative/Overwatch and other more roundabout methods like Heavy Gunner.

Overkill 3 weapons prices reddit