So obviously the first instinct to compare this to is Arclights, because that's kind of what the Marksman becomes. So let's look at the comparison after the patch:

So, essentially, Marksman has more HP, Attack (even with charged shot), splash, move speed, and can already attack air. They have WAY slower attack speed, and significantly lower range.

A good way to think about this further is to give Arclight charged shot, and MM Quick Reload. Now MM deals ~1,165 damage per shot but an interval of 1.45s, while arclight is dealing 1,038 damage at a 1.1s interval.

• The DPS difference here is 803 AMM dps vs. 944 CS Arc dps. CS Arcs have about 17.6% more DPS than AMM.

  • QR allows AMM to better take care of chaff than before, but Arcs are still much faster, and better overall for clearing out chaff.

• The advantage of AMM is that it is already frontloaded with AA and "Charged shot". It should theoretically deal with balls and sledges much better, because each shot is way more impactful, and when Elite Marksman starts ramping up, it will counter both armor and field recovery (both of which got buffed on several units) much more efficiently, particularly if the extra 1m splash is relevant.

  • The ironic thing is that now the "carry" MM vs. "carry" Arclight matchup is in Arclight's favor, due to the extra 23m range. This isn't super actionable if you aren't already laying down arclights, though. It is good to know if the opponent has arclights down already for whether you should take this card.

• Actually the EM breakpoints are worth looking at.

  • Without QR, MM will one-shot arclights starting at Level 4 (level 3 with atk upgrade and no hp modifiers). With QR, MM will never one-shot same-level arclights.
  • Arclights in turn never even TWO-shot the marksman even if both are level 9. BUT it is worth noting that they will always have the range advantage, meaning they get 1-2 extra shots off. They start 3-shotting same-level MM at level 5.
  • With that in mind, I believe I spoke too hastily, and the AMM vs. Arclight "carry" matchup is a tossup of what's on the board.
  • As the arclight player, it might be worth throwing more and more chaff at the MM player, because it's much harder for him to keep up.
  • With all this in mind, I believe the win still goes to Arc, because there's not much that the MM player can do in return.

• The MM being tankier and speedier makes it ideal for an aggressive playstyle. That said, you don't know when the card will come out, or if it ever will, so pre-placing your marksmen in an aggressive manner is a recipe for disaster.

I see this card as a gutshot pick for when the opponent is somewhat chaff heavy and you have mostly-useless marksman who are hitting crawlers all day. This brings them into use without having to pivot to arclights, vulcan, or mustangs. It's also a fantastic blockade to your opponent pivoting to wasps, much like multiple arclights with AA slotted in can be.

I do not see this card as an always pick card for when you have MM on the field. It significantly reduces their impact on the map in range wars where they need to stay back to snipe down boats, fortresses, or vulcans. It should be a fantastic pick into ball stang, however, much like CS Arclight already is. AMM should have an elite-marksman breakpoint for one-shotting sledges and balls much sooner than arclights do as well (even 2 or 3-shotting them, given the attack speed differences), which is something to consider if it looks like your opponent is heavily investing into that strategy.

I don't think it will be a response to hacker fang, they have to get too close to the hackers, even at 110m range 8/level on EM, and that spells disaster to me if they nab even a single one of your marksmen. Though I guess time will tell.

Also, worth mentioning that the Phoenix matchup gets very different, as the Phoenix should get the first shot now even with Charged Shot/Launcher Overload reducing range to 95m baseline (basically the same as the arclight, actually), BUT without charged shot, they don't one-shot the marksman. And with heavy armor specialist (or HP upgrade in CC, though ATK upgrade makes up for this in turn), the marksman actually survives TWO shots, requiring a third. This could potentially allow the AMM to move into position quickly enough to one-shot BOTH phoenixes, though we'll have to test, I'm not sure how the splash will play out.

This case is also less reliable in the hectic chaos of battle, as different things are getting targeted. That said, the MM can clear out chaff now, the Phoenix cannot.

Something else to keep in mind: Double-shot is even less effective on assault marksmen than regular marksmen, and puts the tech even further behind in value compared to QR, even though it's "technically" a DPS increase.

Thoughts? Anything I missed? Any other comparisons worth making?