Bandit pistol was just added and I have been seeing a wide range of takes about how this will impact the meta. For those who like reading I'll lay out some stats and conditions, and for those who like arguing I'll put a TLDR of my expectations.
TLDR:
- Bandit does not fully replace Sheriff as go to eco weapon especially for late/mid game
- If you tend to buy Sheriff on pistol consider switching to the Bandit so you can use creds on a cheap ability if possible
- If enemies are not buying any armor on pistol or their save rounds then the Bandit loses nearly all of its advantages over Ghost/Sheriff
The Bandit is a 1 shot headshot against all armor including heavy armor up to 10 meters. This is powerful but hard to reliably plan all of your engagements with full armor and probably rifle wielding opponents to be within 10m. This means the Bandit does not compete with the Sheriff on your team's eco rounds, the 200 cred savings and other stat boosts don't make up for the range/damage disadvantage you are in when playing an eco. The more important aspect of the Bandit is how much damage it does to enemies with light armor or regen shield, which makes the Bandit a 1 shot headshot against lesser armor types up to 30m. This means the Bandit competes well in rounds where you expect the enemies to not have full armor; pistol round, their save rounds, and their half buys. Against no armor opponents the Bandit is comparable to the Ghost, however the Bandit (50m+) outranges the Ghost (30m) with its 1 shot headshot capability. The most likely round for an enemy to have no armor is pistol, and the likelihood of taking a pistol engagement over 30m vs a no armor opponent is pretty unlikely. The Bandit needs enemies to buy the 125 armor types (light armor + regen shield) to meaningfully access its advantages over the competitor pistols; the Ghost and the Sheriff.
I would say one good way to incorporate the Bandit on pistol is to have a teammate with a cheap util buy or a no util buy drop the Bandit to the entry player who will buy light armor and an ability or two. I would still prefer the Sheriff for pistol lurk players, as it gives more range/damage and the other stat boosts of the Bandit are less important to slow lurking vs a high APM team fight. Another opportunity to incorporate the Bandit is after losing pistol but planting spike trying to compete with the enemy who likely has 125 shields. It is a bit risky and you are still at a disadvantage, however you save some additional money vs a Sheriff buy, have more opportunity to win the round than a full save, and the movement speed, reload speed, and mag size of the Bandit offer some modest advantages for death-balling to overwhelm one of the bombsites. The Bandit will also be fairly map dependent, if large open space maps like Abyss, Breeze, or Lotus have a decent percentage of duels being longer than 30m, the Bandit will likely not be very strong. On more compact maps like Ascent and Sunset with a decent percent of duels within 30m or even better 10m, the Bandit will be very useful even into late game eco rounds.
I have likely missed some important scenarios or interactions, so feel free to bring those up, either way I look forward to seeing how this gun affects economy management and shield purchasing. We experienced similar shifts once the Outlaw was released, luckily I think the Bandit won't have as great as an effect, but I still see opportunities for it to shine and ofc print millions in skin sales for Riot.
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