As a habitual anti-tanker, all I ask for it is improved guidance: 1) have an alt-guidance mode, which shines a Commando-style laser and lets you manually target the rocket: Now you can kill anything you can see *and* anything it can detect, and you can even try for the one-hit headshots on the Titans without fuss. 2) If it could also, even without line of sight, get locks on stuff my team-mates have tagged, letting me provide fire support to people I can't even see? Even better, and a true indirect-fire niche for the thing which the RR cannot match. 3) ...And you know what, how about an accelerated lock speed against gunships & transports? Those big hot engines are screaming for snap-fire when one surges in overhead.
These are the most unique and awesome ideas i've ever heard for the spear, i would absolutely use it if i got some of these options, not even if its good but because it would be so much fun. Arrowhead is also definitely experimenting more with laser guidance because we had a leak of a hellpod containing a missile and a laser designator that lets you fire it whenever you want
@@clarencezer it could if they implemented his #1 idea of just laser directing it to these targets but yeah I agree those should be targetable objects as well.
Letting the spear function as a battlefield 3/4 javelin that can lock onto pings through terrain then fly straight up, over said terrain, then straight down onto whatever it is would be the perfect niche for the spear as a back line support weapon. Amazing idea And it promotes team play! It’s a win/win really
I feel the devs should really reduce the reload time of the Spear. It won't make it OP since you're still limited by the low ammo and the auto targeting mechanism, but it gives players a good reason to use it instead of the Recoiless.
@@dreamlinervirus but recoilless does everything better. Easier to hit and can do everything a spear can. Only thing is maybe vs bot cannon towers that are far away
You're still using a worse recoilless even if you're hitting all the weak points of relevant enemies since you cant shoot point blank and have fewer ammo
I used to be a spear main. I started all the way back when it was broken. I loved the fact that ,when it did work, I could provide powerful strikes against heavy units harassing my friends. After the buff came though, the recoilless was extremely powerful and had more ammo and use cases. If I could see it, I could shoot it. No worrying about weird geometry messing with my lock and I could purposefully aim at weak spots on enemies to take them down in one decisive strike. It also doesn't help that after a while of using the recoilless you start to naturally get better at it and you start hitting insane all the way across the map shots like it was nothing. So the spear doesn't really even win out in terms of range, unless you are not very experienced with the recoilless. That combined with all the flaws you mentioned, means there isn't much reason to take it. I am not sure how they can buff the spear without nerfing the recoilless (not that they should). As it stands even if they gave it more power it doesn't really matter when, with a little recoilless experience, you can one shot all heavy units anyway.
I was thinking this the whole video. He gave good reasons to bring the spear but the recoiless applies to all of them aswell and it has double the ammo.
Wait, so even though you think the Spear is overshadowed by the RR, AND you don’t see a way to buff it without nerfing the RR, you still don’t see a reason to nerf the Recoilless? Like, it out does virtually every AT option in the game, but we still can’t nerf it? Just… why not?
@KaliFortuna why would you? That was the type of thinking that plagued the devs for months and was honestly silly. If they gave it another rocket and let it lock onto the eye of sauron I think it would be a big deal. That's just off the top of my head. They just gave the alternate firing mode to the RR, it would just be dumb to nerf any aspect of it at this point.
I would say the most appropriate nerf to the RR would be to cap out it's range at 300 or 350m. Sure, with elevation, you get another 25-50m out of it, but that's it. And make the arcing have some linear (not horizontal) bloom past 200-250m. That way, the spear is all about guaranteed hits when time matters, and at any range.
Yup, even with the RR, sometimes you get four hulks and two tanks in one bot drop. Im often running towards hulks to throw my thermite to save an RR rocket. And i feel like the 500 might have been nerfed. I threw one on three hulks two meter next to them, only one of them died. Lots of tanks survive it too
@@thz6853 eh, mortars have much more ammo and can clear entire bug breaches. What I suggested is a real javelin mode where the enemy still has to be revealed in the minimap, e.g. by another player or the scout armours pins pings.
Here’s an idea. Multi-Missile warheads. Lock on to up to three targets and spend one missile to do so. Longer lock-on speeds, but more ammo efficient than the RR when it comes to individual armor kills. That or. Play around with a heatseeking HE missile that finds its own targets and has wide splash damage.
I had my HMG emplacement, spear, and a full resupply beside me. Provided some awesome support for my team from across a small valley. They were trying to get a artillery going and kept getting swarmed. Was super fun.
A good video I must say. I used the spear since I was lvl 20 (Now 111) so I was using it back when the lock on didn't work well and you had to do a whole ritual sacrifice and all just to get the thing to lock on for a second while furiously spamming m1. I stopped using the spear once I hit around lvl 100 a few weeks after the 60 day plan. I did this because the RR just simple got better. Before I used the spear to deal with bot fabricators, hulks and tanks allowing my squad to go through and clean up the smaller bots. Now though, the RR just has way better ammo economy and my squad always runs at least 2 so the spear was no longer needed for anything really. While the lock on was really nice I can't deny the fact the RR just does anti-tank/structure better at a better cost. Since the release of Haz 10 and reinforced scout striders, the spear just doesn't have the ammo to even put those on the target list. I have now switched to the airburst rocket launcher to deal with these new threats. The airburst rocket launcher is great for anything that's not a tank or factory strider, and as long as you learn how to use it, you can really clear swarms of all bot types, making breathing room for your squad to take out the heavier units. I love the spear but there is nothing that it can do that the RR can't really do better. Edit: I mostly play bot front so that's where my experience comes from
Exactly, the RR can almost do anything the Spear can but just better. Which isn't helped by the difficulty increase. The Airburst is not a choice I see all too often, probably because people are not too familiar in how to use it properly. But it cleans up swarms beautifully, that's why I run it mostly on the defend missile missions.
@G1beonGames I highly recommend running the airburst rocket launcher in normal missions. On the bot front, you can take out hulks by shooting between their legs and scout striders by shooting off to the side. Not directly at it. Gunships are a bit more difficult but can still be taken down. On the bug front it's a bit harder to use since the bugs are trying to get in melee range but it can kill chargers and impalers if you shoot under them and wipes out hordes of bile/nursing sewers with ease. Bug structures like the spore tree or shrieker nest are also suseptible to the bomblets
I stopped using the spear since i found out its an ammo hog, i love weapons that has infinte ammo, like laser cannon or arc thrower, they require thinking and adjusting loadouts to fit them perfectly which i really like.
I love the spear. So much. It one shots almost anything. It can cross-map hit factories 100% of the time with its lock-on. It’s just so fun to eviscerate tanks before they even know what’s coming.
I always thought that's the strength of the spear. Especially in open terrain, you can target factories, bot towers, low ships, and big factory striders far off if you can find the tallest hill to aim from.
The Spear quite literally doesn’t have the range for cross-map targeting. It has a maximum range of 300m, and high difficulty maps on 40min missions are over 600m wide. The Quesar is the current cross-map king with pinpoint accuracy at maximum range. You’re limited only by the weather/visibility. With skill, the RR can also reach ~500m with enough accuracy to hit your targets.
One of the Spears niches pre patch was that it was able to oneshot bile titans while the Recoilless wasnt able to. Now that the recoilless can to the same with less finnagling, it feels like the Spear does too little damage despite having the highest damage of any support weapon. There is nothing that the spear can oneshot that the Recoilless can not oneshot, and the superheavies still take more than one rocket if you dont hit the weak point. If I had my way the Recoilless wouldnt have gotten the power to oneshot biles and factory striders, but unless they decide to nerf it again the only other option I see to make the Spear feel competitive is making it able to oneshot them without needing to hit the weakpoints, just really lean into the niche of needing less aim.
This is exactly my experience with the Spear vs other AT weapons. It paradoxically takes a lot of timing and skill to get the missile to hit where you want (bile titan heads) and now no longer gives the same ammount of satisfaction when I know I could have just lobbed a recoilless or an EAT rocket at the same weakpoint and gotten the kill. Which is to say nothing about what should be it's main prey on the bot front, factory striders 1-shot weakpoint is off center and placed at a height that makes it almost impossible to hit with the guided missile without dumb luck, when a rocket can do it near instantly. It's only real niche seems to be the ability to punch through command bunker armor no problem. I guess AP 7 is good for something
@@ashortcut_cutshort2275 Even for command bunkers you can just shoot em with the Recoilless since they only have level 6 plating. Found that one out when I tried to shoot from a distance to see if I could damage it, and it just went boom in a single shot. Its ridiculous.
Just a note, the Recoilless Rifle does not fire rockets. It fires what are essentially tank shells. It's a shoulder mounted field gun, and the reason we don't use field guns any longer.
With poetry, democracy, and intelligence stamped in every corner of this video, I, commander of the SES Sword of Starlight, commend your use of creativity and knowledge to support this long neglected weapon. Yet I must warn you, speak so negatively of the ministry of science and Super Earth engineering as a whole, and you might be filed as a bot sympathizing traitor.
No matter what you've been through no matter what people have said how treated you no matter what God love you he loves you more than you could possibly understand he loved you that much that 2000 years ago he came down to die for you for your sins he came Down to die for your sins he love you because he made you perfectly it is said in the Bible you were made fearfully and wonderfully made and he knows every hair on your head he you were made perfectly perfectly In his image And God to find you with love and cherishment despite our sin and The Times we have rebelled against God God came to see if you so it faith in him we would be saved I want you to know that if you're going for something today no matter what struggle you've been through no matter what's going on you can always always turn to God and it is never too late to turn to him he will always take you in with open arms Do you like the prodigal and return to God son he sinned against the father God and ran away from him and sinned agianst the father but he came back The father was so happy to have him back that while he was still a long ways off he ran towards him and embraced him Back then distinguished men wouldn't run as it was seen as disgraceful but the father loved the son so much and was so happy to have him back he ran towards him anyway and when he did he took him back into his family with open arms even slaughtering the fat and cow which was a big deal only killed for specail occasions which they had been preparing That's how God will be if you come back to him because he loves you and just wants to have you back (This story is in luke 15:11-33) You are valuable and your life does have a purpose God made you perfectly in his image and he is a plan for your life Jesus loves you john 3:16 fear THE lord he died for your sins so that whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal life and escape hell no one will enter heaven by living a good life but though true faith in him we will be saved We've all sinned and deserve hell but jesus paid the pricePLEASE PRAY THIS PRAYER FORM THE HEART AND TRLUY MEAN IT AND YOULL BE SAVED Prayer for giving your life to Christ Lord I recognise I am a sinner In need of the Savoir And I trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who is God come in human form to die for my sins And I confess my sins to you Asking for forgiveness Asking that you would make me a new creation and fill me with the Holy Spirit Lord I want to live for you from this Day forward Asking you would guide me To live and follow your commandments So I trust you Lord in Your life death and resurrection from this Day forward In Jesus name Amen
I have to say, having used both extensively I've come to see the auto-lock as a downside more than an advantage, since you need to use positioning to aim for weak spots (Like you demonstrated with shooting a Bile Titan before a headshot), it tends to hit rocks and trees, and it takes a short while before lock on. Meanwhile I've been trying out the Recoiless and with a bit of practice I can get very long range headshots on titans, while close quarters combat is much easier without lock on.
I think the main reason people take the RR over the Spear is just the plain annoyance in locking on to the specific target that you want. Especially on high difficulty bots, it's annoying trying to lock a fabricator and you keep locking onto the 3 Hulks and five striders next to it. Some kind of readout that just said the name of your target in the iron sight mode and a button you can press to rotate available targets would be amazing. Like against Factory Striders, you have to take out the cannon, RR can one-shot the eye spot on the front or two shot the head. Being able to drop a factory strider with a single shot to the front of the head would be really nice. The strafing run, after the buff is one of the best strategems for a RR/Spear for making distance with close enemies, shreds armor on Chargers now too.
I want the Spear to have the targeting system from Wanted: Weapons of Fate. You aim at an enemy, you hold LMB, a line appears between your weapon and the targeted point (sticks to moving targets), you proceed to aim wherever you want, arching the line in any direction, around obstacles etc. So basically you can aim at anything AND choose the trajectory.
I'm going to be a bit odd with my choice here, but personally if there was something about the spear that i had to buff, it'd be its lock-on range. I'd change it from 300 to either 500 or 600 meters, to help compete with the RR's functionally infinite range. There have been so many times where I've seen a shrieker nest or spore spewer in the distance, and have wanted to destroy it, but am unable to because its not within 300m, knowing that if i had just packed the RR, i could've taken care of the damn thing just by accounting for the drop of the projectile. Also, for the time when there are several high priority threats in an area that the Spear can lock-on to, Please give us a button to swap between targets so we can have much better control in what we're actually shooting in these situations, without having to move the crosshair awkwardly in hopes to catch the preferred target, and only that target.
Additionally I think the missile could speed up even more allowing it to catch up to and possibly even beat the RR to a target at maximum lock on range. I love the sound of a spear missile zooming over my head.
I remember when i used the spear consistently for bots. I just brought the HMG emplacement and it helped me deal with enemies that the spear can’t touch or don’t need the spear to deal with. That and the rocket sentry just allowed me to conserve spear rounds when I get overwhelmed with heavy chassis, and then i bring some kind of eagle/orbital to deal with most structures.
I’m a spear ride and die ❤ Can take out cannon turrets from across the map, bunkers having taken these out before my team gets to take it that position then support by targeting tanks hulks
For me I have an idea that would help with it's targeting problems and a way to add an unique alternative yet interesting targeting method that like the commando can be a choice up to the player. The idea is a laser that you stick to whatever you are aiming at unlike the commando's laser which is fluid and allows for you to change targets mid-fight which obviously has it's drawbacks and benefits. (LOS stands for line of sight for those that don't know) The drawbacks of this are that the user needs to maintain the laser's LOS on the target otherwise the rocket will just fly off into the direction it was already heading, relies on your ability to aim the laser to stick it to a target, and in order to maintain the laser you can't solo reload while aiming. The advantage of this is that it allows you to personally pick out any targets of your choosing allowing you to sidestep the fire-and-forget targeting system and should be a significantly faster to aim assuming you aren't acting slow.
I am my team's resident Engineering kit-Spear user I always feel so important during the mission when a team member calls out something big and I can quickly dispatch it. On our harder missions, it really feels like I'm constantly killing nonstop, ammo on cooldown the whole mission, and it's disheartening when we get to the results screen and I've half the kills my teammates do, but it's because I spend so much time taking big enemies out of the equation. It's still a blast to use and I don't see too much room for improvements besides maybe if they gave us something awesome like a terrain-target-lock airburst mode. That would be neat, perhaps useless because you'll really want to save your ammo for big enemies, but for those rare occasions where the enemy spawns or patrols bug out and you come across a cluster of 30 or so scavengers, it could be a fun toy to potentially have.
I've been a dedicated RR main for a few months now (back when it couldn't reliably kill hulks in hit). While I appreciate any teammates who bring it, I don't see myself brining the spear for one main reason; It's reliance on external support to make it shine. With the way I play, I need my loadout to be versatile to tackle any threat, since more often than not I'm either solo, or have a singular team mage with me. My go to load out for bots is the OPS, Strafe run, Railcanon, and RR. Since I can rely on my RR to take out anything I need in one - two hits (save for fac striders), I can dedicate the rest of my loadout for everything else on the bot front. Being able to quickly position, shoot, reload, then shoot again within 10 seconds is why I love using the RR. Spear wouldn't be able to do all that in the short time frame, thanks to it's slower reload and the targeting mechanism. For bugs, I'd say it's better for reliably killing the BT's but you're gonna find yourself facing WAY more chaff then with bots. As niche as it is, the RR having the new HE ammo can at least warrant some use for firing it at a brood commander's pack. Overall, I think the niches both weapons are in are good, but the spear definitely needs to do better for its own niche. Programmable ammo, being able to target the small canon turrets, and increasing the reload speed would be good starts. Additionally, if it doesn't have one already, it should have reload "stages" similar to the RR too. That way you don't have to do the whole reload from the start of you get interrupted midway
it’s THE support weapon imo for automaton fort defense missions. I create quite the pile of scrap metal. But other missions it definitely gets out shined for obvious reasons
For me, I am certified Spear Enjoyer. I ran this thing back when it's tracking system was absolute garbage. Because I enjoyed being able to look a bile Titan in the face and say "Bet." Back before buffdivers, the SPEAR was the only weapon capable of felling a Bile titan in one shot to the head. It was finicky and required you to stand is just the right spot, but it was satisfying. So, my tips for using the Spear. If you just fired it, you should reload it ASAP. This makes it ready for when the next enemy appears. If you're out of ammo, but your Spear is off cooldown, just call in another Spear. Boom, that's 4 more rockets. No reloading required. Dropships die in one rocket, and locking on is a lot easier. Note that A factory strider can take up to 3 SPEAR rockets, but the dropship takes only one. An important note is that you have to kill the dropship before it drops the unit for the double kill. In my book, hulks and Gunships are Targets of opportunity. If you have the ammo to spare and nothing else of worry, go ahead, but otherwise, don't bother. I tend to avoid doubling down on Anti-Armor Stratagems, and will pair the SPEAR with anti-infantry stratagems. Also, do not bring the Spear on Jungle planets, you will a lot of trees.
The coolest idea for the spear I’ve heard was an idea for an alternative fire mode, that shoots a missile comparable to the Jericho from IronMan. For example: you switch to this mode and it lets you lock on to 3 targets in that vicinity, like 3 gunships in the area of your scope and the missile parts on its way (maybe with another button press and takes out these targets). This missile is weaker but this way you have a use case for the smaller enemies you can lock on also like striders. This mode + a few more shots maybe like 5 or rather 6 in total would make the spear nearly perfect and very fun to use.
I love the Spear and still use it just for fun from time to time... but I sadly can't deny that the Recoilless RIfle can do everything the Spear can, but better and more ammo efficient. You don't even need safe range if a charger, bile titan, hulk or tank comes at you out of nowhere. Yes, you might die but if you have the Spear and don't shoot at all, you die without taking the Charger down with you. Both Spear and RR oneshot tanks and hulks, so the Spear doing more damage has no effect at all, and the RR having more ammo let's you not run out of missiles every single fight on higher difficulties. From other people here in the comments that have way better ideas I will summarize the options that I think could each fix the Spear: - Give the Spear a multi missile secondary mode where you can lock on to multiple enemies and kill them all at once. Chews through your ammo in no time but you can clear out an entire field of heavy enemies in a hearbeat. That's epic and actually useful in dire situations. - Give the Spear a secondary mode where it fires a rocket that has a way higher AoE and targets where you point at like the Commando, so you can also use it on groups of weaker enemies or targets you can't lock on to. - Make the Spear be able to lcok on to any tagged enemy. Might be difficult to implement with the engine I reckon, but would be really cool and make the Spear even more strategic. You ping a Hulk in front of you, then boom, 5 seconds later a missile comes out of nowhere behind a mountain and obliterates it. The cool thing is, these ideas already have a basis implemented into the game since the Devs introduced programmable ammo. The Spear missiles have a lot of tech in them anyways, with the parabolic trajectory, delayed ignition and everything, so it would definitely fit the weapon's theme.
SPEAR and Commando are always in my loadout. SPEAR for taking out Hulks, Tanks, Dropships, and Fabricators from a distance. Commando for quick dispatching of closer heavies when my SPEAR is out. Both got their uses, and Commando is great for quick usage since the call-in time is short and I can call in multiple for myself or team-mates throughout a mission when needed. But the SPEAR will always be the GOAT for it's ability for taking out heavies from a distance.
Right before the current recoilless meta I was having fun using the spear, sneaky armor, 3 sentey turrets, and hogging resupplies on the hardest bot difficulties. Pretty much i would drop the resupply at the beginning before teammates need it, and lock on to half the maps structures and big enemies. Worked great honestly lol
As somebody suggested, a multi-target missile lock that can hit multiple targets with a single missile would be an awesome idea to add to Spear (it would be an alternative ammo choice, with less armor-piercing but the same dmg and possibly some blast radius). Also, it could allow lock on targets which have been binged by teammates so they can fire 'blindly' towards the target across the map.
my friend accidentally picked the spear a couple days ago, we both wound up using it against the bugs and we had absolutely no heavy problems between my 4 turrets and the 2 spears. Made me rethink my stance on rarely taking the spear
I’ve used the spear since the launche of Helldivers 2 (yes even before the changes to the lock-on system) and I didn’t have any major issues with it. If you use supply drops regularly and don’t fire on everything that moves you can work around the ammo problem quite well. It becomes even easier to do that if you visit these „points of interest“ with the ammo crates while you’re walking from objective to objective. The versatility problem can be worked around with primary and secondary weapons, for example medium and light armoured targets can be easily taken out by the p-4 senator and the liberator penetrator/tenderizer. In the correct loadout the spear is extremely good.
I have a few ideas to make this weapons more fun and versatile! Alternative guidance modes WITH alternate ammo for each of those modes! -We can have A multiple lock on cluster of smaller rockets! Made to take out multiple medium size targets like gunships,commanders ,spewers, striders, light tanks etc. THAT would also allow us to remove the annoying random lock on's of those medium enemies when we are using the big rocket! As for the current lock on... I suggest more flexibility by having the option to change which part of the big bad monster you want to target. The way to balance it so that players DONT ALWAYS GO FOR THE HEAD (cus they are not as dumb as thor when he went for Thanos) Would be to give bigger body parts a faster lock on time (More head signature or something, I dunno! IT FEELS CORRECT) So think of it like. It takes X seconds to lock on the strider torso/canon but X*2 seconds to one shot it by locking on the head! It would add a new gameplay elements of choosing when and where you are safe enough to lock on for that long! -For the laser guided mode. Aside from the Anti armour rocket that is now more effective against charger and mele hulks at close range! We can also can have a napalm rocket for area denial or the good old high explosive shrapnel rocket like that of the recoilless. Ps: I wanted napalm for the spear to make the distinction between the weapons more pronounced. I mean we already have more ammo in the RR but we can go further! Bigger rocket = less AMMO BUT more room for the spicy sauce! Aka napalm!
I'd like a firing option that locks onto a location rather than a specific enemy. Location locked ammo would be programmed to have a larger blast radius and shrapnel rather than penetration. This would give it more versatility, as you could shoot it anywhere you like, and you could then use it to eliminate large clusters of small/medium enemies
Amazing video instant sub, and I gotta agree despite trying to use the spear since the moment I unlocked it even when the targeting sucked. After some practice and realizing the circle of the sight is aimed for 150meters and the bottom of the sight is 300meters the only thing the spear can really do better is one shotting impalers, and tanks from the front, because even the factory striders, which should be weaker to the spear, still only fall in a recoilless shell to the eyeball, instantly lobotomizing them. The funniest thing I remember from before the anti tank rework was using an entire resupply and about 9 spears to the forehead to fall one factory strider. But the spear cant do that because you gave up your ability to aim, if anything it feels like training wheels and just getting better with the recoilless is better in every situation, especially now that even the EAT can one shot automaton factories, and HE can deal with groups of enemies really well (especially if you have some extra shells because of a resupply). Definitely doesn't help that you are effectively using almost 2 recoilless shells for 1 shot that rarely even saves you time because of how overkill it usually is, but not enough that you still need 2 in some scenarios anyways. Maybe another video idea is the EAT vs the commando because I, despite everybody loving the commando I don't see any redeeming qualities over the EAT in any way other than gunships (other than not having to run back for the second one but the downsides seem to way outweigh that).
I almost always bring the Spear, i find that because of how i have to be more strategic with using it that i would be able to see the bigger picture of what's going on around me rather than get tunnel visioned into more up close threats while using something like a flamethrower or machine gun. Im more careful and thoughtful about my positioning, whether thats to keep my distance to give room for the missile homing and also to get a better angle to be able to hit those high priority targets. My primary is the Adjudicator and a Laser Pistol for the sidearm, and a thermite grenade for any chargers or hulks that get too close and also to open any vaults i may come across. Aside from the Spear aganst bugs i usually bring along an Eagle Airstrike, then an Orbital Gas Strike or Gatling Barrage to deal with bug breaches and an MG sentry to help dispatch the chaff Against bots id swap the sentry for a rocket sentry and the orbital strikes to an artillery barrage
The Spear is amazing during the evacuate high-value asset missions and defense type missions. However, with the bulk of the game's missions being roaming the map, taking out side objectives and constructs, everything else does what the Spear can do and more.
Here is my thought on how to fix the spear: One additional ammo, Manual targeting mode that kind of works like the ping system (marking a target and it goes boom, if it’s in range, of course) An additional Cluster Bomb ammo type, which breaks up in the air and sends essentially a mini Eagle Cluster Bomb over a group of small enemies.(Think the airburst rocket launcher) This would give it additional flexibility, it wouldn’t solve its ammo issue, just mitigate a little bit of it, and it was expand on its supportive role, being able to combat patrols before they call in reinforcements from hundreds of meters away, while still being limited by having a maximum of five ammo at a time.
When I first saw the SPEAR on the ship options, I thought it's firing arc would be more vertical for a straight down attack angle. This would be a nice mode to be given where the rocket would let us avoid any terrain in a vertical firing mode.
i use the spear very often, a support gun with a single objective, to take out heavy units, fast, from far or up close (30 m). To have the ability to wield a gun like that, with such power, is simply incredible. And yes it has limitations like ammo, or the lock on but you can save a stratagem, like orbital laser. can t recommend enough
Spear (Javelin): Shoot and Forget. Recoil(Real) : Snipe but also risk missing. But also a way to One Shot ANYTHING (AT-AT's included)(EXTREMELY PRECIOUS ON Bot missions) Quasar(Notreal) : Weak but It'll get the Hulks for ya. Commando (M202): In Reality its a Missiles with Napalm but in this one still a "Good" weapon but cant replace others Anti Tank (LAW) : It gets the job done. Thats it... Outside of that Its just that.
It can take out everything that has a large pip on the map, it’s the only support weapon that can technically take out a dropship by shooting anywhere other than the thrusters, it’s amazing at dealing with buildings from far af away, you can cover anti-air for your team from anywhere in the map, as long as you can see the aircraft… it one taps a lot of bug structures that usually take 2-3 shots from similarly high destructive support weapons… I’ve had it one shot Bile Titans and Behemoth chargers from the side, and take out an impaler when it’s vulnerable in that same single hit… it’s only downside is that for most situations, the Quasar and Recoilless are about equal, since they deal enough, and the spear deals more.
3:33 and heads up, you can lock onto moving dropships. It just hits the center and doesn’t have the radius to hurt a thruster. Of course, if a second spear hits the same dropship, the ship drops.
I feel like it would be cool if the spear had two modes (like the recoilless) with HE and HEAT rounds, with the HE rounds being what we have now, and the HEAT rounds being able to deal more damage to "smaller" things, such as factory striders
Sure, the HE can lock on just whatever your looking at and wait a little to lock on, then shootup in the air and back down dealing a lot of explosive damage around it , like a javelin from COD
Small little tip for Titans and Factory striders is to fire in the prone position and slightly to the side. This keeps the rocket level with the enemies head. Be mindful about how far the rocket pre-fire travel it so you don't waste a shot into a wall to tree. Two things the spear needs and to have brood commanders and striders removed from the targeting. We have no reason to be shooting them. Second and a controversial one is getting 2 rockets per ammo pick up. Its ammo economy is horrible and even the full ammo upgrade from the destroyer won't apply for the main weapon and unlike the recoiless that's literally 25% of your ammo you simply do not get
Go to automaton front, choose difficulty 10, get a spear, get to some high ground ideally in the middle of the map, call in some ammo, destroy structure in range, pack up, change position, repeat
I bring Spear Orbital Railgun 110 Rocket pods Rocket Sentry this is my "dont worry about heavy units" build. the 110 can reliably remove chargers and exposed impalers, and the railgun is for when you dont wanna risk it not dying by angled deflections and not everything hitting from the rockets, the Rocket Sentry is easily my favotite due to increased range and ease of use for destroying many enemies quickly. saving the spear for the heaviest units (tanks and bile titans), important but deadly objectives like shrieker nests and command bunkers(which it can destroy in 2 direct hits the the bunker wall), and other buildings available at extreme ranges the ONLY thing I think it needs for a buff is to fully remove the targeting limit of 300 meters. it didnt always have this, and i now have to get a lot closer to deal with certain open objectives... otherwise it's damage and targeting options are fine. adding more targets could actually harm its effectiveness by making it not as easy to discern which target youre wantimg to destroy
I appreciate your attempt to make the Spear feel better... But yeah, unless they adjust the lock-on system and let me free-fire the thing I'm probably never gonna pick it up. Autocannon and Recoiless Rifle Gang Gang for life!
What I'd like to see the Spear gain is an alt ammo type that can lock a terrain point, fires, and shoots straight up, before coming down on wherever it was being locked and slinging out, say, 6 AP mines and 6 inferno mines. Something that gives it a bit more strategic depth, especially in the finale push when you may not have the luxury of moving around much for better long range shots at heavies. Maybe give it one more rocket slung across the bottom of the backpack while we're at it?
I love the e spear but the Recoiless is literally the same thing with more ammo but without the auto lock. And most of the time the big targets you’re aiming at are easy to hit anyways
Been using the spear on every bot mission for a long while and i dont plan on stopping. The ability to take out a hulk, tank, cannon turret, or small outpost from across the map is just too good
TLDR: it is goated af as tech support wep: can lock in even with fog. can 1 tap most enemies. can lock in around 300 meters away and hit the target. it is goated.
I absolutely know the Spear. I was one of its first and most ardent supporters, and I remain one to this day. I love the name, I love the design, I love it function and combat... But God help me, every time I had a failed lock on or my rocket would just sail by the target off into the distance, a small part of me died inside. The Spear being fixed healed my wounded soul. But I always knew it could do it. That said... all the Spear needs to be too tier is a badass new tier of enemy.
I think a good alternate ammo for this would be a type of multi shot missile. When fired the missile breaks into 4 or 6 individual warheads that perhaps spread out over an area or go for individual targets that were locked onto before hand.
I'm just going to respond to the title, no it's not weak, it's the highest damaging anti-tank support weapon, what makes it feel weak is the body part system on bile titans and chargers etc, where it can take up to three shots on a charger if you're unlucky and hit "non-fatal" body parts. What makes it feel worse is the lack of control in hitting weak points, making it awkward for it to be a reliable one-shot weapon against bile titans compared to EAT, Quasar, and Recoilless. I personally think the spear should gain a programmable option to change trajectory from direct attack to top attack, so it deals more damage at the cost of it taking longer to hit stuff, this would be amazing for spear in biomes with tall trees and would make it consistent at one-tapping most stuff, it would justify the lock-on mechanic and reduced ammo too.
This is why we can't have nice things. People always complain about something that works fine. You can complain all you want if the weapon itself is broken or bugged, but the spear is doing it's job properly now. Not every weapon should be highly versatile, trying to make every weapon like every other would just make every weapon the same. I like using the spear over the recoilless simply because I get to curve fire and lock on through smoke. It doesn't need changes. If you want a spear-like weapon that does everything you want, ask for a new one, the current one is doing fine.
Spear needs a heavy damage boost, so its the harder hitting option for top attack, and an alternate ammo for airburst top attack would be fantastic too.
Its like the video said in the beginning= versatility. The autocannon and recoilless rifle got each an ammo type that bumped their utility. The autocannon is a fantastic long range chaff slayer and anti-aircraft weapon while the recoilless rifle can now turn a small group of enemies into a pulp. In pure anti-tank shot per shot scenarios, the spear is still the best. But thats the problem= its limited to those scenarios. My suggestion for this weapon is= 1. Give it an alternative firing mode. a SACLOS system (aka the commando). You point and aim where the missile flies. Why? because of 2= Give it a secondary type of missile. And i advise an proximity HE explosion. This wont nerf the other main AT options while making the spear more viable.
Maybe it could get an extra rocket and an air burst mode. Not like the airbrust rocket launcher, but a massive explosion with far less direct damage but more damage range, like a mini 500kg. The main spear rocket has always been the same as a 380mm precision strike, so let's give it a 500kg setting for blowing up a bunch of the smaller stuff at once
To me it's a light artillery type of weapon. During the first minutes on the middle of the map I called spear, resupply pod and took out spore towers and shrieker nests and other targetable enemies from one spot. Team usually doesn't mind if you use up that first resupply pod before anyone has a chance to use much of their ammo.
A spear ammo swap that turned it into a slower unguided arcing 380 artillery shell would be SO sick. Basically the equivalent from the RR ammo swap but bigger boom and significantly harder to aim.
The spear still sometimes fails to oneshot chargers and impalers, and sometimes hits the bile titan's legs which prevents it from dying. You end up having to position yourself such that a recoiless could take out these heavy enemies instead.
Wanna give it more versatility instead of power? Here's my take: Allow it to lock on to called out heavies and elites over ANY distance. Have the rocket fly high and strike vertically. Make in an all-range anti-tank.
I have to disagree with your assessment of the Spear. To put it bluntly, if you can aim you should be using the Recoilless Rifle. I’ve been using the RR since game launch so I will admit I am better with it than the average diver to the point I can consistently 1 hit tanks, striders and titans from 300-400 meters away. Everything is a potential ohk for the RR, the spear can bit from a bad angle for Factory striders and bile titans. I do believe it needs a buff and the ones i hear and promote are: -First give it an extra missile, I dont think that would break it. -Second give it an alt fire and here are the more interesting ones A) A MIRV/Cluster missile that breaks apart and launch more smaller missiles at multiple targets. This makes the Spear more versatile taking scout striders/brood commanders. B) Give it a drill mode. After the missile hits, it drills into the target for 2 seconds and then explodes (making it more consistent at ohk titans and factory striders) 3) Make it Laser guided (think like the commando) 4) Make it a TV missile. Think Black Ops Valkyrie or TV missile from Battlefield4 where your POV turns to the missiles and you steer it to the target
I'm a huge proponent of the Spear over pretty much anything else vs the bots. Its seriously the best by miles, especially if youre doing a ghostdiver style.
It would be neat if the spear wasnt just the missile launcher but also a target designator, i.e. locking a target would mark them for a few seconds and any eagle/orbital stratagems would be 99% guaranteed to hit (barring they do some crazy dodge). That way, the spear gains the unique ability to zero in orbital barrages and improve orbital precision strikes and the likes. Ofc consider situations where you wouldnt want to have a stratagem home in. Also would like to see a TV missile option if only for the funsies.
Honestly my main gripe with the spear is the low ammo count. Literally one more missile in the pack and I'd take it more often, since my favourite way to use it and the RLR is to sit back and cosplay a 155 mortar.
It's not always the weapons that need to change. Adding enemies that the Spears strength outshines other weapons would be good too. For example a Heavy gunship. I loved the Spear against the gunships before their armor were lowered and I think it could have a very valid place as a AA support weapon against a flying enemy that would use speed and distance to make the RR very difficult to use against it. Similar to the Factory Strider I think this enemy should have destructible weaponry and or destructible thrusters for AP 4 so an autocannon could make it slower by destroying a thrusters allowing RR to hit easier but the Spear could just solo kill it. No weakpoint necessary.
So to make it way more interesting they need to add, free aiming with a laser, a high explosive option, and i talk about a really big explosion that would wipe out Medium and ligh ennemies.
The spear does deserve a buff, perhaps a damage/pen buff and lock on speed buff on dropships/GunShips with faster and better tracking missles. These buffs wouldn't make it better than the recoiless, but thats because i think the spear is supposed to be THE Tank/Building Buster Support weapon. We just... don't have anything big enough to warrant using it instead of the recoiless/autocannon except for maybe the factory strider.
I would love if Arrowhead leaned into the target lock of the spear and perhaps give it an airburst ammo type to allow it to fill the niche as a consistent aoe anti air option since that is mainly dominated by the autocannon. Giving it the option to lock on to 3-4 gunships or shriekers and wipe the group with massive aoe.
The Spear is essentially made for the bots more than anything else since they have so many targets for the weapon to trash. Bugs usually get too close, but it's not a terrible idea at all - though the Recoilless is better here. The Spear also has near-perfect targeting at all times from insane distances, especially on bot stages. So using it more like extra long-range AT is perfect for it, while the Recoilless would be affected by gravity and such, and thus be better at mid to close range. Either way it's criminally easy to shoot down most tank threats now lol
Spear needs a ground attack lock on like the IRL Javelin has. My biggest issue with it vs the RR is that I can aim freely and don't have to wait for a lock. The RR is an AT shell on demand.
You say “Don’t lock onto the lighter heavies” like it’s always an option. Sometimes it just really wants the reinforced striders escorting the hulk. Maybe give it a top-attack mode, so it will fly above the target before starting a divebomb, instead of hitting only what you see.
Nice video, but i feel you should mention the dives yoùve been using to steer your missiles, how pointing to one side can help control the trajectory as well, and how you can in fact one-shot factory striders. I've seen videos of it : aim below the FS, and slowly raise your crosshair, until it locks on the head and not the canon.
As a habitual anti-tanker, all I ask for it is improved guidance:
1) have an alt-guidance mode, which shines a Commando-style laser and lets you manually target the rocket: Now you can kill anything you can see *and* anything it can detect, and you can even try for the one-hit headshots on the Titans without fuss.
2) If it could also, even without line of sight, get locks on stuff my team-mates have tagged, letting me provide fire support to people I can't even see? Even better, and a true indirect-fire niche for the thing which the RR cannot match.
3) ...And you know what, how about an accelerated lock speed against gunships & transports? Those big hot engines are screaming for snap-fire when one surges in overhead.
These are the most unique and awesome ideas i've ever heard for the spear, i would absolutely use it if i got some of these options, not even if its good but because it would be so much fun.
Arrowhead is also definitely experimenting more with laser guidance because we had a leak of a hellpod containing a missile and a laser designator that lets you fire it whenever you want
Dude those are awesome ideas
I also wish it can take out the other types of bot objectives buildings like the jammer or spotter towers.
@@clarencezer it could if they implemented his #1 idea of just laser directing it to these targets but yeah I agree those should be targetable objects as well.
Letting the spear function as a battlefield 3/4 javelin that can lock onto pings through terrain then fly straight up, over said terrain, then straight down onto whatever it is would be the perfect niche for the spear as a back line support weapon. Amazing idea
And it promotes team play! It’s a win/win really
I feel the devs should really reduce the reload time of the Spear. It won't make it OP since you're still limited by the low ammo and the auto targeting mechanism, but it gives players a good reason to use it instead of the Recoiless.
It’s already really solid, people just don’t know how to use it. It can target through smokes, has auto lock on, and is good up to 300m.
@@dreamlinervirus but recoilless does everything better. Easier to hit and can do everything a spear can. Only thing is maybe vs bot cannon towers that are far away
You're still using a worse recoilless even if you're hitting all the weak points of relevant enemies since you cant shoot point blank and have fewer ammo
@@dreamlinervirus You can target through smoke with the recoilless just by hitting "mark target" and then seeing what you're aiming at.
Not sure if they sorted it with the Recoilless, but only the Spear could destroy a bot factory without hitting a vent.
I used to be a spear main. I started all the way back when it was broken. I loved the fact that ,when it did work, I could provide powerful strikes against heavy units harassing my friends. After the buff came though, the recoilless was extremely powerful and had more ammo and use cases. If I could see it, I could shoot it. No worrying about weird geometry messing with my lock and I could purposefully aim at weak spots on enemies to take them down in one decisive strike.
It also doesn't help that after a while of using the recoilless you start to naturally get better at it and you start hitting insane all the way across the map shots like it was nothing. So the spear doesn't really even win out in terms of range, unless you are not very experienced with the recoilless. That combined with all the flaws you mentioned, means there isn't much reason to take it.
I am not sure how they can buff the spear without nerfing the recoilless (not that they should). As it stands even if they gave it more power it doesn't really matter when, with a little recoilless experience, you can one shot all heavy units anyway.
I was thinking this the whole video. He gave good reasons to bring the spear but the recoiless applies to all of them aswell and it has double the ammo.
I think you are absolutly right and it is sad because the spear can be a beautiful weapon. Didnt we used to be able to aim at automaton tower before ?
Wait, so even though you think the Spear is overshadowed by the RR, AND you don’t see a way to buff it without nerfing the RR, you still don’t see a reason to nerf the Recoilless?
Like, it out does virtually every AT option in the game, but we still can’t nerf it? Just… why not?
@KaliFortuna why would you? That was the type of thinking that plagued the devs for months and was honestly silly. If they gave it another rocket and let it lock onto the eye of sauron I think it would be a big deal. That's just off the top of my head. They just gave the alternate firing mode to the RR, it would just be dumb to nerf any aspect of it at this point.
I would say the most appropriate nerf to the RR would be to cap out it's range at 300 or 350m. Sure, with elevation, you get another 25-50m out of it, but that's it. And make the arcing have some linear (not horizontal) bloom past 200-250m.
That way, the spear is all about guaranteed hits when time matters, and at any range.
I’d pick the spear every day if it had more ammo. If you play on lvl10 those 4 rockets oftentimes last you only a couple minutes.
Yup, even with the RR, sometimes you get four hulks and two tanks in one bot drop. Im often running towards hulks to throw my thermite to save an RR rocket. And i feel like the 500 might have been nerfed. I threw one on three hulks two meter next to them, only one of them died. Lots of tanks survive it too
@@Khrenan Nuke lost a level of penetration, so it no longer affects Hulks from the front. Only if you nail them in the heat exaust on their backs.
Wow now if only there was ammo strewn about the map in easily identifiable locations.... Oh wait-
@@TheJBerg oh, that makes sense, good to know
As a solo, with a whole supply drop to yourself, it works like a charm.
I love it when I get a resupply all to myself, that's when you truly feel like a god. Everything dies!
@G1beonGames 😁 yep! I also think the spear is excellent for a more stealthy gameplay
*me calling supply pods off cooldown strictly only on my position*
Solo?
I like how this video didn’t get super technical with the spear while still being super informative.
The spear would be amazing if it had a radar mode that lets you select targets from the minimap.
Some manual artillery style thing would be really cool or maybe if you could lock on to Target's pinged by teamwork
The better mortar
@@thz6853 eh, mortars have much more ammo and can clear entire bug breaches. What I suggested is a real javelin mode where the enemy still has to be revealed in the minimap, e.g. by another player or the scout armours pins pings.
Here’s an idea. Multi-Missile warheads. Lock on to up to three targets and spend one missile to do so. Longer lock-on speeds, but more ammo efficient than the RR when it comes to individual armor kills.
That or. Play around with a heatseeking HE missile that finds its own targets and has wide splash damage.
Yo multi-missiles would be awesome, could definitely see Spear being in a much better state with that (and it’d be super cool to use too)
I had my HMG emplacement, spear, and a full resupply beside me. Provided some awesome support for my team from across a small valley. They were trying to get a artillery going and kept getting swarmed. Was super fun.
A good video I must say. I used the spear since I was lvl 20 (Now 111) so I was using it back when the lock on didn't work well and you had to do a whole ritual sacrifice and all just to get the thing to lock on for a second while furiously spamming m1. I stopped using the spear once I hit around lvl 100 a few weeks after the 60 day plan. I did this because the RR just simple got better. Before I used the spear to deal with bot fabricators, hulks and tanks allowing my squad to go through and clean up the smaller bots. Now though, the RR just has way better ammo economy and my squad always runs at least 2 so the spear was no longer needed for anything really. While the lock on was really nice I can't deny the fact the RR just does anti-tank/structure better at a better cost.
Since the release of Haz 10 and reinforced scout striders, the spear just doesn't have the ammo to even put those on the target list. I have now switched to the airburst rocket launcher to deal with these new threats. The airburst rocket launcher is great for anything that's not a tank or factory strider, and as long as you learn how to use it, you can really clear swarms of all bot types, making breathing room for your squad to take out the heavier units. I love the spear but there is nothing that it can do that the RR can't really do better.
Edit: I mostly play bot front so that's where my experience comes from
Exactly, the RR can almost do anything the Spear can but just better. Which isn't helped by the difficulty increase. The Airburst is not a choice I see all too often, probably because people are not too familiar in how to use it properly. But it cleans up swarms beautifully, that's why I run it mostly on the defend missile missions.
@G1beonGames I highly recommend running the airburst rocket launcher in normal missions. On the bot front, you can take out hulks by shooting between their legs and scout striders by shooting off to the side. Not directly at it. Gunships are a bit more difficult but can still be taken down. On the bug front it's a bit harder to use since the bugs are trying to get in melee range but it can kill chargers and impalers if you shoot under them and wipes out hordes of bile/nursing sewers with ease. Bug structures like the spore tree or shrieker nest are also suseptible to the bomblets
Airburst is slept on it’s so fun I feel like a damn orbital every time I shoot it
I stopped using the spear since i found out its an ammo hog, i love weapons that has infinte ammo, like laser cannon or arc thrower, they require thinking and adjusting loadouts to fit them perfectly which i really like.
I love the spear. So much. It one shots almost anything. It can cross-map hit factories 100% of the time with its lock-on. It’s just so fun to eviscerate tanks before they even know what’s coming.
I always thought that's the strength of the spear. Especially in open terrain, you can target factories, bot towers, low ships, and big factory striders far off if you can find the tallest hill to aim from.
The Spear quite literally doesn’t have the range for cross-map targeting. It has a maximum range of 300m, and high difficulty maps on 40min missions are over 600m wide.
The Quesar is the current cross-map king with pinpoint accuracy at maximum range. You’re limited only by the weather/visibility. With skill, the RR can also reach ~500m with enough accuracy to hit your targets.
@@adeadfishdiedrecoilless is the quasar with a faster rate of fire, use that instead.
The way I see it the Recoilless can do everything the Spear can without having to edit your load out to fit it
Ironically, I'm still a Spear main.
Also, hooray! Another Helldivers Mann's Guide!
One of the Spears niches pre patch was that it was able to oneshot bile titans while the Recoilless wasnt able to. Now that the recoilless can to the same with less finnagling, it feels like the Spear does too little damage despite having the highest damage of any support weapon. There is nothing that the spear can oneshot that the Recoilless can not oneshot, and the superheavies still take more than one rocket if you dont hit the weak point.
If I had my way the Recoilless wouldnt have gotten the power to oneshot biles and factory striders, but unless they decide to nerf it again the only other option I see to make the Spear feel competitive is making it able to oneshot them without needing to hit the weakpoints, just really lean into the niche of needing less aim.
This is exactly my experience with the Spear vs other AT weapons. It paradoxically takes a lot of timing and skill to get the missile to hit where you want (bile titan heads) and now no longer gives the same ammount of satisfaction when I know I could have just lobbed a recoilless or an EAT rocket at the same weakpoint and gotten the kill. Which is to say nothing about what should be it's main prey on the bot front, factory striders 1-shot weakpoint is off center and placed at a height that makes it almost impossible to hit with the guided missile without dumb luck, when a rocket can do it near instantly. It's only real niche seems to be the ability to punch through command bunker armor no problem. I guess AP 7 is good for something
@@ashortcut_cutshort2275 Even for command bunkers you can just shoot em with the Recoilless since they only have level 6 plating. Found that one out when I tried to shoot from a distance to see if I could damage it, and it just went boom in a single shot. Its ridiculous.
Wrong the spear can one-shot automaton command bunkers! (Incredibly niche, mission specific use) Checkmate Recoilless man!
Just a note, the Recoilless Rifle does not fire rockets. It fires what are essentially tank shells.
It's a shoulder mounted field gun, and the reason we don't use field guns any longer.
With poetry, democracy, and intelligence stamped in every corner of this video, I, commander of the SES Sword of Starlight, commend your use of creativity and knowledge to support this long neglected weapon. Yet I must warn you, speak so negatively of the ministry of science and Super Earth engineering as a whole, and you might be filed as a bot sympathizing traitor.
No matter what you've been through no matter what people have said how treated you no matter what God love you he loves you more than you could possibly understand he loved you that much that 2000 years ago he came down to die for you for your sins he came Down to die for your sins he love you because he made you perfectly it is said in the Bible you were made fearfully and wonderfully made and he knows every hair on your head he you were made perfectly perfectly In his image And God to find you with love and cherishment despite our sin and The Times we have rebelled against God God came to see if you so it faith in him we would be saved I want you to know that if you're going for something today no matter what struggle you've been through no matter what's going on you can always always turn to God and it is never too late to turn to him he will always take you in with open arms Do you like the prodigal and return to God son he sinned against the father God and ran away from him and sinned agianst the father but he came back The father was so happy to have him back that while he was still a long ways off he ran towards him and embraced him Back then distinguished men wouldn't run as it was seen as disgraceful but the father loved the son so much and was so happy to have him back he ran towards him anyway and when he did he took him back into his family with open arms even slaughtering the fat and cow which was a big deal only killed for specail occasions which they had been preparing That's how God will be if you come back to him because he loves you and just wants to have you back (This story is in luke 15:11-33)
You are valuable and your life does have a purpose God made you perfectly in his image and he is a plan for your life Jesus loves you john 3:16 fear THE lord he died for your sins so that whoever believe in him will not perish but have eternal life and escape hell no one will enter heaven by living a good life but though true faith in him we will be saved We've all sinned and deserve hell but jesus paid the pricePLEASE PRAY THIS PRAYER FORM THE HEART AND TRLUY MEAN IT AND YOULL BE SAVED
Prayer for giving your life to Christ
Lord I recognise I am a sinner In need of the Savoir And I trust in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Who is God come in human form to die for my sins And I confess my sins to you Asking for forgiveness Asking that you would make me a new creation and fill me with the Holy Spirit Lord I want to live for you from this Day forward Asking you would guide me To live and follow your commandments So I trust you Lord in Your life death and resurrection from this Day forward In Jesus name Amen
This is a very high quality video, shocked it doesn't have more views.
The bad weapon academy of helldivers 2
_Spear has always been a strange case to me_
I have to say, having used both extensively I've come to see the auto-lock as a downside more than an advantage, since you need to use positioning to aim for weak spots (Like you demonstrated with shooting a Bile Titan before a headshot), it tends to hit rocks and trees, and it takes a short while before lock on. Meanwhile I've been trying out the Recoiless and with a bit of practice I can get very long range headshots on titans, while close quarters combat is much easier without lock on.
It's extra damage is nicer on automaton tank heads because your angle of approach might not be ideal
I think the main reason people take the RR over the Spear is just the plain annoyance in locking on to the specific target that you want. Especially on high difficulty bots, it's annoying trying to lock a fabricator and you keep locking onto the 3 Hulks and five striders next to it. Some kind of readout that just said the name of your target in the iron sight mode and a button you can press to rotate available targets would be amazing.
Like against Factory Striders, you have to take out the cannon, RR can one-shot the eye spot on the front or two shot the head. Being able to drop a factory strider with a single shot to the front of the head would be really nice.
The strafing run, after the buff is one of the best strategems for a RR/Spear for making distance with close enemies, shreds armor on Chargers now too.
I want the Spear to have the targeting system from Wanted: Weapons of Fate. You aim at an enemy, you hold LMB, a line appears between your weapon and the targeted point (sticks to moving targets), you proceed to aim wherever you want, arching the line in any direction, around obstacles etc. So basically you can aim at anything AND choose the trajectory.
I'm going to be a bit odd with my choice here, but personally if there was something about the spear that i had to buff, it'd be its lock-on range. I'd change it from 300 to either 500 or 600 meters, to help compete with the RR's functionally infinite range.
There have been so many times where I've seen a shrieker nest or spore spewer in the distance, and have wanted to destroy it, but am unable to because its not within 300m, knowing that if i had just packed the RR, i could've taken care of the damn thing just by accounting for the drop of the projectile.
Also, for the time when there are several high priority threats in an area that the Spear can lock-on to, Please give us a button to swap between targets so we can have much better control in what we're actually shooting in these situations, without having to move the crosshair awkwardly in hopes to catch the preferred target, and only that target.
Additionally I think the missile could speed up even more allowing it to catch up to and possibly even beat the RR to a target at maximum lock on range.
I love the sound of a spear missile zooming over my head.
I remember when i used the spear consistently for bots. I just brought the HMG emplacement and it helped me deal with enemies that the spear can’t touch or don’t need the spear to deal with. That and the rocket sentry just allowed me to conserve spear rounds when I get overwhelmed with heavy chassis, and then i bring some kind of eagle/orbital to deal with most structures.
I’m a spear ride and die ❤
Can take out cannon turrets from across the map, bunkers having taken these out before my team gets to take it that position then support by targeting tanks hulks
Recoiless can do all that, but better
I love the editing on this one. Another great video.
Unit photos while you're talking about them gives way too much Red Alert 2 loading screens vibe, and I love it!
For me I have an idea that would help with it's targeting problems and a way to add an unique alternative yet interesting targeting method that like the commando can be a choice up to the player. The idea is a laser that you stick to whatever you are aiming at unlike the commando's laser which is fluid and allows for you to change targets mid-fight which obviously has it's drawbacks and benefits. (LOS stands for line of sight for those that don't know)
The drawbacks of this are that the user needs to maintain the laser's LOS on the target otherwise the rocket will just fly off into the direction it was already heading, relies on your ability to aim the laser to stick it to a target, and in order to maintain the laser you can't solo reload while aiming. The advantage of this is that it allows you to personally pick out any targets of your choosing allowing you to sidestep the fire-and-forget targeting system and should be a significantly faster to aim assuming you aren't acting slow.
Your channel is so underrated, love your videos, always watch them to the end 😍
I am my team's resident Engineering kit-Spear user I always feel so important during the mission when a team member calls out something big and I can quickly dispatch it. On our harder missions, it really feels like I'm constantly killing nonstop, ammo on cooldown the whole mission, and it's disheartening when we get to the results screen and I've half the kills my teammates do, but it's because I spend so much time taking big enemies out of the equation.
It's still a blast to use and I don't see too much room for improvements besides maybe if they gave us something awesome like a terrain-target-lock airburst mode. That would be neat, perhaps useless because you'll really want to save your ammo for big enemies, but for those rare occasions where the enemy spawns or patrols bug out and you come across a cluster of 30 or so scavengers, it could be a fun toy to potentially have.
I've been a dedicated RR main for a few months now (back when it couldn't reliably kill hulks in hit). While I appreciate any teammates who bring it, I don't see myself brining the spear for one main reason; It's reliance on external support to make it shine. With the way I play, I need my loadout to be versatile to tackle any threat, since more often than not I'm either solo, or have a singular team mage with me. My go to load out for bots is the OPS, Strafe run, Railcanon, and RR. Since I can rely on my RR to take out anything I need in one - two hits (save for fac striders), I can dedicate the rest of my loadout for everything else on the bot front. Being able to quickly position, shoot, reload, then shoot again within 10 seconds is why I love using the RR. Spear wouldn't be able to do all that in the short time frame, thanks to it's slower reload and the targeting mechanism. For bugs, I'd say it's better for reliably killing the BT's but you're gonna find yourself facing WAY more chaff then with bots. As niche as it is, the RR having the new HE ammo can at least warrant some use for firing it at a brood commander's pack.
Overall, I think the niches both weapons are in are good, but the spear definitely needs to do better for its own niche. Programmable ammo, being able to target the small canon turrets, and increasing the reload speed would be good starts. Additionally, if it doesn't have one already, it should have reload "stages" similar to the RR too. That way you don't have to do the whole reload from the start of you get interrupted midway
it’s THE support weapon imo for automaton fort defense missions. I create quite the pile of scrap metal. But other missions it definitely gets out shined for obvious reasons
For me, I am certified Spear Enjoyer.
I ran this thing back when it's tracking system was absolute garbage.
Because I enjoyed being able to look a bile Titan in the face and say "Bet." Back before buffdivers, the SPEAR was the only weapon capable of felling a Bile titan in one shot to the head. It was finicky and required you to stand is just the right spot, but it was satisfying.
So, my tips for using the Spear.
If you just fired it, you should reload it ASAP. This makes it ready for when the next enemy appears.
If you're out of ammo, but your Spear is off cooldown, just call in another Spear. Boom, that's 4 more rockets. No reloading required.
Dropships die in one rocket, and locking on is a lot easier. Note that A factory strider can take up to 3 SPEAR rockets, but the dropship takes only one. An important note is that you have to kill the dropship before it drops the unit for the double kill.
In my book, hulks and Gunships are Targets of opportunity. If you have the ammo to spare and nothing else of worry, go ahead, but otherwise, don't bother.
I tend to avoid doubling down on Anti-Armor Stratagems, and will pair the SPEAR with anti-infantry stratagems.
Also, do not bring the Spear on Jungle planets, you will a lot of trees.
i like your video essays
The use of "It Doesn't Matter" from Sonic Adventure 1 has earned you an instant subscription
The coolest idea for the spear I’ve heard was an idea for an alternative fire mode, that shoots a missile comparable to the Jericho from IronMan.
For example: you switch to this mode and it lets you lock on to 3 targets in that vicinity, like 3 gunships in the area of your scope and the missile parts on its way (maybe with another button press and takes out these targets). This missile is weaker but this way you have a use case for the smaller enemies you can lock on also like striders. This mode + a few more shots maybe like 5 or rather 6 in total would make the spear nearly perfect and very fun to use.
I love the Spear and still use it just for fun from time to time... but I sadly can't deny that the Recoilless RIfle can do everything the Spear can, but better and more ammo efficient. You don't even need safe range if a charger, bile titan, hulk or tank comes at you out of nowhere. Yes, you might die but if you have the Spear and don't shoot at all, you die without taking the Charger down with you. Both Spear and RR oneshot tanks and hulks, so the Spear doing more damage has no effect at all, and the RR having more ammo let's you not run out of missiles every single fight on higher difficulties.
From other people here in the comments that have way better ideas I will summarize the options that I think could each fix the Spear:
- Give the Spear a multi missile secondary mode where you can lock on to multiple enemies and kill them all at once. Chews through your ammo in no time but you can clear out an entire field of heavy enemies in a hearbeat. That's epic and actually useful in dire situations.
- Give the Spear a secondary mode where it fires a rocket that has a way higher AoE and targets where you point at like the Commando, so you can also use it on groups of weaker enemies or targets you can't lock on to.
- Make the Spear be able to lcok on to any tagged enemy. Might be difficult to implement with the engine I reckon, but would be really cool and make the Spear even more strategic. You ping a Hulk in front of you, then boom, 5 seconds later a missile comes out of nowhere behind a mountain and obliterates it.
The cool thing is, these ideas already have a basis implemented into the game since the Devs introduced programmable ammo. The Spear missiles have a lot of tech in them anyways, with the parabolic trajectory, delayed ignition and everything, so it would definitely fit the weapon's theme.
NEW GIBEON VIDEO
SPEAR and Commando are always in my loadout. SPEAR for taking out Hulks, Tanks, Dropships, and Fabricators from a distance. Commando for quick dispatching of closer heavies when my SPEAR is out. Both got their uses, and Commando is great for quick usage since the call-in time is short and I can call in multiple for myself or team-mates throughout a mission when needed. But the SPEAR will always be the GOAT for it's ability for taking out heavies from a distance.
Right before the current recoilless meta I was having fun using the spear, sneaky armor, 3 sentey turrets, and hogging resupplies on the hardest bot difficulties. Pretty much i would drop the resupply at the beginning before teammates need it, and lock on to half the maps structures and big enemies. Worked great honestly lol
I love using the spear on clear maps. Taking out towers from across the map is so satisfying
As somebody suggested, a multi-target missile lock that can hit multiple targets with a single missile would be an awesome idea to add to Spear (it would be an alternative ammo choice, with less armor-piercing but the same dmg and possibly some blast radius). Also, it could allow lock on targets which have been binged by teammates so they can fire 'blindly' towards the target across the map.
my friend accidentally picked the spear a couple days ago, we both wound up using it against the bugs and we had absolutely no heavy problems between my 4 turrets and the 2 spears. Made me rethink my stance on rarely taking the spear
Ever since the first wave of buffs happened, I’ve been rocking the spear for so long I think it’s apart of me now
I’ve used the spear since the launche of Helldivers 2 (yes even before the changes to the lock-on system) and I didn’t have any major issues with it. If you use supply drops regularly and don’t fire on everything that moves you can work around the ammo problem quite well. It becomes even easier to do that if you visit these „points of interest“ with the ammo crates while you’re walking from objective to objective. The versatility problem can be worked around with primary and secondary weapons, for example medium and light armoured targets can be easily taken out by the p-4 senator and the liberator penetrator/tenderizer. In the correct loadout the spear is extremely good.
I have a few ideas to make this weapons more fun and versatile!
Alternative guidance modes WITH alternate ammo for each of those modes!
-We can have A multiple lock on cluster of smaller rockets! Made to take out multiple medium size targets like gunships,commanders ,spewers, striders, light tanks etc.
THAT would also allow us to remove the annoying random lock on's of those medium enemies when we are using the big rocket!
As for the current lock on... I suggest more flexibility by having the option to change which part of the big bad monster you want to target.
The way to balance it so that players DONT ALWAYS GO FOR THE HEAD (cus they are not as dumb as thor when he went for Thanos)
Would be to give bigger body parts a faster lock on time (More head signature or something, I dunno! IT FEELS CORRECT)
So think of it like. It takes X seconds to lock on the strider torso/canon but X*2 seconds to one shot it by locking on the head!
It would add a new gameplay elements of choosing when and where you are safe enough to lock on for that long!
-For the laser guided mode. Aside from the Anti armour rocket that is now more effective against charger and mele hulks at close range!
We can also can have a napalm rocket for area denial or the good old high explosive shrapnel rocket like that of the recoilless.
Ps: I wanted napalm for the spear to make the distinction between the weapons more pronounced. I mean we already have more ammo in the RR but we can go further!
Bigger rocket = less AMMO BUT more room for the spicy sauce! Aka napalm!
I'd like a firing option that locks onto a location rather than a specific enemy. Location locked ammo would be programmed to have a larger blast radius and shrapnel rather than penetration. This would give it more versatility, as you could shoot it anywhere you like, and you could then use it to eliminate large clusters of small/medium enemies
Amazing video instant sub, and I gotta agree despite trying to use the spear since the moment I unlocked it even when the targeting sucked.
After some practice and realizing the circle of the sight is aimed for 150meters and the bottom of the sight is 300meters the only thing the spear can really do better is one shotting impalers, and tanks from the front, because even the factory striders, which should be weaker to the spear, still only fall in a recoilless shell to the eyeball, instantly lobotomizing them. The funniest thing I remember from before the anti tank rework was using an entire resupply and about 9 spears to the forehead to fall one factory strider.
But the spear cant do that because you gave up your ability to aim, if anything it feels like training wheels and just getting better with the recoilless is better in every situation, especially now that even the EAT can one shot automaton factories, and HE can deal with groups of enemies really well (especially if you have some extra shells because of a resupply).
Definitely doesn't help that you are effectively using almost 2 recoilless shells for 1 shot that rarely even saves you time because of how overkill it usually is, but not enough that you still need 2 in some scenarios anyways.
Maybe another video idea is the EAT vs the commando because I, despite everybody loving the commando I don't see any redeeming qualities over the EAT in any way other than gunships (other than not having to run back for the second one but the downsides seem to way outweigh that).
I almost always bring the Spear, i find that because of how i have to be more strategic with using it that i would be able to see the bigger picture of what's going on around me rather than get tunnel visioned into more up close threats while using something like a flamethrower or machine gun. Im more careful and thoughtful about my positioning, whether thats to keep my distance to give room for the missile homing and also to get a better angle to be able to hit those high priority targets.
My primary is the Adjudicator and a Laser Pistol for the sidearm, and a thermite grenade for any chargers or hulks that get too close and also to open any vaults i may come across.
Aside from the Spear aganst bugs i usually bring along an Eagle Airstrike, then an Orbital Gas Strike or Gatling Barrage to deal with bug breaches and an MG sentry to help dispatch the chaff
Against bots id swap the sentry for a rocket sentry and the orbital strikes to an artillery barrage
The Spear is amazing during the evacuate high-value asset missions and defense type missions. However, with the bulk of the game's missions being roaming the map, taking out side objectives and constructs, everything else does what the Spear can do and more.
KEEP SPEAKING POET GIBEON. Also the animations were funny, ty lol
Here is my thought on how to fix the spear:
One additional ammo,
Manual targeting mode that kind of works like the ping system (marking a target and it goes boom, if it’s in range, of course)
An additional Cluster Bomb ammo type, which breaks up in the air and sends essentially a mini Eagle Cluster Bomb over a group of small enemies.(Think the airburst rocket launcher)
This would give it additional flexibility, it wouldn’t solve its ammo issue, just mitigate a little bit of it, and it was expand on its supportive role, being able to combat patrols before they call in reinforcements from hundreds of meters away, while still being limited by having a maximum of five ammo at a time.
When I first saw the SPEAR on the ship options, I thought it's firing arc would be more vertical for a straight down attack angle. This would be a nice mode to be given where the rocket would let us avoid any terrain in a vertical firing mode.
i use the spear very often, a support gun with a single objective, to take out heavy units, fast, from far or up close (30 m). To have the ability to wield a gun like that, with such power, is simply incredible. And yes it has limitations like ammo, or the lock on but you can save a stratagem, like orbital laser. can t recommend enough
Spear (Javelin): Shoot and Forget.
Recoil(Real) : Snipe but also risk missing. But also a way to One Shot ANYTHING (AT-AT's included)(EXTREMELY PRECIOUS ON Bot missions)
Quasar(Notreal) : Weak but It'll get the Hulks for ya.
Commando (M202): In Reality its a Missiles with Napalm but in this one still a "Good" weapon but cant replace others
Anti Tank (LAW) : It gets the job done. Thats it... Outside of that Its just that.
It can take out everything that has a large pip on the map, it’s the only support weapon that can technically take out a dropship by shooting anywhere other than the thrusters, it’s amazing at dealing with buildings from far af away, you can cover anti-air for your team from anywhere in the map, as long as you can see the aircraft… it one taps a lot of bug structures that usually take 2-3 shots from similarly high destructive support weapons… I’ve had it one shot Bile Titans and Behemoth chargers from the side, and take out an impaler when it’s vulnerable in that same single hit… it’s only downside is that for most situations, the Quasar and Recoilless are about equal, since they deal enough, and the spear deals more.
3:33 and heads up, you can lock onto moving dropships. It just hits the center and doesn’t have the radius to hurt a thruster. Of course, if a second spear hits the same dropship, the ship drops.
I feel like it would be cool if the spear had two modes (like the recoilless) with HE and HEAT rounds, with the HE rounds being what we have now, and the HEAT rounds being able to deal more damage to "smaller" things, such as factory striders
Sure, the HE can lock on just whatever your looking at and wait a little to lock on, then shootup in the air and back down dealing a lot of explosive damage around it , like a javelin from COD
Small little tip for Titans and Factory striders is to fire in the prone position and slightly to the side. This keeps the rocket level with the enemies head. Be mindful about how far the rocket pre-fire travel it so you don't waste a shot into a wall to tree.
Two things the spear needs and to have brood commanders and striders removed from the targeting. We have no reason to be shooting them. Second and a controversial one is getting 2 rockets per ammo pick up. Its ammo economy is horrible and even the full ammo upgrade from the destroyer won't apply for the main weapon and unlike the recoiless that's literally 25% of your ammo you simply do not get
Go to automaton front, choose difficulty 10, get a spear, get to some high ground ideally in the middle of the map, call in some ammo, destroy structure in range, pack up, change position, repeat
thanks for the video this cemented my belief why I should not carry spear against automotons
I bring Spear
Orbital Railgun
110 Rocket pods
Rocket Sentry
this is my "dont worry about heavy units" build. the 110 can reliably remove chargers and exposed impalers, and the railgun is for when you dont wanna risk it not dying by angled deflections and not everything hitting from the rockets, the Rocket Sentry is easily my favotite due to increased range and ease of use for destroying many enemies quickly. saving the spear for the heaviest units (tanks and bile titans), important but deadly objectives like shrieker nests and command bunkers(which it can destroy in 2 direct hits the the bunker wall), and other buildings available at extreme ranges
the ONLY thing I think it needs for a buff is to fully remove the targeting limit of 300 meters. it didnt always have this, and i now have to get a lot closer to deal with certain open objectives... otherwise it's damage and targeting options are fine. adding more targets could actually harm its effectiveness by making it not as easy to discern which target youre wantimg to destroy
I appreciate your attempt to make the Spear feel better...
But yeah, unless they adjust the lock-on system and let me free-fire the thing I'm probably never gonna pick it up. Autocannon and Recoiless Rifle Gang Gang for life!
A 12 minute video solely on the Spear from Helldivers 2? ... "yeah, I've got time"
If the SPEAR had a toggleable airburst they'd be cooking
What I'd like to see the Spear gain is an alt ammo type that can lock a terrain point, fires, and shoots straight up, before coming down on wherever it was being locked and slinging out, say, 6 AP mines and 6 inferno mines. Something that gives it a bit more strategic depth, especially in the finale push when you may not have the luxury of moving around much for better long range shots at heavies. Maybe give it one more rocket slung across the bottom of the backpack while we're at it?
I love the e spear but the Recoiless is literally the same thing with more ammo but without the auto lock. And most of the time the big targets you’re aiming at are easy to hit anyways
Been using the spear on every bot mission for a long while and i dont plan on stopping. The ability to take out a hulk, tank, cannon turret, or small outpost from across the map is just too good
TLDR: it is goated af as tech support wep:
can lock in even with fog.
can 1 tap most enemies.
can lock in around 300 meters away and hit the target.
it is goated.
I absolutely know the Spear. I was one of its first and most ardent supporters, and I remain one to this day. I love the name, I love the design, I love it function and combat... But God help me, every time I had a failed lock on or my rocket would just sail by the target off into the distance, a small part of me died inside.
The Spear being fixed healed my wounded soul. But I always knew it could do it.
That said... all the Spear needs to be too tier is a badass new tier of enemy.
I love spear more, why I take recoilless instead, it can shoot down bot ship before dropping effectively
The spear is my go to for bot missions. Being able to take out targets from 300 meters is absolutely amazing
I think a good alternate ammo for this would be a type of multi shot missile. When fired the missile breaks into 4 or 6 individual warheads that perhaps spread out over an area or go for individual targets that were locked onto before hand.
I'm just going to respond to the title, no it's not weak, it's the highest damaging anti-tank support weapon, what makes it feel weak is the body part system on bile titans and chargers etc, where it can take up to three shots on a charger if you're unlucky and hit "non-fatal" body parts.
What makes it feel worse is the lack of control in hitting weak points, making it awkward for it to be a reliable one-shot weapon against bile titans compared to EAT, Quasar, and Recoilless. I personally think the spear should gain a programmable option to change trajectory from direct attack to top attack, so it deals more damage at the cost of it taking longer to hit stuff, this would be amazing for spear in biomes with tall trees and would make it consistent at one-tapping most stuff, it would justify the lock-on mechanic and reduced ammo too.
This is why we can't have nice things. People always complain about something that works fine. You can complain all you want if the weapon itself is broken or bugged, but the spear is doing it's job properly now. Not every weapon should be highly versatile, trying to make every weapon like every other would just make every weapon the same. I like using the spear over the recoilless simply because I get to curve fire and lock on through smoke. It doesn't need changes. If you want a spear-like weapon that does everything you want, ask for a new one, the current one is doing fine.
Pretty good show
Spear needs a heavy damage boost, so its the harder hitting option for top attack, and an alternate ammo for airburst top attack would be fantastic too.
Its like the video said in the beginning= versatility. The autocannon and recoilless rifle got each an ammo type that bumped their utility. The autocannon is a fantastic long range chaff slayer and anti-aircraft weapon while the recoilless rifle can now turn a small group of enemies into a pulp.
In pure anti-tank shot per shot scenarios, the spear is still the best. But thats the problem= its limited to those scenarios.
My suggestion for this weapon is= 1. Give it an alternative firing mode. a SACLOS system (aka the commando). You point and aim where the missile flies. Why? because of 2= Give it a secondary type of missile. And i advise an proximity HE explosion.
This wont nerf the other main AT options while making the spear more viable.
I love the spear. I love taking out stuff from across the map.
Maybe it could get an extra rocket and an air burst mode. Not like the airbrust rocket launcher, but a massive explosion with far less direct damage but more damage range, like a mini 500kg. The main spear rocket has always been the same as a 380mm precision strike, so let's give it a 500kg setting for blowing up a bunch of the smaller stuff at once
the spin around render of the gun looks great
To me it's a light artillery type of weapon. During the first minutes on the middle of the map I called spear, resupply pod and took out spore towers and shrieker nests and other targetable enemies from one spot. Team usually doesn't mind if you use up that first resupply pod before anyone has a chance to use much of their ammo.
A spear ammo swap that turned it into a slower unguided arcing 380 artillery shell would be SO sick. Basically the equivalent from the RR ammo swap but bigger boom and significantly harder to aim.
The spear still sometimes fails to oneshot chargers and impalers, and sometimes hits the bile titan's legs which prevents it from dying. You end up having to position yourself such that a recoiless could take out these heavy enemies instead.
The lock on has always been the spear’s weakness. A good recoilless user will always be more consistent at hitting weak points than the spear.
Wanna give it more versatility instead of power? Here's my take: Allow it to lock on to called out heavies and elites over ANY distance. Have the rocket fly high and strike vertically. Make in an all-range anti-tank.
I have to disagree with your assessment of the Spear. To put it bluntly, if you can aim you should be using the Recoilless Rifle. I’ve been using the RR since game launch so I will admit I am better with it than the average diver to the point I can consistently 1 hit tanks, striders and titans from 300-400 meters away. Everything is a potential ohk for the RR, the spear can bit from a bad angle for Factory striders and bile titans. I do believe it needs a buff and the ones i hear and promote are:
-First give it an extra missile, I dont think that would break it.
-Second give it an alt fire and here are the more interesting ones
A) A MIRV/Cluster missile that breaks apart and launch more smaller missiles at multiple targets. This makes the Spear more versatile taking scout striders/brood commanders.
B) Give it a drill mode. After the missile hits, it drills into the target for 2 seconds and then explodes (making it more consistent at ohk titans and factory striders)
3) Make it Laser guided (think like the commando)
4) Make it a TV missile. Think Black Ops Valkyrie or TV missile from Battlefield4 where your POV turns to the missiles and you steer it to the target
I'm a huge proponent of the Spear over pretty much anything else vs the bots. Its seriously the best by miles, especially if youre doing a ghostdiver style.
It would be neat if the spear wasnt just the missile launcher but also a target designator, i.e. locking a target would mark them for a few seconds and any eagle/orbital stratagems would be 99% guaranteed to hit (barring they do some crazy dodge). That way, the spear gains the unique ability to zero in orbital barrages and improve orbital precision strikes and the likes. Ofc consider situations where you wouldnt want to have a stratagem home in.
Also would like to see a TV missile option if only for the funsies.
I have never had a bad experience, even in it's early state. It's my baby for the bots. "Can you go hurt that guy? ... Thx."
Honestly my main gripe with the spear is the low ammo count.
Literally one more missile in the pack and I'd take it more often, since my favourite way to use it and the RLR is to sit back and cosplay a 155 mortar.
I think it perfectly does what it's set out to do.
It's not always the weapons that need to change. Adding enemies that the Spears strength outshines other weapons would be good too. For example a Heavy gunship. I loved the Spear against the gunships before their armor were lowered and I think it could have a very valid place as a AA support weapon against a flying enemy that would use speed and distance to make the RR very difficult to use against it. Similar to the Factory Strider I think this enemy should have destructible weaponry and or destructible thrusters for AP 4 so an autocannon could make it slower by destroying a thrusters allowing RR to hit easier but the Spear could just solo kill it. No weakpoint necessary.
2:53 no, but itll save your relationship with your mother
So to make it way more interesting they need to add, free aiming with a laser, a high explosive option, and i talk about a really big explosion that would wipe out Medium and ligh ennemies.
The spear does deserve a buff, perhaps a damage/pen buff and lock on speed buff on dropships/GunShips with faster and better tracking missles. These buffs wouldn't make it better than the recoiless, but thats because i think the spear is supposed to be THE Tank/Building Buster Support weapon. We just... don't have anything big enough to warrant using it instead of the recoiless/autocannon except for maybe the factory strider.
I would love if Arrowhead leaned into the target lock of the spear and perhaps give it an airburst ammo type to allow it to fill the niche as a consistent aoe anti air option since that is mainly dominated by the autocannon. Giving it the option to lock on to 3-4 gunships or shriekers and wipe the group with massive aoe.
The Spear is essentially made for the bots more than anything else since they have so many targets for the weapon to trash. Bugs usually get too close, but it's not a terrible idea at all - though the Recoilless is better here. The Spear also has near-perfect targeting at all times from insane distances, especially on bot stages. So using it more like extra long-range AT is perfect for it, while the Recoilless would be affected by gravity and such, and thus be better at mid to close range. Either way it's criminally easy to shoot down most tank threats now lol
Spear needs a ground attack lock on like the IRL Javelin has. My biggest issue with it vs the RR is that I can aim freely and don't have to wait for a lock. The RR is an AT shell on demand.
Quasar cannon with a jetpack is my goat especially on cold planets where the cooldown's shorter
You say “Don’t lock onto the lighter heavies” like it’s always an option. Sometimes it just really wants the reinforced striders escorting the hulk.
Maybe give it a top-attack mode, so it will fly above the target before starting a divebomb, instead of hitting only what you see.
Nice video, but i feel you should mention the dives yoùve been using to steer your missiles, how pointing to one side can help control the trajectory as well, and how you can in fact one-shot factory striders.
I've seen videos of it : aim below the FS, and slowly raise your crosshair, until it locks on the head and not the canon.