I understand the ballistic shield being cosmetic against explosions, but doing nothing for melee is crazy. I would like to get the rational from the devs for this decision.
Explosions will deal impact force and the heaviest armor penetration. So in order for the ballistic shield to resist most explosions, it will need to have even higher armor than Tanks, and Hulk Heavy Devestators. Since that will fundamentally mean this item would be meta compared to ALL other armors, devs are definitely hesitant to give such "Captain American Vibranium" capability to the shield. Then again, when you look at the shield generator, it basically blocks all explosions and impact force. I am not sure why Arrowhead decided to give generators quite a "meta" shielding effect, but not towards the *ballistic* shield. Maybe because generated shield can break easily or it is timed based.
I think that melees should be treated similarly to explosions, and have different explosion strengths(say devastator quad rockets versus cannon turrets) and when the shield takes impacts, too many or too strong of an impact will send you ragdolling. You could reasonably tank a rocket or two from a devastor or rocket infantry, but not from cannons or tanks, and wearing heavy armor or fortified armor will increase the number of smaller impacts you can take before ragdolling
@@GooiYingChyi the personal shield gen rubs out of energy quickly and can't block shots for long. The ballistic shield SHINES in co-op game play as you have others take out anything with rockets while you mow down chaff like nothing. You're basically moving cover and it's so welcome against bots. He isn't a team player, he's a solo player who does things on his own. Seriously, never once do I see him with the team unless he's forced too.
I personally think they should consider alternative unlocks. This way they could add way more for us to invest samples in without power creeping into infinity.
It would be cool if rail cannon (and 110 rocket pods) were configurable, and you could go into ship management and tell it what it should prioritize. If you want it to delete chargers even if a titan is nearby, you should be able to do that. You should be able to make it prefer turrets to tanks to hulks, or the other way around if you like.
I was thinking that the Rail cannon should be a one shot for titans, it only hits ONE target, meaning if it were to be buffed it's damage potential would stay generally the same. I think the 110 rocket pods are in the same boat, but if it hit the two biggest things in a larger area, that would make it much better, especially since were getting air-to-air missiles that do the pretty much the same thing.
If rockets got the +1 bomb for strikes that drop multiple bombs (they do fire multiple rockets, after all?) They'd benefit a lot, but that upgrade doesn't apply to them.
The nice part about the rocket pods is they break armor but I’ve had difficulty with its targeting. I think it requires you to be more precise with your throws. Either that or, it’s bugged.
The thing with Railcannon is, it always chooses the center of the big enemy, and in the case of Bile Titans, their backs. The raw damage could easily one-shot if targeted on their heads instead. Hence Orb Precision Strike is still much better at handling Titans (you can control where it lands). 110mm Rocket Pods will miss more than 50% of the time, unless you are targeting a stationary enemy, and beacon had to land within inches of the enemy. You'd be much better off using a KG or Precision Strike in this case. (Yes, with the current damage, give it ability to target 3 or more enemies, then I might consider using it)
I like quasar because you never need to reload it. The 3 second charge time isn't ideal, but it's better than sitting yourself down for a recoilless reload during a protracted battle, or if you're doing a fighting retreat. Sure, you never want to be caught in those situations, but they're going to happen regardless because no one plays a perfect game 100% of the time. You can also open any engagement with it because you don't need to worry about reloading it in case a tank or hulk gets dropship'd in. Not to mention the backpack slot gets opened up, so a shield generator can mitigate the charge up time, while a jump pack can just fly somewhere. You can even be a team player and wear a spare ammo backpack for a teammate if you don't feel like being a team player with a supply pack. It's just a good supplementary weapon for teams you have any amount of coordination with, whether you want to fill a more flexible role or you just wanna turn your brain off while still being effective. Also, there's no reason to shoot down dropships because half the time it just turns into invincible cover for the bots being dropped in.
I love rail cannon strike but i only use it for bugs im shit at handling chargers and it lets me kill bile titans with any primary by shooting the chunk that gets blasted off... it aiming at the helathy one is great that way you can use almost any weapon to finish it off.
Well Quasar cannon makes automaton fun for me, cuz I love the shield backpack and Quasar is a great heavy killing weapon without the need for backpack, and yea I don't like having to call in EAT every time. At the end of the day, use whatever you want lol
Orbital laser is great to clear a large robot factory and clears adds for a safe extract. I understand your point that an orbital laser will just be a waste on a bial Titan with a bunch of bugs but that’s if I am solo. I won’t bring it. If I am with a full squad, somebody else has a stratagem to help take out the Titan quickly and let the laser go off to clear other targets.
Railcannon targets the enemy with the biggest HP (not the physically largest one). And not even max HP, but current one. That's how in some rare situations it goes for a small/medium bug instead of a very damaged charger for example.
I think the grenade launcher is good at what it does and I just think it's not your preferred playstyle and might be harder to use solo because when you are overrun by enemies it's much harder to know where to shoot (chance of an enemy appearing suddenly and detonating you shot early), it's just designed to thin the enemy forces at medium ranges before finishing the larger enemies with something else this seems dumb but in teamplay it's really good since you can tell your mates to focus big guys while you decimate trash mobs. I do agree that the mag count is low but I prefer a low mag count weapons that works (and the GL works) than a huge magazine/ammo economy weapon that struggles killing small units (looking at you Stalwart). I want to say that you need to pair it with ammo backpack and a medium penetrating precise weapon like the JAR or the Scorcher or get the EAT in case you really need it, you use the fire spray a lot just treat it like what you do with that weapon at medium ranges where you basically shower the frontline with the fire pellets, the weapon stagger every non heavy unit so it's not like they are going to reach you even if they don't die. I think it would be nice if you could choose granade launcher as primary weapon but ironically that's why the eruptor exists lol. Another motive I think it's good is that does amazing at reinforcement denial, Against bug breaches the weapon AoE can will hit every bug that spawn from it, just get your 500kg bomb ready for bile titans and you can literally make dropships useless by shooting dropship underbelly at the bots before being deployed maybe you don't kill everything but anything that drop from there will be severely damaged unless you aimed poorly. In all fairness it's far from perfect it should 2 shot all mediums instead of 3 shot, and I think that it bounces off the ground too easily, IRL if you shot it to the ground to close (or anything soft for the matter) it should be lodged into the ground and then explode with a bit of delay, granade ammo IRL has a limiter to how soon they can blow off, and the force at which they are being shot it so hard because IRL they are designed to be shot at around 50~200m engagements (or building clearings too) it should lodge itself into anything that isn't a rock until it blows off.
Railcannon strike is very good against bugs if you run it with anti tank. Shoot 1 anti tank and rail cannon strike and the titan is gone. Quite consistent. But if you’re just running the strike, its not good.
Finally, someone says the truth about dropship killing and using the Quasar cannon on the bot front. I barely like it on bugs Idk how people tolerate the potential "o no I flinched there goes my shot for 14secs" fact of life for bot planets.
Ballistic shield isn't overrated, it's just "rated" now since the last patch.Folks once declared it was the worst stratagem for a time. And there are still more people that prefer Shield gen. backpack even after its "nerfed" status. Grenade launcher needs a little damage buff or allow us to switch the grenade type (stun, incendiary, impact, thermite), like if i could fire volleys stun or fire grenades that'd be dope. Rail cannon strike would be better if there's an eagle version where you could fire it 2-3 times before long cooldown, especially on high difficulties with the amount of heavies spawns.
I use the quasar bc u can shoot turret towers and tanks from any angle, one shots hulks, one shots gunships shooting them anywhere, down dropship (even if dropping them makes them more anoying) and bc rocket launcher with unlimited ammo and low cooldown between shots
I solo bot missions with the senator primary, amr support, ballistic shield backpack, and eruptor as a tool to destroy fabricators. I can confirm the ballistic shield sucks when you use it with anything but the senator, and people overlook the senator wayyyy too much for the mediocre machine pistol.
I'm all for dunking on the Ballistic shield, but shitting on the defender? Naw man, its time to throw hands with some facts. Sickle is one of the best weapons in the game and has the same pen. Sickle has to be spooled, Defender does not. Sickle gets loud really fast, defender has a low sound profile even after multiple shots. Sickle accuracy is kinda meh, Defender might as well be a laser. Both are two hit headshot kills on devestators. One has infinite ammo, the other has the ability to be one-handed. Defender has better handling and target acquisition. Sickle is still better because of the RPM and an actual bloom in third person, but make no mistake, the Defender is still a beast. The real problem is we have shit options for one-handed play at the moment. So maybe when we can wield something dummy powerful in the other hand will we see it increase in strength.
All of that is extremely fair. I'd LOVE it if the orbital rail one shot titans but as it stands you're better off using napalm and 500kg. I'd be super nice to be able to use the spear too, so cool, SO buggy.
For how long you're forced to wait between cooldowns, the railcannon strike should be one shotting EVERY enemy in the game, not just the mid level heavies!
Hot takes: we already have a machines gun primary weapon. It’s called the Scythe. 8s of shooting most weapon run out of bullet in 4s of relentless fire, bullet saving isn’t required bc it’s an energy weapon. 6 mags fast reloads while running if you don’t want to wait for heat cooldown. Also another hot takes: don’t aim on Scythe(both third person aim and first person aim is to avoid on this weapon so just don’t right click this weapon). Aiming on this weapon is basically wasting it potentials and tunnels vision yourself. You would want to not aiming for larger POV sight for target changing after kill to save time from charge it up against, ability to dodge while still accurately hit you target bc you control the line of fire not the typical scope.
I love the spear, and I've taken out 4 bile titans back to back, cooldown is reasonable, ammo buffs were nice. Play the next mission and it cant lock on to anything. Worthless on bad visibility planets. Watch spear guide videos and its just nonsense lies saying "you arent using the weapon properly so it wont lock on." Or y'know, maybe the lock on is just broken. I personally think mortars are over rated. They are inaccurate, target the closest enemy to a player, lots of tks. On defense missions (coop ones at least) enemies get stuck in walls and cliffs so you die not knowing an enemy is there.
I kind of disagree with the tower and hulk scenario. For me it's very clear that the orbital rail is an oh shit stratagem for emergencies and any hulk is far more dangerous than any turret. Turrets auto miss if you simply move, and they can't actually walk. Yes, they are better than annihilator tanks because they come with the crucial los advantage. I agree it could be on a shorter cd. perhaps it should simply treat all tanks, turrets and hulks as equal and go for the closest target. this way it would be within your ability to "choose", if you are that good at throwing that is.
If they could finally fix the targeting issue and if one has the Superior Packing Methods upgrade. The spear could be fantastic... but till that day comes (which is supposedly at the end of may), i'd never use it.
Grenade launcher becomes extremely useful when you get a map with bile spewers. I personally feel like it's the best weapon for quickly popping them, especially when there's a lot of them. You could use the eruptor, but it fires slower, has a smaller magazine, and isn't as comfortable to use against chaff as something like the sickle is. Paired with impact grenades and the grenade pistol, you are grenade maxing and become the dedicated spewer remover. Aside from that I don't take GL, I normally run quasar with bugs and autocannon with bots.
The spear is good FIGHT ME! Ofcource it wont lock on in the fog! TBH it is kinda broken but on some plane planet bro it is the best feeling ever to shoot down bile titans from 300 meters away! it is just fun and effective when it works 100% of the time outside of foggy planets 40 % of the time!
Spear has so much potential, if the lock on is more guaranteed, OR optional. Quasar is a mixed bag against bots. It can one shot medium hulks and gunships, but like you pointed out, if you get even slightly shot by their MGs or rockets, chances are, you will miss the target completely and waste a shot. I also had a time where I had a Quasar fully charged just to get swiped by a bile titan leg and die. So yes, S tier against chargers and weakened Bile Titans, but meh on anything else. Any sort of rating on Gas, Smoke, Airburst, Gattling Barrage, Eagle Strafing, MG sentry is overrated, because they are basically useless. I'd call these "just for the show".
I ain't gonna say I wouldn't mind a little buff to the railcannon, but I still like it on bugs, as a supplementary tool. Instantly deletes a charger I can't get to easily, or more importanlty, shreds a bile titan leaving it usually very easy to kill with massive weakspots. Sure 500k works better, if you wanna get close enough to guarantee that, I generally do not, plus the RC just doesn't do friendly fire, and that's pretty damned nice. It can't work as a wholesale anti-tank tool, unless you're running on like difficulty 3 or lower obviously, but wouldn't really want it to.
While I agree that things like lasers and railcannon strikes are overused, they get the job done pretty well. However, 500kg bombs and quasar cannons are both overused and overhyped. The 500kg has a pathetically small blast radius, making it only good for precisely taking out one big thing, and not clearing bot outposts and bug nests like many people think. It should be renamed to „Eagle flashbang” in my opinion. The quasar cannon on the other hand, isn’t suitable for long and tense engagements due to its long charge time and cooldown between shots. You don’t really have the time to freeze in place to charge your shot while the enemy factory strider is barraging you with constant machine gun fire. Autocannon forever, its the only weapon that gets all the hype and deserves even more of it.
I feel like enough times passed to agree a lot of things need to be buffed overall. I mean I fucked up and reported on steam how the devs stealth nerfed a few things one week Into the game; -orbital laser damage -rocket pods damage and tracking Then explained how if we allow them to do these stealth nerfs then they would keep doing it and that we had to put our foot down otherwise arrowhead will turn into Bungie. I was demanded to show proof, so I showed it, they then proceeded to attack me personally, then they proceeded to post my Twitter page to do more personal attacks, then they mass reported me and got me banned off steam forums for a month. Yet here we are with 3/4th of the player base gone and still counting. We seriously need to stand as one voice and tell arrowhead to just fix their game already instead of making excuses
Railgun is trash. A few days ago, a factory strider dropped near me. I tossed the railgun right on top of strider, but the railgun completely avoided every high tier enemy in the area and killed a trooper far away from where the beacon was.
@@clonesharpshooter101 Unlikely. Why would it avoid a massive target right on top of the beacon and go for something far away beats me. But I always have trouble with that trash. I've seen hulks just shrugging it off. I am not using that trash ever again.
@@anthrax2413 Usually hulks only survive if it blows out the back weak spot. That is still a kill as they will bleed out the rest of their hp. Just annoying sometimes to have to wait for it to die as it is still shooting at you.
Getting tired of seeing nothing but quasar cannons. I had a match with randoms on helldive where everybody brought the auto-cannon and the bots got absolutely molested. I have never seen such a massacre before. Really wish people would branch out and use different things like the AC, AMR, Laser cannon etc. The quasar meta is a confusing one because it’s not even the best. The only upside is that it has unlimited uses but other than that I much prefer the recoilless.
Grenade launcher needs an upgrade, but is kinda fun on the new defense mission (not 7+ difficulty). You can launch it up in the air like a mortar. If you point it "straight up" (the game does not let you point all the way up) it will land 50 meters away. As an upgrade, I think the frag effect could be increased. Or go the other way and make them more like HEAT (shaped charge) or HEDP (high explosive dual purpose) with more armor peen and less frag effect.
@@LeftJoystick agreed, and with the supply pack you can have a loadout that likes to chew through ammo (like scorcher and stun grenades, machine pistol) to really go ham on the firepower. It does struggle a bit on the AT, but strats and team mates can fill that void. You'll rip through the hoards and med enemies. Better on bugs though imo
Look, I gotta say, you're judging some of these a little too much based around how they fair solo. The Ballistic shield is not good solo. It's best whenever you're with a team who can punch higher than you, while you draw enemy fire from thinks like Heavy Devastators. It is NOT good whenever it's used solo.
playing solo and playing with randoms isn't much different. assuming being in a team means you have peak communication and execution is far from reality.
@@OhDough It does, though. Having other teammates, even randos with uncoordinated weapons, makes all the difference whenever it comes to using the Ballistic Shield. That volume of fire is great whenever you're drawing fire from Heavy Devastators, and they can take em out if you're having trouble. Even if they're not using medium penetration weapons, like if they're using the Sickle, it's still very vital to have buddies
Tbh, as a Spear user, all I hear is that it sucks, lol. I only hear shocked surprises on comms when people see me use it lol. It’s niche but I kinda like it. It forces me do a different playstyle from how I play when I have the Autocannon. If you asked me, the railcannon, personal shield backpack, and the 500 KG bomb are overrated. I feel like the AMR, bigger shield generator, and the Eagle Airstrikes do a better job.
You know I was going to defend the Quasar till it clicked why you added it to this list, so it wouldn't have to face the balance hammer.. This man's 1000 steps ahead of everyone
He said Granade launcher is bad, then shows that he shot granade launcher directly to the enemy face like shooting a tennis ball launcher. yes overated indeed.
Honestly, they should just make a laser guided rocket support weapon, even half-life 2 has one lol. We have the Spear that's like the IRL Javalin, it would be nice to have a laser guided so i can maybe get headshots or whatever shots on stuff, the Spear is kind of RNG on hits. I love my quasar, i paid it up with an army of EATs spam. I can use quasar to save up EATs for when i rrally need to spam them. Go ahead and try it, it's really fun spamming EATs everywhere lol
Well yes, automatons have weak points but: 1. It's squirrels eye on the front of the thing which you miss 50% of the time. Or 2. Legs, backpacks etc, which take 2x ammo do destroy. Or 3. Vents, that you will rarely hit cause the thing will spin in an infinite dumb dance with you.
I like Quasar cause it has infinite ammo, and if there's a gunship factory it's pretty good for taking them out of the sky. But it is much much better on colder planets and absolutely terrible on hotter planets, nearly unusable. Nvm new patch just added +5 seconds to the cooldown for no reason, unusable.
I stopped using railcannon strike a few weeks ago. I can’t count how many times I’ve thrown directly at a charger and it targets the brood commander that’s 15ft away from the charger. Same problem with throwing it at tanks and tank towers and it deciding to target the hulk that I can stun and one shot with the railgun. I would rather use precision orbital. It’s heavy armor penetrating and the cooldown is like 90 seconds. If I miss who cares I will have another one in a minute and a half
Honestly I like spear. It sucks ass yeah but it's just when it works it works. You just gotta get used to it being bad and for some reason it stops being bad? IDK but I never had any issues with spear. Idk if I am lucky or something but I have fun with spear. Sometimes I do use the sniper as well but can't aim for shit.
Am I the only one that thinks the auto-cannon is okay? It takes more shots than you’d think against mediums, is difficult to kill heavy’s, and you can’t kill titans
only single purpose i see for Railcannon currently is: Ohsh*t button when there's one heavy you need to kill here right now it autotargets, very quick, "almost never misses", rarely friendly fires, can be thrown on yourself safely and is unaffected by scatter and call in time modifiers. it won't work as your primary Anti Armor option, but in a pinch/situation gone wrong it can be lifesaver if you have free 3 slot from using support weapon with a backpack. 210s CD is definitely overkill given it's a side-grade to the Precision Strike with has 100s CD...
It having a longer cooldown is what makes it a side grade to the precision strike. If it has a more comparable cooldown then it'd be a massive upgrade over the precision strike due to its lock on.
@@clintmcbride7830 yes but not worth 2.1x the cooldown, also Precision strike has other strengths over Railcannon like being able to be used against objective buildings like Detector towers, smack group of Targets due to having AoE and higher damage (able to kill Bile Titan in one well placed shot and severely damage fab strider)
@@arczer2519 that's fair. I personally use the 500kg for all of those things so I haven't had much experience with the precision strike in a while. Maybe a shorter cooldown for the RC Strike wouldn't be a bad idea
I want the Orbital EMS to actually lock down bile titans. Yeah, it was stupid that stun grenades could and I'm glad they made changes to that. But a large EMS drop from Orbit should stun a bile titan. Orbital Gas needs to not only do damage but either a debuff (reduces armor by one stage) or a slow/confusion so they stay inside the cloud longer.
I think the gas should shred armor. I mean the implication is that it is corrosive gas, so it should shred bug/bot armor exposing weakspots - making them easier to take down with less penetrative weapons.
100% agreed. EMS Mortar and Grenades shouldn't be able to do it. But Orbital EMS? The thing should stun-lock everything, including fabricators. Heck: IMHO it should fry circuits of all small Bots (e.g. troopers).
If the gas did damage AND blocked line of sight like smoke, it'd be amazing. Or if it did damage ignoring armour (because honestly, why would armour affect gas anyway?)
The airburst launcher clearly detonates next to other helldivers due to the air molecules stored in their lungs. Luckily, the ingenious design of the airburst launcher removes this air from their lungs after it's detected by the proximity trigger. A truly cutting edge piece of weaponry.
"Hulks are bigger than you'd think!" - SES' Railcannon operator. Really, although impressive on the ease of use, the Railcannon strike CAN still target much smaller enemies despite having a much bigger one right next to it. I threw a Railcannon at a Bile Titan once, it goes and target the Brood Mother just because its the closest "big" target. I had a few days where the Railcannon just does no targeting at all, just because I threw it a few feet away from the large enemy. (I think they fixed this). I decided to just run with the good old Orbital Precision Strike. Surprise, surprise, I can one-shot bile titans if I'm lucky, or skillful enough. Otherwise love the Railcannon, just wished the cooldown is faster.
I run the spear. What I use it for: killing Fabricators, AT-ATs & Gunships. It is gr8 when it works, especially if stratagems are being jammed and you need to kill something big. Sometimes It decides to target the tower cannon, the tank and the hulk.. sometimes It just does not want to. You can use elevation and crawling on your belly to get it to aim better, sometimes it does work. Needs that fix from the devs. As a spear user you just pray to the RNG gods and sacrifice your kin at dawn be4 playing :). EDIT: vs bugs its not good, but bugs are easy and boring anyway.
Spear is very much like irl Javelin. It needs clear line of sight to work (Javelin needs IR), so any amount of visual obstructions are contributing to jamming the lock on. Additionally, spear has very precise locking mechanism. For example it sees towers as something killable only when they are facing you, but boy oh boy if they do, then you can blast them off from half the map (it's a visual pattern recognition system)
This is how I got Gone in 360 seconds. It's great at killing fabricators at range and even better at half locking onto a Hulk 20 times before the thing walks up and kills you.
@@spooderman3425 Haha, I keep making that mistake. Trying to lock onto a flamer hulk as it makes a mad dash towards me. By the time the rocket goes off it is too close and goes above it's head. RIP
@@Kijekin477 It really isn't a visual pattern recognition. As long as you've got clear LOS to the centre of a target you can get a lock on. I've locked on a fabricator through the MG nests and fired over the top to kill them while 80% of the target is obscured. As long as you've got clear LoS to the centre you can lock on with the Spear and make the killshot. The two actual problems is 1:that anything blocking the line of sight to the centre (for example a hulk's arms, a tank's barrel or the tower base of a turret) will block that line of sight stopping the lockon. 2: The targeting recticle is off, like so many other weapons. The actual spot that you need put on the centre of mass is the lower part of the targeting recticle.
I think you can work around the lack of Med pen on the Ballistic shield. Laser Cannon can be a good pick as a support slot since it can handle most things you're weak at on Automatons.
I ALWAYS take the Laser Cannon with the Ballistic Shield. It’s primary mission is to kill any Rocket Devastators in sight LOL. Take cover, pop out and laser their rocket pods from distance then shield up and advance through the mini guns of death while trying to hit their tiny little heads with the Defender (God I wish they would behave released the laser SMG along with the Sickle and Dagger makes ZERO sense why they didn’t)
Here is hoping that the patch coming this week makes it so much more worth, but if it only improves the speed of lock-on and not the sometimes poor shot placement it has we'll still be a bit down bad
same tbh, that finicky locked in is fun to use for me at least because when your spear actually locked in, that dopamine rush really hit you hard knowing that airbase, canon turret, or tank would be destroyed 😂. I just wish they buffed the damage so we could kill the hulk or bile titan with only one ammo.
It’s top tier in groups that can’t handle Titan and chargers group Since everyone just spends all their gems on the same stuff Time to clear mobs is horrible if you don’t have anything to clear on your diver outside of gems cause it needs you when destroyer leaves
The spear could be laser guided by your teammates like the laser guided bombs or missiles in real life. Eg a teammate finds a target, marks it for you and boom. You hit exactly what you need
@@Tetragramix Exactly this. It's already a struggle to have someone run a backpack to speed reload, I don't see anyone giving up shooting to be the laser pointer.
@@miszcz For tagging, it's one button press as you're sweeping the rest of the field. For a laser pointer, you'd need to keep it on target until your teammate decides to fire. If they changed it so that tagging (and confirming) a target is the only thing that is needed that would be fun, but I don't see them actually doing that. Despite how sci-fi the game is, there's a _lot_ that's grounded in modern tech and conventions. So I'm fully expecting it to require someone to keep it lit up until the spear impacts if they decide to change it.
Honestly, I'd love to see some radical change like 5 second cooldown but 8 max uses or something. I think it's in a weird place with how it compares with the capabilities of support weapons (especially EAT) and needs a big shakeup.
Yes, watching your uploads made me feel that I'm not playing the game everyday in isolation. (Even if I have 3 friends who technically own the game, but only spent like 10 hours in total so far). I tend to also try out your tips and see if they are actually useful for me. For example, hitting the AT-FS eye has been fun to kill. I also did not know you can head shot hulks. It levels the playing field for bots vs. if I did not watch, I would have only played bug missions.
helldivers HATE being told they're wrong about weapon/planet choices, if dough didn't put the disclaimer he would get torn apart even though he's right
@@ShapeshifterOS Idk how you read "scheise" as "shield", but either way, that's essentially German for "sh*t". He isn't talking about the shield pack.
The problem with the rail cannon strike is that we have far better options, especially against bots. Orbital lasers, 500kg Bomb, Eagle Airstrike are permanent go-tos. Rail cannon comes back every 3 minutes and only kills 1 enemy. That's not enough uptime for bot drops, patrols and stationary enemies. The only way I see running rail cannon being decently viable is if It's a mission that allows you to carry 4 stratagems. And It's only decently viable If you aren't using extra slots like rovers or shield generators. Your uptime and loadout would be so bad.. that's why I agree It's definitely a top 5 overrated stratagem. Strong, but not great for uptime.
My main problem with it is that the Precision Orbital Strike does the same job on less than half the cooldown while also having various utility uses and even clearing small groups of mediums in a pinch, and the only downside is that you need to time the impact yourself (which is not that hard against the kinds of big, slow targets you would use the Railcannon for in the first place).
@@TheCosmicAstro- Explain how It's overrated? It destroys Detector towers, Research Stations, and Mortar Emplacements. It can destroy Shriekers nest If you don't feel like taking forever doing other methods. It can destroy Small/Medium Fabricators and Bug hole layouts, It can kill a bile titan very easily If you shoot the bile titan once in the head with a Quasar, making bile titans die in record speed. Overall, It skips objectives and It's good for blitzing full clears. It is far from overrated, It gets things done and has utility other stratagems don't have. I've also used numerous of times to kill Hulks and sometimes It can kill a factory strider If well placed. It's AOE sucks for killing fodder, but that's not an eliminating factor considering how much other things It does.
the orbital laser issue comes from people not understanding its true purpose: base/horde clearing. the laser is not meant to be used on large enemies, thats terrible economy for it. instead it should be used for bases with bot drops called. its crazy good at mowing down devastators and anything below that level. once it runs into a tank or hulk (titans and chargers for bugs) you should kill that damage sponge or expect the laser to be over. railcannon strike is great for anything other than bile titans since that is the only enemy it doesnt instantly kill. i use it for chargers, hulks, tanks, and once i used it to kill a factory lol. the appeal for this one is its reliability. decent cooldown and one shots anything you run into except titans, i use it for bot missions alot
I disagree with ballistic shield simply because I never see anyone actually paying with it. People should play with it more lol. And only use it for what it's good for, mg raiders, turrets, heavy devastators, shredder tank, using it against fabricator strider to rush under the belly.
I dont understand the ballistic shield slander, just bring a laser cannon or amr or something with range to take out high value targets, then move in with the shield and safely clear the fodder, or use stratagems for the big guys. Also the revolver is a much better option than the grenade pistol since you can oneshot devs to the head with it. grenade pistol doesn't support the sustain playstyle the shield promotes nearly as well.
Yah the ballistic is great. Just bring the QC for heavy shit and boom done. And on bots you don’t need medium AP as you can just head shot all devastators and only rocket devastators can do shit to you anyways. The defender SMG makes extremely short work of bots and is considered to be really good. I don’t get this guys view point of it being bad as the only time it sucks is bugs and yah no duh. The flamethrower sucks on bots.
Yeah good luck taking out all the devastators and hulks with a single mag before moving in with a shield. Half of you guys don't helldive or even play on level 7 difficulty and it shows.
Please do a primary weapon ranking/tier list vs bots and bugs. Your opinions ofcourse, would love to see what an actually competer player makes of the current state of primaries (I thnink most are bad) in this game. Edit: Wait I counted 7 stratagems :o
Eh the only one on this list that is actually overrated is railcannon strike. That's the only one I see people bringing a lot but is actually bad. The rest I never really see (ballistic shield/spear) or are really good but just faction specific (orbital laser/quasar/grenade launcher).
The railcannon doesn't really give me any issues. It's more of a problem of wanting it to just solve your biggest problem but I appreciate that it prioritizes the hulks and such. 500kg however will just kill nothing sometimes even when nearby. Just because hammer can do a job your might be better off with a saw.
@@godoftsukuyomi7480 that kind of the only thing I can agree with and a small cd buff would be nice. Still an instant lock in for my stratagems regardless.
Man, wasn’t expecting Quasar on this list ESPECIALLY for Automotons. One shotting Hulks, Shooting off once against Tanks/Turrets then finishing off with an Eruptor. Having the option to shoot fabricators, and shooting drop ships RIGHT BEFORE they turn red effectively stopping an entire drop, or shooting down gun ships. Man I keep trying to finish the sentence then thinking of more uses, it’s so versatile. Just don’t use it against devastators? Leave that to the scorch or eruptor. Thought of two more things, LEAVES THE BACKPACK SLOT OPEN, NO AMMO CONSUMPTION, AND NO BULLET DROP OFF. EDIT AGAIN, YOU CAN ONE SHOT MORTORS, AND EAGLE GATTLERS, AND TWO SHOT STRIDERS
Autocannon does it all against bots and practically has unlimited ammo as well. Shooting down bot drops isn't that beneficial it almost never kills them.
SHHHHHHHH the quasar cannon is just an eat 17 or a recoilless with infinite ammo, we gotta pretend its not always the best choice for heavy armor or it will get nerfed SHHHHHHHHHHH ahaha yeah the quasar cannon, thing sucks for bots am I right guys?! ;)
@@KnightKingBranthe quasar cannon does have downsides though, after shooting once there's a cooldown before the next shot and even to land that first shot you need to charge it up which can be detrimental if you're being chased or can't stand in one spot while charging it up or you need to shoot something instantly. It's still the best imo but it has its cons to
The hulk is bigger than the turret though. The turret is the tiny ass thing on top of the tower. Hulks also have more armor than the turret. Soooo there you go.
pro tip: of you use a railcannon strike on a fresh bile titan and have a auto cannon, you can finish it off with an auto cannon by popping its underbelly and tail belly.
0:14 "I won't be ranking these from 1-5, that's disingenuous. Number 1 rail Cannon"
great start so far
lmao i read your comment the same time as he said this line in video
Just use the the precision strike 100 second cool-down and does like double the damage with more blast range
@@SneepppIt's not double the damage lmao what
@@arvy7765a direct hit kills a bile titan unlike the rail cannon that's a coin flip.
It just the number in the video, not a ranking.
I understand the ballistic shield being cosmetic against explosions, but doing nothing for melee is crazy. I would like to get the rational from the devs for this decision.
It's in the name. BALLISTIC shield. In all seriousness, I don't understand that choice either lol
Explosions will deal impact force and the heaviest armor penetration. So in order for the ballistic shield to resist most explosions, it will need to have even higher armor than Tanks, and Hulk Heavy Devestators. Since that will fundamentally mean this item would be meta compared to ALL other armors, devs are definitely hesitant to give such "Captain American Vibranium" capability to the shield.
Then again, when you look at the shield generator, it basically blocks all explosions and impact force. I am not sure why Arrowhead decided to give generators quite a "meta" shielding effect, but not towards the *ballistic* shield. Maybe because generated shield can break easily or it is timed based.
I think that melees should be treated similarly to explosions, and have different explosion strengths(say devastator quad rockets versus cannon turrets) and when the shield takes impacts, too many or too strong of an impact will send you ragdolling. You could reasonably tank a rocket or two from a devastor or rocket infantry, but not from cannons or tanks, and wearing heavy armor or fortified armor will increase the number of smaller impacts you can take before ragdolling
Yeah always found it strange that a shield doesn't work against the primary things all shields in history were made for
@@GooiYingChyi the personal shield gen rubs out of energy quickly and can't block shots for long. The ballistic shield SHINES in co-op game play as you have others take out anything with rockets while you mow down chaff like nothing. You're basically moving cover and it's so welcome against bots. He isn't a team player, he's a solo player who does things on his own. Seriously, never once do I see him with the team unless he's forced too.
I wouldnt be mad if Arrowhead made us collect samples for weapon improvements
I personally think they should consider alternative unlocks. This way they could add way more for us to invest samples in without power creeping into infinity.
What about a mixture of recusition and medals?
@luistijerina1164 that could work too
That is how it worked in HD1
@@luistijerina1164
We already need *_way too many_* medals just for basic equipment; I'd much rather collect samples instead.
It would be cool if rail cannon (and 110 rocket pods) were configurable, and you could go into ship management and tell it what it should prioritize. If you want it to delete chargers even if a titan is nearby, you should be able to do that. You should be able to make it prefer turrets to tanks to hulks, or the other way around if you like.
I ain't waiting like 4 minutes per charger shot.
I was thinking that the Rail cannon should be a one shot for titans, it only hits ONE target, meaning if it were to be buffed it's damage potential would stay generally the same.
I think the 110 rocket pods are in the same boat, but if it hit the two biggest things in a larger area, that would make it much better, especially since were getting air-to-air missiles that do the pretty much the same thing.
If rockets got the +1 bomb for strikes that drop multiple bombs (they do fire multiple rockets, after all?) They'd benefit a lot, but that upgrade doesn't apply to them.
@DancerVeiled rockets arent bombs. But its a dumb distinction to make, for gameplay purposes the rocket pods should benefit from the +1 upgrade
The nice part about the rocket pods is they break armor but I’ve had difficulty with its targeting. I think it requires you to be more precise with your throws. Either that or, it’s bugged.
The thing with Railcannon is, it always chooses the center of the big enemy, and in the case of Bile Titans, their backs. The raw damage could easily one-shot if targeted on their heads instead. Hence Orb Precision Strike is still much better at handling Titans (you can control where it lands).
110mm Rocket Pods will miss more than 50% of the time, unless you are targeting a stationary enemy, and beacon had to land within inches of the enemy. You'd be much better off using a KG or Precision Strike in this case. (Yes, with the current damage, give it ability to target 3 or more enemies, then I might consider using it)
@@DancerVeiledyeah that is quite stupid of a ship module, or devs are just too lazy to +1 on the 110mm pods bomb count.
I like quasar because you never need to reload it. The 3 second charge time isn't ideal, but it's better than sitting yourself down for a recoilless reload during a protracted battle, or if you're doing a fighting retreat. Sure, you never want to be caught in those situations, but they're going to happen regardless because no one plays a perfect game 100% of the time.
You can also open any engagement with it because you don't need to worry about reloading it in case a tank or hulk gets dropship'd in. Not to mention the backpack slot gets opened up, so a shield generator can mitigate the charge up time, while a jump pack can just fly somewhere. You can even be a team player and wear a spare ammo backpack for a teammate if you don't feel like being a team player with a supply pack.
It's just a good supplementary weapon for teams you have any amount of coordination with, whether you want to fill a more flexible role or you just wanna turn your brain off while still being effective. Also, there's no reason to shoot down dropships because half the time it just turns into invincible cover for the bots being dropped in.
Rail cannon classifies tower as structure and not enemy, so if there is any enemy near to its throw in spot. It'll target the mobile enemy first
the amount of times im running away from a swarm and the lazer goes after the 1 little bug behind me and toasts me as well lmao
Laser just sucks, I don't know why people take it. If you're going to pick some meme stratagem might as well go exosuit because at least it's bad ass.
@@magicjerk2641 oh dont tell me that!!!! we tell our 1 friend who takes it all the fucking time LOL
6:18 great ending
I love rail cannon strike but i only use it for bugs im shit at handling chargers and it lets me kill bile titans with any primary by shooting the chunk that gets blasted off... it aiming at the helathy one is great that way you can use almost any weapon to finish it off.
Well Quasar cannon makes automaton fun for me, cuz I love the shield backpack and Quasar is a great heavy killing weapon without the need for backpack, and yea I don't like having to call in EAT every time. At the end of the day, use whatever you want lol
Orbital laser is great to clear a large robot factory and clears adds for a safe extract. I understand your point that an orbital laser will just be a waste on a bial Titan with a bunch of bugs but that’s if I am solo. I won’t bring it. If I am with a full squad, somebody else has a stratagem to help take out the Titan quickly and let the laser go off to clear other targets.
It's also horrendous when it goes after charging chargers. But for the bots it's excellent.
It basically solos the command Bunkers mission too. Throw and forget (usually)
Railcannon targets the enemy with the biggest HP (not the physically largest one). And not even max HP, but current one. That's how in some rare situations it goes for a small/medium bug instead of a very damaged charger for example.
I think the grenade launcher is good at what it does and I just think it's not your preferred playstyle and might be harder to use solo because when you are overrun by enemies it's much harder to know where to shoot (chance of an enemy appearing suddenly and detonating you shot early), it's just designed to thin the enemy forces at medium ranges before finishing the larger enemies with something else this seems dumb but in teamplay it's really good since you can tell your mates to focus big guys while you decimate trash mobs.
I do agree that the mag count is low but I prefer a low mag count weapons that works (and the GL works) than a huge magazine/ammo economy weapon that struggles killing small units (looking at you Stalwart).
I want to say that you need to pair it with ammo backpack and a medium penetrating precise weapon like the JAR or the Scorcher or get the EAT in case you really need it, you use the fire spray a lot just treat it like what you do with that weapon at medium ranges where you basically shower the frontline with the fire pellets, the weapon stagger every non heavy unit so it's not like they are going to reach you even if they don't die.
I think it would be nice if you could choose granade launcher as primary weapon but ironically that's why the eruptor exists lol.
Another motive I think it's good is that does amazing at reinforcement denial, Against bug breaches the weapon AoE can will hit every bug that spawn from it, just get your 500kg bomb ready for bile titans and you can literally make dropships useless by shooting dropship underbelly at the bots before being deployed maybe you don't kill everything but anything that drop from there will be severely damaged unless you aimed poorly.
In all fairness it's far from perfect it should 2 shot all mediums instead of 3 shot, and I think that it bounces off the ground too easily, IRL if you shot it to the ground to close (or anything soft for the matter) it should be lodged into the ground and then explode with a bit of delay, granade ammo IRL has a limiter to how soon they can blow off, and the force at which they are being shot it so hard because IRL they are designed to be shot at around 50~200m engagements (or building clearings too) it should lodge itself into anything that isn't a rock until it blows off.
Railcannon strike is very good against bugs if you run it with anti tank. Shoot 1 anti tank and rail cannon strike and the titan is gone. Quite consistent. But if you’re just running the strike, its not good.
Finally, someone says the truth about dropship killing and using the Quasar cannon on the bot front. I barely like it on bugs Idk how people tolerate the potential "o no I flinched there goes my shot for 14secs" fact of life for bot planets.
Ballistic shield isn't overrated, it's just "rated" now since the last patch.Folks once declared it was the worst stratagem for a time. And there are still more people that prefer Shield gen. backpack even after its "nerfed" status.
Grenade launcher needs a little damage buff or allow us to switch the grenade type (stun, incendiary, impact, thermite), like if i could fire volleys stun or fire grenades that'd be dope.
Rail cannon strike would be better if there's an eagle version where you could fire it 2-3 times before long cooldown, especially on high difficulties with the amount of heavies spawns.
I use the quasar bc u can shoot turret towers and tanks from any angle, one shots hulks, one shots gunships shooting them anywhere, down dropship (even if dropping them makes them more anoying) and bc rocket launcher with unlimited ammo and low cooldown between shots
I solo bot missions with the senator primary, amr support, ballistic shield backpack, and eruptor as a tool to destroy fabricators. I can confirm the ballistic shield sucks when you use it with anything but the senator, and people overlook the senator wayyyy too much for the mediocre machine pistol.
I'm all for dunking on the Ballistic shield, but shitting on the defender? Naw man, its time to throw hands with some facts.
Sickle is one of the best weapons in the game and has the same pen.
Sickle has to be spooled, Defender does not.
Sickle gets loud really fast, defender has a low sound profile even after multiple shots.
Sickle accuracy is kinda meh, Defender might as well be a laser.
Both are two hit headshot kills on devestators.
One has infinite ammo, the other has the ability to be one-handed.
Defender has better handling and target acquisition.
Sickle is still better because of the RPM and an actual bloom in third person, but make no mistake, the Defender is still a beast.
The real problem is we have shit options for one-handed play at the moment. So maybe when we can wield something dummy powerful in the other hand will we see it increase in strength.
The spear should have a little recon drone you can scout with and laser a target from a distance and shoot off the rocket n have it hit
All of that is extremely fair. I'd LOVE it if the orbital rail one shot titans but as it stands you're better off using napalm and 500kg. I'd be super nice to be able to use the spear too, so cool, SO buggy.
For how long you're forced to wait between cooldowns, the railcannon strike should be one shotting EVERY enemy in the game, not just the mid level heavies!
Hot takes: we already have a machines gun primary weapon. It’s called the Scythe.
8s of shooting most weapon run out of bullet in 4s of relentless fire, bullet saving isn’t required bc it’s an energy weapon. 6 mags fast reloads while running if you don’t want to wait for heat cooldown.
Also another hot takes: don’t aim on Scythe(both third person aim and first person aim is to avoid on this weapon so just don’t right click this weapon).
Aiming on this weapon is basically wasting it potentials and tunnels vision yourself. You would want to not aiming for larger POV sight for target changing after kill to save time from charge it up against, ability to dodge while still accurately hit you target bc you control the line of fire not the typical scope.
I love the spear, and I've taken out 4 bile titans back to back, cooldown is reasonable, ammo buffs were nice.
Play the next mission and it cant lock on to anything. Worthless on bad visibility planets. Watch spear guide videos and its just nonsense lies saying "you arent using the weapon properly so it wont lock on." Or y'know, maybe the lock on is just broken.
I personally think mortars are over rated. They are inaccurate, target the closest enemy to a player, lots of tks. On defense missions (coop ones at least) enemies get stuck in walls and cliffs so you die not knowing an enemy is there.
The true problem with mortar sentries, is that they aggro *All* patrols in a 128 meter radius of it. Which on harder difficulties can be dangerous.
I kind of disagree with the tower and hulk scenario. For me it's very clear that the orbital rail is an oh shit stratagem for emergencies and any hulk is far more dangerous than any turret. Turrets auto miss if you simply move, and they can't actually walk. Yes, they are better than annihilator tanks because they come with the crucial los advantage. I agree it could be on a shorter cd.
perhaps it should simply treat all tanks, turrets and hulks as equal and go for the closest target. this way it would be within your ability to "choose", if you are that good at throwing that is.
what about tank vs hulk? tank 1 shots you and hulk tends to not 1 shot you.
If they could finally fix the targeting issue and if one has the Superior Packing Methods upgrade. The spear could be fantastic... but till that day comes (which is supposedly at the end of may), i'd never use it.
Quasar shines when eats aren't an option. Ion storms, complex plotting, etc.
The others I definitely get.
I honestly would like to see a laser pointer secondary that buffs the damage of guided weapons as well as lock on time just to make it worth bringing
Grenade launcher becomes extremely useful when you get a map with bile spewers. I personally feel like it's the best weapon for quickly popping them, especially when there's a lot of them.
You could use the eruptor, but it fires slower, has a smaller magazine, and isn't as comfortable to use against chaff as something like the sickle is.
Paired with impact grenades and the grenade pistol, you are grenade maxing and become the dedicated spewer remover.
Aside from that I don't take GL, I normally run quasar with bugs and autocannon with bots.
The spear is good FIGHT ME!
Ofcource it wont lock on in the fog!
TBH it is kinda broken but on some plane planet bro it is the best feeling ever to shoot down bile titans from 300 meters away!
it is just fun and effective when it works 100% of the time outside of foggy planets 40 % of the time!
Spear has so much potential, if the lock on is more guaranteed, OR optional.
Quasar is a mixed bag against bots. It can one shot medium hulks and gunships, but like you pointed out, if you get even slightly shot by their MGs or rockets, chances are, you will miss the target completely and waste a shot. I also had a time where I had a Quasar fully charged just to get swiped by a bile titan leg and die. So yes, S tier against chargers and weakened Bile Titans, but meh on anything else.
Any sort of rating on Gas, Smoke, Airburst, Gattling Barrage, Eagle Strafing, MG sentry is overrated, because they are basically useless. I'd call these "just for the show".
I ain't gonna say I wouldn't mind a little buff to the railcannon, but I still like it on bugs, as a supplementary tool. Instantly deletes a charger I can't get to easily, or more importanlty, shreds a bile titan leaving it usually very easy to kill with massive weakspots. Sure 500k works better, if you wanna get close enough to guarantee that, I generally do not, plus the RC just doesn't do friendly fire, and that's pretty damned nice. It can't work as a wholesale anti-tank tool, unless you're running on like difficulty 3 or lower obviously, but wouldn't really want it to.
While I agree that things like lasers and railcannon strikes are overused, they get the job done pretty well. However, 500kg bombs and quasar cannons are both overused and overhyped. The 500kg has a pathetically small blast radius, making it only good for precisely taking out one big thing, and not clearing bot outposts and bug nests like many people think. It should be renamed to „Eagle flashbang” in my opinion. The quasar cannon on the other hand, isn’t suitable for long and tense engagements due to its long charge time and cooldown between shots. You don’t really have the time to freeze in place to charge your shot while the enemy factory strider is barraging you with constant machine gun fire.
Autocannon forever, its the only weapon that gets all the hype and deserves even more of it.
I feel like enough times passed to agree a lot of things need to be buffed overall.
I mean I fucked up and reported on steam how the devs stealth nerfed a few things one week Into the game;
-orbital laser damage
-rocket pods damage and tracking
Then explained how if we allow them to do these stealth nerfs then they would keep doing it and that we had to put our foot down otherwise arrowhead will turn into Bungie.
I was demanded to show proof, so I showed it, they then proceeded to attack me personally, then they proceeded to post my Twitter page to do more personal attacks, then they mass reported me and got me banned off steam forums for a month.
Yet here we are with 3/4th of the player base gone and still counting. We seriously need to stand as one voice and tell arrowhead to just fix their game already instead of making excuses
Railgun is trash. A few days ago, a factory strider dropped near me. I tossed the railgun right on top of strider, but the railgun completely avoided every high tier enemy in the area and killed a trooper far away from where the beacon was.
Orbital scatter planetary modifier changing the target range, perhaps?
@@clonesharpshooter101I bet that’s the case. I didn’t think about that.
@@clonesharpshooter101 Unlikely. Why would it avoid a massive target right on top of the beacon and go for something far away beats me. But I always have trouble with that trash. I've seen hulks just shrugging it off. I am not using that trash ever again.
Personally I have never seen this happen. Maybe you tossed further than you thought?
@@anthrax2413 Usually hulks only survive if it blows out the back weak spot. That is still a kill as they will bleed out the rest of their hp. Just annoying sometimes to have to wait for it to die as it is still shooting at you.
Did I miss something or why are there 3 number 5s?
Because there are 8 stratogems but only 5 places (it's top 5)
@@сблёв My guy you're making no sense. If I have a top 5 then I can only have 5 entrances... mind blowing I know.
I'd previously use GL for blitz bugs but the eruptor ended that mans whole career
Railcannon falls off very quickly with difficulty increase. Too much stuff to kill while reload is too long.
Spear is really only good on bot blitz missions. A laser guided missile was leaked at some point
Getting tired of seeing nothing but quasar cannons. I had a match with randoms on helldive where everybody brought the auto-cannon and the bots got absolutely molested. I have never seen such a massacre before. Really wish people would branch out and use different things like the AC, AMR, Laser cannon etc. The quasar meta is a confusing one because it’s not even the best. The only upside is that it has unlimited uses but other than that I much prefer the recoilless.
rocket launcher that use laser? doesnt that sounds like the leaked quad launcher that can be guided by laser?
at the end of every video man, "look, at all these protein im eating, go get protein it guud for u" XDXD
If deatroying a dropship just killed its crew and troops I would feel alot less cheated sometimes.
All I could really want for perfection is dedicated first person
Grenade launcher needs an upgrade, but is kinda fun on the new defense mission (not 7+ difficulty). You can launch it up in the air like a mortar. If you point it "straight up" (the game does not let you point all the way up) it will land 50 meters away. As an upgrade, I think the frag effect could be increased. Or go the other way and make them more like HEAT (shaped charge) or HEDP (high explosive dual purpose) with more armor peen and less frag effect.
The only proper way to run the grenade launcher is with the supply pack imo. It then just becomes your primary lolol
@@LeftJoystick agreed, and with the supply pack you can have a loadout that likes to chew through ammo (like scorcher and stun grenades, machine pistol) to really go ham on the firepower.
It does struggle a bit on the AT, but strats and team mates can fill that void. You'll rip through the hoards and med enemies.
Better on bugs though imo
Look, I gotta say, you're judging some of these a little too much based around how they fair solo. The Ballistic shield is not good solo. It's best whenever you're with a team who can punch higher than you, while you draw enemy fire from thinks like Heavy Devastators. It is NOT good whenever it's used solo.
playing solo and playing with randoms isn't much different. assuming being in a team means you have peak communication and execution is far from reality.
@@OhDough It does, though. Having other teammates, even randos with uncoordinated weapons, makes all the difference whenever it comes to using the Ballistic Shield. That volume of fire is great whenever you're drawing fire from Heavy Devastators, and they can take em out if you're having trouble. Even if they're not using medium penetration weapons, like if they're using the Sickle, it's still very vital to have buddies
i definitely wish gas cloud lasted about 25% longer
Tbh, as a Spear user, all I hear is that it sucks, lol. I only hear shocked surprises on comms when people see me use it lol. It’s niche but I kinda like it. It forces me do a different playstyle from how I play when I have the Autocannon.
If you asked me, the railcannon, personal shield backpack, and the 500 KG bomb are overrated. I feel like the AMR, bigger shield generator, and the Eagle Airstrikes do a better job.
You know I was going to defend the Quasar till it clicked why you added it to this list, so it wouldn't have to face the balance hammer..
This man's 1000 steps ahead of everyone
He said Granade launcher is bad, then shows that he shot granade launcher directly to the enemy face like shooting a tennis ball launcher. yes overated indeed.
Honestly, they should just make a laser guided rocket support weapon, even half-life 2 has one lol. We have the Spear that's like the IRL Javalin, it would be nice to have a laser guided so i can maybe get headshots or whatever shots on stuff, the Spear is kind of RNG on hits.
I love my quasar, i paid it up with an army of EATs spam. I can use quasar to save up EATs for when i rrally need to spam them. Go ahead and try it, it's really fun spamming EATs everywhere lol
i regret to report that it took me until the 3rd #5 to realize what was going on 💀
You’re so good at throwing grenades into orbit and back down on a tank!
I got to #5 and kept changing universes
Well yes, automatons have weak points but:
1. It's squirrels eye on the front of the thing which you miss 50% of the time.
Or
2. Legs, backpacks etc, which take 2x ammo do destroy.
Or
3. Vents, that you will rarely hit cause the thing will spin in an infinite dumb dance with you.
I like Quasar cause it has infinite ammo, and if there's a gunship factory it's pretty good for taking them out of the sky.
But it is much much better on colder planets and absolutely terrible on hotter planets, nearly unusable.
Nvm new patch just added +5 seconds to the cooldown for no reason, unusable.
Spear is awesome against bots even with the lockon being wonky, takes time to get use too just like the old eruptor
I stopped using railcannon strike a few weeks ago. I can’t count how many times I’ve thrown directly at a charger and it targets the brood commander that’s 15ft away from the charger. Same problem with throwing it at tanks and tank towers and it deciding to target the hulk that I can stun and one shot with the railgun. I would rather use precision orbital. It’s heavy armor penetrating and the cooldown is like 90 seconds. If I miss who cares I will have another one in a minute and a half
Honestly I like spear. It sucks ass yeah but it's just when it works it works. You just gotta get used to it being bad and for some reason it stops being bad? IDK but I never had any issues with spear. Idk if I am lucky or something but I have fun with spear. Sometimes I do use the sniper as well but can't aim for shit.
Am I the only one that thinks the auto-cannon is okay? It takes more shots than you’d think against mediums, is difficult to kill heavy’s, and you can’t kill titans
auto cannon isn't great against the bugs but it's the king vs the bots. it's a fair trade-off imo
I mean, most of these were meta at one stage, and have now been overtaken by better stuff
I always wanted the gas strike to be corrosive to the robots and drop their armor rating just a tad.
It is.... just not the Bigger Ones.
That would be a good buff.
only single purpose i see for Railcannon currently is: Ohsh*t button when there's one heavy you need to kill here right now
it autotargets, very quick, "almost never misses", rarely friendly fires, can be thrown on yourself safely and is unaffected by scatter and call in time modifiers.
it won't work as your primary Anti Armor option, but in a pinch/situation gone wrong it can be lifesaver if you have free 3 slot from using support weapon with a backpack.
210s CD is definitely overkill given it's a side-grade to the Precision Strike with has 100s CD...
It having a longer cooldown is what makes it a side grade to the precision strike. If it has a more comparable cooldown then it'd be a massive upgrade over the precision strike due to its lock on.
@@clintmcbride7830 yes but not worth 2.1x the cooldown, also Precision strike has other strengths over Railcannon like being able to be used against objective buildings like Detector towers, smack group of Targets due to having AoE and higher damage (able to kill Bile Titan in one well placed shot and severely damage fab strider)
@@arczer2519 that's fair. I personally use the 500kg for all of those things so I haven't had much experience with the precision strike in a while. Maybe a shorter cooldown for the RC Strike wouldn't be a bad idea
I want the Orbital EMS to actually lock down bile titans. Yeah, it was stupid that stun grenades could and I'm glad they made changes to that. But a large EMS drop from Orbit should stun a bile titan.
Orbital Gas needs to not only do damage but either a debuff (reduces armor by one stage) or a slow/confusion so they stay inside the cloud longer.
Orbital gas, I think slows slightly. Though I like to use the gas with EMS as you can suppress enemies to stay in the gas.
100% agree. It’s crazy that it doesn’t seeing as it takes up an entire stratagem slot.
I think the gas should shred armor. I mean the implication is that it is corrosive gas, so it should shred bug/bot armor exposing weakspots - making them easier to take down with less penetrative weapons.
100% agreed. EMS Mortar and Grenades shouldn't be able to do it. But Orbital EMS? The thing should stun-lock everything, including fabricators. Heck: IMHO it should fry circuits of all small Bots (e.g. troopers).
If the gas did damage AND blocked line of sight like smoke, it'd be amazing. Or if it did damage ignoring armour (because honestly, why would armour affect gas anyway?)
The airburst launcher clearly detonates next to other helldivers due to the air molecules stored in their lungs. Luckily, the ingenious design of the airburst launcher removes this air from their lungs after it's detected by the proximity trigger. A truly cutting edge piece of weaponry.
"Hulks are bigger than you'd think!" - SES' Railcannon operator.
Really, although impressive on the ease of use, the Railcannon strike CAN still target much smaller enemies despite having a much bigger one right next to it.
I threw a Railcannon at a Bile Titan once, it goes and target the Brood Mother just because its the closest "big" target.
I had a few days where the Railcannon just does no targeting at all, just because I threw it a few feet away from the large enemy. (I think they fixed this).
I decided to just run with the good old Orbital Precision Strike. Surprise, surprise, I can one-shot bile titans if I'm lucky, or skillful enough.
Otherwise love the Railcannon, just wished the cooldown is faster.
4:17 not just corners but through time and space as well.
I run the spear. What I use it for: killing Fabricators, AT-ATs & Gunships. It is gr8 when it works, especially if stratagems are being jammed and you need to kill something big. Sometimes It decides to target the tower cannon, the tank and the hulk.. sometimes It just does not want to. You can use elevation and crawling on your belly to get it to aim better, sometimes it does work. Needs that fix from the devs. As a spear user you just pray to the RNG gods and sacrifice your kin at dawn be4 playing :). EDIT: vs bugs its not good, but bugs are easy and boring anyway.
*IF* it works and that's the issue.
Spear is very much like irl Javelin. It needs clear line of sight to work (Javelin needs IR), so any amount of visual obstructions are contributing to jamming the lock on.
Additionally, spear has very precise locking mechanism. For example it sees towers as something killable only when they are facing you, but boy oh boy if they do, then you can blast them off from half the map (it's a visual pattern recognition system)
This is how I got Gone in 360 seconds. It's great at killing fabricators at range and even better at half locking onto a Hulk 20 times before the thing walks up and kills you.
@@spooderman3425 Haha, I keep making that mistake. Trying to lock onto a flamer hulk as it makes a mad dash towards me. By the time the rocket goes off it is too close and goes above it's head. RIP
@@Kijekin477 It really isn't a visual pattern recognition. As long as you've got clear LOS to the centre of a target you can get a lock on.
I've locked on a fabricator through the MG nests and fired over the top to kill them while 80% of the target is obscured. As long as you've got clear LoS to the centre you can lock on with the Spear and make the killshot.
The two actual problems is
1:that anything blocking the line of sight to the centre (for example a hulk's arms, a tank's barrel or the tower base of a turret) will block that line of sight stopping the lockon.
2: The targeting recticle is off, like so many other weapons. The actual spot that you need put on the centre of mass is the lower part of the targeting recticle.
I think you can work around the lack of Med pen on the Ballistic shield. Laser Cannon can be a good pick as a support slot since it can handle most things you're weak at on Automatons.
I ALWAYS take the Laser Cannon with the Ballistic Shield. It’s primary mission is to kill any Rocket Devastators in sight LOL. Take cover, pop out and laser their rocket pods from distance then shield up and advance through the mini guns of death while trying to hit their tiny little heads with the Defender (God I wish they would behave released the laser SMG along with the Sickle and Dagger makes ZERO sense why they didn’t)
Spear is one of my favorite stratagems. Sometimes it works 100% of the time. It's great fun.
It usually isn’t great, bit it is a lot of fun to use.
Here is hoping that the patch coming this week makes it so much more worth, but if it only improves the speed of lock-on and not the sometimes poor shot placement it has we'll still be a bit down bad
I hope Arrowhead would fix the lock on for the spear.
same tbh, that finicky locked in is fun to use for me at least because when your spear actually locked in, that dopamine rush really hit you hard knowing that airbase, canon turret, or tank would be destroyed 😂. I just wish they buffed the damage so we could kill the hulk or bile titan with only one ammo.
It’s top tier in groups that can’t handle Titan and chargers group Since everyone just spends all their gems on the same stuff
Time to clear mobs is horrible if you don’t have anything to clear on your diver outside of gems cause it needs you when destroyer leaves
The spear could be laser guided by your teammates like the laser guided bombs or missiles in real life. Eg a teammate finds a target, marks it for you and boom. You hit exactly what you need
No one would do that.
@@Tetragramix Exactly this. It's already a struggle to have someone run a backpack to speed reload, I don't see anyone giving up shooting to be the laser pointer.
@@leadpaintchips9461 ppl are already marking targets. I think this could work as guidance for spear shooters
@@miszcz For tagging, it's one button press as you're sweeping the rest of the field. For a laser pointer, you'd need to keep it on target until your teammate decides to fire.
If they changed it so that tagging (and confirming) a target is the only thing that is needed that would be fun, but I don't see them actually doing that. Despite how sci-fi the game is, there's a _lot_ that's grounded in modern tech and conventions. So I'm fully expecting it to require someone to keep it lit up until the spear impacts if they decide to change it.
Your medication ad analogy was wild but I respect you using the traditional Italian pronunciation of Buscemi
The orbital rail cannon definitely needs either a cooldown buff or it would be cool if it could target 3 targets, or do 3 shots like an airburst
Lol he just said it in the video
Less cooldown would be the right buff
2 uses alike an eagle could to it too.
I hate it when it can’t Pierce through environments and ends up saving a charger; it just isn’t a rail gun if it can’t clip through environments
Honestly, I'd love to see some radical change like 5 second cooldown but 8 max uses or something. I think it's in a weird place with how it compares with the capabilities of support weapons (especially EAT) and needs a big shakeup.
You just raised the bar for every other youtuber by making a top 5 with 7 items, no one can ever top this off 😂
This will be the new norm
Dough just wanted to say, you make my day just a little better when you upload.
Also Ballistic Shield video anytime soon?
I'm waiting for a one handed support weapon or primary with medium armor pen
Yes, watching your uploads made me feel that I'm not playing the game everyday in isolation. (Even if I have 3 friends who technically own the game, but only spent like 10 hours in total so far).
I tend to also try out your tips and see if they are actually useful for me. For example, hitting the AT-FS eye has been fun to kill. I also did not know you can head shot hulks. It levels the playing field for bots vs. if I did not watch, I would have only played bug missions.
@@OhDough Thanks for the reply big man.
"Use what u wanna use" - but don't use useless scheise pls
Shut up.
helldivers HATE being told they're wrong about weapon/planet choices, if dough didn't put the disclaimer he would get torn apart even though he's right
And what do you use?
Fuck you youre not my dad
@@ShapeshifterOS Idk how you read "scheise" as "shield", but either way, that's essentially German for "sh*t". He isn't talking about the shield pack.
The problem with the rail cannon strike is that we have far better options, especially against bots. Orbital lasers, 500kg Bomb, Eagle Airstrike are permanent go-tos. Rail cannon comes back every 3 minutes and only kills 1 enemy. That's not enough uptime for bot drops, patrols and stationary enemies. The only way I see running rail cannon being decently viable is if It's a mission that allows you to carry 4 stratagems. And It's only decently viable If you aren't using extra slots like rovers or shield generators. Your uptime and loadout would be so bad.. that's why I agree It's definitely a top 5 overrated stratagem. Strong, but not great for uptime.
I’ve had chargers eat the rail cannon and bleed out. Sure they die but it should just obliterate whatever it targets with that long a cooldown.
@@derkaiser9881 Including Bile titans, all It mainly does is break armor which is sad for a 3m cooldown
My main problem with it is that the Precision Orbital Strike does the same job on less than half the cooldown while also having various utility uses and even clearing small groups of mediums in a pinch, and the only downside is that you need to time the impact yourself (which is not that hard against the kinds of big, slow targets you would use the Railcannon for in the first place).
500kg is overrated as fuck. But the rest yeah theyre good
@@TheCosmicAstro- Explain how It's overrated? It destroys Detector towers, Research Stations, and Mortar Emplacements. It can destroy Shriekers nest If you don't feel like taking forever doing other methods. It can destroy Small/Medium Fabricators and Bug hole layouts, It can kill a bile titan very easily If you shoot the bile titan once in the head with a Quasar, making bile titans die in record speed. Overall, It skips objectives and It's good for blitzing full clears. It is far from overrated, It gets things done and has utility other stratagems don't have. I've also used numerous of times to kill Hulks and sometimes It can kill a factory strider If well placed. It's AOE sucks for killing fodder, but that's not an eliminating factor considering how much other things It does.
the orbital laser issue comes from people not understanding its true purpose: base/horde clearing.
the laser is not meant to be used on large enemies, thats terrible economy for it. instead it should be used for bases with bot drops called. its crazy good at mowing down devastators and anything below that level. once it runs into a tank or hulk (titans and chargers for bugs) you should kill that damage sponge or expect the laser to be over.
railcannon strike is great for anything other than bile titans since that is the only enemy it doesnt instantly kill. i use it for chargers, hulks, tanks, and once i used it to kill a factory lol. the appeal for this one is its reliability. decent cooldown and one shots anything you run into except titans, i use it for bot missions alot
Best laser I've ever seen was when 3 Dropships all flew into it and died immediately taking their bots with them.
I disagree with ballistic shield simply because I never see anyone actually paying with it. People should play with it more lol. And only use it for what it's good for, mg raiders, turrets, heavy devastators, shredder tank, using it against fabricator strider to rush under the belly.
I dont understand the ballistic shield slander, just bring a laser cannon or amr or something with range to take out high value targets, then move in with the shield and safely clear the fodder, or use stratagems for the big guys. Also the revolver is a much better option than the grenade pistol since you can oneshot devs to the head with it. grenade pistol doesn't support the sustain playstyle the shield promotes nearly as well.
The shield is a lot of fun to use.
Yah the ballistic is great. Just bring the QC for heavy shit and boom done. And on bots you don’t need medium AP as you can just head shot all devastators and only rocket devastators can do shit to you anyways. The defender SMG makes extremely short work of bots and is considered to be really good. I don’t get this guys view point of it being bad as the only time it sucks is bugs and yah no duh. The flamethrower sucks on bots.
What difficulty are you playing where there are so few heavy targets that you can feasibly clear them out before moving in?
Yeah good luck taking out all the devastators and hulks with a single mag before moving in with a shield. Half of you guys don't helldive or even play on level 7 difficulty and it shows.
@@N00BSYBORG I play almost exclusively on 7+. You’re just bad and don’t know how to use the shield.
For me it’s
1&2 The 2 mortars
3 EAT
4 Shield pack
5 Arc thrower
Underused
1 Gatling sentry
2 Recoiless R
3 Mech
4 Ammo pack
5 Normal machine gun.
Please do a primary weapon ranking/tier list vs bots and bugs. Your opinions ofcourse, would love to see what an actually competer player makes of the current state of primaries (I thnink most are bad) in this game.
Edit: Wait I counted 7 stratagems :o
Eh the only one on this list that is actually overrated is railcannon strike. That's the only one I see people bringing a lot but is actually bad. The rest I never really see (ballistic shield/spear) or are really good but just faction specific (orbital laser/quasar/grenade launcher).
watched a couple of your vids now and i amust say (as you said about yourself): WOW, how can one person be sooooo negative....chill dude
Lol, I recently discovered your channel from Helldivers 2 content and am really enjoying your straightalking no-nonsense ways.
I use Autocannon for bots and Quasar for bugs. If I’m solo I’ll take Arc Thrower and Blitzer for both. It’s really fun.
I'd say the hulk over turret aiming is an expected result. Tower is technically smaller as the base isn't part of the turret.
i use quasar bc backpack slots stays open
Am I having a stroke or did you have 3 number 5's? Top 7? 🤔
Anti-spear propaganda, saying anything negative about the spear is anti-Democratic.
Nade launcher. Aim at the ground below the enemy. Makes it more consistent
The railcannon doesn't really give me any issues. It's more of a problem of wanting it to just solve your biggest problem but I appreciate that it prioritizes the hulks and such. 500kg however will just kill nothing sometimes even when nearby. Just because hammer can do a job your might be better off with a saw.
Bad uptime
@@godoftsukuyomi7480 that kind of the only thing I can agree with and a small cd buff would be nice. Still an instant lock in for my stratagems regardless.
I haven’t watched the vid but if u say gas strike I’m gonna cry and piss my pants dough!
we can attend the support group together
Man, wasn’t expecting Quasar on this list ESPECIALLY for Automotons. One shotting Hulks, Shooting off once against Tanks/Turrets then finishing off with an Eruptor. Having the option to shoot fabricators, and shooting drop ships RIGHT BEFORE they turn red effectively stopping an entire drop, or shooting down gun ships. Man I keep trying to finish the sentence then thinking of more uses, it’s so versatile. Just don’t use it against devastators? Leave that to the scorch or eruptor.
Thought of two more things, LEAVES THE BACKPACK SLOT OPEN, NO AMMO CONSUMPTION, AND NO BULLET DROP OFF.
EDIT AGAIN,
YOU CAN ONE SHOT MORTORS, AND EAGLE GATTLERS, AND TWO SHOT STRIDERS
Autocannon does it all against bots and practically has unlimited ammo as well. Shooting down bot drops isn't that beneficial it almost never kills them.
SHHHHHHHH the quasar cannon is just an eat 17 or a recoilless with infinite ammo, we gotta pretend its not always the best choice for heavy armor or it will get nerfed SHHHHHHHHHHH
ahaha yeah the quasar cannon, thing sucks for bots am I right guys?! ;)
@@KnightKingBranthe quasar cannon does have downsides though, after shooting once there's a cooldown before the next shot and even to land that first shot you need to charge it up which can be detrimental if you're being chased or can't stand in one spot while charging it up or you need to shoot something instantly. It's still the best imo but it has its cons to
@@Nazwabezcyfer Can it kill mortars and anti-air from the sides/front? Just curious because I've never tried and heard mixed things on it.
yes
"Railcannon didn't target the tower" after he throws it right at the hulk
my Rail Canon strikes really like Scout Striders for some reason
upon the alter of the auto cannon I pray, may the cannon be with you always.
The hulk is bigger than the turret though. The turret is the tiny ass thing on top of the tower. Hulks also have more armor than the turret. Soooo there you go.
pro tip: of you use a railcannon strike on a fresh bile titan and have a auto cannon, you can finish it off with an auto cannon by popping its underbelly and tail belly.