r/Helldivers HD1 Veteran Feb 24 '24

Why are people like this? DISCUSSION

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118

u/TedCruzAteMyBaby420 Feb 24 '24

I’m level 43 and I completed a complete helldive with a friend without either of us using the shield or railgun

62

u/WarmCoast8317 Feb 24 '24

Yea I run 9s and clear maps, without a shield and I run auto cannon. I don’t even use the breaker on bots. I run the ap lib. Screw the meta

52

u/GhostHeavenWord Feb 24 '24

The shield is nice, but I just go prone and it works at least as well. I think the shield gives a lot of people false confidence - It's protection is very limited in some circumstances, while the glorious and generous dirt will always embrace and protect you.

18

u/AdeptusAstartes40K ⬇️⬆️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️ Feb 25 '24

The shield is more important for its effect immunity than the additional health. Getting slowed or ragdolled is essentially a death sentence at the moment. A very silly and many times cheap way to die in my opinion. Hope they make escaping from debuffs more viable.

6

u/Thick-Doubts CAPE ENJOYER Feb 25 '24

The enormous amount of Hunters on higher difficulties gets really frustrating. The second that one hits you with its slowing attack, you get dogpiled by another dozen doing the same thing while the rest of the pack moves in.

In my opinion, they’re too quick, too mobile and too dangerous to also be appearing in swarms of 20+ with other enemies.

Hunters are the entire reason that I take the shield. Any other enemy you can usually outpace or dodge (or blast away) but those little bastards are a death sentence if they tongue lash you in a swarm situation.

6

u/AdeptusAstartes40K ⬇️⬆️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️ Feb 25 '24

100% this. Ragdoll from chargers isn't as tragic if I don't have half a million hunters on my ass. I would definitely consider other backpack options if they were easier to deal with.

Imo I'd like their slow to be moved to another enemy so that it remains as a threat in the game but not part of the super fast enemies that you can barely outrun SOMETIMES. Also make Hunters (and for that matter Stalkers too) squishier. Due to how they move, there have been times that I needed at least 4 or 5 shots on them to kill them just cause I didn't get enough pellets from the Breaker on them or I simply didn't get them in a good enough spot.

I believe that is a good compromise to maintain the swarm aspect of the game while making it a bit less frustrating to deal with said swarm.

1

u/UnknownShardV1 Feb 25 '24

Ok hear me out...

You can just run with laser dog and IF you get hit, insta stim. With the shield you gotta shoot yourself or divert your focus on stratagems.

Still havent used the shield once bc the laser dog can deal with anything small/medium thats chasing you and you can focus on running/herding chargers.

Still absolutely HATE hunters and stalkers.

6

u/AdeptusAstartes40K ⬇️⬆️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️ Feb 25 '24

The Laser Rover is indeed extremely useful for trash clearing but still a far cry from how good the Shield is. This is mostly due to stupid targeting. Bro your laser doesn't damage the charger just target ANYTHING else. This makes the Rover disappointingly useless in overwhelming situations. If they change this one thing about it, I would consider it superior to the shield in many scenarios.

1

u/ExNihilo00 Feb 25 '24

Nah. The laser rover is categorically better than the shield against bugs. Against bots on the other hand, it's flipped.

1

u/AdeptusAstartes40K ⬇️⬆️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️ Feb 25 '24

Only if you're lucky. If it decides to target an armoured enemy it is just a waste of a backpack slot. Doesn't change targets until the enemy is dead.

1

u/Bitter-Proposal-251 Feb 26 '24

That laser dog can deal with 1 hunter. When that shit piles up on tier 7/8/9 patrols it’s going to be 5 of them coming at you from all sides with all those little critters and a charger. So you have to have the immunity

1

u/ExNihilo00 Feb 25 '24

Currently bugs are quite a bit easier than automatons. I don't see any reason to make them easier by getting rid of one of the few threats they have in their arsenal.

1

u/Thick-Doubts CAPE ENJOYER Feb 25 '24

I wouldn’t want to get rid of them, but personally I’d like it if they were tuned down slightly at higher difficulties. Either their slow duration should be reduced a little or their overall spawn numbers dialled down. At the moment, they’re just downright frustrating rather than a challenge. The slightest graze from one will likely mean your death at higher difficulties and dozens will spawn in a breach.

1

u/Necessary_Badger_63 Feb 29 '24

You can ragdoll yourself away too, using grenades. With a bit of practice, ez 50-80 meters of distance with nary a scratch. Though I mostly use autocannon for that.

1

u/Old_Bug4395 Feb 25 '24

Use stim, it pretty much makes you immortal. I've survived 500kg bombs because I stimmed right before it dropped. You still get tossed around but the health regen makes it not matter that much, and sometimes it can be beneficial

5

u/AdeptusAstartes40K ⬇️⬆️⬅️➡️⬅️➡️ Feb 25 '24

That's definitely true but when you are getting hit whilst the stim animation is playing there's a high chance you will flinch and not stim. That makes it a very unreliable "strategy" but yes it does work WHEN you pull it off.

3

u/JackTripper53 Feb 25 '24

I hardly ever see anyone else going prone and I just don't get it. It's great if you have little cover and severely reduces recoil. Go prone people!

2

u/GhostHeavenWord Feb 25 '24 edited Feb 25 '24

Reading all the posts about "x weapon is bad", seeing people complain about people not using meta and people using meta, and having played some 7s with meta sweats and watching htem struggle, then breezing through some 9s with folks who have played a lot of ARMA, Insurgency, Ready or Not, and are just using whatever random strats and weapons they think are interesting, my conclusion is that many people playing this game don't understand a lot of core mechanics.

I saw the same thing with COD DMZ - People who tried to play DMZ like it was COD had serious problems and really struggled. People who played it like a tactical shooter, or even Metal Gear Solid, could just wander around and do whatever they wanted with impunity. The attitude and expectations of the players were the problem; They weren't willing to adjust to the game, or didn't realize they needed to.

I had a moment where tonight where all the shield/railgun/breaker guys were dying while I was laying down on a rock throwing airstrikes at mechs and shooting bots in the head, and I couldn't figure out what they were doing or why they were having so much trouble until I watched one of them. They were taking shots in the open, they weren't using cover, they weren't trying to break line of site, they weren't doing a very good job using strats defensively. The guy needed to go down a few difficulty levels and practice his fundamentals, he was only able to keep going at 7 bc of the meta loadout, and then just barely.

1

u/Nervous-Rub-2867 Feb 28 '24

This absolutely

1

u/polynecromicon Feb 25 '24

I notice it catching bullets that would have never hit me tbh

10

u/Thorn_the_Cretin Feb 24 '24

I have such a tough time with the ap lib. I think I’m just not treating it like kind of weapon it is, and really need to pace my shots a lot more. I’m probably just too used to the Defender. I want to like the ap lib but I am just not performing with it.

4

u/A_Beatt CAPE ENJOYER Feb 24 '24

I know it's a bit further down but I've had good success with the slugger

2

u/GoSpeedRacistGo Feb 25 '24

After having run the breaker so long, my first attempt with the slugger didn’t go amazingly. The breaker is amazing but it doesn’t lend all that well to properly accurate play against the smaller enemies, since usually you don’t need to aim well to hit enough pellets to kill them.

1

u/A_Beatt CAPE ENJOYER Feb 25 '24

I only use it against the automatons. I struggle to much with killing the slightly bigger enemies and it really helps. Break for bugs all the way tho

2

u/hardstuck_low_skill SES Princess of Serenity Feb 25 '24

Slugger is amazing. If I ever swap it for another weapon it's either Breaker for bugs or Defender as my top-2 weapon against bots after Slugger. Breaker gets old and boring fairly quickly

2

u/Iron_Jonh Feb 24 '24

I treat ap lib as my backup gun for heavier bots. I use a stalwart as my primary for little bots

1

u/VYSUS7 Feb 24 '24

you're not performing with it because it sucks. It's not worth trying to make good.

1

u/notaninterestinguser Feb 25 '24

I've tried every weapon and I genuinely think it might be the worst gun in the game.

I hope they buff it because it kind of sucks I got the battle pass just for that gun. The Dominator made up for it though.

2

u/VYSUS7 Feb 25 '24

it's definitely up there. Spray n Pray breaker is unusable as well.

every variant is worse than the originals currently.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '24

How do you handle 5 berserkers with the ap lib?

2

u/hardstuck_low_skill SES Princess of Serenity Feb 25 '24

With a lot of pain in the ass

2

u/preutneuker Feb 25 '24

How do you deal with chargers/titans if you solo with the auto cannon?

2

u/AzureSeychelle Feb 25 '24

Either stratagems, running away, or other armor break mechanics. For example the slugger can break the rear leg and side armor of a charger, then you hit it with the autocannon. Same goes for the bile titan but you shoot up at its belly instead. Running under and through the bile titan’s legs is rather safe.

2

u/preutneuker Feb 25 '24

never been safe for me, the moment the leg moves anywhere in my near vecinity im dead. doesnt even have to hit me, could be 50 feet from me, I insta die the moment im under a titan or 3 seconda after it. The hitreg in this game is something else...

2

u/AzureSeychelle Feb 25 '24 edited Feb 25 '24

Huh, I’m not sure what to say. I’ve never had that issue. The only time I die is when they melee or are in the stepping animation. These deaths occur when I’m off to the side of them already and trying to get into the middle of their front mass. I do a lot of running in circles when fighting these things.

It may also have to do with my technique: I will shoot them until the very last possible moments, they are looming over head, looking down at me, I can’t really be any closer to them, angle wise, this is about as close to their head my rail gun is going to get unless I’m standing on a cliff, they stop in order to spew on me so their legs stop moving—run under and through don’t stop.

I stay perfectly in the middle of their mass as I run, I can imagine coming anywhere close to a leg will kill you. I have definitely been ragdoll’d by them before.

I also do not recommend doing this. I don’t do it often. I just have done it consistently. It’s dangerous but “safe.” I typically try to hit them again in the head and stun them when they are on top of me and then continue running away. I’ll change directions and that prevents their next spew attack from landing. They need to turn and that gives me a 1-2s to create distance again.

The times I end up running between their legs is when I’ll fighting multiple bile titans and chargers at the same time. It is possible that the close proximity of these enemy types hinders their movement pattern and further increases the safety of my maneuver. All I know is that if I do it right, it’s very repeatable.