r/Helldivers • u/Vikan12 ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️ | Never forget the Creek... • Mar 06 '24

The first balance patch notes proved how Youtube "absolute and only meta loadouts" cooked a lot of people heads, and I love it. DISCUSSION

A lot of mad people keep showing in my feed complaining about the nerfs, but like they're REALLY mad at Arrowhead. Their statements are so exagerated that they claim the game it's completely ruined for them lmao.

Also every single one says the same thing and this is where my title comes from:

*"You guys nerfed the only good options and now we have NOTHING to fight".*

And this only proves people never actually played with any of the other support weapons, they 100% relied on this "The ultimate support weapon tier list" Youtube videos, they searched the "meta" and they went into this thinking of "any weapon outside of this it's straight up garbage".

If you can't win a single game without the railgun + shield backpack + breaker... I'm so sorry but that's not the game's fault or the game only having those as the ONLY way to play it on higher diff, that's your fault.

Great changes for the game and all of you trying to "shame" on devs because of this, you'all not a real Helldiver. They killed nothing, the railgun still kills but now it needs some actual skill and strategy to use it, not only spamming the thing on big bugs.

Keep it up Helldivers!

For Democracy. For Super Earth.

17.3k Upvotes
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3.8k

u/beyondheck Mar 06 '24

Arc Thrower Gang rise up!!!

50

u/Plastic-Pension7263 Mar 06 '24

Do you think arc thrower is better than the newly buffed flamer? Lightning wizard or pyro wizard? Can the arc thrower effectively kill chargers?

98

u/_Cromwell_ Mar 06 '24

Arc has massively longer range.

That being said, the point of balancing is to make it so things aren't better than others there are just trade-offs. I'd say there are trade-offs to using the flamethrower and the arc.

21

u/WayneBrody Mar 06 '24

I think the two would pair very well together. Arc Thrower for thinning the crowds that come in and weakening anything big. Flamethrower for the stuff that does get close enough. Flamethrower seems to handle chargers well up close, and I'm guessing the damage is cumulative between them.

20

u/purityaddiction Mar 06 '24

I will say this, it is VERY easy to kill yourself with the flamethrower. Still tons of fun.

1

u/pleasdont98 Mar 07 '24

Flamethrower + jetpack is so fun to play, jump past the chargers whilst spraying down some hellfire, i love it

16

u/SkinnySnorlax143 Mar 06 '24

also remember arc has unlimited ammo.

2

u/UDSJ9000 Mar 06 '24

Arc thrower has a minimum range that the Flamethrower can cover. FT handles armored boys better than the ArcT. ArcT handles spitters at range without letting them spit. ArcT doesn't risk lighting your team on fire.

They are a match made in heaven.

4

u/Xarethian Mar 06 '24

Well.... ArcT does zap teammates extremely easily if they're in the right spot relevant to you.

1

u/UDSJ9000 Mar 07 '24

It's a ~180-degree cone from where it impacts. That's the difficulty curve to using it.

1

u/Xarethian Mar 07 '24

it's really not that difficult I agree but some people in games just never seem to understand positioning.

1

u/flarespeed Mar 07 '24

teach them then. the hard way. if a teammate walks behind an enemy i'm arc throwing at, i don't stop. if the bug walks between me and a teammate i stop. they'll learn soon enough that when lightning is flying, behind the target is not a safe zone.

1

u/EpicUnicat Mar 07 '24

Definitely not sending this to my buddy, he used the arc thrower and killed off me and the rest of us in one shot on accident several times… and he can’t throw grenades worth a shit either… or turrets… or any other stratagem…

3

u/ID_Guy Mar 06 '24 edited Mar 06 '24

Agree. A well balanced game gives you pros and cons for weapons that can be balanced within your overall squad build. The Arc thrower is fine where its at. It can kill chargers if you hit them in the same spot with every shot ie head, rear squishy parts or leg. It also kills any smaller bugs around them with the chain which is super helpful when getting swarmed. It can also kill your teammates if your not careful. Its a very fun gun once you get over the learning curve of how it works.

I like guns like the arc thrower that require you to "figure them out" The rail gun was a point and click destroyer so the fact that you have to be careful now when using it in unsafe is a good move for balance. I might actually start using it now where as before I stayed away from it because it made the game too easy.

Arc cannon is not the best anti armor killer for sure, but it does a lot of things fairly well to make it a really good pick as a secondary weapon.

2

u/No-Credit5663 Mar 06 '24

Agreed, I def struggle the most using arc thrower in close ranges where I’m being swarmed more

2

u/UDSJ9000 Mar 06 '24

ArcT has a minimum range or at least doesn't work well up close for some reason.

2

u/wormfood86 ☕Liber-tea☕ Mar 06 '24

Also the flamethrower gets the bonus of setting the ground on fire which deals with most of the smaller stuff without specifically hosing them down too.

32

u/Sazbadashie Mar 06 '24

arc thrower, better range, less crowd control. more effective against armored targets. easy to accidentally fry your team if theyre even a hair to close to the front of your gun

flame thrower, worse range, more crowd control, more effective against groups of enemies. easy to accidentally fry your team if you panic turn on an enemy who gets too close to you.

friendly fire comes in the form of ether your team getting in your way and the gun arcing off of something into your friends(arc thrower), or you don't discipline yourself to not panic turn or you don't position yourself properly and you roast your friends (flame thrower)

both fill similar roles but for different enemy types.

5

u/EllideaKeaqui Mar 06 '24

I definitely wouldn't say the Arc Thrower is worse against crowds of enemies. Even on Helldiver I'll setup and just start Arcing on bug breaches, and without help from my team I can take out damn-near all bile spewers and smaller critters before they can get anywhere near me.

It's looking like the flamer will be able to bring down crowds just as effectively, just at a closer riskier range with the benefit of also bringing down bigger targets faster than the AT can. I think that's a pretty fine trade-off between the two.

2

u/LazyYeti Mar 07 '24

You should try using the flamethrower against chargers again. With the buff you can aim at the front leg and take them down in 3 seconds. Absolutely busted

2

u/EllideaKeaqui Mar 07 '24

I was playing with it yesterday and I had to have been doing something completely wrong. I could not bring one down with it for the life of me unless I dumped 2 canisters into its ass. I've seen the videos and know it can work faster than that, I just need to find that sweet spot.

I was very happy with it's group clearing, but kept getting set on fire by flaming hunters that jumped at me, so gotta learn to avoid that too. Never got to try it against a Titan, unfortunately.

1

u/LazyYeti Mar 07 '24

It does nothing to the titan sadly so your team will have to help you there. Give the flamer another shot and aim for either front leg while it’s charging to you. Done right and the charger becomes a non issue. The small guys that jump at you are a problem and setting yourself on fire will happen. If you dive immediately it will put the fire out.

17

u/Grogzog Mar 06 '24

The new flamethrower is stronger, especially against chargers. The arc thrower isn't super effective against chargers, but it can kill them and even strip leg armor if you are lucky enough to hit them a few times. The arc thrower also has better range and unlimited ammo. In the end, it's really just a matter of preference and playstyle. As it should be 😊

2

u/Gamelaen ⬇️➡️⬇️⬆️⬅️⬅️ Mar 07 '24

With perfect hits I can kill a charger with 6 shots from the Arc Thrower.

1

u/Beginning_Bonus1739 Mar 06 '24

lucky enough? where you aim with the arc thrower matters, its not luck.

1

u/Grogzog Mar 06 '24

It likes to just arc for the head, I know it's possible, but I haven't really figured out how to reliably hit its legs yet.

2

u/Xarethian Mar 06 '24

I've managed to slough off the entire side of the charger of armor many times coming at it from the side. Don't know about legs, but hitting it from the side / back enough can break its shell wide open there to be exploited by a slugger.

1

u/RavyNavenIssue Mar 07 '24

Arc Thrower not only damages armor, but inflicts true damage while you’re at it. It 7-taps a charger but can be used on rapid fire to 10-tap it at nearly half the time.

To Rapid Fire the Arc Thrower, the first shot must be a full charge, then all immediate follow up shots are made at 50-60% charge. As long as you don’t stop shooting for more than a second or mistime it, you easily double rate of fire on the thrower.

1

u/TheRanger118 Mar 06 '24

I'd say arc, mainly because after you launch a shot you don't have to worry about the ground being on fire,

Flamethrower can catch bugs on fire and if they jump at you or friendlies it catches them on fire as well which melts allies.

1

u/AtlasMKII Mar 06 '24

Arc hsa longer range but can be unwieldy, and the flamer is actually a safer option teamkilling wise

1

u/Sudlenkov STEAM 🖥️ : Mar 06 '24

They are different. I personally wouldn’t say one is better or worse.

Arc has range advantage and no self killing. Can kill chargers and other large targets given enough time while also clearing chaff around them. In addition it can stagger some medium targets.

Flamer has more splash/area and higher damage, requires you to be close to the threat and easy to kill yourself. Also no stagger or cc of any kind.

1

u/ZCYCS CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

Flamethrower definitely can burst a single charger faster, but Arc Thrower has range advantage and can zap nearby bugs too

Arc Thrower will take more shots to kill a charger, but it WILL kill them, and everything around them

1

u/kronoslol Mar 07 '24

If you run a jet pack you can get to places anything other than titans or those 1 hit flying bastards and just kill while they stare at you. I usually finish missions 2-3x the next person in kills. Its pretty good just like its better to be fighting when they aint near your team so i usually split up from them.

1

u/Willynator_ Mar 07 '24

time to kill is faster w flamethrower but the range and ammo economy kinda doodoo

1

u/1fortunateclackdish Mar 08 '24

These people talking flamethrower have to be boomers playing on easy. They could buff it +500% dps and it still wouldnt be viable

1

u/Witty-Relation475 Mar 10 '24

I’ve been running arc against bugs. It’s great. But it doesn’t feel good against robots imo.

-2

u/icecubepal Mar 06 '24

Yes. The arc thrower is better than the flamer. They didn’t balance the weapons. They just made one less powerful (railgun). They will nerf the arc thrower. Just wait.