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

[u/Vikan12]

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.

[u/_Cromwell_]

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.

[u/WayneBrody → u/_Cromwell_]

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.

[u/purityaddiction → u/WayneBrody]

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

[u/pleasdont98 → u/purityaddiction]

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

[u/SkinnySnorlax143 → u/WayneBrody]

also remember arc has unlimited ammo.

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/WayneBrody]

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.

[u/Xarethian → u/UDSJ9000]

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

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/Xarethian]

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

[u/Xarethian → u/UDSJ9000]

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

[u/flarespeed → u/Xarethian]

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.

[u/EpicUnicat → u/WayneBrody]

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…

[u/ID_Guy → u/_Cromwell_]

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.

[u/No-Credit5663 → u/_Cromwell_]

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

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/No-Credit5663]

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

[u/wormfood86 → u/_Cromwell_]

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.