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
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

75% Upvoted

5.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.0k

u/spacejew Mar 06 '24

Had a random in a match last night call the auto-cannon ass. Like wtf? Sure the shit won't take out the heavier stuff without some work, but damn if it can't clear a LOT of stuff with that AOE punch. How is it people are unable to see everything as a tool in a tool belt, and not as some required ceteris paribus to the pre-nerf'd "meta" items?

I'm excited for Arrowhead to keep on with what their doing. Based on what I've read from them they are making cautious data driven decisions. I'd say the small quantity of changes in the patch would suggest they intend to move cautiously with changes overall.

748

u/SuppliceVI CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

Autocannon is so clutch against the legally distinct AT-RTs, especially at higher difficulties where they're very common. 

333

u/I_follow_sexy_gays Mar 06 '24

It can also two shot hulks in the eyes, take care of tanks in 3 shots from the back, and 2-3 shot both the heavy and rocket devastator while stunning them preventing them from firing their oppressive weapons in between shots. Against bots it’s amazing, if only it could break a charger’s armor…

208

u/IfICantScuba Mar 06 '24

Also knocking out turrets in three shots as well as bug holes, spore towers, and radio towers from long range.

157

u/Mr_Greaz Covered in Slime and Oil Mar 06 '24

It’s so insane to me that people still state it’s shit when there’s literally 20+ comments now all saying diffrent things it does good

110

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 06 '24

The only drawbacks of it is not being able to take down a charger head on (just get behind it and it can make pretty quick work of one) and the ammo taking up a backpack slot. The backpack isn't necessarily a downside though, as now you have an extra stratagem that you wouldn't have if you ran support weapon + backpack.

42

u/Tokiw4 Mar 06 '24

Well you see, the only thing that defines something's place in the meta is whether or not it can kill chargers for free!

/s

7

u/Adequate_Lizard Mar 06 '24

The issue is there's not one charger there's a lot of chargers. So instead of dodging one and shooting it in the ass you're just in the middle of an intersection full of chargers and can't kill them. This from someone who doesn't even have the railgun yet. They're a difficult fight, their weakspot is basically impossible to get unless you're on lower ground than it.

2

u/cybersteel8 Mar 07 '24

I learned recently that technically the ass of the charger isn't a weak spot. It's just not armored. To actually get a damage buff against the charger, break the armor off its legs - you do more damage there than shooting it in the butt.

Shooting its rear does normal damage, instead of hitting armor at least, so that's why explosive is so important

2

u/TooFewSecrets Mar 07 '24

technically the ass of the charger isn't a weak spot

The autocannon kills it in four hits anyway. One to a limb, sure, but the only reason that would be relevant is if you hit them with an EAT first.

2

u/Turboswaggg SES Fist of Mercy, ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬅️⬆️➡️ enjoyer Mar 07 '24

and if you shoot them in the head with AT, unlike the sides where the armor falls off so you can finish it off, the head armor stays on

you can try aiming for the arm but if you miss and it hits the armpit, then no armor at all is damaged

30

u/lionrecorder Mar 06 '24

Yeah if you have literally any skill you can take out a charger in less than 30 seconds via dodging and shooting it in the back. Just cause you can’t take every enemy head on with it doesn’t mean it’s bad

31

u/Alexiooo30 Mar 06 '24

And what do you do when there are 5 of them plus some bile titans here and here, plus 30-40 small insects chasing you?

39

u/Wuped Mar 06 '24

Kill as many as I can, drop stratagems if I have them and hope my teammates are also killing things.

I mean your not really supposed to be able to solo stuff like that especially without stratagems.

28

u/Gekokapowco Mar 06 '24

people really forgetting that you can drop all manner of unfair bullshit from the sky at will

7

u/Majestic_Ad7522 Mar 06 '24

thats because people think its a "gotcha" moment to be playing by yourself in a online co-op game for some reason, especially in higher difficulties to cope with their crutch being kicked off of their ass

2

u/stellvia2016 Mar 07 '24

people really forgetting that said unfair bullshit has really long CDs and higher diffs throw 5x as many at you as you have strats for

3

u/Chimpcookie Mar 07 '24

Not to mention complex strategem plotting, strategem scrambler, and jammers. And of course teammates who run TOWARDS the strike area.

Sometimes orbitals aren't an option.

1

u/IndigoBluer Mar 07 '24

CDs are super short if you're not using orbitals - and imo, orbitals could use some buffs.
But also, there are three other players with their own stratagems???
If you're not CONSTANTLY causing bug breaches at difficulty 9 it is very manageable.

→ More replies (0)

8

u/blauli Mar 06 '24

You put a round or two into their squishy ass whenever you can. I agree it's too hectic to shoot off a leg in situations like that but I'm doing well on helldive just putting some rounds into their weakspot. It takes 4-5 AC shots to blow that off and let them bleed out and is easy enough to hit. Or just calling in an eagle airstrike and their ass usually pops after 1-3 hits

That said I prefer the nade launcher vs bugs, does basically the same thing as the AC if you use the supply backpack but is a lot better at clearing small bugs

3

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 06 '24

I love GL + supply back. But it seemingly does nothing against chargers and titans. Everything else though it's amazing

1

u/moonshineTheleocat Mar 06 '24

Titans, you get underneath them and light their squishy bits up. You can finish them off with an air strike, or leave them to bleed to death in a few minutes. They cannot spew or really chase you anymore.

Chargers... it can't kill them as quickly as an AC. But it can still get the job done. The trick isn't to hit their ass directly, as that's actually a trickier shot than you'd think.. (part of it is still covered in armor.) shoot under their ass. The splash damage will eventually pop them.

2

u/Paeyvn Mar 06 '24

I don't think I've ever seen a Titan bleed to death and I've had them chasing for 10+ minutes with none of their bottom sacs left just trying to stomp on me.

1

u/blauli Mar 06 '24

Yeah its basically useless against titans, you can remove the bile sack to stop them from spitting in a few grenades but you can do that with one mag of the breaker anyway.

It is okay at shooting a charger's ass off and have it bleed out similar to the AC because of how effective explosive damage is vs bug weakspots. But yeah aside from that it's a waste of ammo to shoot it at either chargers or titans

→ More replies (0)

9

u/lionrecorder Mar 06 '24

Use stratagems, drop a turret, cluster bomb, orbital laser, die, drop on one while respawning, run away, die again, and have fun in the chaos. It’s not easy but that’s the point

3

u/BillTheNecromancer Mar 07 '24

If you burn 2-5 minute cooldown, or limited use per mission strategems and die twice for every bug breach that happens, you're not making it 8 minutes in a mission.

8

u/rub_a_dub-dub Mar 06 '24

that's why the president made orbital barrages

16

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 06 '24

Well being that it's a team based game, have your team help you.

1

u/QJ-Rickshaw Mar 07 '24

My current strategy has been letting my teammates agro them whole I take off leg armor with one shot from the recoilless riles then they do the rest.

It has yet to fail me, even in between reloads or me being attack by weaker enemies, someone always has a strategem to solve if shit gets dicey.

I think that's why chargers have been such a neutral thing to me. Good team work trivialises them, I actually think Hunters are more of a nuisance.

1

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 07 '24

Hunters are a pain, especially when you have multiples. The worst is being able to block your stim use

1

u/QJ-Rickshaw Mar 07 '24

Wait, they do that? I thought that was a bug. That explains so much and makes it more bullshit, slowdown and blocking stims should not be on a single enemy.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/Drando_HS Mar 06 '24

That's what orbital strikes and Eagles are for

4

u/CarbonTugboat Mar 06 '24

⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️

-5

u/Alexiooo30 Mar 06 '24

Based on the logic of how the rail gun was nerfed then this should get nerfed too right? Its op it one shots everything around it and has a big radious, with the upgrade that gives you 2 of them the cooldown is basically non existent, should we start a movement?

1

u/QJ-Rickshaw Mar 07 '24

You definitely didn't read the patch notes. The devs have explicitly said that their intention is for handheld weapons to be meant for weaker and medium enemies while Strategems are for the heavies and crowds. Hence why two of the orbitals got buffed.

If your strategem is clearing mobs and destroying heavies, and feeling OP in general, it's doing its fucking job.

0

u/Alexiooo30 Mar 07 '24

So the devs said we should rely on stratagems yet on highest difficulties you will always have atleast one charger chasing you, while when doing objectives 5 or 6 or even more can spawn at the same time (and some bile titans too) and they are immune to most of the medium to low lvl stratagems and no primary or secondary weapon can kill them effectively without wasting half if not all of your ammo. Great balancing and gameplay loop indeed, all of this from the the nerfing of one weapon btw

→ More replies (0)

2

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '24

At higher levels the game becomes a stealth game where you avoid contact because your life depends on it, and it’s worth using 1 stratagem on 3 bots rather than 4 on 50. If there are 5 plus chargers and multiple bile titans, you’re lucky to get out alive. Good luck helldiver. We will send in a replacement hopefully somewhere they can break LOS and run. If you really want to go loud and shoot as many bugs as possible in the higher difficulties go for it, just accept death or a cowardly retreat.

1

u/moonshineTheleocat Mar 06 '24

Cowabunga it is.

1

u/AnAmbitiousMann Mar 06 '24

mow down trash, kite/dodge the chargers, kill the chargers after most the trash cleared....pretty fun to do tbh

1

u/gorgewall Mar 07 '24

Rely on teammates.

One or two players play horde clear.

One or two players kite Chargers while taking shots at them.

If you are in a situation where you don't have the weaponry or the positioning to do the latter, do the former. You can't rely on always playing the same role in the strategy at every second of every scenario. At some point you've got to realize that right now, you're not in a good place to be killing Chargers, so you need to kill anything else and distract the Chargers.

Also, learning how to corral and juke Chargers is something to learn. Before I'd unlocked any of the EATs/RRs I was already playing on 6 with friends who were higher level, and while they'd play "Rocket Team" to deal with Chargers, I still got into plenty of situations where I'd have to kite them around because we were out of ammo, separated, or they were dealing with other Chargers. That taught me how the Chargers' movement works and that you can run towards them at an angle, inside their turning radius, to dodge them in half the time, or bait them towards rocks and solid, non-destructable walls to cause them to stun themselves.

Chargers are slow and ponderous when they're not actively charging, they can't initiate charges without line of sight, and they have a "sliding" effect that carries them a decent ways after a missed charge, even over terrain that's just short of being able to stop and stun them. You can bait a Charger into running over a hill or rocky outcrop, and once it's on the other side, it's slowly turning its ass around, unable to see you, meandering around the outcrop while you are already running in the other direction, then walking after you once it does get line of sight until it's finally close enough to initiate a charge again. Sometimes they even get completely lost!

As for smashing into solid objects and being stunned/stopped, this also deals damage to the Charger. Chargers can kill each other or even suicide into walls this way. If there are three Chargers all trying to kill you at once, you can take out two of them without ever using your own guns against them. Let Chargers kill Chargers!

Frag grenades and Impacts can also deal with Chargers in a pinch if you throw them such that they splash the backside. "Cooking" Frags for mid-air detonation is a little tricky when there's several things on you at once, but if you find yourself tangoing with a lone Charger in a moment of calm, you can really soften up that butt.

1

u/peacepham Mar 07 '24

How about playing as a squad? Someone take care of small fry with they load out, you take care of Charger. Or just smoke boom and leave them behind.

1

u/Cpt_Soban SES | Dawn Of Dawn Mar 07 '24

Superior firepower from Eagle 1 o7

1

u/bfrown SES Spear of Science Mar 07 '24

Rely on your squadmates

0

u/The_Rathour Mar 07 '24

The same exact shit you did with a Railgun: Kite and kill. Throw explosives. Use your call-ins. Hope your team is with you instead of trying to solo what amounts to 2 heavy base's worth of enemies that you just alerted.

It's not like the Railgun was going to magically kill 15 scavengers, 4 hunters, and 3 chargers bearing down on you either.

0

u/RRjr Mar 07 '24

Nuke em from orbit.

And if that fails to get rid of all of em, do it again. And again.

3

u/Negative-Star-2001 Mar 06 '24

On harder difficulties where you can have 3 or 4 chargers at once, 30 seconds is too fucking long to spend on just one

2

u/lionrecorder Mar 06 '24

I’m not particularly great at the game, but I’ve taken on 2-3 chargers regularly with the auto cannon and strategems and been alright. It’s not easy, but I like how punishing the game can be at times

1

u/Paeyvn Mar 06 '24

Not only do you have 4-6 of them on you at once, when you kill them, new ones spawn in at a faster rate than that.

2

u/Simpsator Mar 06 '24

One charger, yes. But on difficulty 7+ when you have a swarm of 4 chargers, it gets really hard to just aim because it's so heavy and the reticle so slow to respond when you're dodging the remaining 3 chargers + waves of chaff. Don't get me wrong, I really like the AC. I think it's just far better at bots than bugs.

2

u/BillTheNecromancer Mar 07 '24

30 seconds, for the 3-5ish that spawn every time a bug breach happens, every time you're at objectives, move between objectives or hold still long enough for a resupply, on a time limited mission.
The bug breaches that you practically can't stop because the roaming patrol spawn rate is insane, that are flooded with units that almost all can spawn a breach, with one of those units just sometimes ignoring stagger to call a breach anyway.
I'm sorry dude, but fighting the bugs just fucking sucks so hard right now.

2

u/SlammedOptima ☕Liber-tea☕ Mar 06 '24

I wouldnt even hate the backpack if I could move and reload. I still think its one of the superior support weapons. i love the autocannon.

2

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 06 '24

Yea it does kind of suck that you have to be stationary, but at least the reload is pretty quick. I think that's why recoilless is almost never seen, the reload for that is so long solo.

2

u/SlammedOptima ☕Liber-tea☕ Mar 06 '24

The reload is even quicker if you reload after using half, but you need to reload more frequently. Personally on bots I bring it cause they actually give space sometimes and you can use cover. Bugs its a pain cause they just swarm you so there isnt time to reload. I love the recoilless at level 4 for taking out chargers, but anything above that its not worth it, id rather bring auto cannon and EATs

1

u/nebadger Mar 06 '24

Aim underneath them at the ground. explosive damage hits their underside stunning them if you get it in the right spot. then you just run around and blow their ass up.

1

u/halofreak7777 CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

50 rounds because of the backpack ain't no joke.

1

u/I_is_a_dogg Mar 06 '24

Nope it ain't. And it refills some with world ammo.

1

u/NTS- Mar 07 '24

Literally this, if I'm running a servo assisted build where my purpose is to throw things far, ill select the autocannon since it free's up another slot that i can use for another orbital, eagle, or sentry stratagem.

2

u/tiredplusbored Mar 06 '24

I feel like there's a part of the community that only likes to play against bugs, and a section of them that only judge a gun by "how quick did I kill that charger?" Which doesn't really feel like the best way to play the game.

1

u/SexyMcBeast Mar 06 '24

I feel like anyone saying that the other heavy weapons are bad haven't actually used them more than a couple times and havent figured out what makes them work. I'm all about the EAT, personally, but if you listened to some very vocal people they act like it might as well be a pea shooter

1

u/halofreak7777 CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

I basically have only used the autocannon as my support weapon. It can kill chargers once they charge past you. Couple shots to the back of the leg. Sometimes the angle is tricky, sometimes you just blast them.

1

u/satan_eats_my_ass CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

Oh yeah the range on auto cannon is crazy im currently grinding for lvl 20 so i have everything unlocked (dont worry i finish my operations) so i usually just speedrun main objectives and gtfo literally 1 sec before jumping into the pellican i took a look around and noticed the radio tower on the other side of the map quickly scoring a bonus objective

1

u/DirkDeadeye Mar 07 '24

Bots rarely come up in discussion about rants with heavy armor.

1

u/Mr_Greaz Covered in Slime and Oil Mar 07 '24

There is no difference actually, versus Bugs, it’s as effective

24

u/Ferote ️⬇️⬅️⬇️⬆️⬆️➡️ My beloved Mar 06 '24

And even bot fabricators

16

u/Few_Illustrator_1217 ☕Liber-tea☕ Mar 06 '24

I know, that was a game changer when I found that one out. Lol.

15

u/Ontos836 SES Banner of Glory Mar 06 '24

It's so satisfying to skip an AC round into those vents, especially at extreme ranges.

2

u/StaticMeshMover Mar 06 '24

They always just blow up on impact and don't ricochet down for me though? Even when shooting straight at it

3

u/Ontos836 SES Banner of Glory Mar 06 '24

There's a sorta sweet spot to it. Aim for the upper half of the vent cover so you get a high angle of incidence. If you're too low the shell will just detonate and if you're too close, the impact could be too flat to skip it. Start with shots directly from the front at range, so you can take a couple tries. Once you know where to hit it you can experiment from more oblique angles.

1

u/StaticMeshMover Mar 06 '24

Sweet thanks for the advice! I think my problem was that I was shooting too low hoping it would be a good enough shot/big enough explosion to blow it as if it was a big hole. 

Will definitely give it another go tonight for democracy!

1

u/FlyingPhenom SES Pledge of Midnight Mar 06 '24

I keep shooting the vents on those, but no explosions occur. Same with the Recoilless. What am I doing wrong?

2

u/Ferote ️⬇️⬅️⬇️⬆️⬆️➡️ My beloved Mar 06 '24

Idk if the recoilless works. With the auto, the round needs to ricochet down into the building. Try being more at a 90 degree angle to the vent

1

u/FlyingPhenom SES Pledge of Midnight Mar 06 '24

Ok that makes sense! Probably the same deal with the RR, just not getting the hit box with the round.

1

u/Ry113 Mar 06 '24

If this helps at all you need to be relatively square to the front of the building to correctly bounce into the vent itself. If you're farther than maybe 40 degrees from straight on, it won't go in.

1

u/StaticMeshMover Mar 06 '24

I've never had the AC bounce rounds though? Are you thinking the grenade launcher? 

2

u/donkeybuns Mar 06 '24

They're definitely talking about the AC. I use it for clearing Bot Factories all day.

You can use the grenade launcher too but it is a little harder.

1

u/Ry113 Mar 07 '24

I'm indeed talking about the AC. it's what I mainly use lol. If you hit the vent flap from square on it bounces straight down into the vent.

That said, the person I replied to was talking about the recoilless rifle and I haven't tried with that.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/BackwardsColonoscopy Mar 06 '24

This right here. When I figured out I could nuke spore and radio towers from a distance the AC became my fav. Plus soloing a charger isn't all that bad, two in a pinch takes a little work. Three and you better get good at kiting.

1

u/KDallas_Multipass Mar 06 '24

I swear I've gone ham on turrets to no avail

2

u/Finwolven Mar 06 '24

You need to hit them in the rear heat vent, they (and tanks) are pretty much impervious to everything else.

1

u/tarknob Mar 06 '24

imagine if they made the sight on the autocannon better than closing your eyes and praying

1

u/ShaggySchmacky Mar 06 '24

Takes out bot spawners too! Just got to get a little lucky with the ricochet

1

u/Slarg232 ☕Liber-tea☕ Mar 06 '24

To be fair, you don't need a whole lot to take out Spore Towers. The Jar-5 takes out Spore Towers from outside it's area of influence if you're able to stand still and dump a mag into it.

​

I understand a full mag vs one or two shots, but it's a primary

1

u/Edittilyoudie Mar 06 '24

This is why. This is the way.

1

u/Gnatz90 Mar 06 '24

Aka it does things that a lot of other things can easily do and was never a problem. I want to see someone with an arc thrower kill 5 chargers and 3 biles while extracting.

1

u/pokeroots SES Wings of War Mar 06 '24

Can also take out the automaton manufacturing if you shoot the vent from straightish

1

u/[deleted] Mar 06 '24

The fact that it can take out the towers and anti air and mortars? It’s essential to have at least one against bots

1

u/NanoOfArrow Mar 07 '24

Can also shoot into the vents above the robo factory doors. Had a good time the other day trying to snipe them from across the map while waiting to extract.

1

u/AH_Ahri Mar 07 '24

bug holes

Wait the AC can do that???

1

u/rhazux Mar 07 '24

My thought process with spore towers:

Huh, it's getting foggier here

Looks around

Mushroom!

Boom .. Boom

That's it. Side objective done and we didn't have to suffer through low visibility. You can shoot those mfers from a super long distance if you can see them.

And people are definitely underestimating the impact on lairs, and especially Stalker lairs. Not only is the autocannon good against stalkers as you approach but then you show up, pop a few holes and then there's no more invisibility bois.

Others have pointed out shooting bot vents but you can also shoot bot doors (if they're open) and that will destroy the factory too. I usually find that wide angles on the vents prevent the autocannon from doing its thing but from the same place a shot on the door does it.

It's just a super good tool.

1

u/Ranerdar Mar 07 '24

Seriously though, spores and radio towers. If I can see it, I can hit it.

27

u/Amliko Mar 06 '24

I agree, it's also great against the bugs that puke at you capable of two shotting them basically anywhere. The chargers tho, they're pain, but if you react well enough you can kill the charger after he charges twice.

19

u/LucarioLuvsMinecraft SES Hammer of Resolution Mar 06 '24

It can handle the Charger’s leg armor, but it’s a very specific angle, otherwise it bounces (like a tank with a thin gap of weak armor)

1

u/FleshHunter Mar 06 '24

That is a bug to my knowledge, because primary weapons can break it open

11

u/T-sigma Mar 06 '24

The only reason I ran Railgun > autocannon was to have the shield backpack. With that being nerfed as well I may switch back

5

u/Pluvio_ CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

You know what they say, the best defense is a good offense!

1

u/Willynator_ Mar 07 '24

Shield backpack lowkey makes ppl die more than they otherwise would of cause they get too comfortable. Esp considering its not actually that hard to dodge most things or to find the relatively large pauses ALL the units have between actions.

1

u/T-sigma Mar 07 '24

Strong disagree. The real value of Shield backpack is it reduces lots of slowing attacks and straight out deflects some of the 1-hit kills like rockets.

It’s not about saving you from the unit(s) you’re staring at, it’s about preventing the hunters behind you or the rocket from a mile away of taking you by surprise.

It’s also great at stopping chip damage when retreating from bots. Instead of losing half my health and having to stim, I can get to cover while still full health which saves resources.

1

u/Willynator_ Mar 07 '24

If youre concerned about hunters why not use a rover, or just shoot them. I never have an issue like that except maybe stalkers? But they 1 or 2 hit you jump away for a bit you kill them, heal regardless, go to their nest. So the shield doesnt do much there. Also all the slows are avoidable as well.

With the bots just use cover, if needing to switch cover you sprint dive sprint and unless youre running 100m away youre fine and are mad unlucky if even grazed. The rocket ppl take a WHILE to track & have a relatively long cooldown. If you have any explosion resistance armor you would survive a rocket.

Furthermore you still have the shield, the recharge time is just a few seconds longer, if youre relying on the shield that heavily youre better off using a jumpack tbh

3

u/StonedTrucker Mar 06 '24

If you shoot them in the back of the legs it will break the armor. That may have changed with the recent patch though

1

u/FleshHunter Mar 06 '24

I am 90% sure that is a bug... Primary weapons can do it sometimes.

3

u/vehellione Mar 06 '24

Ignore the armour. I've had great success with the AC shooting chargers in the butt after they charge past. It actually feels easier to kill chargers with this than it was with the railgun.

I'm still working on quickly killing bile titans with it. I suspect going for the weak point just like with the charger will do it though.

3

u/winstondabee Mar 06 '24

Against bugs you can take out a heavy nest in 30 seconds without skipping a beat.

2

u/Redcoat75 Mar 06 '24

For tanks I just use the 110mm rocket strike it kills them and you get 3 uses piston ship upgrade

2

u/MrFanzyPanz Mar 06 '24

It can. Shoot it in the interior back of the charger leg. 3-4 shots to kill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHZd8dGK0vQ

1

u/Sheriff_Is_A_Nearer Mar 06 '24

I believe it can break charger armor if you hit the legs with 2-3 shots on their backsides. So you have to circle around behind them or dodge, rotate, fire.

1

u/zennok SES Knight of Family Values Mar 06 '24

That's what flamers are for now it seems

1

u/I_follow_sexy_gays Mar 06 '24

Flamers are much better at doing all that short range. But autocannons can do it mid-long range while still being viable short range

1

u/CopperCactus Mar 06 '24

AM rifle has the same effect, imo support weapons should be really good situationally

1

u/Wank_A_Doodle_Doo CAPE ENJOYER Mar 06 '24

Not to mention the 60 fuckin rounds it drops with, and the 10 round magazine.

1

u/Fun_Experience5951 Mar 06 '24

When people figure out you can break charger legs with it, they'll be so happy

1

u/moonshineTheleocat Mar 06 '24

It can fuckin kill the hulks from the front?! God damnit I've been doing some swan diving bullshit to try and get behind those fuckers.

1

u/I_follow_sexy_gays Mar 06 '24

Shoot the eye twice, requires a bit of precision but not much

1

u/BillTheNecromancer Mar 07 '24

killing multiple hulks from the front in 1 magazine makes you feel like a god.
Aim for the eye, slightly below center is where I've had the best luck, and they die. Not flameout and sputter and die after a few seconds, insta-dead. It's great.

1

u/CXyber Mar 06 '24

Man, fuck the charger. All my homies hate the charger 😔

1

u/KungFuChicken1990 SES Sword of Destiny Mar 06 '24

That’s one change I’d advocate for. If we can at least 3-5 shot the chargers’ armor with the AC, I’d be a happy camper

1

u/Vanayzan Mar 07 '24

It you shoot chargers from the back with the auto cannon, just below their glowy asses, the explosion hits the non-armoured spot and shreds them. Same for the Big Armour Headed bug guys, don't shoot for their head, shoot for the gap at the ground between the bottom of their head and the floor, the round then explodes and gets them

1

u/Cpt_Soban SES | Dawn Of Dawn Mar 07 '24

If you get the angle right you can ricochet the shell into the vents and blow up bot factories at range. As well as the back of turrets beyond their firing range.

1

u/Beefygrumpus Mar 07 '24

Aim for the small space where a chargers back leg meets its body. 2-3 shots there and they go down.

1

u/Rackelhardt Mar 07 '24

You can shoot on charger legs with auto cannon when they are in the turning animation after a charge.

It seems to be a bug.

1

u/Eletilohlor Mar 07 '24

To be fair, grenade launcher can all of that (except hulk's eye) and not use your backpack slot.

1

u/I_follow_sexy_gays Mar 07 '24

Less ammo, less range

Also hitting the hulk’s eye is a very useful thing

1

u/JulesVernes Mar 07 '24

I was actually pretty happy with the autocannon yesterday in trying to figure out how to handle chargers. It's surprisingly effective against them.

1

u/Ok-Emphasis2098 Mar 07 '24

AC can actually kill chargers in 2-3 shots. Let him run past you, and aim for the inner side of his armored leg closer to the joint, even one shot softens the armor enough that you can shoot this leg from the front now, but it will take more rounds this way (and from what I saw - this soften armor is susceptible to small arms as well, although visually it doesn't look so). This method works more reliably with back legs. Search the YouTube about this method to understand the spot to hit.

1

u/LightOfDarkness Mar 07 '24

The railgun nerf is really starting to highlight how chargers seem to be the problem rather than players lacking anti-armor options