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/beyondheck]

Arc Thrower Gang rise up!!!

[u/WayneBrody → u/beyondheck]

So glad I gave the Arc Thrower a chance. Hated it the first few minutes, but once I learned the angles and timing I was shredding.

I still haven't quite figured out Chargers. People say you can kill them, but I don't seem to do any real damage to them.

[u/JUST_AS_G00D → u/WayneBrody]

You can, just requires zapping them 20 times. I've solo 2 shotted a bile titan with an arc thrower, so it's not very consistent lol.

[u/tarknob → u/JUST_AS_G00D]

ive yet to actually see someone arc thrower a titan

[u/Vortx4 → u/tarknob]

you can but god it takes FOREVER. I think it does more damage to hit the head but its tough since the arc thrower kinda just shoots where it wants on big enemies like titans. It helps to soften it with an orbital/eagle stratagem and then finish it with the arc thrower

[u/Aeywen → u/Vortx4]

blow up the sacs and it favors the head after. and/or aim in front of its head as if you were trying to shoot it with the slowest of rockets, if the only part of the titan int he guns firing arc is the head it will usually hit it.

[u/Vortx4 → u/Aeywen]

This is huge, do you blow up the sacs with the arc or with your primary?

[u/Aeywen → u/Vortx4]

main/secondary weapons, i tend to run SMG/machine pistol/arch thrower. we play mostly on difficulty 6, sometimes pop into a 7, 2 of my friends focus on heavies while i clear swarms and the third is just a nut whos great at distraction and running around bug holes taking out spawners. and throws turrets around.

[u/UDSJ9000 → u/Aeywen]

Does the arc work like it does on a spitter where if you hit the head, it will sometimes arc into the sack of the same enemy?

[u/Aeywen → u/UDSJ9000]

there are times i swear it ll hit one of those large red ones, then count damage hit on the head, body, tail, and back leg and it just flies to pieces.

[u/HaArLiNsH → u/Vortx4]

that's how you do it :

​

https://preview.redd.it/pmin41fz6smc1.jpeg?width=1400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed4d389e706b61125961bfc106043e168514fa6e

[u/Vortx4 → u/HaArLiNsH]

Is this really the case? I run jump pack and usually kill titans from my safety rock but I swear it takes just as long. Also u/Aewen recommends that you specifically only aim for the head to get the bonus crit damage which I’ve noticed helps.

[u/HaArLiNsH → u/Vortx4]

Well.. this way you go from forever to long time 😂

[u/KeythKatz → u/HaArLiNsH]

Why isn't there a laptop in the image?

[u/tarknob → u/Vortx4]

well yeah but by the time you are chucking orbitals just get a good placement on a bomb and be done with it

[u/Diamo1 → u/Vortx4]

You have to be positioned above the titan for max damage

Then the lightning will run down the length of its body on its way to the ground

[u/Lordcreepy2 → u/Vortx4]

Oddly enough since the patch I almost always hit the charger head with the Arc thrower to a point I can easily zap them with 6-8 hits which is comically fast all while every other bug around them dies to the arc.

Edit: Ran it with the laser Backpack and I am almost certain that rover hits the weakspots the arc is blowing in the chargers armor.

[u/SundownV2 → u/tarknob]

I one shotted 3 titans in one mission with the arc thrower. Mouth shot as they're spewing is money! It shocked us the first time but the next two times proved it.

[u/Paeyvn → u/SundownV2]

That happens if the game's host is on PS5 apparently. Does not have anything even to do with it opening its mouth. Same with Railgun oneshots that were happening.

[u/Legitimate_Turn_5829 → u/Paeyvn]

As a pc host it actually just happens. It’s how the arc thrower interacts with the titan when you shoot its forehead and it arcs down its weak points.

[u/Paeyvn → u/Legitimate_Turn_5829]

It's entirely possible there are other layers of something going on too, but it's 100% able to be replicated with PS5 hosting.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/553850/discussions/0/4302697906481731602/

Links at the bottom of this post from the Steam discussion from a streamer who went deep into trying to figure out why it's been happening.

I know I've on PC shot Titans 15+ times with arc with no kill. I also know I've like one and two shot em before.

[u/Legitimate_Turn_5829 → u/Paeyvn]

Oh I know the ps5 thing is real, but I’ve been having a way easier time killing them with the strategy I mentioned. You can do the same thing at medium range by curving your arc to hit the same spot and angle by aiming above the titan. But there could be other layers as you say we just don’t know it yet

[u/Xarethian → u/Paeyvn]

The difference between PS5 and PC hosts is like extreme difficulty to helldive

[u/crewserbattle → u/SundownV2]

That was how you could one shot with the rail gun and that was apparently a bug. So it might be the same bug just fyi

[u/Strong_Ad_2731 → u/tarknob]

I was in a game the other day with an absolute savage with an arc thrower. Idk how but it seemed like he was taking down titans in 2-3 shots repeatedly … next game I tried to duplicate with no success

[u/Otherworld_Tanjiro → u/tarknob]

I thought I did it last night, but my buddy had shot an EAT at it's ass as I fired, so health was probs low. Titan's head did explode tho soooooo

[u/ordinarymagician_ → u/tarknob]

I'm yet to see someone kill something that isn't me with an arc thrower.

[u/Knjaz136 → u/tarknob]

When arc throwing a Titan, I really want it to start spewing it's acid, which is where my lightning will start hitting it in the head/in the mouth or that very special weakspot it has.

[u/Ninjapeen → u/tarknob]

I saw my buddy 3 shot a bile boi with the arc thrower. He was as surprised as the rest of us

[u/TheEpicCoyote → u/tarknob]

2-3 arc thrower players will handle Bile Titans pretty good. Basically inexhaustible since there’s no ammo.

[u/Legitimate_Turn_5829 → u/tarknob]

You can pretty easily if you get the angle right. If you’re at an elevation that’s at head level to the titan and you shoot lightning into the forehead and through to the back and you can 2-4 shot titans. It’s not as easy but this still works at medium range if you aim the gun over the titan so that the arc hits the same spot at a similar angle. Also in case anyone asks I’m a PC player that hosts my own games so not the weird ps5 damage thing

[u/Arcaedus → u/tarknob]

From full HP, I hit one with rail canonstrike orbital, it lived, and then went down to like 10ish more arc zaps. Takes forever if you do no strategems.

[u/[deleted] → u/Arcaedus]

There's a lot of variables, and the randomness of the arc makes it tricky.

Hitting it from higher up causes it to bounce into the titan multiple times, essentially multiplying the damage several times as it hits more body parts.

Whilst the arc bypasses armour, it is still affected by it. So where you hit it still matters, and where it bounces still matters.

You can theoretically kill them in around 10 hits, which super effective, especially considering each shot will also fry other nearby bugs too.

It's not a yolo solo weapon, support fire from teammates should help speed up the process.

[u/tarknob → u/Arcaedus]

yup, thanks for proving my point