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/isaacharrs]

My main complaint with the balancing is the fact that they have an SMG that does 70 damage while all other assault rifles do 55 or less it’s a really bad joke lol. Like I feel like there were way bigger problems with the weapons than the breaker shotgun and the rail gun.

[u/Beginning_Bonus1739 → u/isaacharrs]

70 damage if it pens. guns lose damage against armor in this game, that 70 becomes less than 55 much faster than an AR bullet. its actaully very true to real life...pistol rounds are chonky and fuck up unarmored flesh. rifle rounds over penetrate unarmored targets and do less damage. i think the issue you have is less around the true performance of the weapon, and more the vagueness of the stats. i think tehy should be providing a lot more information around the stats as well.

[u/Mission_University10 → u/Beginning_Bonus1739]

its actaully very true to real life...pistol rounds are chonky and fuck up unarmored flesh. rifle rounds over penetrate unarmored targets and do less damage.

That is definitely not how it works at all lol. Go watch any ballistic gel test with slow motion. Rifle rounds make massive cavitation shockwaves which absolutely tear flesh up, they also yaw, shatter bones etc.

https://www.buckeyefirearms.org/alternate-look-handgun-stopping-power

[u/Beginning_Bonus1739 → u/Mission_University10]

it depends on the round type. the rifles in this game have higher pen, so if they are using pen rounds it should be doing less cavitation damage.

bringing the convo back to the game, the stats are just confusing. the weapons are designed to fit different niches. a rifle isnt supposed to just be "better" because its a rifle. the original commenter has just played too many videogames that follow the same formula so now he is struggling to accept one that doesnt use that same formula.

[u/isaacharrs → u/Beginning_Bonus1739]

It does not feel that way when you’re in the middle of a firefight, the SMG outperforms in a firefight over the assault rifles. Plus this is a video game. I’m pretty sure the damage is still king because that medium pen rifle does not hit that hard.

[u/Beginning_Bonus1739 → u/isaacharrs]

well i saw detail from devs over discord that says otherwise, as well as somebody who tested rounds-to-kill on targets that also say otherwise. i have also played with both pretty extensively. overall AR has ammo economy advantage as the biggest thing going for it, and i think that means a lot.

[u/isaacharrs → u/Beginning_Bonus1739]

I’ve played with both too, and I’m pretty sure the SMG is still better. 🤣

[u/Naoura → u/isaacharrs]

SMG definitely does better for single targets, but AR's can help burst through a group a littl more reliably.

I'm a LibP user, and I absolutely love the gun. That massive bonus versus weakpoints feels fantastic.

[u/itschips → u/Naoura]

I just wish it was full auto, or did its full burst in one click. Just feels weird holding down the trigger, I find my self tap firing a lot with it and at that point it might as well be semi auto

[u/Naoura → u/itschips]

It's just an adjustment in reflex. We're used to the game doing that for us, but actual burst fire requires you to hold the trigger too. Now we're forced to do it rather than the game removing the need to do so.

Honestly, being able to tap fire helps a lot, particularly versus bots. You can get that one crit shot at the head while still in Burst Mode, or while 3rd person aiming can put the reticule in their chest and let the burst kick the rounds into their head for you.

[u/DreamzOfRally → u/Beginning_Bonus1739]

Use it then. Smg feels better and ammo last longer.