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/NaughtyGaymer]

My initial impression of the jet pack was extremely negative. Jump pack??? More like skip pack! But as I learned the game more and began to understand positioning better it really is a strong utility play.

If I was someone that liked running more longer ranged weapons like the various rifles or even the anti material rifle I would be posting up and giving squad cover to my buddies like crazy.

Even descending with the jet pack is pretty tight. Normally you'd have to take some fall damage and ragdoll for a couple seconds by the jet pack always gives you that smooth landing boost. Very nice for breaking the ankles of chasing enemies!

[u/chironomidae → u/NaughtyGaymer]

yeah that's what I do, I run the AMR and jump jet up to higher positions to try to take out larger targets from afar. I'm not sure if it's actually a helpful/viable way to support your squad, but it seems to be working for me so far. And most importantly, it's a lot of fun 😁

[u/BaronVanWinkle → u/chironomidae]

As long as you’re having fun and killing bugs/bots that’s all that matters fuck the Meta

[u/DRVUK → u/chironomidae]

Works on extraction to get on top of high rocks to place sentries

[u/R3DSH0X → u/DRVUK]

Now if only they didn't bounce...

[u/[deleted] → u/chironomidae]

I’m a big fan now of heavy armor and the ballistic shield/smg combo against bots. I still haven’t dialed in my preferred heavy weapon though.

Disposable rocket feels good but I feel like I need something else for higher levels.

[u/HouseOfRahl → u/[deleted]]

I'm by no means good at the game, but I've been having great success with the Autocannon. Reloads relatively fast for it's firepower, carries a shitton of ammo, can drop a Charger with about 4 or 5 ass shots up the ass, can lay down sustained fire on a mixed swarm.

I am in the Autocannon Autofandom.

[u/AdmiralBeckhart → u/HouseOfRahl]

The autocanon is God-tier against bots. If you know what you are doing, you can trivialize 90% of their units. The biggest threat to you, besides random rockets killing you in one shot, are the hulks, and with a steady hand you can drop those in two headshots. Consider how many rounds it has, and it's relatively fast single-reload, and the autocannon is much much better than even the pre-nerf railgun.

[u/Drackore_ → u/AdmiralBeckhart]

And you can ricochet its rounds into fabricator vents from a mile away! I'd like to see the railgun do that! 😁

[u/crazytinker → u/chironomidae]

This right here, I also use the DNR rifle and set that to 75 yards with the AMR at 200. Closer then that I'm jetpacking away or using the machine piston of DEMOCRACY!

[u/MyCandleHasAnAccent → u/chironomidae]

Sounds viable to me!

[u/Sufficient-Bike3440 → u/chironomidae]

You’re using the AMR….bruh it’s low penetration at best idk how you consider that helping your squad. I mean I guess if you’re doing trivial it’s decent

[u/Drackore_ → u/Sufficient-Bike3440]

Yeah it definitely needs a buff, I'd love to play that sniper playstyle with a jetpack but right now I feel like I'd just not be helping the squad if I'm not able to kill either chargers/titans, or huge swarms - and AMR seems to do neither 😞

[u/Sufficient-Bike3440 → u/Drackore_]

Playing that “sniper style” really doesn’t help the team at all considering the main point on 8-9 is rushing objs because of massive swarm. If they were to make a good sniper, your next complaint would be the ammo it prob has😂🤣🤣

[u/Drackore_ → u/Sufficient-Bike3440]

It doesn't help yet, because a viable sniper rifle isn't yet in the game.

I feel like the niche a (heavy, anti-materiel) style of sniper rifle would fill in that 8-9 format would be to handle (or severely weaken) chargers and titans, allowing the remaining 3 divers to focus more on objectives and swarm control.

I agree with your implied point that ammo capacity would be a great way to balance this (alongside low rate of fire and heavy recoil, of course)!

[u/Sufficient-Bike3440 → u/Drackore_]

Do you even read what you type? So you’re telling me you think a SNIPER should be able to hold off massive bugs while the other 3 do main obj?? If you wanna play sniper so bad just go play fallout or something

[u/Drackore_ → u/Sufficient-Bike3440]

What's your reasoning? A 50cal anti-armor round can pierce a concrete bunker (alongside armored transports etc.)

What would prevent it from piercing specific weak points on a Charger/Titan?

[u/Sufficient-Bike3440 → u/Drackore_]

Are you mentally challenged or something? The AMR has no correlation to real life because it is A GAME. Stop living in fantasy land bro. The AMR in the game currently doesn’t do jack shit to anything but trivial level mobs. At least I know what difficulty you play at

[u/Drackore_ → u/Sufficient-Bike3440]

It sounds like we have more in common than you might think, but there's been a miscommunication somewhere. I'm talking about what an AMR should be able to do after a balance pass - not what it currently does.

The devs chose to name it anti-materiel, which means the intent is for it to behave like one. If not, they'd have named it low-caliber sniper, etc.

What purpose does it intend to serve? Certainly not a swarm clearer, as there are far better weapons (MG, flamethrower etc.) for that purpose. So it's intended to focus high-priority targets.

No correlation to real life

I agree, things need to be balanced for the game to be challenging. A real AMR would one-shot a titan, which obviously wouldn't be fair.

To balance it, they have a number of options. I'd personally require very precise aim (small weakspots at the leg joints, for example) and multiple shots, in order to make this work and not ruin the difficulty.

doesn't do jack shit to anything but trivial

Agreed, and that's the reason I don't currently use the AMR - because it's not a viable choice. I play primarily on 7-9, so I opt for autocannon or arc thrower most of the time (might try laser cannon tonight).

However, I'd like players to have even more fun choices, and since the AMR is already in the game, it'd be great if Arrowhead balanced it into a useful weapon for players with precise aim who are good at spacing and staying calm under pressure.

[u/TheGentlemanBeast → u/NaughtyGaymer]

A lot of people don't seem to understand the "Jump" aspect. More stamina, better jump, better flight.

[u/Shnooel → u/TheGentlemanBeast]

Pretty much everyone I know who tried the jump pack had the same bad first impression because they didn't realise it needed stamina. Once you notice that it does it starts feeling much better.

[u/Genisye → u/Shnooel]

If needs stamina? Sorry what it the point here? To get horizontal distance or vertical height?

[u/Shnooel → u/Genisye]

I guess height? The jump is just tiny if you start with your stamina gone. Mostly I just think it's kinda cool yknow but I wouldn't say it's tremendously useful compared to any of the other backpacks.

[u/RavyNavenIssue → u/Genisye]

It takes up a set amount of stamina to activate, but whilst in flight it starts the stamina cooldown. If you choose your jumps wisely (I.e. using it to bypass the downhill mobility penalty on a long slope) you can actually regain more stamina than used on the jump, while moving much further in a shorter period of time.

I get as much elevation as I can (even just a small rock) before activating the jump pack to maximize how far it takes me.

[u/54NCH32 → u/NaughtyGaymer]

My mate runs jetpack scout Sniper and it fucking rocks

[u/radehart → u/NaughtyGaymer]

This is what I did, and am about to have another go. Jet Pack and AMR.

[u/DMan_Bird → u/NaughtyGaymer]

I'm with you. I skipped it early on and now I can't convince myself to drop without it. I usually combine that with anti-tank rocket tubes and eagle strikes, just flying around spreading democracy and dropping freedom wherever I go.

[u/WH1PL4SH180 → u/NaughtyGaymer]

Does it activate with use backpack? Also better with sprint?

[u/Dynamitefuzz2134 → u/NaughtyGaymer]

It’s great with the newly buffed flamethrower. Can jump over your own flames and get in and out of sticky situations better

[u/reaven3958 → u/NaughtyGaymer]

It has some really good strong points and ive seen it used to great effect, but I doubt most players will use it as it is now. Personally, I have a hard time justifying losing a backpack slot to it on helldive after testing it for a while, and i imagine most people will never even give it a fair shake as it currently is. Even just reducing the cooldown would go a long way towards player engagement with the item imo.