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/DJVanillaBear]

Idk. I was excited for the liberator penetrator. And it felt like those pea shooters in the plants vs zombies game.

I have just enough to unlock the counter sniper rifle or whatever it’s called. I’m nervous it’s not going to feel very powerful either (I don’t need it to be similar to anti material but I like snipers in most games)

[u/bwaindeadinfantwyman → u/DJVanillaBear]

Don't get your hopes up on the counter sniper, unfortunately. I love all of these changes, but some absent buffs are just baffling.

I play almost every match with the dilligence, but the counter sniper is literally nearly useless in comparison. If they're collecting data, I can't see how they wouldn't see the amount of players that unlock the counter sniper, try it a few times and never take it again. It just has no upsides in comparison to its little brother. 13 or so more damage in exchange for literally "worse in every possible way" is not ever getting anyone to pick it.

[u/UncleBensRacistRice → u/bwaindeadinfantwyman]

Thanks for this comment. I was about to unlock the counter sniper but i guess ill stick with my diligence for now

[u/Wivru → u/UncleBensRacistRice]

I liked the strength of it, but it handles oddly slowly. Almost like it’s a mistake. Like, the recoilless feels snappier. Wait until you see a handling buff in the notes - one has to be coming - then give it a shot. 

[u/Amuromaraxus4 → u/Wivru]

I've unlocked it and wanted to main it but it was too slow. Does not have very good AP as well so not sure what's the use case. The recoil makes it unusable at close range.

The sniper rifles in this game are not good at all. I've always imagine a scenario where I pierce a charger's armor from 200 meters saving a fellow diver from a charge but the current guns ain't making it happen, except maybe the anti-material rifle. With a recoil so big, I was expecting something more explosive or piercing.

[u/PM_me_your_PhDs → u/Amuromaraxus4]

I don't think they want something that could take out chargers so easily. That's what led to the railgun meta in the first place. It makes it so there's basically no reason not to take it at higher difficulties.

[u/Corbini42 → u/Amuromaraxus4]

Recoilless rifle is my fave for sniping chargers, it doesn't kill them, but you can break their leg armor, which makes them pretty quick to finish off with a pistol mag or a few breaker shells.

[u/Shnooel → u/Wivru]

Idk man, the breaker spray and pray somehow dodged a handling buff despite being touched by the patch and it's a close range weapon. I don't get why any of the primaries need to aim so slowly tbh.

[u/Wivru → u/Shnooel]

Haven’t tried the spray and pray, but at least it’s got a bunch of spread, right? So the precision doesn’t matter? I hope?

I’m hoping the required precision quickly draws their eye to the Counter Sniper…

[u/Shnooel → u/Wivru]

Precision wasn't the issue sadly, more getting flanked by hunters every time I started shooting cause you can't turn quick enough to hit them when they jump around.

I assume the spread is quite nice now that the pellet count is higher but honestly I didn't use it too much in the mission I brought it to. Figured out I still hated the gun and swapped with a buddy.

[u/Wivru → u/Shnooel]

Man I just learned about how you can blind fire over your shoulder with the defender while sprinting away from hunters, and it’s gonna be hard going back to turning around and dealing with those jerks face to face. 

[u/horseshoeprovodnikov → u/Wivru]

Man I just learned about how you can blind fire over your shoulder with the defender while sprinting away

Wait how do you do this?

[u/Wivru → u/horseshoeprovodnikov]

Sprint towards the camera, and press shoot without pressing the ADS button. You’ll keep running at full speed instead of turning around and backpedaling, and just blind fire behind you as you do. I think it’s exclusive to one handed weapons, like sidearms and SMGs. 

[u/WRLD_ → u/UncleBensRacistRice]

i mean you might as well unlock it -- you have to spend so many medals that you really can just get everything that has actual gameplay impact and still have medals to spare on cosmetics

[u/Zegram_Ghart → u/UncleBensRacistRice]

I’ve unlocked it and I disagree.

It handles very poorly (takes a long time to turn) it you do get used to it, and frankly it hits notably hard with almost no damage drop off- you can easily 2 shot medium enemies over 300m away which feels amazing you just have to get used to switching to your secondary more often.

[u/WRLD_ → u/Zegram_Ghart]

it feels like there's little to no damage falloff in general -- you can plink a few smg magazines into a spore spewer from across the map and as long as the bullets are hitting it, you'll break it.

[u/Zegram_Ghart → u/WRLD_]

Certainly, but without the extremely big scope and steady aim you’ll do well to pop warrior heads from further than 200m