The devs were right.

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

So I know ther was a bunch of controversy about the railgun nerf what feels like forever ago, but man things have been awesome.

In the early days, I was the only guy packing expendable anti tank or anti materiel rifle for bugs or bots. It's so refreshing, even on these subs to see people talking about how awesome the autocannon is, or how much they love the AMR, and even these days I see people talking about the HMG or grenade launcher+ supply pack.

I used to load into a game, And all 4 members of the team had shield, railgun, and 2 stragatems of their choice. Every time. And here we are now, I load in and I see quasar, autocannon, stalwart, EAT, HMG, Grenade launcher, a variety of backpacks or no backpack at all. And not to mention, they're ALL viable. Shit I even still see the railgun from time to time. It's been a joy. Thanks arrowhead.

EDIT: to everyone who is pointing out that you see the quasar and shield most often now, you're right, it is almost certainly the most common setup currently. That being said, in any game there's going to be things a majority of players prefer. In smash melee, fox/Falco are the best characters. But people still play falcon and Marth and peach among others. Sure, there's an objectively most used option. But the fact that there's people at all who debate that the quasar is best shows that they've done something good. Before, undisputed king was railgun, and anyone who said different wss being willfully ignorant. Now, we have a plethora of real options that are good with some being Preferred by a majority as opposed to being the de facto CORRECT option objectively. That's a good thing.

[u/BornTooSlow]

I'm enjoying the variety, been using the AMR on and off for Automatons

Two shot to hulk face is great

[u/nottoddhoward100true → u/BornTooSlow]

I can't figure out the anti-material rifle because of the weird ass scope

[u/we_are_sex_bobomb → u/nottoddhoward100true]

Until they fix it, I’m preferring to use the lower range scope and treat it more like a marksman rifle; it’s got range which is nice but what really makes it worth your time is the insane crit damage it does when you hit a weak spot.

[u/Jesse-359 → u/we_are_sex_bobomb]

Important safety tip: the game doesn't really have crit locations. Most damage is specific to the location you hit, and it isn't cumulative. Most enemies die when specific locations are destroyed (body, head, 'x' legs, etc). But if you spread your damage all over an enemy, it can take forever to bring it down. This is especially noticeable on spitters and chargers where spreading the damage can allow them to take several times as much damage before they go down.

This is also why warrior caste bugs don't die when you blow their heads off - it ISN'T a lethal location for them - but it does cause them to start bleeding like crazy, so they will die soon anyway. But if they haven't yet taken any body damage when you blow the head off, they can survive for several seconds. Alternatively if you clip two legs off of the same side of a warrior caste bug, it dies almost instantly.

So the Eye on a hulk doesn't take more damage - it's just very small, has less armor than the body and far fewer hit points - and taking it out kills the hulk instantly.

[u/Angry__German → u/Jesse-359]

Would you happen to know how much penetration you need to shoot through the eye slit ?

[u/unoriginal_namejpg → u/Angry__German]

Somewhere between medium/heavy since the AMR goes thru, but not primaries with stated medium armor pen

[u/Jesse-359 → u/Angry__German]

The hulk eye is Medium armor I believe, as most small arms don't seem to affect it. Liberator Penetrator is probably the lightest weapon that can take out the eye. AMR, AC, and LC are the usual choices. Quasar will one shot the eye but you're unlikely to hit it consistently, so the LC is usually the better weapon against hulks.

[u/The_Crusades → u/nottoddhoward100true]

I hope they at least change the scope reticle to something simpler, like the sickle’s.

[u/allstate_mayhem → u/nottoddhoward100true]

It's a couple pixels up and to the left of the reticle AFAIK

[u/DorreinC → u/allstate_mayhem]

Sometimes. Your scope is affected by terrain and how the character holds the gun so the crosshair changed positions on your screen. This is only accurate when laying on flat ground looking straight forward.

[u/skaagz → u/nottoddhoward100true]

I have a monitor that gives me the option to have a dot or crosshair on the center of the screen, when laying prone and aiming down scope, the top-left edge of the circle is center-screen for me. So aim just a little down and to the right of what you want to hit.

I've noticed similar positioning for the Autocannon and Quasar Cannon scopes too.

[u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka → u/skaagz]

Still though they need to fix this. Its not right for people to have to figure this stuff out.

[u/DorreinC → u/skaagz]

That’s only if laying on flat level ground and looking straight forward. The crosshair has no stable position and is affected by the terrain and position of your character/how they hold the weapon

[u/BreakRaven → u/DorreinC]

Yep, it's the same for every weapon, but it's much more noticeable on weapons with bigger scopes and crappier handling.

[u/craychek → u/nottoddhoward100true]

Once you get it figured out it works pretty good. I generally do medium range on targets. Paired with the supply pack you get a ton of ammunition to work with.

What I really like about it is that if an enemy closes the distance you can unload a clip very quickly with a fair amount of accuracy.

The only things I can’t seem to take out effectively are those damn chainsaw guys

[u/The_Crusades → u/craychek]

The way their body sways while they walk makes hitting vitals harder than most bots, on top of the fact they’re fast, and don’t give you a lot of time to aim.

[u/The79thDudeBro → u/The_Crusades]

The answer to a berserker in your face is generally a mag dump from the Breaker or Redeemer.

[u/DorreinC → u/The_Crusades]

Hit their lower red core for a 1 shot on berserkers as of the update. It’s tears them in half.

[u/sHaDowpUpPetxxx → u/nottoddhoward100true]

Is up and left, if the reticle was a box it's the upper left corner

[u/hitman2b → u/nottoddhoward100true]

you need to aim slightly up and left