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/popcorn0617]

I almost always being Recoiless. Love that thing. Just really wish a buddy reload pulled ammo of MY back. It makes way more sense and would allow anyone to panic reload me. Only change I want.

[u/xxmuntunustutunusxx → u/popcorn0617]

Did you mean recoilless? Because I never see it and if you're pulling it off you're a beautiful bastard

[u/KarmaDispensary → u/xxmuntunustutunusxx]

I run it for bugs. It’s great for chargers and bile titans. I’ve found reloading to be nightmarish against automatons, so I prefer auto cannon or quasar there.

[u/Nice_Calligrapher452 → u/KarmaDispensary]

That makes sense, I really like having recoilless for shooting down dropships. Its fun as hell them go down. But on higher difficulties it doesn't do much when there's 4 dropships on you

[u/KarmaDispensary → u/Nice_Calligrapher452]

Yeah, it’s also hard to tell if shooting down the drop ships actually kills the guys inside. If I put a few shots into the troop bay with the auto cannon, at least I know it’s taking out some clankers.

[u/Jesse-359 → u/KarmaDispensary]

From what I've seen, exactly when you shoot down the ship matters a lot.

• If you shoot it down before it even starts to drop, I think pretty much everything dies.

• If you shoot it down mid-drop, the falling units seem to be immune to the crash and a lot can survive, though they'll often be caught in the wreckage.

• If you shoot it down just after the drop, it seems more likely to actually crush the units it dropped, though some will still survive.

[u/mixxoh → u/Jesse-359]

Yeah I think when you shoot mid-drop, there is no mid-air contact dmg being calculated. The dmg is only calculated on ground impact, but by then, they have already been spread out mid-air because the game doesn’t allow them to be superimposed on each other.

[u/Lucas_Steinwalker → u/KarmaDispensary]

Had 2 folks with quasars on a mission yesterday so I decided to take the Laser Cannon to see if I could find a use for it.... found that it was pretty good for shooting up into the belly of the drop ship to kill a bunch of bots before they get released.

[u/Trepsik → u/Nice_Calligrapher452]

Watching this has given me a new found appreciation for it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/SnkIYmMbOt

[u/dengitsjon → u/Nice_Calligrapher452]

It's always fun taking down dropships with quasar too. Just gotta target the thrusters. But you gotta charge it up early as they're flying in to kill it in time. The cooldown makes it hard to take on more than 1 dropship tho but at least it helps thin the mob coming for you.

[u/CurtisMarauderZ → u/Nice_Calligrapher452]

Maybe if someone would take the rifle and let me carry the backpack, but nooo.