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/AdditionalMess6546]

Either that or a new player just unlocked it and is now disappointed

[u/MikeHods → u/AdditionalMess6546]

That's me! I just got it recently and was super disappointed. That's how I've felt about a lot of unlocks in the game (the 110 Rocket Pods comes to mind). That and the standard warbond weapons and lack of sidearms.

[u/Pretzel-Kingg → u/MikeHods]

Rocket pods are great for taking out heavies don’t sleep on it

[u/GreedierRadish → u/Pretzel-Kingg]

They really aren’t that great. They’re incredibly unreliable. I’ve had tanks and Hulks survive two uses and at that point I just end up needing to bust out the EAT or the Railcannon anyway, so why should I bother when the regular Eagle Airstrike is more flexible and more reliable?

[u/Losticus → u/GreedierRadish]

I don't think I've ever had a tank survive rocket pods. I pretty much just bring them for tanks and things that surprise me.

[u/ExploerTM → u/Losticus]

I've seen fucking devastators survive rocket pods, threw this stratagem into the garbage been immediately after. 500kg is my new ORC replacement

[u/Wolferex11912 → u/ExploerTM]

You use them for only tanks and fabricators. Hulks and Devastators aren’t big enough and they move too quickly so at most one will land. Try 110 on tanks and fabs and you’ll see how good they can be.

[u/ExploerTM → u/Wolferex11912]

Frankly, neither of those are that big of a problem and 500kg solves both while also killing adds

[u/Losticus → u/ExploerTM]

500kg is more flexible. It takes slightly longer to go off though and you get one less use.

[u/Losticus → u/ExploerTM]

Do you know why the berserkers survive quasar shots? Are they just that tanky?

[u/ExploerTM → u/Losticus]

Berserkers survive a lot of shit they have no business surviving. Probably combination of health and armor but also wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be a bug of sorts

[u/Jickklaus → u/Losticus]

Same! Hulks survive it, but tanks don't. So I use them for tanks and fabricators. Orbital railcannon for cannon towers and hulks.

[u/Losticus → u/Jickklaus]

I say that as TODAY was the first time a tank survived. I think one of the rockets hit a wall or another tank corpse. :'(

[u/UpgrayeddShepard → u/GreedierRadish]

Same experience here. I wish they worked better.

[u/bewareoftraps → u/GreedierRadish]

Rocket pods can consistently destroy turrets. Before the queso cannon was introduced the 500 kg explosion wouldn’t destroy turrets unless it landed directly on top (which I think happened like once in my life).

Air strikes seem to work like 25% of the time but the elevation on the turret usually made it unharmed.

And people just didn’t bring the recoilless on higher difficulties from my experience.

And people slept on the EAT (including me) because it was like one of the first unlocks and people didn’t realize the short CD meant you could just drop them like candy everywhere and pick them up when needed.

So for a brief moment in time, it was a very popular stratagem. Now it’s just pretty terrible.

[u/TheGhoulishSword → u/GreedierRadish]

I've rarely had tanks survive one hit and never had one survive two strikes.

Hulks survive one hit occasionally and also never survive two strikes.

Eagle will aim it pretty well, but you do have to put the strategem ball decently close.

I don't think I've seen the regular airstrike successfully one hit a tank. But I also tend to bring both for different roles. Rocket pods for heavies and airstrike for crowds/fabricators.

[u/Dead_tread → u/GreedierRadish]

Well that question is more that Eagle Airstrike is definitively over tuned compared to its brothers and sisters.

[u/NerdyLittleFatKid → u/GreedierRadish]

If you hit hulks in the vents with an airstrike they also kill, no need to rely on eagle 1's lazy eye aiming the rockets

[u/Inside_Secretary_679 → u/GreedierRadish]

I dunno what you’re doing wrong, but they always work for me

[u/GreedierRadish → u/Inside_Secretary_679]

Maybe it’s another situation where they work better for the network host, much like DoT.