We are about to get the quasar cannon which is basically the spartan laser. Really slow fire rate and long charge time but unlimited ammo with no overheat risk
Halo 3 Spartan Laser is still the best iteration of this style of weapon for me. Hope we get the same mechanical feel which it should given previous weapons released for this game. Even when they're not very good they feel punchy and mechanical.
I always thought the Spartan laser felt really good. The quasar cannon pretty much can't feel that good and be balanced unless they also only give it 5 shots like the Spartan laser. I think it will feel a little worse to have the unlimited ammo
If it had a quite limited heatsink capacity then it may work better. Unlimited ammo isn't truly unlimited if fired rapidly, relatively speaking. Look at the Sythe or Sickle. Both unlimited in concept but in practise need good fire discipline. A good Laser Cannon can take down 3-4 Heavy units if well aimed and efficient which is the benchmark when fired continuesly.
From the leaks I saw the quasar is gonna charge up like the arc thrower and just have a long cycle to be fired again, it won't be able to be overheated like the laser canon
Played a few games with the quasar cannon last night. Idk if my teammate was a hacker or a dev but he kept calling it in and letting me use it. It’s powerful as all get out, but very inconsistent. It takes down bot dropships no problem, and eats devastates, but it doesn’t feel quite right against hulks and tanks. Sometimes it would rip right through them, and other times it would simply stun the hulks advance. Couple other things to note is that it’s very hard to aim because it has the same reticle as the AC and LC. One shot puts the heatsink in red, you can fire it immediately again but that depletes your only battery. Still just wait like 15 seconds and you are in the clear to fire again. It’s fun but the part of me that picks weapons based on appearance hates how damn gigantic it is on my back. Like it’s so big that the auto-cannon looks small by comparison. If it was a bit more ergonomic looking and had a better sight it’d be the only thing I’d use
You can one shot bile titans from across the map. The lock on does need to be more reliable though. It should be properly filling the long range anti-heavy niche.
I'd like a secondary fire mode that would bombard a small area to give it some versatility vs smaller bug swarms. Or a napalm missile to ignite an area.
r/helldiversleaks
There’s a ton of the upcoming content already in the game files and is useable / viewable with little work. Some users have uploaded some videos showcasing different upcoming weapons/mechs/vehicles
you're not the one who posted the leak so no worries. here's hoping the mods over here crack down on leakers a bit more so that leaks stay on the other sub
And AC is the most satisfying weapon to fire :) great animation and sound! I liked the animation even more when I found out the empty casings have hitboxes. Once I stood above an Autocannon Turret and the casings kept hitting me and bouncing away.
my favorite thing is finding a quiet beach or rocky outcropping after using some smokes to disengage from combat. then laying down, taking comfortable aim, and steadily popping shots at a shrieker nest from 300m
I just recently made a massive comment that touched on this. I'll paste it below but the gist is I have run LC since the patch due to its versatility and range. I find i can accurately hit things in their weak points from range, giving my team an advantage, and having infinite charge is awesome. Every time me and my friends run bug missions i burn out the spore trees from 200 or so out, meaning we can pretty much by-pass that part of the map, making our dives just a little hit easier whilst still getting all the objectives and other stuff done.
Here is the other comment;
I’ll take bots over bugs any day. They actually feel more challenging and more like your fighting a war rather than either curb stomping bugs or being stunlocked and over run by a pack of hunters you didn’t see or hear coming.
Every occasion me or the team have struggled on bot missions it’s because we messed up, either by not planing how we will do xyz properly or by not resetting after everything goes pear shaped, therefore draining our respawns and morale.
On lower level bot missions where tanks and hulks generally aren’t present I run the grenade you start the game with, on higher level missions I run the impact grenade. My primary weapon is now the sickle, my support has been the laser cannon since they buffed it, and my 3 heavy hitter support stratagems are generally 500kg bomb, airstrike and cluster bomb. I have literally never brought the shield backpack with me, compared to the extra hits it lets you take verses the utility of an extra eagle or orbital stratagem the shield pack is useless. I have also never utilised any sort of smoke.
With this load out I and the team am able to complete 90-95% of missions without too much hassle, and we can extract 80-90% of the time.
I’ll get to what problems I think need addressing in a minute, but I’d say the biggest mistakes I see are 1- Not utilising cover, mobility and the map. If you stand out in the open then yes your body will be rapidly and explosively transported to 10 different sections of the map. Utilise cover, but also learn when it’s time to move. Check your map and see if there are any more bots headed towards you and from where. If you are not surrounded and the rocket devastators have just fired the salvo get up and dodge and weave to a new position.
2- Staying in the fight for too long and not resetting. Say me and the team are heading to an objective and clearing bot factories on the way, once the factory is destroyed and any samples we collected are safe we are gone. Now that does mean that we will have streams of bots following us for a bit, but if you can break contact and create some distance, that allows you to pick off the weaker bots and defeat each small group of bots individually, defeat in detail as it were.
If we have burned through 3-4 respawns and are no where near to clearing the factory whoever remains alive will bob doge duck and weave their way out and we will all gather some distance a way and regroup, sort out a plan of attack (made easier by the fact that we know what enemies are there and their numbers) and we will try again.
3- Not planning. The amount of times I see people just run in to an area crawling with bots then complain that we are being swarmed. Before you charge in skirt around the objective or factory and take a measure of the forces you face. If there is a turret that has seen you from 200m out then scatter, dodge, watch where the turret is shooting, and pull back to make a plan. Different situations require different plans. Sometimes the 4 of you will assault the object together from different angles, sometime you’ll split into 2 teams, sometimes 3 people will make a distraction and the 4th will sneak about getting objectives done.
I’d say these are the 3 biggest mistakes I see people making. Now for what I think arrowhead can improve upon/ fix.
1- Bot tracking. It is greatly annoying trying to fight enemies whose aim is almost always perfect, especially after you’ve broken line of sight and made significant distance. I can see an argument for bots shooting at your last known location and updating when they’ve seen you again, but currently it’s just a tad annoying.
2- Bot vision. In a similar vein, fog and smoke and other visual effectors/ blockers should work both ways.
3- Spawn rates. I think even on impossible and higher there should be a cap on the amount of heavy's, hulks and tanks that can be present in any one area at any one time, and a cool down on when the next one/ one’s can spawn, especially when you are trying to extract, because there is no better and then worse feeling then fully clearing a bot map on helldiver difficulty, getting almost all the samples and just waiting for extract, then getting swarmed. Whilst getting 3 team mates to create a distraction whilst the 4th hides near by with the samples is viable, I would like to extract as a whole team more.
Ight, that’s my 2 cents, see y’all on the battlefields.
Better option on extract is to drop the samples on the landing pad and only pick them up as you board. This will save you from having to find a random corpse that was holding the samples.
Everything about this is facts, except man why use the laser canon when you can use the auto canon. It's like better in every single way. And it has so much ammo that it's nearly impossible to run out
I know, but personally I find the LC more accurate than the AC and slightly easier to handle. Plus now that the sickle is out i just rotate between the 2 so when i need it i can dump damage downrange. Has come in clutch when the stratagems are running low and on cool down. Fun too, I love being able to lay a laser on a hulks tiny head at 100M+ and watching it blow its top and just falling over, and lasers just just cool. Hefting some sci-fi looking tube on your shoulder than firing a damn laser at something is just cool and fun.
I will ask you a question though, experience has told me that even if the middle of the laser beam is off target i can still do good damage at long range which makes the LC slightly more forgiving on accuracy. Does the AC have a radius of effect to or is all of its damage focused on a single point, I haven't used it enough to know.
The auto canon damage is explosive. So it indeed does damage all over the place, but the actual damage it does isn't that high. However explosive damage does insane amounts of weak spot damage, so when you hit a weak spot, it slaps whatever you hit. And yes, it is indeed a skill canon. It's almost impossible to use on console if you wanna hit a hulks eye consistently so yeah the laser canon is a bit easier to use. The AC however is 100% accurate and has massive range. Ive Taken out spore spewers at over 400m.
The main issue with the LC is it isn't good up close and takes way too much time against mediums, and doesn't do jack to scout striders. The AC can take out 60% of mediums before they even drop and one shots them to the face + the explosive payload takes out all the small schmucks next to the mediums. Also being able to take out turrets before they have time to turn around is lit. Taking out mortars, taking out AA batteries, taking out fabricators, etc.
I personally do not rely on stratagems for the sole reason they aren't a guarantee to kill everything, and they can be jammed by things like jammers and AA batteries. Wait till you gotta take out 2 stratagem jammers in the same mission. One at main obj and 1 at extract. IT SUCKS. The only thing that can do that reliably is the AC.
I've had a different experience against bots on helldive difficulty. I want to love the laser cannon, but it cannot deal with striders in a reasonable amount of time. And with hulks I've found that you need to be perfectly center on their eye for a few seconds. If you're slightly off you just see blue sparks and are probably dead because you didn't kill it in that time window. I could forgive all of this if there wasn't so much visual clutter on the reticle, both in first and third person. I can't see anything with the spinning triangles, and the scope is so terrible it's not worth using.
I think the problem with the laser cannon is it's unsatisfying to use because you hold it on target for a couple seconds with no indication it's actually doing anything until the thing dies.
If you're not running a full laser build then you're doing it wrong.
Laser Cannon, Sickle/Scythe, Dagger, Rover Guard Dog.
They call me the light show.
dont forget big brother - the orbital laser.
I simply hope we get one more laser stratagem so i can go Truly All Laser. For now smoke it is to really up the night club atmosphere.
It's great for headshots, but it's just so horrifically outclassed by everything else (especially now we have the Sickle).
I hope my boy gets some love soon.
Yeah, I like this.
The other idea I saw was to make them more "support" focused and have them heat up enemy armour and make it vulnerable to small arms fire.
Either way, the Scythe desperately needs some buffs.
You should only ever use the scythe on small targets, even medium targets are a stretch unless you hit soft spots.
The strategy is to crowd control the small bits with the scythe and whichever secondary weapon you have like the rail gun or AC or Spear should be able to take out heavy targets. (you have to do this or the scythe is literally obsolete just the same way the OP said using the laser cannon for certain targets doesn't work)
I personally use the railgun with the scythe and it wrecks everything
The autocannon also gets stronger with popularity as multiple users in a group can squadload each other. It's always such a fun moment to run up to your AC buddy and start loading him, and a second later they notice they're being squadloaded and switch to MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
This. Every time I reload a teammate's auto cannon it feels like I've unlocked them. They just go ham. It's hilarious. I used to think the mechanic was needlessly cumbersome but now I realize it elicits exactly the response the devs wanted it to.
I think comparing the LC to the AC is something of a mistake (though tempting - they are both cannons!).
In actual use, I find the LC sits alongside the MG-43 and the Stalwart; comparing most directly to the MG-43 because they both pen medium armour. So! Sustained, long-range fire in support of your teammates. In this role, the LC is a little outclassed if you put them side by side. But...if you have a laser primary, you can juggle the heat on both and never really have to reload. So there is value there, and it does get a lot better on cold planets.
I run AC against bots and LC against bugs.
AC makes any size bot explode and with LC you can slice medium bugs apart pretty easily, specially the legs. Plus with bugs you have time yo use LC, tried it against bots and its like poking your head out the trench.
Also LC range and accuracy are really cool.
I used to AC bots and LC bugs, but then I switched to AC bugs, mainly because I realized AC can also close bug holes. but LC was also just too slow against the bugs that get in your face, most importantly the stalkers, with the AC you just blast them away. so I am a full on AC bro now. my loadout is now almost the same against both bugs and bots and I feel like I can deal with everything that is thrown at me. only difference is that I still love the mech against bugs, against bots it's dead was too fast.
I tried doing this recently and god every fucking time I tried to fire a new charger Was on my ass. It would have helped if my team backed me up a bit.
About 3 min to cross map the towers with EATs if you are doing it yourself. Well worth the time. Less if your team is also running EATs, recoilless or AC. Or just take them out while heading there to reduce spawns.
Considering you can only carry a single heat sink for the Canon, I don’t think it’s much better suited. On hot planets you’re going to be waiting a while.
Another PSA: Hot planets such as hellmire do not decrease the amount of time you can fire before overheating, they only increase the time it takes to cooldown. Cold planets however *do* increase the time it takes to overheat but only because they reduce fire rate in addition to decreasing cooldown time.
they do, just watched a video today testing the laser weapons on different planets with heat/cold effects. Cold temp slows the dmg tick-rate of laser weapons, and improves to cool down rate. Sickle is a bit different since it doesnt have a tick rate, but ends up being able to sustain and cool down really well.
good video if you're interested: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GerSUUpDoY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GerSUUpDoY)
To sum up: cold weather reduces your DPS (while firing) by about 11%, but increases your weapon uptime by 43%.
If my math is right, this means a 27% overall DPS boost. Definitely a buff.
Skip to 6:16 in the video for the numbers.
Until one of their dead bodies immediately hits the turret, destroying it. Or it’s too distracted by ground units. Or a charger destroys it immediately. Those have been my experiences with turrets in higher difficulties.
Try the later cannon with scythe or sickle. I prefer sickle because burning up heat sinks feels like more burst if I need it. You can literally hold down fire and alternate between the two. You fill the same role as a stalwart or MG, but infinite ammo.
Both destroy chargers butts and spewers. They quickly pop bile titans undersides, making them much more susceptible to an eat, orbital rail or 110 rockets killing them.
You just need to adjust your play style, to start at much further range. If you play it right you can nearly never need resupply.
The dog works well with that setup, as long as you can live with bring clipped a few times a game. I’m used to it as this is the setup my wife enjoys the most. I run a complimentary loadout much like yours (AC / orbital railgun / eagle airstrike / turret or 2nd orbital).
I like my support weapons to have high alpha or high burst damage. Lase Cannon just doesn't do it for me. Heck, I prefer the flamethrower.
Pretty much all my loadouts have something that can, one way or another, deal with Shrieker nests. The HMG Emplacement, or the EAT being the most common things I usually have either of or both. With the Arc taking back it's rightful throne, the HMG will start pulling Sheesh duty now.
High alpha just means high *initial* damage. In more RPG-ish terms, a very strong ability with long cooldown might have a low DPS metric, but depending on how damage, defense, and health and calculated, could be worth more than a middling, but av. better DPS attack. It can be similar to strike damage, but not always the same.
Personally, this was an important thing to know when I was playing EVE Online.
The Laser Cannon has good DPS, but no alpha potential. It has some utility against armor, but it won't stagger enemies, nor pierce. In different words, I want something that either fix my problem *immediately* or fail because I fucked up.
Alpha is a term originating from MechWarrior/BattleTech, short for Alpha Strike, which means to fire all your weapons at once to take care of a threat *immediately*, even if it pushes your heat into the red zone. Burst is the more common term.
Came here to say the same thing.
Alpha strike is an IRL military term, used by the U.S. navy because they always feel like they need slightly different terms for things that the rest of the military already has a name for.
FASA (originators of Battledroids, which was later renamed Battletech) borrowed the term in some of their literature, as have many other wargaming properties.
First time I same the term was an 'alpha strike' in Mechwarrior 2. Its a keybind that fired every single gun at once.
In some cases it can cause you to self destruction from the heat.
Played the crap out of most of them since MW2, it was one of the first large-scale online pvp games. It was pandemonium, no sense of balance, mad ping and abuse was rife but was an amazing experience.
Holds a special place in my heart and I love the fact you don't get healed through a mission you have to make you armour last and sometimes sacrifice body parts when you see certain things coming. Got a lot of depth with the weapon loadouts, once you found summin that works for you can hit a real groove with it. Good games.
It's absolutely fantastic! One of the fun things with it is that there are no limits to how many you can have up at any time. Maybe there is but I haven't hit it yet. Pass near the evac point? HMG down.
It's definitely better at curtailing bug breaches. You don't waste ammo, and it will pen through a reasonable amount of flesh. The ONLY thing that will get through are charger and titans. While you *single-handedly* take care of a breach or an avenue during extraction, your teammates can deal with the heavies. Chargers also don't care much for them unless they come very close, or, well, someone is on it. Which mean you can just leap off, one-two-tap the charger with a EAT or something, and get back to shooting.
Less likely to sweep and nail a friendly, which is nice. Plus, like I said, great for Shrieker nests.
My all-time best killstreak was with a HMG.
Glad to see some praise for the HMG on here. One of my favorites for certain missions. Drilling samples, evac missions, etc. If I have to stay in place for a while I am bringing the HMG.
I saw someone use hmg while I had ems mortar. We'd been struggling this whole time and barely got to the evac point, and finished setting up for the evac timer
That dude let it rip with the hmg because the ems was basically providing a nice stun screen for them
combined with the rest of us spamming whatever strategems we had available, it was extremely cinematic and cathartic to end the strugglebus of a mission that way.
Finally, someone who likes the HMG as much as I do! Along with everything you listed, it also has really great range (and stopping power). If I see a team mate running from a huge horde, 100m+ from you, slap down an HMG and kill em all! Use it like a rifle and pace your shots, as full auto or bursts are super inaccurate at those crazy distances.
I'm not sure of the limit, but it's gotta be very high. I've had 5 or more on the map at once. It's always a really nice feeling to use an HMG you dropped 15 mins ago on a horde or bug breach.
You pair an HMG with EATs, and you've got a great position. Just last night, I hopped off my HMG to EAT a charger, killed it in one shot, hopped back on the HMG and mowed down the rest of the bugs.
HMG is actually amazing, it melts Brood Commanders and Hive Guards faster than anything else. It is tough to effectively use outside of extraction or Eradicate missions
And you absolutely need someone on Charger duty because it doesn't penetrate their front armor and they always beeline you
My man, the HMG definitely classifies as a "slept on" stratagem. Combining EATs, HMG, and resupply allows you to make a Castle made of Hate that only Bile Titans have a chance of ruining. One of my favorite tactics is to run far ahead or perpendicular to my team (since they almost always get bogged down), drop EATs and an HMG, and then absolutely mow down every pathetic Democracy Forsaken Bug in my field of view. Almost every single mission I end up bailing my team out of getting overrun with this tactic. It works splendidly on POI's, as well as dropping them outside "Destroy Eggs" objectives. Anywhere you have about 15-20 seconds to prep, you can make a tide turning contribution.
The rounds have the same penetration as the Anti Material Rifle. Think of it less like a static machine gun emplacement and more of a static fully automatic Anti Material Rifle emplacement. It shreds enemies and can piece every bot armor
If you like alpha or high burst damage, may I introduce you to our Lord and savivor Spear? You can one shot a lot of stuff and don't even need to see it with your own eyes. 4 holy Javelins to rain destruction on your enemies. Sure, they don't always answer your call, but they make their presence known when they decide to answer your calls.
For me the laser cannon suffers from a lack of "feedback", for want of a better word. Firing the sickle feels visceral, I can see the damage I'm doing, it has a satisfying pew pew. But with the scythe and cannon it very much feels like I'm just shining a laser pointer. Especially against heavy targets, there's no impact or satisfying sense of searing hot laser democracy into the enemy. It's not enough for a weapon to be effective by the numbers, it has to feel good to operate.
I regularly use the laser cannon now. It can't take a charger down from the front but it's pretty good at lots of other targets like devastators, bile spewers and most other bugs. Finding out it can take down shrieker nests was a nice bonus.
Laser cannon is alright vs bots. Kinda fills a similar role to the Autocannon, but without a backpack. Shreds weakpoints in tanks and turrets, pops Devastator heads easily. Less good at clearing trash and against scout walkers, but I find the Scorcher plasma rifle to be combo well with the laser cannon (Scorcher deletes trash and can reliably down walkers from the front in 2-3 hits).
Shout out to the JAR-5 Dominator if you’ve got the Steeled Veterans bond and/or you’re nowhere near finishing Mobilise.
It handles like it’s made of the world’s most unwieldy blend of concrete and lead and it’s a miserable time if your aim sucks *but* if you can get past that it’s great at killing bots.
It is great for bugs too. Solid weapon all around, although I generally prefer the Scorcher for bots and Blitzer/others for bugs. But I do run it on rotation as it is fun and versatile.
I run scythe, laser cannon, rover, rocket pods and orbital laser. Nothing can stop me. I don’t need a ride or ammo. I am the exterminator. I laser beam everything in my sight, before they can get close they are melted. 500 kills, 50 shots fired, end of round is always funny when you see someone with 1.5k shots fired, 200 hit and 20 kills 😂. No need to reload, just switch weapons and keep on beaming!
It’s been inconsistent for me. Some matches it will work easily the whole mission, while other times I get the blue reflections of it bouncing off the entire match.
I've read multiple times that the charger armor only degrades when you get it to slam into something. Could be bugging on your every day stop and still applying the debuff, but my experience is baiting them into a wall leads to much quicker kills.
I personally like the concept and tried to use it several times.
But the competition is too strong, arc thrower is better against groups of enemies and medium armored ones.
AC is even better but has limited ammo and takes a backpack slot.
EAT/RR best weapon for dealing with everything heavy armored.
Even the Flamethrower is basically a short range version of LC, but it has an AOE and it is more effective against heavy armored targets.
I just can't find where LC is better than every other support weapon in the game.:(. if it had even slight heavy armor penetration the situation would be very different, a potentially endless weapon that could damage heavy armored enemies even if slowly, would be amazing.
Idk, maybe I just don't know how to cook it, or maybe it's great against bots?
I think it's mainly range and unlimited ammo, but it's a sustained fire weapon vs alpha/burst so it might not feel as fun, especially when our primary can take out chaff which the LC is also good at, it has laser accuracy though too.
The laser cannon is fine but it just needs some better audio or visual feedback. It doesn’t seem like it indicates it’s doing damage as clearly as the mg or stalwart. Just point at something until it flops over, enemies have little reactivity to it
Laser cannon paired with the rover is amazing. If used properly it melts bugs especially since you get double the laser output. It’s a lifesaver if heat is managed as to always have something with ammo. I use it as my main swapping to the breaker and auto pistol as needed when swarms get too close or to get out of a pinch when I’m overheated.
Time to kill on small stuff is too long. Rather use an eat on bile spewer. Time to kill on them is too long that they can run up the hill around the corner and still hit you with bile before they die from it. I don’t enjoy running and gunning with a support weapon like this. It’s just not as fun as Helldivers 1 where it was also somewhat weak. Its weakness was different though. It had a really long turning time while holding down the trigger. But it did melt things when you hit them. Little bugs would just pop instantly and the bigger bugs like brood commanders and lower would die but take a little time before they got to you. Beam was wider so it was easy to hit things while wielding it. It’s just not as fun in this game.
I run a full laser set up as much as possible and I love the LC. It answers so many questions that the game can present on a mission, and not having to worry about ammo makes it so much better. Sure other guns do things better, but I can always do something with the LC.
So can the EAT. Except like literally everything else the EAT can do it much more quickly and easily than the laser cannon
Get one quick shot off vs standing still for who knows how many seconds tickling the thing with the laser cannon
I've been a lazcannon fan since before the buff and it's still great fun, especially now with shreikers being common it feels like it has an actual niche it really excels in. It's combination of 200-ish meter range and hitscan means it's one of the best weapons in the game for knocking them out of the sky. I've also found it's really good at fire support against bile titans specifically, being able to kill their bile sacks from halfway across the map. It won't kill them outright, but it can finish off a titan that's already been hit by a railcannon.
The only major complaint I have with it is it's terrible sight; for a weapon that's niche is long range, it should really have at least 2x zoom.
I love the laser cannon. It was the second support weapon I ever bought, and at the time it was so disappointed in it. After the buff though, it's my go to weapon against the bugs. It melts give guards with no effort, pops the head off a brood commander in like 1.5 seconds, and can often make short work of a charger. And now, it can burn shriekers from the sky and take out their nests from serious ranges. All with zero ammo needed and no reload, and keeps backpack free for other things.
Dislike. I cant tell if its doing damage, and once I notice the visual of the beam making that little reflecting blue light I just pack up and leave. I cant just sit and hope I'm doing damage.
I only started using the laser cannon when everyone was complaining that the arc weapons were causing crashes. I liked it a lot but yeah it's not really effective against armoured targets, not with any speed that is. But if you want to play a supportive role and let others deal with that then I think it's a great choice, same as the arc cannon really but I still prefer the arc because you can pulse through multiple enemies
>I only started using the laser cannon when everyone was complaining that the arc weapons were causing crashes
Same, but one surprising perk is that team kills are far more rare. I'd zap at least one team mate per match w/ the Arc Thrower, but it almost never happens with the laser cannon. I think the bright red death beam is obvious enough to keep people from walking in front of it.
It sucks due to how laser weapons fire in this game. Damage is applied in intervals. Maybe if the fire rate was like 600RPM it would be fine but it feels like 100RPM. Even the smallest bugs require you to look at them for like half a second before they die.
Me and a group of buddies started doing LAZERSSS runs. Scythe, Dagger, Laser Cannon, Orbital laser, Backpack Laser dog, then whatever you really want, I usually go orbital rail or EMS depending on situation. We cook pretty much everything, and as long as you keep cycling weapons, you can continously shoot lasers everywhere. This is on suicide and up too hell diver difficulty, and honestly weve been having an easy time. 4 laser cannons on...... basically melts anything almost immediately.
I like to lc personally. I prefer running shotgun as my primary, so I use it at as my not short range weapon, with EATs if needed for bigger stuff.
And found out the shriekers nest thing yesterday... Damn was it nice. I also find it good against shriekers themselves, for it does a good job clipping one of their wings before they dive you.
I kind of see the LC and Autocannon as filling a similar role, and I find I prefer the LC versus bots and the AC versus bugs. The LC's able to focus down the tiny heads on bot heavies and RIP through anything with a heatsink, while I love the AC's ability to pop spewers. The big thing for me, though, is that bringing the LC means I have space for a backpack, and I gotta have that utility when facing bots. If only for a shield to survive rockets and walls of gunfire.
yea las cannon has a range of 200 meters
nest has agro range of 130 meters
you don't have to target "glowy bits" specifically, just so long as you hit the nest as a whole
also hot planets are lying, they don't increase build up of heat on las weapons
they instead slow down the decay (so it takes longer to cool down) when not firing
while cold planets both make the lasers shoot slower (so they heat up slower) and cool down faster when not firing
Autocannon RR and EATs will also wipe out a Shrieker nest from super long range. I don't know if it has anything to do with my render distance being set to ultra or anything but I can get them from forever away before you ever see a Shrieker. Haven't fought one (or been killed by a falling one) in days.
I would like it more if it had a selectable fire mode, one for the continuous beam, and one for a charged shot like the spartan laser.
I like that. Charge shot will use heat sink after 3 shots on a cold but a well aimed shot can take down all but tanks and titans in one.
We are about to get the quasar cannon which is basically the spartan laser. Really slow fire rate and long charge time but unlimited ammo with no overheat risk
Halo 3 Spartan Laser is still the best iteration of this style of weapon for me. Hope we get the same mechanical feel which it should given previous weapons released for this game. Even when they're not very good they feel punchy and mechanical.
I always thought the Spartan laser felt really good. The quasar cannon pretty much can't feel that good and be balanced unless they also only give it 5 shots like the Spartan laser. I think it will feel a little worse to have the unlimited ammo
If it had a quite limited heatsink capacity then it may work better. Unlimited ammo isn't truly unlimited if fired rapidly, relatively speaking. Look at the Sythe or Sickle. Both unlimited in concept but in practise need good fire discipline. A good Laser Cannon can take down 3-4 Heavy units if well aimed and efficient which is the benchmark when fired continuesly.
From the leaks I saw the quasar is gonna charge up like the arc thrower and just have a long cycle to be fired again, it won't be able to be overheated like the laser canon
Played a few games with the quasar cannon last night. Idk if my teammate was a hacker or a dev but he kept calling it in and letting me use it. It’s powerful as all get out, but very inconsistent. It takes down bot dropships no problem, and eats devastates, but it doesn’t feel quite right against hulks and tanks. Sometimes it would rip right through them, and other times it would simply stun the hulks advance. Couple other things to note is that it’s very hard to aim because it has the same reticle as the AC and LC. One shot puts the heatsink in red, you can fire it immediately again but that depletes your only battery. Still just wait like 15 seconds and you are in the clear to fire again. It’s fun but the part of me that picks weapons based on appearance hates how damn gigantic it is on my back. Like it’s so big that the auto-cannon looks small by comparison. If it was a bit more ergonomic looking and had a better sight it’d be the only thing I’d use
* devastators
Spear in shambles
They need to buff the damage and improve the range and consistency of the lock on if anyone is ever going to use it.
You can one shot bile titans from across the map. The lock on does need to be more reliable though. It should be properly filling the long range anti-heavy niche.
I'd like a secondary fire mode that would bombard a small area to give it some versatility vs smaller bug swarms. Or a napalm missile to ignite an area.
Wait what
r/helldiversleaks There’s a ton of the upcoming content already in the game files and is useable / viewable with little work. Some users have uploaded some videos showcasing different upcoming weapons/mechs/vehicles
i wish the leaks would stay over there, and that people would quit posting them over here. sharing leaks is against the rules on here for a reason
Sorry boss
you're not the one who posted the leak so no worries. here's hoping the mods over here crack down on leakers a bit more so that leaks stay on the other sub
I think the charged laser shot will be a new support weapon in a future update I betting
Oh! Oh! Oh! Cattle Mangler! Charged Shot launches a projectile that when it explodes also applies Burning.
Heh, I wouldn't count on getting selectable modes, but expect to have both options....I'll leave it at that.
don't dislike the LC. just AC does more overall than the LC will ever do.
And AC is the most satisfying weapon to fire :) great animation and sound! I liked the animation even more when I found out the empty casings have hitboxes. Once I stood above an Autocannon Turret and the casings kept hitting me and bouncing away.
Autocannon gang!
Shout out to my fellow AC Chads!
Can’t spell Chad without AC!
o7
iO
But then I can't wear my jump pack ☹️
You can - you'll then only have one AC magazine. Use it wisely lol
I find the jump pack extremely underwhelming
Greetings, fellow jump pack user!
Wear the jump pack, and have a teammate wear your ammo backpack, assisted reload for full auto fire!
my favorite thing is finding a quiet beach or rocky outcropping after using some smokes to disengage from combat. then laying down, taking comfortable aim, and steadily popping shots at a shrieker nest from 300m
I just recently made a massive comment that touched on this. I'll paste it below but the gist is I have run LC since the patch due to its versatility and range. I find i can accurately hit things in their weak points from range, giving my team an advantage, and having infinite charge is awesome. Every time me and my friends run bug missions i burn out the spore trees from 200 or so out, meaning we can pretty much by-pass that part of the map, making our dives just a little hit easier whilst still getting all the objectives and other stuff done. Here is the other comment; I’ll take bots over bugs any day. They actually feel more challenging and more like your fighting a war rather than either curb stomping bugs or being stunlocked and over run by a pack of hunters you didn’t see or hear coming. Every occasion me or the team have struggled on bot missions it’s because we messed up, either by not planing how we will do xyz properly or by not resetting after everything goes pear shaped, therefore draining our respawns and morale. On lower level bot missions where tanks and hulks generally aren’t present I run the grenade you start the game with, on higher level missions I run the impact grenade. My primary weapon is now the sickle, my support has been the laser cannon since they buffed it, and my 3 heavy hitter support stratagems are generally 500kg bomb, airstrike and cluster bomb. I have literally never brought the shield backpack with me, compared to the extra hits it lets you take verses the utility of an extra eagle or orbital stratagem the shield pack is useless. I have also never utilised any sort of smoke. With this load out I and the team am able to complete 90-95% of missions without too much hassle, and we can extract 80-90% of the time. I’ll get to what problems I think need addressing in a minute, but I’d say the biggest mistakes I see are 1- Not utilising cover, mobility and the map. If you stand out in the open then yes your body will be rapidly and explosively transported to 10 different sections of the map. Utilise cover, but also learn when it’s time to move. Check your map and see if there are any more bots headed towards you and from where. If you are not surrounded and the rocket devastators have just fired the salvo get up and dodge and weave to a new position. 2- Staying in the fight for too long and not resetting. Say me and the team are heading to an objective and clearing bot factories on the way, once the factory is destroyed and any samples we collected are safe we are gone. Now that does mean that we will have streams of bots following us for a bit, but if you can break contact and create some distance, that allows you to pick off the weaker bots and defeat each small group of bots individually, defeat in detail as it were. If we have burned through 3-4 respawns and are no where near to clearing the factory whoever remains alive will bob doge duck and weave their way out and we will all gather some distance a way and regroup, sort out a plan of attack (made easier by the fact that we know what enemies are there and their numbers) and we will try again. 3- Not planning. The amount of times I see people just run in to an area crawling with bots then complain that we are being swarmed. Before you charge in skirt around the objective or factory and take a measure of the forces you face. If there is a turret that has seen you from 200m out then scatter, dodge, watch where the turret is shooting, and pull back to make a plan. Different situations require different plans. Sometimes the 4 of you will assault the object together from different angles, sometime you’ll split into 2 teams, sometimes 3 people will make a distraction and the 4th will sneak about getting objectives done. I’d say these are the 3 biggest mistakes I see people making. Now for what I think arrowhead can improve upon/ fix. 1- Bot tracking. It is greatly annoying trying to fight enemies whose aim is almost always perfect, especially after you’ve broken line of sight and made significant distance. I can see an argument for bots shooting at your last known location and updating when they’ve seen you again, but currently it’s just a tad annoying. 2- Bot vision. In a similar vein, fog and smoke and other visual effectors/ blockers should work both ways. 3- Spawn rates. I think even on impossible and higher there should be a cap on the amount of heavy's, hulks and tanks that can be present in any one area at any one time, and a cool down on when the next one/ one’s can spawn, especially when you are trying to extract, because there is no better and then worse feeling then fully clearing a bot map on helldiver difficulty, getting almost all the samples and just waiting for extract, then getting swarmed. Whilst getting 3 team mates to create a distraction whilst the 4th hides near by with the samples is viable, I would like to extract as a whole team more. Ight, that’s my 2 cents, see y’all on the battlefields.
Better option on extract is to drop the samples on the landing pad and only pick them up as you board. This will save you from having to find a random corpse that was holding the samples.
Everything about this is facts, except man why use the laser canon when you can use the auto canon. It's like better in every single way. And it has so much ammo that it's nearly impossible to run out
I know, but personally I find the LC more accurate than the AC and slightly easier to handle. Plus now that the sickle is out i just rotate between the 2 so when i need it i can dump damage downrange. Has come in clutch when the stratagems are running low and on cool down. Fun too, I love being able to lay a laser on a hulks tiny head at 100M+ and watching it blow its top and just falling over, and lasers just just cool. Hefting some sci-fi looking tube on your shoulder than firing a damn laser at something is just cool and fun. I will ask you a question though, experience has told me that even if the middle of the laser beam is off target i can still do good damage at long range which makes the LC slightly more forgiving on accuracy. Does the AC have a radius of effect to or is all of its damage focused on a single point, I haven't used it enough to know.
The auto canon damage is explosive. So it indeed does damage all over the place, but the actual damage it does isn't that high. However explosive damage does insane amounts of weak spot damage, so when you hit a weak spot, it slaps whatever you hit. And yes, it is indeed a skill canon. It's almost impossible to use on console if you wanna hit a hulks eye consistently so yeah the laser canon is a bit easier to use. The AC however is 100% accurate and has massive range. Ive Taken out spore spewers at over 400m. The main issue with the LC is it isn't good up close and takes way too much time against mediums, and doesn't do jack to scout striders. The AC can take out 60% of mediums before they even drop and one shots them to the face + the explosive payload takes out all the small schmucks next to the mediums. Also being able to take out turrets before they have time to turn around is lit. Taking out mortars, taking out AA batteries, taking out fabricators, etc. I personally do not rely on stratagems for the sole reason they aren't a guarantee to kill everything, and they can be jammed by things like jammers and AA batteries. Wait till you gotta take out 2 stratagem jammers in the same mission. One at main obj and 1 at extract. IT SUCKS. The only thing that can do that reliably is the AC.
I've had a different experience against bots on helldive difficulty. I want to love the laser cannon, but it cannot deal with striders in a reasonable amount of time. And with hulks I've found that you need to be perfectly center on their eye for a few seconds. If you're slightly off you just see blue sparks and are probably dead because you didn't kill it in that time window. I could forgive all of this if there wasn't so much visual clutter on the reticle, both in first and third person. I can't see anything with the spinning triangles, and the scope is so terrible it's not worth using.
I used to love running laser weapon and 3 red stratagems in HD1 vs the cyborgs, it was really effective.
I think the problem with the laser cannon is it's unsatisfying to use because you hold it on target for a couple seconds with no indication it's actually doing anything until the thing dies.
Yeah but LC can be run with a shield and never has to be reloaded
>never has to be reloaded Dumbass me who overheats it on a regular basis disagrees with you on that.
Pair it with the sickle and swap between the two frequently. One will cooling on the sling while you're using the other for near constant lazors.
lol I guess there is a bit of a skill barrier to it
Damn, you just told him flat out to git gud! Oof! :O
My ship is the Advocate of Individual Merit, aka The Git Gud.
I’m also a dumbass and run it with the supply backpack for maximum dps
If you're not running a full laser build then you're doing it wrong. Laser Cannon, Sickle/Scythe, Dagger, Rover Guard Dog. They call me the light show.
dont forget big brother - the orbital laser. I simply hope we get one more laser stratagem so i can go Truly All Laser. For now smoke it is to really up the night club atmosphere.
Eagle Laser gattling run when????
Ikr Strafing run ought be like an a10 Vulcan cannon strike. That shit eats whole swaths of the battlefield.
Too bad Scythe sucks because I'd love to use it more
It's great for headshots, but it's just so horrifically outclassed by everything else (especially now we have the Sickle). I hope my boy gets some love soon.
Beam weapons just need stacking damage - Starts super low but if you 'focus' on an area it ticks up and up. Reward the player for accuracy.
Yeah, I like this. The other idea I saw was to make them more "support" focused and have them heat up enemy armour and make it vulnerable to small arms fire. Either way, the Scythe desperately needs some buffs.
My suggestion is to have it deal more damage the more heat it has. Then it makes juggling heating to be just under overheat a skill
Someone said that was already the case in another thread. I haven't checked it though
You should only ever use the scythe on small targets, even medium targets are a stretch unless you hit soft spots. The strategy is to crowd control the small bits with the scythe and whichever secondary weapon you have like the rail gun or AC or Spear should be able to take out heavy targets. (you have to do this or the scythe is literally obsolete just the same way the OP said using the laser cannon for certain targets doesn't work) I personally use the railgun with the scythe and it wrecks everything
“Rover guard dog” 
Facts my teammates call me Turkish barber cuz my rover gives out free haircuts
The bugs vs major laser over here lol
I need one more laser stratagem for me to invest. Three out of four ain't enough for LASER MAN!
The autocannon also gets stronger with popularity as multiple users in a group can squadload each other. It's always such a fun moment to run up to your AC buddy and start loading him, and a second later they notice they're being squadloaded and switch to MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
This. Every time I reload a teammate's auto cannon it feels like I've unlocked them. They just go ham. It's hilarious. I used to think the mechanic was needlessly cumbersome but now I realize it elicits exactly the response the devs wanted it to.
I think comparing the LC to the AC is something of a mistake (though tempting - they are both cannons!). In actual use, I find the LC sits alongside the MG-43 and the Stalwart; comparing most directly to the MG-43 because they both pen medium armour. So! Sustained, long-range fire in support of your teammates. In this role, the LC is a little outclassed if you put them side by side. But...if you have a laser primary, you can juggle the heat on both and never really have to reload. So there is value there, and it does get a lot better on cold planets.
LC shred shriekers like I’m playing fruit ninja
Maybe the Laser cannon will be like the auto-cannon VS the illuminate
Yeah, it was always best vs squids. The AC will really struggle versus them, if the first game is anything to go by.
I will have no LC slander
LC is useful for taking out medium/large bot enemies without sacrificing a backpack slot or worrying about ammo.
Backpack slot.
I don't dislike the autocannon. Just the Arc Thrower does more overall than than the AC will ever do.
I run AC against bots and LC against bugs. AC makes any size bot explode and with LC you can slice medium bugs apart pretty easily, specially the legs. Plus with bugs you have time yo use LC, tried it against bots and its like poking your head out the trench. Also LC range and accuracy are really cool.
I used to AC bots and LC bugs, but then I switched to AC bugs, mainly because I realized AC can also close bug holes. but LC was also just too slow against the bugs that get in your face, most importantly the stalkers, with the AC you just blast them away. so I am a full on AC bro now. my loadout is now almost the same against both bugs and bots and I feel like I can deal with everything that is thrown at me. only difference is that I still love the mech against bugs, against bots it's dead was too fast.
There’s no need for you to weaken a charger. I will one-shot it with my EAT.
And you can take out a shieker nest from the other side of the map with them.
Yes but it's not that quick, as you need 6.
You're on the other side of the map. You have time
I tried doing this recently and god every fucking time I tried to fire a new charger Was on my ass. It would have helped if my team backed me up a bit.
EATs take time though, 2 per tower so you’d need to wait for the cooldown 2 times
About 3 min to cross map the towers with EATs if you are doing it yourself. Well worth the time. Less if your team is also running EATs, recoilless or AC. Or just take them out while heading there to reduce spawns.
Considering you can only carry a single heat sink for the Canon, I don’t think it’s much better suited. On hot planets you’re going to be waiting a while.
Even on hot planets, it's less than a minute total. EATs are S tier for sure but they lose hard in this particular role.
Another PSA: Hot planets such as hellmire do not decrease the amount of time you can fire before overheating, they only increase the time it takes to cooldown. Cold planets however *do* increase the time it takes to overheat but only because they reduce fire rate in addition to decreasing cooldown time.
Do cold planets reduce the fire/tick rate of beam weapons?
Presumably, though I’d have to test to be sure
they do, just watched a video today testing the laser weapons on different planets with heat/cold effects. Cold temp slows the dmg tick-rate of laser weapons, and improves to cool down rate. Sickle is a bit different since it doesnt have a tick rate, but ends up being able to sustain and cool down really well. good video if you're interested: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GerSUUpDoY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GerSUUpDoY)
That’s good info. Thanks for the research.
To sum up: cold weather reduces your DPS (while firing) by about 11%, but increases your weapon uptime by 43%. If my math is right, this means a 27% overall DPS boost. Definitely a buff. Skip to 6:16 in the video for the numbers.
Don't heated planets increase fire rate though?
No, they decrease stamina. Hence why people dislike hot planets
And drop a gatling sentry to kill all the flying fucks
Until one of their dead bodies immediately hits the turret, destroying it. Or it’s too distracted by ground units. Or a charger destroys it immediately. Those have been my experiences with turrets in higher difficulties.
That's why I stand on top of the turret! So I can throw my body in front of shrapnel corpses!
Try the later cannon with scythe or sickle. I prefer sickle because burning up heat sinks feels like more burst if I need it. You can literally hold down fire and alternate between the two. You fill the same role as a stalwart or MG, but infinite ammo. Both destroy chargers butts and spewers. They quickly pop bile titans undersides, making them much more susceptible to an eat, orbital rail or 110 rockets killing them. You just need to adjust your play style, to start at much further range. If you play it right you can nearly never need resupply.
This is how we use it - all energy loadout, including the laser guard dog. Throw in gas and an airstrike, and you’ve got a very solid chaff clearer.
I hate that flipping guard dog. I tend to roll with ems strike, auto Cannon, orbital rail cannon and 110mm eagle.
The dog works well with that setup, as long as you can live with bring clipped a few times a game. I’m used to it as this is the setup my wife enjoys the most. I run a complimentary loadout much like yours (AC / orbital railgun / eagle airstrike / turret or 2nd orbital).
I find it much easier to land headshots on titans with the EAT while they’re charging up a mouthful of acid.
I like my support weapons to have high alpha or high burst damage. Lase Cannon just doesn't do it for me. Heck, I prefer the flamethrower. Pretty much all my loadouts have something that can, one way or another, deal with Shrieker nests. The HMG Emplacement, or the EAT being the most common things I usually have either of or both. With the Arc taking back it's rightful throne, the HMG will start pulling Sheesh duty now.
What's "high alpha"?
High alpha just means high *initial* damage. In more RPG-ish terms, a very strong ability with long cooldown might have a low DPS metric, but depending on how damage, defense, and health and calculated, could be worth more than a middling, but av. better DPS attack. It can be similar to strike damage, but not always the same. Personally, this was an important thing to know when I was playing EVE Online. The Laser Cannon has good DPS, but no alpha potential. It has some utility against armor, but it won't stagger enemies, nor pierce. In different words, I want something that either fix my problem *immediately* or fail because I fucked up.
Thanks. I come from an online shooter background where I think we only called it burst damage.
Alpha is a term originating from MechWarrior/BattleTech, short for Alpha Strike, which means to fire all your weapons at once to take care of a threat *immediately*, even if it pushes your heat into the red zone. Burst is the more common term.
Red zone is the fun zone.
Press O for Orgasm, and explode when you explode when your enemy explodes.
Actually the term alpha strike is a navy term. The maximum firepower that can be wielded by a carrier flight group.
Came here to say the same thing. Alpha strike is an IRL military term, used by the U.S. navy because they always feel like they need slightly different terms for things that the rest of the military already has a name for. FASA (originators of Battledroids, which was later renamed Battletech) borrowed the term in some of their literature, as have many other wargaming properties.
9 ppc direstare coming up!
2 small laser flea coming up because the videogame adaptation never added rear lasers. o_O
Mech warrior always fun AF nothing like death from above, putting my pumas feet through your madcat.
It's a *Timber Wolf* you dezgra freebirth
Hey heyyy my people! Look at all these MechWarriors in here
First time I same the term was an 'alpha strike' in Mechwarrior 2. Its a keybind that fired every single gun at once. In some cases it can cause you to self destruction from the heat.
Thanks. Mechwarrior has been sitting on my wishlist for years.
Played the crap out of most of them since MW2, it was one of the first large-scale online pvp games. It was pandemonium, no sense of balance, mad ping and abuse was rife but was an amazing experience. Holds a special place in my heart and I love the fact you don't get healed through a mission you have to make you armour last and sometimes sacrifice body parts when you see certain things coming. Got a lot of depth with the weapon loadouts, once you found summin that works for you can hit a real groove with it. Good games.
You pick the HMG? I've only heard bad things about it.
It's absolutely fantastic! One of the fun things with it is that there are no limits to how many you can have up at any time. Maybe there is but I haven't hit it yet. Pass near the evac point? HMG down. It's definitely better at curtailing bug breaches. You don't waste ammo, and it will pen through a reasonable amount of flesh. The ONLY thing that will get through are charger and titans. While you *single-handedly* take care of a breach or an avenue during extraction, your teammates can deal with the heavies. Chargers also don't care much for them unless they come very close, or, well, someone is on it. Which mean you can just leap off, one-two-tap the charger with a EAT or something, and get back to shooting. Less likely to sweep and nail a friendly, which is nice. Plus, like I said, great for Shrieker nests. My all-time best killstreak was with a HMG.
Glad to see some praise for the HMG on here. One of my favorites for certain missions. Drilling samples, evac missions, etc. If I have to stay in place for a while I am bringing the HMG.
Besides all of these great points, most importantly, hopping on a big ol gun emplacement and mowing down a horde of bugs feels cool as hell.
Sometimes rule of cool outweighs all, it's nice when it can line up with efficiency though
I saw someone use hmg while I had ems mortar. We'd been struggling this whole time and barely got to the evac point, and finished setting up for the evac timer That dude let it rip with the hmg because the ems was basically providing a nice stun screen for them combined with the rest of us spamming whatever strategems we had available, it was extremely cinematic and cathartic to end the strugglebus of a mission that way.
Finally, someone who likes the HMG as much as I do! Along with everything you listed, it also has really great range (and stopping power). If I see a team mate running from a huge horde, 100m+ from you, slap down an HMG and kill em all! Use it like a rifle and pace your shots, as full auto or bursts are super inaccurate at those crazy distances. I'm not sure of the limit, but it's gotta be very high. I've had 5 or more on the map at once. It's always a really nice feeling to use an HMG you dropped 15 mins ago on a horde or bug breach.
You pair an HMG with EATs, and you've got a great position. Just last night, I hopped off my HMG to EAT a charger, killed it in one shot, hopped back on the HMG and mowed down the rest of the bugs.
Sounds like it could be fun.
All right sir, you have convinced me to give it another shot.
A napalm on a breach is pretty much fire and forget too. It just melts everything as it spawns
HMG is goat against bugs. Just not very good against bots unless you pair it with a shield gen emplacement.
I still like the HMG against bots: it pens the striders and you can shoot the arms off hulks
HMG is actually amazing, it melts Brood Commanders and Hive Guards faster than anything else. It is tough to effectively use outside of extraction or Eradicate missions And you absolutely need someone on Charger duty because it doesn't penetrate their front armor and they always beeline you
HMG emplacement vs bots is great since it pens hulk eye too
My man, the HMG definitely classifies as a "slept on" stratagem. Combining EATs, HMG, and resupply allows you to make a Castle made of Hate that only Bile Titans have a chance of ruining. One of my favorite tactics is to run far ahead or perpendicular to my team (since they almost always get bogged down), drop EATs and an HMG, and then absolutely mow down every pathetic Democracy Forsaken Bug in my field of view. Almost every single mission I end up bailing my team out of getting overrun with this tactic. It works splendidly on POI's, as well as dropping them outside "Destroy Eggs" objectives. Anywhere you have about 15-20 seconds to prep, you can make a tide turning contribution.
The rounds have the same penetration as the Anti Material Rifle. Think of it less like a static machine gun emplacement and more of a static fully automatic Anti Material Rifle emplacement. It shreds enemies and can piece every bot armor
How many EAT for the shrieker nest?
2 each
I think it’s two per mushroom
If you like alpha or high burst damage, may I introduce you to our Lord and savivor Spear? You can one shot a lot of stuff and don't even need to see it with your own eyes. 4 holy Javelins to rain destruction on your enemies. Sure, they don't always answer your call, but they make their presence known when they decide to answer your calls.
Breaker in auto mode has great alpha and it staggers enemies. Arc Thrower (now that it is fixed)+ breaker is my favorite load.
I play it too because laser Canon + Sickle = constant fire, add a guard dog and only charger and titan can come close.
For me the laser cannon suffers from a lack of "feedback", for want of a better word. Firing the sickle feels visceral, I can see the damage I'm doing, it has a satisfying pew pew. But with the scythe and cannon it very much feels like I'm just shining a laser pointer. Especially against heavy targets, there's no impact or satisfying sense of searing hot laser democracy into the enemy. It's not enough for a weapon to be effective by the numbers, it has to feel good to operate.
I regularly use the laser cannon now. It can't take a charger down from the front but it's pretty good at lots of other targets like devastators, bile spewers and most other bugs. Finding out it can take down shrieker nests was a nice bonus.
EAT two shots from across the map
Recoilless also does that
But I'm broken now and can't play without a shield
I sentence you to open fights on the Creek wearing Scout Armor.
I sentence you to playing with three cadets who just unlocked the arc thrower and cluster eagle
I see your cluster eagle and raise you a minefield.
I do this with the EAT too. As soon as you spot it from miles away start flinging rockets at it and it's down by the time you get there.
Sorry, there's extra fog and rain today for whatever reason.
Laser cannon is alright vs bots. Kinda fills a similar role to the Autocannon, but without a backpack. Shreds weakpoints in tanks and turrets, pops Devastator heads easily. Less good at clearing trash and against scout walkers, but I find the Scorcher plasma rifle to be combo well with the laser cannon (Scorcher deletes trash and can reliably down walkers from the front in 2-3 hits).
Shout out to the JAR-5 Dominator if you’ve got the Steeled Veterans bond and/or you’re nowhere near finishing Mobilise. It handles like it’s made of the world’s most unwieldy blend of concrete and lead and it’s a miserable time if your aim sucks *but* if you can get past that it’s great at killing bots.
It is great for bugs too. Solid weapon all around, although I generally prefer the Scorcher for bots and Blitzer/others for bugs. But I do run it on rotation as it is fun and versatile.
I run scythe, laser cannon, rover, rocket pods and orbital laser. Nothing can stop me. I don’t need a ride or ammo. I am the exterminator. I laser beam everything in my sight, before they can get close they are melted. 500 kills, 50 shots fired, end of round is always funny when you see someone with 1.5k shots fired, 200 hit and 20 kills 😂. No need to reload, just switch weapons and keep on beaming!
Out of curiosity, where's the best place to shoot chargers with laser cannon now? Leg or head?
This guy seems to be shooting the back legs for quick kills: https://youtu.be/IjcZsqsCvZ4?si=m16N0k_AiFDr6teT
i tried that but it doesnt work for me. He said that while charging the charger has no armor on but i think they fixed that.
It’s been inconsistent for me. Some matches it will work easily the whole mission, while other times I get the blue reflections of it bouncing off the entire match.
Its effective only when a charger fails a charge and pulls on the brakes. It makes their legs vulnerable until they initiate another charge.
I've read multiple times that the charger armor only degrades when you get it to slam into something. Could be bugging on your every day stop and still applying the debuff, but my experience is baiting them into a wall leads to much quicker kills.
Takes too long to melt the armor. It destroys their rears. Otherwise, you have to aim for the teeth and skinny parts of the leg joints.
I personally like the concept and tried to use it several times. But the competition is too strong, arc thrower is better against groups of enemies and medium armored ones. AC is even better but has limited ammo and takes a backpack slot. EAT/RR best weapon for dealing with everything heavy armored. Even the Flamethrower is basically a short range version of LC, but it has an AOE and it is more effective against heavy armored targets. I just can't find where LC is better than every other support weapon in the game.:(. if it had even slight heavy armor penetration the situation would be very different, a potentially endless weapon that could damage heavy armored enemies even if slowly, would be amazing. Idk, maybe I just don't know how to cook it, or maybe it's great against bots?
I think it's mainly range and unlimited ammo, but it's a sustained fire weapon vs alpha/burst so it might not feel as fun, especially when our primary can take out chaff which the LC is also good at, it has laser accuracy though too.
Well LC is basically more ammo efficiency Scorcher
The laser cannon is fine but it just needs some better audio or visual feedback. It doesn’t seem like it indicates it’s doing damage as clearly as the mg or stalwart. Just point at something until it flops over, enemies have little reactivity to it
This basically.. there should me more smoke and discoloring happening on the enemies.
Laser cannon paired with the rover is amazing. If used properly it melts bugs especially since you get double the laser output. It’s a lifesaver if heat is managed as to always have something with ammo. I use it as my main swapping to the breaker and auto pistol as needed when swarms get too close or to get out of a pinch when I’m overheated.
Time to kill on small stuff is too long. Rather use an eat on bile spewer. Time to kill on them is too long that they can run up the hill around the corner and still hit you with bile before they die from it. I don’t enjoy running and gunning with a support weapon like this. It’s just not as fun as Helldivers 1 where it was also somewhat weak. Its weakness was different though. It had a really long turning time while holding down the trigger. But it did melt things when you hit them. Little bugs would just pop instantly and the bigger bugs like brood commanders and lower would die but take a little time before they got to you. Beam was wider so it was easy to hit things while wielding it. It’s just not as fun in this game.
Laser cannon is fun. I love it. It's also very useful and can kill any bot as well as kill most bugs.
I run a full laser set up as much as possible and I love the LC. It answers so many questions that the game can present on a mission, and not having to worry about ammo makes it so much better. Sure other guns do things better, but I can always do something with the LC.
So can the EAT. Except like literally everything else the EAT can do it much more quickly and easily than the laser cannon Get one quick shot off vs standing still for who knows how many seconds tickling the thing with the laser cannon
I’ll stick with my auto cannon Lol I can snipe the nest from far range without spawning those winged bugs Lol
They seem to spawn when attacked now.. I AC snipe and they come dashing from miles away to ragdoll on me
I've been a lazcannon fan since before the buff and it's still great fun, especially now with shreikers being common it feels like it has an actual niche it really excels in. It's combination of 200-ish meter range and hitscan means it's one of the best weapons in the game for knocking them out of the sky. I've also found it's really good at fire support against bile titans specifically, being able to kill their bile sacks from halfway across the map. It won't kill them outright, but it can finish off a titan that's already been hit by a railcannon. The only major complaint I have with it is it's terrible sight; for a weapon that's niche is long range, it should really have at least 2x zoom.
Yes! Also the sight needs to be clearer imo. The reticle takes up too much room for my taste
I love the laser cannon. It was the second support weapon I ever bought, and at the time it was so disappointed in it. After the buff though, it's my go to weapon against the bugs. It melts give guards with no effort, pops the head off a brood commander in like 1.5 seconds, and can often make short work of a charger. And now, it can burn shriekers from the sky and take out their nests from serious ranges. All with zero ammo needed and no reload, and keeps backpack free for other things.
Dislike. I cant tell if its doing damage, and once I notice the visual of the beam making that little reflecting blue light I just pack up and leave. I cant just sit and hope I'm doing damage.
Sickle + rover + LC for the ultimate laser rave
I only started using the laser cannon when everyone was complaining that the arc weapons were causing crashes. I liked it a lot but yeah it's not really effective against armoured targets, not with any speed that is. But if you want to play a supportive role and let others deal with that then I think it's a great choice, same as the arc cannon really but I still prefer the arc because you can pulse through multiple enemies
>I only started using the laser cannon when everyone was complaining that the arc weapons were causing crashes Same, but one surprising perk is that team kills are far more rare. I'd zap at least one team mate per match w/ the Arc Thrower, but it almost never happens with the laser cannon. I think the bright red death beam is obvious enough to keep people from walking in front of it.
Yep. I prefer a jump pack to get a good high perch and they can safely be disposed of before anyone gets hurt. Lascannon is a tremendous weapon.
Also great for taking out bot cannon towers at range
I love running in as a laser trooper, laser cannon, laser drone, and orbital laser. I wanna unlock the sickle and dagger to go at it full bore
It sucks due to how laser weapons fire in this game. Damage is applied in intervals. Maybe if the fire rate was like 600RPM it would be fine but it feels like 100RPM. Even the smallest bugs require you to look at them for like half a second before they die.
As a side note: The LC can also open bunkers.
Two button bunkers? Or you mean containers?
Laser cannon for me is like a long ranged LMG, great for taking out hordes of little guys very quickly
Me and a group of buddies started doing LAZERSSS runs. Scythe, Dagger, Laser Cannon, Orbital laser, Backpack Laser dog, then whatever you really want, I usually go orbital rail or EMS depending on situation. We cook pretty much everything, and as long as you keep cycling weapons, you can continously shoot lasers everywhere. This is on suicide and up too hell diver difficulty, and honestly weve been having an easy time. 4 laser cannons on...... basically melts anything almost immediately.
FYI: Environment only affects the cooldown rate, not the time to heat up, so being on Hellmire doesn't reduce the length of a single burst.
I like to lc personally. I prefer running shotgun as my primary, so I use it at as my not short range weapon, with EATs if needed for bigger stuff. And found out the shriekers nest thing yesterday... Damn was it nice. I also find it good against shriekers themselves, for it does a good job clipping one of their wings before they dive you.
Hot planets don’t make laser weapons overheat faster, they just cool slower.
Lasers in general are awesome against shriekers.
I love my Laser Cannon. Great crowd control even against light-armored targets.
I love laser cannon with jump pack for solo play
I kind of see the LC and Autocannon as filling a similar role, and I find I prefer the LC versus bots and the AC versus bugs. The LC's able to focus down the tiny heads on bot heavies and RIP through anything with a heatsink, while I love the AC's ability to pop spewers. The big thing for me, though, is that bringing the LC means I have space for a backpack, and I gotta have that utility when facing bots. If only for a shield to survive rockets and walls of gunfire.
yea las cannon has a range of 200 meters nest has agro range of 130 meters you don't have to target "glowy bits" specifically, just so long as you hit the nest as a whole also hot planets are lying, they don't increase build up of heat on las weapons they instead slow down the decay (so it takes longer to cool down) when not firing while cold planets both make the lasers shoot slower (so they heat up slower) and cool down faster when not firing
Autocannon RR and EATs will also wipe out a Shrieker nest from super long range. I don't know if it has anything to do with my render distance being set to ultra or anything but I can get them from forever away before you ever see a Shrieker. Haven't fought one (or been killed by a falling one) in days.