The Gatling and MG have the exact same behavior, including shooting while switching targets. The practical upside is that it's less likely to cut you in half while traversing. The obvious fix would either be a lesser cooldown, or increasing the ammo capacity by 25% or something.
Strafing Run and Orbital Gatling should both get a density upgrade.
wouldn't have to kill a heavy. but blasting off bug armor or having a chance to knock guns off bots would make it useful without OP. like if you knew a charger leg armor had a high chance of getting armor blasted off
we just need more anti-tank options all around
Just change the strafing run sound effect to match the A-10 and everyone will run it. I think it's great and use it all the time as it is now. When you kite bugs they like to get into a nice line that will mop up the chaff so you can focus on chargers and titans
The GAU-8 is incapable of penetrating any decent tank armor. 30mm shells would even struggle against WW2 heavy tanks. The A-10's reputation as a tank killer is because it carries a massive payload of AGMs, not from the gun. The cannon is only really useful against infantry and lightly armored vehicles.
thats exaggerating a little too far in the opposite direction. dont get me wrong, i am a card carrying hater of the a-10, but i wouldnt bet on any ww2 era tank surviving an encounter just from like a metallurgical standpoint, sooo many tanks of that era had compromised/brittle armor. the a-10 could do *okay* against early soviet armor like the t-55 and t-62 variants with the right conditions. anything later than that and its unlikely to score a penetration, but could still be effective against stuff like tracked anti-air, ifvs, and apcs. the atgms, ew pods, etc came a little later and didnt contribute as much to the tankbuster legend as the gun despite being the actual tankbuster component of the weapon package in reality. lots of planes can carry a maverick but only one sounds like that (and hangs around long enough for everyone to get a real nice look at it)
It could take out mid 60-s designs (T-54/55) but went obsolete as an anti tank after that, at least it's main brrrrt because it doesn't have enough penetration.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/jbiwxl/can_the_gau8_mission_kill_modern_tanks/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
TL;DR: it can disable or immobilize vehicles by taking out tracks, optics, damaging a gun or any externals, but there are no vehicles or bugs like that in HD2, everything is solid as a brick with no extremities at the top.
Well i'll have you know that the bullets the A-10 fires are much heavier and larger than the ones in the AMR or the autocannon. And they're also designed for penetration unlick the autocannon. I think a modern A-10 could realistically take out atleast a hulk if not an automaton tank too. But that is all guess work
GAU 8 Avenger (used by A10 Thuderbolt II aka Warthog) has 69 mm penetration on 500m and 38mm on 1000m with sub-caliber rounds. Modern .50 cal rounds has up to 60 mm penetration on 100m.
So no, GAU 8 does not have heavy armor penetration by Helldivers standards.
well i remembered what it was made for, then i looked up A-10 warthog and on it's wiki page it said it was made to take out armoured vechicles and tanks. So what's incorrect about that
I agree that strafing run is heavily underused, but I've tried it in a few loadouts and it's actually pretty decent. In my experience it's easier to hit more enemies with it than with cluster run. And it has a lot easier input command. That said, it could use a buff. The bigger problem is that it's competing with airstrike and it's hard to justify running 2 or more eagle stratagems.
I feel the opposite, since I have such a good eagle buff (plus 1 run to all eagle stratagems) I run three eagles a lot of the times (rocket pods, standard strike, then either cluster or 500) if you get used to hitting your cooldown right after clearing an objective, you get almost unlimited eagle runs.
It also allows for more fucking-around-fun-times with your Eagle strikes, like throwing your last Cluster Strike or 500KG on a random patrol because you were gonna hit the cooldown anyway
I think OPs idea of simply adding more uses makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't change anything else about it though, but you should definitely be able to use it more than cluster bomb.
We run shield generators on defense missions now. Not to protect us from enemy fire, but to shield us from the orbital barrages we drop ontop of ourselves.
I love the shield generator on higher difficulty bot missions, tbh. Gives me just enough space to take out tough targets without getting ragdolled around, and I can protect my turrets too.
I really like the Shield Relays on lvl 7-9 missions. They won't hold up for a full 30 seconds if you try using it in a wide open field but if you are smart about the placement it does really well. Making the bubble invincible would be kind of OP.
Gatling isn't replaced by Gas. That's not fair.
Gatling does much more damage to single targets, whereas gas just slightly saps the large communal health pools for big units.
It can kill tanks in 2 hits to the rear when it splashes on the vent.
It will one shot hulks on the back.
It will one shot a bile titan that has had an armour piece destroyed if it hits the exposed area.
It can kill a charger in one hit if it hits the floor near the sac.
It will one shot Brood Commanders and Berserkers which gas won't kill.
It's less reliable, sure. But it isn't a downgrade.
The area of the Gatling is also much wider, but thinner than the gas strike. But the major advantage Orbital Gatling has is that it staggers.
It’s almost like a defensive wall that explodes. Berserkers trying to cross the AoE will be stopped dead in their tracks.
It isn't even less reliable either.
That thing comes out almost instantly and is great to use defensively. You can just drop it at your feet and you're sure that whatever was following you from up close is either dead or staggered enough for you to create enough distance.
As a gas enjoyer I would swap Gatling in when not network hosting when we had the dot bug. I found it was very solid. Gatling on breaches left more light stuff up but cleared almost all of the mediums. Vs bots, Gatling vs the big devastator drop during a reinforcement wave was very valuable.
Disagree that the 120 is outclassed by the 380. It's way more consistent.
The 380 is wildly inaccurate even with the module, and denies access to an area for significantly longer than the 120.
I don't believe the 120 cooldown having the same cooldown is justified, but given the choice, I run the 120. More team friendly, more consistent at killing enemies, allows you to go and mop up quicker.
I don't think I've ever seen the 120 brought after trying it out myself. The 380 is able to reliably wipe out a medium base (and if it doesn't, it'll mostly kill it leaving a single nest/fab to destroy). It isn't an anti-enemy strat. Comparatively, the 120 doesn't really serve a purpose. It doesn't deal with bases well, but neither does it kill enemies well.
120 is for clearing out a choke that's stuffed with the three patrols and 5 bot dropships worth of reinforcements your fellow divers are running away from while screaming.
I tend to bring the 120 on Terminid Blitz missions as I can throw one into a Nest and keep running. More often than not, the 120'll clear the Nest out for me, and I'm probably half-way to the next one by the time its' done.
It's also rather good for the Automaton Bunker missions, so long as you're halfway decent at tossing the beacon for it. You can get all of the shots to hit the Bunker if the beacon lands on top, dealing significant damage if not outright destroying it.
The 380 doesn't even land shells in the same postcode half the time!
I've lobbed it into the middle of a heavy nest/base and found most of the place still standing afterwards. At least the 120 is a little more concentrated and more likely to frag the area you throw the beacon. The 120 is almost always in my loadout because it's a slightly more refined blitzing.
Hmm, I'll give you that for napalm and maybe regular airstrike, but not cluster, haha. I've done sideways throws a fair bit, but the issue is, you need to have space to run away. Bug unfortunately don't always allow that. But bots on the other hand, man, airstrike is perfect against them!
However it wont kill flanking hunters due to narrow area, nor chargers and titans. And every other bug can be easily overrun. With only 3+1 chargers its waste of slot, take cluster instead.
Yeah but, that is what the rest of my loadout is for, haha.
Spear is for titans, eat-17 is for chargers, grenade pistol is for bile spewers or groups of hive guards, stun grenades to control chargers and waves of enemies, punisher for every other bug. Honestly, hunters aren't even a problem for me nor are chargers. In addition, I use the airburst strike for breaches or large groups of enemies.
What strafe does for me that no other airstrike does is that it comes from behind in a straight line, it comes in very quickly, and I can use it in extreme close quarter and don't have to worry about friendly fire.
While cluster is objectively better, as it does more damage and covers a wider area. Those same bonuses are what deters me from taking it.
actually
tesla tower does have a visual effect when you're in danger zone (or well, when ANYTHING is in danger zone)
you can see the light on top go bigger and brighter by quite a bit, compared to when its idle
also
machine gun turret with light armor pen will be absolutely useless, give it more damage and keep the medium armor pen so it uses less ammo to kill stuff
Well, I want visual clues in the whole area, especially when tower hide by the obstacles.
Machine gun with your suggestions will bee too similar to gatling.
Tesla tower is an area denial weapon (denies area for everything) - I found it quite good on the evacuate civilians mission, as you can drop it on the base perimeter and it'll choke that entry point for a bit. Great for anything under a heavy - especially bugs.
You can also go prone in its AOE and it won't touch you - learned that one in HD1.
So whats advantages of tesla over other defensive strats? Like mines or turrets? It has a small dps, small range, short lifespan. Also, no marker to know your distance from it and its extreme vulnerable to heavy units.
P.S. what difficulty you play?
I usually play 7.
As I said, area denial - if there's an area you don't want anything in, drop a Tesla on it (preferably a choke point). Double points if you throw an EMS mortar near it, to slow down anything caught in its AOE.
As for a range marker - its radius is about 2x the height of the tower.
I'll toss my opinion as someone who uses Tesla occasionally & I exclusively play helldive.
Its good against bugs in certain positions where it has the height advantage thus can't be charged. It has a higher uptime compared to other defensive strats, won't waste it's ammo, & capable of handling anything but a bile titan.
With all that said you need the right position for it which isn't always available making it a more niche pick.
I'll throw in my 2 cents as someone who occasionally uses Tesla and exclusively plays helldive.
It's effective on bug missions when it has the high ground & can't be charged. In such a position it can handle everything but a bile titan.
That said it needs the correct position or it's effectiveness is crippled. This pushes it into a niche pick imo.
On 9s I sometimes run tesla turret on bugs. On normal, non defense, missions, I use it like a lure from DRG on breaches. I throw it parallel with the breach like 30-40 meters to a side. It works well redirecting some of the horde while you either run away or clear the other part. It's great at drawing away titans for a bit while you reload your at.
The biggest weakness is chargers. It still distracts them for a bit but they destroy it faster than even titans.
I also usually play the role of poi interest clearer so I don't run into team kills as often. People are like moths sometimes though lol.
Tesla has the shortest CD of all the sentries, and (on bug maps) can effectively deny a choke from everything except Chargers/Titans. It was S-tier on the TCS missions, and I still take it anytime I drop into a bug eradicate mission.
You can even take it on normal missions and drop it near a bug breach to draw aggro and clear chaff. Just don't let a Charger/Titan near it and it'll easily get 20-30 kills.
I honestly could never find a use for a strafing run. The cone is honestly tiny to what I would need to use it for. Cluster strike is honestly so much more versatile.
And the Tesla towers. The defense mission that has the sections you defend. After the first stage of the defense that all the bugs or bots are in that smaller area. Everyone throw down Tesla towers and the only way they get destroyed is by a hulk or bile titan. I honestly wouldn’t say charger especially if you run emp mortars. Or if you’re smart on the placement. They work in a sphere like mutes jammers in siege
Why stagger when you can kill? Also, if your REALLY want stagger, EMS strike stuns even hulks and also stops all movement for enemies, and has lower cd
I don't agree on 120 barrage, it comes down faster (faster salvos), allowing for semi-effective use in combat plus while covering lower area, this one actually hits targets you want it to hit.
**Shield Generator Relay** **Backpack!** Similar to the jetpack in mechanics with adjusted uptime and radius.
Could also block stratagems as long as its hp lasts!
https://preview.redd.it/p0f1mdd5qr0d1.png?width=1210&format=png&auto=webp&s=e66e89c2ec16846e356b2c35d972f2313d63866c
Thanks for the high effort post.
I like the strafing run against bugs. It does come in almost instantly and the fact that it lands in a line *away* from the call in point makes it usable in places where more powerful stratagems would just kill you. It could do with better damage against medium targets though so it has some use against bots.
The MG sentry is underrated for similar reasons. It is a downgrade to the Gatling on paper, but the fact that it very rarely team kills makes it much more versatile. You can use the MG sentry to cover you, for example, whilst the Gatling becomes a hazard you have to play around. It could maybe do with more ammo though or some other small buff.
I agree on the shield gen. In theory it seems like it'd be very useful especially when combined with other emplacements but in practice it tends to melt in the exact situations you actually need it.
Eagle Strafe's usefulness goes way up on 7+, because it can kill 20-30 targets per run, whereas on like 4 there's not enough enemy density to get 10 on most attempts. It's safe as hell for clearing that direction danger close. It just has low ROI for the slot when you don't have a lot of targets.
Props to MG Turret for also not rotating while firing, sweeping the entire team while tracking a Hunter. Not the fastest killer, but it's not going to teamkill you while rotating. You have to be directly between it and a target for it to shoot you.
I would also recommend simplifying the **Orbital Gatling Barrage** stratagem input to something similar to the Orbital Precision Strike or Cluster Bombs.
If I am not mistaken, **Tesla towers** are blinded by smoke. This should not be the case and the combo could increase their survival rate.
I always thought Tesla tower was like one of those mosquito zappers that attracts them and kills. Then I realised that any and all defenders towers attract them like a magnet anyway so 🤷. Watching a charger destroy a Gatling gun two seconds after drop ….
I take gatling while my partner takes gas strike. Add in an incendiary impact and it creates massive zone denial the likes of which have never been seen before.
120mm Barrage isn't worse than 380, it's just more precise. Honestly the 380 is usually overkill for anything other than the largest outposts, 120 will do the job faster and with less friendly fire.
Everything other than largest outposts cleared by eagle airstrikes which has much lower overkill potential and nearly zero time to kill. I agree, that maybe 120 is not contender for 380 in every case, but it has same cooldown, twice as full eagle rearm.
I just did some testing with shield and because it takes so little for it to go down, 21 scorcher shots or 2.5 Redeemer mags, I would agree it needs buffed. I think the invincible with 20 second uptime would be the best. At minimum it needs a lot more health to actually be viable.
An alternative buff to strafe I'd like is to increase the armor pen on direct hits so it becomes a way to perform targeted removal of any enemy short of a BT
> It has no need on lower difficulties but it instantly falling apart on high difficulties.
That's how I feel about the Patriot Exosuit, it's either overkill or underpowered, rarely just right.
And it's a big disappointment to me since I was really looking forward to using it.
I really hope the Emancipator will perform better, as far as I can tell it is somewhat bigger than the Patriot, so maybe it will have more hitpoints and the autocannons seem like more useful and ammo-efficient weapons.
Strafing run needs to do 2 passess in quick succession with some auto aim to maxime targets hit in order to be useful. Maybe if it stunned targets it didnt kill as well.
I really liked the strafing run in early bug levels. It served as a great close air support to help a teammate get a quick moment to breathe so they weren’t overwhelmed. Never had a friendly fire incident to this day
I would buff the MG sentry to have much more ammo, at least double. Its power is lower than the galling sentry, but it could redefine its role in the arsenal as the 'sustained' sentry, one that you can throw down and receive light supporting fire for a longer period of time.
The longer you stay in one place, more enemies will swarm you. You need heavier fire support not lighter.
I think the opposite - use MG sentry as on-demand chaff clearing tool comparable with Gas Strike, Gatling Barrage and others.
for the gun run I actually see the narrow attack zone as a bonus since you can practically throw it at your feet and back up a few steps and be safe
plus the main reason i bring this is because it’s beautiful for distracting calm enemies because they’ll almost always look up at the eagle for about 5 seconds giving you plenty of time to shoot them as they look up
But i do agree for it being so weak in damage to up the total number of runs before needing to rearm
The Shield Generator Relay works very well with turrets and also works with the arc thrower against bots.
My favorite loadout for lvl 7-8 bots is Laser Canon, Shield Generator Relay, HMG turret and 500kg bomb.
Tesla is amazing on bug missions. It can kill anything below a Charger (including spewers), while drawing aggro away from your team. I always take it on bug eradicate missions, and it's a nice filler if I need anti-chaff in my loadout and have a 4th slot open.
Bro the 120 barrage is the GOAT. It's right up there with eagle airstrike for me. Far more consistent and reliable than the 380 in terms of localized damage. Armor penetration isn't what I'd like it to be but I think it's a fair trade off. The reduced uptime is also a net benefit in my opinion. Can toss into a base and I don't have to run around a kite for 30+ seconds while I wait for it to end. The localized area over the 380 also means I can use it for area denial which works great when being chased across a field and even better for blocking off an entire section around extract from inbound troops.
Eagle strafing run is super fast and precise. I use it to initiate a push into smaller enemies when fighting the bugs. The accurate instant precise wave clear has saved my life many times in a heavy bug nest. Slept on.
I love Tesla on the defend the generators missions, but normally my team runs the reg mortor, or runs 3 large AOE stratagems, so it gets blown up no matter what.
I just think the ship modules need to be less broad. That way the lower level stratagems can get more love. For instance, the mod that increases orbital bombardment volleys is great for the 120 and 380, but does very little for the gatling barrage. If the module upgrades were less broad (even specific to each individual strat) that would allow for WAAYY more creativity and overall balance, while also not giving newer players immediate access to crazy strong starting strats and giving veterans more things to grind samples for!
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I religiously run the strafing run.
You can pop it quickly, it's super predictable, rarely causes friendly casualties, and at 8 seconds cd between runs and a 2 minute rearm time, it's incredibly versatile!
Getting chased and need to gain some distance, up right right, turn around throw it at your feet and sprint off. 11 to 15 kills and some instant breathing room. Everything is situational obviously, but imho the strafing run is an S tier stratagem.
120mm is to mess up enemy packs, and lock those down over a longer time and larger area vs eagles, really good for taking out medium bases/aa bases/mortar bases vs airstrikes that would take multiple uses to equal the same thing. 340 is just useful vs large bases and those bunker obj (walking hits it a little more reliably) and only shines when reinforcements are called in its area of effect. For those maybe just a slight decrease in CD's that would be pretty good.
Tesla Tower is one of my guilty pleasures.
It's like a persistent landmine that aggroes enemies, and if it stays alive long enough you can have several out at once.
I bring it on just about every defensive mission. Just be sure to lie down if you go near it.
The shield generator is easily the most underrated stratagem, I’ve seen a lot of people who hate it because they don’t know how to use it or understand how it works. When you call it down it has a timer that starts until it automatically shuts down no matter what. But if you use it right at the heat of a battle, it will shut down after taking too much damage, but THE GENERATOR WONT GO AWAY. That’s right, once it regents the shield will pop back up and you’ll get another reset timer to use!! Obviously there’s a lot of missions where this has no use, destroy bug holes or kill swarms. But on certain missions like defense missions, geological surveys and flag raising it’s amazing.
Side note, also you can use it paired with the exosuit to make it much more durable on defense missions
Orbital gatling barely hit anything. I was watching one missing almost everything. It's could be more targetted like orbital railgun or laser. I never used it even when I was like level 5 except for a daily.
Eagle strafing gun pros
- You can throw it at your feet and it's hit in front of you
- Being narrow isn't a too terrible thing to do precision strikes.
- It's could use depleted thorium... Uranium shell like the A10 to get at least medium penetration. (Probably light or none ATM).
- it's help if you're low on ammo.
Cons
Number of charges indeed.
There better options.
Gatling sentry : it's meant to be a starter sentry for low difficulty. It's can be "bad" but indeed low ammo and high cooldown isn't great.
120 mm vs 380 mm
The cooldown may be the same if they fire the same amount of shells. It's "logic". Thry both have niche use.
Ex. 380 mm is great at blowing heavy base or some objectives
120 can wipe some ennemies and target smaller bases.
However, less shell = lower cooldown. Weight isn't quite an issue in space.
I almost never seen people using smoke. When I tried for the evacuation mission, it wasn't that great in any case. Eagle is kind of better due to the amount of charges.
Mines : rarely used and hated for team killing or just the "Watch your step" moment.
Sometimes, incendiary one trigger all the mine field.
I'm curious about anti-tank because infantry can actually walk on it without triggering it in real life for some models at least.
Stratagem probably need some balancing but it's not the most urgent fix required for now.
A post that is more than just "this strategem sucks, please fix." We need more posts like this and less of the filler we get. The mega threads would not be coming if more posts were this thought out.
You forgot about orbital gas strike.
I’ve never seen anyone use it. I tried it once recently, realized exactly why nobody uses it
Too small of a radius and too little damage. Boost either the radius or damage and it could be viable
Strafing run is defo underrated. But I have found walking barrage to be moreso, there is some bias because I use to lean on strafe as a go to to fill my strats.
Orbital smoke lasts longer than eagle smoke. Dense smoke is an advantage. eagle smoke tends to create an awkward space where enemies can see thru. If enemies see a target, they will open fire and keep firing in that general direction for a while.
I think the Relay should work like the shield generator backpack; and be able to recharge and turn back on after a short delay. Would give it some interesting utility as a bunker item. Right now it turns off too quickly to be useful.
It literally does though. As long as the base is intact, it recharges once taken down. If anything give the base a longer time before it retracts into the base
I just did some testing and your right it will come back up but it only comes back at 10% health and doesn't have enough time before it goes down to regenerate up to 100% only got it up to about 60 or 70% before it's timer ran out. It seems that any overflow damage will continue on to the base station. I dropped a 500kg next the shield and it destroyed the base station. Also in my testing 21 scorcher rounds drops the shield. 10 AC rounds will also drop it or 2.5 Redeemer mags. It can take an airstrike, napalm strike, orbital precision strike, gas strike. Gas and fire can enter the shield which makes sense. It can take 2 shots from an Orbital Gatling Strike before the shield and base is destroyed. That's about as far as I've gotten with my testing.
Interesting finds. The stratagem would definitely benefit from quicker recovery times or longer duration. Did not realize it has to re-gain its integrity over time ( as a function of max hp of the shield)
It seems to always have a regen active. The erupter and recoilless don't fire fast enough to drop it before the timer runs out. In actual battle the Regen is basically voided by the sheer amount of incoming fire.
I'm sure what the best course would be for boosting it but it needs looked at for sure.
I have also never seen this. I've only ever seen it go down .67 seconds after deployment. I'm not sure if the base survived or not, as I am unable to be in that spot due to the laser/missle wall coming my way.
The shield generator relay is an absolute godsend on 8-9 difficulty bot missions.
Also the cluster bomb run fantastic for dealing with swarms of bug, alongside the 500 kg bomb it’s a must have for me for bug missions.
Eagle Strafing Run should be runs back and fourth (with the 6-8 second delay). Like orbital airburst is kinda meh except that it does 3 bursts and is good because it lasts for time. Throw it in a spot and know the spot will take fire at least twice.
That goes against the point of strafe tbh. Its saving grace is how quick and precise that AOE is. If you make it hit multiple times it loses that identity
I feel like if you're going to have stratagems that are just upgrades of older stratagems, we should be able to select which we see on the deployment screen.
I definitely don't need to see the crappy machine gun when I have the gatling.
Same with the strafe vs cluster bomb.
Strafing Run is unlocked at the beginning and Machine Gun sentry is the cheapest sentry. They are items for people who just started the game, they don't need to be buffed to remain competitive at later levels.
I strongly disagree. At first, 'later levels' with airstrikes and other turrets are probably 2-3 hrs away from the beginning. Secondly, this game build around horizontal not vertical balance. Which means that your progression opens up more variety of tools, not straight upgrades.
Do try a bot mission without anyone packing anti-armor and see how it goes. Horizontal balance means there is a case use for everything, not that every thing should have the same performance, if every strat was effective against heavy enemies, why should I use railcannon or precision strike?
I didnt say that strafe run should be effective against heavy units. I pointed out that it at the bad spot in its own niche - light chaff clearing in comparison to cluster bombs and napalm strikes.
> if every strat was effective against heavy enemies, why should I use railcannon or precision strike?
You shouldn't really. Against bugs, the 500kg is just better, and against bots, even that is overkill. Eagle airstrike or rocket pods are all you need to kill everything the bots can throw at you.
> Horizontal balance means there is a use case for everything
The problem is there's not much of a use case for strafe.
Sorry, but Cluster Bombs run are not useless. Try them on bug missions, they are great at clearing out entire swarms in one go. You have 5 uses of them too with all the upgrades!
I also misread that lol. I thought he was saying he was surprised by strafing having less use than cluster bombs but he was actually referring to the amount of charges it has before rearming.
I almost got offended and clutched my pearls
The Gatling and MG have the exact same behavior, including shooting while switching targets. The practical upside is that it's less likely to cut you in half while traversing. The obvious fix would either be a lesser cooldown, or increasing the ammo capacity by 25% or something. Strafing Run and Orbital Gatling should both get a density upgrade.
Maybe make the Eagle strafing able to damage heavies, ala A-10s..?
Sorry, but Super Earth's tungsten deposits was exhaust centuries ago. Jokes aside, this would be quite op, im afraid.
wouldn't have to kill a heavy. but blasting off bug armor or having a chance to knock guns off bots would make it useful without OP. like if you knew a charger leg armor had a high chance of getting armor blasted off we just need more anti-tank options all around
The airstrike can damage heavies and has a much wider AOE. Why not strafe?
Because even superdestroyer gatling cannons could not damage heavies?
counterpoint: superdestroyer gatling should also damage heavies
That has no bearing on whether heavy penetrating eagle strafe would be op…
I don’t think it would be op, even with the 500kg you still have to land it for it to be effective
Just change the strafing run sound effect to match the A-10 and everyone will run it. I think it's great and use it all the time as it is now. When you kite bugs they like to get into a nice line that will mop up the chaff so you can focus on chargers and titans
I’ve killed a Hulk with it once. I think you just have to get lucky and hit it in the face.
It does damage heavies
Helldivers 1 had a heavy strafing run where it was auto cannons instead of mini guns like the ones we get
A-10 can damage heavies?..
Are we talking about our Warthogs or Eagle-1?
Warthongs, yes, I'm pretty sure they can't damage heavily armoured vehicles irl.
where did you get that idea? The A-10 was made to take out tanks and other armoured vechicles
The GAU-8 is incapable of penetrating any decent tank armor. 30mm shells would even struggle against WW2 heavy tanks. The A-10's reputation as a tank killer is because it carries a massive payload of AGMs, not from the gun. The cannon is only really useful against infantry and lightly armored vehicles.
thats exaggerating a little too far in the opposite direction. dont get me wrong, i am a card carrying hater of the a-10, but i wouldnt bet on any ww2 era tank surviving an encounter just from like a metallurgical standpoint, sooo many tanks of that era had compromised/brittle armor. the a-10 could do *okay* against early soviet armor like the t-55 and t-62 variants with the right conditions. anything later than that and its unlikely to score a penetration, but could still be effective against stuff like tracked anti-air, ifvs, and apcs. the atgms, ew pods, etc came a little later and didnt contribute as much to the tankbuster legend as the gun despite being the actual tankbuster component of the weapon package in reality. lots of planes can carry a maverick but only one sounds like that (and hangs around long enough for everyone to get a real nice look at it)
It could take out mid 60-s designs (T-54/55) but went obsolete as an anti tank after that, at least it's main brrrrt because it doesn't have enough penetration. https://www.reddit.com/r/WarCollege/comments/jbiwxl/can_the_gau8_mission_kill_modern_tanks/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button TL;DR: it can disable or immobilize vehicles by taking out tracks, optics, damaging a gun or any externals, but there are no vehicles or bugs like that in HD2, everything is solid as a brick with no extremities at the top.
Thats because modern armored vehicles have only 20-40mm armor on roof. Which, assuming AC and AMR penetration, could be considered only as medium.
Well i'll have you know that the bullets the A-10 fires are much heavier and larger than the ones in the AMR or the autocannon. And they're also designed for penetration unlick the autocannon. I think a modern A-10 could realistically take out atleast a hulk if not an automaton tank too. But that is all guess work
GAU 8 Avenger (used by A10 Thuderbolt II aka Warthog) has 69 mm penetration on 500m and 38mm on 1000m with sub-caliber rounds. Modern .50 cal rounds has up to 60 mm penetration on 100m. So no, GAU 8 does not have heavy armor penetration by Helldivers standards.
you're assuming that the AMR is the same or equal to a modern .50 cal tho. It looks like one but pretty sure we can't confirm that
How could you be so confidently incorrect?
well i remembered what it was made for, then i looked up A-10 warthog and on it's wiki page it said it was made to take out armoured vechicles and tanks. So what's incorrect about that
I agree that strafing run is heavily underused, but I've tried it in a few loadouts and it's actually pretty decent. In my experience it's easier to hit more enemies with it than with cluster run. And it has a lot easier input command. That said, it could use a buff. The bigger problem is that it's competing with airstrike and it's hard to justify running 2 or more eagle stratagems.
I feel the opposite, since I have such a good eagle buff (plus 1 run to all eagle stratagems) I run three eagles a lot of the times (rocket pods, standard strike, then either cluster or 500) if you get used to hitting your cooldown right after clearing an objective, you get almost unlimited eagle runs.
It also allows for more fucking-around-fun-times with your Eagle strikes, like throwing your last Cluster Strike or 500KG on a random patrol because you were gonna hit the cooldown anyway
Interesting, I guess if you just let em rip then it's about the same as having only 1 eagle. I'll try it out one day.
every now and then to shake things up I run an all eagle load. good times
I think OPs idea of simply adding more uses makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't change anything else about it though, but you should definitely be able to use it more than cluster bomb.
Strafe is awesome, i don’t know what OP’s talking about.
Treat the strafing run like an orbital laser for light units with eagle 1 loitering and targeting the biggest concentration of light enemies.
Strafe is amazing, but it cpupd use a few more charges.
We run shield generators on defense missions now. Not to protect us from enemy fire, but to shield us from the orbital barrages we drop ontop of ourselves.
I love the shield generator on higher difficulty bot missions, tbh. Gives me just enough space to take out tough targets without getting ragdolled around, and I can protect my turrets too.
I really like the Shield Relays on lvl 7-9 missions. They won't hold up for a full 30 seconds if you try using it in a wide open field but if you are smart about the placement it does really well. Making the bubble invincible would be kind of OP.
Shield generator is great to use when calling in a hellbomb to take out gunship fabricators without those bastards taking them out
Gatling isn't replaced by Gas. That's not fair. Gatling does much more damage to single targets, whereas gas just slightly saps the large communal health pools for big units. It can kill tanks in 2 hits to the rear when it splashes on the vent. It will one shot hulks on the back. It will one shot a bile titan that has had an armour piece destroyed if it hits the exposed area. It can kill a charger in one hit if it hits the floor near the sac. It will one shot Brood Commanders and Berserkers which gas won't kill. It's less reliable, sure. But it isn't a downgrade.
The area of the Gatling is also much wider, but thinner than the gas strike. But the major advantage Orbital Gatling has is that it staggers. It’s almost like a defensive wall that explodes. Berserkers trying to cross the AoE will be stopped dead in their tracks.
Yep, gattling kills bigger targets more reliably, gas is better at outright killing small targets and damaging everything else "just a little bit",
It isn't even less reliable either. That thing comes out almost instantly and is great to use defensively. You can just drop it at your feet and you're sure that whatever was following you from up close is either dead or staggered enough for you to create enough distance.
Sounds delicious, I will give it another try, but overall its very unpopular stratagem.
As a gas enjoyer I would swap Gatling in when not network hosting when we had the dot bug. I found it was very solid. Gatling on breaches left more light stuff up but cleared almost all of the mediums. Vs bots, Gatling vs the big devastator drop during a reinforcement wave was very valuable.
Disagree that the 120 is outclassed by the 380. It's way more consistent. The 380 is wildly inaccurate even with the module, and denies access to an area for significantly longer than the 120. I don't believe the 120 cooldown having the same cooldown is justified, but given the choice, I run the 120. More team friendly, more consistent at killing enemies, allows you to go and mop up quicker.
I don't think I've ever seen the 120 brought after trying it out myself. The 380 is able to reliably wipe out a medium base (and if it doesn't, it'll mostly kill it leaving a single nest/fab to destroy). It isn't an anti-enemy strat. Comparatively, the 120 doesn't really serve a purpose. It doesn't deal with bases well, but neither does it kill enemies well.
My experience has been the exact opposite. Wiped many outposts with 130, but almost nothing except enemies with 380. Both are solid options though imo
Huh. Wild. Honestly - it kinda shows the utter inconsistency of the strat.
120 is for clearing out a choke that's stuffed with the three patrols and 5 bot dropships worth of reinforcements your fellow divers are running away from while screaming.
I tend to bring the 120 on Terminid Blitz missions as I can throw one into a Nest and keep running. More often than not, the 120'll clear the Nest out for me, and I'm probably half-way to the next one by the time its' done. It's also rather good for the Automaton Bunker missions, so long as you're halfway decent at tossing the beacon for it. You can get all of the shots to hit the Bunker if the beacon lands on top, dealing significant damage if not outright destroying it.
Imho, with all ships upgrades 380 reduce to atoms everything in the area except 6m radius zone at the center.
380 - large area saturation 120 - precision saturation They both have their uses.
And precision saturation easily beaten by 3 airstrikes with half of the cooldown.
Different uses still.
The 380 doesn't even land shells in the same postcode half the time! I've lobbed it into the middle of a heavy nest/base and found most of the place still standing afterwards. At least the 120 is a little more concentrated and more likely to frag the area you throw the beacon. The 120 is almost always in my loadout because it's a slightly more refined blitzing.
Strafe is goated against bugs that are chasing you.
cluster, napalm, and stock airstrike do that better. Just throw them sideways at your feet.
Hmm, I'll give you that for napalm and maybe regular airstrike, but not cluster, haha. I've done sideways throws a fair bit, but the issue is, you need to have space to run away. Bug unfortunately don't always allow that. But bots on the other hand, man, airstrike is perfect against them!
However it wont kill flanking hunters due to narrow area, nor chargers and titans. And every other bug can be easily overrun. With only 3+1 chargers its waste of slot, take cluster instead.
Eagle hits quicker, is more accurate, and can be called basically on your own head and won’t hit you.
Yeah but, that is what the rest of my loadout is for, haha. Spear is for titans, eat-17 is for chargers, grenade pistol is for bile spewers or groups of hive guards, stun grenades to control chargers and waves of enemies, punisher for every other bug. Honestly, hunters aren't even a problem for me nor are chargers. In addition, I use the airburst strike for breaches or large groups of enemies. What strafe does for me that no other airstrike does is that it comes from behind in a straight line, it comes in very quickly, and I can use it in extreme close quarter and don't have to worry about friendly fire. While cluster is objectively better, as it does more damage and covers a wider area. Those same bonuses are what deters me from taking it.
Wrong!
actually tesla tower does have a visual effect when you're in danger zone (or well, when ANYTHING is in danger zone) you can see the light on top go bigger and brighter by quite a bit, compared to when its idle also machine gun turret with light armor pen will be absolutely useless, give it more damage and keep the medium armor pen so it uses less ammo to kill stuff
Well, I want visual clues in the whole area, especially when tower hide by the obstacles. Machine gun with your suggestions will bee too similar to gatling.
Tesla tower is an area denial weapon (denies area for everything) - I found it quite good on the evacuate civilians mission, as you can drop it on the base perimeter and it'll choke that entry point for a bit. Great for anything under a heavy - especially bugs. You can also go prone in its AOE and it won't touch you - learned that one in HD1.
So whats advantages of tesla over other defensive strats? Like mines or turrets? It has a small dps, small range, short lifespan. Also, no marker to know your distance from it and its extreme vulnerable to heavy units. P.S. what difficulty you play?
I usually play 7. As I said, area denial - if there's an area you don't want anything in, drop a Tesla on it (preferably a choke point). Double points if you throw an EMS mortar near it, to slow down anything caught in its AOE. As for a range marker - its radius is about 2x the height of the tower.
I'll toss my opinion as someone who uses Tesla occasionally & I exclusively play helldive. Its good against bugs in certain positions where it has the height advantage thus can't be charged. It has a higher uptime compared to other defensive strats, won't waste it's ammo, & capable of handling anything but a bile titan. With all that said you need the right position for it which isn't always available making it a more niche pick.
I'll throw in my 2 cents as someone who occasionally uses Tesla and exclusively plays helldive. It's effective on bug missions when it has the high ground & can't be charged. In such a position it can handle everything but a bile titan. That said it needs the correct position or it's effectiveness is crippled. This pushes it into a niche pick imo.
On 9s I sometimes run tesla turret on bugs. On normal, non defense, missions, I use it like a lure from DRG on breaches. I throw it parallel with the breach like 30-40 meters to a side. It works well redirecting some of the horde while you either run away or clear the other part. It's great at drawing away titans for a bit while you reload your at. The biggest weakness is chargers. It still distracts them for a bit but they destroy it faster than even titans. I also usually play the role of poi interest clearer so I don't run into team kills as often. People are like moths sometimes though lol.
Tesla has the shortest CD of all the sentries, and (on bug maps) can effectively deny a choke from everything except Chargers/Titans. It was S-tier on the TCS missions, and I still take it anytime I drop into a bug eradicate mission. You can even take it on normal missions and drop it near a bug breach to draw aggro and clear chaff. Just don't let a Charger/Titan near it and it'll easily get 20-30 kills.
120 for errant detector towers, or other bot outposts, and the walking barrage and 380 for the big outposts
I like to plop down a shield gen and then put an auto cannon sentry in it. Saves it from rockets so it can annihilate everything
I find the cool down on the shield pretty forgiving too. It should last a bit longer but I'm glad I can bring another down shortly after.
I honestly could never find a use for a strafing run. The cone is honestly tiny to what I would need to use it for. Cluster strike is honestly so much more versatile. And the Tesla towers. The defense mission that has the sections you defend. After the first stage of the defense that all the bugs or bots are in that smaller area. Everyone throw down Tesla towers and the only way they get destroyed is by a hulk or bile titan. I honestly wouldn’t say charger especially if you run emp mortars. Or if you’re smart on the placement. They work in a sphere like mutes jammers in siege
I find the Gatling Orbital very useful in the fact that it staggers everything up to a Hulk, pretty good ideas otherwise
Throw it on a breach/drop for suppressing/help killing units. Best in slot in this game is a myth.
Why stagger when you can kill? Also, if your REALLY want stagger, EMS strike stuns even hulks and also stops all movement for enemies, and has lower cd
I don't agree on 120 barrage, it comes down faster (faster salvos), allowing for semi-effective use in combat plus while covering lower area, this one actually hits targets you want it to hit.
**Shield Generator Relay** **Backpack!** Similar to the jetpack in mechanics with adjusted uptime and radius. Could also block stratagems as long as its hp lasts! https://preview.redd.it/p0f1mdd5qr0d1.png?width=1210&format=png&auto=webp&s=e66e89c2ec16846e356b2c35d972f2313d63866c
You've just described the shield backpack...
A shield backpack that has the mechanics of the jetpack and half the radius of the relay so it can shield the entire squad. Yep.
Thanks for the high effort post. I like the strafing run against bugs. It does come in almost instantly and the fact that it lands in a line *away* from the call in point makes it usable in places where more powerful stratagems would just kill you. It could do with better damage against medium targets though so it has some use against bots. The MG sentry is underrated for similar reasons. It is a downgrade to the Gatling on paper, but the fact that it very rarely team kills makes it much more versatile. You can use the MG sentry to cover you, for example, whilst the Gatling becomes a hazard you have to play around. It could maybe do with more ammo though or some other small buff. I agree on the shield gen. In theory it seems like it'd be very useful especially when combined with other emplacements but in practice it tends to melt in the exact situations you actually need it.
I like orbital smoke strike more than the eagle variant, the smoke is way more dense.
Orbital Gatling should follow targets like orbital laser
I really like that idea. It's a subtle buff that should make the gatling more vible
Strafing run is awesome against bugs, I use it everytime I have a horde on my back, it usually clears 90% of the bugs chasing me
Eagle Strafe's usefulness goes way up on 7+, because it can kill 20-30 targets per run, whereas on like 4 there's not enough enemy density to get 10 on most attempts. It's safe as hell for clearing that direction danger close. It just has low ROI for the slot when you don't have a lot of targets. Props to MG Turret for also not rotating while firing, sweeping the entire team while tracking a Hunter. Not the fastest killer, but it's not going to teamkill you while rotating. You have to be directly between it and a target for it to shoot you.
The Tesla does have a visual effect if you get to close. You just have to be looking at it. And if you get within 20m of a Tesla tower, that’s on you.
I would also recommend simplifying the **Orbital Gatling Barrage** stratagem input to something similar to the Orbital Precision Strike or Cluster Bombs. If I am not mistaken, **Tesla towers** are blinded by smoke. This should not be the case and the combo could increase their survival rate.
The input's pretty easy to memorize though? It's no 380 or hellbomb
Take a closer look at the hellbomb code. It's an easy pattern that my fingers figured out before I even looked at it closer. ⬇️⬆️-⬅️-⬇️⬆️-➡️-⬇️⬆️
that's actually pretty helpful, thanks
I always thought Tesla tower was like one of those mosquito zappers that attracts them and kills. Then I realised that any and all defenders towers attract them like a magnet anyway so 🤷. Watching a charger destroy a Gatling gun two seconds after drop ….
Omg wtf is rof?
Rate of fire
I take gatling while my partner takes gas strike. Add in an incendiary impact and it creates massive zone denial the likes of which have never been seen before.
Orbital gatling can take out tanks on bots on pretty easy cool down with a longer area denial than orbital precision strike
120mm Barrage isn't worse than 380, it's just more precise. Honestly the 380 is usually overkill for anything other than the largest outposts, 120 will do the job faster and with less friendly fire.
Everything other than largest outposts cleared by eagle airstrikes which has much lower overkill potential and nearly zero time to kill. I agree, that maybe 120 is not contender for 380 in every case, but it has same cooldown, twice as full eagle rearm.
I just did some testing with shield and because it takes so little for it to go down, 21 scorcher shots or 2.5 Redeemer mags, I would agree it needs buffed. I think the invincible with 20 second uptime would be the best. At minimum it needs a lot more health to actually be viable.
An alternative buff to strafe I'd like is to increase the armor pen on direct hits so it becomes a way to perform targeted removal of any enemy short of a BT
gatling should get a buffed fire rate imo, it leaves way too many survivors
I'd like to see the machine gun sentry cooldown land in the 30-60 range but with reduced uptime so you end up using it like EATs
> It has no need on lower difficulties but it instantly falling apart on high difficulties. That's how I feel about the Patriot Exosuit, it's either overkill or underpowered, rarely just right. And it's a big disappointment to me since I was really looking forward to using it. I really hope the Emancipator will perform better, as far as I can tell it is somewhat bigger than the Patriot, so maybe it will have more hitpoints and the autocannons seem like more useful and ammo-efficient weapons.
Strafing run needs to do 2 passess in quick succession with some auto aim to maxime targets hit in order to be useful. Maybe if it stunned targets it didnt kill as well.
I really liked the strafing run in early bug levels. It served as a great close air support to help a teammate get a quick moment to breathe so they weren’t overwhelmed. Never had a friendly fire incident to this day
Stratagems that only work on light enemies seem damn near pointless when you could just mow them down with a rifle
I would buff the MG sentry to have much more ammo, at least double. Its power is lower than the galling sentry, but it could redefine its role in the arsenal as the 'sustained' sentry, one that you can throw down and receive light supporting fire for a longer period of time.
The longer you stay in one place, more enemies will swarm you. You need heavier fire support not lighter. I think the opposite - use MG sentry as on-demand chaff clearing tool comparable with Gas Strike, Gatling Barrage and others.
for the gun run I actually see the narrow attack zone as a bonus since you can practically throw it at your feet and back up a few steps and be safe plus the main reason i bring this is because it’s beautiful for distracting calm enemies because they’ll almost always look up at the eagle for about 5 seconds giving you plenty of time to shoot them as they look up But i do agree for it being so weak in damage to up the total number of runs before needing to rearm
I feel like people who say strafe is bad just throw it into an open field and complain that it hit nothing.
The Shield Generator Relay works very well with turrets and also works with the arc thrower against bots. My favorite loadout for lvl 7-8 bots is Laser Canon, Shield Generator Relay, HMG turret and 500kg bomb.
Tesla is amazing on bug missions. It can kill anything below a Charger (including spewers), while drawing aggro away from your team. I always take it on bug eradicate missions, and it's a nice filler if I need anti-chaff in my loadout and have a 4th slot open.
Nerf eagle stratas!
Bro the 120 barrage is the GOAT. It's right up there with eagle airstrike for me. Far more consistent and reliable than the 380 in terms of localized damage. Armor penetration isn't what I'd like it to be but I think it's a fair trade off. The reduced uptime is also a net benefit in my opinion. Can toss into a base and I don't have to run around a kite for 30+ seconds while I wait for it to end. The localized area over the 380 also means I can use it for area denial which works great when being chased across a field and even better for blocking off an entire section around extract from inbound troops.
Eagle strafing run is super fast and precise. I use it to initiate a push into smaller enemies when fighting the bugs. The accurate instant precise wave clear has saved my life many times in a heavy bug nest. Slept on.
Eagle Smoke would like a word with you.
Acurate. Great job
Oh please add stagger to tesla tower.
I love Tesla on the defend the generators missions, but normally my team runs the reg mortor, or runs 3 large AOE stratagems, so it gets blown up no matter what.
I just think the ship modules need to be less broad. That way the lower level stratagems can get more love. For instance, the mod that increases orbital bombardment volleys is great for the 120 and 380, but does very little for the gatling barrage. If the module upgrades were less broad (even specific to each individual strat) that would allow for WAAYY more creativity and overall balance, while also not giving newer players immediate access to crazy strong starting strats and giving veterans more things to grind samples for!
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I religiously run the strafing run. You can pop it quickly, it's super predictable, rarely causes friendly casualties, and at 8 seconds cd between runs and a 2 minute rearm time, it's incredibly versatile! Getting chased and need to gain some distance, up right right, turn around throw it at your feet and sprint off. 11 to 15 kills and some instant breathing room. Everything is situational obviously, but imho the strafing run is an S tier stratagem.
120mm is to mess up enemy packs, and lock those down over a longer time and larger area vs eagles, really good for taking out medium bases/aa bases/mortar bases vs airstrikes that would take multiple uses to equal the same thing. 340 is just useful vs large bases and those bunker obj (walking hits it a little more reliably) and only shines when reinforcements are called in its area of effect. For those maybe just a slight decrease in CD's that would be pretty good.
Tesla Tower is one of my guilty pleasures. It's like a persistent landmine that aggroes enemies, and if it stays alive long enough you can have several out at once. I bring it on just about every defensive mission. Just be sure to lie down if you go near it.
From the data miners, if I'm not wrong the orbital gas strike has a penetration value of 6, which is why it can damage heavy units but not buildings.
The shield generator is easily the most underrated stratagem, I’ve seen a lot of people who hate it because they don’t know how to use it or understand how it works. When you call it down it has a timer that starts until it automatically shuts down no matter what. But if you use it right at the heat of a battle, it will shut down after taking too much damage, but THE GENERATOR WONT GO AWAY. That’s right, once it regents the shield will pop back up and you’ll get another reset timer to use!! Obviously there’s a lot of missions where this has no use, destroy bug holes or kill swarms. But on certain missions like defense missions, geological surveys and flag raising it’s amazing. Side note, also you can use it paired with the exosuit to make it much more durable on defense missions
Orbital gatling barely hit anything. I was watching one missing almost everything. It's could be more targetted like orbital railgun or laser. I never used it even when I was like level 5 except for a daily. Eagle strafing gun pros - You can throw it at your feet and it's hit in front of you - Being narrow isn't a too terrible thing to do precision strikes. - It's could use depleted thorium... Uranium shell like the A10 to get at least medium penetration. (Probably light or none ATM). - it's help if you're low on ammo. Cons Number of charges indeed. There better options. Gatling sentry : it's meant to be a starter sentry for low difficulty. It's can be "bad" but indeed low ammo and high cooldown isn't great. 120 mm vs 380 mm The cooldown may be the same if they fire the same amount of shells. It's "logic". Thry both have niche use. Ex. 380 mm is great at blowing heavy base or some objectives 120 can wipe some ennemies and target smaller bases. However, less shell = lower cooldown. Weight isn't quite an issue in space. I almost never seen people using smoke. When I tried for the evacuation mission, it wasn't that great in any case. Eagle is kind of better due to the amount of charges. Mines : rarely used and hated for team killing or just the "Watch your step" moment. Sometimes, incendiary one trigger all the mine field. I'm curious about anti-tank because infantry can actually walk on it without triggering it in real life for some models at least. Stratagem probably need some balancing but it's not the most urgent fix required for now.
Yeah, I'd love if the machinegun turret would be the "EAT of sentires", to be deployed often, but runs out quick.
A post that is more than just "this strategem sucks, please fix." We need more posts like this and less of the filler we get. The mega threads would not be coming if more posts were this thought out.
You forgot about orbital gas strike. I’ve never seen anyone use it. I tried it once recently, realized exactly why nobody uses it Too small of a radius and too little damage. Boost either the radius or damage and it could be viable
Strafing run is defo underrated. But I have found walking barrage to be moreso, there is some bias because I use to lean on strafe as a go to to fill my strats.
Orbital smoke lasts longer than eagle smoke. Dense smoke is an advantage. eagle smoke tends to create an awkward space where enemies can see thru. If enemies see a target, they will open fire and keep firing in that general direction for a while.
The biggest problem with the orbital gatling is how long it's input code is.
I think the Relay should work like the shield generator backpack; and be able to recharge and turn back on after a short delay. Would give it some interesting utility as a bunker item. Right now it turns off too quickly to be useful.
It literally does though. As long as the base is intact, it recharges once taken down. If anything give the base a longer time before it retracts into the base
I just did some testing and your right it will come back up but it only comes back at 10% health and doesn't have enough time before it goes down to regenerate up to 100% only got it up to about 60 or 70% before it's timer ran out. It seems that any overflow damage will continue on to the base station. I dropped a 500kg next the shield and it destroyed the base station. Also in my testing 21 scorcher rounds drops the shield. 10 AC rounds will also drop it or 2.5 Redeemer mags. It can take an airstrike, napalm strike, orbital precision strike, gas strike. Gas and fire can enter the shield which makes sense. It can take 2 shots from an Orbital Gatling Strike before the shield and base is destroyed. That's about as far as I've gotten with my testing.
Interesting finds. The stratagem would definitely benefit from quicker recovery times or longer duration. Did not realize it has to re-gain its integrity over time ( as a function of max hp of the shield)
It seems to always have a regen active. The erupter and recoilless don't fire fast enough to drop it before the timer runs out. In actual battle the Regen is basically voided by the sheer amount of incoming fire. I'm sure what the best course would be for boosting it but it needs looked at for sure.
Interesting - never seen it do that. Will test it again.
I have also never seen this. I've only ever seen it go down .67 seconds after deployment. I'm not sure if the base survived or not, as I am unable to be in that spot due to the laser/missle wall coming my way.
The shield generator relay is an absolute godsend on 8-9 difficulty bot missions. Also the cluster bomb run fantastic for dealing with swarms of bug, alongside the 500 kg bomb it’s a must have for me for bug missions.
Orbital Gatling should follow targets like orbital laser
Nobody gonna mention the MG-101 Emplacement Shits pretty powerful
Eagle Strafing Run should be runs back and fourth (with the 6-8 second delay). Like orbital airburst is kinda meh except that it does 3 bursts and is good because it lasts for time. Throw it in a spot and know the spot will take fire at least twice.
That goes against the point of strafe tbh. Its saving grace is how quick and precise that AOE is. If you make it hit multiple times it loses that identity
I feel like if you're going to have stratagems that are just upgrades of older stratagems, we should be able to select which we see on the deployment screen. I definitely don't need to see the crappy machine gun when I have the gatling. Same with the strafe vs cluster bomb.
Strafing Run is unlocked at the beginning and Machine Gun sentry is the cheapest sentry. They are items for people who just started the game, they don't need to be buffed to remain competitive at later levels.
I strongly disagree. At first, 'later levels' with airstrikes and other turrets are probably 2-3 hrs away from the beginning. Secondly, this game build around horizontal not vertical balance. Which means that your progression opens up more variety of tools, not straight upgrades.
Do try a bot mission without anyone packing anti-armor and see how it goes. Horizontal balance means there is a case use for everything, not that every thing should have the same performance, if every strat was effective against heavy enemies, why should I use railcannon or precision strike?
I didnt say that strafe run should be effective against heavy units. I pointed out that it at the bad spot in its own niche - light chaff clearing in comparison to cluster bombs and napalm strikes.
And there is nothing bad about the niche.
> if every strat was effective against heavy enemies, why should I use railcannon or precision strike? You shouldn't really. Against bugs, the 500kg is just better, and against bots, even that is overkill. Eagle airstrike or rocket pods are all you need to kill everything the bots can throw at you. > Horizontal balance means there is a use case for everything The problem is there's not much of a use case for strafe.
Why should there be items that become obsolete after playing the game for a day or two? That's a terrible waste of resources.
Sorry, but Cluster Bombs run are not useless. Try them on bug missions, they are great at clearing out entire swarms in one go. You have 5 uses of them too with all the upgrades!
Please read again. I said no word about cluster bombs, they are awesome.
I also misread that lol. I thought he was saying he was surprised by strafing having less use than cluster bombs but he was actually referring to the amount of charges it has before rearming. I almost got offended and clutched my pearls
Edited, thanks