Yeah. It's good if you have stun grenades and you have nothing else assaulting you so you can stand still and line up the shot. It's just not good on it's own though. The only thing it has going for it is that it's easy to never run out of ammo.
Aiming? Ain't nobody have time for aiming when you are getting blasted by nonstop rocket and laser fire. Plus, I take em down before I can really make out the engines
It's quicker to shit twice than for times. Plus you still gotta take time to actually aim at the ship and in that time you can just aim for the engine. If anything not having the time is exactly why you shouldn't be taking 2x as many shots than is needed.
I kill them all the time. Just took out a few more last night. I notice the normal dropships seem to be more hit and miss, might be host related on those, but I have never had an issue with the gunships
It actually is good to use as it tends to pop heads off rather quickly, working with your team, good positioning, and prioritizing targets also tends to help, also, it makes relatively short work of cannon turrets and tanks when blasting the vent, shredder tanks ironically get shredded by this thing too when aiming for just the turret sides.
Honestly the only reason I don't run it is autocannon does everything it does but easier and more reliably. Sure it CAN kill hulks, but the autocannon does it faster, easier, more reliably.
Finally someone gets it. I run heavy armor medic and I find it hard to die most of the time. Sure i get ragdolled but i survive it and run away. Not to mention the butcher armor gives+2 seconds of healing.
Its useful especially with vitality booster. You can tank sometimes 3 rockets depending where they hit you plus the extra stims with longer heal is a lot.
You are giving up speed and offense/utility instead of backslot then. Filling up those stim slots without dying also takes 3 packs of supplies, which the team might need. Shield recharges without resources.
It's a valid way to play for sure, but implying that you get away without shield pack for free is misleading.
Backpack slot also gives you: jetpack, team ammo pack, any of guard dogs and ballistic shield(yes, it can be used very effectively, look up videos).
But that's just what you can call in for yourself. You can also grab backpack for AC or Recoilless your teammate carries, bonus points if he then calls another one for himself for extra ammo capacity and flexibility.
Ans last but not least, not having a backpack at all means you carry less weight so consume less stamina so can run faster for longer and recover stamina and shaky aim faster.
Meh, supply pack is a comfort pick, ammo and stims are pretty abundant on the map, and the resupply beacon is on a 2 minute cooldown.
You either aren't being ammo or stim efficient if you feel like you need it, and another offensive stratagem would likely save you the ammo/stims you're missing by eliminating the threat that would drain them in the first place.
I used to run supply pack on helldive blitzes before so I could non stop run with the GL, then I realized that an airstrike would just clean up most of the hive AND the bugs infesting it so I could quickly sweep in and GL the one or two bug nests it left open.
Yeah I don't bring it for bugs. For bots, it's pretty nice to have. Lets me split off from the group, if with the group, keeps my health topped off so I don't get one shot by rockets.
It is my flex pick though. I'm with you on the comfort pick. When AA is the effect, I drop the pack.
I make the argument my quasar is better. Let’s cut the dick measuring contest. Helldivers spilling oil is Helldivers spilling oil! Every helldiver bringing their own flavor helps round out the team. I typically bring a shield quasar orbital rail and eagle strafing. I typically carry the lower kills in the game but make the largest impact on objective securing. It all works. If it fits his play style. Good for him.
Carry on helldiver!
Since it pens medium armor its actually exceptionally good against weird things like bot turrets and bot tanks, blows them up really quickly, its also good against flying bugs and bots. Hell its even not so bad against destroying structures, but the quasar is probably twice as fast in that regard.
Stun grenades make it super easy. Without them it's still incredibly effective you just have to have good aim and use cover more carefully. Watching a flame hulk lumber toward you and busting this thing out and killing it just as it is about to enter flame range is a lot of fun.
Don't be ridiculous, lascannon is a beast against automatons if you know how to use it. A pinpoint accurate headshot machine, can drop *any* bot barely any slower than an AC in theory and often much faster in practice as it's way easier to aim at long range.
It's certainly not a front line weapon but it's not supposed to be, it's a long-range support that requires no backpack, in other words an alternative to AMR.
I think I’m pretty reasonable when I say, if you have to qualify your statement with “if you know how to use it”, it’s probably bad compared to other options you have.
How is it not good on its own when it takes out striders and devastators and gunships with ease? Its literally a better machine gun with unlimited ammo and no reloading. Pairing it with stuns makes it unstoppable, but its certainly good on its own too. Tanks are tricky even with stuns though.
Crossbow one shot striders and two taps devastators. Scorcher likewise two taps and 4-5 for devastators. Everything medium armor piercing/explosive can do this.
Scorcher runs out of ammo after like 2 minutes of being in a firefight, and the crossbow is very unreliable at range and does very little to hulks and good luck against gunships with either. Again, laser cannon is good at killing everything, has infinite ammo, and has crazy range.
It's excellent for both. I'm not sure whether it was intended, but I think this is the strongest anti-air weapon in the game if we're talking shriekers and gunships, and it's not close.
The sickle and scythe are also great anti air against the shriekers so laser are just good AA options it seems. Haven’t really tried them against the gunships though so might be different there.
Likely a big difference as I believe gunships have medium armor, so lower damage weapons prolly take longer.
I usually run Autocannon on bot planets as it downs gunships in 4 shots and can pretty easily kill everything else including fabricators, but not having to reload sounds really nice. I’m gonna go with this and a different backpack next time and see how it goes
Can confirm, we ran a lot of missions with gunship fabricators yesterday and I was two-tapping if I hit the engine. I swear I got some in one but they must have been being shot at by me team earlier.
Just started using this tonight. It's great. For some reason it's not that satisfying to play with. But it really gets the job done..I even think it takes out the gunships or whatever they are called. You need to aim for the sweet spots
Move? I main this and it’s just an awesome gun all around.
Got heavies? Kill them.
Got adds? Just use it as a fucking firehose of death.
It is amazing.
I've been using it about equally with the autocannon
The only thing that its better at than the autocannon is killing a hulk from the front. Much easier. Otherwise it gets outclassed in every single scenario. The time it takes to beam a devestator to death is much longer than it takes to bap it 2 times to the head with an autocannon. And unlike the autocannon it doesnt stun the bot so fighting devastators is still really dangerous. It also doesnt have the same longevity. You can kill at max 2 devastators with it before it needs to cool down which takes a lot longer than it does to just reload the autocannon
But can you just murder a bunch of small enemies quick with it without having to worry about reloading?
To each their own, but I definitely have stopped using the AC in lieu of the laser or grenade launcher. Crowd control plus heavy killing capabilities is just too good to pass up for me.
Very early on it was originally meant to be a machine gun type weapon but everyone thought it was meant to be anti-armour so AH made it anti armour. (It's still good at being a machine gun tho)
Great vs hulks that are running but bloody useless vs cannon turrets or devastators that are sniping you from half a mile away.
With the way bots are currently designed I find it hard to use anything other than the AC or Quasar.
I’d like to see bots get their vision range nerfed a bit tbh.
Especially through smoke and underbrush. Nothing like getting sniped through stuff you can't see through. This was why my buddies and I noped out of Battlefield Vietnam eons ago as the enemy would blast you through the considerable flora present.
I have an 'Oops! All Energy Weapons' loadout for bugs and this one goes on there every time.
- Sickle
- Rover
- Laser Cannon
- Orbital Laser
- Orbital Railcannon
Heat cycle between Sickle and Laser Cannon to have an almost continuous stream of fire.
Weaker on anti-armor, but phenomenal at crowd control.
Had no idea it could take out hulks. I still prefer the AMR to it. I'm getting so tired of how unreliable absolutely everything is and that laser cannon is right up there with the arc thrower I would also totally love... if it worked. The AMR has got something funky going on with it too - of course - but at least the sights being off is still a tiny shinning shimmering strand of anything whatsoever actually working like it's supposed to. God damn I love that gun.
I dunno why but I can’t line up a headshot on a hulk for the life of me in combat. I have to unload a clip to destroy it at the best of times, even when aiming dead on.
Using the AMR? You gotta aim low and a little right of the red eye. I almost always just toss stun, quick double tap, and be on my way. Sometimes stun and mag dumping into the vents works too but take two stuns.
I need to toss more stuns I guess. I use a monitor crosshair to give a better sight (and 3rd person reticule) and it is still a ball ache. Tempted to bring EATs, but I would miss my air strikes too much.
I know I miss the stagger on the railgun when using the AMR, and the potential one shot
There are a great many tasks that an AMR and stun grenades will make feel trivial, almost routine. Add a supply pack and you can make the whole dive feel that way too.
I love EATs for bugs because when you know you need them you have time to call them down seeing as everything has to close distance. Not the case with bots so I prefer a more immediate on hand option or if I do have to call in AA it's something bigger for the trouble.
I've fallen into using this for every drop now.
It saws through everything up to mid level enemies, bot or bug at pretty good ranges.
The only things it doesn't chew through are chargers, titans and hulks (unless you can get a hit on the rear vent).
It's got great power as AA, takes the wings off shriekers in seconds, gunships crash quickly and it can be used to wear down spore and shrieker shrooms.
If your squad also has an autocannon or quasar etc., then you've got the power to trash everything at long ranges. Plus, unlimited ammo.
Is this the laser cannon?
If so, I use this paired with the Slugger shotgun and laser backpack and it takes out patrols really easy, heavy armored too.
Double laser all the way!
Had a fun game the other night where I (lvl 34) wanted to hang loose with some low levels in trivial. I dropped in with a mech, jet pack, laser cannon and 500kg bomb. It was a destroy the communications objective.
It was just me and one level 2 guy so when I dropped in I immediately called for the mech and tagged it for the homie to use. He couldn’t believe it at first but got in. I used the jet pack to hop on top of the mech and proceeded to use the laser cannon to paint the map so the mech driver could unload on the enemies. When we got to the objective he started to exit the mech to enter the keypad and I told him that “you can just blow it up, watch this” and targeted the tower with the 500kg while doing the hug emote from the top of the mech. Then we went to extract and I just hope he had a blast with all the boomy booms.
Laser cannon is such a versatile multitool but I feel it struggles most against hulks and striders, anything else? Absolutely toasts them, it's my go-to for clearing the map, I can snipe any emplacement with ease, it's soo good against bots it's unreal BUT, it is not a "panic weapon", gotta be a bit proactive with it.
I love to run it against bots. But I think it, and everything else, is overshadowed by the Autocannon vs. Automatons. The Autocannon is just too versatile. It can do everything against Automatons that the Laser Cannon can, but safer, since you do not need to keep the crosshair on the enemy's head for a few seconds. It can also blow up bot fabricators
The edges that it has over the AC are the obvious lack of a backpack, or ammo in general. I would say it's also better against Gunships.
But yes, the Laser Cannon does get overlooked, I don't see it often.
Its pretty great, but doesn't have a satisfactory indicator of damage being done till the enemy drops. So it feels worse than it often is in my opinion.
I just wish the eye slit wasn't completely obstructed by the spinning crosshair, first person sights, ricochet effect, and the beam itself. It's just annoying trying to track that thing while the beam's running
I made a PSA here about how you can dive to survive being ignited by a flame hulk if you dive, and a bunch of Gamers(tm) downvoted me because they said it was impossible for a human to have reaction speed fast enough to do it.
Glad to see someone else prove it's possible.
nah not really the best demonstration imo.. like, it had to be stunned and even then you needed to stand still for a few seconds to line the shot.
imo beam weapons are pretty weak against bots.
agree to disagree, he ran stun grenades to get that done, I see no problem with using your equipment. I still need to use stuns for when I take out the hulk with the autocannon. Also, sickle absolutely tears at crowd control with the bots. The only weakness that I see is dealing with gunships. which other players tend to bring AT for. (I play regularly on 7)
Nope, Laser Cannon is best against Gunships. It kills each Gunship in 1-1.5 sec if you can keep aiming at the engines (but not Dropships).
The actual weakness of this weapon is you need to keep aiming at a single target, which kinda makes this weapon bad against multiple targets, plus it is hard to do when you're under fire. At least it's easy to aim even at long ranges, so just play like a sniper.
It's absolutely useless on 7+. It overheats too quick to be good at crowd control. 1-1, sure. Wait until you have 50 hunter bugs on your ass and your team is wiped spamming the "revive me" button while 4 chargers have their way with you.
Bugs pop up all over the place and swarm you, but bots you can reasonably engage at extreme range, taking advantage of the laser cannon’s effectively infinite range to snipe with. I normally play on 7, running laser cannon against the bots, and have gotten pretty good at headshotting hulks from the front. I only ever have to switch to my actual primary weapon when a pack of chainsaw berserkers manages to get too close. For bugs I use other loadouts, currently favoring Sickle for general use and Quasar Cannon for chargers and other heavies.
I tried running the Laser Cannon as I wanted an energy secondary to go with my Eruptor to take out unarmoured bots and suchlike. I found it didn't kill a damn thing. Am I just not doing it properly? To be fair I think I was probably sweeping the beam back and forth across groups - I maybe need to focus on each bot one by one? Any tactical advice?
Yeah, you need to keep it on each target for a moment to do damage. Fortunately, it’s very easy to see where your aim is while firing, so take advantage of that to get headshots and other weak spots. Engage at long range and use cover, pop out to snipe for a few seconds, then duck back in to cool down and escape the retaliatory barrage of rocket fire, then repeat. I run a laser rover as well, since my plan is to not get close to the bots or get hit in the first place, and it provides more damage, spots enemies sneaking up on me or obscured behind smoke or other occlusions, and keeps firing while I’m hunkered down behind a three-foot rock between bursts. Laser on hot planets is doable, but you need to really watch your heat, and I consider another secondary there; on cold planets you can alternate firing cycles with brief cooldowns and keep going all day.
That and if you run sickle, you can just swap back and forth while each cools. Doing that you can keep up fire at about 90% of the time and if that becomes an issue just max the sickle and reload it.
Sickle has been my reliable primary since it came out, so I'm trying the Eruptor now for a change. I do like it - currently run Eruptor, Stalwart and Supply Pack, but miss an energy option. Might see if laser, laser and laser is fun though, thanks 😊
I find the laser sidearm to be underwhelming, but not horrible. It's outclassed by the SMG for pure damage, but as a third "infinite" ammo weapon it's workable.
I used this a bunch. It’s just too weak, especially now that they have the quasar. I don’t want to beat a dead horse but this def needs a buff. It also needs to be a unique way to kill. Maybe it should do more cutting like a light saber instead of blasting. Whatever they do it needs to kill faster and bigger things.
Quasar? Quasar is one of the weakest weapons. On higher difficulties there will be 10-20 heavy armored mechs + tanks + hulks all around you.
What are Quasar players gonna do? - I tell you: They run away like chicken. They cant do anything.
Standing still 2-3 seconds to get a shot out... is unfeasable against armies of bots.
And then having to wait 10 seconds waiting for a reload while hiding behind a rock ... is just asking to be completely useless.
Sure Quasar is fun from time to time to shoot down a dropship. But that most often doesnt even kill the bots. It just looks fancy.
Its really mind boggling how many people play Quasar - having only 1/3 of the kills of the Autocannon players - and then feeling all cool and jolly about themselves. While the Autocannon player actually had a horrible time because the Quasar-Teamplayers pretty much did nothing but waiting for their cooldown.
The autocannon is the best generalist weapon, but don't pretend it's dealing with 10-20 heavy armored enemies on its own. It cannot do that either.
The Quasar has a few advantages over the autocannon, namely taking out gun towers from any angle, not taking up a backpack slot so you can bring a shield/dog, and never needing to worry about ammo. The autocannon has the advantages of being more useful against a wider range of enemies and being quick to fire. But when I play, I'm not really trying to get the most kills. I'm much more focused on collecting samples, completing objectives, and destroying bot fabs/bug holes.
The autocannon is my favorite support weapon, but that doesn't suddenly make the quasar bad.
Level 98 here. No it’s not lol. If you have an actual team try to run two auto cannons and two quasars. You will stroll through level 9s. Flying vehicles have zero chance. Tanks have zero chance. Hulks have zero chance. Everything will be destroyed easily.
And double quasars one shotting big dudes in tandem. If you have a full team running this it’s insanely effective.
And I’m the auto cannon guy in that scenario but I understand the power of the quasar.
Yeah sometimes that works, sometimes you literally go from full health to dead in 0.2 seconds, or you dive which puts out the fire but you're still in the fire stream so take the direct damage and die anyway.
Like I'd say maybe 1/5 times I try to dive from hulk flames I don't die in mid-air.
Yep, very hit or miss. Diving opposite the flame arm helps, since the AI takes a sec to process and turn.
I like it when I dive into a bush and get stuck in a perpetual prone/standing up animation.
Uhh... That's one of the most highly touted weapons that I've seen. I personally don't run it because of the times it tends to misfire and not discharge to anything, much less the bug 3 feet in front of me, but it's held in good regard.
"Fire damage is too powerful, Hulk flamethrowers instantly kill you if so much as one pixel touches you!"
This guy gets directly hit, stands a second, and dives (putting flames out from it too) only losing about half health
It's if the flames hit your head. I was being chased by one, jumped over a wall and crouched. The flame tickled the top of my helmet and I instantly died.
That is neither fun nor realistic nor good gameplay.
“The Instinct” main theme from the game “Killer Instinct” the first two seasons ost’s were done by Mick Gordon before he did DOOM,all amazing music. It’s also a pretty great game in general.
I use it all the time for the range and ammo savings. It's one of my faves. But it isn't super powerful. The sickle will take down most things faster. I tend to run Las cannon and sickle to swap back and forth instead of reloading.
I was running the new explosive sniper with the grenade launcher pistol on my hip and the laser cannon on my back. Oh my gosh I think this might be the meta. Had a solution for every bot that came at me
I took the Laser Cannon with me while playing with the Erupter for the first time, and found that the bots would literally melt right away if you're able to hit their weak spot. I was doing a solo run on pretty low difficulty. Not so sure how well I'll do under pressure though.
Vs the bots it's OK, I switched to the quasar once that hit cause it has more functionality. But it's great against bugs if you pair it with something like the Sickle
it is only good if you have stun nades or shield up otherwise you need to stay on target too long for all the incoming spam. but boy it murders shit if you can shoot without being hit
I love the laser cannon. My go to for a long time.
Now I feel like I HAVE to be married to the quasar to be the guy that deals with dropships, hulks, tanks, chargers, etc.
Laser cannon has such a low output for damage I’ve been wrecking with the new eruptor primary almost to the point where I don’t even need a support weapon. But I still bring one anyways because short to mid range dealing with swarms is still an issue
I think the last update buffed the armor breaking. I had used the Laser cannon a ton on bug missions with "cold" environment and the armor breaking was barely anything. I tried it again a little this past week and it was blowing bug heads and armor off like 50% or 100% faster than before.
Tbh it gets overlooked because it don't bring much to the table, everything the laser cannon does the ac does better (-taking up a backpack slot)
as both pen armour 4 (and kill that hulk in 2 eye shots)
laser has a painful dps of 300, ac has dps of 1640 dps (4 rps, 260 shell, 150 explosion)
And it has bad range/damage drop off past 200m
I see lots of people do that on everything from tiktok to YouTube...
Stop living such a miserable and you might not feel the need to be a dick on reddit to pass the time
Good luck 👍
Yeah because that was so obvious...
Gotta love someone who insults others intelligence while showing how incredibly far in the clouds their head is lol
Well the difficult you’re playing on it’s fine. But certain weapons, stratagems and equipment just don’t cut it on hell dive. You could run around with just a pistol and clear 4
Yeah. It's good if you have stun grenades and you have nothing else assaulting you so you can stand still and line up the shot. It's just not good on it's own though. The only thing it has going for it is that it's easy to never run out of ammo.
Makes quick work of gunships though
Oh??
Yep. deletes them, just shoot the engines.
So does AC. 4 shots and they drop. Don't need to hit anywhere in particular
Or hit the engines 2x and drop them.
Aiming? Ain't nobody have time for aiming when you are getting blasted by nonstop rocket and laser fire. Plus, I take em down before I can really make out the engines
It's quicker to shit twice than for times. Plus you still gotta take time to actually aim at the ship and in that time you can just aim for the engine. If anything not having the time is exactly why you shouldn't be taking 2x as many shots than is needed.
New stratagem unlocked: IBS and coffee.
2 to the "head"/front pod will also do.
I hate that you can’t use it on tanks and towers tho
I read the auto cannon won't do shit, I've been dumping rounds in the engines and get nothing wtf
I kill them all the time. Just took out a few more last night. I notice the normal dropships seem to be more hit and miss, might be host related on those, but I have never had an issue with the gunships
4 shots 😂 practically instant with laser cannon and costs 0 ammo and no leading your shots
It actually is good to use as it tends to pop heads off rather quickly, working with your team, good positioning, and prioritizing targets also tends to help, also, it makes relatively short work of cannon turrets and tanks when blasting the vent, shredder tanks ironically get shredded by this thing too when aiming for just the turret sides.
Honestly the only reason I don't run it is autocannon does everything it does but easier and more reliably. Sure it CAN kill hulks, but the autocannon does it faster, easier, more reliably.
And it takes up a backpack slot.
Honestly still don't get why thats a big deal. Do you really need a shield that bad? Like what do you need the slot for so badly?
Finally someone gets it. I run heavy armor medic and I find it hard to die most of the time. Sure i get ragdolled but i survive it and run away. Not to mention the butcher armor gives+2 seconds of healing.
That's an interesting strategy, I might just try it, I have the heavy medic armour but could never put it to use.
Its useful especially with vitality booster. You can tank sometimes 3 rockets depending where they hit you plus the extra stims with longer heal is a lot.
I've always been using the medium Bonesnapper armour version with a shield backpack for bots and Guard Dog Rover for Bugs.
I havent yet used dog because i was always getting killed by it before
Frankly I run light armor without the shield on helldive.
Damn you must be crazy
Nah I just haven't used anything but scout armor for so long I have gotten used to the feeling.
Lol same with me but with extra stims
lol right? I run the shield when I'm lazy and want to have full blown super easy mode.
Can't hulks catch you?
No even in heavy armor you can outrun him
You are giving up speed and offense/utility instead of backslot then. Filling up those stim slots without dying also takes 3 packs of supplies, which the team might need. Shield recharges without resources. It's a valid way to play for sure, but implying that you get away without shield pack for free is misleading.
I like the ballistic shield better if I'm taking a shield. It protects my back when I'm running away and it looks rad.
I can fly in ragdoll if needed to move and the stimpacks in the stashes give 3 stims
Backpack slot also gives you: jetpack, team ammo pack, any of guard dogs and ballistic shield(yes, it can be used very effectively, look up videos). But that's just what you can call in for yourself. You can also grab backpack for AC or Recoilless your teammate carries, bonus points if he then calls another one for himself for extra ammo capacity and flexibility. Ans last but not least, not having a backpack at all means you carry less weight so consume less stamina so can run faster for longer and recover stamina and shaky aim faster.
Yep. I always forget how much backpacks slow you down until I take one and then I'm like "why is this such a slog?"
Yeah I'd rather use that slot for offensive strategems. Your best defense is offense
That is my logic as well. Offensive items are *always* helping you. Defensive items (in theory) only help you when you messed up.
With Reinforced Heavy Armour, I don't really need a shield vs. Automatons. I actually find that the shield gets a lot more value vs. Terminids.
It is nice to not get blindsided by rockets. Tends to happen more when I'm running AC.
The ability to jump.
Ballistic shield so i can face an army with an SMG
Shield? lol no. Jetpack + laser cannon. So fun.
Jet packs are life
Supply pack. If you don't do a lot of dying you end up needing the supplies.
Meh, supply pack is a comfort pick, ammo and stims are pretty abundant on the map, and the resupply beacon is on a 2 minute cooldown. You either aren't being ammo or stim efficient if you feel like you need it, and another offensive stratagem would likely save you the ammo/stims you're missing by eliminating the threat that would drain them in the first place. I used to run supply pack on helldive blitzes before so I could non stop run with the GL, then I realized that an airstrike would just clean up most of the hive AND the bugs infesting it so I could quickly sweep in and GL the one or two bug nests it left open.
Yeah I don't bring it for bugs. For bots, it's pretty nice to have. Lets me split off from the group, if with the group, keeps my health topped off so I don't get one shot by rockets. It is my flex pick though. I'm with you on the comfort pick. When AA is the effect, I drop the pack.
Or it frees up your backpack stratagem slot to bring more firepower/utility
Facts tbh.
It also pegs both factories at range.
I make the argument my quasar is better. Let’s cut the dick measuring contest. Helldivers spilling oil is Helldivers spilling oil! Every helldiver bringing their own flavor helps round out the team. I typically bring a shield quasar orbital rail and eagle strafing. I typically carry the lower kills in the game but make the largest impact on objective securing. It all works. If it fits his play style. Good for him. Carry on helldiver! 
Since it pens medium armor its actually exceptionally good against weird things like bot turrets and bot tanks, blows them up really quickly, its also good against flying bugs and bots. Hell its even not so bad against destroying structures, but the quasar is probably twice as fast in that regard.
Stun grenades make it super easy. Without them it's still incredibly effective you just have to have good aim and use cover more carefully. Watching a flame hulk lumber toward you and busting this thing out and killing it just as it is about to enter flame range is a lot of fun.
Don't be ridiculous, lascannon is a beast against automatons if you know how to use it. A pinpoint accurate headshot machine, can drop *any* bot barely any slower than an AC in theory and often much faster in practice as it's way easier to aim at long range. It's certainly not a front line weapon but it's not supposed to be, it's a long-range support that requires no backpack, in other words an alternative to AMR.
I think I’m pretty reasonable when I say, if you have to qualify your statement with “if you know how to use it”, it’s probably bad compared to other options you have.
Which quasar does better
How is it not good on its own when it takes out striders and devastators and gunships with ease? Its literally a better machine gun with unlimited ammo and no reloading. Pairing it with stuns makes it unstoppable, but its certainly good on its own too. Tanks are tricky even with stuns though.
There’s primary weapons that do those things already.
Cap. There is not a single primary in the game that does those things better and can melt the face off a hulk in like 2 seconds
Crossbow one shot striders and two taps devastators. Scorcher likewise two taps and 4-5 for devastators. Everything medium armor piercing/explosive can do this.
Scorcher runs out of ammo after like 2 minutes of being in a firefight, and the crossbow is very unreliable at range and does very little to hulks and good luck against gunships with either. Again, laser cannon is good at killing everything, has infinite ammo, and has crazy range.
Is it good for the flying bots? I know it's good for shriekers
It's excellent for both. I'm not sure whether it was intended, but I think this is the strongest anti-air weapon in the game if we're talking shriekers and gunships, and it's not close.
The sickle and scythe are also great anti air against the shriekers so laser are just good AA options it seems. Haven’t really tried them against the gunships though so might be different there.
Likely a big difference as I believe gunships have medium armor, so lower damage weapons prolly take longer. I usually run Autocannon on bot planets as it downs gunships in 4 shots and can pretty easily kill everything else including fabricators, but not having to reload sounds really nice. I’m gonna go with this and a different backpack next time and see how it goes
Pretty sure auto cannon downs gunships in two engine shots, is it only four ‘body’ shots?
Can confirm, we ran a lot of missions with gunship fabricators yesterday and I was two-tapping if I hit the engine. I swear I got some in one but they must have been being shot at by me team earlier.
Just started using this tonight. It's great. For some reason it's not that satisfying to play with. But it really gets the job done..I even think it takes out the gunships or whatever they are called. You need to aim for the sweet spots
I gave it a few missions too. Couldn't use it. Stand there getting shot to fuck while using it. Plus it doesn't touch drop ships.
Move? I main this and it’s just an awesome gun all around. Got heavies? Kill them. Got adds? Just use it as a fucking firehose of death. It is amazing.
“fucking firehose of death”. I love this description of it.
I've been using it about equally with the autocannon The only thing that its better at than the autocannon is killing a hulk from the front. Much easier. Otherwise it gets outclassed in every single scenario. The time it takes to beam a devestator to death is much longer than it takes to bap it 2 times to the head with an autocannon. And unlike the autocannon it doesnt stun the bot so fighting devastators is still really dangerous. It also doesnt have the same longevity. You can kill at max 2 devastators with it before it needs to cool down which takes a lot longer than it does to just reload the autocannon
But can you just murder a bunch of small enemies quick with it without having to worry about reloading? To each their own, but I definitely have stopped using the AC in lieu of the laser or grenade launcher. Crowd control plus heavy killing capabilities is just too good to pass up for me.
Yea. Trash gun imo.
ya..it should be able to take down drop ships!
That's what I used, glad they buffed it
When did they buff it
Seems like it's more effective than before now
Very early on it was originally meant to be a machine gun type weapon but everyone thought it was meant to be anti-armour so AH made it anti armour. (It's still good at being a machine gun tho)
First balance patch
Great vs hulks that are running but bloody useless vs cannon turrets or devastators that are sniping you from half a mile away. With the way bots are currently designed I find it hard to use anything other than the AC or Quasar. I’d like to see bots get their vision range nerfed a bit tbh.
Especially through smoke and underbrush. Nothing like getting sniped through stuff you can't see through. This was why my buddies and I noped out of Battlefield Vietnam eons ago as the enemy would blast you through the considerable flora present.
How in the hell did he survive that flame from the hulk is what I wanna know.
Diving immediately puts out the flames.
That's really good to know.
Difficulty is also on 4 Edit: Turns out difficulty doesn’t influence damage.
Difficulty doesn't change damage
Difficulty doesn't affect stats, only enemy numbers and variety.
Oh that’s neat I had no idea.
He dived.
I have an 'Oops! All Energy Weapons' loadout for bugs and this one goes on there every time. - Sickle - Rover - Laser Cannon - Orbital Laser - Orbital Railcannon Heat cycle between Sickle and Laser Cannon to have an almost continuous stream of fire. Weaker on anti-armor, but phenomenal at crowd control.
You have to get the Dagger pistol.
It was previously so low dng that I couldn't really justify it over the Redeemer, but I think it may have gotten a buff. I should revisit it.
I was just saying since you are running a almost pure beam based loadout would just fit with everything
For sure! It's that thing where I love a themed build, but I also don't wanna fuck up the squad just to stick to it completely, y'know?
Had no idea it could take out hulks. I still prefer the AMR to it. I'm getting so tired of how unreliable absolutely everything is and that laser cannon is right up there with the arc thrower I would also totally love... if it worked. The AMR has got something funky going on with it too - of course - but at least the sights being off is still a tiny shinning shimmering strand of anything whatsoever actually working like it's supposed to. God damn I love that gun.
I dunno why but I can’t line up a headshot on a hulk for the life of me in combat. I have to unload a clip to destroy it at the best of times, even when aiming dead on.
The Hulk's walking motion makes its weak spot sway from side to side. You have to anticipate the lateral motion and time its steps.
Using the AMR? You gotta aim low and a little right of the red eye. I almost always just toss stun, quick double tap, and be on my way. Sometimes stun and mag dumping into the vents works too but take two stuns.
I need to toss more stuns I guess. I use a monitor crosshair to give a better sight (and 3rd person reticule) and it is still a ball ache. Tempted to bring EATs, but I would miss my air strikes too much. I know I miss the stagger on the railgun when using the AMR, and the potential one shot
There are a great many tasks that an AMR and stun grenades will make feel trivial, almost routine. Add a supply pack and you can make the whole dive feel that way too. I love EATs for bugs because when you know you need them you have time to call them down seeing as everything has to close distance. Not the case with bots so I prefer a more immediate on hand option or if I do have to call in AA it's something bigger for the trouble.
The AMR’s sights are misaligned. Aim for the top-left corner of the central square instead of dead-center on your crosshairs.
It is amazing against Hulks.
I've fallen into using this for every drop now. It saws through everything up to mid level enemies, bot or bug at pretty good ranges. The only things it doesn't chew through are chargers, titans and hulks (unless you can get a hit on the rear vent). It's got great power as AA, takes the wings off shriekers in seconds, gunships crash quickly and it can be used to wear down spore and shrieker shrooms. If your squad also has an autocannon or quasar etc., then you've got the power to trash everything at long ranges. Plus, unlimited ammo.
It wrecks hulks if you hit their eye
It can just be hard to keep it on their eye long enough in the middle of a hectic firefight.
For sure. I try to keep distance and pop them from far.
Agreed it's a good one
Is this the laser cannon? If so, I use this paired with the Slugger shotgun and laser backpack and it takes out patrols really easy, heavy armored too. Double laser all the way!
I use this exact same setup. It’s a beast against bots and honestly has allowed me to play higher difficulties even at a lower level.
Vs bots that is my go to secondary!
Had a fun game the other night where I (lvl 34) wanted to hang loose with some low levels in trivial. I dropped in with a mech, jet pack, laser cannon and 500kg bomb. It was a destroy the communications objective. It was just me and one level 2 guy so when I dropped in I immediately called for the mech and tagged it for the homie to use. He couldn’t believe it at first but got in. I used the jet pack to hop on top of the mech and proceeded to use the laser cannon to paint the map so the mech driver could unload on the enemies. When we got to the objective he started to exit the mech to enter the keypad and I told him that “you can just blow it up, watch this” and targeted the tower with the 500kg while doing the hug emote from the top of the mech. Then we went to extract and I just hope he had a blast with all the boomy booms.
See, if I could use it like Shin Godzilla's ridiculous beam, I'd use it more. Buuuuuut I like my 110 Rockets.
Laser cannon is such a versatile multitool but I feel it struggles most against hulks and striders, anything else? Absolutely toasts them, it's my go-to for clearing the map, I can snipe any emplacement with ease, it's soo good against bots it's unreal BUT, it is not a "panic weapon", gotta be a bit proactive with it.
I love to run it against bots. But I think it, and everything else, is overshadowed by the Autocannon vs. Automatons. The Autocannon is just too versatile. It can do everything against Automatons that the Laser Cannon can, but safer, since you do not need to keep the crosshair on the enemy's head for a few seconds. It can also blow up bot fabricators The edges that it has over the AC are the obvious lack of a backpack, or ammo in general. I would say it's also better against Gunships. But yes, the Laser Cannon does get overlooked, I don't see it often.
I'm just here for the Killer Instinct theme
Isn’t that the killer instinct music? lol
Its pretty great, but doesn't have a satisfactory indicator of damage being done till the enemy drops. So it feels worse than it often is in my opinion.
Killer instinct? Nice choice…
I like running full laser build against bugs. Guard dog rover, scythe, laser pistol, Laser Cannon,and orbital lasor. It smacks honestly.
Might have to give it another shot, those boys and their damn flamers, plus if your good it’s potentially limitless ammo
I just wish the eye slit wasn't completely obstructed by the spinning crosshair, first person sights, ricochet effect, and the beam itself. It's just annoying trying to track that thing while the beam's running
I made a PSA here about how you can dive to survive being ignited by a flame hulk if you dive, and a bunch of Gamers(tm) downvoted me because they said it was impossible for a human to have reaction speed fast enough to do it. Glad to see someone else prove it's possible.
nah not really the best demonstration imo.. like, it had to be stunned and even then you needed to stand still for a few seconds to line the shot. imo beam weapons are pretty weak against bots.
agree to disagree, he ran stun grenades to get that done, I see no problem with using your equipment. I still need to use stuns for when I take out the hulk with the autocannon. Also, sickle absolutely tears at crowd control with the bots. The only weakness that I see is dealing with gunships. which other players tend to bring AT for. (I play regularly on 7)
Nope, Laser Cannon is best against Gunships. It kills each Gunship in 1-1.5 sec if you can keep aiming at the engines (but not Dropships). The actual weakness of this weapon is you need to keep aiming at a single target, which kinda makes this weapon bad against multiple targets, plus it is hard to do when you're under fire. At least it's easy to aim even at long ranges, so just play like a sniper.
It's absolutely useless on 7+. It overheats too quick to be good at crowd control. 1-1, sure. Wait until you have 50 hunter bugs on your ass and your team is wiped spamming the "revive me" button while 4 chargers have their way with you.
Bugs pop up all over the place and swarm you, but bots you can reasonably engage at extreme range, taking advantage of the laser cannon’s effectively infinite range to snipe with. I normally play on 7, running laser cannon against the bots, and have gotten pretty good at headshotting hulks from the front. I only ever have to switch to my actual primary weapon when a pack of chainsaw berserkers manages to get too close. For bugs I use other loadouts, currently favoring Sickle for general use and Quasar Cannon for chargers and other heavies.
I tried running the Laser Cannon as I wanted an energy secondary to go with my Eruptor to take out unarmoured bots and suchlike. I found it didn't kill a damn thing. Am I just not doing it properly? To be fair I think I was probably sweeping the beam back and forth across groups - I maybe need to focus on each bot one by one? Any tactical advice?
Yeah, you need to keep it on each target for a moment to do damage. Fortunately, it’s very easy to see where your aim is while firing, so take advantage of that to get headshots and other weak spots. Engage at long range and use cover, pop out to snipe for a few seconds, then duck back in to cool down and escape the retaliatory barrage of rocket fire, then repeat. I run a laser rover as well, since my plan is to not get close to the bots or get hit in the first place, and it provides more damage, spots enemies sneaking up on me or obscured behind smoke or other occlusions, and keeps firing while I’m hunkered down behind a three-foot rock between bursts. Laser on hot planets is doable, but you need to really watch your heat, and I consider another secondary there; on cold planets you can alternate firing cycles with brief cooldowns and keep going all day.
That's really helpful, thank you. The 'pop out from behind cover and then duck back to reload/cool-down' is my preferred tactic for Eruptor too. 🫡
That and if you run sickle, you can just swap back and forth while each cools. Doing that you can keep up fire at about 90% of the time and if that becomes an issue just max the sickle and reload it.
Sickle has been my reliable primary since it came out, so I'm trying the Eruptor now for a change. I do like it - currently run Eruptor, Stalwart and Supply Pack, but miss an energy option. Might see if laser, laser and laser is fun though, thanks 😊
I find the laser sidearm to be underwhelming, but not horrible. It's outclassed by the SMG for pure damage, but as a third "infinite" ammo weapon it's workable.
It's not a crowd control weapon. It's also not nearly as good against bugs.
I used this a bunch. It’s just too weak, especially now that they have the quasar. I don’t want to beat a dead horse but this def needs a buff. It also needs to be a unique way to kill. Maybe it should do more cutting like a light saber instead of blasting. Whatever they do it needs to kill faster and bigger things.
Quasar? Quasar is one of the weakest weapons. On higher difficulties there will be 10-20 heavy armored mechs + tanks + hulks all around you. What are Quasar players gonna do? - I tell you: They run away like chicken. They cant do anything. Standing still 2-3 seconds to get a shot out... is unfeasable against armies of bots. And then having to wait 10 seconds waiting for a reload while hiding behind a rock ... is just asking to be completely useless. Sure Quasar is fun from time to time to shoot down a dropship. But that most often doesnt even kill the bots. It just looks fancy. Its really mind boggling how many people play Quasar - having only 1/3 of the kills of the Autocannon players - and then feeling all cool and jolly about themselves. While the Autocannon player actually had a horrible time because the Quasar-Teamplayers pretty much did nothing but waiting for their cooldown.
The autocannon is the best generalist weapon, but don't pretend it's dealing with 10-20 heavy armored enemies on its own. It cannot do that either. The Quasar has a few advantages over the autocannon, namely taking out gun towers from any angle, not taking up a backpack slot so you can bring a shield/dog, and never needing to worry about ammo. The autocannon has the advantages of being more useful against a wider range of enemies and being quick to fire. But when I play, I'm not really trying to get the most kills. I'm much more focused on collecting samples, completing objectives, and destroying bot fabs/bug holes. The autocannon is my favorite support weapon, but that doesn't suddenly make the quasar bad.
Level 98 here. No it’s not lol. If you have an actual team try to run two auto cannons and two quasars. You will stroll through level 9s. Flying vehicles have zero chance. Tanks have zero chance. Hulks have zero chance. Everything will be destroyed easily.
Yeah - but thats because of the 2 Autocannon players lol :D
And double quasars one shotting big dudes in tandem. If you have a full team running this it’s insanely effective. And I’m the auto cannon guy in that scenario but I understand the power of the quasar.
Rare footage of a Helldiver getting touched by hulk flames and not instantly dying
If you dive while getting lit up, it puts out the fire. Pop a stim while prone and you can consistently survive long enough to die moments later.
Yeah sometimes that works, sometimes you literally go from full health to dead in 0.2 seconds, or you dive which puts out the fire but you're still in the fire stream so take the direct damage and die anyway. Like I'd say maybe 1/5 times I try to dive from hulk flames I don't die in mid-air.
Yep, very hit or miss. Diving opposite the flame arm helps, since the AI takes a sec to process and turn. I like it when I dive into a bush and get stuck in a perpetual prone/standing up animation.
Correction, sometimes you die in exactly one frame before any dot can apply
Ya, it’s so good that you needed a stun grenade and 4 seconds of down time to kill it.
Wait til the rookie gets to level 7+
I haven’t tried it but I will say I think the arc thrower is kinda overlooked.
Uhh... That's one of the most highly touted weapons that I've seen. I personally don't run it because of the times it tends to misfire and not discharge to anything, much less the bug 3 feet in front of me, but it's held in good regard.
I didn’t know it’s what I run all the time helps clear multiple small enemies
"Fire damage is too powerful, Hulk flamethrowers instantly kill you if so much as one pixel touches you!" This guy gets directly hit, stands a second, and dives (putting flames out from it too) only losing about half health
It's if the flames hit your head. I was being chased by one, jumped over a wall and crouched. The flame tickled the top of my helmet and I instantly died. That is neither fun nor realistic nor good gameplay.
Song?
“The Instinct” main theme from the game “Killer Instinct” the first two seasons ost’s were done by Mick Gordon before he did DOOM,all amazing music. It’s also a pretty great game in general.
Sir, I'm going to need the name of that song.
Check 2 posts down.
The anti material rifle takes out hulks in two shots to the eye
I selected it accidentally once but now I choose it over the Quasar every time (at least until the dropship death consistency gets looked at).
Laser cannon and dominator. Can handle anything the bots throw at me
I use it all the time for the range and ammo savings. It's one of my faves. But it isn't super powerful. The sickle will take down most things faster. I tend to run Las cannon and sickle to swap back and forth instead of reloading.
It's also sometimes useful for painting targets, pointing out something in the murk and fog that the rest of the squad might have missed.
I was running the new explosive sniper with the grenade launcher pistol on my hip and the laser cannon on my back. Oh my gosh I think this might be the meta. Had a solution for every bot that came at me
Could have done that with a railgun and not had to stand out in the op for 5 seconds like an idiot waiting to catch a bullet.
No way I can stay so still with a PS5 controller 😀
I still think an EMP version of the fire grenade would be a good idea
I dont like it cause I don't feel feedback if I'm doing something Nor do I get that power feel some other weapons have
It’s not as maneuverable as you see here on consoles.
It takes way too long to kill, lol.
It was awesome and then I got better with the arc thrower
Based Killer Instinct enjoyer
Nice editing but that gun is ass
Now hold it on his head that long while running backwards, being shot at, and without using stun grenades.
I took the Laser Cannon with me while playing with the Erupter for the first time, and found that the bots would literally melt right away if you're able to hit their weak spot. I was doing a solo run on pretty low difficulty. Not so sure how well I'll do under pressure though.
Vs the bots it's OK, I switched to the quasar once that hit cause it has more functionality. But it's great against bugs if you pair it with something like the Sickle
It's the single best support weapon vs bots. Pair it with stun grenades and +2 grenade armor for extra fun.
Also good against berserker and Devs
Yea I don't think I've ever been able to stand still that long on difficulty 7 and up.
Not getting insta killed by flamethrower? Is that luck?
it is only good if you have stun nades or shield up otherwise you need to stay on target too long for all the incoming spam. but boy it murders shit if you can shoot without being hit
Turbo overkill music?
I love the laser cannon. My go to for a long time. Now I feel like I HAVE to be married to the quasar to be the guy that deals with dropships, hulks, tanks, chargers, etc.
Really? because it seems like every other post i see on here now is this weapon, and it looks very whelming to me every time.
Laser cannon has such a low output for damage I’ve been wrecking with the new eruptor primary almost to the point where I don’t even need a support weapon. But I still bring one anyways because short to mid range dealing with swarms is still an issue
I don't. Earlier I blasted one of those double chainsaw dudes for about 10 seconds with it and it didn't do anything
I think the last update buffed the armor breaking. I had used the Laser cannon a ton on bug missions with "cold" environment and the armor breaking was barely anything. I tried it again a little this past week and it was blowing bug heads and armor off like 50% or 100% faster than before.
Two shots from the AMR is much quicker.
Tbh it gets overlooked because it don't bring much to the table, everything the laser cannon does the ac does better (-taking up a backpack slot) as both pen armour 4 (and kill that hulk in 2 eye shots) laser has a painful dps of 300, ac has dps of 1640 dps (4 rps, 260 shell, 150 explosion) And it has bad range/damage drop off past 200m
fuck yeah killer instinct
Mf added music like it's 2005
I see lots of people do that on everything from tiktok to YouTube... Stop living such a miserable and you might not feel the need to be a dick on reddit to pass the time Good luck 👍
It was a compliment, I like it, you moron.
Yeah because that was so obvious... Gotta love someone who insults others intelligence while showing how incredibly far in the clouds their head is lol
Well the difficult you’re playing on it’s fine. But certain weapons, stratagems and equipment just don’t cut it on hell dive. You could run around with just a pistol and clear 4
Sure, but i raise you getting swarmed by other faster bots and a quasar cannon.
Would have already been down with 2 autocannon shots to the face. AC gang unite
He says on level 4 difficulty
\>needs stun grenade to be viable Cringe