วีดีโอ

Your absence is your presence

At least you're not the source of his only death ^^ Imagine no deathless in the title because of your teammate. I would have kicked that S4 player if I were you XD

We go for deathless because it adds to the tension as you actually try to stay alive. If a stray hellbomb kills you, nothing you could do, no biggy :P

Yeah, I still have to try it with peak physique at some point, I'm too attached to that recoil control...

Back when we didn't even have crosshairs for the HMG :P Thanks for sticking around!

AMR is mine, but mowing down Berserkers or the Factory Strider underbelly is unmatched!

For sure. This just felt like the better fashion choice :P

I take it without a supply pack for bugs, even with an AT support weapon - instead I bring anti-chaff strats like sentries to deal with most of the lights while I focus on the mediums, e.g. th-cam.com/video/9N-4qTQksgE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=x-KQZ7jSVZjr5FzQ. Being the AT guy means you can protect the sentries better from Chargers, and you can end up with one of the highest kills without being the chaff clear guy.

Sorry, not sure :/

If the people complaining found it as easy as you...well they wouldn't be complaining about "losing" their crutch now would they :P

Yeah, far too quiet. Our other games have felt like the real deal :)

For me, it's not about ther nerfs. The game is too buggy. Getting thrown into oblivion, reloading empty mags, stimming without healing. New enemies just made it worse. We saw Spiked throw a stun on a new charger and it got ignored. I'm tired of getting rocketed by devs in rocks. Objectives not working. Support weapons getting deployed underground. The game still feels like it's in beta testing.

Lool, examine the cape and it's complete shredded.

Next level thinking, using their turret aggro against them.

oh this definitely sounds tasty might give it a go soon

Yup! Impalers and Chargers can be killed pretty quickly with the GL alone, though you'd probably want to strike them instead if things are busy. You have a ton of stuns with this set up so don't be afraid to spam some stuns to lock everything down and let you work. If you're worried about multiple BTs, switch from Eagle Airstrike to 500kg, it's one less charge but kill BTs more reliably, can be used on Chargers too.

@@newspiked7385 aye aye private👍

Mixing it up keeps it fresh for me too :) gotta do some runs with the 2 new flamers soon as well

@@newspiked7385 actually remember to use them? w o w

That's what the Eruptor is for :) or my teammate's flames

I'm impressed by the skill level displayed here, but I'm more impressed with how they even see anything.

I've heard the first line repeated a lot, but I think you have to be ignoring all the buffs the weapons have received since launch. Liberator Liberator Concussive Tenderizer Adjudicator Diligence Diligence CS Punisher Breaker Spray & Pray Crossbow Dominator Plasma Punisher Blitzer Scythe Purifier Peacemaker Dagger If you look at the support weapons, only the Quasar, Arc Thrower, Railgun and Flamer can be said to have been overall nerfed (though they received smaller buffs to try to compensate) from their state at release. Every other weapon except the Commando and Autocannon has received buffs, and are seeing a ton of use. I never particularly liked it, but even now people still really like the Quasar, and despite all the hate the Arc Thrower and Railgun are still excellent now (with the recent Gunship durability change, it's now basically in the same category as AMR / AC / HMG / LC as being able to handle pretty much everything on the Bot front). When I look at how good so many of the weapons are, and yet people are still talking about how tight the meta is and how everything else underperforms, I really have to come to the conclusion that people are so tied to a meta they saw online that they haven't put the time in to learn how to use the other weapons. Part of the reason why I put out so many videos with me and my team using 'off-meta' is to show just how much variety is on offer (and because playing with other toys is fun!), so hopefully that variety comes across when you watch them.

in general a personal space would be nice where you can spend samples for decoration! that way samples have more of a meaning

Sadly, if you go online on reddit or discord you'll find a lot of people saying the gun's been ruined, so I don't think we were exaggerating at all. And if people really thought it was simply unnecessary, how does that justify the kind of doomposting and review bombing you're seeing everywhere? It's frankly immature behaviour. I also have to take issue with the common depiction of AH as being obssessed with nerfs and not buffing the other weapons. If you take a look at the patch notes since release, you'll see that the vast majority of the weapons have received buffs to try and bring up the lower end, it's not just bringing down the higher end. Liberator Liberator Concussive Tenderizer Adjudicator Diligence Diligence CS Punisher Breaker Spray & Pray Crossbow Dominator Plasma Punisher Blitzer Scythe Purifier Peacemaker Dagger All of those have been buffed since release, with some of those changes launching them from barely touched to top-tier (Tenderizer, Diligence CS, Dominator, Blitzer for example) - and that's not even looking at the support weapons. It's not been their default action to just nerf, they've consistently been buffing our tools, and the proof is in the pudding, if you take a look through my Helldive videos you'll see me use basically every weapon at some point, with only 3 primaries that I'd consider below par currrently (Liberator Penetrator, Liberator Concussive, and maybe the Purifier though I've seen good results in other people's hands). Even in this very update, we saw significant buffs to the Slugger (bringing it back to its old glory), the Crossbow, the Walking and the 120mm Barrages - yet people are still saying with a straight face that all we get are nerfs, and the AH are just motivated by nerfing our fun. It's wilful ignorance / outrage bandwagoning, at a certain point. I also have to take issue with the PvE argument. Good balance matters whether it's in PvP or PvE. You can't simply buff the enemies all the time, because: a) it takes far more development time to bring every other weapon in the game up to the level of the outlier than it does to just fix the one outlier b) the outlier may be the one that's exceeding the intended power level of that class of weapons, not that the others are underperforming c) power creep - if you do bring everything up, you weaken the overall challenge, so you have to compensate by bringing up the enemy difficulty, which is yet more work d) bringing up the enemy difficulty is not infinitely scalable. Taking the higher enemy HP route leads to bullet sponges and your weapons feel weak again, and increasing the enemy count puts more and more stress on lower end machines - in a game where people are already complaining about performance issues. Power creep can happen with many changes happening slowly over time, so you have to keep a lid on it or it gets out of control. The Behemoth is a good example of how to shake up the meta, but increasing the number of Behemoths for example doesn't actually help reduce the dominance of the iBreaker - in fact as one of the few primaries that can reliably burst a Charger's ass within one stun, it just increases the gap between it and the majority of primaries that can't. It also has other consequences regarding the balance between the AT support weapons and the non-AT support weapons. One of the strengths of this game has been that even the chaff enemies continue to pose a threat even at max difficulty, so there's always a place for trash clear support weapons and strats. If you just keep increasing the number of tanks (as we saw in earlier patches), everyone's pushed to pick more AT, and there's even more pressure on primary weapons to do all of the trash clearing...pushing even more people towards the iBreaker. The criticisms of the Flamethrower nerf I can understand a lot more, as I didn't particularly rate it as a trash clearer to begin with compared with the MGs, so if they wanted to shift the Flamer from being decent trash clear + excellent close-range Charger killer to pure trash clear, it needed some kind of buff for its range, AOE or like you suggest the AP allowing it to still penetrate through mediums. That still doesn't justify a lot of the online reaction - no, there are still plenty of tools for taking out the number of Chargers at high-level. It doesn't ruin the other weapons released in the Warbond - both the secondary and primary flamer are actually really good without inheriting the old support flamer's anti-armour properties, so all the memeing about "nerf fire, then release fire warbond" is off the mark. No, there were still plenty of great changes in this update + warbond, and yes they were right to release a trailer showcasing all the new stuff, as this update has been the biggest shake-up of the top-end challenge so far, and has made the biggest difference to players like me in continuing to enjoy the game.

@@newspiked7385great points, I think many of the issues concerning damage could be addressed with weapons having perks or abilities that allow for things like armor penetration or reduced damage to armor that eventually breaks it. The railgun could penetrate the longer you charge it, either shredding armor or punching through multiple weaker enemies or even their bodies. In EDF6, the Fang Sniper rifle and railgun tank both do this: the rifle hits three targets and stops unless it hits heavy armor, and the railgun tank seems to go on forever. In short, I’d like the primary weapons to have more personality, and not be completely ineffective unless you’re in a specific situation like being on the side or behind the charger. Acid weapons in EDF are the most effective towards armor besides the designated weapons, and I think having the chemical strike or a chemical launcher (like in EDF6) have this effect would give players more chances to be creative. I think AH and the doomers need to think outside of the box. GG.

@newspiked7385 @newspiked7385 I gave it another look, and I might have still missed the "breaker is ruined" talk . Though I see that doomer sentiment very strongly for the game at large due to the flamethrower, as some part of a trend. I really don't have any issue with your position on their behavior, regardless of if I agree or not, but I think there is more to this than what is being discussed. But first, I need to clarify some things (1) what I meant by Arrowhead's default reaction to meta weapons. I do mean their reaction to the meta weapons specifically, not overall balancing philosophy. They specifically point to strong, "reliable" weapons being nerfed as their point of contention, not that it's the only action arrowhead does. I think it's more that they don't want Arrowhead doing any nerfs to these weapons until the underused weapons are up to par with the weapons they use. And (2) the difference in balancing PvP and PvE. I wasn't saying that enemies could simply be buffed all the time, just that you have more attractive options in lowering the effectiveness in a weapon than with PvP, which in this case could be making the enemies stronger. Frankly, I haven't seen online discussion go this far into the weeds of how a "nerfs are never necessary" approach would work. Again, it seems the position is that many of the underpicked weapons should be buffed and not the already attractive weapons being nerfed, which takes me out of clarifying earlier statements and into the main point. There are more things working to drum up this fervor than "skill issue" or "bandwagoning." I think many players, regardless of their skill levels, are set in their desired set of weapons after playing for some time. This isn't to say people are just maining one loadout (Most people I play with always change their weapons in between ops or missions). Just that there is a group of weapons that they lean on when maybe they go into a level they aren't used to, or play with low-level Randoms, etc. Now here comes a whole other entity, making such "drastic" changes to these weapons you've come to be comfortable with, now these weapons you used to trust just became strange to you in one update. There's likely even more that goes into this, but at least from where I'm standing, a big component of this outrage can be encapsulated in this one word: alienation. I think Arrowhead's response and posture to this is actually perfect. Hypothetically, the changes they made would probably be just fine if they weren't *changes.* If these were how things were at launch, the game would've risen to the same kind of fame. So the actual decisions are not really the issue here. Framing things as a lack of deeper communication with the community cuts to the meat and potatoes of the issue, all while not taking on an onus they don't deserve. If these changes were slow-rolled with player suggestions in a test server environment, the hype of this update wouldn't get drowned out with outrage. Again, I don't take any issue with your position on the behavior of the people on reddit and discord, but I would hope you at least empathize (not necessarily sympathize) with them. Unlike many..many....many other cases, I actually buy the idea of "everyone wants the same thing" with this community.

@@BRAINSPLATTER16 It’s still overpowered, but in a reasonable spot. People crying that they can’t spray and pray everything but biles spewers and titans aren’t very creative when killing bugs.

Thanks for your reply, it's all been very civil which is refreshing :) For (1) I guess how I see it is, AH are bringing up the other guns at the same time as nerfing the overperformers. IIRC when the Railgun was hit with its first nerfs, was the same time when they changed the Charger head HP so that EATS, RR and later Quasar would be able to one-shot them. Incendiary Breaker ammo capacity was nerfed, but if players want to hold the trigger down like they used to, the Breaker Spray & Pray has been buffed for a few patches now, performing much the same role of great light enemy trash clear, as well as good damage on Charger asses, with some advantages like a slightly tighter choke and the ability to shoot enemies near your teammates without setting them on fire. People keep asking for underperformers to be brought on par, but they have been, both amongst the primaries and support weapons. I think the underlying reason why people have felt they weren't up to par was simply that the stuff that people complained the most about - the Railgun, Arc Thrower, and now the Flamethrower - simply did too many things too well (specifically on the Bug front), and people grew accustomed to that power level. The Railgun could one-shot mediums, and at the same time 2-shot Chargers (and thanks to the Playstation bug, Titans too). Flamer could clear all kinds of chaff, and also delete Chargers in 2 seconds with ease. The Arc Thrower could stunlock Chargers while keeping an entire horde at bay, and with enough time could take out BTs. People thought this was what all support weapons should be capable of, when really what AH envisioned was Chaff specialists (e.g. the MGs) and AT Specialists (e.g. the RR) excelling at their roles and being weak against enemies on the opposite end, with Generalists covering a bit of both. How much the AC and AMR dominate on the Bot front is a discussion for another day, but I think what people are struggling with is clinging to the idea of the support weapon that excels at practically everything. Funnily enough, AH haven't truly downgraded those weapons that much - Railgun is back to 2-shotting Charger legs for the primary finish, with a 3-shot for Behemoths; Arc Thrower is still an amazing trash killer and can take on Chargers in decent time, but not Behemoths; and the Flamer can still clear trash well while bursting the asses of both Charger types in a couple of seconds. I can think of a few small buffs for each of them, but their overall power level is good enough for max level play. For (2), I think that's a fair point, but also a more nuanced point than I've seen online, which sadly have been as simplistic as "this is PvE, balance is unimportant, don't nerf my fun". I think I also gave my reasons why buffing all the other weapons and the enemies as well rather than just nerfing the problematic gun can cause a lot more problems than it solves, when the alternative is simply for players to not overreact to nerfs and think every nerf must make their gun less fun. There have been instances where a nerfed gun / character actually makes them more fun for me to use, as I feel like I'm actually earning my victories more when using them, but this doesn't seem to be shared by the people complaining about even the more minor nerfs. Agree a lot with your later points. I can definitely understand the feeling of becoming comfortable with a set of weapons if you don't really want to experiment much, then having those tools switched up, sometimes drastically. But as you pointed out, unfortunately the mistake wasn't really the nerf, but releasing those weapons in that state to begin with. Once the weapons have been released in an OP state, it becomes very difficult to bring in the necessary nerfs without uproar. But players should have the ability to recognise when it's necessary. If devs aren't allowed to nerf stuff after they're introduced, or even before release (see all the accusations of "pre-nerfs", the only avenue you leave for the designers is power creep, which can lead to the slow death of a game. Better communication from AH, I can agree with. It would be great for some deeper dives into their balancing decisions, though I am sceptical of some people's ability to try to understand what they're going for instead of immediately trying to twist words and find inconsistencies. Not rushing content out in a clearly incomplete state (as we had with the Tenderizer for example) is another. But there are things that the player community could improve at as well. It's not solely down to the developers to promote a better understanding of the game's design, it also requires a willingness on the part of the players too, and sadly a lot of that has been missing from the online discourse.

One-shot ability on a bunch of medium enemies combined with an AoE that staggers, sniper accuracy, pops Spewers easily as well as tight groups of chaff, AoE means you can hit the front of MG emplacements to kill the gunner, or take out all the troopers in a bunker with one hit, one-shots Devastators and also the basic Striders (havent tried the shielded ones yet). It has a lot going for it other than just fab / bug hole sniping, which is already a prized ability. In this build it's my main tool for Hiveguards and kills them quick.

@@newspiked7385 Yes. The problem with it is that it’s slower at doing so than other guns. Slugger can do everything here but AoE, and if it can’t, it can still probably deal with more enemies in a similar amount of time. It has its niche, but saying it’s in a healthy state is just wrong rn imo.

@@Peter-SlashDisagree, the slugger is also fantastic but when it comes to utility it pales compared to the Eruptor

@@Peter-Slash the "buts" are exactly what have been taken into account for balance. It can take out a group of troopers faster than a slugger ever could with one shot, if they're grouped up. It's one of only 2 primaries that can take out bug holes and fabricators, which frees up your nade slot for stuns, which opens up more possibilities. It's not meant to be magdumped into an enemy, that's not how you balance high damage slow-firing AOE weapons, they're all about breakpoints and one-shot damage. The slow firerate is offset by the fact that you need time to acquire your next target as you killed your first in one shot. Using it on single troopers or Charger asses will be inefficient, as those aren't its intended targets.

@@newspiked7385 Agreed. I think the eruptor is in a good spot. If anything maybe bump ammo up to 40, but in terms of power and kill potential I really like where it's at.

Exactly. New enemies are amazing (especially on the bug front), but almost nobody talks about it. As well as the fact that the game has about 70k online these days. But when the game's online dropped under 10k for a 1 day - literally everybody talked about it

A new challenge is what I wanted the most, and lvl 10 plus the new enemies and the mega nests have absolutely delivered.

@@newspiked7385 The game is still fun, and the top difficulties are still tough. That's what matters to me, and not being able to use the flamethrower to kill chargers as easily is not that big of an issue for a horde clear weapon

​@@beleth57yeah, I only wish they hadn't messed with the fire visual effects, now it looks like a big blowtorch instead of a flamethrower

If you don’t complain about it they’ll never know you don’t like what they’re doing. Not gonna let a stupid and unnecessary nerf slip by just because they added a new difficulty and some variant enemies.

One of the best crowd clearers in the game :) And yeah, all the pumps are nice sidegrades to each other, very nice.

@@newspiked7385 Need to revisit the laser now it apparently causes burn 👀

@@maclegend9169 yeah, stealth change to the beam weapons 👀

It's perpenidcular to the direction from which you throw the stratagem from.

@@Hargrovius OHHHHH okok. Thanks!!

50/50. Orbital precision strike is much more reliable in this regard

I find it very reliable with a stun nade, and the spread can let you hit multiple Chargers more easily too. Behemoths might survive the hit but then bleed out.

It's absolutely criminal that they did that.

iBreaker still works as both chaff clear and Charger killer, but you need to let enemies burn more rather than magdumping. If you really want to spam it like before, you can pair it with other hungry weapons like the GL + Supply Pack, or if you want to use it primarily as a Charger ass burster you can bring it with the Stalwart / MG which you then use as your primary. Maybe I'll do a build with it just to show how it's still top-tier.

@@newspiked7385 thanks! I run it with an autocannon now so I use the ibreaker primarily for chaff clear and the autocannon for armoured enemies rather than magdumping them with the ibreaker… then rely on stun grenades + orbital strike or 500kg for heavy enemies. Worked pretty good the last few games I played 😊

That's a shame

they reduced the booster's visual effects and i find it pretty tolerable now, cool even

yea it starts to hurt my eyes after a while i have to take a break on crimsica so that i dont get a headache from all of the visual interference in this game

That plus the super stim effect at the same time can be pretty nasty, for sure. I kinda like it tho, ha

I'm lucky to have 'em. Jump on the discord if you want to join in tho!

True, should have tried it, just takes a while and ofc you're slowed down while firing. Glad you're enjoying the content!

Ah nice! Will have to try the back leg tech then. Stripped the front leg before yet bullets were still bouncing off if, which was weird.