I feel like there is massive damage drop off with the slugs, like you can one-tap devastators up close in the face but seems to take alot more shots at range
Maybe give the diligence counter sniper a try for automatons. I don't know how it goes in solo, but I know one thing that makes it much more desirable than the normal diligence: It has a much higher rate of oneshotting infantry units, and has way less drop making long range far easier.
This is the type of content I want to see. No shitty tier-lists, no clickbaits, pure information, with consideration for different gameplay against different enemies. Hope to see more of that
Ya I'm not sure what the logic on the ammo count was. It already has a much slower ROF and it only does like 10 percent more damage per shot. Why is the ammo count lower as well? Really hope we get a balance pass sooner than later.
Slugger is also one of the only weapons that can shoot open containers which can make gathering super credits/medals/credits quicker and save grenades. Not a huge deal but a nice thing to know about.
@@Brass319 no sadly the slugger cannot destroy holes or fabricators. I tested it a few times only weapons that can destroy them are the auto cannon, grenade launcher and rocket launcher.
The issue is your heavy weapon. taking the rail gun with the slugger doesn't give you the ability to clear hoards wile with the slugger you already have something that will punch through most enemies, take a stratagem to deal with thick boys and an MG or the GL and leave the rail at home. the machine pistol is a great choice for the secondary slot as its great for clearing trash away from you if they get too close for the GL. overall I think some of these guns are held by by players just changing one gun and not their kit to work around the guns abilities. people love the rail because it works great with the breaker, it can kill thick targets easily wile the breaker can handle hoards better.
THIS! The Slugger is now my default on both fronts with the machine pistol secondary. In solo, I still take the Railgun, as it's value to take on larger targets is simply too much to ignore (break the charger leg with two shots, 3-4 Slugger shots will kill after that). On top of that, people don't adjust their playstyles at all when choosing new weapons, thinking it's just the characteristics that change. If you don't adapt your kit to match your playstyle or vice versa, then you're gonna have a bad time, no matter your kit.
My problem is breaker actually handles hoards and big targets equally as well. It’s good against swarms, and its ability to unload its clip so fast makes it have great dps against the big boys. I do like the sluggers, but they need an ammo increase. 56 slug shells compared to 128 breaker shells is insane.
@@Drbeattlesyou don’t punch through the shield, you punch around it. But yeah, it stop working on medium armor which spewer at higher difficulty started to have on their face, that is problematic for breaker.
There is pretty substantial thing about the Slugger (that was overlooked in this video) that can make a BIG difference and makes me take it over the breaker nowadays (because I am also bored of using breaker lol), and that is STAGGER. This is actually substantial for Terminid's and makes it much more useable than you would think. I will say, it is definitely worse than the breaker at dealing with small Terminid targets, AND THUS THE BREAKER IS PROBABLY STILL THE BETTER OPTION BECAUSE OF THIS, but medium Terminid targets I believe the Slugger will excel against more. A few examples: You can be UNLOADING your breaker into a hive commander (big guys that like to get going without a head) with the breaker, and it will still keep going; the only time its stopping is when you shoot its legs off or when it is 100% dead from bleeding out or dumping more bullets into it. It will also not stop charging even when you are blasting into its head. Alternatively, slugger shots interrupt them. Hitting them in the head will stop them mid-charge, and another shot to their head pops it off, staggering it back again. This is very convenient because by the time it is recovered from its staggered state, its already halfway bled out and will die before it gets to you, no need to shoot off some additional legs. This is better than you would think, because once you've shot the head off it you know you can immediately move on to the next target without worrying about shooting off legs and such. Hive Guard isn't too threatening, but can be annoying to deal with when using the breaker. Usually my go-to is forego the breaker entirely and use a single rail gun shot again these enemies instead. It can take too long trying to go prone and shoot its under-flesh with breaker when there are other enemies rushing towards you. Slugger demolishes this enemy. Not only does a slugger shot stagger it, making it expose its flesh more (which helps your teammates using other weapons), it will also straight up just go through the armor (medium armor-pen weapon) and 2 shot it aiming at the head. Very convenient against this not so dangerous but sorta annoying enemy. Finally, and this is definitely the one of the BEST uses of Sluggers stagger, is against all three types of bile spewers. Breaker isn't bad against these enemies, it can kill them pretty quick when aiming at their head (for the nursing bile spewer and unarmored bile spewer only, its much harder for breaker to kill the armored variant on higher difficulties), but its usually not fast enough when they have already raised their head to start spewing or when you are reloading a mag. And how does the Slugger perform? A single slugger shot to their head will interrupt the bile spewers spitting attack, very similar to using a rail gun on a bile titan during its wind-up spit attack. This can help tremendously; you will end up saving yourself, your teammates, and your turrets because of this property. It definitely does not kill them as fast as breaker does. HOWEVER, since the Slugger is medium armor pen, it is actually much much better at killing the armored bile spewer variant that shows up on higher difficulties compared to breaker. Definitely makes these enemies much less of a threat when you know you have the tools to stop them from using their spit attack. Stalkers get ate up by breaker, but it lacks the range to kill them efficiently. You will be wasting bullets when shooting at range and shooting them too late can result in them getting a few hits off. Slugger solves this issue because it will just stagger them and leave them lined up for free follow up shots. There's more that Slugger's stagger can do and I implore you to experiment, so take what you will about stagger and maybe think about it against automatons and on other weapons :). I definitely love using Slugger against them a lot more than bugs. SOME OTHER THOUGHTS: I don't understand why you painted the sluggers reload speed as being pitiful. Since it is rounds reload, you can actually reload and shoot at the same time. There is essentially no limit to how long you can fire aside from your entire magazines reserves. If you are dumping all your rounds, waiting 5.6 seconds to reload, and then shooting again, you are using this gun wrong. You will never have downtime killing enemies as long as you reload AND shoot. I KNOW SLUGGER GETS SHIT AMMO, But you are never wasting bullets with the Slugger compared to Breaker. Breaker is mag fed and Slugger is not. Very often you will either be reloading Breaker when its completely empty (MUCH LONGER RELOAD THAT YOU SHOULD AVOID), or doing it when it before that and throwing away a few bullets. Every shot counts with Slugger and those 40+16 shells in reserve are equal to 40+16 shots in reserve, as opposed to 7+1 mags equal to 100+ shells NOT being equal to 100+ shots, because some of those bullets will go waste in the heat of battle. (also including the shots that come preloaded in the mag with these comparisons; Slugger gets more like 56 shots, not 40). Using a different weapon also means you need to play differently. You won't necessarily always need a rail gun when you have something that can now deal with the medium sized targets for example. The rover becomes a great backpack slot for the slugger as it can fulfill the ability of taking at trash mobs which the breaker is great at and slugger is mid at. You won't always need to use a rail gun with slugger, GL is a good choice because slugger can handle medium targets easily and GL demolishes trash. Really, when comparing breaker and slugger, remember these are like different tools for different jobs. The ammo economy of the slugger does suck a lot. IMO There are a couple guns that have issues with ammo economy that I really feel like should be rectified in a balance patch; these weapons being both pump shotguns, the spear, and less so but still noticeable for the anti-material rifle.
Stagger also prevents the brood commander from calling allies or any other bug releasing pheromones for a bug breach. In addition to less spread, the higher penetration allows for the damage to not be resisted as careless usage of the breaker will lower its damage by 60% against light armor.
I know you're looking for a weapon for automatons, but I just want to put it out there, the incendiary breaker is slept on hard for bugs. if you're running the railgun you'll already have a weapon for the bigger targets, and the incendiary really shreds through hoards. It's wide spread means you can basically aim at 20 enemies and do decent damage to all of them per shot. 3-4 shots later you can have 10+ kills on things hunter size and down. It does struggle with single target damage a bit more, you need to put more shots into the medium bugs to kill them, but if you're willing to whip out the railgun more frequently to deal with medium bugs every now and then when you need to kill them quick, its a really solid setup.
For bugs I’ve just stuck with breaker since I still don’t have enough credits for the premium pass, but I’ve found the laser drone to be quite effective in helping with hordes. Since so many bugs are up in your face, the laser drone is basically firing non stop, and it helps a lot with cleaning up the smaller bugs. You will have to be carful since no personal shield does suck, but I honestly prefer the drone over the shield, at least for bugs. Shield is way better for the automatons.
@@lucg4005 I completely agree. Laser drone is extremely useful for bugs, especially if your loadout is more focused on anti armor or taking out larger enemies.
Honestly, arc thrower is slept on too, it cant delete a charger as fast, or even a bile titan, but it CAN kill a charger, and for those medium targets it makes quick work
I just use rover dog for crowd control. Usually have 500 kills or more by the end while my teammates have barely 100. Keep the regular breaker for warriors and killing off chargers with broken armor. Rover allows you to ignore the smaller bugs and the shield doesn't help much if you have hunters just biting your toes 24/7 with a bile titan following behind them. Rover gives me breathing room more often than not
The slugger (and punisher) can reload a shell inbetween each shot as you can double up on the actions of pumping and reloading. So you dont really need to worry about reload speed or sustained DPS when comparing the 2. Also the slug vs pellets is huge because even the bugs die faster to having all the damage hit 1 place means you break limbs/heads which kills faster than RAW damage spread all over the target. The main drawback to the Slugger (and punisher) is their total ammo, for some reason they only get 40 shells reserve (breaker gets 100+) and resupplies only give 24 shells not the full amount (again breaker gets all 100+).
Punisher actually got the highest total damage of it's total ammo of all weapons making ammo it's strong point. But it's sad that you don't get the full ammo when resupplying and I would suspect that is a holdover from some buff/nerf in the past and should really be changed.
@@znail4675this sound incorrect? Punisher does what 380? Let’s say it does 500 And the breaker does 330 56 shells X 500= 28,000 112shells X 330= 36,960 Am I wrong? Does the punisher actually do like 660 dmg per shot?
@swift-pawedteif386 breakers ammo is higher than that, it's 7mags+1 so 8x16 for 128 shells for 42,240 reserve damage. I though the punisher was 360 damage but even at 380 damage that's half the breakers damage capacity. Unless the weapon stats are hopelessly incorrect. Like the slugger lists itself as light armour pen but it pens medium armour so who knows. Just gotta wait for the dataminers to do their thing.
oh you didn't talk about the stagger effect the slugger does, on stalker for example. But until we get a balance patch were the rest of the arsenal is buff, the breaker will stay king
they dont need to buff every things, they just need to nerf the few things over performing, the breaker and the railgun, they ruin the game balance if they just buff every things.
@@angerskarin9222 You've never used a weapon other than the breaker on higher difficulties have you? It's not that things like the railgun and breaker overperform and are "over powered" its the fact that every other weapons besides maybe the plas-1 scorcher underperforms and is absolute garbage at high difficulties.
@@MaxxxboxDGSCE breaker needs nerf. A fast automatic weapon with great damage, great ammo count, fast reload and decent accuracy? How in the world would any other gun compete? I think the damage is probably fine, they could cut the shoot speed and ammo count in half and that will probably let other guns shine more
it is definitely a high skill weapon, I personally always use it on automaton missions, In a swarm situation I use my sidearm to clear the squishy light ones and whip it out against anything bigger( berserkers, devastators etc). the high dmg one shots automatons in the head but either the scope is off or there is slight bullet drop at like 10+m because you have to aim slightly above the head in order to score the weakspot hit. The stagger against berserkers/devastators have saved me and my team mates multiple times though, if I missed the head I at least buy myself a couple seconds to land a shot again or pivot to the others and stun them instead. Personally I say it's decent CQB because the automaton heads are that much closer to click, also if you want to keep constant fire up always spam reload at any opportunity, the upside to these tube loaded guns cater to our FPS reload habits, kill one, reload....peek out of cover fire, back in cover reload.... I do agree ammo is an issue at times... and in high pressure situations it has failed me a couple, but mostly due to misplay or unfortunate rocket spam/cannon turret sniping me from across the map.
I see the slugger as a fantastic secondary weapons for teams. If your team is coordinated enough, multiple weapon types is very advantageous. The slugger mostly for armored target, the breaker for widespread dmg, etc. Having a well balanced and coordinated team makes it SO much easier.
@@Brass319 exactly! So many people insta lock Railgun; which is fine! But if you want to optimize your team load out, having dedicated team roles is an instant upgrade. The armor passives alone allow a very deep, team oriented game. Then you add strategems that turn the whole game on it's head. If the community is trying to make a standardized team template, approach the situation like a team game... 4 players. 1 tank, 2 DPS, 1 supp. Tank players can take ballistic shield, which is very underrated imo, shield relays, Emplacements, etc. DPS take eagle and orbital strats. Communicate with your partner DPS and cover their weaknesses. Supp takes sentries, maybe napalm, Gatling barrage, Emplacements, etc. anything defensive to cover retreats. You're done! Even three in this config makes easy work.
@@Brass319 Hell, even Flamethrowers. It's absolutely supreme at clearing out hordes and even those unarmored medium targets. It deals respectable damage, burning seems to do hefty damage while slowing them down and I've even seen people taking down Chargers with it because their armor apparently doesn't protect them from being set on fire although it will take some time which isn't ideal. Also it's just so fun to use. I think the current "meta" is just people taking low skill floor weapons, aim for instant gratification and not use that many tactics. It's suprising how many people I've met who had no idea that stealth worked or that you can set up on a hill and snipe an outpost hundreds of meters away wiping out hordes (if they even were able to pop them off) before they even came close to Breaker optimal range. I mean, even a simple fact of running away and picking fights is lost on some people. I can't wait for Illuminati to drop in. This will be a massive wake-up call. Automatons are quite good at it for now, but they are still of close to middle range factions. Looking forward to needing head on a swivel and looking out for enemy snipers
@@Thailerr armor passives being used for team synergy? lol nah just have everyone equip legionaire and move as a death ball. And there's a reason ballistic shield is slept on, it's simply not consistent in the slightest. It's like trying to lock on with the spear without knowing you need to look at the center of the enemy, that type of painful. Tanking in general is pretty much just a bad idea unless you mean using the flamethrower and the personal shield and going to town. What I find works better is to dedicate a couple slots from one or two people each to swarm clear/single target respectively, and then have the last person as an all-rounder. So like maybe one person takes rocket sentry and a recoilless, another takes autocannon and autocannon sentry, those people help crew the other's weapon to adapt, the third person has tesla grenade launcher and supply pack, and the last guy has eagle airstrike and strafing run as well as ems mortar. As for the last slots, it can be whatever, but personally I prefer ems strike because it's basically just a localized timestop. Can never go wrong with railgun for terminids or anti material for automatons, or maybe a rover, jump pack, etc.
I think it's great against terminids. If you're running Ammo Backpack + Grenade Launcher, the slugger is like a pseudo-railgun against medium armor you don't want to waste a grenade on. Penetrates bile spewer heads too. It will also stun lock Stalkers.
The flinch from automatons is ridiculous, one round (out of 800 coming your way) grazes your thigh and your aim flinches into orbit! They need to tone it down, the automatons already have enough advantages
Early on I just picked this gun out of curiosity, now I can't stop using it. It's really nice with a Redeemer as a side arm. Being able to reload between shots is a nice trade off with having full clips too.
When a 'anti sniper rifle' is worse then a shotgun at range.. Sometimes i wonder why they even put like 15 guns in the game, if clearly only a handfull are actualy solid.
Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with the sniper rifles/DMRs in this game. Not only are their raw damage numbers pathetic by comparison, the core game design also screws them at every turn: - To make the most of their accuracy you need to hit weak spots - All the enemies who you actually need to use this against move in a jittery and unpredictable manner (e.g. Automaton Devastators, whose heads never stay still on the vertical or horizontal level) - There is built-in scope sway, which can only be somewhat mitigated if you stand still - However, this makes you an easy target, and every hit you take causes a load of aim punch - The vast majority of enemies will try to push you or rush you, making staying still even more suicidal - On top of all this is, there is the core gameplay mechanic of "increasing enemy presence" - The longer you take, the more enemies will spawn in patrols and reinforcements. This is especially problematic in higher difficulties, and really screws the snipers again, since finding a good sniping angle and then methodically picking off enemies wastes way more time than just sneaking up to close range and gunning them down before they can call for backup.
The AMR is actually pretty good and can deal with a lot of threats quickly from a distance before they become a problem and even after the fight has started it has its advantages like being able to blow the arms off of hulks in a few shots and one or two tapping most if not all medium sized enemies.
It's not for shooting little mobs, it's for medium armor mobs. You can't use shield generator if you wanna use slugger effectively, you need guard dog to kill small mobs. Reload time is not an issue with 1 shot 1 reload technique. Spam R and shoot, a bit lower fire rate but way better. For me, Slugger is best main weapon against Automatons. One thing you didn't notice is that it has a STOPPING POWER. Devastator and Berserker will get stunned a bit, it's very powerful to deal with them with Slugger.
Glad you mentioned partial reloads. The slugger and punisher are the only guns that have zero waste tac reload, so there is no reason not to reload whenever you have time to spare. If you're not calling in a stratagem, shooting, or stimming, then you can be reloading even if it's just 1 or 2 rounds. You can also run the supply pack to feed yourself ammo, but to get reasonable economy out of it (especially as part of a team) you should be actively using your secondary, support weapon, and grenades. Kill more stuff with each supply box you consume. As part of a team, I like running the slugger with impact grenades and a supply pack, looting an MG-43 somewhere on the map, and using my other stratagem slots for dealing with heavily armored targets (orbital rail cannon/eagle 500kg) or static objectives (orbital 120mm/eagle airstrike). The grenade launcher is also a solid pick, but it will eat a stratagem slot as it's nowhere near as common to find in the world as the MG.
And there's the problem - "You can't use shield generator" pretty much automatically renders anything a dead weapon in high difficulty solo play on the theoretical level. Having regenerating health and protection against aim punch/status effects/one hit kill attacks is just too good to pass up in that context. (As in, you *can* do this and win, but you're just objectively making your own life harder)
@@BackwardsPancake Hopefully it is only theoretical, shield is mainly great for the fact that it prevent stagger from damage, which make a huge difference against hunter and stalker. Slugger is really solid for hunter and stalker allowing you to pass on the shield more easily than with other weapons against bugs. Against automaton, shield is really not mandatory if you play with cover. Out in the open, the shield does not really make a huge difference, i would even say ballistic shield is better ( main downside is that it drops on the ground if you get knocked by an explosion ).
I started using the slugger after using the breaker and I cant go back its honest just that much better. It does require you to be more precise and you get less ammo but thats its only downsides. If you are struggling with hordes of bugs while using the slugger then bring the guard rover backpack instead of the shield and consider using turrets for horde clear instead of your rifle. Biggest thing that lets the slugger dominate bots is the fact that you can one shot devastators by hitting headshots and if you miss you can still stagger them and being able to stun lock rocket devastators is a game changer.
I kinda agree but I use the antimaterial for bots because you can two shot hulks to the face as well as deal with turret emplacements with one mag, while I use the breaker for when they close the distance and for swarm clear which the slugger struggles with alot
I recently went back to the Liberator....honestly, it's a very good allrounder weapon that people just discout automatically for being the one you start with, but to me it has all pros that I'm looking for in a weapon without any majoy flaw, plus it has the most customization you can have both for the scope and the shooting itself. I personally like the burst mode with a medium sight.
@@lucg4005 True, although the scope and precision of the liberator is a bit better in my opinion favoring medium to longer ranges where the Defender favors medium do low ones, but I agree the defender is generally better. I still like the Liberator a bit better for my playstile though...it gives me the option to use it like a Diligence whenever I want without the limitations and I like that.
@@lucg4005no it doesn’t. You are only looking at the damage. The scope on liberator does way more especially when you are fighting automaton. Also, defender has same dps as liberator (it has a slower fire rate), just higher damage ceiling, but when you really have to dump a mag to kill something, support weapon is always better option at that point.
Love how the slugger can deal with medium armor, blast open doors and has a nice reload. Plus you can take out those spore trees from quite the distance
Thank you for being honest and thorough looking through. I know a lot of people are searching for a substitute for the breaker rn and thats why the slugger has come to the forefront of conversation, but its just not close. Opening doors with ur shotgun is not worth sacrificing so much damage and ammo. Every gun needs more love, man.
Hey if you haven't tried the JAR 5 Dominator yet i would suggest getting it. It has been my go to for the automatons. It has the range that the breaker lacks and can deal with rocket devastators in just a few shots. If you're getting swarmed spaming like a mad lad works pretty good too. The main issue is its not a hit scan but i feel like its easy enough to deal with. Bonus : its basically a bolter so cool points there
both slugger and jar5 have medium armor pen (although slugger doesnt display that properly) it really boils down to whether you like magazine or rounds reload (me personally a slugger fan) although the rounds reload weapons do have ammo economy issues with their lack of reserves and not getting max ammo from supplies
@@Bubbabbread The slugger technically doesn't have medium armor pen, it's a 1 to 10 point armor system and the slugger is under the medium threshold but above other light pen weapons. The dominator does better penetration, but we have no idea exactly how much because the devs removed proper weapon descriptions before release.
In all these videos iam asking the same question, what are you running alongside the weapon? Hot take incoming! The breaker is first and foremost a crowdcontrol monster, secondly it is a mediocre excuse to keep running the railgun constantly. You'll never catch me dead using the breaker again becasue it is not worth the primary slot when you have the brute force that is the slugger. The slugger allows you to branch into so many more builds and combinations than the breaker, my personal favorite is the flamethrower and supply backpack combo where i essentially turn the flamethrower into my primary and use the slugger to blast the more armoured dudes. (This build is my go to for terminid helldive missions.) The breaker is by itself a really good weapon but it does not possess the adaptability that other weapons have since it forces you to run a support weapon that deals with heavy armour. Meanwhile the slugger, defender and scorcher for example give so many more options. Go try some other weapon combos than just railgun breaker my fellows.
I really hope we get a patch soon AND the next warbond actually brings some solid primary weapon options with it. I'm so tired of having only one or two primary weapon options.
It's less that and more there are 2 all rounder guns and then some like the slugger are made to be medium killers warriors/devastators and above same with the plas 1 scorcher
Not entirely a fair comparison. 1. The Slugger has a much higher stagger modifier, allowing for much better follow up shots. 2. The Slugger is more consistent and faster at hitting breakpoints, e.g. just 2 shots to a brood commander's head or 1 to a stalkers head and its dead, the Breaker needs several at range to compete due to its spread. This also helps counter the lower ammo count. 3. The Slugger's shots can pierce through targets, Breaker cannot. 4. The Slugger does not need all 5.3 seconds to reload whereas the breaker needs it's 2/2+ seconds, the Slugger will get it's shots out faster. The Breaker is a very safe option when planning to engage at close ranges and not aim, but the numbers are not cut and dry, shot placement is key and the Slugger is simply an accentuation of this. Both weapons application given in certain scenarios can make the difference between a stim or a reinforce.
Breaker is top tear against bugs, but, against automatons is pretty much dog shit. Scorcher, defender, slugger, jar 5 do work muuuuch more against them.
Are people now being looked down upon for using the breaker? Yeesh, just let people use what they want. Why are both sides so heated about this? If you use breaker, you’re not a meta slave with no skill. If you use anything else, you’re not a liability using low tier trash. BOTH OF THESE TAKES ARE VALID, so please stop this nonsense. Liberty don’t care what you use to destroy the bugs and bots, as long as it’s delivered, it’s effective.
@@lucg4005 absolutely no bro. The only point is that some people just keep using the breaker, calling out every other weapon to be dog shit. And i get it, it is a crazy gun, but only against bugs, get it? As bots goes hard, close and personal wont work, and we have a loooot of good weapons against bots
I like the slugger, it hits like a truck and is just fun to use. One thing you didn't mention, but is obvious on video is the knock back. Sometimes getting that extra space can help so much. Considering you are pretty much running in circles the whole time on 7+ difficulties
Your review is flawed your comparing the slugger to the breaker to replace what the breaker does. For mobs the slugger is not the best but if your support weapon accomplishes this the slugger shines because it can bypass armor and it stun lock stalkers, brood commanders, devastators and wrecks chainsaw guys. For example I bring the slugger when I run nade launcher, stalwart, flamethrower, arc thrower Breaker is better with railgun, recoiless, spear Different gun for different builds
On high dif the stalwart, flamethrower, and arc thrower become relatively useless, if you pick those, together with the slugger, how are you going to deal with all the chargers and bile titans? And I'm not talking dif 4 where you may encounter a few chargers or a single bile titans, I'm talking dif 7+ with randoms. You could use the 500KG and Laser/Railcannon, enough to kill a single bile titan and charger, or 2 bile titans if you don't mess up one 500KG but after that you're out of options for ~4 minutes. If you have a decent team and communication it may work but if you play with randoms and nobody talks dif 7+ is going to be hard without the railgun, shield back pack, and breaker loadout.
@@zoopa9988 I play exclusively 8-9 My go to support is arc thrower or spear. With arc thrower I usually run jetpack, EaT, rocket pods I’ve soloed as many as 3 chargers and their patrol using only the arc thrower because it kills the patrol while I am taking down the charger and the other chargers usually take 2-3 shots after the first due to the arc. If the EaT or rocket pods don’t kill the titan/charger/tank/hulk it typically only takes a couple arc thrower shots to finish them off. I find the railgun to inefficient. For medium armor the slugger and scorcher are better and for heavy armor sentries, orbitals and airstrikes are more efficient in my opinion. The hardest part of the higher difficulties are the hordes. Also the stalwart is great on higher difficulties I use it with the scorcher and the EaT and destroy everything, usually run jetpack and rocket pods too and that covers everything
The Slugger being able to stagger bots is why i bring it over the Breaker. Devastator's can't do anything to you if you keep shooting them. It's a straight up counter to the Rocket Devastator and if you shoot the Scout Strider in the foot/Ankle area you can even kill it without wasting explosives or use heavy weapon on it. Sure the ammo count is a problem but i usually bring ammo pack with me just in case i need to give myself ammo. The Slugger is definitely a weapon that gets slept on. Also it fires slug rounds so it's essentially a shotgun sniper.
I just find it difficult using the Breaker because of the sheer number of armored enemies. Yeah, it has a lot of ammo sure, but all that ammo doesn't mean squat if you can't do any damage because the armor is blocking it. And when shit hits the fan and you're surrounded, you aren't going to have time to "aim for weakspots"
I think you've sold this weapon for me on automatons. In group play, combined with the breaker it just seems like a match made in heaven. hit devastators from range while your team mops up. saves on having to use railgun shots, can open containers and take down the at-st. almost seems like the m1000 classic from deeprock galactic to me. you arent gonna be a wave clearing monster, but your gonna deal damage where its needed. Seems fun to me and I need a change from the breaker. Great video
I'm sure you've gotten lots of comments recommending weapons already, and I don't know if you've already tried them but, my main 2 primaries for difficulty 9 Automatons are the Diligence (NOT the counter sniper variant) and the Scorcher (mostly this one though I take the diligence every now and then) The diligence can 2 tap all the way up to devastators, and deals okay enough with berserkers, but the Scorcher is where it's at, 1 to 2 shots every small enemy, 2~3 to kill striders (walker guys) FROM THE FRONT, can kill shield devastators from the front as well, can kill tanks on the heatsink, and if you aim well it even kills berserkers decently quick, just a complete powerhouse and so much fun to use, only downside is you're gonna get tired of reloading really fast with that 15 round mag haha, and only 6 spare mags is also quite low, but you can find ammo around, so while I think it's worth noting, I don't think it's too much a big deal. Mind you, I don't play solo, but I go around on my own while my group goes to a different objectives (this is communicated and with friends, I'm not just leaving them to deal with all the aggro I swear), and I've found nothing but success with the Scorcher^^
As a Malevelon Creek veteran, I can attest to the power of the Dominator against automatons. It is extremely skill-intensive, but very potent in the right hands. The only way it can outperform the breaker is if you make use of every tool available to you. Try to crouch/lie down whenever you are firing at long range, or when firing at moving targets in mid-range. Switch fire modes depending on target (burst for berserkers, single-shot for raiders, etc.). It can take hulks down very effectively from the back due to the explosive damage boost against weak points, and can 1 shot most small stuff. One piece of advice though: be prepared to switch to your secondary a lot. It has terrible handling at close-quarters, so against commissars and sword-raiders at close range, make sure that pistol is out.
Plas-1 Scorcher is really good, just alot of people dont know about it because of its unlock requierment. The only 2 downsides are ammo is mediocre and the ability to self damage. But, those are very easily overcome and the weapon just shreds any target at any range
I feel like there's one factor that is often overlooked in your videos when it comes to analysing weapons. "Stagger" its one of the reasons I like the slugger despite the damage fall off, the ability to stagger enemies can help you reposition, it espescially helps interrupt enemies like the rocket devastators from firing, you can stagger and rip through heavy devastators weapon hand, disabling their suppressive onslaught!
Unfortunately the balance in this game isn’t the best, I feel like the breaker is just leagues above the other guns, but instead of just nerfing it into the ground they need to bring other guns up to its level, the ammo count is such a draw back and the fact it doesn’t get full ammo from resupplies absolutely has to be changedz
With the Slugger, since it is a Round Reload gun, you should reload every chance you get, to keep yourself fully stocked as often as possible, even reloading 1 round everytime you shoot is good because just reloading a single round doesn't take much time at all
Slugger has a lot of weakness, but one thing takibo missed: it STAGGERS opponents that does not get staggered easily by breaker, like berserkers, devastators, warriors and bile spewer... Nothing quite like shutting up a bile spewer that is about to spew at you with a single slug shot to the face, it instantly stagger it and interrupt the spewing action.. That stagger is amazing because it not only interrupts whatever action they were doing but it also pushes them back slightly, sometimes it's just enough to lob explosive like contact grenade straight to their face safely Slugger also pairs well with things like Stalwart because Stalwart mulch light armored foes for breakfast and have enormous amount of ammo, while Slugger pulverize the medium armored foes (2-3 shotting bile spewer and preventing them from spewing is quite fun).
If you want a few options on what to take instead of the Breaker, here's my top weapons list (without Breaker) vs Bugs: - Slugger (Don't waste time using on smallest targets) - Incendiary Breaker (Struggles a bit against Stalkers and Spewers) - Punisher (The last one to make the list) (Honorable mention: Basic Liberator) vs Automatons: - Dominator (The overall strongest against automatons) - Scythe (Infinite ammo and deals with enemies fast if you are accurate in hitting weakspots) - Scorcher (Really strong choice) (Honorable mention: Sniper rifles) Overall weapons against bugs value horde clear and ways to deal with heavy armor, while against automatons you want accuracy, range and damage to single targets. Also remember to take Stratagems that help with your weapons weaknesses
Another fun fact with the Slugger, it's capable of flat-out one shotting Stalkers if you nail them straight on the head. Even if you don't nail it, it staggers them. It is by far, the best weapon against Stalkers which makes it a blessing in higher difficulties.
Scorcher is also pretty good. 2-3 shots on most, 5-6 for ticks and brood commanders, a orbital railcannon and 6-7 to the stomachs of a bile. 5-6 shots against a unarmored leg for a charger, and really useful for most automatons. Defender smg lets you run away from enemies at a run and shoot at the same time, and with a recoil reduction armor makes it laser accurate.
@@brilobox2I'm not saying as a primary it will solve every problem, the game also doesn't really expect you to deal with patrols and bug breaches with only your primary. After you've airstriked or grenaded/etc everything clearing up whats left with your scorcher becomes childs play even with a relatively small magazine.
This take ONLY applies to solo and shouldn't be considered for anyone running with teammates: - If you only ever run the railgun the slugger is often redundant - Many 3rd-slot weapons that compliment the Slugger are harder to justify in solo. The Grenade Launcher is perhaps the best exception and you should run a slugger with it :) Here are some observations in favor of the slugger: - Stunlocks ALL Devastators, Berserkers, Scout Walkers (aim for joint), Any fodder enemy, Hiveguards, Brood commanders (I think?), and Stalkers. I'm dead serious -- they cannot attack you while you are attacking them. Who cares about flinch? - slugger 5s reload but you can reload while sprinting. The breaker has to reload mid-combat with plenty of opportunities to waste chunks of that bigger ammo pool. With the slugger you can opportunistically dump in shells whenever you have free time and always be topped off - ADS is fantastic with practice; damage falloff seems to be far better than the breaker, meaning your effective TTK and ammo conservation is better than the breaker. Would you rather OHK every fodder enemy or take several followup shots with the breaker? - 1-2 taps rocket pods at extreme distance. Great for curbing devastator group's lethality quickly, often inadvertently saving your teammates' lives - You can kill tanks and cannon turrets with this thing lol - Staggers Hulks and deletes them in 3-6 shots based on distance I would characterize the slugger as a defensive specialist that trades the breaker's raw, close-range DPS (emphasis on close-range) for unparalleled CC and the flexibility to deal damage to nearly every enemy, from any range. It's incredible in situations where your 3rd slot is your primary weapon (AC, GL, both MGs, arc thrower) as it can often cover the weaknesses of those tools better than the breaker can.
The slugger is great for the Nids' on higher difficulty due to the armor pen. If you carry a rover sentry it really helps with mopping up the little guys while you focus on the bigger targets. Pack a rail gun or nade launcher and you can deal with really big clumps or chargers very easily. Bring some strategems to help crowd control. Obviously breaker is an excellent choice all around but you can totally work the slugger load out on the bugs as well. Just my experience!
One key consideration in your primary weapon is which support weapon you bring. Breaker + railgun can handle most bugs well. Comparing the slugger directly is a bad idea. However, I have been using the Arc thrower and Slugger combo. Hell dive difficulty, solo or in party. While maybe still losing our in terms of power, slugger + thrower gains points in being fun to play
You're not building around the gun. You should be taking the Arc Thrower for when you want to deal with big guys and it gives you good add clear. You got to think about what your limitations are and build around those limitations.
Slugger let's you three/four shot Hulks from the back. Pair it with EMS Strike and it's basically free. All in all I've had success with all the primaries. You just need to use them into the right things and adjust your support weapons and stratagems accordingly; which is the intended approach. I've used all kinds of loadouts to great success; laser rifle for swarms of Termanids + disposable anti-tank for Termanid armor. Etc. Etc. There really is no 'best' until you've unlocked everything out there and even then the 'best' is subjective based on what you're trying to do in your group. AKA squad diversity instead of just four railgun/shield backpacks, lol. The only two things I've had any problems with and highly recommend get looked into are: 500kg bomb blast radius feels crazy random. Sometimes it hits where you feel it should and other times you sit there thinking, "It was right there! How did that not do anything?" Arc Thrower. Damage is great on it, used it multiple times when I choose not to take a support weapon myself and just find one, but the consistency is all over the place. Sometimes it arcs, sometimes it doesn't trigger on anything, sometimes nothing right in front of you, sometimes it triggers on something DRM range, etc. There's just no readability or feedback on the weapon to let you know the result you're about to get.
I agree. I feel many of the guns are held back by players myopic view on running "meta" stratagems. the railgun in this video was not the right pick for the gun, the ark thrower, stalwart, GL, etc. would all have been far better picks for the heavy weapon slot seeing as CC is what he's lacking, if he's worried about bile titans run a 500kg bomb and boom that problem is solved. he's trying to use this as the breaker not as its own thing.
Try the Jar-5 Dominator, it feels sluggish and it's not good for horde clear, but it's VERY destructive against anything you can see on both automaton and terminid sides. On the Automaton side it punches straight through Devastator armor, can destroy Scout Striders from the front by hitting the hip joints, and it can hit a Hulk's head, meaning you only really need a strategem/support weapon for tanks and mass AoE. On the Terminid side, it punches straight through Hive Guard armor and it can oneshot Hunters and regular Warriors, as well as 3 shot blow off a Brood Commander's head, you only need strategems for Titans, Crushers and mass AoE. I've had fun combining it with the Arc Thrower in particular Edit: The damn thing can oneshot Devastators with a shot to the forehead
This might be a hot take, but the DMR you unlock early, i think it's called the Diligence, works really well against bots if you focus weak points. It can two-tap heads of devastators and one-tap any lighter bot, and the recoil is manageable with a decent ammo count as well
I love that weapon but the antimaterial does the same thing without sacrificing vital horde clear abilities as well as being able to deal with tanks and emplacements and hulks easily as well
got it yesterday to test it, pretty much agree with everything you said, but it's good to have alternatives sometimes instead of always using the same gun every mission
If slugger had, ability to break/punch through armored spots, or a lot easier time blowing off limbs/parts - that would've been enough for me to consider using it. As it stands - it's just a bit more range focused Punisher, that doesn't threaten Breaker's rule over close-medium range whatsoever: Berserkers and Devastators won't go down easily unless you hit them in the head - Breaker still comes out on top in this situation, as high ammo count and fire rate, low recoil and pellet spread actually make it easier to score headshots, up to 20-25m away from you (any further and you really feel that pellet spread...).
Same. Lot of the videos I see of people using Breaker, they're spraying and praying it. It's an incredibly ammo efficient weapon when you're aiming your shots on each individual enemy.
I don't think I myself am wasting shots but as long as I get hitmarkers I keep firing. There is plenty of ammo from supply drops and POIs when you're using the breaker.
I think it's worth pointing out that the devs have acknowledged (via discord, iirc) that the damage value listed in-game for the Slugger is wrong (the actual damage value is about double what is listed). That said, I tried the slugger for a while, and while the stagger and armor pen is nice against some of the medium enemies, the slugger falls flat as soon as you get jumped on by hunters (which is all the time in higher difficulties). Breaker is just way more reliable for clearing out those small enemies that swarm you. For bots, I'm taking the scorcher almost every time over both shotguns.
You play slugger by standing in a spot and unloading which is suboptimal for the gun. Slugger and punisher are great for sustained DPS by letting you shoot once, run, reload, shoot once again, run, reload, repeat.
Try the turret heavy sniper loadout. I played with this the other day against the automatons and it worked really well. The mortar, electric mortar(?), auto cannon and rocket sentry. Drop the mortars outside a compound and they’ll decimate pretty much anything and everything. The turrets can be used to protect your flanks, or placed on some elevation looking into a compound to assist the mortars. The sniper is pretty much a one shot on the humanoids and keeps them at a distance and away from your sentry’s. I did a solo run with this setup, accomplished all objectives and didn’t die once.
I like running the slugger like a secondary and bringing an arc thrower or stalwart to use like my primary, since their crowd control and ammo capacity are really solid for dealing with swarms. The slugger gets used to pick off farther targets and kill armored enemies quickly. Not exactly meta but it's a fun build and it puts in a good bit of work against bots and bugs.
The JAR-5 Dominator might be worth looking into, it's the only medium penetrating gun with above average stats. Looks good on paper at least. I would try it but I don't have it yet.
It has the same mobility issue like MG and Counter DMR, your gun have a delay to follow up on where you are aiming. Also, the projectile speed is noticeably slower than most weapons. But besides that you can use your medium armor penetration and 200 damage per round to delete some medium armored foe.
Even with the armor pen it's damage is just not good enough on a lot of mid sized enemies. It seems pretty much built for bots but the only devastator it drops quickly without being laser focused on their tiny little ass heads is the rocket one, it should get buffed to kill standard devastators with half a mag(preferably less) of chest shots imo. If they're gonna make the second most common enemy's weak spot the world's smallest hitbox that bounces around all over the place they should at least have a standard weapon purpose built for dealing with them, needing a strategem weapon for it all the time like an anti mat rifle or MG is why those robots have been curb stomping our planets.
I have quick enjoyed the slugger against both factions. The main way to make the slugger feel better against the Terminids is to bring the Guard Dog Rover. Though the breaker is just better by itself, it is definitely started to get boring just using it against them.
If you're looking for a fun different set up to go against the pots try the one handed primary smg with a ballistic shield and scout armor. Honestly an absolute blast to sneak around and keep the enemy in front of you. The smg can two shot a devastator to the head. The only primary concern are missles because it can literally knock the ballistic sheild out of your hand. But for small arms fire its unbreakable and can sometimes outshine the shield generator pack
I'm always looking for Jack-of-all-Trades builds and I'm currently using the SMG, Railgun and Revolver. SMG is just the most versatilve auto weapon, it's a kite machine, allowing you to shoot backwards while running and the magazine can be well spread out by single fire for small targets but still deal with waves too. The Railgun, well....... And the revolver is being overlooked imho for decent burst if you need it without spending a railgun shot. It honestly may objectively be worse than the auto-sidearm but I like using it and I feel like it pairs very well with the SMG.
Opinions on the Liberator Penetrator? Medium armor pen and decent ammo capacity. Might be similar to the slugger where it's a atomoton gun and not a termanid gun.
The slugger is flat out amazing, but not as a solo weapon. When you have at least one teammate with a horde clearing weapon the slugger is invaluable at dealing with elite enemies, letting your more CC focused members deal with the horde. The Slugger can completely contain multiple brood commanders with pinpoint head explosions. It also has substantial knockback, you can stop a brood commanders charge outright and send it back 4 or 5 feet each hit. It can also interrupt a bile spewers spit attack, when they rear back to spit of you or a teammate a shot to the head or main body will completely stop the spit attack. It penetrates armored warriors, armored bile spewers, and even the back legs of a charger. Dont discount it agianst bugs. Also great for long range spamming a spore tower, you can destroy it in about 8-10 shots.
1 argument for slugger vs terminids: you can 4shot chargers if you hit one of their back legs. Conserves ammo/replaces rail gun. If you have a support weapon or guard dog that can deal with hordes and targetting orbitals/eagles for titans, can be a good loadout. Testing more tonight but yeah, think im switching to slugger for a while
Slugger is good for 2 shotting bile spewers and it disrupts their spit. It has a punch that disrupts enemies where as the breaker can't do that. Remember your side arm? Takes care of little bugs. And if you've ever played call of duty, you'll appreciate being able to reload after every few shots. You can't kill everything with the breaker either so you might as well have something that can kill the actual threats
Heads up, if you hit reload immediately after shooting you will top off the mag every shot, this quick reload has an almost non existent animation and takes less time than usual recoil recovery so you can basically dont have a magazine you just have all your ammo in the mag. Its like it doubles up on the pump and the reload to get both done simultaneously.
For me the scorcher is the best weapon for automatons. you can kill the at-st walker guys with 2 shots in the legs because its AOE kills the gunner in the back. you should really try that out! it also can 3 shot kill the spore trees across the map wich is handy. its biggest downside is the little ammo you have in the mag aswell as the insane self damage, it literally oneshots you if you shoot an enemie thats too close
For automatons, i roll the marksman rifle. One to two taps the smaller bots. If you're consistent with your aim, head/groin shots in the medium bots also only take a couple of bullets. I solo level 7 difficulty with little struggle. Another weapon worth at least trying is the Pen. Liberator. I've had a lot of fun with it. The medium armor pen is really good. A small damage buff and it could be just as good as the breaker imo.
I love the slugger, going back to other weapons feels so weak because they can't punch through the heavier armor of the bigger bugs as easily, nor do the stun them as much. The biggest issue with it is the ammo count, but if you pair it with a good supply weapon, you can mitigate that somewhat.
Since I bought slugger I never used breaker again. I just had to learn to shoot only If standing still or crouching If possible. What surprised me most was fact that I managed to pen charger leg and kill him with only five shots. Also, stagger of the slugger saved me so many times from stalkers and brood commanders, you forgot to mention that. And I am also running it in solo helldives, diff 9.
The best thing about the punisher/slugger is they load rounds not magazines meaning you can play like a normal fps and reload whenever meaning you can go into every encounter fully loaded. Also you don't have to reload the whole gun when it's empty you can reload couple shells and fire.
The Slugger has an advantage over the Breaker against Terminids when dealing with Bile Spewers, as it's far more ammo efficient to have a medium armor pen weapon to headshot them as opposed to mag dumping into their bile sacs. Most players don't play solo, and when playing in a group, it's worthwhile to have one player take a Slugger for that reason.
slugger has higher skill floor and ceiling. It can function as a pseudo "medium armor penetrating" weapon but requires you to not miss. Use the uzi sidearm for trash mobs, punish heavier units at medium distance with the slugger to save your drop pod weapon ammo
I thought it was odd that the Slugger wasn't at least Medium armor penetration. Glad to hear it actually is. The same is true of the Senator revolver. Its listed as Light armor penetration, but actually breaks medium and is alot better for it.
I like the Dominator against the Bots. Being able to oneshot devastators in the head and small ones in the chest on higher range than the breaker feels nice.
If you choose to use something like the rover instead of a shield with bugs, which I'm not sure why you would run shield with bugs in the first place. It would save you a ton of ammo, and eliminate the need of spending rounds on smaller bugs and focus on getting rid of the bigger more threatening ones
@@scruffytlr789 Hunters aren't as dangerous if you got a gun with better range able to take them out before they reach you and the Rover helps with that as well.
The slugger breaks through the armor of those annoying armored bugs (2x shots to break armor). So if you are not running a rail gun and using a loadout like machine gun or grenade launcher, slugger would be good.
The slugger being slow and slow reloading is actually a downside, yeah. Tho, are we sure it deals less damage? I mean, sure, it says 280 vs 330, but as you said, it can oneshot the hunter, which you cant do with the breaker usually. We cant trust the tooltips in this game at all right now, so im not sure if we should include that as part of the downsides. To be fair, the core issue of being swarmed too much is annoying about the slugger. Unlocked it today and felt the potential. High damage if you land the shots, and medium armor penetration is great.. but i just wanted back to the breaker tbh. I hope they dont nerf the breaker but rather bring other weapons up to the same level. Same with the railgun.
I enjoy the Slugger against bugs particularly for hive guards and the bigger warriors (commanders?). Its not going to spew insane dps or horde control, doesn't even have as great of ammo capacity. But it allows me to hold positioning against bigger bugs while my laser guard dogs takes care of the small trash. That, and railgun for chargers, spewers, bile titans. I have been finding running it this way more fun than the spray-n-pray breaker approach despite it's quirks and short comings. Meta? Probably by no means. Different, yes. With enough skill, and especially with enough team coordination meta is by-far not necessary in the higher 7,8,9 difficulties. For solo players this is of course a completely difference case. But for me, even running duos with a buddy on 7,8 its not a bad bet for changing up the flow. And even more so playing in full squads of 4, it just changes my role.
To those of you saying the slugger can’t kill hordes. You’re right. But I still feel like it could do more base damage. Just in general. Like 50% which is a lot but that’d be a chill amount. I also want that double barrel
I really liked the stronger punch of the slugger, but it does feel really slow. It might work well with the arc-thrower or another hoard clearing weapon though. With a weapon like the arc-thrower you would just switch to the slugger when teammates are in front of you, and you don't want to fry them.
if you can actually hit shots the slugger can outperform most weapons purely based on how versatile it is, single shell load means quicker follow up shots, can pen medium armour is a stagger machine has really solid range. I prefer it over the breaker because I can do more with it
The scorcher is good at everything and feels great to use. Just make sure to run a couple steps back before shooting terminids point blank so you doin't kill yourself with it and you're golden - It can even deal with chargers by shooting them in the ass pretty easily.
Is the liberator penetrator any good for autos? It's nice to not have to aim for headshots on the devestators, but you seem to have headshots down to a t.
"better at dealing with automatons at long ranges"
also me taking 10 seconds to kill 2 berserkers: 3:32
_who put that gameplay in there?_
true
I feel like there is massive damage drop off with the slugs, like you can one-tap devastators up close in the face but seems to take alot more shots at range
I recommend aiming for the glowing torso’s it cuts them in half and they can’t get to you if they can’t chugga chugga
@@Bishop1664 aim for their guts
Maybe give the diligence counter sniper a try for automatons. I don't know how it goes in solo, but I know one thing that makes it much more desirable than the normal diligence: It has a much higher rate of oneshotting infantry units, and has way less drop making long range far easier.
This is the type of content I want to see. No shitty tier-lists, no clickbaits, pure information, with consideration for different gameplay against different enemies. Hope to see more of that
Tier lists aren’t bad, I know they are mostly used for views, but they are a nice visual
cept that hes wrong.
Thanks for the comment.
takibo makes great guides, i loved his ready or not ones
to me the biggest weakness of the pump shotguns is the ammo count, 40 extra shells is simply not enough
(these issues have been fixed)
Fr if it was like 60 it’d be so much better
Ammo count in general feels too low.
I don’t know it feels fine to me, I just bring with me a heavy Mg or stalwart as a back up and use the stander issue pistol or the mg pistol
40 is def enough for me to justify it
Ya I'm not sure what the logic on the ammo count was. It already has a much slower ROF and it only does like 10 percent more damage per shot. Why is the ammo count lower as well? Really hope we get a balance pass sooner than later.
Slugger is also one of the only weapons that can shoot open containers which can make gathering super credits/medals/credits quicker and save grenades. Not a huge deal but a nice thing to know about.
can it also destroy holes/fabricators then? surely if it has the right damage type for one it would work for the other
@@Brass319 doubt it. arc thrower can open containers as well and i dont think it destroys enemy spawns
@@Brass319 no sadly the slugger cannot destroy holes or fabricators. I tested it a few times only weapons that can destroy them are the auto cannon, grenade launcher and rocket launcher.
Sometimes there's explosive barrels near the containers so...
@@lukeashe8313 there is always either barrels or a grenade pack, yes
The issue is your heavy weapon. taking the rail gun with the slugger doesn't give you the ability to clear hoards wile with the slugger you already have something that will punch through most enemies, take a stratagem to deal with thick boys and an MG or the GL and leave the rail at home. the machine pistol is a great choice for the secondary slot as its great for clearing trash away from you if they get too close for the GL. overall I think some of these guns are held by by players just changing one gun and not their kit to work around the guns abilities. people love the rail because it works great with the breaker, it can kill thick targets easily wile the breaker can handle hoards better.
THIS!
The Slugger is now my default on both fronts with the machine pistol secondary. In solo, I still take the Railgun, as it's value to take on larger targets is simply too much to ignore (break the charger leg with two shots, 3-4 Slugger shots will kill after that). On top of that, people don't adjust their playstyles at all when choosing new weapons, thinking it's just the characteristics that change. If you don't adapt your kit to match your playstyle or vice versa, then you're gonna have a bad time, no matter your kit.
My problem is breaker actually handles hoards and big targets equally as well. It’s good against swarms, and its ability to unload its clip so fast makes it have great dps against the big boys. I do like the sluggers, but they need an ammo increase. 56 slug shells compared to 128 breaker shells is insane.
@@lucg4005 eh the breaker has an hard time punching though shield bugs. I normally run a senator to punch through medium armor and one shot big guys.
@@Drbeattlesyou don’t punch through the shield, you punch around it. But yeah, it stop working on medium armor which spewer at higher difficulty started to have on their face, that is problematic for breaker.
@@SuperhotdogZz exactly. Still ain’t saying the breaker is bad. But I do think it’s a bit oversold. Still great tho at what it does.
There is pretty substantial thing about the Slugger (that was overlooked in this video) that can make a BIG difference and makes me take it over the breaker nowadays (because I am also bored of using breaker lol), and that is STAGGER. This is actually substantial for Terminid's and makes it much more useable than you would think. I will say, it is definitely worse than the breaker at dealing with small Terminid targets, AND THUS THE BREAKER IS PROBABLY STILL THE BETTER OPTION BECAUSE OF THIS, but medium Terminid targets I believe the Slugger will excel against more.
A few examples:
You can be UNLOADING your breaker into a hive commander (big guys that like to get going without a head) with the breaker, and it will still keep going; the only time its stopping is when you shoot its legs off or when it is 100% dead from bleeding out or dumping more bullets into it. It will also not stop charging even when you are blasting into its head.
Alternatively, slugger shots interrupt them. Hitting them in the head will stop them mid-charge, and another shot to their head pops it off, staggering it back again. This is very convenient because by the time it is recovered from its staggered state, its already halfway bled out and will die before it gets to you, no need to shoot off some additional legs. This is better than you would think, because once you've shot the head off it you know you can immediately move on to the next target without worrying about shooting off legs and such.
Hive Guard isn't too threatening, but can be annoying to deal with when using the breaker. Usually my go-to is forego the breaker entirely and use a single rail gun shot again these enemies instead. It can take too long trying to go prone and shoot its under-flesh with breaker when there are other enemies rushing towards you.
Slugger demolishes this enemy. Not only does a slugger shot stagger it, making it expose its flesh more (which helps your teammates using other weapons), it will also straight up just go through the armor (medium armor-pen weapon) and 2 shot it aiming at the head. Very convenient against this not so dangerous but sorta annoying enemy.
Finally, and this is definitely the one of the BEST uses of Sluggers stagger, is against all three types of bile spewers. Breaker isn't bad against these enemies, it can kill them pretty quick when aiming at their head (for the nursing bile spewer and unarmored bile spewer only, its much harder for breaker to kill the armored variant on higher difficulties), but its usually not fast enough when they have already raised their head to start spewing or when you are reloading a mag.
And how does the Slugger perform? A single slugger shot to their head will interrupt the bile spewers spitting attack, very similar to using a rail gun on a bile titan during its wind-up spit attack. This can help tremendously; you will end up saving yourself, your teammates, and your turrets because of this property. It definitely does not kill them as fast as breaker does. HOWEVER, since the Slugger is medium armor pen, it is actually much much better at killing the armored bile spewer variant that shows up on higher difficulties compared to breaker. Definitely makes these enemies much less of a threat when you know you have the tools to stop them from using their spit attack.
Stalkers get ate up by breaker, but it lacks the range to kill them efficiently. You will be wasting bullets when shooting at range and shooting them too late can result in them getting a few hits off. Slugger solves this issue because it will just stagger them and leave them lined up for free follow up shots.
There's more that Slugger's stagger can do and I implore you to experiment, so take what you will about stagger and maybe think about it against automatons and on other weapons :). I definitely love using Slugger against them a lot more than bugs.
SOME OTHER THOUGHTS:
I don't understand why you painted the sluggers reload speed as being pitiful. Since it is rounds reload, you can actually reload and shoot at the same time. There is essentially no limit to how long you can fire aside from your entire magazines reserves. If you are dumping all your rounds, waiting 5.6 seconds to reload, and then shooting again, you are using this gun wrong. You will never have downtime killing enemies as long as you reload AND shoot.
I KNOW SLUGGER GETS SHIT AMMO, But you are never wasting bullets with the Slugger compared to Breaker. Breaker is mag fed and Slugger is not. Very often you will either be reloading Breaker when its completely empty (MUCH LONGER RELOAD THAT YOU SHOULD AVOID), or doing it when it before that and throwing away a few bullets. Every shot counts with Slugger and those 40+16 shells in reserve are equal to 40+16 shots in reserve, as opposed to 7+1 mags equal to 100+ shells NOT being equal to 100+ shots, because some of those bullets will go waste in the heat of battle. (also including the shots that come preloaded in the mag with these comparisons; Slugger gets more like 56 shots, not 40).
Using a different weapon also means you need to play differently. You won't necessarily always need a rail gun when you have something that can now deal with the medium sized targets for example. The rover becomes a great backpack slot for the slugger as it can fulfill the ability of taking at trash mobs which the breaker is great at and slugger is mid at. You won't always need to use a rail gun with slugger, GL is a good choice because slugger can handle medium targets easily and GL demolishes trash. Really, when comparing breaker and slugger, remember these are like different tools for different jobs.
The ammo economy of the slugger does suck a lot. IMO There are a couple guns that have issues with ammo economy that I really feel like should be rectified in a balance patch; these weapons being both pump shotguns, the spear, and less so but still noticeable for the anti-material rifle.
Stagger also prevents the brood commander from calling allies or any other bug releasing pheromones for a bug breach. In addition to less spread, the higher penetration allows for the damage to not be resisted as careless usage of the breaker will lower its damage by 60% against light armor.
I know you're looking for a weapon for automatons, but I just want to put it out there, the incendiary breaker is slept on hard for bugs. if you're running the railgun you'll already have a weapon for the bigger targets, and the incendiary really shreds through hoards. It's wide spread means you can basically aim at 20 enemies and do decent damage to all of them per shot. 3-4 shots later you can have 10+ kills on things hunter size and down. It does struggle with single target damage a bit more, you need to put more shots into the medium bugs to kill them, but if you're willing to whip out the railgun more frequently to deal with medium bugs every now and then when you need to kill them quick, its a really solid setup.
If you break a charger's leg the incendiary absolutely demolishes the charger too.
For bugs I’ve just stuck with breaker since I still don’t have enough credits for the premium pass, but I’ve found the laser drone to be quite effective in helping with hordes. Since so many bugs are up in your face, the laser drone is basically firing non stop, and it helps a lot with cleaning up the smaller bugs. You will have to be carful since no personal shield does suck, but I honestly prefer the drone over the shield, at least for bugs. Shield is way better for the automatons.
@@lucg4005 I completely agree. Laser drone is extremely useful for bugs, especially if your loadout is more focused on anti armor or taking out larger enemies.
Honestly, arc thrower is slept on too, it cant delete a charger as fast, or even a bile titan, but it CAN kill a charger, and for those medium targets it makes quick work
I just use rover dog for crowd control. Usually have 500 kills or more by the end while my teammates have barely 100. Keep the regular breaker for warriors and killing off chargers with broken armor. Rover allows you to ignore the smaller bugs and the shield doesn't help much if you have hunters just biting your toes 24/7 with a bile titan following behind them. Rover gives me breathing room more often than not
The slugger (and punisher) can reload a shell inbetween each shot as you can double up on the actions of pumping and reloading.
So you dont really need to worry about reload speed or sustained DPS when comparing the 2.
Also the slug vs pellets is huge because even the bugs die faster to having all the damage hit 1 place means you break limbs/heads which kills faster than RAW damage spread all over the target.
The main drawback to the Slugger (and punisher) is their total ammo, for some reason they only get 40 shells reserve (breaker gets 100+) and resupplies only give 24 shells not the full amount (again breaker gets all 100+).
The reload is one of his main complaints but I guess he never tried this..
Punisher actually got the highest total damage of it's total ammo of all weapons making ammo it's strong point. But it's sad that you don't get the full ammo when resupplying and I would suspect that is a holdover from some buff/nerf in the past and should really be changed.
The ammo economy for pump action shotgun is seriously messed up lol
@@znail4675this sound incorrect?
Punisher does what 380?
Let’s say it does 500
And the breaker does 330
56 shells X 500= 28,000
112shells X 330= 36,960
Am I wrong? Does the punisher actually do like 660 dmg per shot?
@swift-pawedteif386 breakers ammo is higher than that, it's 7mags+1 so 8x16 for 128 shells for 42,240 reserve damage.
I though the punisher was 360 damage but even at 380 damage that's half the breakers damage capacity.
Unless the weapon stats are hopelessly incorrect. Like the slugger lists itself as light armour pen but it pens medium armour so who knows.
Just gotta wait for the dataminers to do their thing.
oh you didn't talk about the stagger effect the slugger does, on stalker for example.
But until we get a balance patch were the rest of the arsenal is buff, the breaker will stay king
they dont need to buff every things, they just need to nerf the few things over performing, the breaker and the railgun, they ruin the game balance if they just buff every things.
@@angerskarin9222 pretty sure nobody wants to nerf the breaker, i don't find it broken, its the rest that underperformed imo
@@angerskarin9222no one wants the breaker nerfed. It’s basically required power wise for higher difficulties
@@angerskarin9222 You've never used a weapon other than the breaker on higher difficulties have you? It's not that things like the railgun and breaker overperform and are "over powered" its the fact that every other weapons besides maybe the plas-1 scorcher underperforms and is absolute garbage at high difficulties.
@@MaxxxboxDGSCE breaker needs nerf. A fast automatic weapon with great damage, great ammo count, fast reload and decent accuracy? How in the world would any other gun compete?
I think the damage is probably fine, they could cut the shoot speed and ammo count in half and that will probably let other guns shine more
it is definitely a high skill weapon, I personally always use it on automaton missions, In a swarm situation I use my sidearm to clear the squishy light ones and whip it out against anything bigger( berserkers, devastators etc). the high dmg one shots automatons in the head but either the scope is off or there is slight bullet drop at like 10+m because you have to aim slightly above the head in order to score the weakspot hit. The stagger against berserkers/devastators have saved me and my team mates multiple times though, if I missed the head I at least buy myself a couple seconds to land a shot again or pivot to the others and stun them instead. Personally I say it's decent CQB because the automaton heads are that much closer to click, also if you want to keep constant fire up always spam reload at any opportunity, the upside to these tube loaded guns cater to our FPS reload habits, kill one, reload....peek out of cover fire, back in cover reload.... I do agree ammo is an issue at times... and in high pressure situations it has failed me a couple, but mostly due to misplay or unfortunate rocket spam/cannon turret sniping me from across the map.
I see the slugger as a fantastic secondary weapons for teams. If your team is coordinated enough, multiple weapon types is very advantageous. The slugger mostly for armored target, the breaker for widespread dmg, etc. Having a well balanced and coordinated team makes it SO much easier.
or if you take a swarm clear support weapon like MG or Stalwart and want to be able to quickly pop a hulk in the eye twice to take it out
@@Brass319 exactly! So many people insta lock Railgun; which is fine! But if you want to optimize your team load out, having dedicated team roles is an instant upgrade. The armor passives alone allow a very deep, team oriented game. Then you add strategems that turn the whole game on it's head.
If the community is trying to make a standardized team template, approach the situation like a team game... 4 players. 1 tank, 2 DPS, 1 supp.
Tank players can take ballistic shield, which is very underrated imo, shield relays, Emplacements, etc.
DPS take eagle and orbital strats. Communicate with your partner DPS and cover their weaknesses.
Supp takes sentries, maybe napalm, Gatling barrage, Emplacements, etc. anything defensive to cover retreats.
You're done! Even three in this config makes easy work.
@@Brass319 Hell, even Flamethrowers. It's absolutely supreme at clearing out hordes and even those unarmored medium targets. It deals respectable damage, burning seems to do hefty damage while slowing them down and I've even seen people taking down Chargers with it because their armor apparently doesn't protect them from being set on fire although it will take some time which isn't ideal. Also it's just so fun to use.
I think the current "meta" is just people taking low skill floor weapons, aim for instant gratification and not use that many tactics. It's suprising how many people I've met who had no idea that stealth worked or that you can set up on a hill and snipe an outpost hundreds of meters away wiping out hordes (if they even were able to pop them off) before they even came close to Breaker optimal range. I mean, even a simple fact of running away and picking fights is lost on some people. I can't wait for Illuminati to drop in. This will be a massive wake-up call. Automatons are quite good at it for now, but they are still of close to middle range factions. Looking forward to needing head on a swivel and looking out for enemy snipers
@@Aurilion44 Or even the flame thrower's weirder, buggier, less intuitive cousin: the arc thrower.
@@Thailerr armor passives being used for team synergy? lol nah just have everyone equip legionaire and move as a death ball. And there's a reason ballistic shield is slept on, it's simply not consistent in the slightest. It's like trying to lock on with the spear without knowing you need to look at the center of the enemy, that type of painful. Tanking in general is pretty much just a bad idea unless you mean using the flamethrower and the personal shield and going to town. What I find works better is to dedicate a couple slots from one or two people each to swarm clear/single target respectively, and then have the last person as an all-rounder. So like maybe one person takes rocket sentry and a recoilless, another takes autocannon and autocannon sentry, those people help crew the other's weapon to adapt, the third person has tesla grenade launcher and supply pack, and the last guy has eagle airstrike and strafing run as well as ems mortar. As for the last slots, it can be whatever, but personally I prefer ems strike because it's basically just a localized timestop. Can never go wrong with railgun for terminids or anti material for automatons, or maybe a rover, jump pack, etc.
I think it's great against terminids. If you're running Ammo Backpack + Grenade Launcher, the slugger is like a pseudo-railgun against medium armor you don't want to waste a grenade on. Penetrates bile spewer heads too. It will also stun lock Stalkers.
I ran ammo pack + launcher already, so i will give that a shot fr.
The DMR is underrated for Automatons, but the flinch and inconsistency make me use the breaker more
yeah, but it does one tap a lot of lights in the body, it is a little inconsistent with some head hit boxes but i think it's pretty good
Are you talking about the Dilligence counter sniper?
Scorcher is just better for automatons
The flinch from automatons is ridiculous, one round (out of 800 coming your way) grazes your thigh and your aim flinches into orbit! They need to tone it down, the automatons already have enough advantages
Early on I just picked this gun out of curiosity, now I can't stop using it. It's really nice with a Redeemer as a side arm. Being able to reload between shots is a nice trade off with having full clips too.
When a 'anti sniper rifle' is worse then a shotgun at range.. Sometimes i wonder why they even put like 15 guns in the game, if clearly only a handfull are actualy solid.
balance patch is coming
@@Monkey6K I have doubts it will have the effect it needs to.
Yeah I have no idea what they were thinking with the sniper rifles/DMRs in this game.
Not only are their raw damage numbers pathetic by comparison, the core game design also screws them at every turn:
- To make the most of their accuracy you need to hit weak spots
- All the enemies who you actually need to use this against move in a jittery and unpredictable manner (e.g. Automaton Devastators, whose heads never stay still on the vertical or horizontal level)
- There is built-in scope sway, which can only be somewhat mitigated if you stand still
- However, this makes you an easy target, and every hit you take causes a load of aim punch
- The vast majority of enemies will try to push you or rush you, making staying still even more suicidal
- On top of all this is, there is the core gameplay mechanic of "increasing enemy presence" - The longer you take, the more enemies will spawn in patrols and reinforcements. This is especially problematic in higher difficulties, and really screws the snipers again, since finding a good sniping angle and then methodically picking off enemies wastes way more time than just sneaking up to close range and gunning them down before they can call for backup.
The AMR is actually pretty good and can deal with a lot of threats quickly from a distance before they become a problem and even after the fight has started it has its advantages like being able to blow the arms off of hulks in a few shots and one or two tapping most if not all medium sized enemies.
Reload immediately after firing. This will cancel the animation and give the slugger a bottomless mag
It's not for shooting little mobs, it's for medium armor mobs. You can't use shield generator if you wanna use slugger effectively, you need guard dog to kill small mobs. Reload time is not an issue with 1 shot 1 reload technique. Spam R and shoot, a bit lower fire rate but way better. For me, Slugger is best main weapon against Automatons. One thing you didn't notice is that it has a STOPPING POWER. Devastator and Berserker will get stunned a bit, it's very powerful to deal with them with Slugger.
Glad you mentioned partial reloads. The slugger and punisher are the only guns that have zero waste tac reload, so there is no reason not to reload whenever you have time to spare. If you're not calling in a stratagem, shooting, or stimming, then you can be reloading even if it's just 1 or 2 rounds.
You can also run the supply pack to feed yourself ammo, but to get reasonable economy out of it (especially as part of a team) you should be actively using your secondary, support weapon, and grenades. Kill more stuff with each supply box you consume. As part of a team, I like running the slugger with impact grenades and a supply pack, looting an MG-43 somewhere on the map, and using my other stratagem slots for dealing with heavily armored targets (orbital rail cannon/eagle 500kg) or static objectives (orbital 120mm/eagle airstrike). The grenade launcher is also a solid pick, but it will eat a stratagem slot as it's nowhere near as common to find in the world as the MG.
And there's the problem - "You can't use shield generator" pretty much automatically renders anything a dead weapon in high difficulty solo play on the theoretical level.
Having regenerating health and protection against aim punch/status effects/one hit kill attacks is just too good to pass up in that context.
(As in, you *can* do this and win, but you're just objectively making your own life harder)
@@BackwardsPancake Hopefully it is only theoretical, shield is mainly great for the fact that it prevent stagger from damage, which make a huge difference against hunter and stalker.
Slugger is really solid for hunter and stalker allowing you to pass on the shield more easily than with other weapons against bugs.
Against automaton, shield is really not mandatory if you play with cover. Out in the open, the shield does not really make a huge difference, i would even say ballistic shield is better ( main downside is that it drops on the ground if you get knocked by an explosion ).
but it doesn’t have medium armor penetrating abilities bro.
@@HavnMotion there're more than 50 hidden stats bro. you can try use this gun and shoot at hive guard head yourself.
I started using the slugger after using the breaker and I cant go back its honest just that much better. It does require you to be more precise and you get less ammo but thats its only downsides. If you are struggling with hordes of bugs while using the slugger then bring the guard rover backpack instead of the shield and consider using turrets for horde clear instead of your rifle.
Biggest thing that lets the slugger dominate bots is the fact that you can one shot devastators by hitting headshots and if you miss you can still stagger them and being able to stun lock rocket devastators is a game changer.
yep. OP of the video just aint skilled. slugger > breaker
I kinda agree but I use the antimaterial for bots because you can two shot hulks to the face as well as deal with turret emplacements with one mag, while I use the breaker for when they close the distance and for swarm clear which the slugger struggles with alot
If you want a good weapon vs the Automatons the Scorcher is amazing.
1000+ medals to unlock it though
Similar issues with ammo scarcity though.
i always hated the reload on the scorcher even though it did perform amazing, kinda wish a lot of the guns reloads were quicker like in HD1.
I recently went back to the Liberator....honestly, it's a very good allrounder weapon that people just discout automatically for being the one you start with, but to me it has all pros that I'm looking for in a weapon without any majoy flaw, plus it has the most customization you can have both for the scope and the shooting itself. I personally like the burst mode with a medium sight.
My problem is that it’s somehow entirely outclassed by the defender. Has exact same ammo, but more damage per bullet and is even one handed.
@@lucg4005 True, although the scope and precision of the liberator is a bit better in my opinion favoring medium to longer ranges where the Defender favors medium do low ones, but I agree the defender is generally better. I still like the Liberator a bit better for my playstile though...it gives me the option to use it like a Diligence whenever I want without the limitations and I like that.
@@lucg4005no it doesn’t. You are only looking at the damage. The scope on liberator does way more especially when you are fighting automaton. Also, defender has same dps as liberator (it has a slower fire rate), just higher damage ceiling, but when you really have to dump a mag to kill something, support weapon is always better option at that point.
Love how the slugger can deal with medium armor, blast open doors and has a nice reload. Plus you can take out those spore trees from quite the distance
It can take down spore spewers? Huh, I'll have to try that myself.
@@vedritmathias9193pretty much anything can destroy the spore spewers at any distance, even breaker, albeit with like 1-2 entire mags when at range.
God I wish this game was more like Elden RIng in terms of almost EVERY weapon can be made usefull. I dearly hope they will balance it out(
Thank you for being honest and thorough looking through. I know a lot of people are searching for a substitute for the breaker rn and thats why the slugger has come to the forefront of conversation, but its just not close. Opening doors with ur shotgun is not worth sacrificing so much damage and ammo. Every gun needs more love, man.
Hey if you haven't tried the JAR 5 Dominator yet i would suggest getting it. It has been my go to for the automatons. It has the range that the breaker lacks and can deal with rocket devastators in just a few shots. If you're getting swarmed spaming like a mad lad works pretty good too. The main issue is its not a hit scan but i feel like its easy enough to deal with. Bonus : its basically a bolter so cool points there
It felt like a sluggish slugger. The damage is a bit worse but it is still up there.
@@SuperhotdogZz i found that it was incredibly good for both bugs and bots and just the fact it has medium pen is enough for me to just solely run it
both slugger and jar5 have medium armor pen (although slugger doesnt display that properly)
it really boils down to whether you like magazine or rounds reload (me personally a slugger fan)
although the rounds reload weapons do have ammo economy issues with their lack of reserves and not getting max ammo from supplies
@@Bubbabbread The slugger technically doesn't have medium armor pen, it's a 1 to 10 point armor system and the slugger is under the medium threshold but above other light pen weapons. The dominator does better penetration, but we have no idea exactly how much because the devs removed proper weapon descriptions before release.
In all these videos iam asking the same question, what are you running alongside the weapon?
Hot take incoming!
The breaker is first and foremost a crowdcontrol monster, secondly it is a mediocre excuse to keep running the railgun constantly. You'll never catch me dead using the breaker again becasue it is not worth the primary slot when you have the brute force that is the slugger. The slugger allows you to branch into so many more builds and combinations than the breaker, my personal favorite is the flamethrower and supply backpack combo where i essentially turn the flamethrower into my primary and use the slugger to blast the more armoured dudes. (This build is my go to for terminid helldive missions.)
The breaker is by itself a really good weapon but it does not possess the adaptability that other weapons have since it forces you to run a support weapon that deals with heavy armour. Meanwhile the slugger, defender and scorcher for example give so many more options. Go try some other weapon combos than just railgun breaker my fellows.
A pump action doing less damage per shot than an auto shotgun is criminal
I really hope we get a patch soon AND the next warbond actually brings some solid primary weapon options with it. I'm so tired of having only one or two primary weapon options.
Unfortunately the next warbond weapons kind of seem like gimmick guns
@@gopdrifto Little early to make a conclusion in either direction with the new weapons. I guess we'll see whenever they get added to the game.
It's less that and more there are 2 all rounder guns and then some like the slugger are made to be medium killers warriors/devastators and above same with the plas 1 scorcher
Not entirely a fair comparison.
1. The Slugger has a much higher stagger modifier, allowing for much better follow up shots.
2. The Slugger is more consistent and faster at hitting breakpoints, e.g. just 2 shots to a brood commander's head or 1 to a stalkers head and its dead, the Breaker needs several at range to compete due to its spread. This also helps counter the lower ammo count.
3. The Slugger's shots can pierce through targets, Breaker cannot.
4. The Slugger does not need all 5.3 seconds to reload whereas the breaker needs it's 2/2+ seconds, the Slugger will get it's shots out faster.
The Breaker is a very safe option when planning to engage at close ranges and not aim, but the numbers are not cut and dry, shot placement is key and the Slugger is simply an accentuation of this. Both weapons application given in certain scenarios can make the difference between a stim or a reinforce.
yeah the slugger is nice but when getting swarmed by like 10+ hunters, I would rather have the breaker with me.
Breaker is top tear against bugs, but, against automatons is pretty much dog shit. Scorcher, defender, slugger, jar 5 do work muuuuch more against them.
You still have a secondary, support grenades and stratagems.
Sounds like you use the breaker as a crutch more than anything
Are people now being looked down upon for using the breaker? Yeesh, just let people use what they want. Why are both sides so heated about this? If you use breaker, you’re not a meta slave with no skill. If you use anything else, you’re not a liability using low tier trash. BOTH OF THESE TAKES ARE VALID, so please stop this nonsense. Liberty don’t care what you use to destroy the bugs and bots, as long as it’s delivered, it’s effective.
@@lucg4005 absolutely no bro. The only point is that some people just keep using the breaker, calling out every other weapon to be dog shit. And i get it, it is a crazy gun, but only against bugs, get it? As bots goes hard, close and personal wont work, and we have a loooot of good weapons against bots
@@brunomonteiro7788Lol sounds like a skill issue if you can't make the best weapon in the game work against bots
I like the slugger, it hits like a truck and is just fun to use. One thing you didn't mention, but is obvious on video is the knock back. Sometimes getting that extra space can help so much. Considering you are pretty much running in circles the whole time on 7+ difficulties
Your review is flawed your comparing the slugger to the breaker to replace what the breaker does.
For mobs the slugger is not the best but if your support weapon accomplishes this the slugger shines because it can bypass armor and it stun lock stalkers, brood commanders, devastators and wrecks chainsaw guys.
For example I bring the slugger when I run nade launcher, stalwart, flamethrower, arc thrower
Breaker is better with railgun, recoiless, spear
Different gun for different builds
exactly. you cant just drag and drop the slugger an sniper basically into an assault build. the railgun needed to go for the ark thrower or a GL.
On high dif the stalwart, flamethrower, and arc thrower become relatively useless, if you pick those, together with the slugger, how are you going to deal with all the chargers and bile titans? And I'm not talking dif 4 where you may encounter a few chargers or a single bile titans, I'm talking dif 7+ with randoms. You could use the 500KG and Laser/Railcannon, enough to kill a single bile titan and charger, or 2 bile titans if you don't mess up one 500KG but after that you're out of options for ~4 minutes. If you have a decent team and communication it may work but if you play with randoms and nobody talks dif 7+ is going to be hard without the railgun, shield back pack, and breaker loadout.
@@zoopa9988 I play exclusively 8-9
My go to support is arc thrower or spear.
With arc thrower I usually run jetpack, EaT, rocket pods
I’ve soloed as many as 3 chargers and their patrol using only the arc thrower because it kills the patrol while I am taking down the charger and the other chargers usually take 2-3 shots after the first due to the arc.
If the EaT or rocket pods don’t kill the titan/charger/tank/hulk it typically only takes a couple arc thrower shots to finish them off.
I find the railgun to inefficient. For medium armor the slugger and scorcher are better and for heavy armor sentries, orbitals and airstrikes are more efficient in my opinion. The hardest part of the higher difficulties are the hordes.
Also the stalwart is great on higher difficulties I use it with the scorcher and the EaT and destroy everything, usually run jetpack and rocket pods too and that covers everything
The Slugger being able to stagger bots is why i bring it over the Breaker. Devastator's can't do anything to you if you keep shooting them. It's a straight up counter to the Rocket Devastator and if you shoot the Scout Strider in the foot/Ankle area you can even kill it without wasting explosives or use heavy weapon on it. Sure the ammo count is a problem but i usually bring ammo pack with me just in case i need to give myself ammo. The Slugger is definitely a weapon that gets slept on. Also it fires slug rounds so it's essentially a shotgun sniper.
The breaker is way too OP, I hope they buff the other guns, I really don’t hope they nerf the breaker tho cuz the game would be too hard for me
You can also shoot fences down with the slugger for cleaner map traversal ;)
Its simple they need to buff everyone weapon on the roster. The breaker is perfect and all the other guns are just too weak.
I just find it difficult using the Breaker because of the sheer number of armored enemies. Yeah, it has a lot of ammo sure, but all that ammo doesn't mean squat if you can't do any damage because the armor is blocking it. And when shit hits the fan and you're surrounded, you aren't going to have time to "aim for weakspots"
I think you've sold this weapon for me on automatons. In group play, combined with the breaker it just seems like a match made in heaven. hit devastators from range while your team mops up. saves on having to use railgun shots, can open containers and take down the at-st. almost seems like the m1000 classic from deeprock galactic to me. you arent gonna be a wave clearing monster, but your gonna deal damage where its needed. Seems fun to me and I need a change from the breaker. Great video
I'm sure you've gotten lots of comments recommending weapons already, and I don't know if you've already tried them but, my main 2 primaries for difficulty 9 Automatons are the Diligence (NOT the counter sniper variant) and the Scorcher (mostly this one though I take the diligence every now and then)
The diligence can 2 tap all the way up to devastators, and deals okay enough with berserkers, but the Scorcher is where it's at, 1 to 2 shots every small enemy, 2~3 to kill striders (walker guys) FROM THE FRONT, can kill shield devastators from the front as well, can kill tanks on the heatsink, and if you aim well it even kills berserkers decently quick, just a complete powerhouse and so much fun to use, only downside is you're gonna get tired of reloading really fast with that 15 round mag haha, and only 6 spare mags is also quite low, but you can find ammo around, so while I think it's worth noting, I don't think it's too much a big deal.
Mind you, I don't play solo, but I go around on my own while my group goes to a different objectives (this is communicated and with friends, I'm not just leaving them to deal with all the aggro I swear), and I've found nothing but success with the Scorcher^^
As a Malevelon Creek veteran, I can attest to the power of the Dominator against automatons. It is extremely skill-intensive, but very potent in the right hands. The only way it can outperform the breaker is if you make use of every tool available to you. Try to crouch/lie down whenever you are firing at long range, or when firing at moving targets in mid-range. Switch fire modes depending on target (burst for berserkers, single-shot for raiders, etc.). It can take hulks down very effectively from the back due to the explosive damage boost against weak points, and can 1 shot most small stuff.
One piece of advice though: be prepared to switch to your secondary a lot. It has terrible handling at close-quarters, so against commissars and sword-raiders at close range, make sure that pistol is out.
Plas-1 Scorcher is really good, just alot of people dont know about it because of its unlock requierment. The only 2 downsides are ammo is mediocre and the ability to self damage. But, those are very easily overcome and the weapon just shreds any target at any range
Looking forward to unlocking that star-wars lookin' gun. lol Glad to hear it's at least effective
I feel like there's one factor that is often overlooked in your videos when it comes to analysing weapons. "Stagger" its one of the reasons I like the slugger despite the damage fall off, the ability to stagger enemies can help you reposition, it espescially helps interrupt enemies like the rocket devastators from firing, you can stagger and rip through heavy devastators weapon hand, disabling their suppressive onslaught!
The stagger is a godsend when a rocket devastator is about to light up your whole crew.
Explosive liberator is a stagger machine, damage is ass but you can just keep tapping different bots to keep them locked down
For me, aside from DPS, the biggest issue with the Punisher and Slugger is the ammo economy.
Great comparison!
Unfortunately the balance in this game isn’t the best, I feel like the breaker is just leagues above the other guns, but instead of just nerfing it into the ground they need to bring other guns up to its level, the ammo count is such a draw back and the fact it doesn’t get full ammo from resupplies absolutely has to be changedz
With the Slugger, since it is a Round Reload gun, you should reload every chance you get, to keep yourself fully stocked as often as possible, even reloading 1 round everytime you shoot is good because just reloading a single round doesn't take much time at all
Slugger has a lot of weakness, but one thing takibo missed:
it STAGGERS opponents that does not get staggered easily by breaker, like berserkers, devastators, warriors and bile spewer...
Nothing quite like shutting up a bile spewer that is about to spew at you with a single slug shot to the face, it instantly stagger it and interrupt the spewing action..
That stagger is amazing because it not only interrupts whatever action they were doing but it also pushes them back slightly, sometimes it's just enough to lob explosive like contact grenade straight to their face safely
Slugger also pairs well with things like Stalwart because Stalwart mulch light armored foes for breakfast and have enormous amount of ammo, while Slugger pulverize the medium armored foes (2-3 shotting bile spewer and preventing them from spewing is quite fun).
smg not the best but it just works and running backwards is so useful against hunters
If you want a few options on what to take instead of the Breaker, here's my top weapons list (without Breaker)
vs Bugs:
- Slugger (Don't waste time using on smallest targets)
- Incendiary Breaker (Struggles a bit against Stalkers and Spewers)
- Punisher (The last one to make the list)
(Honorable mention: Basic Liberator)
vs Automatons:
- Dominator (The overall strongest against automatons)
- Scythe (Infinite ammo and deals with enemies fast if you are accurate in hitting weakspots)
- Scorcher (Really strong choice)
(Honorable mention: Sniper rifles)
Overall weapons against bugs value horde clear and ways to deal with heavy armor, while against automatons you want accuracy, range and damage to single targets. Also remember to take Stratagems that help with your weapons weaknesses
Another fun fact with the Slugger, it's capable of flat-out one shotting Stalkers if you nail them straight on the head. Even if you don't nail it, it staggers them. It is by far, the best weapon against Stalkers which makes it a blessing in higher difficulties.
Scorcher is also pretty good. 2-3 shots on most, 5-6 for ticks and brood commanders, a orbital railcannon and 6-7 to the stomachs of a bile. 5-6 shots against a unarmored leg for a charger, and really useful for most automatons. Defender smg lets you run away from enemies at a run and shoot at the same time, and with a recoil reduction armor makes it laser accurate.
Scorcher has terrible ammo economy. Every weapon that compares to the Breaker has a huge downside that puts the Breaker far ahead.
@@brilobox2I'm not saying as a primary it will solve every problem, the game also doesn't really expect you to deal with patrols and bug breaches with only your primary. After you've airstriked or grenaded/etc everything clearing up whats left with your scorcher becomes childs play even with a relatively small magazine.
Slugger is a 1000% the best primary, better than the breaker.
This take ONLY applies to solo and shouldn't be considered for anyone running with teammates:
- If you only ever run the railgun the slugger is often redundant
- Many 3rd-slot weapons that compliment the Slugger are harder to justify in solo. The Grenade Launcher is perhaps the best exception and you should run a slugger with it :)
Here are some observations in favor of the slugger:
- Stunlocks ALL Devastators, Berserkers, Scout Walkers (aim for joint), Any fodder enemy, Hiveguards, Brood commanders (I think?), and Stalkers. I'm dead serious -- they cannot attack you while you are attacking them. Who cares about flinch?
- slugger 5s reload but you can reload while sprinting. The breaker has to reload mid-combat with plenty of opportunities to waste chunks of that bigger ammo pool. With the slugger you can opportunistically dump in shells whenever you have free time and always be topped off
- ADS is fantastic with practice; damage falloff seems to be far better than the breaker, meaning your effective TTK and ammo conservation is better than the breaker. Would you rather OHK every fodder enemy or take several followup shots with the breaker?
- 1-2 taps rocket pods at extreme distance. Great for curbing devastator group's lethality quickly, often inadvertently saving your teammates' lives
- You can kill tanks and cannon turrets with this thing lol
- Staggers Hulks and deletes them in 3-6 shots based on distance
I would characterize the slugger as a defensive specialist that trades the breaker's raw, close-range DPS (emphasis on close-range) for unparalleled CC and the flexibility to deal damage to nearly every enemy, from any range. It's incredible in situations where your 3rd slot is your primary weapon (AC, GL, both MGs, arc thrower) as it can often cover the weaknesses of those tools better than the breaker can.
The slugger is great for the Nids' on higher difficulty due to the armor pen. If you carry a rover sentry it really helps with mopping up the little guys while you focus on the bigger targets. Pack a rail gun or nade launcher and you can deal with really big clumps or chargers very easily. Bring some strategems to help crowd control. Obviously breaker is an excellent choice all around but you can totally work the slugger load out on the bugs as well. Just my experience!
One key consideration in your primary weapon is which support weapon you bring. Breaker + railgun can handle most bugs well. Comparing the slugger directly is a bad idea.
However, I have been using the Arc thrower and Slugger combo. Hell dive difficulty, solo or in party.
While maybe still losing our in terms of power, slugger + thrower gains points in being fun to play
So the breaker was created by "JOHN HELLDIVER" while the rest of the games weapons were made my "tim cadet" who never made it passed difficulty 2
You're not building around the gun. You should be taking the Arc Thrower for when you want to deal with big guys and it gives you good add clear. You got to think about what your limitations are and build around those limitations.
Slugger let's you three/four shot Hulks from the back. Pair it with EMS Strike and it's basically free.
All in all I've had success with all the primaries. You just need to use them into the right things and adjust your support weapons and stratagems accordingly; which is the intended approach.
I've used all kinds of loadouts to great success; laser rifle for swarms of Termanids + disposable anti-tank for Termanid armor. Etc. Etc.
There really is no 'best' until you've unlocked everything out there and even then the 'best' is subjective based on what you're trying to do in your group. AKA squad diversity instead of just four railgun/shield backpacks, lol.
The only two things I've had any problems with and highly recommend get looked into are:
500kg bomb blast radius feels crazy random. Sometimes it hits where you feel it should and other times you sit there thinking, "It was right there! How did that not do anything?"
Arc Thrower. Damage is great on it, used it multiple times when I choose not to take a support weapon myself and just find one, but the consistency is all over the place. Sometimes it arcs, sometimes it doesn't trigger on anything, sometimes nothing right in front of you, sometimes it triggers on something DRM range, etc. There's just no readability or feedback on the weapon to let you know the result you're about to get.
I agree. I feel many of the guns are held back by players myopic view on running "meta" stratagems. the railgun in this video was not the right pick for the gun, the ark thrower, stalwart, GL, etc. would all have been far better picks for the heavy weapon slot seeing as CC is what he's lacking, if he's worried about bile titans run a 500kg bomb and boom that problem is solved. he's trying to use this as the breaker not as its own thing.
Try the Jar-5 Dominator, it feels sluggish and it's not good for horde clear, but it's VERY destructive against anything you can see on both automaton and terminid sides. On the Automaton side it punches straight through Devastator armor, can destroy Scout Striders from the front by hitting the hip joints, and it can hit a Hulk's head, meaning you only really need a strategem/support weapon for tanks and mass AoE. On the Terminid side, it punches straight through Hive Guard armor and it can oneshot Hunters and regular Warriors, as well as 3 shot blow off a Brood Commander's head, you only need strategems for Titans, Crushers and mass AoE. I've had fun combining it with the Arc Thrower in particular
Edit: The damn thing can oneshot Devastators with a shot to the forehead
This might be a hot take, but the DMR you unlock early, i think it's called the Diligence, works really well against bots if you focus weak points. It can two-tap heads of devastators and one-tap any lighter bot, and the recoil is manageable with a decent ammo count as well
I love that weapon but the antimaterial does the same thing without sacrificing vital horde clear abilities as well as being able to deal with tanks and emplacements and hulks easily as well
got it yesterday to test it, pretty much agree with everything you said, but it's good to have alternatives sometimes instead of always using the same gun every mission
If slugger had, ability to break/punch through armored spots, or a lot easier time blowing off limbs/parts - that would've been enough for me to consider using it.
As it stands - it's just a bit more range focused Punisher, that doesn't threaten Breaker's rule over close-medium range whatsoever: Berserkers and Devastators won't go down easily unless you hit them in the head - Breaker still comes out on top in this situation, as high ammo count and fire rate, low recoil and pellet spread actually make it easier to score headshots, up to 20-25m away from you (any further and you really feel that pellet spread...).
I put Breaker on semi-auto anyway. Too often, people waste ammo on dead enemy corpses.
Same. Lot of the videos I see of people using Breaker, they're spraying and praying it. It's an incredibly ammo efficient weapon when you're aiming your shots on each individual enemy.
Isn’t it set to semi automatic by default though? It’s the first option that shows up when changing fire mode, the second is the fully automatic.
I will sometimes shoot corpses on purpose for the disrespect points. But it’s so ammo efficient that I never really run out.
Eh I just tap fire
I don't think I myself am wasting shots but as long as I get hitmarkers I keep firing. There is plenty of ammo from supply drops and POIs when you're using the breaker.
I think it's worth pointing out that the devs have acknowledged (via discord, iirc) that the damage value listed in-game for the Slugger is wrong (the actual damage value is about double what is listed). That said, I tried the slugger for a while, and while the stagger and armor pen is nice against some of the medium enemies, the slugger falls flat as soon as you get jumped on by hunters (which is all the time in higher difficulties). Breaker is just way more reliable for clearing out those small enemies that swarm you. For bots, I'm taking the scorcher almost every time over both shotguns.
You play slugger by standing in a spot and unloading which is suboptimal for the gun. Slugger and punisher are great for sustained DPS by letting you shoot once, run, reload, shoot once again, run, reload, repeat.
Try the turret heavy sniper loadout. I played with this the other day against the automatons and it worked really well. The mortar, electric mortar(?), auto cannon and rocket sentry. Drop the mortars outside a compound and they’ll decimate pretty much anything and everything. The turrets can be used to protect your flanks, or placed on some elevation looking into a compound to assist the mortars. The sniper is pretty much a one shot on the humanoids and keeps them at a distance and away from your sentry’s. I did a solo run with this setup, accomplished all objectives and didn’t die once.
I like running the slugger like a secondary and bringing an arc thrower or stalwart to use like my primary, since their crowd control and ammo capacity are really solid for dealing with swarms. The slugger gets used to pick off farther targets and kill armored enemies quickly. Not exactly meta but it's a fun build and it puts in a good bit of work against bots and bugs.
The JAR-5 Dominator might be worth looking into, it's the only medium penetrating gun with above average stats. Looks good on paper at least. I would try it but I don't have it yet.
It has the same mobility issue like MG and Counter DMR, your gun have a delay to follow up on where you are aiming. Also, the projectile speed is noticeably slower than most weapons. But besides that you can use your medium armor penetration and 200 damage per round to delete some medium armored foe.
@SuperhotdogZz Good to know. I guess it had to have some downside in exchange for medium pen. Still, sounds like it could be good in some situations
Even with the armor pen it's damage is just not good enough on a lot of mid sized enemies. It seems pretty much built for bots but the only devastator it drops quickly without being laser focused on their tiny little ass heads is the rocket one, it should get buffed to kill standard devastators with half a mag(preferably less) of chest shots imo. If they're gonna make the second most common enemy's weak spot the world's smallest hitbox that bounces around all over the place they should at least have a standard weapon purpose built for dealing with them, needing a strategem weapon for it all the time like an anti mat rifle or MG is why those robots have been curb stomping our planets.
@@hornmonk3zit That's a shame. I guess there really is no beating the Breaker until they do a balance patch.
I have quick enjoyed the slugger against both factions. The main way to make the slugger feel better against the Terminids is to bring the Guard Dog Rover. Though the breaker is just better by itself, it is definitely started to get boring just using it against them.
If you're looking for a fun different set up to go against the pots try the one handed primary smg with a ballistic shield and scout armor. Honestly an absolute blast to sneak around and keep the enemy in front of you. The smg can two shot a devastator to the head. The only primary concern are missles because it can literally knock the ballistic sheild out of your hand. But for small arms fire its unbreakable and can sometimes outshine the shield generator pack
I'm always looking for Jack-of-all-Trades builds and I'm currently using the SMG, Railgun and Revolver. SMG is just the most versatilve auto weapon, it's a kite machine, allowing you to shoot backwards while running and the magazine can be well spread out by single fire for small targets but still deal with waves too. The Railgun, well....... And the revolver is being overlooked imho for decent burst if you need it without spending a railgun shot. It honestly may objectively be worse than the auto-sidearm but I like using it and I feel like it pairs very well with the SMG.
Opinions on the Liberator Penetrator? Medium armor pen and decent ammo capacity. Might be similar to the slugger where it's a atomoton gun and not a termanid gun.
The slugger is flat out amazing, but not as a solo weapon. When you have at least one teammate with a horde clearing weapon the slugger is invaluable at dealing with elite enemies, letting your more CC focused members deal with the horde. The Slugger can completely contain multiple brood commanders with pinpoint head explosions. It also has substantial knockback, you can stop a brood commanders charge outright and send it back 4 or 5 feet each hit. It can also interrupt a bile spewers spit attack, when they rear back to spit of you or a teammate a shot to the head or main body will completely stop the spit attack. It penetrates armored warriors, armored bile spewers, and even the back legs of a charger. Dont discount it agianst bugs. Also great for long range spamming a spore tower, you can destroy it in about 8-10 shots.
1 argument for slugger vs terminids: you can 4shot chargers if you hit one of their back legs. Conserves ammo/replaces rail gun. If you have a support weapon or guard dog that can deal with hordes and targetting orbitals/eagles for titans, can be a good loadout. Testing more tonight but yeah, think im switching to slugger for a while
Breaker kills charger to the legs too. -1 for slugger.
Slugger is good for 2 shotting bile spewers and it disrupts their spit. It has a punch that disrupts enemies where as the breaker can't do that. Remember your side arm? Takes care of little bugs. And if you've ever played call of duty, you'll appreciate being able to reload after every few shots. You can't kill everything with the breaker either so you might as well have something that can kill the actual threats
The answer is the arc thrower.
you got my like thx.
Heads up, if you hit reload immediately after shooting you will top off the mag every shot, this quick reload has an almost non existent animation and takes less time than usual recoil recovery so you can basically dont have a magazine you just have all your ammo in the mag. Its like it doubles up on the pump and the reload to get both done simultaneously.
What aout slugger + nade launcher instead of rail? :)
For me the scorcher is the best weapon for automatons. you can kill the at-st walker guys with 2 shots in the legs because its AOE kills the gunner in the back. you should really try that out!
it also can 3 shot kill the spore trees across the map wich is handy.
its biggest downside is the little ammo you have in the mag aswell as the insane self damage, it literally oneshots you if you shoot an enemie thats too close
For automatons, i roll the marksman rifle. One to two taps the smaller bots. If you're consistent with your aim, head/groin shots in the medium bots also only take a couple of bullets. I solo level 7 difficulty with little struggle.
Another weapon worth at least trying is the Pen. Liberator. I've had a lot of fun with it. The medium armor pen is really good. A small damage buff and it could be just as good as the breaker imo.
I love the slugger, going back to other weapons feels so weak because they can't punch through the heavier armor of the bigger bugs as easily, nor do the stun them as much. The biggest issue with it is the ammo count, but if you pair it with a good supply weapon, you can mitigate that somewhat.
I love it its next on my hit list can wait to purge some bugs I love the splatter of bug juice/armor everywhere
Since I bought slugger I never used breaker again. I just had to learn to shoot only If standing still or crouching If possible. What surprised me most was fact that I managed to pen charger leg and kill him with only five shots. Also, stagger of the slugger saved me so many times from stalkers and brood commanders, you forgot to mention that. And I am also running it in solo helldives, diff 9.
The best thing about the punisher/slugger is they load rounds not magazines meaning you can play like a normal fps and reload whenever meaning you can go into every encounter fully loaded. Also you don't have to reload the whole gun when it's empty you can reload couple shells and fire.
The Slugger has an advantage over the Breaker against Terminids when dealing with Bile Spewers, as it's far more ammo efficient to have a medium armor pen weapon to headshot them as opposed to mag dumping into their bile sacs. Most players don't play solo, and when playing in a group, it's worthwhile to have one player take a Slugger for that reason.
slugger has higher skill floor and ceiling. It can function as a pseudo "medium armor penetrating" weapon but requires you to not miss. Use the uzi sidearm for trash mobs, punish heavier units at medium distance with the slugger to save your drop pod weapon ammo
Almost certain the Devs stated the Slugger's in game listed damage is incorrect.
I heard about that aswell, it does almost double more damage than what is listed iirc
I thought it was odd that the Slugger wasn't at least Medium armor penetration. Glad to hear it actually is.
The same is true of the Senator revolver. Its listed as Light armor penetration, but actually breaks medium and is alot better for it.
I like the Dominator against the Bots. Being able to oneshot devastators in the head and small ones in the chest on higher range than the breaker feels nice.
SMG needs some respect on it's name.
I love it but when there's a massive horde of light infantry it always runs out of ammo to fast for me
Slugger is great as a heavy primary for when you're not using a support as medium clear.
If you choose to use something like the rover instead of a shield with bugs, which I'm not sure why you would run shield with bugs in the first place. It would save you a ton of ammo, and eliminate the need of spending rounds on smaller bugs and focus on getting rid of the bigger more threatening ones
Big fan of the Rover for bugs, but it's pretty significant that shield prevents the slow from hunter and stalker attacks.
@@scruffytlr789 Hunters aren't as dangerous if you got a gun with better range able to take them out before they reach you and the Rover helps with that as well.
I've fallen in love with the Jar-5 as of late, it only needs a small buff to make it perfect.
The slugger breaks through the armor of those annoying armored bugs (2x shots to break armor). So if you are not running a rail gun and using a loadout like machine gun or grenade launcher, slugger would be good.
The slugger being slow and slow reloading is actually a downside, yeah. Tho, are we sure it deals less damage? I mean, sure, it says 280 vs 330, but as you said, it can oneshot the hunter, which you cant do with the breaker usually. We cant trust the tooltips in this game at all right now, so im not sure if we should include that as part of the downsides.
To be fair, the core issue of being swarmed too much is annoying about the slugger. Unlocked it today and felt the potential. High damage if you land the shots, and medium armor penetration is great.. but i just wanted back to the breaker tbh. I hope they dont nerf the breaker but rather bring other weapons up to the same level. Same with the railgun.
I enjoy the Slugger against bugs particularly for hive guards and the bigger warriors (commanders?). Its not going to spew insane dps or horde control, doesn't even have as great of ammo capacity. But it allows me to hold positioning against bigger bugs while my laser guard dogs takes care of the small trash. That, and railgun for chargers, spewers, bile titans.
I have been finding running it this way more fun than the spray-n-pray breaker approach despite it's quirks and short comings. Meta? Probably by no means. Different, yes.
With enough skill, and especially with enough team coordination meta is by-far not necessary in the higher 7,8,9 difficulties. For solo players this is of course a completely difference case. But for me, even running duos with a buddy on 7,8 its not a bad bet for changing up the flow. And even more so playing in full squads of 4, it just changes my role.
To those of you saying the slugger can’t kill hordes. You’re right. But I still feel like it could do more base damage. Just in general. Like 50% which is a lot but that’d be a chill amount. I also want that double barrel
I really liked the stronger punch of the slugger, but it does feel really slow. It might work well with the arc-thrower or another hoard clearing weapon though. With a weapon like the arc-thrower you would just switch to the slugger when teammates are in front of you, and you don't want to fry them.
if you can actually hit shots the slugger can outperform most weapons purely based on how versatile it is, single shell load means quicker follow up shots, can pen medium armour is a stagger machine has really solid range. I prefer it over the breaker because I can do more with it
The scorcher is good at everything and feels great to use. Just make sure to run a couple steps back before shooting terminids point blank so you doin't kill yourself with it and you're golden - It can even deal with chargers by shooting them in the ass pretty easily.
Is the liberator penetrator any good for autos? It's nice to not have to aim for headshots on the devestators, but you seem to have headshots down to a t.