I feel like the laser dog is pretty much required for bugs because it's a near 100% uptime lawnmower for the hundreds of bugs that spring out of the walls on a constant basis.
this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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Helldivers 2
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I tried the shield a few times and I honestly prefer it on bugs. It saves tons of incidental damage from hunters any of the assholes that don't need a head to wreck your day. Also fewer injuries so better gun uptime while backing up because you don't need to stim.
While we're talking about bugs, everyone should have at least one orbital airburst in the party. Throw it on any bug breach and suddenly it's not a problem anymore. It'll kill anything smaller than a charger, and the charger will get staggered by the blast so you can line up anti tank easy.
My favourite thing about the shield is not getting staggered by the odd hit from something. Gives a bit of time to get the situation under control rather than getting stun locked straight away.
My favorite runs with 4 guard dogs and 4 arc throwers.
That sounds like a race to see who can get the most friendly fire damage!
That what the 95% ark resistant armour is great for, still want to try this
Finally I can win at something for once in my life
On lower difficulties sure, the harder it gets the less you want to aleart every bug you see. It also gets weaker and weaker.
It wasn't super effective but I would still bring the guard dog on Automaton missions sometimes just because it would quickly notify me of any enemies I didn't notice.
I liked it because it floated over cover so I could be behind a wall and it'd burn through those rocket infantry guys safely, or pick off the jumping guys or sword guys while I'm in cover reloading
That's the biggest downside of it imo, because it always notifies them where you are
I was doing that already
That explains many of my failed stealth attempts.
Its been too long since a laser closelined me
This happened to me last night. It was like being hit with a wave of decapitating nostalgia.
Dude the rover drone is essential vs bugs. Nobody needs a shield vs enemies who are barely using any range attacks, but a mobile laser turret that zaps the infinite tiny bugs constantly on your ass. Shield is good vs bots, who are for the most part all range attackers, and shrug off the laser drone easily anyway.
Shield pack is still really good to prevent Hunter slows. If I'm giving that up for anything, it's gonna be the Autocannon backpack.
[sad jetpack noises]
I've never been able to make the jet pack feel worth bringing in over other strategems. The only time I've ever used it has been to save me a few seconds of walking around a small cliff. I'd love to see how someone skilled at it uses it in combat.
Yeah, I love jetpacks in these kinds of games (former Tribes player) but the duration and cooldown of the one in HD2 is pretty bad.
It's really good when you use it for a bit. The cooldown seems ling and it appears pretty weak, and it's not really made to be fast, except when you go downhill. The trick is more when to use it. I use it to reinforce, reload and get away from bile titans or hunters. It's very handy to get on rocks to get a breather. It helps to do objectives, abd on maps with a chasm it's s+ tier. Honestly if it were any better it would be way overpowered. You can already outrun almost everything, and the jetpack gives you that extra boost. I use it combined with light armor and the 30% reduced visibility perk, so it's really easy to just disappear. I only really fie to teammates with that loadout.
combine it with a sniper rife to get onto the top of some of the high space, also good for using to get a good jump away when your running while swarmed
A trick I've found with the rover is to always be on a higher elevation your teammates with it. Stand on a box or something when using it near them. It's super useful to use it when providing supporting fire as well.
You just need to be constantly aware of where your teammates are when using it.
There was a point where I used the guard dog, when I unocked the bubble shield it was rough not knowing when there were bugs behind you. That was the hardest part of transitioning. Most people on harder difficulties like suicide and above don't use the guard dog but I have been playing with my wife lately on lower difficulties and HOLY SHIT the friendly fire is absurd. I didn't even realize it before. If you want to run off on your own, go ahead, use the guard dog. But if I play with someone using the guard dog I will just run off and do side objectives.
The few times I have ran without the shield I have learned how much I rely on it. You don't realize how often you ignore the small bugs for a few seconds to get a shot off or a strike on a titan or charger. Suddenly the first hit from a hunter has you staggered and poisoned. You don't have that warning hit so you can finish what your doing and evade with your sidearm.
I play on suicides and love me some Rover against the bugs. It clears so much of the little guys that it allows you focus most of your attention on chargers and brood commanders. But yeah at lower levels it's crazy OP because it can kill everything. I was teaching the game to some friends a couple weeks ago and at anything lower than hard you can basically just have the Rover murder everything (teammates included).
I don't really mind people using the guard dog, since it does so little damage to team members. I only play on helldiver difficulty, so imo it's just hindering, simce you can't sneak past guards and you'll always alert everything that you pass.
Fully agree on the shield, i used it for a bit but realized how much i'm depending on it. Now i play with light armor and a jetpack if i don't have. Backpack support weapon, and it's so much better for survivability, just a bit harder to get used to. Hunters used to be the bane of my existence, but turns out when you can outrun them, they are less of a problem.
I like the laser guard dog with the Plasma Punisher combo. That said the shield backpack is useful for bugs too even if the game doesn’t explicitly tell you.
you can usually survive a ram attack from the heavies, its like getting tumbled in the ocean surf and you cant tell where you are but you get a chance to heal and run
I was the only one who didn't die two during two missions last night on Diff 4 because of the shield backpack. I was so close to death a few times and ran out of stims and had to be healed by others 2x but I never died and was always able to call reinforcements so they didn't care about healing me
I need a laser autocannon so I can be slinging laser all over the dang field without a backpack or exploding a round in my own face.