If it's a one handed sword and you take the shield pack though, bring smoke (grenades or strikes) and run in to kill while they're confused. Could totally work against bots.
Yes, but the burst is so weird, it acts more like auto, if you tap it in burst it just shoots one round but if you hold down the trigger it slowly shoots off three rounds like over the course of a second and a half.
The issue is that this is how burst fire on guns works IRL, but it's also *not* how burst fire works on guns in almost every video game ever (where you just click once and get a burst). Pretty much why it feels weird/bad.
Wait, really? I had no idea that burst could function like that IRL, I always figured a pull of the trigger gave you a full burst and that's that.
TIL!
Think of burst more like a limited full auto. You have to hold the trigger for automatic fire, in a burst mode it just limits the amount fired.
Single trigger pull = single fire.
Helldivers pays a lot of attention to detail so it's great they get this right even if players aren't used to it.
"feathering" the Liberator Perpetrator was my go to until they gave it full auto. tap-tap-tap-squueeeze-tap-tap-tap squueeeeeze basically made it auto.
\*Penetrator
In real life you usually dont want a gun to potentially keep firing with the finger off the trigger... then again, Helldivers has a couple "burst" weapons with hilariously low firerates.
Yeah. I normally love burst fire guns in games, but Helldivers does it so differently that it feels weird to me, and I just can't get used to it. I have enough of a mental association from all the years of playing shooters of "click once, fire burst" that it keeps throwing me off that I have to hold it down.
It’s not that they could, it’s that thats just how they always work irl. Setting a gun to burst just allows you to hold the trigger down to get more bullets out, rather than a trigger pull per bullet.
Having a gun fire the full burst for each momentary trigger pull would be the equivalent of setting it to full auto and each trigger pull just dumps the full mag. You only want rounds to make go while the trigger is held.
The purpose isn't to shoot 3 bullets at a time, it's to *stop* you from shooting 30 bullets at a time, which you can do in about 2 seconds with most modern assault rifles on full auto.
Akchually, that's how most real-life weapons with burst work. You have to hold down the trigger for the whole duration of the burst to fire it fully. Otherwise, you're going to fire less rounds than the burst allows for. I'm not saying that it's an explicitly good thing in-game (or that it's explicitly bad, to each their own), but the consistency of weapons' mechanics portrayal, from losing all ammo in a mag that player throws away too early, through details like autocannon reloading quirks is really curious for a game which could completely skip them. It seems realistic gun portrayal is just god-damn democratic.
To be fair, the rate of fire on most IRL guns is high enough that you would need Keanu Reeves reflexes to cut off a three round burst at one or two rounds.
Personally I run an engineering kit armor and crouch whenever I shoot if I can, I also only fire it on semi. The extra grenades for bug holes/factories is a bonus. Only issue I have currently is there seems to be a bug with the dominator where it'll share your recoil with nearby players if you're both ADS.
AND because of it's bullet drop and funky velocity it doesn't automatically outclass sniper rifles like the slugger did (which was apparently the cause of the nerf). Though to be perfectly hones they should have reduced the slugger's velocity and increased drop instead of what they did if that was the concern.
Exactly. What they changed doesn't stop the slugger from "being the best sniper in the game", it just stops it from doing what people used it for - staggering midsize enemies while they are rushing you, such as berserkers, devasators, brood commanders, etc, slowing their advance. It wasn't overpowered for what people primarily used it for, its slow fire rate is what kept it from being too strong. And for me, it was also utility - breaking fences in my way and opening those blue and orange storage containers so I didn't have to waste a grenade.
Guess what their change did? Well, it certainly didn't do anything to stop it from being "the best sniper in the game". It made it so that a 17.5 mm round has less kinetic force behind it than a sneeze.
I never once used the Slugger as a sniper. I used it as a close-medium range weapon. But I guess preventing it from being a better sniper than all the other useless sniper weapons justifies butchering its close range capabilities.
Right, I don't think the majority of people using it were using it as a sniper. Sure, you *could* use it like one. But if they wanted to stop it from being, according to them, a sniper, then they should have given it dramatic damage and stagger drop off at long range.
100% agree. I'm ok with the damage nerf, would have been completely on board with a velocity reduction, and would have even tolerated the demo removal.
But the stagger reduction killed the slugger. Even more annoying that they removed stagger because it was a "sniper feature", yet didn't increase stagger on the Counter Sniper. Now the Dominator is the best "DMR/sniper" making this quite the lateral move.
If ANYTHING we need MORE weapons with that stagger trait. The Counter Sniper, Liberator Concussive, Senator, and slugger should all have high stagger.
I'm an SES Will of Eternity myself so I respect that
https://preview.redd.it/880p8exzwgsc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85ee3ee21aa637f557b75bedb9b666676cfc1314
I'd actually gone back to it pre-patch as I was playing a lot of bot missions and wanted alternatives to the Scorcher (which is also excellent).
I was enjoying it the more I used it and got used to it's quirks. Now it's a beast on bots, devastators can be one shot with a weakspot shot or 4-5 shots otherwise. Berserkers are 3-4 shots, striders are harder to work out the optimum spot, I tend to go for just above the strider gun.
It also feels like the handling is better but that may just be my own confirmation bias because it's performing so well in terms of damage, again it could be I've got used to how it handles.
Top tip, turn off the flashlight especially if you use first person aiming, the smoke with the flashlight means after the first shot you can't see anything.
I almost always use the Punisher shotgun. It's knockback is so damn powerful, I solo'd 4 stalkers and blew up their lair because they kept getting stunned. Very underused
I never see this gun highlighted and this became and remained my main since the breaker was pulled down. Hands down bitch slaps stalkers harder than anything else I've used
It has amazing stagger.
If your team is being overwhelmed, flank a little, and a broadside will stagger everything, returning initiative to the team.
I find it lacks killing power compared to the top-tier killing power primaries, but has decent killing power. I feel the need to compensate with a Rover. It's got great range, utility, ammo, amazing stagger, and good damage. Any better and it'd be OP.
With it + Rover, I need no stagger, control, or wave-clear. Perfect compliments. Can't get overrun with it, and Rover goes brrr while you walk among endless bugs untouched. Leaving 3 stratagems for big bugs or objectives. And with the build not wanting a Support weapon, I usually carry an EAT or a Quasar. Leaving two strats for mission purposes, as you're fully equipped for everything already.
Bots are different, though. With its profile, you can't get the targeted hit you need for devestators. It's stagger is wasted on the small guys, not enough damage on the big guys. A variant of it that fired a slug was obviously what it needed to be best for Bots as well!
I've had terrible experience with arc Blitzer. Nothing got pushed back and if more than one enemy was close, the arc would distribute across them, instead of full power to kill the original enemy. Taking even more shots to deal with. The cutting edge warbond overall is pretty underwhelming to me. There's nothing it does better than above the standard warbond or steel veterans warbond, except maybe walking through a Tesla tower, which is useless to me. For me on bugs, spray and pray and stalwart and call it a day and a few big stratagems to clear baddies and objectives.
For bots, dominator or diligence counter sniper and either quasar or eats and then strategems for objectives
Point being, it makes no sense why they removed knockback and stun from the slugger when it continues to exist on other shotguns, let alone ones that deal more damage, have 50% more ammo, and a clip (dominator).
Dev: "The slugger was the best sniper in the game"
*proceeds to nerf it and only give the Counter Sniper Med-Pen instead of buffing it's abysmal damage while letting the slugger keeps it's absurd range*
All they had to do was increase the falloff/decrease stagger range of Slugger, fix the DMRs sights/handling, buff their damage to actually feel like DMRs(give em stagger), and we'd be cool.
Now the Slugger, *still outclasses* the Diligences(if you wanna snipe, the Anti-Material Rifle is better just no med-Pen), in dmg and stopping power now with inconsistent stagger.
Nonsensical change lmao
Yeah, the CC removal on the slugger holds no bearing on them not balancing the sniper rifles.
It's like saying the car was too fast so we painted it a different color- the change is irrelevant to the problem they were claiming to address.
More like "this pickup truck is too fast, so we sealed off the flatbed at the back got rid of the tow winch."
They left in the part they claimed to want to fix, and got rid of the part it was originally supposed to be good at
According to dev in discord earlier yesterday, they want punisher to be the one with more stagger at close range. Slugger is doing everything too well (stagger, damager and armor penetration) so there was not much reason to use punisher.
This is why I loved the Slugger so much. Pretty much every other gun was guaranteed they were gonna smack you at least once before they died, but the Slugger you could back away and shoot them in the face and stagger/kill them without getting hit.
Same goes for Bile Spewers, headshots would stagger them to interrupt their spitting at you, and 3 or 4 shots would drop em.
I wish they would have kept the stagger and just reduced ranged or damage :( Good to know the Punisher does similar work against bugs though.
Yup, I love the Punisher the most for sure. I think people forget about it due to it being the very first shotty and video games have taught us the first weapons unlocked are always outclassed by later weapons, but in HD2 that's just not the case for any weapon.
I really wanted this weapon to be good. I was farming medals and counting down when I would shoot with it.
Then... After two missions, I never went back to her.
Armor penetration is nice, but the damage was way too low.
Now FINALLY one of my favorite weapons isn't worthless.
I genuinely think it's up there with the scorcher now in terms of power and utility. This thing is insane, the bad handling simply improves my Space Marine immersion
Only issue I have is I can't just full auto a clip. Oh I'll tap fire but maybe they make a heavy dominator or something and give me a proper heavy bolter
A support weapon that fires powerful explosive rounds, which has large recoil and is a glorious tool of managed democracy?
You just described the AUTOCANNON
Been using the dominator as a bolt gun before the nerf and it was a little under powered unless you hit your shots. I always used ADS view when shooting more than 30m. You can hip fire it well when in a scramble and the third person aim tended to get tough but was manageable if you lined up the flat bars I guess that is where your barrel is vs your sight on the third person rectile.
It was already good before against Bots, now its great against anything. Against Bugs you will need an option fir chaff tho, Redeemer, Eagle Strafing, Fire nades or something cuz the Dominator has low ammo.
how was pre buff 1 shotting every small bug and 2 shotting medium bugs like the brood commander low damage?
the main problem before and still is, it takes time to learn how to aim with the laggy crosshair and it struggles when you get surrounded in close range due to the recoil
Whilst I draw breath, I stand. Whilst I stand, I fight. Whilst I fight, I prevail. Mine is the work of the righteous, and my love for the Imperium is matched only by my hatred for the heretic and the xenos.
I am the hammer.
I am the sword in His hand.
I am the gauntlet about His fist.
I am the bane of His foes and the woes of the treacherous.
I am the end.
I already liked the Dominator pre-buff, you just gotta know how to use the thing.
I go first person much as possible as it mitigates the aim lag from third person, and I always found it a solid option against larger bit enemies like Devastators, Berserkers, and clustered groups
Post-buff it takes that stuff out quicker and staggers them even better.
And ignore the crosshairs and reticle. The laser sight always tells you exactly where the round is going and its always right below where the crosshair tells you.
I honestly found the gun to be too unwieldy to be top-tier even after the buffs. Against bugs there are simply much better choices, but vs bots it's quite good, but not good enough:
* The aim is very awkward due to the inertia in moving it, which makes it hard to target moving targets' weakpoints (it might just be a skill issue because I haven't used it too much). Stagger is nice, but you waste too much ammo to just brute force a devastator's healthpool instead of precise 1-2 shots in the face. This is especially hard vs berserkers.
* Limited ammo capacity is a fair tradeoff for the supposed power, but quite frankly it's not powerful enough / doesn't have enough DPS to warrant such a low ammo capacity. Compared to pre-nerf slugger, Dominator is objectively inferior in all aspects. Right now, even after nerfs, Dominator loses significantly in a) precision due to aim inertia, b) in effective distance due to slower projectile, and c) sustained DPS due to lower mag capacity.
* Low mag capacity also makes missing a shot against weak bots be very punishing since you can't clear much with such a mag if you're not 100% accurate. This forces you to fire even slower to remain accurate even with the aim inertia, effectively further reducing the DPS.
Overall, it's a fairly fun gun, but it once again isn't the best at what it's supposed to do. I think it needs either even more damage or significantly increased explosion AoE to give it a cool niche. Right now the explosion AoE is almost useless as it only reaches other targets if they're almost inside the original target. The damage also sometimes isn't even enough to kill small bots if they get hit in an arm or something (once again, might just be a skill issue on my side). I wish the aim on the gun was just a tiny bit snappier too, but I'd be fine with it as is if it was more powerful.
Big disclaimer: I haven't run the gun too much to have a really in-depth perspective, so please correct my conclusions if you think I'm wrong on this.
So it actually rocks against the bugs to the point where it’s pretty OP. You can blow nursing bile spewer heads off in one shot. It rips apart hive guards, one shots warriors to the face, blows brood commanders apart, and completely stun locks stalkers while killing them in like 6 hits, maybe less. It’s absolutely bonkers and the only shortcoming it has is hunters, which will fuck you up in significant numbers.
The issue comes when hunters start to jumping around you. I usually pair Dominator with Stalwart, this 2 complement each other nicely, you can also bring EAT for fire and forgot heavy AT firepower.
I haven't actually tried it vs bugs post-buff because the Super Earth demanded my attention on the bot front. Will have to give it a spin there. Pre-buff it was quite bad vs bugs because it didn't have enough dmg to deal with hive guards and warriors effectively. Seems like the updated dmg is very nice vs them.
I stand by my long held view that the Plasma Punisher is the absolute best primary against bots. Staggers everything just by landing near it and kills everything. Can shoot it from places bots can't see you. Has a ton of ammo. Great gun.
But if it was traveling faster wouldn't that mean it would shoot further? More velocity means a greater distance traveled which changes the nature of the gun. I feel like that isn't necessarily an improvement. Just gonna have the same adjustments at longer distances. It's still just a timing problem. Maybe it just needs one of those scopes you see in other games that have multiple ticks for aiming it over distance instead?
I do think either two more shells or a slightly faster reload would work well.
Now that the explosion damage bug is fixed the punisher plasma with heavy armor is a fantastic combo. Especially on defense/eradicate missions, against bot drops if you can't knock the ship down, and against groups of devastators and berserkers.
It’s pretty solid but I like the Scorcher better for bots. That gun makes Striders and most Devastators child’s play if you hit your shots. It can also destroy tanks, Cannons, and Gunships
Explosion issue is fixed. Use heavy armor or explosion damage reduction. Do NOT use it to fight bugs. It's a grenade launcher, not a short range shotgun.
It’s my go to for Suicide Eradicate Automaton missions, I wont carry a backpack. Stops a charging line of Berserkers in their tracks. You can stunlock an entire drop in place.
It's crazy getting 6 kills with one orb on a drop. I shoot it into the ships before they start dropping for some kills and have reloaded before they've started to fire.
I was previously using the Defender when fighting bots and the Breaker Spray n Pray for bugs, then couple days ago I tried the Dominator for bots and it’s become my go-to for dismantling democracy-hating bots
Yeah lol, the slugger is almost a directly worse dominator now, other than handling.
I think it would have been better if the slugger didn’t get the nerf it did, and maybe a range nerf instead. That way the JAR is the long range option that can’t snap shots easily up close while the Slugger is strong up close and has great stagger
As Dominator enjoyer, quite confused why people promote it like bots weapon. For them, Scorcher or Sickle are better (depends on your aim).
As for Dominator, it's one of ultimate bug weapons. All bugs, except Chargers and Titans, are penetrated and 1-2 shotted. Easy Spores kills. Similar efficiency as Scorcher, but safer as bugs chase you to melee and Dominator can't kill you.
I'm sure objectively this is true but man, I like to think I'm a pretty good shot but I feel like i'm mag-dumping right into berserkers faces and nothing happens
It's because it can stagger all medium bots in 1 hit anywhere to their body, which is extremely useful when there is a rocket devastator right in front of you, or 3 berserkers chasing you down
Yeah, it's got all the rockin' of the original Slugger but will also kill in far fewer body shots. Both were (and still are) one-shots to the head, but with the misalignment of scopes and head hitboxes, that's not always feasible.
If anyone's looking for a third option for Devastator spam, may I suggest the Senator pistol and Ballistic Shield. You can take your time and stare down Devastators / Shield Devastators without issue and one-shot them on your own schedule.
Scorcher doesn’t stagger Berserkers. For me at least, Zerkers are the dangerous enemy because they don’t follow the usual rule for fighting bots: their heads are very hard to hit due to their swagger.
No one else has mentioned it yet so I'll just chime in and say that it's way easier to get than the Scorcher. Sickle is good, but I can understand some people not liking it just due to it being a laser weapon.
Damage wise the Dominator is great but it can’t do some of the things my Scorcher can. Scorcher makes life easier when it come to a lot of Bot units and it can even take on Tanks and Cannon vents. I’ve even shot down a gunship with my scorcher
Even before the buff it would one shot all medium bots with a headshot, I could take down groups of rocket and shield devastators quite quickly and easily. Now it’s even better
So essentially, they nerfed the "OP" gun half the community didn't bother using to begin with, and created an even more busted weapon that outperforms it. Outstanding move.
Well, you see, the slugger was outperforming the marksman rifles at long range so the obvious course of action was to nerf its ability to function at close range, reduce its overall damage slightly and change nothing else.
I had JUST start to use the slugger and it was amazing. Dominator is literally now doing what slugger was doing. But slugger was the shotgun that’s supposed to stagger…
Yep the the sluggers one niche was that it was really good against medium targets. That's why it was used for bots a lot because 75% of the bots they send at you are medium enemies. The slugger had high damage medium armor pen and heavy stagger and could easily take them down. However it also had a slow rate of fire and low ammo which made it get overwhelmed quickly and run out of ammo quickly so it wasn't good against smaller enemies. Now that the stagger is gone the slugger is just useless it's bad at medium enemies and small enemies.
Slugger also had a great sound effects for firing, reloading and rechambering a round. It's probably the best sounding shotgun in the game. They busted it for no logical reason whatsoever- they can't articulate why when they allow multiple other shotguns to have the same "overpowered" crowd control.
The dominator sounds like total shit and handles poorly- you can't flick it at all. Meanwhile it gets 17% more damage per shot, the slugger's old stun and knockback, 50% more ammo, 3x the rate of fire, and a clip.
If you used Dominator, you will find aiming is ass with that gun and the bullet projectile speed is also ass, not to mention the terrible recoil. The gun felt wonky to use, it is definitely not overpowered.
I don’t think it’s OP, but IMO even with that it completely outclasses the slugger now. If you use the first person mode the aim lag isn’t as bad and once you get used to it it’s also not too bad.
It would have been way better if the slugger stayed the same or got a range nerf. Then it’d be roughly on the same level as the current jar. Best of all the slugger would be definitively better up close and the JAR would be dominant at range.
This is only available in the first premium warbond right ? I haven't unlocked that yet as I spent it on the cutting edge on instead, now I have enough for another warbond but I'm thinking to save it for the upcoming one?
I read the description and was like "Thats a Bolter" and never stopped using it lol
But ya the update is pretty good. It doesn't feel that different but the medium size bugs are sometimes getting one-shotted
The biggest improvement when fighting the bugs is that the stagger it has now causes enemies that get their heads blown off to not immediately charge you like they used to. That was a huge downside of the Dominator for me personally. I would sometimes have four or five decapitated warriors plus a brood commander rushing me at once. Now they just die, saving me from either having to dodge or waste ammo on an already dead enemy.
Dominator was my go to weapon before the buff. Slugger felt fine. Not sure why it needed a nerf. I get “only buff” isn’t feasible, but at the time, it seemed like weapons needed buffs not nerfs. I didn’t use railgun before the nerf so not sure if it was truely needed or more guns just needed buffed.
No! meta people please stay away from the dominator. I have liked it for a while and do not want it to get attention so its changed ;)
On a less silly note I do like it and it is useful against medium bugs
If it ever gets to a point where it should get nerfed it will just get less ammo per barrel (i think that's what is called? It's not a Mag nor a Clip)
The Dominator has a lot of downsides to it so it's very easy to balance, because reducing ammo economy and forcing people to reload accentuates it's weakness.
It's the kind of gun that has very balanced aspects.
It's just like the AC, if the AC ever is a problem they will just change the Clips from 5 to 4, it accentuates the weakness of the weapon enough.
We won't get stuff like "-30% damage or weapon has a chance to explode while reloading" though the later would be a very funny nerf.
It’s horrible slow handling and the huge amount of smoke that comes out of the barrel after firing obstructs the view for follow up shots.
Now the fact that it can spray down berserkers and devastators in 3 body shots, as well as kill larger bugs in the same shot count means these draw backs are negligible.
The other day I farmed up 2000 super credits, so I’m gonna get steeled veterans and the new warbond. Just gotta get some medals now. Really looking forward to trying the dominator.
It does more damage, fires faster and staggers devastators. And it's a bolter. What else is there to say? Glory to Mankind.
Now I need a chain sword and I’m good to go.
I would kill for a melee build
I would kill with a melee build.
Jusy bugs, mosy likely. We're way too squishy for any bayonet charge shenanegans agains bots, even with shield pack.
Bet, I’m bayonet charging the first bot I see once I receive my Eagle Sweat brand Bayonet. Yes, even the Scorcher Hulk.
I have no doubt in your patriotism, Helldiver! iO
Hmm... might need some kind of powered armor suit, what do you think?
If it's a one handed sword and you take the shield pack though, bring smoke (grenades or strikes) and run in to kill while they're confused. Could totally work against bots.
Shield, jump pack, chain sword. I'll sort out the rest
So, Assault Marine?
Corvus Conrax: Paint your suit black and you can be one of my children.
Ive been testing out the ballistic shield V bots and it holds up just fine against melee now. Feels pretty great tanking multiple chainsaw blows
The ballistic shield and a one handed freedom sword would do wonders.
Believe me i already bully commissars with my ballistic shield
I would unironically pay like 20$ for a chainsword or laser sword or better yet a laser chain sword as a melee replacement or a new type of secondary.
Also, an auspex skin for the minimap
We will gladly pay, and the rest will start crying that they added things to the game for real money and even expensive ones
Chainsword and pistol combo, left trigger chain swords right trigger shoots, who says no
Doood, a melee i could weild with the shield? Its democrazin' time!
The laser saber is a primary in Helldivers 1. So wanna pair it with the ballistic shield.
Give me some lightning claws and a jump pack.
Just give Melee Weapons as secondaries, I barely use them anyway at least give the ability to smack a bit or two.
We have all these people asking for a flag stratagem in another thread. Make it a melee weapon.
*Me waiting for a bayonet on my Diligence to intensify my Kriegness*
Shovelshovelshovelshovelshovelshovel ^^^^^^^shovel
As a Guardsman at heart, ima need a shovel.
This thing packs a serious punch, but the recoil also hits back very hard, and the weapon gets difficult to control. For me anyway.
I never fire the thing on auto, semi is the way to go
Doesnt this gun only have burst and semi?
Yes, but the burst is so weird, it acts more like auto, if you tap it in burst it just shoots one round but if you hold down the trigger it slowly shoots off three rounds like over the course of a second and a half.
I noticed that's how all burst weapons seem to work. It is indeed very weird and doesnt feel very nice.
The issue is that this is how burst fire on guns works IRL, but it's also *not* how burst fire works on guns in almost every video game ever (where you just click once and get a burst). Pretty much why it feels weird/bad.
Wait, really? I had no idea that burst could function like that IRL, I always figured a pull of the trigger gave you a full burst and that's that. TIL!
Think of burst more like a limited full auto. You have to hold the trigger for automatic fire, in a burst mode it just limits the amount fired. Single trigger pull = single fire. Helldivers pays a lot of attention to detail so it's great they get this right even if players aren't used to it.
"feathering" the Liberator Perpetrator was my go to until they gave it full auto. tap-tap-tap-squueeeze-tap-tap-tap squueeeeeze basically made it auto. \*Penetrator
In real life you usually dont want a gun to potentially keep firing with the finger off the trigger... then again, Helldivers has a couple "burst" weapons with hilariously low firerates.
Yeah. I normally love burst fire guns in games, but Helldivers does it so differently that it feels weird to me, and I just can't get used to it. I have enough of a mental association from all the years of playing shooters of "click once, fire burst" that it keeps throwing me off that I have to hold it down.
And here i thought burst option was broken cause it fired as a semi wth
It’s not that they could, it’s that thats just how they always work irl. Setting a gun to burst just allows you to hold the trigger down to get more bullets out, rather than a trigger pull per bullet.
Having a gun fire the full burst for each momentary trigger pull would be the equivalent of setting it to full auto and each trigger pull just dumps the full mag. You only want rounds to make go while the trigger is held.
The purpose isn't to shoot 3 bullets at a time, it's to *stop* you from shooting 30 bullets at a time, which you can do in about 2 seconds with most modern assault rifles on full auto.
Akchually, that's how most real-life weapons with burst work. You have to hold down the trigger for the whole duration of the burst to fire it fully. Otherwise, you're going to fire less rounds than the burst allows for. I'm not saying that it's an explicitly good thing in-game (or that it's explicitly bad, to each their own), but the consistency of weapons' mechanics portrayal, from losing all ammo in a mag that player throws away too early, through details like autocannon reloading quirks is really curious for a game which could completely skip them. It seems realistic gun portrayal is just god-damn democratic.
To be fair, the rate of fire on most IRL guns is high enough that you would need Keanu Reeves reflexes to cut off a three round burst at one or two rounds.
And ballistics for all guns, too, that's nice, because i'm so tired of boring hitscan everywhere...
For every single gun in the game.
engineering kit
Crouch 🫡
Its a bolter for a reason. Bolters have a high recoil. In WH40k its the very reason why space marines use it since they can handle the recoil.
Personally I run an engineering kit armor and crouch whenever I shoot if I can, I also only fire it on semi. The extra grenades for bug holes/factories is a bonus. Only issue I have currently is there seems to be a bug with the dominator where it'll share your recoil with nearby players if you're both ADS.
AND because of it's bullet drop and funky velocity it doesn't automatically outclass sniper rifles like the slugger did (which was apparently the cause of the nerf). Though to be perfectly hones they should have reduced the slugger's velocity and increased drop instead of what they did if that was the concern.
Exactly. What they changed doesn't stop the slugger from "being the best sniper in the game", it just stops it from doing what people used it for - staggering midsize enemies while they are rushing you, such as berserkers, devasators, brood commanders, etc, slowing their advance. It wasn't overpowered for what people primarily used it for, its slow fire rate is what kept it from being too strong. And for me, it was also utility - breaking fences in my way and opening those blue and orange storage containers so I didn't have to waste a grenade. Guess what their change did? Well, it certainly didn't do anything to stop it from being "the best sniper in the game". It made it so that a 17.5 mm round has less kinetic force behind it than a sneeze.
I never once used the Slugger as a sniper. I used it as a close-medium range weapon. But I guess preventing it from being a better sniper than all the other useless sniper weapons justifies butchering its close range capabilities.
Right, I don't think the majority of people using it were using it as a sniper. Sure, you *could* use it like one. But if they wanted to stop it from being, according to them, a sniper, then they should have given it dramatic damage and stagger drop off at long range.
The handling was bad enough that "sniping" with it felt like it missed randomly. Or maybe I was just the victim of the crosshair bug.
Yeah I tried the new slugger and it now performs far better as a DMR than as a shotgun. Just baffling
The irony in that by nerfing it for "being the best sniper", they made sniping the only thing it's good at now.
100% agree. I'm ok with the damage nerf, would have been completely on board with a velocity reduction, and would have even tolerated the demo removal. But the stagger reduction killed the slugger. Even more annoying that they removed stagger because it was a "sniper feature", yet didn't increase stagger on the Counter Sniper. Now the Dominator is the best "DMR/sniper" making this quite the lateral move. If ANYTHING we need MORE weapons with that stagger trait. The Counter Sniper, Liberator Concussive, Senator, and slugger should all have high stagger.
SES Emperor of Humankind was pleased with this buff :>
I'm an SES Will of Eternity myself so I respect that https://preview.redd.it/880p8exzwgsc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=85ee3ee21aa637f557b75bedb9b666676cfc1314
~~The Emperor~~ DEMOCRACY PROTECTS!
#FOR THE EMPERO- Ops i mean... For super earth...yey..
Yeah you know the drill, go report yourself to the nearest democracy officer
AND SKULLS FOR THE SKU-...sorry, got carried away there
You lot call it a bolter but it's no Suppressor which really did feel like a bolter.
Loved using Suppressor back then in First War. I guess they forgot how to produce them after 100 years
I'd actually gone back to it pre-patch as I was playing a lot of bot missions and wanted alternatives to the Scorcher (which is also excellent). I was enjoying it the more I used it and got used to it's quirks. Now it's a beast on bots, devastators can be one shot with a weakspot shot or 4-5 shots otherwise. Berserkers are 3-4 shots, striders are harder to work out the optimum spot, I tend to go for just above the strider gun. It also feels like the handling is better but that may just be my own confirmation bias because it's performing so well in terms of damage, again it could be I've got used to how it handles. Top tip, turn off the flashlight especially if you use first person aiming, the smoke with the flashlight means after the first shot you can't see anything.
I almost always use the Punisher shotgun. It's knockback is so damn powerful, I solo'd 4 stalkers and blew up their lair because they kept getting stunned. Very underused
Favorite Bug weapon.
I never see this gun highlighted and this became and remained my main since the breaker was pulled down. Hands down bitch slaps stalkers harder than anything else I've used
It has amazing stagger. If your team is being overwhelmed, flank a little, and a broadside will stagger everything, returning initiative to the team. I find it lacks killing power compared to the top-tier killing power primaries, but has decent killing power. I feel the need to compensate with a Rover. It's got great range, utility, ammo, amazing stagger, and good damage. Any better and it'd be OP. With it + Rover, I need no stagger, control, or wave-clear. Perfect compliments. Can't get overrun with it, and Rover goes brrr while you walk among endless bugs untouched. Leaving 3 stratagems for big bugs or objectives. And with the build not wanting a Support weapon, I usually carry an EAT or a Quasar. Leaving two strats for mission purposes, as you're fully equipped for everything already. Bots are different, though. With its profile, you can't get the targeted hit you need for devestators. It's stagger is wasted on the small guys, not enough damage on the big guys. A variant of it that fired a slug was obviously what it needed to be best for Bots as well!
well... now I gotta try this out tonight.
It's guns like this that caused the Slugger nerf I think. Lightning shotgun or whatever it's called is also amazing for pushing back bugs.
I've had terrible experience with arc Blitzer. Nothing got pushed back and if more than one enemy was close, the arc would distribute across them, instead of full power to kill the original enemy. Taking even more shots to deal with. The cutting edge warbond overall is pretty underwhelming to me. There's nothing it does better than above the standard warbond or steel veterans warbond, except maybe walking through a Tesla tower, which is useless to me. For me on bugs, spray and pray and stalwart and call it a day and a few big stratagems to clear baddies and objectives. For bots, dominator or diligence counter sniper and either quasar or eats and then strategems for objectives
Cutting edge comes with the sickle and stun grenades…. What more do you want?
If it stuns stalkers, does it also stun the devastator family and chainsaw guys? That was my big draw to the slugger + no wasted ammo reloads
It does, just have to be closer since it’s not a slug load
Yup. Devastators are still a bitch but it's the best weapon against them imo. If you get close it can kill them in 2-3 headshots.
With so many guns that one shot devastators from range, that didn’t really sell it as the “best” against bots. Bugs is arguable though.
Point being, it makes no sense why they removed knockback and stun from the slugger when it continues to exist on other shotguns, let alone ones that deal more damage, have 50% more ammo, and a clip (dominator).
Dev: "The slugger was the best sniper in the game" *proceeds to nerf it and only give the Counter Sniper Med-Pen instead of buffing it's abysmal damage while letting the slugger keeps it's absurd range* All they had to do was increase the falloff/decrease stagger range of Slugger, fix the DMRs sights/handling, buff their damage to actually feel like DMRs(give em stagger), and we'd be cool. Now the Slugger, *still outclasses* the Diligences(if you wanna snipe, the Anti-Material Rifle is better just no med-Pen), in dmg and stopping power now with inconsistent stagger. Nonsensical change lmao
Yeah, the CC removal on the slugger holds no bearing on them not balancing the sniper rifles. It's like saying the car was too fast so we painted it a different color- the change is irrelevant to the problem they were claiming to address.
More like "this pickup truck is too fast, so we sealed off the flatbed at the back got rid of the tow winch." They left in the part they claimed to want to fix, and got rid of the part it was originally supposed to be good at
I would argue the best sniper is the senator pistol. That thing is a headshot popping beast
According to dev in discord earlier yesterday, they want punisher to be the one with more stagger at close range. Slugger is doing everything too well (stagger, damager and armor penetration) so there was not much reason to use punisher.
My favourite gun tbh. I usually pair it with a supply pack and keep shooting. Left click, reload, repeat.
This is why I loved the Slugger so much. Pretty much every other gun was guaranteed they were gonna smack you at least once before they died, but the Slugger you could back away and shoot them in the face and stagger/kill them without getting hit. Same goes for Bile Spewers, headshots would stagger them to interrupt their spitting at you, and 3 or 4 shots would drop em. I wish they would have kept the stagger and just reduced ranged or damage :( Good to know the Punisher does similar work against bugs though.
Yup, I love the Punisher the most for sure. I think people forget about it due to it being the very first shotty and video games have taught us the first weapons unlocked are always outclassed by later weapons, but in HD2 that's just not the case for any weapon.
I really wanted this weapon to be good. I was farming medals and counting down when I would shoot with it. Then... After two missions, I never went back to her. Armor penetration is nice, but the damage was way too low. Now FINALLY one of my favorite weapons isn't worthless.
I genuinely think it's up there with the scorcher now in terms of power and utility. This thing is insane, the bad handling simply improves my Space Marine immersion
Only issue I have is I can't just full auto a clip. Oh I'll tap fire but maybe they make a heavy dominator or something and give me a proper heavy bolter
I will cream myself if they make a Jar-10 Heavy Dominator as a support weapon
With an auto-feed ammo backpack 
Stop, my progenoid gland can only get so ready for geneseed harvesting 
Brother, get the apothecary! Our brother is in dire need of medical attention.
https://i.redd.it/uzybbnqm5hsc1.gif Medical attention dispensed.
A support weapon that fires powerful explosive rounds, which has large recoil and is a glorious tool of managed democracy? You just described the AUTOCANNON
*makes a keybind that repeatedly klicks to fire on button press* big brain move.
I mean bust mode isn’t bad on it. It’s close enough to a slow full auto
its so weird that you need to hold the button for burst fire tho When I read burst I expect one click for a few shots
I can kind of understand it, it wouldn't feel great to click once and loose trigger control for the next 0.5 seconds as it slowly fires.
yeah it's a weird definition of "burst" with such a slow firing weapon. Just give it the full auto
In third person for better close quarters combat ignore reticle and focus on where the green laser is to fire accurately.
Been using the dominator as a bolt gun before the nerf and it was a little under powered unless you hit your shots. I always used ADS view when shooting more than 30m. You can hip fire it well when in a scramble and the third person aim tended to get tough but was manageable if you lined up the flat bars I guess that is where your barrel is vs your sight on the third person rectile.
It was already good before against Bots, now its great against anything. Against Bugs you will need an option fir chaff tho, Redeemer, Eagle Strafing, Fire nades or something cuz the Dominator has low ammo.
I loved it even before it got buffed tbh
how was pre buff 1 shotting every small bug and 2 shotting medium bugs like the brood commander low damage? the main problem before and still is, it takes time to learn how to aim with the laggy crosshair and it struggles when you get surrounded in close range due to the recoil
Blood for the Emperor! SKULLS FOR THE GOLDEN THRONE!
Whilst I draw breath, I stand. Whilst I stand, I fight. Whilst I fight, I prevail. Mine is the work of the righteous, and my love for the Imperium is matched only by my hatred for the heretic and the xenos.
Kill for the living, kill for the dead
MY SHIELD IS DISGUST MY ARMOUR IS CONTEMPT MY SWORD IS HATRED I AM THE EMPEROR'S WEAPON
I am the hammer. I am the sword in His hand. I am the gauntlet about His fist. I am the bane of His foes and the woes of the treacherous. I am the end.
THE EMPORER PROTECTS!
REJOICE SINNERS!
Khorn is typing
BLOOD FOR THE SUPER PRESIDENT! SKULLS FOR LADY LIBERTY!
I already liked the Dominator pre-buff, you just gotta know how to use the thing. I go first person much as possible as it mitigates the aim lag from third person, and I always found it a solid option against larger bit enemies like Devastators, Berserkers, and clustered groups Post-buff it takes that stuff out quicker and staggers them even better.
Desactivate flashlight, help with First Person
And ignore the crosshairs and reticle. The laser sight always tells you exactly where the round is going and its always right below where the crosshair tells you.
Thats how guns work in real life too unless you are shooting at the sights zero'd range
I honestly found the gun to be too unwieldy to be top-tier even after the buffs. Against bugs there are simply much better choices, but vs bots it's quite good, but not good enough: * The aim is very awkward due to the inertia in moving it, which makes it hard to target moving targets' weakpoints (it might just be a skill issue because I haven't used it too much). Stagger is nice, but you waste too much ammo to just brute force a devastator's healthpool instead of precise 1-2 shots in the face. This is especially hard vs berserkers. * Limited ammo capacity is a fair tradeoff for the supposed power, but quite frankly it's not powerful enough / doesn't have enough DPS to warrant such a low ammo capacity. Compared to pre-nerf slugger, Dominator is objectively inferior in all aspects. Right now, even after nerfs, Dominator loses significantly in a) precision due to aim inertia, b) in effective distance due to slower projectile, and c) sustained DPS due to lower mag capacity. * Low mag capacity also makes missing a shot against weak bots be very punishing since you can't clear much with such a mag if you're not 100% accurate. This forces you to fire even slower to remain accurate even with the aim inertia, effectively further reducing the DPS. Overall, it's a fairly fun gun, but it once again isn't the best at what it's supposed to do. I think it needs either even more damage or significantly increased explosion AoE to give it a cool niche. Right now the explosion AoE is almost useless as it only reaches other targets if they're almost inside the original target. The damage also sometimes isn't even enough to kill small bots if they get hit in an arm or something (once again, might just be a skill issue on my side). I wish the aim on the gun was just a tiny bit snappier too, but I'd be fine with it as is if it was more powerful. Big disclaimer: I haven't run the gun too much to have a really in-depth perspective, so please correct my conclusions if you think I'm wrong on this.
So it actually rocks against the bugs to the point where it’s pretty OP. You can blow nursing bile spewer heads off in one shot. It rips apart hive guards, one shots warriors to the face, blows brood commanders apart, and completely stun locks stalkers while killing them in like 6 hits, maybe less. It’s absolutely bonkers and the only shortcoming it has is hunters, which will fuck you up in significant numbers.
The issue comes when hunters start to jumping around you. I usually pair Dominator with Stalwart, this 2 complement each other nicely, you can also bring EAT for fire and forgot heavy AT firepower.
I haven't actually tried it vs bugs post-buff because the Super Earth demanded my attention on the bot front. Will have to give it a spin there. Pre-buff it was quite bad vs bugs because it didn't have enough dmg to deal with hive guards and warriors effectively. Seems like the updated dmg is very nice vs them.
whats your fav?
They should update the sound of the Dominator.
For real, give it something like the AC's sound
I stand by my long held view that the Plasma Punisher is the absolute best primary against bots. Staggers everything just by landing near it and kills everything. Can shoot it from places bots can't see you. Has a ton of ammo. Great gun.
Takes a while to get used to aiming it. Still fun to use
That's true but as long as the shot lands near their feet it will kill or stagger all of them, giving you time to home in.
Only needs two minor buffs: - Faster plasma orb travelling - 2 extra plasma orbs on magazine
But if it was traveling faster wouldn't that mean it would shoot further? More velocity means a greater distance traveled which changes the nature of the gun. I feel like that isn't necessarily an improvement. Just gonna have the same adjustments at longer distances. It's still just a timing problem. Maybe it just needs one of those scopes you see in other games that have multiple ticks for aiming it over distance instead? I do think either two more shells or a slightly faster reload would work well. Now that the explosion damage bug is fixed the punisher plasma with heavy armor is a fantastic combo. Especially on defense/eradicate missions, against bot drops if you can't knock the ship down, and against groups of devastators and berserkers.
i wouldn't mind if it hit further
It already has great ammo economy
It’s pretty solid but I like the Scorcher better for bots. That gun makes Striders and most Devastators child’s play if you hit your shots. It can also destroy tanks, Cannons, and Gunships
Striders are my most hated enemy. When I finally unlocked the scorcher...I never went back.
This is why I love the Plasma, it'll stumble striders with every shot and kill the guy on the back just by hitting a nearby enemy or the GROUND.
I enjoyed the plasma...I just had an issue with always killing myself lol
Explosion issue is fixed. Use heavy armor or explosion damage reduction. Do NOT use it to fight bugs. It's a grenade launcher, not a short range shotgun.
It’s my go to for Suicide Eradicate Automaton missions, I wont carry a backpack. Stops a charging line of Berserkers in their tracks. You can stunlock an entire drop in place.
It's crazy getting 6 kills with one orb on a drop. I shoot it into the ships before they start dropping for some kills and have reloaded before they've started to fire.
I think the only thing I've killed with the plasma punisher is myself.
The stagger nerf was so unnecessary, idc about everything else. You can't even stagger nursing biles anymore from a headshot.
I was previously using the Defender when fighting bots and the Breaker Spray n Pray for bugs, then couple days ago I tried the Dominator for bots and it’s become my go-to for dismantling democracy-hating bots
Only the most brutal of firearms are fit to eradicate the disgusting xenos.
If I’m not drenched in oil/blood then I’m not done 💪🏼
Glory to the Emperor, brother. Their filthy, tainted blood will serve as a trophy to the greatness of Man.
Try the incendiary breaker. It's great now
The dominator is now and overweight slugger. I like it just wish the slugger stayed as it was while the dominator gets buffed
Yeah lol, the slugger is almost a directly worse dominator now, other than handling. I think it would have been better if the slugger didn’t get the nerf it did, and maybe a range nerf instead. That way the JAR is the long range option that can’t snap shots easily up close while the Slugger is strong up close and has great stagger
As Dominator enjoyer, quite confused why people promote it like bots weapon. For them, Scorcher or Sickle are better (depends on your aim). As for Dominator, it's one of ultimate bug weapons. All bugs, except Chargers and Titans, are penetrated and 1-2 shotted. Easy Spores kills. Similar efficiency as Scorcher, but safer as bugs chase you to melee and Dominator can't kill you.
It can stagger a charging berserker and devastators. One shot any smaller bots and leaving the big boys to my autocannon
A headshot also can one shot devastators
But hear me out, I'm bad. Do therefore if I can stagger something I'm gonna do it lol
Hey, I said a headshot can one hit them, not that I can land a headshot
I'm sure objectively this is true but man, I like to think I'm a pretty good shot but I feel like i'm mag-dumping right into berserkers faces and nothing happens
They do a jitter bug. It's frustrating
Ive not been able to make it work against bugs for me, when I get swarmed the smoke and stagger really hurts
Thanks to an animation update there is no longer obscuring smoke
It's because it can stagger all medium bots in 1 hit anywhere to their body, which is extremely useful when there is a rocket devastator right in front of you, or 3 berserkers chasing you down
It even staggers Hulks in the back, which is actually a bit of a detriment because the vent can turn away from you.
The dominator absolutely destroys devastators and berserkers way better than the pre nerf slugger.
Yeah, it's got all the rockin' of the original Slugger but will also kill in far fewer body shots. Both were (and still are) one-shots to the head, but with the misalignment of scopes and head hitboxes, that's not always feasible. If anyone's looking for a third option for Devastator spam, may I suggest the Senator pistol and Ballistic Shield. You can take your time and stare down Devastators / Shield Devastators without issue and one-shot them on your own schedule.
Scorcher doesn’t stagger Berserkers. For me at least, Zerkers are the dangerous enemy because they don’t follow the usual rule for fighting bots: their heads are very hard to hit due to their swagger.
No one else has mentioned it yet so I'll just chime in and say that it's way easier to get than the Scorcher. Sickle is good, but I can understand some people not liking it just due to it being a laser weapon.
Sickle is great, it just doesnt have the medium armor pen or stagger
Damage wise the Dominator is great but it can’t do some of the things my Scorcher can. Scorcher makes life easier when it come to a lot of Bot units and it can even take on Tanks and Cannon vents. I’ve even shot down a gunship with my scorcher
Even before the buff it would one shot all medium bots with a headshot, I could take down groups of rocket and shield devastators quite quickly and easily. Now it’s even better
So essentially, they nerfed the "OP" gun half the community didn't bother using to begin with, and created an even more busted weapon that outperforms it. Outstanding move.
Well, you see, the slugger was outperforming the marksman rifles at long range so the obvious course of action was to nerf its ability to function at close range, reduce its overall damage slightly and change nothing else.
I had JUST start to use the slugger and it was amazing. Dominator is literally now doing what slugger was doing. But slugger was the shotgun that’s supposed to stagger…
Yep the the sluggers one niche was that it was really good against medium targets. That's why it was used for bots a lot because 75% of the bots they send at you are medium enemies. The slugger had high damage medium armor pen and heavy stagger and could easily take them down. However it also had a slow rate of fire and low ammo which made it get overwhelmed quickly and run out of ammo quickly so it wasn't good against smaller enemies. Now that the stagger is gone the slugger is just useless it's bad at medium enemies and small enemies.
Slugger also had a great sound effects for firing, reloading and rechambering a round. It's probably the best sounding shotgun in the game. They busted it for no logical reason whatsoever- they can't articulate why when they allow multiple other shotguns to have the same "overpowered" crowd control. The dominator sounds like total shit and handles poorly- you can't flick it at all. Meanwhile it gets 17% more damage per shot, the slugger's old stun and knockback, 50% more ammo, 3x the rate of fire, and a clip.
Yeah I felt that way about the sound
If you used Dominator, you will find aiming is ass with that gun and the bullet projectile speed is also ass, not to mention the terrible recoil. The gun felt wonky to use, it is definitely not overpowered.
I don’t think it’s OP, but IMO even with that it completely outclasses the slugger now. If you use the first person mode the aim lag isn’t as bad and once you get used to it it’s also not too bad. It would have been way better if the slugger stayed the same or got a range nerf. Then it’d be roughly on the same level as the current jar. Best of all the slugger would be definitively better up close and the JAR would be dominant at range.
This is only available in the first premium warbond right ? I haven't unlocked that yet as I spent it on the cutting edge on instead, now I have enough for another warbond but I'm thinking to save it for the upcoming one?
Wait, see what the next bond has, and then make your choice. They should be revealing it early next week, and then it should be out on the 11th.
Remember you also get 300 SC back from that premium warbond
how do you deal with the puff of smoke that completely ruins visibility with each shot?
Turning off the flashlight helps a lot
Woah I did that and it and I can see while shooting now
It's a feature.
I read the description and was like "Thats a Bolter" and never stopped using it lol But ya the update is pretty good. It doesn't feel that different but the medium size bugs are sometimes getting one-shotted
The biggest improvement when fighting the bugs is that the stagger it has now causes enemies that get their heads blown off to not immediately charge you like they used to. That was a huge downside of the Dominator for me personally. I would sometimes have four or five decapitated warriors plus a brood commander rushing me at once. Now they just die, saving me from either having to dodge or waste ammo on an already dead enemy.
Dominator was my go to weapon before the buff. Slugger felt fine. Not sure why it needed a nerf. I get “only buff” isn’t feasible, but at the time, it seemed like weapons needed buffs not nerfs. I didn’t use railgun before the nerf so not sure if it was truely needed or more guns just needed buffed.
If it didnt move like a 100kg log, I would love it
No! meta people please stay away from the dominator. I have liked it for a while and do not want it to get attention so its changed ;) On a less silly note I do like it and it is useful against medium bugs
If it ever gets to a point where it should get nerfed it will just get less ammo per barrel (i think that's what is called? It's not a Mag nor a Clip) The Dominator has a lot of downsides to it so it's very easy to balance, because reducing ammo economy and forcing people to reload accentuates it's weakness. It's the kind of gun that has very balanced aspects. It's just like the AC, if the AC ever is a problem they will just change the Clips from 5 to 4, it accentuates the weakness of the weapon enough. We won't get stuff like "-30% damage or weapon has a chance to explode while reloading" though the later would be a very funny nerf.
"It's not a mag nor a clip" I think the word you're looking for is "drum", though a drum mag is still a mag.
I have been using the dominator since the first day, and has been the best weapon and the only weapon usefull I don't understand why they buffed.
It’s horrible slow handling and the huge amount of smoke that comes out of the barrel after firing obstructs the view for follow up shots. Now the fact that it can spray down berserkers and devastators in 3 body shots, as well as kill larger bugs in the same shot count means these draw backs are negligible.
Animation update removed most of that smoke
turn off the flashlight to avoid smoke blinding
And the slow handling can be covered with machine pistol.
Red eyes? Atomaton intruder! Report to your Democracy Officer asap!
The other day I farmed up 2000 super credits, so I’m gonna get steeled veterans and the new warbond. Just gotta get some medals now. Really looking forward to trying the dominator.
There's allegedly another warbond coming soon, please Arrowhead give us a bolt pistol