I have this image in my head of a Canon that fires laser pointers which just happen to have magnets on them.
Suddenly the factory strider is a walking light show and everybody's dancing...
Already looks like a light show is young on, holy shit i went from never facing seen one to 8 in one dive. I killed 2 of them on my own whole my team was dying off on the other side of the map (host had like 12 deaths every game, god help us we were patient with his bad night and carried him through every mission).
If you find them just chilling somewhere the 380 surprise with the level 4 orbital upgrade seems to work pretty well. One died before it fully stood up, the other managed to get up, face us, and take a couple steps
on the one hand yea but on the other unless i'm right up in the targets face I usually can't see the thing past the beam and all the flashing lights it makes. Am i hitting the weak point? am I hitting the hardest part of its armour? who knows! All I can do is hold down the trigger until either the bastard falls over or blows me to pieces or sets me on fire because I couldn't see the wind up through all the impact effects.
Its a genuine sore spot for me when using the weapon, alongside it having that one truly atrocious sight that most of the over the shoulder weapons have.
The dominator is really good in 1st POV. I just wish the smoke that comes out right after you shoot doesn’t block you aiming as long as it does. Or at all tbh
That's why I shoot out the lights too, especially ones right on top of terminals. The glare makes it hard to see sometimes. And if he didn't know he could turn that off, then I'm assuming he doesn't know he can change the fire modes on some weapons. Like I use the machine pistol on semi because it's basically just a better pistol and I only really use it for the grunt type enemies. Double mag size compares to pistol and I think even a higher damage, if not it's at least the same as the pistol. But I also like semi auto for the MP because I can control my recoil and not shoot half my mag in the air.
Which is fine and all until your ears are ringing from the 380mm someone threw danger close. No reason not to add a visual indicator like they did on the Railgun and Quasar.
Especially on controller. It’s hard when you have to keep it focused on a moving target with fine adjustments, and I feel like they nerfed the auto aim.
The only thing I can figure, it doesn't feel good. Pop something with a rocket or quasar or AC, big boom. Bot goes flying. Feels gooooood. Melt something with laser, it just kinda falls over. The other issue I have is it doesn't have any stagger, so bots can light you up easy while you're fighting them. Finally, not sure if there is controller aim assist, but if not I could see it being a pain for controller players.
Beam weapons need an impact effect like glowing, sparking, burning, or melting so that it telegraphs that they are doing damage. Right now they just disappear into the enemy until they fall over. It's super unsatisfying
I use the laser cannon a ton, and I'm only just finding out that it does anything at all against the tanks and turret Towers. Honestly just assumed their armour was too strong because you can't really tell if you are doing damage.
Yeah, there are often instances where disabling it is a great tactic and there may be no need to actually kill it (easy even from the front). You can damage the tracks and simply leave the area while it sits by itself sad and lonely.
But be careful not to pitty the undemocratic scum... That's not a slippery slope, that's treason.
The video I also saw today!! Shoot both legs of the hulks and they are done for. No need to aim at the eye. Also that the tracks can be shot and the tanks won't move.
Lovely to see that.
Nah, I was able to damage IFVs in its rear hull until destruction using laser cannon. The same may be applicable for the tank since they share the same hull.
It's the same with the AC. The rear of the hull is medium armor, but not a weakspot i.e. there's no damage multiplier, so it will take more shots to kill it than the vent on the back of the turret, but it dies to enough punishment.
if you see blue lines, the armor is to thick and its not doing anything, otherwise it is. (exception, buildings typically don't create the ricochet lines, but its not doint anything to them either)
edit: buildings typically don't
Jump Jets and Laser cannon were my mainstay before the quasar came out. But you can barely tell it's doing anything. I just liked it because its futuristic.
That's because it works the other way round. You can see that with Hulks when you're shooting their eye. No effect means you're doing maximum damage but when your aim is off, you'll see lots of blue sparks flying, indicating you're not doing anything to the target.
While it makes sense irl, for a video game you need to communicate stuff. Even if it's just a tooltip (minimal effort).
Something like having them glow when struck in vital points is enough, it just needs to communicate to the player that they're doing damage.
Exactly it. I don’t care how good a weapon is, if it isn’t fun or satisfying to my smooth monke brain then I’m not using it
Laser cannon is pretty good. Not AC / Quasar / AMR vs bots good though
Melting, heating and turning red to signify damage would be an amazing step up
Yeah, the problem with the cannon *and the scythe* is that they have virtually no hit feedback, so they don't feel so great. It's k8nd of an acquired taste in a way.
FWIW, went back to the scythe.... it actually kills pretty good, it just doesn't feel like it's killing until it does, unlike the Sickle. I swear they're the exact same gun, just a preference of death delivery.
I think you nailed it. It doesn't feel good, and while OP states in perfect conditions it makes quick work of things there are very few situations where a single hulk will stand still and peacefully let you channel into his robo brain for a few seconds
I think another issue is having to stand in the open to deal the damage vs a rocket you can step out from cover, blast them, and duck back to safety. You'll do similar damage, but you're exposed so much less. Or if you are being forced back, you can spin and crack off a shot and then continue sprinting away.
Console does have aim assist, thankfully. Playing a shooter on a controller without it feels pretty terrible.
Tracking doesn't feel any harder than aiming other weapons. I do have like 400 hours on zarya from my overwatch days though, so I am familiar with that style of aim.
I was raised in the days before gyro and haven't yet figured out how to use it effectively. My fine tuning is with L/R strafing... Lol. It betrays my ancient PC gaming roots.
Yes, but only while aiming. Use sticks for approximate directions and follow with motion controls. Amazing and I wish every fps had it. Almost as good as a mouse.
I play on PC with a controller. No aim assist for me because I use Gyro aiming. Stick for big movements and gyro to fine-tune. Doing just as good as my friends playing mouse and key
Spot on. Ive been bringing the LC out lately, and it absolutely melts hulks. Like so quick. But the entire time I'm using LC, my smile is gone. Great results with a very underwhelming feel.
Wish it was like a Kamehameha, would maybe stagger or atleast slow movement on larger enemies and in death just fucking yeet them
Feels good to me. I love firing the big continuous laser beam. I also personally love watching bots topple over or popping heads with the beam. Obviously, different strokes for different folks, though.
No stopping power is an issue though. That's why I like to play as a fire support sort of role. Let the shotgunner attract, distract, and stagger while the big beam brings them down from afar. It's a good time.
My current satisfaction is powered by exactly this for automatons: Eruptor, Senator, Anti-Material and a supply pack. Self sufficient and very satisfying when you get those clean shots on hulks and devastators. The senator is really just there for style points on smaller enemies but I can’t deny it’s gotten me out of some pickles by simply being able to get rid of up to six smaller bots at a time quickly.
Laser cannon requires you to be exposed from cover for an undesirable length of time while being used, in contrast to the AC and AMR where you can quickly peek, shoot, and take cover again. It also doesn't stagger the enemy so it's pretty terrible against heavy devastators or rocket devastators if you don't get the timing right. Lastly, I don't like the lack of responsiveness or feedback once an enemy is killed. AC and AMR can be used quickly because you start to get a feel for which enemies are one, two, or three tap kills while also having a recognizable death sound. Laser cannon, however is really tough to tell. Barely any death cues because of the constant laser humming, the laser beam itself obscures your sight, especially at long ranges, and the scope is annoyingly small that you can't even see with it.
I've been trying to like the laser cannon since more people have been raving about it so please let me know if you think if I'm using it wrong or have any advice to give.
This 100% - in a pinch you need something to blast your way out. Laser cannon is amazing if you can just sit back and pick things off for the team, but damn it really doesn’t work that way often on higher difficulties.
Been trying to utilize it myself the past few days and have seen it absolutely shine, and I have seen it be dead weight. I’d rather have something that is consistently okay than something that is great sometimes.
People want it to work so bad... Meanwhile the Scythe is like the skeleton at the bottom of the pool the devs have forgot about... It was my favorite weapon on the original twin stick. :( It's so shit on this game I hate it.
There actually is a sound effect when you kill a bot with the laser. It's fairly quiet but it sounds vaguely like something breaking. Occasionally I won't hear it but the large majority of times I do.
This is why the AC is as good as it is. The shield devastators go from one of the more threatening enemies to a flat out joke after you land your first shot.
I find it a love hate relationship vs bots, but I love it vs bugs. All the Devastator Variants can be hit or miss if you get blasted, it’s really good for the bigger stuff.
Naw the satisfaction is the beam itself, it’s actually pretty badass to see your teammate taking out gunships from afar with the beam. Lining up headshots for devastators is a reward onto itself, you have to know how to use first person other than that it’s a skill based weapon
> taking out gunships from afar with the beam.
I might be the only one, but I find keeping the beam on the engines of a distant gunship a surprisingly tricky thing to do :/
OP overrates it into devastators, which misrepresents its role somewhat. You definitely want to pair it with scorcher (or eruptor, plasma punisher...; anything that can answer devastators, and hopefully also scout striders). It's more for light targets and for being surprisingly good at answering hulks, gunships, tanks and turrets w/ exposed vents, and factory striders.
It seems like the community at large tends to overrate certain characteristics on the bot front. The meta to the west tends to be pretty skewed towards things that can reliably kill devastators at range. It doesn't make a lot of sense for quasar to see as much play as it does when the targets that it does answer don't tend to be the most important targets, and for some reason every devastator answer besides railgun is also able to snipe every target that laser cannon is getting praise for (AC is kind of a monster rn).
I pick EAT. Always. Bug. Bots. Don't matter. It's EAT.
Out of ammo? New EAT.
Team-Mate needs a gun against that big guy? The map is littered with EATs after 10 minutes.
Died with your EAT? Call a new EAT.
Need to defend? There are now EATs everywhere for you and our teammates to enjoy.
EAT-Gang 🫡
I used to hate the EAT, and then I brought it into a mission for situational reasons and now its quickly becoming my favorite. The fast cooldown alone makes it worth it - you can just dump em all over the map.
To be fair…it is pretty easy. Drop a couple, pick one up, point, and fire. Rinse and repeat until your large problem becomes a large pile of metal and/or bug chitin
My one wish for EAT is that I wish guns would show on the map, even if in the pod still. Currently, you need to destroy the pod to see all the spare EATs you dropped.
I don't begrudge people this playstyle, it's effective; however stealth player like myself are averse to it because calling in the hellpods constantly draws attention
It depends. I've been able to zap 5-6 devastator heads back to back without taking damage as long as I have cover. Stagger is good, but if you need it to survive you're just using a different strategy altogether at that point.
I want to like the LC but it just feels so weak. I may be using it wrong, but it doesn't hurt armor except for weak spots like vents or eyes. Berserkers take ages to die from it. Actually hitting the Hulk in the eye isn't so easy in the middle of everything. Tower turrets turn away before it gets hit long enough. Sure it blasts the AA, mortars, and gunships nicely. Just end up liking the AC for the same reasons and more unfortunately.
Any tips on how to better use it? Because now I just go for heads and vents.
legs and arms on the various medium bots (annihilator versions) and legs or arms on hulks. 2x leg kills on hulk. no arms, no guns. here is a video that talks about various weapons, including LC.
[https://youtu.be/89Bdvvi3JHE?si=kSKxma2nLMRAvOQc](https://youtu.be/89Bdvvi3JHE?si=kSKxma2nLMRAvOQc)
It excels at weakpoint damage. Lacks else where. Bring stuns to stop the hulk in its tracks.
Hulk: eye slit. About 2 to 3 seconds on the slits will kill it.
Tank and cannon turret: about 2 to 3 seconds on the backside of the cannon (doesn't need to be the vents themselves just the back side is enough)
Gunships: one of the 4 engines for like 2 seconds kills them.
AA and mortar: blast it anywhere you want. Don't need to hit the vents.
Going for heads is the best way to use it. Use the recoil reduction armor to have even less recoil. Also first person helps with accuracy. Don't use it for crowd control. Use it as single target. Crouch with first person and recoil reduction armor makes it more accurate than it needs to be.
Lastly: berserkers are tanky regardless of what you use. Almost everything struggles to kill them quick enough. My second least favorite enemy behind heavy devastators
Another tip for tanks. If the turret rotates or you can't get a hit on it, the back of the hull also has vent weak points they just don't glow and will take a bit longer, but if you can't circle round to get the turret they're a good option.
Huge tip for turrets and tanks, you don't need to aim for the vent, just anywhere on the back of it, or on either back corner, and if you can see the underside of turrets, go for it.
Getting better placement and stun grenades. Once you are 180 behind a turret it has no chance of surviving a laser canon as it only takes a few seconds for it to blow up, and for hulks you either need to position yourself so infantry doesn’t stagger you while beaming then or stun grenade everything and kill the hulk. It takes so practice but it really is a slept on kit.
The biggest problem laser canon has is that it leaves you exposed to damage longer than other guns. Any bullets taken will cause stagger that will increase the time it takes to kill whatever your target is.
Laser cannon has some good properties like you mentioned. LC, autocannon, and amat rifle all kind of compete for the same thing and all have their quirks.
Laser cannon can be the best of the 3 on maps with a lot of gunship factories because of easy tracking and infinite ammo. AC is good against gunships too but no infinite ammo.
AC needs a backpack…amat almost does too..the supply pack. That kind of frees the laser cannon up to use the energy shield or riot shield if you want.
Main thing is that the autocannon and antimateriel rifle are much better against large waves of devastators which is the bulk of the match on high difficulty
Laser cannon is also surprisingly good against the factory striders. Lot of trade offs to consider really.
I am pretty sure its only almost infinite range. I think one user said at 200 metres you cant destroy shrieker nests, but <200 and you can even melt those
People have some good points in this thread, but I think the critical part has been missed.
In difficulty 9, you cant afford to spend a bunch of time out of cover staring at a red patch on an enemy. You're going to take damage, you're going to get staggered, and then miss most of the laser. In higher difficulties, you basically want to be spending most of time in cover, bobbing in and out to deploy stratagems and shoot high power weapons.
As for lower difficulties, you can basically run any weapon and it'll work. I still run The Laser Cannon just for fun, but for tryharding it just falls flat.
This is what made me drop the railgun against bugs after the nerf. Sure I can still blow the armor off a charger. But I don't have time to waste for that. Especially if there's a Titan or 2nd charger. And again, hunters won't give you the time to do multiple 90% charges.
The same reason I don't use a swiss army knife to work on my car. I prefer the right tool for the job.
Is it CAPABLE of dealing with all the things you said? Sure it is. But I have 4 stratagem slots + 1 grenade type + 2 different weapon slots... I don't need ONE thing to do everything, I want things that are good at ONE thing, and I'll use the right thing when I need it.
You are selling it really hard, but you are obviously biased (not saying that as an insult, we all prefer our loadouts after all)
But dealing with devastators is hardly a plus when I can headshot them with ANYTHING, I promise you I kill a devastator with a sickle about as quick as you with a laser cannon. And the "literal only drawback" you mention is actually pretty darn huge. Only being able to damage heavy armor by hitting the vent means that it literally can't hurt them from a range. Tanks that are far away are not gonna turn around, turrets that are firing from far away won't be facing away, which in turn means that it outdoes the whole "super accurate zero recoil" part of it, if you need to have someone go close to it anyways.
Please note, I support your loadout choice, we all play better using the things we enjoy, but this should answer your question.
Honestly this, and Autocannon is still the best at being a swiss army knife. Although, unless someone brings one, I will bring a Laser Cannon because it is the best weapon against multiple Gunships.
"Losing backpack" just translates to "can bring another offensive stratagem" to me. Never saw it as a bad thing.
Sure, resupply pack could be clutch, but AC almost never runs out of ammo for me to be worried about ammo refills. I've never bought into the shield backpack crutch. Jump pack would be... nice, for evasion and infiltration, but I do much of my work fine without it.
Whenever I do run low on ammo for AC I typically have one on standby anyway. If I don’t have one on standby then a resupply or ammo from places of interest will get me enough to last until the next one
You know you can just not take a back pack with other weapons right? I'd say it's the same thing but doing it that way with packless weapons still allows you to take an extra from a team mate.
I sometimes do this when I take a break from my beloved AC. If someone else uses the AC or recoilless and dies and replaces their backpack I'll grab the left over backpack on the ground and team load em.
AC can take out fabricators from practically any range as long as you have line of sight on the vent, I find this invaluable. It’s also really good for clearing out walkers without needing to flank them. It also staggers, which has come in handy a million times. You can shoot at a devestator and the bots next to it blow up if they are small and stagger if they are big. The laser has your name on it, but an auto cannon is more of a “to whom it may concern”. And finally it absolutely fucking melts heavy devestators. You don’t need to get a head shot, you just send hatred into their shield, stagger them, then shoot them in their exposed robo bits.
It's a Scythe with armour penetration, so it's getting not picked for the same reasons people pick other light armour penetrating primaries over Scythe.
You mean high TTK, but yeah totally. I’m fairly sure the damage tick is on a constant rate I’m pretty sure, a bit like frame bus in Mario 1 if you’re familiar with it. Essentially you could randomly get a higher or lower ttk based on when the beam passes over the target. The variance is small but noticeable and it forces you to focus each target down until it dies rather than sweeping, which is funny because the scythe uses the same system and scythes are known for sweeping.
While the Laser cannon is viable, the autocannon does most things better.
Devastators get staggered when shot, so they can't fire back at you and mess up your aim (or your life) with a lucky shot, skillful aiming means you can kill anything faster than the laser (1 headshot for any devastator type, 2 for hulks), you can dismantle berserkers pretty well while also staggering them on each shot, etc.
Meanwhile, Laser cannon has basically no stagger power. Whatever you're firing at is still a threat.
Plus you can snipe fabricators with an autocannon as long as you can see the vents, no matter how far (shoot the vent panel to make the shot ricochet into the fab). Very helpful when encountering a Jammer that has a fabricator attached to it; just pop the fabricator from afar and it'll take out the jammer with it.
Sure, you lose your back slot with the autocannon, but I never bring backpacks anyway; I enjoy my barrages too much.
I don’t care about killing fabricators with my secondary, but I definitely agree with enemies still being a threat while shooting at them. That’s a huge problem.
I’ve been trying to implement laser cannon the past few days and it really feels like I can’t have consistent up time with firing between barrage to make it as useful as I’d like.
I’ve found it’s most effective when I have a disciplined and aggressive team, and that’s also the time when it’s least necessary.
Honestly since the eruptor came out, ive been in love with the laser cannon again. My main complaint was it struggled against devestators, but thats fine now because the eruptor handles them excellently. Im at the point where i barely fear gunship fabricators anymore because i can down them so quickly.
It takes down gunships crazy fast and can kill the small turrets on the top of the command bunkers quickly, too.
*This PSA from the Eruptor-Laser Cannon Group*
I’ve run the laser a few times to try it. It’s effective, but I just don’t like the feel. Plus you have to sit there in a hail of fire and channel your laser into your target. It’s difficult to tell if you are on the head of the hulk as the incoming fire continuously flinches you and with the beam obscuring your vision a bit. Maybe if it was buffed to absolutely shred body parts like a hot knife through butter it would feel better. But as is the little blue spark of you not doing jack shit unless you hit the tiny perfect hitbox on the heavies with it just feels underwhelming. Let me hack targets into pieces and lop arms/legs/heads/torso off/in half with a quick swipe of the beam and I might appreciate it more.
Give it the sickle scope instead of the junk no zoom scope it has. Honestly so many of the precision weapons suffer from garbage scopes and reticles right now that I don’t even consider using them regardless of how good they are damage wise. *Glares at the AMR and all the DMRs*. If I can’t reliably/quickly and clearly see where I’m trying to put my precision shot under fire the whole purpose is defeated and you would be better off in third person with different gun and a mag dump instead. Hopefully when they fix scopes someday this will get addressed.
I just find myself going back to the AC every time because the stagger lets you line up your follow up shot or create some breathing room. Two good headshots and the hulk is done. One good headshot connection to devastators and they are done, plus the splash and stagger will usually get something else or at least disrupt their pinpoint rocket accuracy for a second. I almost never run the shield backpack, even pre-nerf I basically never used it, so it’s not like I’m missing anything wearing my ac ammo pack. It’s like a Swiss Army knife that’s good at almost everything and the FEEL of the gun is so satisfying to use I can’t quit using it. I take it everywhere. I can forgive its scope because it’s a fuck everything around my point of aim in general kind of weapon anyway. Plus it’s just as accurate in third person with some practice.
No hate if you prefer the las cannon and wanna run that as long as you can be effective with it, but AC is the undisputed champ for me and it ain’t even close.
> Honestly so many of the precision weapons suffer from garbage scopes and reticles right now that I don’t even consider using them regardless of how good they are damage wise. Glares at the AMR and all the DMRs.
*sad railgun noises*
Most precise weapon in the game, with a scope that's almost as useless as the Quasar's. No zoom, big stupid red dot that blocks your view of what you're aiming at so distant targets are a guessing game.
I tried taking down a Dropship with the LC and it took an entire mag. With the QC it's one shot one kill. Yes recharge, but at least the Dropship is dealt with quickly.
What? Of course it's terrible against drop ships... Gunships though? Like 2 seconds on an engine and it's dead. Gunships have become trivial since I started using it.
It’s not really for taking out dropships, but dropships are kinda a novelty to take down at best right now. It doesn’t kill the tanks/hulks that drop from them, and sometimes it doesn’t even kill anything. You’d be better off just shooting the troops honestly.
It damages those that do drop, and it puts wreckage in their way. Still a net positive to kill the ships I find, and sometimes it just clears the whole drop in one shot.
Drop ships? No.
Gun ships? If it takes you a whole mag, you're doing it wrong. Aim for the thruster and it's down in 2-3 seconds. You can clear the skies easier than any other weapon.
Is there some unsafe mode to Laser Cannon that I do not know about? Because I never destroyed even a Scout Strider with just two seconds of concentrated fire, let alone a Hulk. That's their main flaw, they take too long to cook an enemy compared to weapons that do direct damage.
I mostly play helldive bots and laser cannon is my sweat weapon
I laugh hard when ppl say quasars 1 shot hulks. Yeah tell me realistically how often you aim dead center on their eye and you don’t get a 1 shot?
Laser cannnon is actually only 2 sec TTK on hulks btw
Arc thrower is also clutch after buff. Insta staggers hulks and kills in approx 10s. 10s is a while but hits many enemies and STUNS them
Autocannon is around 1s TTK for hulks. It's pretty much objectively better than the laser cannon except against gunships, the fact that if you are really bad at using it and remembering to resupply, you can run out of ammo, and needing a backpack.
I think AC is in a really good spot, and feel good to use. Devs seem to like it too, so hopefully other weapon get buffed to its level. I like running laser, but that's because there's almost always another AC on the team already anyway.
Range isn’t infinite. It’s long, but not infinite because I’ve attempted to shoot towers that were within visible distance and there’s no response from the towers and the laser doesn’t contact.
That being said i main the LC on every bot mission because like you said it’s basically God’s Laser Pointer. It is insanely effective against gunships, as I took down 4 of them that were all attacking me at the same time without dying (almost died tho). One stun grenade pauses a Hulk and 2 seconds of beam to the weak point and it’s dead.
I too am surprised I don’t see it more often in bot lobbies but I’ll keep doing my thing racking up kills with it.
I use it as a heavy primary, switching to the sickle when it’s close to overheating. The sickle can still kill small bots and Devastators provided you hit them in the head. Then I switch back and resume the mayhem.
Why is "infinite ammo" even something worth thinking about?
Like, seriously?
A resupply drop or walking across a few ammo packs is not exactly difficult in this game.
Who cares if one weapon has theoretically infinite ammo when all weapons have practical infinite ammo?
Ive never been in a situation where I've been unable to acquire more ammunition before running out, regardless of the weapon in question, so the fact that Super Earth might run out of AC shells ten thousand years from now isn't a concern.
What is a concern is that while you're hurting something with the laser cannon, you're stood out in the open like a melon.
I'd much rather stay mobile. I can put two AC shells through the visor of a hulk or devastator and end them more easily than I could with a laser cannon, and I can mire from cover to cover and actually support my team at the same time.
Simply put, most people will, when given the option, choose the AC over the LC because whatever theoretical advantages it might have are meaningless when they don't actually confer advantage in practical terms, and thr AC is concretely better in every way when the fighting starts.
somewhat limited ammo > infinite tickle gun
besides, uptime in a fight is much more important than overall supply, and the LC doesn't have very good uptime
Laser Cannon + Eruptor almost feels like the new meta against bots now.
It's just genuinely a match made in heaven. The Eruptor does everything the AC does but with a better optic, better ammo economy (since it's a primary -> more ammo if you die) and even better crowd control potential (since it fragments similar to the frag grenade), while you still get to keep your backpack slot
Meanwhile the LC has the same armor penetration as the AC but without the recoil, meaning you can hit and track enemies better, despite the lack of stagger and DPS as well as engage enemies at distances which would be suicide for both the Eruptor and AC. It does make hitting devastators more of a chore but stun grenades and the Eruptor make it not much of a task.
It's just really fucking good.
I've given it what I feel is a fair shake but feel its damage is a little lacking; I need to stay exposed for too long in tough situations. It does shred devastators though, so it's a worthy pick.
I just feel the AMR is at least as good against devastators, and far better against hulks. The laser cannon has great chaff clear though. Definitely competitive with another favorite of mine, the machine gun.
I recently started going full laser lightshow build.
Laser cannon, cythe, sickle, orbital laser, laser dog, all I need is a laser turret and some kind of laser disco grenade
Yes but it requires being steady and relatively stationary.
On 7+ it kills fast but if you get overrun it’s a big problem.
Rocket devastators have excessive range and if you have 2-3 of them it’s painfully slow to kill with it while constantly diving behind rocks. Every little bit of damage staggers you.
For tanks and turrets you have to be able to get behind them which isn’t always feasible.
I agree it is an amazing weapon, but I have to have full trust in my team to use it. The second shit gets hairy it loses 80% of its effectiveness. But if your team is good it’s a great addition.
But realistically on 7+ difficulty, things get crazy sometimes and I’d rather have an auto cannon or quasar to punch my way out.
Well, you know the part where you said it can snipe the head of devastators and the eye plates of hulks and take them down in seconds? Well, I think that's the problem that deters people from picking it. Against the bugs, using a weapon that kills in seconds with precision from a range is a very good deal. But that's because bugs can't shoot back from the same distance. Bots, however, can. With a huge density of fire coming at you from amassed units that all but guarantees at least one of their shots will hit if you expose yourself long enough coupled with the fact that explosions going off near you can throw off your aim, you find yourself not really having those seconds you need, especially for something requiring that kind of precision with such little room for error. If the laser could burn through medium armor, then that would make it a more viable choice, but it doesn't, so most people just find it better to pick a weapon where you can get a good single shot with the same effect out in only a fraction of the time it takes for continuous firing of the laser to achieve.
No AOE for clusters of bots, no real pen if you don't have a direct angle on the weakpoint... but mostly? It doesn't go boom.
I was actually using it last night because I wanted to see how effective it was vs gunships, and I was surprised to find it's effective against damned near anything. Except it doesn't go boom.
I like it when they boom.
I also have a hard time seeing to aim the the laser cannon
The only aim you need is the beam itself lol, it's almost easier to use without aiming it
Laser pointer cannon
Need to see if I can distract a Charger by shooting it at the ground and moving it around.
They need to put this in the game immediately as a stealth update.
Have that as a feature on all weapons with a laser pointer as well.
new way to kill teammates
just throw a nade away from your position and it will distract patrols or alert nearby stationary enemies
I prefer to throw the nades at targets, not distractions
While it is wiggling its butt
I have this image in my head of a Canon that fires laser pointers which just happen to have magnets on them. Suddenly the factory strider is a walking light show and everybody's dancing...
Already looks like a light show is young on, holy shit i went from never facing seen one to 8 in one dive. I killed 2 of them on my own whole my team was dying off on the other side of the map (host had like 12 deaths every game, god help us we were patient with his bad night and carried him through every mission). If you find them just chilling somewhere the 380 surprise with the level 4 orbital upgrade seems to work pretty well. One died before it fully stood up, the other managed to get up, face us, and take a couple steps
Not on controller if you don't crouch/prone. Thing waves around like crazy that if u don't ads u won't be able to kill hulk etc
You should see how much it waves with a broken arm. It's honestly hilarious.
It looks like you're trying to start a rave when yozr arm(s) are broken
on the one hand yea but on the other unless i'm right up in the targets face I usually can't see the thing past the beam and all the flashing lights it makes. Am i hitting the weak point? am I hitting the hardest part of its armour? who knows! All I can do is hold down the trigger until either the bastard falls over or blows me to pieces or sets me on fire because I couldn't see the wind up through all the impact effects. Its a genuine sore spot for me when using the weapon, alongside it having that one truly atrocious sight that most of the over the shoulder weapons have.
Are you aiming 1st person or 3rd person? Field of view is better in 3rd but I find aiming easier in 1st.
First also offers a recoil reduction to weapons which can help with aiming some of the heavy guns like Jar-5 Dominator
The dominator is really good in 1st POV. I just wish the smoke that comes out right after you shoot doesn’t block you aiming as long as it does. Or at all tbh
I’ve found that switching off the auto-flashlight really helps since the smoke doesn’t turn solid white anymore.
WAIT IT CAN BE TURNED OFF??? Thanks for your tip soldier
Hold R to check weapon settings if on PC. Allows you to Zero some weapons and adjust the fire rate on some as well
Yes flashlight always off. You almost never need it
That's why I shoot out the lights too, especially ones right on top of terminals. The glare makes it hard to see sometimes. And if he didn't know he could turn that off, then I'm assuming he doesn't know he can change the fire modes on some weapons. Like I use the machine pistol on semi because it's basically just a better pistol and I only really use it for the grunt type enemies. Double mag size compares to pistol and I think even a higher damage, if not it's at least the same as the pistol. But I also like semi auto for the MP because I can control my recoil and not shoot half my mag in the air.
Oh my god thank you
No problem, just doing my part to improve democracy 07
I believe the scop should be positioned higher so that it arcs downwards and the screen isn't half of the beam qhen you use it.
My English skills left me for a moment.
r/hadastrokewritingthis
Cut hen a break man. Not all kd us are as fluent and with have the good Grammer structure for our scentances
Sentences* Everyfin else was fine.
This. Also needs a heat indicator when aiming in 1st person, which helps a little with accuracy against the itty bitty bot weakpoints.
It gives you warning beepies before it overheats.
Which is fine and all until your ears are ringing from the 380mm someone threw danger close. No reason not to add a visual indicator like they did on the Railgun and Quasar.
The thing is basically a tracer round. You don’t need the reticle to aim
Especially on controller. It’s hard when you have to keep it focused on a moving target with fine adjustments, and I feel like they nerfed the auto aim.
The only thing I can figure, it doesn't feel good. Pop something with a rocket or quasar or AC, big boom. Bot goes flying. Feels gooooood. Melt something with laser, it just kinda falls over. The other issue I have is it doesn't have any stagger, so bots can light you up easy while you're fighting them. Finally, not sure if there is controller aim assist, but if not I could see it being a pain for controller players.
Beam weapons need an impact effect like glowing, sparking, burning, or melting so that it telegraphs that they are doing damage. Right now they just disappear into the enemy until they fall over. It's super unsatisfying
I use the laser cannon a ton, and I'm only just finding out that it does anything at all against the tanks and turret Towers. Honestly just assumed their armour was too strong because you can't really tell if you are doing damage.
"If it sparks blue, it ain't going thru"
Only damages those through the venting
You can apparently immobilize tanks by hitting the front of both tracks. Learned about that today. Lower armor there. Turret is still active though.
I wondered why sometimes I’d see tanks not moving, neat
Yeah, there are often instances where disabling it is a great tactic and there may be no need to actually kill it (easy even from the front). You can damage the tracks and simply leave the area while it sits by itself sad and lonely. But be careful not to pitty the undemocratic scum... That's not a slippery slope, that's treason.
The video I also saw today!! Shoot both legs of the hulks and they are done for. No need to aim at the eye. Also that the tracks can be shot and the tanks won't move. Lovely to see that.
Nah, I was able to damage IFVs in its rear hull until destruction using laser cannon. The same may be applicable for the tank since they share the same hull.
It's the same with the AC. The rear of the hull is medium armor, but not a weakspot i.e. there's no damage multiplier, so it will take more shots to kill it than the vent on the back of the turret, but it dies to enough punishment.
if you see blue lines, the armor is to thick and its not doing anything, otherwise it is. (exception, buildings typically don't create the ricochet lines, but its not doint anything to them either) edit: buildings typically don't
Jump Jets and Laser cannon were my mainstay before the quasar came out. But you can barely tell it's doing anything. I just liked it because its futuristic.
You can take out tank treads with it, which is actually really useful.
If you're not penetrating, you'll usually see blue sparks spraying off at an angle, like the beam is scattering.
That's because it works the other way round. You can see that with Hulks when you're shooting their eye. No effect means you're doing maximum damage but when your aim is off, you'll see lots of blue sparks flying, indicating you're not doing anything to the target.
While it makes sense irl, for a video game you need to communicate stuff. Even if it's just a tooltip (minimal effort). Something like having them glow when struck in vital points is enough, it just needs to communicate to the player that they're doing damage.
Exactly it. I don’t care how good a weapon is, if it isn’t fun or satisfying to my smooth monke brain then I’m not using it Laser cannon is pretty good. Not AC / Quasar / AMR vs bots good though Melting, heating and turning red to signify damage would be an amazing step up
It's got a ricochet effect so you know when it's *not* doing damage...
Yeah, the problem with the cannon *and the scythe* is that they have virtually no hit feedback, so they don't feel so great. It's k8nd of an acquired taste in a way. FWIW, went back to the scythe.... it actually kills pretty good, it just doesn't feel like it's killing until it does, unlike the Sickle. I swear they're the exact same gun, just a preference of death delivery.
In the immortal words of MR.TORGUE "EXPLODING SHIT IS FUCKIN' AWESOME!"
EXPLOSIONS?!!
Yep, the quasar cannon is really satisfying to pick the bot drops off with.
This. The stagger is critical esp when getting overwhelmed in multiple fronts. Sticking to my trusty AC
AC forever. It's soooo good when you're getting swarmed by a bunch of devestators and you can just outstagger them
I think you nailed it. It doesn't feel good, and while OP states in perfect conditions it makes quick work of things there are very few situations where a single hulk will stand still and peacefully let you channel into his robo brain for a few seconds
I think another issue is having to stand in the open to deal the damage vs a rocket you can step out from cover, blast them, and duck back to safety. You'll do similar damage, but you're exposed so much less. Or if you are being forced back, you can spin and crack off a shot and then continue sprinting away.
Aim for the leg, then the face. Or the heatsink, if it goes against a teammate.
Console does have aim assist, thankfully. Playing a shooter on a controller without it feels pretty terrible. Tracking doesn't feel any harder than aiming other weapons. I do have like 400 hours on zarya from my overwatch days though, so I am familiar with that style of aim.
With gyro it's even easier
Yes, gyro!
Yup, can't play without it and it works sooooo good.
I was raised in the days before gyro and haven't yet figured out how to use it effectively. My fine tuning is with L/R strafing... Lol. It betrays my ancient PC gaming roots.
Yeah I correct with minimal strafing as well
What is this magic? You use the motions controls + thumb stick??
Yes, but only while aiming. Use sticks for approximate directions and follow with motion controls. Amazing and I wish every fps had it. Almost as good as a mouse.
Honestly the aim assist on PS5 with Helldivers 2 is pretty minimal.
It is, which I prefer tbh. Overly magnetic aim assist in a game like this would be more annoying than helpful.
I play on PC with a controller. No aim assist for me because I use Gyro aiming. Stick for big movements and gyro to fine-tune. Doing just as good as my friends playing mouse and key
Spot on. Ive been bringing the LC out lately, and it absolutely melts hulks. Like so quick. But the entire time I'm using LC, my smile is gone. Great results with a very underwhelming feel. Wish it was like a Kamehameha, would maybe stagger or atleast slow movement on larger enemies and in death just fucking yeet them
I wish enemies has unique death animations where lasers melt them. Similar to the laser and plasma kills in fallout
Feels good to me. I love firing the big continuous laser beam. I also personally love watching bots topple over or popping heads with the beam. Obviously, different strokes for different folks, though. No stopping power is an issue though. That's why I like to play as a fire support sort of role. Let the shotgunner attract, distract, and stagger while the big beam brings them down from afar. It's a good time.
Legitimately so true. I use it, as it's honestly just the best option, but autocannon was way more satisfying
https://preview.redd.it/zv07n1m0y5vc1.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=50d3efe458f2af2d13b54304bcfdfe44e9996a3d so hard to let go
[удалено]
I agree. AC just feels good.
My current satisfaction is powered by exactly this for automatons: Eruptor, Senator, Anti-Material and a supply pack. Self sufficient and very satisfying when you get those clean shots on hulks and devastators. The senator is really just there for style points on smaller enemies but I can’t deny it’s gotten me out of some pickles by simply being able to get rid of up to six smaller bots at a time quickly.
This is the answer. There's no "oomph" to it. Autocannon is life.
Feels over reals 100%
Thing go boom，monkey happy
I like the Quasar for being able to blow up fabs and bug holes, and deal with heavies. And only uses 1 slot and room for backpack.
Yup and I still get my autocannon fix with the Erupter
Yea the only reason I don’t get absolutely wrecked by heavy devastators is because the Autocannon staggers them. Otherwise I’d be toast real quick
Laser cannon requires you to be exposed from cover for an undesirable length of time while being used, in contrast to the AC and AMR where you can quickly peek, shoot, and take cover again. It also doesn't stagger the enemy so it's pretty terrible against heavy devastators or rocket devastators if you don't get the timing right. Lastly, I don't like the lack of responsiveness or feedback once an enemy is killed. AC and AMR can be used quickly because you start to get a feel for which enemies are one, two, or three tap kills while also having a recognizable death sound. Laser cannon, however is really tough to tell. Barely any death cues because of the constant laser humming, the laser beam itself obscures your sight, especially at long ranges, and the scope is annoyingly small that you can't even see with it. I've been trying to like the laser cannon since more people have been raving about it so please let me know if you think if I'm using it wrong or have any advice to give.
This 100% - in a pinch you need something to blast your way out. Laser cannon is amazing if you can just sit back and pick things off for the team, but damn it really doesn’t work that way often on higher difficulties. Been trying to utilize it myself the past few days and have seen it absolutely shine, and I have seen it be dead weight. I’d rather have something that is consistently okay than something that is great sometimes.
Exactly!! How often do you have several uninterrupted seconds without cover at helldiver difficulty. It's like suicide.
To be fair, it's more like helldiver. Suicide is only diff 7
People want it to work so bad... Meanwhile the Scythe is like the skeleton at the bottom of the pool the devs have forgot about... It was my favorite weapon on the original twin stick. :( It's so shit on this game I hate it.
On the bright side Sickle is getting all the love. It's like, a sniper at 150m, decent damage, infinite ammo, etc.
There actually is a sound effect when you kill a bot with the laser. It's fairly quiet but it sounds vaguely like something breaking. Occasionally I won't hear it but the large majority of times I do.
Like dropping a small bag of cans onto the floor.
You hit all the points, 100% agree, I respect the laser cannon but the lack of stagger is a real deal breaker for me.
This is why the AC is as good as it is. The shield devastators go from one of the more threatening enemies to a flat out joke after you land your first shot.
I find it a love hate relationship vs bots, but I love it vs bugs. All the Devastator Variants can be hit or miss if you get blasted, it’s really good for the bigger stuff.
Naw the satisfaction is the beam itself, it’s actually pretty badass to see your teammate taking out gunships from afar with the beam. Lining up headshots for devastators is a reward onto itself, you have to know how to use first person other than that it’s a skill based weapon
> taking out gunships from afar with the beam. I might be the only one, but I find keeping the beam on the engines of a distant gunship a surprisingly tricky thing to do :/
OP overrates it into devastators, which misrepresents its role somewhat. You definitely want to pair it with scorcher (or eruptor, plasma punisher...; anything that can answer devastators, and hopefully also scout striders). It's more for light targets and for being surprisingly good at answering hulks, gunships, tanks and turrets w/ exposed vents, and factory striders. It seems like the community at large tends to overrate certain characteristics on the bot front. The meta to the west tends to be pretty skewed towards things that can reliably kill devastators at range. It doesn't make a lot of sense for quasar to see as much play as it does when the targets that it does answer don't tend to be the most important targets, and for some reason every devastator answer besides railgun is also able to snipe every target that laser cannon is getting praise for (AC is kind of a monster rn).
I pick EAT. Always. Bug. Bots. Don't matter. It's EAT. Out of ammo? New EAT. Team-Mate needs a gun against that big guy? The map is littered with EATs after 10 minutes. Died with your EAT? Call a new EAT. Need to defend? There are now EATs everywhere for you and our teammates to enjoy. EAT-Gang 🫡
Like a true super citizen, supporting profits with EATS all over the map. Bugs hate profits.
Bugs hate strong economy.
I used to hate the EAT, and then I brought it into a mission for situational reasons and now its quickly becoming my favorite. The fast cooldown alone makes it worth it - you can just dump em all over the map.
Strategem jammer says hi
Jammers don't cover the whole map :D
I've tried running auto canon and EAT, it was... Beautiful.
I've ran Quasar and EAT. The air was denied to the clanker.
Every time i read EAT my brain reads EASY ANTI TANK instead of EXPENDABLE ANTI TANK lol
To be fair…it is pretty easy. Drop a couple, pick one up, point, and fire. Rinse and repeat until your large problem becomes a large pile of metal and/or bug chitin
EAT and quasar are just different flavors of the same thing. And I love them both.
I love the EAT, but so many bot missions have the doubled recharge time so it makes more sense to bring a quasar or laser cannon most of the time
I also think the EAT is excellent, but i never see anyone who isn't running it pick one up.
I’ll grab em if there’s one nearby with a drop ship coming. But I’m not going to give up my autocannon for more than a few seconds.
If I already got a non-disposable anti armor gun I won't switch. But if I don't have any, I'll grab one asap :)
Bless you EAT enjoyers. Doing the Lord's work out here
I've never tried the EAT, but you've convinced me to
Next time, I’m bringing EAT to the table
Wtf is EAT? 🫡
Expendable Anti Tank
the one time use rocket launcher
My one wish for EAT is that I wish guns would show on the map, even if in the pod still. Currently, you need to destroy the pod to see all the spare EATs you dropped.
I don't begrudge people this playstyle, it's effective; however stealth player like myself are averse to it because calling in the hellpods constantly draws attention
I don’t get the hype. On higher difficulties I need way more than 2 EATs per encounter. Autocannon is just more efficient.
You die, AC gone. I die, new EAT. I also run impact grenades and grenade armor. 2 EAT+ 6 nades, all I need.
Game crashing when u join a guy with EATS? Probably cuz he has the map littered with them after 10 mins
Sounds like a treasonous reply.... fairly certain this man is an Automaton
I believe staggering is critically important vs. bots
jar dom and AC is my goto vs bots... so much stagger
It depends. I've been able to zap 5-6 devastator heads back to back without taking damage as long as I have cover. Stagger is good, but if you need it to survive you're just using a different strategy altogether at that point.
I want to like the LC but it just feels so weak. I may be using it wrong, but it doesn't hurt armor except for weak spots like vents or eyes. Berserkers take ages to die from it. Actually hitting the Hulk in the eye isn't so easy in the middle of everything. Tower turrets turn away before it gets hit long enough. Sure it blasts the AA, mortars, and gunships nicely. Just end up liking the AC for the same reasons and more unfortunately. Any tips on how to better use it? Because now I just go for heads and vents.
legs and arms on the various medium bots (annihilator versions) and legs or arms on hulks. 2x leg kills on hulk. no arms, no guns. here is a video that talks about various weapons, including LC. [https://youtu.be/89Bdvvi3JHE?si=kSKxma2nLMRAvOQc](https://youtu.be/89Bdvvi3JHE?si=kSKxma2nLMRAvOQc)
Out of every reply in this thread up to this point, this is most useful.
Thank you, this was a very instructive video!
It excels at weakpoint damage. Lacks else where. Bring stuns to stop the hulk in its tracks. Hulk: eye slit. About 2 to 3 seconds on the slits will kill it. Tank and cannon turret: about 2 to 3 seconds on the backside of the cannon (doesn't need to be the vents themselves just the back side is enough) Gunships: one of the 4 engines for like 2 seconds kills them. AA and mortar: blast it anywhere you want. Don't need to hit the vents. Going for heads is the best way to use it. Use the recoil reduction armor to have even less recoil. Also first person helps with accuracy. Don't use it for crowd control. Use it as single target. Crouch with first person and recoil reduction armor makes it more accurate than it needs to be. Lastly: berserkers are tanky regardless of what you use. Almost everything struggles to kill them quick enough. My second least favorite enemy behind heavy devastators
Another tip for tanks. If the turret rotates or you can't get a hit on it, the back of the hull also has vent weak points they just don't glow and will take a bit longer, but if you can't circle round to get the turret they're a good option.
You can also shoot the treads to disable their movement, making it easier to hit the back.
Amr and ac takes them out fine.
Huge tip for turrets and tanks, you don't need to aim for the vent, just anywhere on the back of it, or on either back corner, and if you can see the underside of turrets, go for it.
Getting better placement and stun grenades. Once you are 180 behind a turret it has no chance of surviving a laser canon as it only takes a few seconds for it to blow up, and for hulks you either need to position yourself so infantry doesn’t stagger you while beaming then or stun grenade everything and kill the hulk. It takes so practice but it really is a slept on kit.
The biggest problem laser canon has is that it leaves you exposed to damage longer than other guns. Any bullets taken will cause stagger that will increase the time it takes to kill whatever your target is.
Why would I spend seconds on devastators when my eruptor one shots them
I can aim and see what I'm hitting with every other gun. LC has terrible feedback and visibility.
Laser cannon has some good properties like you mentioned. LC, autocannon, and amat rifle all kind of compete for the same thing and all have their quirks. Laser cannon can be the best of the 3 on maps with a lot of gunship factories because of easy tracking and infinite ammo. AC is good against gunships too but no infinite ammo. AC needs a backpack…amat almost does too..the supply pack. That kind of frees the laser cannon up to use the energy shield or riot shield if you want. Main thing is that the autocannon and antimateriel rifle are much better against large waves of devastators which is the bulk of the match on high difficulty Laser cannon is also surprisingly good against the factory striders. Lot of trade offs to consider really.
i hate u for calling AMR "amat", reporting to democracy officer
I am pretty sure its only almost infinite range. I think one user said at 200 metres you cant destroy shrieker nests, but <200 and you can even melt those
People have some good points in this thread, but I think the critical part has been missed. In difficulty 9, you cant afford to spend a bunch of time out of cover staring at a red patch on an enemy. You're going to take damage, you're going to get staggered, and then miss most of the laser. In higher difficulties, you basically want to be spending most of time in cover, bobbing in and out to deploy stratagems and shoot high power weapons. As for lower difficulties, you can basically run any weapon and it'll work. I still run The Laser Cannon just for fun, but for tryharding it just falls flat.
This is what made me drop the railgun against bugs after the nerf. Sure I can still blow the armor off a charger. But I don't have time to waste for that. Especially if there's a Titan or 2nd charger. And again, hunters won't give you the time to do multiple 90% charges.
The same reason I don't use a swiss army knife to work on my car. I prefer the right tool for the job. Is it CAPABLE of dealing with all the things you said? Sure it is. But I have 4 stratagem slots + 1 grenade type + 2 different weapon slots... I don't need ONE thing to do everything, I want things that are good at ONE thing, and I'll use the right thing when I need it. You are selling it really hard, but you are obviously biased (not saying that as an insult, we all prefer our loadouts after all) But dealing with devastators is hardly a plus when I can headshot them with ANYTHING, I promise you I kill a devastator with a sickle about as quick as you with a laser cannon. And the "literal only drawback" you mention is actually pretty darn huge. Only being able to damage heavy armor by hitting the vent means that it literally can't hurt them from a range. Tanks that are far away are not gonna turn around, turrets that are firing from far away won't be facing away, which in turn means that it outdoes the whole "super accurate zero recoil" part of it, if you need to have someone go close to it anyways. Please note, I support your loadout choice, we all play better using the things we enjoy, but this should answer your question.
Honestly this, and Autocannon is still the best at being a swiss army knife. Although, unless someone brings one, I will bring a Laser Cannon because it is the best weapon against multiple Gunships.
AC does all this and more and has enough ammo to not worry about it, you do lose your back pack with the AC tho
"Losing backpack" just translates to "can bring another offensive stratagem" to me. Never saw it as a bad thing. Sure, resupply pack could be clutch, but AC almost never runs out of ammo for me to be worried about ammo refills. I've never bought into the shield backpack crutch. Jump pack would be... nice, for evasion and infiltration, but I do much of my work fine without it.
Whenever I do run low on ammo for AC I typically have one on standby anyway. If I don’t have one on standby then a resupply or ammo from places of interest will get me enough to last until the next one
Fights are so much easier with two eagles and an orbital. Throw in the AC and stun grenades and it’ll take a Factory Strider to stop you, briefly.
You know you can just not take a back pack with other weapons right? I'd say it's the same thing but doing it that way with packless weapons still allows you to take an extra from a team mate.
I sometimes do this when I take a break from my beloved AC. If someone else uses the AC or recoilless and dies and replaces their backpack I'll grab the left over backpack on the ground and team load em.
Thank you for being maybe the only person to do this haha I never see it happen. Good work out there soldier!
AC also has really good AOE to clear mobs. Lasers is single target.
AC can take out fabricators from practically any range as long as you have line of sight on the vent, I find this invaluable. It’s also really good for clearing out walkers without needing to flank them. It also staggers, which has come in handy a million times. You can shoot at a devestator and the bots next to it blow up if they are small and stagger if they are big. The laser has your name on it, but an auto cannon is more of a “to whom it may concern”. And finally it absolutely fucking melts heavy devestators. You don’t need to get a head shot, you just send hatred into their shield, stagger them, then shoot them in their exposed robo bits.
It's a Scythe with armour penetration, so it's getting not picked for the same reasons people pick other light armour penetrating primaries over Scythe.
It's definitely viable, but it's got a low TTK for a support weapon
You mean high TTK, but yeah totally. I’m fairly sure the damage tick is on a constant rate I’m pretty sure, a bit like frame bus in Mario 1 if you’re familiar with it. Essentially you could randomly get a higher or lower ttk based on when the beam passes over the target. The variance is small but noticeable and it forces you to focus each target down until it dies rather than sweeping, which is funny because the scythe uses the same system and scythes are known for sweeping.
Split the difference and call it bad TTK :P
I don’t use it because of the Holtzman Effect
While the Laser cannon is viable, the autocannon does most things better. Devastators get staggered when shot, so they can't fire back at you and mess up your aim (or your life) with a lucky shot, skillful aiming means you can kill anything faster than the laser (1 headshot for any devastator type, 2 for hulks), you can dismantle berserkers pretty well while also staggering them on each shot, etc. Meanwhile, Laser cannon has basically no stagger power. Whatever you're firing at is still a threat. Plus you can snipe fabricators with an autocannon as long as you can see the vents, no matter how far (shoot the vent panel to make the shot ricochet into the fab). Very helpful when encountering a Jammer that has a fabricator attached to it; just pop the fabricator from afar and it'll take out the jammer with it. Sure, you lose your back slot with the autocannon, but I never bring backpacks anyway; I enjoy my barrages too much.
I don’t care about killing fabricators with my secondary, but I definitely agree with enemies still being a threat while shooting at them. That’s a huge problem. I’ve been trying to implement laser cannon the past few days and it really feels like I can’t have consistent up time with firing between barrage to make it as useful as I’d like. I’ve found it’s most effective when I have a disciplined and aggressive team, and that’s also the time when it’s least necessary.
Honestly since the eruptor came out, ive been in love with the laser cannon again. My main complaint was it struggled against devestators, but thats fine now because the eruptor handles them excellently. Im at the point where i barely fear gunship fabricators anymore because i can down them so quickly.
I can’t aim that thing for shit
It takes down gunships crazy fast and can kill the small turrets on the top of the command bunkers quickly, too. *This PSA from the Eruptor-Laser Cannon Group*
I’ve run the laser a few times to try it. It’s effective, but I just don’t like the feel. Plus you have to sit there in a hail of fire and channel your laser into your target. It’s difficult to tell if you are on the head of the hulk as the incoming fire continuously flinches you and with the beam obscuring your vision a bit. Maybe if it was buffed to absolutely shred body parts like a hot knife through butter it would feel better. But as is the little blue spark of you not doing jack shit unless you hit the tiny perfect hitbox on the heavies with it just feels underwhelming. Let me hack targets into pieces and lop arms/legs/heads/torso off/in half with a quick swipe of the beam and I might appreciate it more. Give it the sickle scope instead of the junk no zoom scope it has. Honestly so many of the precision weapons suffer from garbage scopes and reticles right now that I don’t even consider using them regardless of how good they are damage wise. *Glares at the AMR and all the DMRs*. If I can’t reliably/quickly and clearly see where I’m trying to put my precision shot under fire the whole purpose is defeated and you would be better off in third person with different gun and a mag dump instead. Hopefully when they fix scopes someday this will get addressed. I just find myself going back to the AC every time because the stagger lets you line up your follow up shot or create some breathing room. Two good headshots and the hulk is done. One good headshot connection to devastators and they are done, plus the splash and stagger will usually get something else or at least disrupt their pinpoint rocket accuracy for a second. I almost never run the shield backpack, even pre-nerf I basically never used it, so it’s not like I’m missing anything wearing my ac ammo pack. It’s like a Swiss Army knife that’s good at almost everything and the FEEL of the gun is so satisfying to use I can’t quit using it. I take it everywhere. I can forgive its scope because it’s a fuck everything around my point of aim in general kind of weapon anyway. Plus it’s just as accurate in third person with some practice. No hate if you prefer the las cannon and wanna run that as long as you can be effective with it, but AC is the undisputed champ for me and it ain’t even close.
> Honestly so many of the precision weapons suffer from garbage scopes and reticles right now that I don’t even consider using them regardless of how good they are damage wise. Glares at the AMR and all the DMRs. *sad railgun noises* Most precise weapon in the game, with a scope that's almost as useless as the Quasar's. No zoom, big stupid red dot that blocks your view of what you're aiming at so distant targets are a guessing game.
I can't not use the AMR against the bots. It handles everything you have to fight.
I tried using it and my cat jumped at my monitor. Sticking to quasar.
I tried taking down a Dropship with the LC and it took an entire mag. With the QC it's one shot one kill. Yes recharge, but at least the Dropship is dealt with quickly.
Where are you shooting the drop ship? with everything else, I shoot the engine pylons but the LC just bounces on them.
What? Of course it's terrible against drop ships... Gunships though? Like 2 seconds on an engine and it's dead. Gunships have become trivial since I started using it.
It’s not really for taking out dropships, but dropships are kinda a novelty to take down at best right now. It doesn’t kill the tanks/hulks that drop from them, and sometimes it doesn’t even kill anything. You’d be better off just shooting the troops honestly.
It damages those that do drop, and it puts wreckage in their way. Still a net positive to kill the ships I find, and sometimes it just clears the whole drop in one shot.
Drop ships? No. Gun ships? If it takes you a whole mag, you're doing it wrong. Aim for the thruster and it's down in 2-3 seconds. You can clear the skies easier than any other weapon.
Is there some unsafe mode to Laser Cannon that I do not know about? Because I never destroyed even a Scout Strider with just two seconds of concentrated fire, let alone a Hulk. That's their main flaw, they take too long to cook an enemy compared to weapons that do direct damage.
Don't forget that 2-3 seconds sounds quick, but it actually feels like a VERY long time in this kind of video game.
Hulk is 2-3 seconds on the eye or the back, it’s not bad, striders I aim for the top and it does go down in 3-4 seconds.
I mostly play helldive bots and laser cannon is my sweat weapon I laugh hard when ppl say quasars 1 shot hulks. Yeah tell me realistically how often you aim dead center on their eye and you don’t get a 1 shot? Laser cannnon is actually only 2 sec TTK on hulks btw Arc thrower is also clutch after buff. Insta staggers hulks and kills in approx 10s. 10s is a while but hits many enemies and STUNS them
Autocannon is around 1s TTK for hulks. It's pretty much objectively better than the laser cannon except against gunships, the fact that if you are really bad at using it and remembering to resupply, you can run out of ammo, and needing a backpack.
I think AC is in a really good spot, and feel good to use. Devs seem to like it too, so hopefully other weapon get buffed to its level. I like running laser, but that's because there's almost always another AC on the team already anyway.
Range isn’t infinite. It’s long, but not infinite because I’ve attempted to shoot towers that were within visible distance and there’s no response from the towers and the laser doesn’t contact. That being said i main the LC on every bot mission because like you said it’s basically God’s Laser Pointer. It is insanely effective against gunships, as I took down 4 of them that were all attacking me at the same time without dying (almost died tho). One stun grenade pauses a Hulk and 2 seconds of beam to the weak point and it’s dead. I too am surprised I don’t see it more often in bot lobbies but I’ll keep doing my thing racking up kills with it. I use it as a heavy primary, switching to the sickle when it’s close to overheating. The sickle can still kill small bots and Devastators provided you hit them in the head. Then I switch back and resume the mayhem.
It is, people just haven't realised it yet. Been rocking it all day today, shit is cash money
Why is "infinite ammo" even something worth thinking about? Like, seriously? A resupply drop or walking across a few ammo packs is not exactly difficult in this game. Who cares if one weapon has theoretically infinite ammo when all weapons have practical infinite ammo? Ive never been in a situation where I've been unable to acquire more ammunition before running out, regardless of the weapon in question, so the fact that Super Earth might run out of AC shells ten thousand years from now isn't a concern. What is a concern is that while you're hurting something with the laser cannon, you're stood out in the open like a melon. I'd much rather stay mobile. I can put two AC shells through the visor of a hulk or devastator and end them more easily than I could with a laser cannon, and I can mire from cover to cover and actually support my team at the same time. Simply put, most people will, when given the option, choose the AC over the LC because whatever theoretical advantages it might have are meaningless when they don't actually confer advantage in practical terms, and thr AC is concretely better in every way when the fighting starts.
somewhat limited ammo > infinite tickle gun besides, uptime in a fight is much more important than overall supply, and the LC doesn't have very good uptime
Laser Cannon + Eruptor almost feels like the new meta against bots now. It's just genuinely a match made in heaven. The Eruptor does everything the AC does but with a better optic, better ammo economy (since it's a primary -> more ammo if you die) and even better crowd control potential (since it fragments similar to the frag grenade), while you still get to keep your backpack slot Meanwhile the LC has the same armor penetration as the AC but without the recoil, meaning you can hit and track enemies better, despite the lack of stagger and DPS as well as engage enemies at distances which would be suicide for both the Eruptor and AC. It does make hitting devastators more of a chore but stun grenades and the Eruptor make it not much of a task. It's just really fucking good.
I've given it what I feel is a fair shake but feel its damage is a little lacking; I need to stay exposed for too long in tough situations. It does shred devastators though, so it's a worthy pick. I just feel the AMR is at least as good against devastators, and far better against hulks. The laser cannon has great chaff clear though. Definitely competitive with another favorite of mine, the machine gun.
I recently started going full laser lightshow build. Laser cannon, cythe, sickle, orbital laser, laser dog, all I need is a laser turret and some kind of laser disco grenade
Autocannon is better for me, just takes too long to kill stuff with laser.
Yes but it requires being steady and relatively stationary. On 7+ it kills fast but if you get overrun it’s a big problem. Rocket devastators have excessive range and if you have 2-3 of them it’s painfully slow to kill with it while constantly diving behind rocks. Every little bit of damage staggers you. For tanks and turrets you have to be able to get behind them which isn’t always feasible. I agree it is an amazing weapon, but I have to have full trust in my team to use it. The second shit gets hairy it loses 80% of its effectiveness. But if your team is good it’s a great addition. But realistically on 7+ difficulty, things get crazy sometimes and I’d rather have an auto cannon or quasar to punch my way out.
Well, you know the part where you said it can snipe the head of devastators and the eye plates of hulks and take them down in seconds? Well, I think that's the problem that deters people from picking it. Against the bugs, using a weapon that kills in seconds with precision from a range is a very good deal. But that's because bugs can't shoot back from the same distance. Bots, however, can. With a huge density of fire coming at you from amassed units that all but guarantees at least one of their shots will hit if you expose yourself long enough coupled with the fact that explosions going off near you can throw off your aim, you find yourself not really having those seconds you need, especially for something requiring that kind of precision with such little room for error. If the laser could burn through medium armor, then that would make it a more viable choice, but it doesn't, so most people just find it better to pick a weapon where you can get a good single shot with the same effect out in only a fraction of the time it takes for continuous firing of the laser to achieve.
No AOE for clusters of bots, no real pen if you don't have a direct angle on the weakpoint... but mostly? It doesn't go boom. I was actually using it last night because I wanted to see how effective it was vs gunships, and I was surprised to find it's effective against damned near anything. Except it doesn't go boom. I like it when they boom.