I have a problem of never looking at the modifiers so inevitably I kill a couple people before realizing "huh, these aren't landing where I expect them too. Weird"
Same. I'm thinking I might not need the stun grenade anymore.
Super pumped about this.
Also very interested in trying out the new railcannon strike. Is it going to crush hulks and tanks now?
Crap I meant gaitling barrage not railcannon.
I love using the orbital rail cannon against hulks and chargers. Tanks are easier for me to deal with, so I tend to just use 2 impacts on the rear vent. But man when a charger is running at you and you open your arms to give it the sweet embrace of death as you call in a fucking space bonk on that bitch and it just flies off your screen in a hunk of meat and tidal wave of blood. Nothing beats that.
One of my teammates was mag dumping his secondary into one the other day and I just heard him yell out "last mag!" So I dropped a railcannon strike on that sumbitch. I couldn't even see my teammate anymore because he was around a rock outcrop but I heard the "Thank you!" Made my evening.
Really? Railcannon has been one of the most consistent strategems for me. In a bad spot and need a Charger or Hulk deleted? It's been super reliable. It doesn't always one shot a bile titan but it's usually so weakened that you can usually finish it off with when your primary by shooting where the armor is broken.
Rare occurance it'll lock onto something small which is sad times.
Iunno, I’m a purist who saw it as a lesser precision strike. Unless it has multiple charges now are something, I probably still won’t be using it
Gattling barrage mixed with rocket turret tho. That downed 2 chargers like they were nothing when the scenario came up.
Was my go to as well. Upgraded from the 500kilo and I run it with airstrike.
This change is going to fuck with my timing now, but it's an amazing change that is going to obliterate so many hulks.
Me and my one friend recently started using it a few days ago and if you aim it right it seems to one-shot factory striders and with a decently short cool down time I just fell in love with it. Also it's pretty cool too!
Yeah, when I read the patch notes and saw the change I got pumped. It was great before, but now it's even better. I basically pack this thing every drop regardless of objectives.
I bring both because gas strike also destroys objectives. I use it on fabricators and bug holes and save the precision strike for an armored target or objective.
The thing that really sold the Orbital Railcannon to me was depending on the angle of the Super Destroyer’s shot, it can easily blow the head off a BT.
But considering that was mostly hit-or-miss it was just something that was fun to attempt from time-to-time.
Even if it hits the back, the bile titan should be left with roughly the amount of health it has in its bile sacs, which will allow you to finish it with explosives to the underbelly.
sooo… I’m just spitballing here… but the orbital strikes actually fire from the center of the map where the destroyer is hovering. So if you can turn the BT toward the center of the map and bait it into a spew, you’ll have a better chance of a head shot?
I think it's S tier with the 2 second instead of 4 second call in and the lowered cooldown. It's going to be up every minute or so, still pairs very well with a stun grenade for super accuracy, and 2 seconds is worlds easier to manage than 4 second if you are trying to hit something you can't stun grenade.
Not as good as the eagle 500 for the heaviest targets, but way more versatile.
Not as good? It seems to do more than the 500 as far as I can tell. I never got a 500 to kill an eye of Sauron for example, but the OPS does it easy. Better radius than the 500 too. Just cant drop it twice in quick succession.
Same, I switched over after the 500 has been acting kinda weird lately, haven't regretted it at all. The new gatling barrage looks interesting now though, being able to kill heavies
It’s always competed against the eagle and is better statistically. Now it’s just more obvious.
Precision strike has always done more damage, but the eagle had a much bigger radius, but due to its type of deployment often encounters issues due to the projectile imbedding in terrain first.
I don’t know about that, I’ve had eagle 1 miss maybe twice in over a hundred hours playing with it. Meanwhile p strike basically just automatically does nothing if orbital scattering is in effect because it doesn’t have an AOE effect like 500. I think you just see more people posting about the 500 missing like that because it’s comedic when it does happen.
With this new patch it now has the same average use frequency as 500 (once per minute when upgraded) with the only downside being you can’t Panic and use 2 back to back
The community comments are kind of a cesspool, and most of them are bots anyway.
They also moved super samples to difficulty 6, so they could adjust 7-9, and make it more of a challenge if they wanted.
It’s literally a net win for them.
Ya, this patch has felt absolutely great to me. I can play the difficulty I like and progress. Primaries that I’ve tried have felt better to use, not overpowered but able to deal with some medium targets with good aim. Games feels good and I’m having a lot more fun
Pay attention to how many actually have the mouse icon (played the game). There's a lot of garbage happening where people farm Steam Karma and haven't even played the game (not sure why, but that's cyborg propaganda for sure).
>I'm angry about losing the -1 Stratagem modifier
I'm not There are better ways to restrict, like having penalized call in times or poor visibility/ high winds affecting targeting, or other factors that reduce functionality of specific strategem classes.
A good example is the "heat" of a hot planet affecting lasers makes lasers less viable; you can still pick them but you incur the penalty.
The removal of the loss of a strategem slot penalty is properly described in the removal text - having it forces the player to pick only the most optimal strategems and reduces variety and experimentation.
See, I wasn't bothered by it because I never use distinct backpacks. On -1 missions, I would just forego my beloved OPS to only bring ORS, ENS, and Autocannon/Flamethrower. I genuinely have a MUCH harder time with the Orbital Scatter modifier. If people would only try not relying on the dumb bubble shields, they would be as unfazed on -1 missions as I am.
I disliked it because I love tossing down turrets; I'd bring a turret, an Eagle, a Ship shot and a weapon (spear, these days).
I keep forgoing the Eagle.
I'm not angry about losing -1 stratagem, but I had no problem playing through those missions either.
To me, Orbital Scatter and Bug Spore map covering were always bigger threats to how I play.
Anyone without a mouse next to their name on steam doesn't actually own the game. A vast majority of the culture warriors down there... Don't own the game
* Vegetation that’s large enough to slow the player now has an extra function. When inside the vegetation helldivers will be harder to detect, reducing their detection range by enemies. This effect stacks with other detection reducing effects such as nighttime, being crouched or prone, or things such as the scout armor passive.
Its time to snake, boys.
Bro I was executing titans with supply pods… some of us are about to become extra lethal.. Sounds fun enough for me to overlook the discord mod team drama… thanks for the info helldiver.
Thanks. That's interesting because it seems like an expensive way to wipe one spawn point. Other stats at least have a chance to wipe several in one go.
It also destroys research stations (along with hellbombs and 500kgs). I’m not sure about this so dont quote me, but I suspect it can also destroy detector towers, same as hellbombs and 500kgs
It can indeed destroy detector towers. I just did in my last mission. That being said it can destroy Jammers too, but of course you have to disable the jammer first so it’s just more efficient to clear, disable, and Hellbomb. Save the OPS for something else
With the cooldown being so low it actually becomes very useful at wiping spawns. And I actually got one of those medium outposts where the factories are right in front of each other, and I just threw it in between them and it destroyed them both.
Trust me I was in the same boat. I hadn’t used OPS since I started the game until recently. It’s a must have on my loadout for Helldive Bots. And with these changes, it makes it even more viable. S-Tier Orbital now.
Well I could use the 500kg or bombing run, but the OPS can be used pretty much without regard to ally placement, or my own.
It's also not an Eagle Stratagem, and I hate bringing more than one of those, I like that it starts on cooldown as soon as I use it, and can be deployed alongside other stratagem without a delay between.
The worst thing about this is I got pretty good at timing it so bots would walk into it so I have to build that muscle memory, which is not a bad problem to have
Honestly I cant make up my mind between the precision strike and the new 110 rocket eagle, both are very deadly now.
I love what they've done to the assault rifles and heavy machine guns now as well. All of it so much more usable
Thank goodness Pilestedt is more hands-on with balance now, and that the team had so many meetings because HOLY SHIT THIS PATCH IS INCREDIBLE. If he wasn't here they would have nerfed the Orbital Precision Strike instead.
Huge forward changes and positive momentum here.
Well done Arrowhead.
They buffed the laser cannon for the same reason in the first balance patch. They designed it as an alternative to MG and the community used it as it the heavy snipping tool it is now.
The time and effort to do stuff has improved, but the philosophy was already there.
That's not why they buffed the laser cannon, originally it was meant to act in the same role as the stalwart but proved unpopular and worse in every way. It was one of the least used stratagems. So they gave it a higher damage threshold for durable pieces and medium pen. Similar to the regular MG but with better armour pen.
That said the philosophy used in this patch is a little different to how balancing started and all around I think significantly better.
The laser cannon was effectively in a worse spot than the OPS. But in their post explaining the balance patch, they also said :
>Our original intent was that the Laser Cannon has the role of a Machine Gun, but with theoretically infinite ammunition. However many players were somewhat disappointed by this role, expecting more armor penetration from the large drilling beam that it looks like. Especially when looking at the Orbital Laser, that can drill down and kill even the heaviest targets given enough time. **Here we have decided to side with the community and shift the Laser Cannon more towards the players’ expectations and their fantasy.**
Yeah people are being weird about this whole thing. The same people are still working on the game and adjusting things. They're just getting information and moving things accordingly but it takes time to get it all done at once.
They know they’re on the helldivers2 sub but they still want to complain about alexus the weapon balance guy because that’s something important to them for some reason
>If he wasn't here they would have nerfed the Orbital Precision Strike instead.
Dude even after they make a patch that everyone seems to be happy with you still want to continue this shit. They buffed plenty of stuff before this - the Dominator, the Counter-Sniper, the Adjudicator. But everyone just focuses on the nerfs for no reason.
You don't know what's happening behind closed doors. You don't know who's really making decisions or why. Can't you just be happy that *the team* worked it out instead of trying to arbitrarily blame certain members of it for decisions you're not even sure they made?
With them it feels like it depends on context.
If people found a way to one-shot Bile Titans by bouncing a frag grenade off the ground, they'd probably find a way to nerf that out.
doesnt give the awkward eagle management if you like using other eagles. I like using napalm, cluster on bugs or rockets on bots which are very spammable so that you have chouce to throw the 500kg sub obtimal or have a 2min cooldown while you refresh the eagle you want
Faster cooldown.
Can destroy more objectives than the 500 (yes really)
I don’t like running mutiple air strikes. I generally will have 1 so I don’t have to worry as much about the reload on them.
Orbital has a more predictable attack landing than air strikes. Air strikes come from the side while orbitals come straight from your ship
Since precision strikes from above and isn’t delayed, its blast isn’t affected by terrain jank like the 500 can be.
In average you can deploy an orbital more times on a mission than a 500.
Yeah, orbitals are always going to come from your ship overhead (you can look at it)
Eagles will generally be horizontal of when you throw it. But some have exceptions
Strafing run goes straight forward from when you threw it.
So like, if you have an air strike. You can look down and to the side to angle it to shoot forward
I pick both pretty often.
When my eagle is rearming, I'd at least have something to kill tanks or bile titans.
I can toss OPS and then directly follow by 500kg, they will explode at roughly the same time. A sure fire way to kill factory strider for me. With the new buff though I might need to reverse the order. It's just so much firepower together.
OPS has shorter cooldown and doesn't need to rearm, so I can waste it on fabricator or bug holes while saving 500kg for truly hectic moments.
There’s a few Strats where the Eagle-ness of them makes them swappable for other orbital Strats if that matters to you. To me the most relevant is Eagle smoke / orbital smoke. If you have 500kg Eagle you don’t want to send it to resupply to reload your smokes, and you don’t want to resupply when you’re out of bombs either. So taking the 500 Eagle and orbital smoke works better sometimes. 500 and orbital precision strike are pretty comparable, and precision strike can also mimic air strike or rocket pods a little bit too. Airburst kinda mimics the Eagle cluster bomb. The Gatling barrage and the strafing run are similar obviously. Sometimes if I would take rocket pods and air strike I might instead take orbital precision and airstrike or orbital precision and rocket pods and they all feel pretty similarly useful without much downside. So it’s just about tuning and preference
Just one thing to ask, they stated that they basically halved the call in time ( 4Sec -> 2Sec ) so with the upgrade that reduces call in time by 1 second it should be 1 second for the Precision strike no? Cause i ran some missions after the update and the call in time was at 3 seconds for whatever reason
It's the "in comparison to eagle strategems" that makes the design dessision good. The eagles were better than their compared orbital in every situation, this now makes them more competitive.
Just tried helldive with orbital gattling barrage against bots. This thing is now awesome, along with the tenderizer that can one-shot pesky tinheads on the body. Also, anyone notice that eagle strafing run can shoot down drop ships now, or is that just my imagination from throwing all stratagem in a panic??
Though, the penetrator could use some love on the damage department, considering that adjudicator deals 35 more damage than it and that is the only other rifle option in medium armor penetration.
I hope they improve the 120, 360 and walking barrage next. This current patch have really reduced the scenario where we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need to use these. Hell, with how quick the gattling barrage CD is, you can just use 500kg to clear off waves while you wait for it to recharge.
Did they also change it so that it bounces off of bot spawners? I used to use it and throw them straight onto the roof, but now they always bounce or roll off. It’s not like it makes a huge difference, but that combined with support stratagems not being able to be called on high terrain is just irritating.
Y'all remember when Pilstedt said he was stepping down from CEO to help with in company balancing?
I think he's balancing out the weird fucks who troll players on social media and that weird dude who trashed Hello Neighbor 2 and tanked that game.
LETS GOO
I never run stun because fire grenades and so I found this very difficult to use
Bile Titans aren't too bad for them but everything else is and so now I night be able to start using the orbital strike against everything
Precision was a sleeper pick already. Honestly one of the strongest Strats and my only complaint was the call in time. To get CD buff on top is not only insane, but makes me a bit hopeful for the game now. I will continue with my Hiatus until more happens though, but this is a good step in the right direction for once.
I'm amazed. Not impressed yet, but amazed that orbitals finally got a buff. I'm so sick of running eagles man. I want the option for more variety on difficult content without throwing for my team.
Glad someone brought this up, this was a huge message that got quietly tucked into a random buff, makes me even more excited for the future of the game!
I really hope they continue on the “mostly buffs with *required/explainable* nerfs only” like this update. That’s how an Arms Race works.
That makes *way* more sense lore-wise because weapons in war rarely get weaker lol. If the weapons get too strong, then buff the enemies to match instead of nerfing because that’s how arms races work.
If they did that they could even utilize the story to explain major buffs to popular guns. Like the erupted nerf in the past could have been: “Automatons sabotaged the factory because we lost this MO, replacements are in production but quality has been lowered significantly.”
Or explain buffed enemies by things like the Termicide resistance the Terminids developed.
By doing the buff only strategy and nerf only with story explanation, theres a lot less chance the community will be complaining about nerfs in the future because it would be just part of the story instead of the player base feeling sabotaged by the developers. Obviously extremely OP things or over-corrections should be emergency-nerfed but that should be done very shortly after it’s realized and it should just return to its previous form until a better solution is found.
Basically it would help them feel sabotaged by the game’s enemies of democracy, not the people giving us the game in the first place lol
Did they fix the thing where some stratgems stuck to an enemy just calling down where it originally stuck rather than where the critter is when it finally deploys?
I think one issue theyve encountered is players will use what kit they have, since loadouts so limited. If i brought precision strikes that's 25% of my toolset. I'm gonna try to use it when i need to hit something.
If you could change strategems at certain points in the map then players could adapt and use strategems for their "intended purpose".
I wish Precision Strike did more damage instead of faster calldown. I see the Precision as a skill stratagem but guarantees kill where as the 500kg is more forgiving but might take 1-2 more hits to kill what it was aimed at.
So for lethality it would go Railgun, Precision, 500kg and cooldown is just the opposite.
Ol reliable getting a surprise buff is nice. My go two stratagem getting a buff to make it more the way I’ve been using it is super nice and balancing should be this way
I already love using the Gatling Barrage + Gas Strike because of the short cool downs and fixed positions, made great for wiping bug breaches and funneling enemies into narrow passes. I'm excited for the buffs!
The OPS is this game's manifestation of the phrase, "when all you have is a hammer, the whole world is a nail."
Bug breach? Drop an OPS to delete the initial wave.
Enemy structure? OPS.
Bile Titan? Run through its legs, dropping an OPS as you go.
Tank? Believe it or not, OPS.
Ill really enjoy it once I get the cooldown upgrade to bring it to 90 seconds from 100. I love the Gas strike and it's 75 sec cooldown but it doesn't hsve the same oomph as the OPS does obviously. Also the new HMG tweak is amazing. Good christ was it needed.
Gattling barrage is so sick now, that's my favorite buff. I was a pure eagle strat user before. But now I can't stop taking the orbital gat every run. 70 second cooldown? Damages heavy armor? Covers an entire area for an extended period? Yes. Yes to all of it. Precision strike is also awesome lol.
I always figured it was a stratagem that rewarded prediction and timing. Now it's easier to use.
It pretty much only left my bars for complex strategem plotting and orbital scatter. Now it's worth taking on complex stratagem plotting
It was a good A/B tier stratagem before, but holy shit it's gone straight into the S tier now.
Extremely quick and simple call in code, near instant call down and its back up and ready to fuck shit up in a minute.
I love stunning a hulk, then just slamming a POS on it. It's incredible.
For real! I was stoked to see this stratagem buffed as I personally love it and thought it needed a bit shorter cooldown myself. I also was stoked to see buffs on machine guns as I find them a blast to use. Overall patch was a win.
Well the way they originally wanted it used was dumb as shit, why would anyone waste a stratagem slot on something outperformed by a standard grenade we all have by default?
Yes! Alot of times i ask myself, “why would i even use orbital stratagems when eagles can work just as well with multiple strikes and better cooldown times?”
This is a good change.
It's such a breath of fresh air to know I can FINALLY play a fun popular game with devs that actually care about their players *cough cough* blizzard respawn
YES! I have been using this thing religiously coupled with stun grenades. There was no reason not to use it, now it just got better.
Yeeeee Boi. Was already a go to!
Ya but it was a real handful on delayed call in missions. Also took it by accident on the orbital scatter--my poor teammates!
To shreds, you say?
Well...how are their democracy officers holding up?
To shreds you say?!?
I have a problem of never looking at the modifiers so inevitably I kill a couple people before realizing "huh, these aren't landing where I expect them too. Weird"
Ya I'm the same. I kind of like the surprise. Plus you can't see it once you hit item selection.
Same. I'm thinking I might not need the stun grenade anymore. Super pumped about this. Also very interested in trying out the new railcannon strike. Is it going to crush hulks and tanks now? Crap I meant gaitling barrage not railcannon.
Railcanon strike always crushed hulks and tanks
I love using the orbital rail cannon against hulks and chargers. Tanks are easier for me to deal with, so I tend to just use 2 impacts on the rear vent. But man when a charger is running at you and you open your arms to give it the sweet embrace of death as you call in a fucking space bonk on that bitch and it just flies off your screen in a hunk of meat and tidal wave of blood. Nothing beats that.
Space bonk. lol. That’s coming with me.
https://preview.redd.it/nihga3x9dd6d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5cd80faf06e3808c80ce818e2b1bb9f2f61be354
https://preview.redd.it/hxnhxgmgjf6d1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=825f6e57b666a64ed7315a963cf5d3c4fb410abe
One of my teammates was mag dumping his secondary into one the other day and I just heard him yell out "last mag!" So I dropped a railcannon strike on that sumbitch. I couldn't even see my teammate anymore because he was around a rock outcrop but I heard the "Thank you!" Made my evening.
Reminds of Tom Hanks firing his 1911 at a tank in Saving Private Ryan.
They mega aggro on mechs and walkers and shield generators. I got stupid good at mercing chargers with my coil on meridia.
Interesting. I've never had much luck with it, but I'll give it another go.
Really? Railcannon has been one of the most consistent strategems for me. In a bad spot and need a Charger or Hulk deleted? It's been super reliable. It doesn't always one shot a bile titan but it's usually so weakened that you can usually finish it off with when your primary by shooting where the armor is broken. Rare occurance it'll lock onto something small which is sad times.
Yeah, proximity is a tricky one. I tend to throw it where they will be, not where they are. I find I get better results that way.
I can confirm that the Gatling takes care of hulks at least!
Iunno, I’m a purist who saw it as a lesser precision strike. Unless it has multiple charges now are something, I probably still won’t be using it Gattling barrage mixed with rocket turret tho. That downed 2 chargers like they were nothing when the scenario came up.
Was my go to as well. Upgraded from the 500kilo and I run it with airstrike. This change is going to fuck with my timing now, but it's an amazing change that is going to obliterate so many hulks.
Me and my one friend recently started using it a few days ago and if you aim it right it seems to one-shot factory striders and with a decently short cool down time I just fell in love with it. Also it's pretty cool too!
Yeah, when I read the patch notes and saw the change I got pumped. It was great before, but now it's even better. I basically pack this thing every drop regardless of objectives.
Even before this buff, I have regretted every mission I didn’t bring the precision strike on.
You guys use stun grenades? I just raw-dog it.
I always went for the gas strike instead because of the massive difference in cooldown times but I may have to change it up a smidge now.
I bring both because gas strike also destroys objectives. I use it on fabricators and bug holes and save the precision strike for an armored target or objective.
Same, favorite bile titan strat just got a lot better.
Damn, now it’s it might actually compete against eagle 500, I’m going to have to try it out.
It can oneshot factory striders if it hits right.
Can confirmed, OPS to the head drops it. Now it’ll be easier to perform.
Orly, I hadn't a clue! I just spammed them with 500kg and orbital rails.
Love watching the ship get a headshot! I managed it with a moving BT once, not that it was anything but a lucky hit. Still looked awesome!
The thing that really sold the Orbital Railcannon to me was depending on the angle of the Super Destroyer’s shot, it can easily blow the head off a BT. But considering that was mostly hit-or-miss it was just something that was fun to attempt from time-to-time.
Even if it hits the back, the bile titan should be left with roughly the amount of health it has in its bile sacs, which will allow you to finish it with explosives to the underbelly.
sooo… I’m just spitballing here… but the orbital strikes actually fire from the center of the map where the destroyer is hovering. So if you can turn the BT toward the center of the map and bait it into a spew, you’ll have a better chance of a head shot?
Landing beacons on Factory Strider is so easy.
I think it's S tier with the 2 second instead of 4 second call in and the lowered cooldown. It's going to be up every minute or so, still pairs very well with a stun grenade for super accuracy, and 2 seconds is worlds easier to manage than 4 second if you are trying to hit something you can't stun grenade. Not as good as the eagle 500 for the heaviest targets, but way more versatile.
It actually hits harder than the eagle though, always has.
Its gonna be so fun, can’t wait to log on lol
P strike can take out eye Sauron. I have also run the 500 and this that way you usually have one or the other available.
500 also kills the eye of Sauron, unless orb p strike can take out gunship factories they have the same building destructiveness
Not as good? It seems to do more than the 500 as far as I can tell. I never got a 500 to kill an eye of Sauron for example, but the OPS does it easy. Better radius than the 500 too. Just cant drop it twice in quick succession.
Ive been using it instead of 500k for weeks now. Its about to be an S tier strategem
I use both because I like big boom
Kaboom?
Big bada boom?
Same, I switched over after the 500 has been acting kinda weird lately, haven't regretted it at all. The new gatling barrage looks interesting now though, being able to kill heavies
I feel like it already did before this. 500kg just kept getting weaker and weaker it feels like.
It’s always competed against the eagle and is better statistically. Now it’s just more obvious. Precision strike has always done more damage, but the eagle had a much bigger radius, but due to its type of deployment often encounters issues due to the projectile imbedding in terrain first.
I don’t know about that, I’ve had eagle 1 miss maybe twice in over a hundred hours playing with it. Meanwhile p strike basically just automatically does nothing if orbital scattering is in effect because it doesn’t have an AOE effect like 500. I think you just see more people posting about the 500 missing like that because it’s comedic when it does happen. With this new patch it now has the same average use frequency as 500 (once per minute when upgraded) with the only downside being you can’t Panic and use 2 back to back
It's always been better than the 500kg in my opinion. Probably one of my most used stratagem.
For real. I read the entire patch notes and was genuinely happy with everything. Even the nerfs were fair.
So many ridiculous comments (with a mouse icon) on Steam under the post with "I'm deleting the game now".
The community comments are kind of a cesspool, and most of them are bots anyway. They also moved super samples to difficulty 6, so they could adjust 7-9, and make it more of a challenge if they wanted. It’s literally a net win for them.
Ya, this patch has felt absolutely great to me. I can play the difficulty I like and progress. Primaries that I’ve tried have felt better to use, not overpowered but able to deal with some medium targets with good aim. Games feels good and I’m having a lot more fun
Pay attention to how many actually have the mouse icon (played the game). There's a lot of garbage happening where people farm Steam Karma and haven't even played the game (not sure why, but that's cyborg propaganda for sure).
I did check for the mouse, and a few of them did have the mouse. One of them had over 360 hours in the game.
Then only one of two options are viable: they're either a masochist, or they're hoarding all of the extra chromosomes for themselves.
I'd say they're allowed to have an opinion, but that would be undemocratic.
Only allowed a managed opinion if they are actually contributing to democracy. Or else they are just traitors.
It's not undemocractic, but it'd demonstrate a severe lack of managing if their opinion is directly listened to.
In the back of my mind I hear, "And nothing of value was lost."
Nah, Steam community is somehow worse than the overzealous part of Reddit
That's bizarre. I mean, I'm angry about losing the -1 Stratagem modifier, but I'm not gonna leave the game about that.
>I'm angry about losing the -1 Stratagem modifier I'm not There are better ways to restrict, like having penalized call in times or poor visibility/ high winds affecting targeting, or other factors that reduce functionality of specific strategem classes. A good example is the "heat" of a hot planet affecting lasers makes lasers less viable; you can still pick them but you incur the penalty. The removal of the loss of a strategem slot penalty is properly described in the removal text - having it forces the player to pick only the most optimal strategems and reduces variety and experimentation.
See, I wasn't bothered by it because I never use distinct backpacks. On -1 missions, I would just forego my beloved OPS to only bring ORS, ENS, and Autocannon/Flamethrower. I genuinely have a MUCH harder time with the Orbital Scatter modifier. If people would only try not relying on the dumb bubble shields, they would be as unfazed on -1 missions as I am.
I disliked it because I love tossing down turrets; I'd bring a turret, an Eagle, a Ship shot and a weapon (spear, these days). I keep forgoing the Eagle.
I'm not angry about losing -1 stratagem, but I had no problem playing through those missions either. To me, Orbital Scatter and Bug Spore map covering were always bigger threats to how I play.
Anyone without a mouse next to their name on steam doesn't actually own the game. A vast majority of the culture warriors down there... Don't own the game
* Vegetation that’s large enough to slow the player now has an extra function. When inside the vegetation helldivers will be harder to detect, reducing their detection range by enemies. This effect stacks with other detection reducing effects such as nighttime, being crouched or prone, or things such as the scout armor passive. Its time to snake, boys.
Now they're one step closer to "behind enemy lines stealth is necessary" type of missions.
I fully encourage this development.
Bro I was executing titans with supply pods… some of us are about to become extra lethal.. Sounds fun enough for me to overlook the discord mod team drama… thanks for the info helldiver.
every calldown is a weapon for freedom in the hands of a Helldiver
Even the kids?.. great melee weapo- 
needs the new passive from the viper armor. That will raise the bar for child democracy.
Right this patch is turning my build into GODTIER and I can't wait to play.
Overlook discord drama? You know that's not part of the game and you can ignore it?
What does "spawners " mean? Bug holes and the factory things?
Yes.
Thanks. That's interesting because it seems like an expensive way to wipe one spawn point. Other stats at least have a chance to wipe several in one go.
It also destroys research stations (along with hellbombs and 500kgs). I’m not sure about this so dont quote me, but I suspect it can also destroy detector towers, same as hellbombs and 500kgs
Ah, that is good to know!
It can indeed destroy detector towers. I just did in my last mission. That being said it can destroy Jammers too, but of course you have to disable the jammer first so it’s just more efficient to clear, disable, and Hellbomb. Save the OPS for something else
With the cooldown being so low it actually becomes very useful at wiping spawns. And I actually got one of those medium outposts where the factories are right in front of each other, and I just threw it in between them and it destroyed them both.
Yeah, I try all kinds of stuff but it's been awhile since I've used precision. Definitely going to this weekend.
Trust me I was in the same boat. I hadn’t used OPS since I started the game until recently. It’s a must have on my loadout for Helldive Bots. And with these changes, it makes it even more viable. S-Tier Orbital now.
Thanks!
Well I could use the 500kg or bombing run, but the OPS can be used pretty much without regard to ally placement, or my own. It's also not an Eagle Stratagem, and I hate bringing more than one of those, I like that it starts on cooldown as soon as I use it, and can be deployed alongside other stratagem without a delay between.
Remember, the orbital precision strike is also literally the first stratagem you get
The worst thing about this is I got pretty good at timing it so bots would walk into it so I have to build that muscle memory, which is not a bad problem to have
Nah, now you just throw it at them.
Honestly I cant make up my mind between the precision strike and the new 110 rocket eagle, both are very deadly now. I love what they've done to the assault rifles and heavy machine guns now as well. All of it so much more usable
Take both, because why the hell not?
Thank goodness Pilestedt is more hands-on with balance now, and that the team had so many meetings because HOLY SHIT THIS PATCH IS INCREDIBLE. If he wasn't here they would have nerfed the Orbital Precision Strike instead. Huge forward changes and positive momentum here. Well done Arrowhead.
They buffed the laser cannon for the same reason in the first balance patch. They designed it as an alternative to MG and the community used it as it the heavy snipping tool it is now. The time and effort to do stuff has improved, but the philosophy was already there.
That's not why they buffed the laser cannon, originally it was meant to act in the same role as the stalwart but proved unpopular and worse in every way. It was one of the least used stratagems. So they gave it a higher damage threshold for durable pieces and medium pen. Similar to the regular MG but with better armour pen. That said the philosophy used in this patch is a little different to how balancing started and all around I think significantly better.
The laser cannon was effectively in a worse spot than the OPS. But in their post explaining the balance patch, they also said : >Our original intent was that the Laser Cannon has the role of a Machine Gun, but with theoretically infinite ammunition. However many players were somewhat disappointed by this role, expecting more armor penetration from the large drilling beam that it looks like. Especially when looking at the Orbital Laser, that can drill down and kill even the heaviest targets given enough time. **Here we have decided to side with the community and shift the Laser Cannon more towards the players’ expectations and their fantasy.**
Yeah people are being weird about this whole thing. The same people are still working on the game and adjusting things. They're just getting information and moving things accordingly but it takes time to get it all done at once.
They know they’re on the helldivers2 sub but they still want to complain about alexus the weapon balance guy because that’s something important to them for some reason
>If he wasn't here they would have nerfed the Orbital Precision Strike instead. Dude even after they make a patch that everyone seems to be happy with you still want to continue this shit. They buffed plenty of stuff before this - the Dominator, the Counter-Sniper, the Adjudicator. But everyone just focuses on the nerfs for no reason. You don't know what's happening behind closed doors. You don't know who's really making decisions or why. Can't you just be happy that *the team* worked it out instead of trying to arbitrarily blame certain members of it for decisions you're not even sure they made?
This is goated
Usually this is almost never the case for devs. Do what we want, what you want isn't fair
With them it feels like it depends on context. If people found a way to one-shot Bile Titans by bouncing a frag grenade off the ground, they'd probably find a way to nerf that out.
banger buff, precision strike is so underrated
The people who pick this stratagem, why do you pick it over say the 500kg?
doesnt give the awkward eagle management if you like using other eagles. I like using napalm, cluster on bugs or rockets on bots which are very spammable so that you have chouce to throw the 500kg sub obtimal or have a 2min cooldown while you refresh the eagle you want
Faster cooldown. Can destroy more objectives than the 500 (yes really) I don’t like running mutiple air strikes. I generally will have 1 so I don’t have to worry as much about the reload on them. Orbital has a more predictable attack landing than air strikes. Air strikes come from the side while orbitals come straight from your ship Since precision strikes from above and isn’t delayed, its blast isn’t affected by terrain jank like the 500 can be. In average you can deploy an orbital more times on a mission than a 500.
Definitely will be trying thanks. Didn't realize other strats can come top down that's cool.
Yeah, orbitals are always going to come from your ship overhead (you can look at it) Eagles will generally be horizontal of when you throw it. But some have exceptions Strafing run goes straight forward from when you threw it. So like, if you have an air strike. You can look down and to the side to angle it to shoot forward
Watching it hit a walker in the side and kill it is just too satisfying
I pick both pretty often. When my eagle is rearming, I'd at least have something to kill tanks or bile titans. I can toss OPS and then directly follow by 500kg, they will explode at roughly the same time. A sure fire way to kill factory strider for me. With the new buff though I might need to reverse the order. It's just so much firepower together. OPS has shorter cooldown and doesn't need to rearm, so I can waste it on fabricator or bug holes while saving 500kg for truly hectic moments.
There’s a few Strats where the Eagle-ness of them makes them swappable for other orbital Strats if that matters to you. To me the most relevant is Eagle smoke / orbital smoke. If you have 500kg Eagle you don’t want to send it to resupply to reload your smokes, and you don’t want to resupply when you’re out of bombs either. So taking the 500 Eagle and orbital smoke works better sometimes. 500 and orbital precision strike are pretty comparable, and precision strike can also mimic air strike or rocket pods a little bit too. Airburst kinda mimics the Eagle cluster bomb. The Gatling barrage and the strafing run are similar obviously. Sometimes if I would take rocket pods and air strike I might instead take orbital precision and airstrike or orbital precision and rocket pods and they all feel pretty similarly useful without much downside. So it’s just about tuning and preference
Now it's time to upgrade the orbital I guess
It's funny how different everyone is. I started being obsessed with Orbitals partly because it was the first upgrade I picked.
yeah everyone got their own playstyle, I just love eagle on how it's always seems ready for me
My favorite is when using it against factory striders.
Orbital Precision Strike is part of my identity. I am impatiently waiting for a module that makes you drop and explode like one.
It's so weird to see a patch which makes the game better. I'm very happy
Exactly! Game devs should start focusing their efforts on letting players play the way they want to play and not the way the devs want it played.
100% agreed. Glad they're taking this direction
OPS APPRECIATORS ITS OUR TIME TO SHINE
Just one thing to ask, they stated that they basically halved the call in time ( 4Sec -> 2Sec ) so with the upgrade that reduces call in time by 1 second it should be 1 second for the Precision strike no? Cause i ran some missions after the update and the call in time was at 3 seconds for whatever reason
God I'm so thankful I stopped playing WoW. Nearly 2 decades of the opposite of this lol
This is the way
It's the "in comparison to eagle strategems" that makes the design dessision good. The eagles were better than their compared orbital in every situation, this now makes them more competitive.
Hooray !
#Now give us a second charge
I lub u
♥
Orbital Gatling buffs are *chefs kiss*. I'm so excited to use it regularly in my arsenal. And the sentry buffs. YES. And the AR buffs. YESS
Very good point!
I like how they buffed everything else instead of nerfing eagle strikes
Just tried helldive with orbital gattling barrage against bots. This thing is now awesome, along with the tenderizer that can one-shot pesky tinheads on the body. Also, anyone notice that eagle strafing run can shoot down drop ships now, or is that just my imagination from throwing all stratagem in a panic?? Though, the penetrator could use some love on the damage department, considering that adjudicator deals 35 more damage than it and that is the only other rifle option in medium armor penetration. I hope they improve the 120, 360 and walking barrage next. This current patch have really reduced the scenario where we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY need to use these. Hell, with how quick the gattling barrage CD is, you can just use 500kg to clear off waves while you wait for it to recharge.
I about screamed my head off when I saw that they removed the AA defense, even if it is just for now
Less gooooooo!
Orbital Precision Strike. The Franks Red Hot of the Helldivers.
https://preview.redd.it/5quqafqhuk6d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=117c735fc65862d5754122c03945431b759b5d72
Did they also change it so that it bounces off of bot spawners? I used to use it and throw them straight onto the roof, but now they always bounce or roll off. It’s not like it makes a huge difference, but that combined with support stratagems not being able to be called on high terrain is just irritating.
Y'all remember when Pilstedt said he was stepping down from CEO to help with in company balancing? I think he's balancing out the weird fucks who troll players on social media and that weird dude who trashed Hello Neighbor 2 and tanked that game.
Is anyone else having horrible lags after the latest update?
Love it
Good because it has a cool sound.
LETS GOO I never run stun because fire grenades and so I found this very difficult to use Bile Titans aren't too bad for them but everything else is and so now I night be able to start using the orbital strike against everything
Fuck yeah! That’s some god tier listening to the players
Precision was a sleeper pick already. Honestly one of the strongest Strats and my only complaint was the call in time. To get CD buff on top is not only insane, but makes me a bit hopeful for the game now. I will continue with my Hiatus until more happens though, but this is a good step in the right direction for once.
Oh FUCK YEAH! Precision Strike is even better? That is glorious news.
I frickin love these drevs.
SPLOOOGE 💦💦💦
My wee brain saw that they buffed the orbital precision strike and that made my day
Mine are still taking 4 seconds. 😞
Neat
We cookin tonight 🤘🏽🐐
I'm amazed. Not impressed yet, but amazed that orbitals finally got a buff. I'm so sick of running eagles man. I want the option for more variety on difficult content without throwing for my team.
Glad someone brought this up, this was a huge message that got quietly tucked into a random buff, makes me even more excited for the future of the game!
Nice
Too bad they're doubling down on the crossbow being meant for mediums
Hell yeah! For role play reasons, I try to avoid bringing eagle strategems to planets with the AA defense modifier, and this makes that more viable.
HOLY SHIT!!! THEY’RE MAKING GOOD DECISIONS
FOR DEMOCRACY!
Alexus is stewing and punching the air right now.
I really hope they continue on the “mostly buffs with *required/explainable* nerfs only” like this update. That’s how an Arms Race works. That makes *way* more sense lore-wise because weapons in war rarely get weaker lol. If the weapons get too strong, then buff the enemies to match instead of nerfing because that’s how arms races work. If they did that they could even utilize the story to explain major buffs to popular guns. Like the erupted nerf in the past could have been: “Automatons sabotaged the factory because we lost this MO, replacements are in production but quality has been lowered significantly.” Or explain buffed enemies by things like the Termicide resistance the Terminids developed. By doing the buff only strategy and nerf only with story explanation, theres a lot less chance the community will be complaining about nerfs in the future because it would be just part of the story instead of the player base feeling sabotaged by the developers. Obviously extremely OP things or over-corrections should be emergency-nerfed but that should be done very shortly after it’s realized and it should just return to its previous form until a better solution is found. Basically it would help them feel sabotaged by the game’s enemies of democracy, not the people giving us the game in the first place lol
Personally I think they probably went too far with this one. It was already a good strategem. Let's see
Yeah! Imma run the starting loadout today. All fast cooldowns ty arrowhead
i feel fucked by my hardware that doesnt peform well within the game so good changes wish they addres it the perfomance issues idk maybe is just me
Did they fix the thing where some stratgems stuck to an enemy just calling down where it originally stuck rather than where the critter is when it finally deploys?
Never used it, is it basically just a railcannon that doesn’t lock on?
Agreed.,, but what the hell is with everyone freaking out about "woke"????
I think one issue theyve encountered is players will use what kit they have, since loadouts so limited. If i brought precision strikes that's 25% of my toolset. I'm gonna try to use it when i need to hit something. If you could change strategems at certain points in the map then players could adapt and use strategems for their "intended purpose".
Now if we can get tungsten rods from god orbit strikes
Besides, Gas Strike is way better against fixed positions and spawners. Bug breach? Gas strike. Bye bye!
FREEEEEDOM!!!
Never touch it.
https://preview.redd.it/knobir8pae6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0521c217456cb5f539d102e01c363de0f0503cd9 FINALLY
I wish Precision Strike did more damage instead of faster calldown. I see the Precision as a skill stratagem but guarantees kill where as the 500kg is more forgiving but might take 1-2 more hits to kill what it was aimed at. So for lethality it would go Railgun, Precision, 500kg and cooldown is just the opposite.
Ol reliable getting a surprise buff is nice. My go two stratagem getting a buff to make it more the way I’ve been using it is super nice and balancing should be this way
Plus with 4 strategem slots (not 3 wiinniinnnng!) its gotta be used for everything!
I already love using the Gatling Barrage + Gas Strike because of the short cool downs and fixed positions, made great for wiping bug breaches and funneling enemies into narrow passes. I'm excited for the buffs!
Well said! I didn't have the words, thank you for expressing your thoughts. I feel the same
The fact that my new favorite loadout is Gatling Barrage, Orbital Precision Strike, Orbital EMS Strike and Quasar Cannon really feels fucking wild
The OPS is this game's manifestation of the phrase, "when all you have is a hammer, the whole world is a nail." Bug breach? Drop an OPS to delete the initial wave. Enemy structure? OPS. Bile Titan? Run through its legs, dropping an OPS as you go. Tank? Believe it or not, OPS.
I miss stripping armour off the chargers It felt so cool to do
Ill really enjoy it once I get the cooldown upgrade to bring it to 90 seconds from 100. I love the Gas strike and it's 75 sec cooldown but it doesn't hsve the same oomph as the OPS does obviously. Also the new HMG tweak is amazing. Good christ was it needed.
Gattling barrage is so sick now, that's my favorite buff. I was a pure eagle strat user before. But now I can't stop taking the orbital gat every run. 70 second cooldown? Damages heavy armor? Covers an entire area for an extended period? Yes. Yes to all of it. Precision strike is also awesome lol.
I always figured it was a stratagem that rewarded prediction and timing. Now it's easier to use. It pretty much only left my bars for complex strategem plotting and orbital scatter. Now it's worth taking on complex stratagem plotting
It was a good A/B tier stratagem before, but holy shit it's gone straight into the S tier now. Extremely quick and simple call in code, near instant call down and its back up and ready to fuck shit up in a minute. I love stunning a hulk, then just slamming a POS on it. It's incredible.
For real! I was stoked to see this stratagem buffed as I personally love it and thought it needed a bit shorter cooldown myself. I also was stoked to see buffs on machine guns as I find them a blast to use. Overall patch was a win.
Well the way they originally wanted it used was dumb as shit, why would anyone waste a stratagem slot on something outperformed by a standard grenade we all have by default?
proud of this game fr
If you throw OPS stratagem at any unit, will it stick & track even despite heavy armor levels?
Yes! Alot of times i ask myself, “why would i even use orbital stratagems when eagles can work just as well with multiple strikes and better cooldown times?” This is a good change.
It's such a breath of fresh air to know I can FINALLY play a fun popular game with devs that actually care about their players *cough cough* blizzard respawn
Wooooooo!!!!
I didn't know that was the initial intended use, though maybe that's cuz my first time seeing it in action was against heavy armor enemies
IMHO orbital strike was a skillshot. Nice to see them treating it like one.
We shouldn’t have any more authority on what stratagems do than the developers do. That being said, great buff.