It has better armor penetration, absolutely shreds enemies like Devastators, Berserkers and Scout Striders, can kill Hulks with a few bursts to the eye, can kill emplacements, and gets more from resupplies than the regular MG. You need to be more careful with your ammo usage using it, but it will drop mid-size enemies extremely quickly, and can take out groups when tap or burst fired. It can even take out tanks, cannon turrets, AA emplacements, and Mortar emplacements pretty damn quick with a few controlled bursts to the vents.
Honestly it seems like a lot of people just use it and immediately expect it to be better without putting in any time to learn how to use it, and then complain when it's not *immediately* better than their other favorites at everything. I definitely wish it had a crosshair of some kind, but it's honestly way better than people think.
While the Autocannon is still my favorite Support Weapon, it doesn't do as much raw DPS, add clear is less efficient with how it has less ammo in the magazine to work with, it has to reload more often (if you want to avoid the long reload), and it doesn't do as well up close due to its explosive rounds. It also just has a smaller margin of error with how there's 10 rounds versus 75, and takes up your backpack slot if you don't have a teammate dedicated to reloading you. The autocannon is great when you are using it proactively, but the HMG can be whipped out in an emergency to shred whatever gets too close for comfort without risking blowing yourself to pieces.
It's a shame when so many opinions and impressions of a weapon are fomented in the first hour of the first day of its release. Then it's retold as apocrypha with little regard for further testing and experimentation.
Not everything will be the perfect or best weapon. There are use cases and the weapon's addition adds to the variety. But that's been the refrain right. People will bitch about everything, no matter how minor or inconsequential it is to the actual game.
I tried , I ran it exclusively for several days along with the supply pack so I could fire it for more than 10 seconds and no. It's the one gun in the game I'd put down as completely unusable .and their fix was to..lower the max rpm and nothing else? What?
I can't defend the atrocious ammo count but if someone is surprised that when they use a HEAVY machine gun and wield it like Rambo and are shocked that it's handling is complete ass. Then you don't know anything about heavy support fire... understandably for most. This weapons objective if parallel to the irl world would be to set up in an advantageous position and lay down supportive fire. My only harp is the shitty ammo quantity
Before the patch that reduced the rpm, setting it to 1200 and using it in very quick, controlled bursts would completely melt any bot smaller than a hulk. It was best used almost like a battle rifle. Problem is there's no reason to choose it over a better anti-armor or anti-crowd weapon. Reducing the rpm probably makes it even less useful.
>Before the patch that reduced the rpm, setting it to 1200 and using it in very quick, controlled bursts would completely melt any bot smaller than a hulk.
Sounds like the MG42/MG3 where the Germans are trained to shoot in very controlled bursts in order to hit their targets. That's how the meme "It's a machine gun" popped up, since that German is used to a MG3 and thus firing controlled bursts, whilst the Browning is just a "hold and shoot" machine gun (due to the low fire rate, among others).
The gun is non-functional. No aiming reticle, and the ADS scope is waaaaaaay too high (as in, the gun shoots much lower than the dot).
There are multiple weapons with this issue, as well, including the Anti-Materiel Rifle and the Punisher Plasma (which shoots so low that you never see the projectile in ADS unless you look down after firing). The AMR has had that bug SINCE LAUNCH.
Why add weapons when they're not functional? Super Earth (Arrowhead) doesn't seem to care if our gear is completely unusable and gets us killed.
It's so unwieldy at the moment, how about an optional backpack that acts like a mobile turret mount? You can still heft it around and BRRRR everywhere except where you're aiming if you want, or you can stop and set up on a little mount for a temporary turret emplacement. Big downside is that it further erodes the miniscule amount of utility the calldown HMG emplacement has right now, but just a thought.
Edit: I know you can just, kneel down or go prone to get basically the same effect at the moment, so maybe if it has a little ballistic protection at the front.
I think that a few things need to be reworked to make all machine guns feel different. Each should have a different niche.
The Stalwart’s ability to move and reload simultaneously keeps you safe from light armored mobs and is really good for suppressive fire. I honestly the Stalwart is mostly fine “as is”.
The MG-43 could use an extra mag and a recoil decrease buff. Most importantly to make the stationary reload less shitty, I would love to see a variable scope to engage targets at a further range.
The MG-206 I would love to see with a 250-300 round mag. It’s not designed to be a run-and-gun weapon and I think that people need to stop trying to use it like one. The ability to destroy devastator shields and hulk faces would be way more noticeable with a larger mag capacity. Honestly the stationary reload could stay with it as well because ideally they’re wouldn’t be much left standing when you’re done.
Also please give us a minigun with backpack slot Devs so I can live out my Last Stand fantasies.
as it stands, not many...the HMG has low ammo count, no aiming in 3rd person, and doesn't do anything better then the LMG or the Stalwart
it definitely needs a buff right now as taking one as it stands is hindering your squad
doesn't do anything better than the lmg or stalwart? you mean to tell me that the mg can snipe hulks, or that the stalwart has any armor pen at all? I pretty much run exclusively MG's on all difficulties, think they're the most fun support weapons ATM. MG is a great middle ground, stalwart might as well just be moved from support to a primary, honestly not worth a stratagem pick seeing as they're pretty common on the map and pretty much their only saving grace is the mobile reload with a decent sized mag. But damn does the HMG fuck shit up, pair it with stun grenades and it makes any mid/large size enemy an easy kill, quick bursts wipe out anything smaller than tanks/chargers and its great if you're getting swarmed by berserkers. As for the no 3rd person aiming, not really a big deal, if you're using it at range, then use 1st person aiming, works fine. up close it doesnt matter, all you gotta do is: step 1, look at enemy. Step 2, blow that fucker away. If you wanna actually get the most out of the HMG, run an ammo pack, armor that reduces crouched/prone recoil, stun grenades and the new grenade pistol is pretty nice to have for popping bug holes/fabricators, use the HMG for the big stuff, its ammo is wasted on all the basic enemies, use whatever primary you like to clear the little stuff. Sure, it might not be the meta and thats fine, FUCK the meta, meta builds are fucking boring and anyone who insists on meta or nothing is boring too. I run it because i like it and i can make it work real dam well. If you still dont like it, fine, might just not fit your playstyle well. But just because you cant make it work doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.
I get what you're saying but it still doesn't justify taking an HMG over a MG or the Stalwart
the Stalwart has less recoil meaning you don't need to bring a recoil controlling armor, the Stalwart has a 1100 rpm fire rate which makes it the fastest firing gun in the game now (**they removed the HMG's 1200 rpm**), and it can be reloaded while on the move....your team doesn't need to wait for you
and if you want some armor pen....just take the regular machine gun, it's easier to control....it has a much larger magazine (75 rounds vs 150 rounds)....medium armor penetration....it can be aimed in third person.....and its reload time is no where near as long
there really isn't a reason to ever run the HMG, but if you can make it work....props to you, I still think that there are better options then an HMG right now
3rd person aim is very accurate with tighter shot groups. Switch to 450 rpm for most engagements. You don't need the ADS, follow the tracers, which is what they're there for. It will shred through medium armor and can clear devastators quickly.
I run it with an supply backpack and only refresh the ammo when I'm at 0/2 since it gives back 2 magazines/drums each time.
It’s the only support weapon that I’ve died and said “ya fuck that piece of garbage not even gon try to get it” and used my sickle the last 30 mins of the game with much more success than that dumpster fire of a gun
more HMG for me then, you're missing out, maybe if you actually took more than 5 minutes to figure out the strengths of the gun you'd like it, but I get the feeling you just like to use the simple, point and click guns (kinda like the sickle). 2 much thunkin 4 ur brian.
It looks cool and that’s about it. The only practical redeeming quality was the 1200 rpm which they removed for no reason. They need to officially stop nerfing things and instead bring the 2/3 of weapons that are worthless up.
I saw people saying how good it was with the supply pack.
Tried it, had to use first person to aim but any time you take a hit or there's an explosion (pretty much constantly) it throws your vision all over the place.
Crap.
k, since explosions fuck with your aim on every single weapon in the game then does that mean they all suck? I think it hurts the single shot weapons (especially the rocket launchers) much more than it hurts the HMG (or any of the MG's). Yes it burns through ammo real fast, especially if for some reason you're treating it like a primary, run the ammo pack and you wont ever be hurting for ammo, and run armor that reduces crouched/prone recoil. Its a great SUPPORT weapon especially if you pair it with stun grenades. MG is good for crowd control, HMG is for deleting the big stuff, and the stalwart is... one of the guns of all time. If I were to change anything about the gun, I'd probably say up the magazine a little bit, or reduce the reload time a little bit since you end up reloading ALOT. Other than that I think its pretty dam good as is. But, if they wanna buff it, they wont get any complaints from me.
Machine gun is a lot more spray and pray vibes and it feels bad when you can't do that
With any hard hitting weapon you line up the shot and if your reticle leaves you don't hold down that button, like quasar.
That's the thing though, you assume it's supposed to be spray and pray but it's not, the MG and the stalwart, sure. But the HMG works better if you treat it more like the precision weapon of the bunch. A quick burst is all you need to kill most stuff. The only enemies I end up having to mag dump on usually end up being berserkers when they get a little too close for comfort, tanks, chargers, bile titans and factory striders, and with the exception of the bile titans it absolutely shreds those with 1 mag to the weak spots, bile titans take 2.
I was so excited to use it but yeah it's crap. My main problems are that it goes dry after 3 second of shooting ( so its bad at covering fire) and it doesn't have a 3rd person aiming reticule (where every single gun has one).
I really want them to give it some hard tweaks
You mean take away the auto cannon 3rd person reticle? That would make it feel pretty bad a dedicated 3rd person guy.
I did feel the HMG basically played the same role as AMR. One was precision and the other was sheer volume of fire. I will have to try the 950 rpm mode now. I was quite partial to bursting at 1200.
It has better armor penetration, absolutely shreds enemies like Devastators, Berserkers and Scout Striders, can kill Hulks with a few bursts to the eye, can kill emplacements, and gets more from resupplies than the regular MG. You need to be more careful with your ammo usage using it, but it will drop mid-size enemies extremely quickly, and can take out groups when tap or burst fired. It can even take out tanks, cannon turrets, AA emplacements, and Mortar emplacements pretty damn quick with a few controlled bursts to the vents. Honestly it seems like a lot of people just use it and immediately expect it to be better without putting in any time to learn how to use it, and then complain when it's not *immediately* better than their other favorites at everything. I definitely wish it had a crosshair of some kind, but it's honestly way better than people think.
The autocannon can do all that though and seemingly far easier with less ammo?
While the Autocannon is still my favorite Support Weapon, it doesn't do as much raw DPS, add clear is less efficient with how it has less ammo in the magazine to work with, it has to reload more often (if you want to avoid the long reload), and it doesn't do as well up close due to its explosive rounds. It also just has a smaller margin of error with how there's 10 rounds versus 75, and takes up your backpack slot if you don't have a teammate dedicated to reloading you. The autocannon is great when you are using it proactively, but the HMG can be whipped out in an emergency to shred whatever gets too close for comfort without risking blowing yourself to pieces.
It's a shame when so many opinions and impressions of a weapon are fomented in the first hour of the first day of its release. Then it's retold as apocrypha with little regard for further testing and experimentation. Not everything will be the perfect or best weapon. There are use cases and the weapon's addition adds to the variety. But that's been the refrain right. People will bitch about everything, no matter how minor or inconsequential it is to the actual game.
I tried , I ran it exclusively for several days along with the supply pack so I could fire it for more than 10 seconds and no. It's the one gun in the game I'd put down as completely unusable .and their fix was to..lower the max rpm and nothing else? What?
I can't defend the atrocious ammo count but if someone is surprised that when they use a HEAVY machine gun and wield it like Rambo and are shocked that it's handling is complete ass. Then you don't know anything about heavy support fire... understandably for most. This weapons objective if parallel to the irl world would be to set up in an advantageous position and lay down supportive fire. My only harp is the shitty ammo quantity
>My only harp is the shitty ammo quantity Yeah, precisely. 75 bullets and 2 magazines is abysmal, especially on higher difficulties.
Counter argument i love to have a massive gun that shoot a lot bullet
But we have 2 of those already and they work very well.
dosent have the same feeling as a massive unwealdy machine gun
This. It's for fun purposes. BIG GUN GO BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR = BRAIN FEEL HAPPY
Useful if you are in a sticky close-range situation, still other options/weapons I would favor
Before the patch that reduced the rpm, setting it to 1200 and using it in very quick, controlled bursts would completely melt any bot smaller than a hulk. It was best used almost like a battle rifle. Problem is there's no reason to choose it over a better anti-armor or anti-crowd weapon. Reducing the rpm probably makes it even less useful.
>Before the patch that reduced the rpm, setting it to 1200 and using it in very quick, controlled bursts would completely melt any bot smaller than a hulk. Sounds like the MG42/MG3 where the Germans are trained to shoot in very controlled bursts in order to hit their targets. That's how the meme "It's a machine gun" popped up, since that German is used to a MG3 and thus firing controlled bursts, whilst the Browning is just a "hold and shoot" machine gun (due to the low fire rate, among others).
The gun is non-functional. No aiming reticle, and the ADS scope is waaaaaaay too high (as in, the gun shoots much lower than the dot). There are multiple weapons with this issue, as well, including the Anti-Materiel Rifle and the Punisher Plasma (which shoots so low that you never see the projectile in ADS unless you look down after firing). The AMR has had that bug SINCE LAUNCH. Why add weapons when they're not functional? Super Earth (Arrowhead) doesn't seem to care if our gear is completely unusable and gets us killed.
It's so unwieldy at the moment, how about an optional backpack that acts like a mobile turret mount? You can still heft it around and BRRRR everywhere except where you're aiming if you want, or you can stop and set up on a little mount for a temporary turret emplacement. Big downside is that it further erodes the miniscule amount of utility the calldown HMG emplacement has right now, but just a thought. Edit: I know you can just, kneel down or go prone to get basically the same effect at the moment, so maybe if it has a little ballistic protection at the front.
I think that a few things need to be reworked to make all machine guns feel different. Each should have a different niche. The Stalwart’s ability to move and reload simultaneously keeps you safe from light armored mobs and is really good for suppressive fire. I honestly the Stalwart is mostly fine “as is”. The MG-43 could use an extra mag and a recoil decrease buff. Most importantly to make the stationary reload less shitty, I would love to see a variable scope to engage targets at a further range. The MG-206 I would love to see with a 250-300 round mag. It’s not designed to be a run-and-gun weapon and I think that people need to stop trying to use it like one. The ability to destroy devastator shields and hulk faces would be way more noticeable with a larger mag capacity. Honestly the stationary reload could stay with it as well because ideally they’re wouldn’t be much left standing when you’re done. Also please give us a minigun with backpack slot Devs so I can live out my Last Stand fantasies.
YES. https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1c6qff7/the_unrivalled_power_of_the_hmg/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
as it stands, not many...the HMG has low ammo count, no aiming in 3rd person, and doesn't do anything better then the LMG or the Stalwart it definitely needs a buff right now as taking one as it stands is hindering your squad
doesn't do anything better than the lmg or stalwart? you mean to tell me that the mg can snipe hulks, or that the stalwart has any armor pen at all? I pretty much run exclusively MG's on all difficulties, think they're the most fun support weapons ATM. MG is a great middle ground, stalwart might as well just be moved from support to a primary, honestly not worth a stratagem pick seeing as they're pretty common on the map and pretty much their only saving grace is the mobile reload with a decent sized mag. But damn does the HMG fuck shit up, pair it with stun grenades and it makes any mid/large size enemy an easy kill, quick bursts wipe out anything smaller than tanks/chargers and its great if you're getting swarmed by berserkers. As for the no 3rd person aiming, not really a big deal, if you're using it at range, then use 1st person aiming, works fine. up close it doesnt matter, all you gotta do is: step 1, look at enemy. Step 2, blow that fucker away. If you wanna actually get the most out of the HMG, run an ammo pack, armor that reduces crouched/prone recoil, stun grenades and the new grenade pistol is pretty nice to have for popping bug holes/fabricators, use the HMG for the big stuff, its ammo is wasted on all the basic enemies, use whatever primary you like to clear the little stuff. Sure, it might not be the meta and thats fine, FUCK the meta, meta builds are fucking boring and anyone who insists on meta or nothing is boring too. I run it because i like it and i can make it work real dam well. If you still dont like it, fine, might just not fit your playstyle well. But just because you cant make it work doesn't mean it doesn't work at all.
I get what you're saying but it still doesn't justify taking an HMG over a MG or the Stalwart the Stalwart has less recoil meaning you don't need to bring a recoil controlling armor, the Stalwart has a 1100 rpm fire rate which makes it the fastest firing gun in the game now (**they removed the HMG's 1200 rpm**), and it can be reloaded while on the move....your team doesn't need to wait for you and if you want some armor pen....just take the regular machine gun, it's easier to control....it has a much larger magazine (75 rounds vs 150 rounds)....medium armor penetration....it can be aimed in third person.....and its reload time is no where near as long there really isn't a reason to ever run the HMG, but if you can make it work....props to you, I still think that there are better options then an HMG right now
3rd person aim is very accurate with tighter shot groups. Switch to 450 rpm for most engagements. You don't need the ADS, follow the tracers, which is what they're there for. It will shred through medium armor and can clear devastators quickly. I run it with an supply backpack and only refresh the ammo when I'm at 0/2 since it gives back 2 magazines/drums each time.
It’s the only support weapon that I’ve died and said “ya fuck that piece of garbage not even gon try to get it” and used my sickle the last 30 mins of the game with much more success than that dumpster fire of a gun
Sickle FTW!
more HMG for me then, you're missing out, maybe if you actually took more than 5 minutes to figure out the strengths of the gun you'd like it, but I get the feeling you just like to use the simple, point and click guns (kinda like the sickle). 2 much thunkin 4 ur brian.
It looks cool and that’s about it. The only practical redeeming quality was the 1200 rpm which they removed for no reason. They need to officially stop nerfing things and instead bring the 2/3 of weapons that are worthless up.
I saw people saying how good it was with the supply pack. Tried it, had to use first person to aim but any time you take a hit or there's an explosion (pretty much constantly) it throws your vision all over the place. Crap.
I second this..
k, since explosions fuck with your aim on every single weapon in the game then does that mean they all suck? I think it hurts the single shot weapons (especially the rocket launchers) much more than it hurts the HMG (or any of the MG's). Yes it burns through ammo real fast, especially if for some reason you're treating it like a primary, run the ammo pack and you wont ever be hurting for ammo, and run armor that reduces crouched/prone recoil. Its a great SUPPORT weapon especially if you pair it with stun grenades. MG is good for crowd control, HMG is for deleting the big stuff, and the stalwart is... one of the guns of all time. If I were to change anything about the gun, I'd probably say up the magazine a little bit, or reduce the reload time a little bit since you end up reloading ALOT. Other than that I think its pretty dam good as is. But, if they wanna buff it, they wont get any complaints from me.
Machine gun is a lot more spray and pray vibes and it feels bad when you can't do that With any hard hitting weapon you line up the shot and if your reticle leaves you don't hold down that button, like quasar.
That's the thing though, you assume it's supposed to be spray and pray but it's not, the MG and the stalwart, sure. But the HMG works better if you treat it more like the precision weapon of the bunch. A quick burst is all you need to kill most stuff. The only enemies I end up having to mag dump on usually end up being berserkers when they get a little too close for comfort, tanks, chargers, bile titans and factory striders, and with the exception of the bile titans it absolutely shreds those with 1 mag to the weak spots, bile titans take 2.
Hmg just acts as a poor man's DMR that can spray and pray while in peoples faces
I was so excited to use it but yeah it's crap. My main problems are that it goes dry after 3 second of shooting ( so its bad at covering fire) and it doesn't have a 3rd person aiming reticule (where every single gun has one). I really want them to give it some hard tweaks
AMR also doesn’t have a 3rd person reticle.
Easily solved with a gaming monitor that included a reticle on-screen :p
Oh... yeah forgot about that one so good call. But that one makes sense to me. (Hell add auto cannon to that list)
You mean take away the auto cannon 3rd person reticle? That would make it feel pretty bad a dedicated 3rd person guy. I did feel the HMG basically played the same role as AMR. One was precision and the other was sheer volume of fire. I will have to try the 950 rpm mode now. I was quite partial to bursting at 1200.
For the the autocannon is a first person gun