Yeah at first I was stubborn and wouldn’t take it, because instinctually I’m a bit of a rebel when it comes to games and I purposely avoid things that are “meta” but sooner or later I just realized that I wasn’t impressing anybody, it wasn’t competitive so it was actually best to take what worked best, so I take iron will on everybody and my second perk depends on the class.
Fun fact: after 800 hours of gameplay, I learned the hard way that you can actually be grabbed by cave leeches while you're in iron will. If you end up needing to IW under the leech that downed you, always be sure to shoot it quickly.
Wait wtf, how have I never been in a situation to discover this, even after playing 1480 hours? I'm not saying that doesn't happen, just that for some reason I have never been near a leech while using IW. Well you learn something new every day.
Then I won the fucking lottery a couple weeks ago. I was downed by a leech, and then two others got grabbed by the same leech when they came for the revives. Our fourth went down a ways away so I Iron Willed, looked for the leech but couldn't see it and was in a panic (still pretty new), so I just said "fuck it" grabbed a res, and THEN threw my gunner shield down. IDK how I wasn't grabbed by that leech because it was still there, my teammate killed it before getting mine and the other teammate's res.
I had no idea It's a Bug Thing continued to be active while you were downed and will continue to pop lootbugs that come to feast on the loot near you from previously popped lootbugs. This changes everything. Thank you miner! Also, thanks for spreading the word on better use of Iron Will. Had a mission yesterday where someone went down to a slasher and instapopped it despite there being teammates nearby. Thankfully we didn't need it later on that mission.
I feel like there is a portion of the population that takes Iron Will as an attempt to save face when they inevitably go down. I've seen scouts drop it after an embarrassing fall because they didn't want to have to sit through the process of being rezzed.
Some people say Iron Will is "preparing for failure", i.e. if you don't go down/don't get into a situation where nobody can revive you, it was a waste. I prefer to think of it as "optimising for fun". Because those moments where your team was going to lose but you saved it with Iron Will are awesome moments.
@@DrillingInTheNameOf Only vaguely related, but in terms of perks that I find interesting that sadly fall short. See You in Hell would be amazing if it were only a passive perk. Giving up one of the limited active perk slots for it sucks, but the passive benefit of retaliation damage boosts for your pickaxe make it a lot of fun on lower hazard levels. It also breeds terrible habits though. I still catch myself trading hits with swarms when I'm surrounded because I made heavy use of that perk when I first started playing. On Haz 4 and up you really can't out-dps the swarm with melee, and even Haz 3 you'll be losing more health than you're gaining through vampire. EDIT: If SYIH and Berserker were combined into one perk, it'd be pretty amazing as a panic button for when you get swarmed. High damage retaliatory power attack spam. Give it some damage resistance as well if we're talking entirely fantasy here.
I have a lot of fun with Dash+Field Medic, but when I go down, man oh man, do I wish I had Iron Will. Even in place of Dash, honestly, but it's a tough call.
While you're down and have iron will, look around with your third person camera for nearby enemies and red sugar and have a plan for what you will do if you have to use iron will. Having a plan for what to do before you revive makes a huge difference.
Dude, seriously, this is the most helpful tip I’ve seen for IW! Was just about to comment something similar. If you don’t have a plan, IW can actually be useless, instead of being the most useful perk. Have a plan, miners!
@@brayerkh One time I went down and there were no bugs around and using the third person camera I spotted red sugar way off in the distance across a huge room. It was far enough that I had serious doubts of being able to make it before IW wore off. But then the last teammate went down and the choice was taken from me. If I hadn't been planning the route the whole time I probably wouldn't have made it.
@@trucid2 Perfect example. I’ll give you an example of not planning: Once upon a time, in the green beard days, I didn’t have a plan, used IW, then tried to revive a teammate with an oppressor on his body, then I was attacked by his stomp mid revive, interrupting the revive, and flinging me into a pit in the process, resulting in us losing the mission.
Yep, never Iron will prematurely, first check if your teammates can salvage the situation, if they can then don’t use iron will. Then check for resupply/red sugar(or if you have vampire find a bug to bash for the hp) to make it a permanent revive. Its especially good as a perk on gunner since if you’re the last one alive thanks to iron will then you can use your shield to get another teammate up.
I’m not done the video yet, but I’m pretty sure I can see where this is going and would like to offer some insight into iron will usage. Using iron will only when the entire team has gone down is NOT always the best way to use it. Picture this: You’re a downed gunner, and your engineer goes down near you. Your final teammate is a scout who’s greatly struggling to find the time to revive either of you and doesn’t have field medic or anything. It’s much better for you to iron will to save the engineer and hopefully yourself, and put a shield where it’s needed. If you wait and gamble on the scout being able to revive you, bugs will stack up further, and the scout’s ammo will be drained much more. Additionally the mission timer going up can have a negative effect like on point extraction where the enemy quantity exponentially scales with time, or during an uplink where your progress will be drained as the scout tries to find a window to revive. Tl:dr don’t always wait until everyone is down to use iron will. It can save the team from a mission fail if you can keep more of your team up during a critical situation so the mission does not become unmanageable. Edit: Also, enemies that can knock you back are worth mentioning here. Your iron will revive/resupply can be completely ruined if the wrong enemy is present. (Oppressor, grabber, shellback, lacerator, hiveguard, et cetera). In these cases using a gunner shield while in iron will can be a good idea.
Knowing when to make that call definitely requires experience, but sometimes it is 100% worth it to save the mission. Point extractions especially. It's hard to make calls like this in team games where you have to make an honest assessment of your team mate's ability. Like, yeah, in a perfect world the scout COULD clutch this but you have to be realistic. the point you raised in your edit is also really crucial. Iron will makes you invulnerable to damage, but it's not guaranteed to bail you out of a failed mission. I've seen a LOT of mission fails because the last person used their iron will and thought "well who cares about that oppressor, i have iron will"...
Ive seen that happen a lot on P.E Scout keeps running around and the horde just keeps getting bigger and bigger and if he is lucky enough to rez someone 2x swarms have been declared. its def a choice you will learn with experience.
yea had this happen to me once except I was the scout. It was during one of those missions where you have to break a forcefield to get a data core (I can't remember what it's called). It was while were were fighting the big robotic thing, and everyone but me got downed. Haz 5 too. So, I was running around trying to find the right time to revive someone since I didn't have field medic, but it's just way too difficult when you have so many enemies going after you. I knew the moment I stopped moving, I would get downed as well, so someone ended up popping their iron will to get others up.
I definitely agree that there are times it would be beneficial to go early, but there's not really a clear, definitive way to say when, so I left that debate for the comments.
@@DrillingInTheNameOf My personal rule for when to use iron will before everyone else is down is to say "If there is only one dwarf left standing, and they say to use iron will, USE IRON WILL. I say this very often, but people often respond "but what if you clutch it?", or "believe in yourself", etc. If I have said to use iron will, that means that I do not think I am capable of reviving someone or surviving the wave. Of course there are other situations where an iron will might be good, but I find that this rule when used well increases the chance of surviving these tense 'last dwarf standing' situations, and increases the number of situations in which iron will is needed where it is actually used.
I totally feel you on your peeves with Iron Will and Field Medic. My two friends do those things, brings me no end of frustration because of how often their impatience causes mission failures.
taking shield link is also an option to take when carrying IW. i often pair these together, to give the revived player a shield boost afterwards, in the hopes that the player can get some extra time to work with.
I do this for elimination, since you can go down a lot of times, making one iron will use less impactful. When facing a dreadnought, I'd rather help people stay on their feet than prolong the struggling revive chain. The other is dash, because at least one of those 20 times I used it probably saved me from being downed.
On haz5 and especially beyond I think Dash is better than IW, because when used well it can save your life more than once a mission. Scout has enough mobility without it but I would strongly suggest taking it on all other classes. Additionally as someone else also mentioned, it can be better to use IW early, when it makes a big difference in pacing. Point Extraction is a good example of this but also Escort Duty, when you can save yourself with vampire and also a plate can be really worth it. Another situation could be if you are really low on Nitra and resupplies and a swarm is about to come, using IW to get someone else and enough get a Nitra vein before the swarm can change a lot.
Was going to say it of no one else had already, I'd pick Dash over IW any day. It speeds up missions which saves you from dealing with more swarms over time, and is a crazy good repositioning tool if you find yourself getting cornered. It can save your life several times during one mission, as opposed to IW working only once.
Back in the day, you could call 2 resups at the same time, and hurt a mission because--just two folks called at basically the same time, and the devs were like--that feels bad lets not do that IW should be the same way imo. Just have a minimal, really small period of time where you can't pop DIRECTLY after another player.
nah, there are situations where it's preferable to have multiple IWs. Escort missions. If everyone is down, a swarm is on doretta and she is about to break, you need someone to reduce the amount of bugs and another one to repair her at the same time. Ressurecting another dwarf might take too much time, and while field medic would be a solution, i rarely see anyone running both IW and field medic.
@@Gnulcho There are situations where two supply drops are needed too! I'm not even saying a full second of delay before another can be used. Just the smallest bit to prevent accidentally 2 people getting up at the exact same time. In THAT case, where dotty needs to be repaired and bugs to be repelled, first person up should just rush to dotty to heal her, 0.5-1 seconds after person A gets up, B can get up can sweep up some of the swarm. That being said, the time delay could totally turn that situation you outlined into a loss, but does that happen a lot? I mean, to be fair the 2 people getting up at the same time doesn't happen all that much either, but loosing that way is SUCH a feels bad moment. Honestly if you're 1 seconds away from loosing an escort mission because everyone is down, I think that mission is already kinda going down the drain you know?
Don't forget the worst case scenario (everyone down feet from the pod) can be avoided by sprinting strait into the pod after popping IW. This is the only case where you shouldn't be reviving teammates. Sometimes the det spawns on the drop pod, we've all been there.
fun iron will fact: if you just so happen to disconnect and rejoin, it resets iron will, despite not resetting anything else like position, health, and ammo. I discovered this playing with a friend from another continent. oh and yes, if you force close the game, this works in deep dives
I have several hundred hours in DRG and all classes close to gold promotion and I have never once thought of using a system like the "not it" system you mentioned, I'll be putting that in my server names from now on
Also, keep in mind that you can do A LOT of damage during IW to objectives like dreadnaughts and the caretaker. If you are under the caretakers open eye, and you have IW, pop it and just hold the trigger, absolute profit.
I actually ran into a guy who was TOO patient with his iron will. End of the mission, only scout left alive, swarm everywhere, I tell him to just get out...... He makes it. The pod doesn't leave. My brain explodes, the gunner has iron will. We have been laying on the ground for like a solid minute. We ask why he hasn't used it and he says "I'm saving it for an emergency"......... As if the past minute hasn't been full panic mode. We finally shout him into using it so we can maybe get out with more than one person. He does and revives both me and the driller and we leave him for dead we're so steamed.
Gunners am I right? They want to have big boy guns and still try and do stuff the other classes are meant to be doing. Gunners off in weird far off corridors because they want to scout for Nitra instead of providing overwatch. Gunners mining through dirt to get to the next tunnel instead of waiting on the driller and... providing overwatch. Gunners shooting ziplines everywhere and getting mad when we don't use them to go up instead of using them to get down...something something relating to providing overwatch. It's kinda the autistic side of me. Each class has a job, and if you're doing * your job * correctly, you'll make everybody else's job easier. Killing bugs is the last thing on the list of job functions. I could go on at length but I'll shut up because nobody cares. Do your job miners, and Rock and Stone.
@@themarlboromandalorian Gunner reaching the next blocked tunnel before driller is failure on driller's part, not gunner's. I often find myself in a situation that there's no enemies, nothing to mine nearby... but that tunnel is right there and driller is nowhere to be seen. So of course I mine my way through and get the mission rolling again.
using a mod like "better spectator" massively improves your ability to survey the area while when you're downed you can spectate other players, watch their back, check where molly is, it's super useful
Really the only thing don't like about iron will and dash......you feel like you always have to use them. I run iron will and dash on almost all builds, all the time, because I feel like they are by far the best. But this means you can't use any other active perks, which is a bit of a bummer. Its kind of annoying to have "must have" perks around.
try to replace iron will with See you In Hell. Its also a death perk (ableit one better used early instead of later, you want people around to be able to revive you and if possible to nuke a whole bunch of bugs in the process/force bigger ones to turn away) and on top beefs up your melee every time you get hit in melee so also pairs real well with vampire, and gives you a benefit no matter at which point of the mission you are since you keep that passive side even if you didnt die once or if all uses are expanded. And 2 hits meleeing lone grunts is a great way to recover a bit of health here and there (though dont try that on shieldless mission, you will lose health if your shield isnt there to soak a hit)
I agree they’re the best but I find I’m completely fine without them. They’re by no means “Must have” perks and you can still easily get your money’s worth from running other active perks. Maybe they’re less consistent but nothing in this game is a must have, pretty much anything can work on haz 5.
@@stripey3860 I mean, yeah. It's mostly just what you're comfortable with, the way I see it. Yes, some are better than others, but some people get way more use out of "lesser" perks than, say, IW.
I always recommend thorns and heightened senses. You're going to get bit. Bite back. Beard sense and punishing any of the grabby boys is extremely useful, and I know I could replace the slot with something else by just paying attention to audio cues but this perk always gets used every mission. It's paid for itself. And I'm the cryo vamp he mentioned so I don't need to sprint.
There are a ton of situations where you should use Iron Will before the very last person goes down, often on large objectives like on Sabotage or Salvage. 4 players worth of bugs can be too tough for one dwarf alone!
Gaming Existence made a video about the differences between the LOK-1 and Stubby and made a good point about threat overwhelm. If you don't take out threats as they appear, they will build up and become even more of a problem since it splits your attention. I think this same situation applies to Iron Will, if you let the swarm build up because your teammates can't revive you, it will be a lot harder to save a mission when there are already 50 grunts, 2 menaces, 5 acid spitters and 3 praetorians alive.
I also like to take resupplier with iron will. In the even you only have resupplies for health having 75% max health and a half load of ammo is basically the best case scenario for when you have to save the mission.
Iron Will on Vampire driller is absolutely insane btw If you somehow go down you pick yourself up, freeze everything around you, then mulch it with your drills to go back to half hp or so when iron will runs out you'll still be standing.
Your video inadvertently gave me the idea of trying to give Scout the health replenishing longevity Driller has with Barbed Drills + Vampire with the Cryo Cannon, and I actually was able to make a build that captures that to an extent (at least as far as Scout is concerned). It also came from your segment on Berzerker, so it occurred to me to use all this together: Boltshark (2,2,1,1,1) with Cryo Bolts Vampire + Berserker Pheromone Canisters (or Cryo Grenades, but I used Pheromones and they hella pulled weight). (I paired it with AI Stability Engine GK2 [2,1,2,1,2] and found it to be incredibly reliable on dispatching targets of all types, especially when utilizing the Special Bolt Chemical Explosion and Potent Special Bolts mods on larger enemies to in turn cause smaller enemies to take area damage when near larger enemies upon their deaths [or attracted to said larger enemies when pheromones are in use] for when Berzerker is on cooldown). I play on Haz4 pretty much exclusively and that’s where I tested this build on, and I’ve never gone down as of yet, having ran through multiple Salvage Operations, Egg Hunts, etc. Therefore, thank you for inadvertently helping me find a different build to use on Scout; I’ve used Special Powder for a long, long time, and I’d hate for my builds to get stale. Rock & Stone! ⛏️
While I'd personally argue that Dash edges things out in the power department (for all classes except Scout) by virtue of having high uptime and preventing players from dying altogether, keeping cognizant of the fact that Iron Will is even in the conversation for #1 when a perk like Dash exists does enough in my mind to illustrate its strength. Outstanding video, as always! Many thanks for your continued contributions toward furthering game literacy within the DRG community.
Also, I only mean to say that Dash sits atop the heap *in most cases*. Perk strength can be wholly recontextualized when considering different combinations of build, team composition, and mission type. The dynamism introduced by DRG's protean gameplay circumstances is a central contributing factor to what makes DRG so engaging!
I like that the immunity to damage means you can throw a driller pack at your feet and detonate it immediately to clear the area, with enough time over to get red sugar or a resupply
Iron will can singlehandedly turn around a losing mission, and because IW works so well with other abilities, most notably for me is Dash and Field medic, because dash is just a good movement ability for classes other than scout because they inherently have less movement, and Field medic is great for saving an ENTIRE TEAM at once, a single IW from a skilled player can revive 2-3 people before going down again. Edit: I posted this before I watched the video and I realized that we thought the exact same thing. I would like to add however that resupplier is a good option if you run IW because it lowers the amount of time it takes to resupply, therefore lowering the time it takes to get health while in IW and can even give you more time in IW
One thing to note is the ability to change to other people's perspectives which can help see whos not busy and close by to help. Helps nailing down the time when your iron will comes in handy.
I think this is great advice for any vanilla missions. In high haz salvage/escort missions or modded gamemodes like 6x2 or 7x2, there are some caveats. Being down for any amount of time during a swarm or event can end up spiraling your team to a defeat that could have been otherwise remedied had you used iron will to get yourself back up and running. This is especially the case if you're on anyone aside from scout since the impact that you provide for the team is so important.
dont forget resupply pasive is also cuts down the time for pressing down button when resupply, in addition if you have "breating room" armor upgrades, you can extend your invulnerability on IW so you can revive 2 of your teammate plus resupply/red sugar.
What I took away from this is that I was using IW correctly And that all my perks are built around saving the situation if things go terribly wrong I will be our safety net, brothers
I think it is worth noting there are times going back up before the last player goes down can be beneficial (only if 3/4 are downed obviously). Particularily when it's apparent that it isn't a matter of if the last guy goes down but when, which is obviously a judgement call (really best made by talking with the last guy standing). This *can* still go wrong, but rarely does in my experience. It makes "clutching" a lot easier for the last dwarf, especially if you are mid-swarm with cave spawns and the last dwarf doesn't have good swarm clear in their build. It also gets the team rolling again faster because only 2 players need revives. And even if you decide not to stand up early it helps clear the air on who should get up first if they do hit the floor long before you have a timer on your screen for 10 seconds. [Oh also good video on the importance and uses of IW, thanks for making some of the best drg informational videos out there. Rock and stone forever!]
IW is really great, but I do think there are diminishing returns from everyone running it. Sometimes, our EDD group runs 3 iron wills, and one Shield Link, hoping that the others can save the mission if need be, and then we use the shield link to stay up.
IMO, ideally 1 IW would be enough, if you need 2 then the mission kinda deserves to fail. That happening once can be because your team got unlucky, but it happening twice is when your team isn't good enough for the mission. The thing is, I've never seen multiple IWs working out for the team. If the firsr IW wasn't enough to save the mission, the other IWs didn't either. Only maybe once or twice had a situation where we all went down and somebody used IW to save it, and then we went all down again 5 minutes later and kept going. But it's not really worth worrying about, usually at least 1 person has IW and due to lack of communication you can easily end up with 2, 3 or even 4 IWs. Just enjoy the game and not every mission has to be a success.
@@deeznoots6241personally i would say scouts are more impactful with iron will since they can get to ANY red sugar in the cave, easily get to far away resupplies, they often run field medic which helps a ton with IW reviving and can easily reach teammates with the grappling hook, while gunners require teammates to be nearby... granted gunners tend to stick close to their teammates. in the end it doesnt really matter lmao
Saving your Iron Will for the entire team being down is "ideal" but there are certainly times where you help the team more by popping it before the last person goes down. The most obvious example is if Scout is the only one up and is forced into the pure copium strat of grappling around and doing minimal damage; where popping Iron Will to kickstart the rest of the team can create opportunities for yourself, the Scout, and everyone you revive to stabilize the bad situation. If your team is separated in pairs you can use Iron Will to salvage your pair going down, preventing the other pair from needing to traverse to you while fighting through both their spawns and yours. I think I've said enough here but yeah, sometimes an "early" pop is better.
I don't think it's a good idea to wait to Iron Will until everyone is down. A wave, event, or other danger becomes increasingly harder to manage the fewer people are up, and unless you're very coordinated it often just delays the inevitable. I find a lot more success with the more conservative strategy of popping Iron Will when there is only one other teammate up - two people can handle a situation so much better together than one person alone. Sure, sometimes your teammate might have been able to pick up the team on their own, but I think it's a much safer strategy overall.
I always take Iron Will and Field Medic on my Scout. As the Scout, I'm typically the last to go down, so I typically get the most revives per mission unless something crazy happens. Because of this, field medic comes in clutch not just for the insta-revive, but because the revive is so fast that you can often pull off a tight revive window even without using an instant at all. Additionally, for the times when I DO go down before the rest of the team, as a scout, it's frequently in a place that's very difficult to reach for anyonw without a grappling hook. During those times, Iron Will can come in clutch, at the very least to rendezvous with the rest of the team. Final note: taking Vampire or Sweet Tooth is an excellent choice for this Scout build, as it allows you to get health before you go down after you Iron Will, either by pickaxing bugs, or by quickly zipping to the nearest red sugar. Or heck, even killing some loot bugs if all else fails. Very powerful combo.
Interesting that I run my gunner with IW, Berserker, and vampire already. Because of this I use second wind so I can get some running speed at some point. When I have used field medic earlier usually we are on the second or third mission in an elite deep dive, and either a swarm or a bulk detonator or dreadnaught has decided I look good while reviving. Also sometimes the person I’m trying to get up has all the bullets we need to fix the problem.
I remember few days ago dude posted about IW being the "PRO tip" to use it, and then there were a bunch of dudes who "don't die" and called IW overrated. That was a nice thread
I pretty much only run iron will on gunner. The most common ways to dying suddenly are getting slasher slowed or hit by projectile: dash is a get out of jail free from both of them but very few people consider berserker to also be a get out of jail free button with pure damage - it allows you to instantly kill or stun anything in the game in melee range in a large aoe with instant 2 power attacks (because there is no cooldown between the normal power attack and berserker activiation attack) and then follow it up with a period of extreme damage and stun power. With some experience, having 2 get out of jail free cards lets you essentially never die. If you add vampire the berserker also becomes an almost guaranteed 40 hp minimum heal against anything thats not bots or an oppressor. With a lot of experience berserker can also just be used as another ammo perk for your guns by smashing oppressors, bots, and turrets to death and a burst during boss weakness phases that does both massive damage and is ammo free in exchange for having to be in melee with them.
I've seen way too many times where a Greenbeard would just pop Iron Will the first time being downed while everyone was still standing and willing to revive him, only for him to drop 6 seconds later... Kids, don't use Iron Will if there's at least one surviving member of your team still standing. It's a clutch perk, a last ditch effort. Don't let it go to waste.
Nah. There are situations where it's best to use it before the last person goes down. If the probability that the last person can clutch is low or if you're short for time when you can clearly revive the whole team right now as a guarantee, then it is a much better gamble than crossing your fingers and hoping that chaining iron wills without altering the situation is going to amount to a different outcome.
@@viktoriyaserebryakov2755 You have no idea how many times I've seen somebody waste their IW that way. And it's always the impatient scouts. As recently as yesterday I stayed alive through rest of the swarm, then AFTER it ended and I was already reviving somebody else, he decided to pop that IW. But IW clutch after the team has gone down has worked countless times. There are some rare moments when it fails... such as oppressor camping bodies and keeps interrupting the revive and nobody gets up. But that is rare.
the "planning for failure" argument against Iron will is turning a blind eye to the fact that almost all the active perks are ways to either actively stay alive or improve your situation after going down
It really is the perk I never take off. That and vampire are permanent staples and have saved far too many missions for me to NOT use them all the time. Truly appreciate this PSA for iron will use. Rock and Stone!
An added note: I'm a scout main and I never run any scout build without berserker + Vampire. Berserker on scout is good for two reasons. First, scout is second to driller for freezing power, be it cryo nades, cryo minelets or cryo bolts which are all very very strong choices. Secondly and much more importantly, power attacking is so fucking strong for mining. If you're playing scout properly you'll be mining all high up minerals during downtime, and without a competent or existing engineer, some scout mains have to delegate this job to hover boots. With berserker you can rapidly smash open holes on high up walls before you can fall down, can quickly dig through terrain, and speedrun any kind of gold vein in an instant, all while still having a strong active perk in emergencies. Pair that with scouts insane mobility and it makes for a great IW run as you nuke a whole bunch of enemies, get back to full and grapple to safety/another player all before the IW buff runs out.
dunno why but I'll always prefer See You In hell to Iron Will. 3 uses per mission instead of one, creates a safe area around you (effectuvely creating a safe are to be revived unless ranged enemies are all around), and more importantly also contributes even if you dont die to make hitting an enemy that just meleed you especially strong. Still helps in hard situations, can do so more per mission, and gives an advantage even if you never go down or after the uses are expended. As for the "planning for failure" its not an equivalent to the seatbelt situation. Iron will takes an active perk slot, one that could have helped you not die in the first place. Its like in your case choosing between the seatbelt or the ability to avoid the tree altogether.
I had 0 idea Iron Will buffed you in other ways too holy shit. And while I am the type of Driller Main to exclusively use the flamethrower. I always take the power attack CDR+Vampirism for the situations where I need HP and no red surgar is nearby. Or to slaughter enemies in my way. A favorite combo is power attack>Drill>power attack. Works quite well
I'm fairly certain that with Iron will's invulnerability and Field medic's faster revive speed, you can singlehandedly revive the entire team, provided everyone is right next to each other, and no bugs get in the way and even without field medic you can get two teammates up.
I used to run IW on all my classes, but I've found I get better survivability running Dash instead. Most games I don't go down a single time (humble brag). This is partly due to gamesense and skill, but also thanks to Dash allowing me to play much more aggressively and kill huge swarms risk-free. In addition, most public lobbies have at least one person running IW, so usually having IW myself is redundant and a waste of a perk slot. On Scout, though, I run IW + Field Medic because Dash is completely reduntant on Scout due to the grappling hook and the shotgun knockback overclock (forget the name). This allows me to effortlessly rescue entire teams due to Scout's mobility like you mentioned in the video.
I was not aware of the power attack cool down buff Iron Will has, nor that It's A Bug Thing works while you are downed so going down in a pile of minerals can lead to slowly being surrounded by a carpet of lootbug minerals as they approach attracted by the loose minerals around you.
One thing thats worth noting is that you don't need to wait for the entire team to go down. If you have a single player up and they aren't clearing the bugs out fast enough its often better to pop immediately so you have more people clearing bugs sooner. Several mission types get harder as time goes on and even for those that don't, not clearing bugs quickly means you don't get enough time between waves to complete objectives.
I remember one time when we all watched a gunner fall into a pit, went down, used Iron Will, fired a zipline too high up and sloooowly made his way up it, then Iron Will wore off and he fell back down the pit. Nobody was using mics and we all just looked at eachother like "Huh.."
What irritates me the most is when you go through the trouble of clearing a 4 man swarm, while you're the only dwarf alive, succeed in it, going for the revive, only to see one or more of your team mates pop their iron will because they grew impatient.
Dash is the most powerful perk bar none. Dash is literally required on all classes except scout, and even then it's kinda required on scout. Iron Will can save a mission, and it's definitely in second place as far as actives, but it saves you once. Dash saves you every 25 seconds, and has movement utility outside of it. Re-supplier is the second most powerful perk, it's just 3 god-tier perks rolled up into one. Iron will is third, and good enough you should probably always pair it with Vampire, unless the difficulty is low enough that you don't need IW, then go with Field Medic or if you're doing true solos Heightened Senses is arguably a competitor.
I find field medic to be more useful because reviving someone quickly can mean the difference between saving your teammate and having enough time to escape alive, and dying because while you were reviving teammate. Plus you can use it more actively than just one time
I'd love to run the Iron Will + Berserker combo, it sounds fun, but Dash is just too damn powerful to give up. Berserker only makes your last stand a bit better without adding much else, while Dash lets you avoid going down in the first place multiple times a mission and save your Iron Will for as long as possible. I hope we get a perk rework at some point that makes more perks viable (both active and passive) or integrates their effects in some other way.
I remember seeing so many people use IW both in game and on YT and I never understood why since on paper it didnt seem that good. That is, until I found out receiving any health during the Last Stand will keep you alive. That's a huge detail that for some reason isnt listed in the skill description.
And people thought I was crazy when I said that IW is easily one of the most powerful perks (back when perk update came). Technically field medic serves very similar purpose but also has a passive that helps you to avoid losing a mission. As long as you're alive you can turn the situation around by insta reviving somebody. Ideally this would be a gunner with a shield near other team mates so you can revive the entire team or most of it. Which is why I have field medic on EVERY build. But on scout and gunner got both IW and field medic.
I mostly agree, but IW before a team wipe can be usefull, sometimes i'll see some other teammate has gone down, and the last two are struggling with a swarm I'll IW ASAP so i can rez the last person and regroup to help. That way you can sort out a swarm faster than waiting to see if the last two manage to pull out or not, and time is really valuable in most missions. Granted, I tend to pick gunner, so im also carryng a major amount of the teams firepower. With scout these situations may not be as common, but still it's worth considering
There's incorrect stats info about Iron Will's pickaxe dmg and Power Attack cooldown reduction. The correct info on wiki has been up for month and a half, but Drilling in the name of, for some reason, didn't even look there during that period nor tested it himself before presenting it to a wide audience. At the same time, the similar info about Berzerker PA cooldown rate is correct, although I fixed both IW and Berzerker the same day back then on wiki. As a result, incorrect info takes half of screen and it just looks bad.
I always hate when me and my friends mess up with the communication and timing of iron will where we all accidentally at once even if we have a whole system of who goes when. The stress of losing a mission that’s going for almost an hour just gets to us all and we forget who goes first
Hey man I had an idea for a video. I’m not sure if it could be done but if anyone can do it you can. Drill out the entire map so there just a giant void. I think this would be the coolest video ever.
If all teammembers are close to one another, field medic is enough to revive 2 teammates and then insta revive the last one meaning you can get everyone up except yourself. Maybe you can power attack a grunt with vampire and then insta revive -> normal revive -> everyone revives the last guy together you can get the entire team, including yourself, safe with only your own active perks used.
"shit happens sometimes" oh boy it does, like when a bulk detonator snuck up on me because i was listering to music with on game audio on boy am i glad bosco counts as multiple revives
The only times I use it while other players are alive is when I know I'm being swarmed badly enough that the last man will get downed trying to reach me, so I'll make a headlong sprint towards them or draw off a large number while grabbing health.
Earlier today I went down to a leech in a team with 3 greenbeards. Leech was still up, I had no IW equipped, so I told them to not rez me yet until they got the leech first. What did they do? The driller made a beeline for me for the rez, no idea of what should be about to hit him. Meanwhile another one of them just happens to be close enough to catch the leeches aggro and just kept running around unawares with the leech following him. The driller got me up and I immediately shot the leech, what shouldve probably been a team wipe to that one leech ended up a simple rez through sheer dumb luck. I was both utterly amazed and deeply worried by these guys.
Oops! With regard to the IW buffs, I meant to say PLUS 2.5 damage to your standard pickaxe attack, not TIMES 2.5 damage. My bad!
Iron Will/Field Medic combo is epitome of "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst"
This
Yeah at first I was stubborn and wouldn’t take it, because instinctually I’m a bit of a rebel when it comes to games and I purposely avoid things that are “meta” but sooner or later I just realized that I wasn’t impressing anybody, it wasn’t competitive so it was actually best to take what worked best, so I take iron will on everybody and my second perk depends on the class.
I have CLUTCHED a whole team revive with this very combo, which made our dive team go *Nuts.*
Shit combo. Use dash instead.
I always use this ever since I got both of them. IW and FM didn't disappoint me ever
Fun fact: after 800 hours of gameplay, I learned the hard way that you can actually be grabbed by cave leeches while you're in iron will. If you end up needing to IW under the leech that downed you, always be sure to shoot it quickly.
Rockpox.
Wait wtf, how have I never been in a situation to discover this, even after playing 1480 hours? I'm not saying that doesn't happen, just that for some reason I have never been near a leech while using IW. Well you learn something new every day.
Yet another reason to utterly despise cave leeches
Then I won the fucking lottery a couple weeks ago. I was downed by a leech, and then two others got grabbed by the same leech when they came for the revives. Our fourth went down a ways away so I Iron Willed, looked for the leech but couldn't see it and was in a panic (still pretty new), so I just said "fuck it" grabbed a res, and THEN threw my gunner shield down. IDK how I wasn't grabbed by that leech because it was still there, my teammate killed it before getting mine and the other teammate's res.
I had no idea It's a Bug Thing continued to be active while you were downed and will continue to pop lootbugs that come to feast on the loot near you from previously popped lootbugs. This changes everything. Thank you miner!
Also, thanks for spreading the word on better use of Iron Will.
Had a mission yesterday where someone went down to a slasher and instapopped it despite there being teammates nearby. Thankfully we didn't need it later on that mission.
pretty sure its a bug thing worked in last few frames the guy was alive and falling
@@user-25352 It was also working during the end card when he was clearly already downed.
I didn't either but it made for a pretty funny image ha
I feel like there is a portion of the population that takes Iron Will as an attempt to save face when they inevitably go down. I've seen scouts drop it after an embarrassing fall because they didn't want to have to sit through the process of being rezzed.
Some people say Iron Will is "preparing for failure", i.e. if you don't go down/don't get into a situation where nobody can revive you, it was a waste. I prefer to think of it as "optimising for fun". Because those moments where your team was going to lose but you saved it with Iron Will are awesome moments.
Exactly! Makes a tough mission so much more exciting.
@@DrillingInTheNameOf Only vaguely related, but in terms of perks that I find interesting that sadly fall short. See You in Hell would be amazing if it were only a passive perk. Giving up one of the limited active perk slots for it sucks, but the passive benefit of retaliation damage boosts for your pickaxe make it a lot of fun on lower hazard levels. It also breeds terrible habits though. I still catch myself trading hits with swarms when I'm surrounded because I made heavy use of that perk when I first started playing. On Haz 4 and up you really can't out-dps the swarm with melee, and even Haz 3 you'll be losing more health than you're gaining through vampire.
EDIT: If SYIH and Berserker were combined into one perk, it'd be pretty amazing as a panic button for when you get swarmed. High damage retaliatory power attack spam. Give it some damage resistance as well if we're talking entirely fantasy here.
I have a lot of fun with Dash+Field Medic, but when I go down, man oh man, do I wish I had Iron Will. Even in place of Dash, honestly, but it's a tough call.
like a wise man once said;"hope for the best, prepare for the worst"
Eh, it's both, but I like your attitude
Watching a Freeze Driller eat an entire swarm of grunts after popping Iron Will with Vampire:
*chef’s kiss*
1 minute into the video and I have already learned 6 new things I had no idea were in the game.
That's the norm with the developers.
And all of them were about It's a Bug Thing
Spoot!
While you're down and have iron will, look around with your third person camera for nearby enemies and red sugar and have a plan for what you will do if you have to use iron will. Having a plan for what to do before you revive makes a huge difference.
Dude, seriously, this is the most helpful tip I’ve seen for IW! Was just about to comment something similar. If you don’t have a plan, IW can actually be useless, instead of being the most useful perk. Have a plan, miners!
@@brayerkh One time I went down and there were no bugs around and using the third person camera I spotted red sugar way off in the distance across a huge room. It was far enough that I had serious doubts of being able to make it before IW wore off. But then the last teammate went down and the choice was taken from me. If I hadn't been planning the route the whole time I probably wouldn't have made it.
@@trucid2 Perfect example. I’ll give you an example of not planning: Once upon a time, in the green beard days, I didn’t have a plan, used IW, then tried to revive a teammate with an oppressor on his body, then I was attacked by his stomp mid revive, interrupting the revive, and flinging me into a pit in the process, resulting in us losing the mission.
Yep, never Iron will prematurely, first check if your teammates can salvage the situation, if they can then don’t use iron will.
Then check for resupply/red sugar(or if you have vampire find a bug to bash for the hp) to make it a permanent revive.
Its especially good as a perk on gunner since if you’re the last one alive thanks to iron will then you can use your shield to get another teammate up.
I’m not done the video yet, but I’m pretty sure I can see where this is going and would like to offer some insight into iron will usage.
Using iron will only when the entire team has gone down is NOT always the best way to use it.
Picture this: You’re a downed gunner, and your engineer goes down near you. Your final teammate is a scout who’s greatly struggling to find the time to revive either of you and doesn’t have field medic or anything. It’s much better for you to iron will to save the engineer and hopefully yourself, and put a shield where it’s needed. If you wait and gamble on the scout being able to revive you, bugs will stack up further, and the scout’s ammo will be drained much more. Additionally the mission timer going up can have a negative effect like on point extraction where the enemy quantity exponentially scales with time, or during an uplink where your progress will be drained as the scout tries to find a window to revive.
Tl:dr don’t always wait until everyone is down to use iron will. It can save the team from a mission fail if you can keep more of your team up during a critical situation so the mission does not become unmanageable.
Edit: Also, enemies that can knock you back are worth mentioning here. Your iron will revive/resupply can be completely ruined if the wrong enemy is present. (Oppressor, grabber, shellback, lacerator, hiveguard, et cetera). In these cases using a gunner shield while in iron will can be a good idea.
Knowing when to make that call definitely requires experience, but sometimes it is 100% worth it to save the mission. Point extractions especially. It's hard to make calls like this in team games where you have to make an honest assessment of your team mate's ability. Like, yeah, in a perfect world the scout COULD clutch this but you have to be realistic.
the point you raised in your edit is also really crucial. Iron will makes you invulnerable to damage, but it's not guaranteed to bail you out of a failed mission. I've seen a LOT of mission fails because the last person used their iron will and thought "well who cares about that oppressor, i have iron will"...
Ive seen that happen a lot on P.E Scout keeps running around and the horde just keeps getting bigger and bigger and if he is lucky enough to rez someone 2x swarms have been declared. its def a choice you will learn with experience.
yea had this happen to me once except I was the scout. It was during one of those missions where you have to break a forcefield to get a data core (I can't remember what it's called). It was while were were fighting the big robotic thing, and everyone but me got downed. Haz 5 too. So, I was running around trying to find the right time to revive someone since I didn't have field medic, but it's just way too difficult when you have so many enemies going after you. I knew the moment I stopped moving, I would get downed as well, so someone ended up popping their iron will to get others up.
I definitely agree that there are times it would be beneficial to go early, but there's not really a clear, definitive way to say when, so I left that debate for the comments.
@@DrillingInTheNameOf My personal rule for when to use iron will before everyone else is down is to say "If there is only one dwarf left standing, and they say to use iron will, USE IRON WILL. I say this very often, but people often respond "but what if you clutch it?", or "believe in yourself", etc. If I have said to use iron will, that means that I do not think I am capable of reviving someone or surviving the wave.
Of course there are other situations where an iron will might be good, but I find that this rule when used well increases the chance of surviving these tense 'last dwarf standing' situations, and increases the number of situations in which iron will is needed where it is actually used.
I totally feel you on your peeves with Iron Will and Field Medic. My two friends do those things, brings me no end of frustration because of how often their impatience causes mission failures.
Do they also double dipp and make you feel like ammo nazi ? They struggle on haz 3, i don't play them no mo.
taking shield link is also an option to take when carrying IW. i often pair these together, to give the revived player a shield boost afterwards, in the hopes that the player can get some extra time to work with.
and sacrifice dash? no thanks
@@redsubmarine652 that is why i said it was an option.
I do this for elimination, since you can go down a lot of times, making one iron will use less impactful. When facing a dreadnought, I'd rather help people stay on their feet than prolong the struggling revive chain.
The other is dash, because at least one of those 20 times I used it probably saved me from being downed.
@@alasdairsinclair916 i do take dash when playing solo haz 5. it is important for kiting large hordes.
@@redsubmarine652 don't need it when playing scout
On haz5 and especially beyond I think Dash is better than IW, because when used well it can save your life more than once a mission. Scout has enough mobility without it but I would strongly suggest taking it on all other classes.
Additionally as someone else also mentioned, it can be better to use IW early, when it makes a big difference in pacing. Point Extraction is a good example of this but also Escort Duty, when you can save yourself with vampire and also a plate can be really worth it. Another situation could be if you are really low on Nitra and resupplies and a swarm is about to come, using IW to get someone else and enough get a Nitra vein before the swarm can change a lot.
I'd always use dash AND IW on every class that isn't scout.
Why not both?
Yeah, I stopped using it because of how good it is, and it made Haz 5 a breeze, or at least much easier for me.
Good point on escort duty, also I agree dash is absolutely the best perk in the game by a large margin.
Was going to say it of no one else had already, I'd pick Dash over IW any day. It speeds up missions which saves you from dealing with more swarms over time, and is a crazy good repositioning tool if you find yourself getting cornered. It can save your life several times during one mission, as opposed to IW working only once.
Back in the day, you could call 2 resups at the same time, and hurt a mission because--just two folks called at basically the same time, and the devs were like--that feels bad lets not do that
IW should be the same way imo. Just have a minimal, really small period of time where you can't pop DIRECTLY after another player.
nah, there are situations where it's preferable to have multiple IWs. Escort missions. If everyone is down, a swarm is on doretta and she is about to break, you need someone to reduce the amount of bugs and another one to repair her at the same time. Ressurecting another dwarf might take too much time, and while field medic would be a solution, i rarely see anyone running both IW and field medic.
@@Gnulcho There are situations where two supply drops are needed too!
I'm not even saying a full second of delay before another can be used. Just the smallest bit to prevent accidentally 2 people getting up at the exact same time.
In THAT case, where dotty needs to be repaired and bugs to be repelled, first person up should just rush to dotty to heal her, 0.5-1 seconds after person A gets up, B can get up can sweep up some of the swarm.
That being said, the time delay could totally turn that situation you outlined into a loss, but does that happen a lot? I mean, to be fair the 2 people getting up at the same time doesn't happen all that much either, but loosing that way is SUCH a feels bad moment. Honestly if you're 1 seconds away from loosing an escort mission because everyone is down, I think that mission is already kinda going down the drain you know?
Maybe just make it so you can revive other IW dwarves the same way you can a downed dwarf. Give em a friendly tap on the shoulder.
Don't forget the worst case scenario (everyone down feet from the pod) can be avoided by sprinting strait into the pod after popping IW. This is the only case where you shouldn't be reviving teammates. Sometimes the det spawns on the drop pod, we've all been there.
But… but no dwarves left behind?
@@Roselyn451 At least one needs to stay alive to keep the memory of the others. For Karl!
fun iron will fact:
if you just so happen to disconnect and rejoin, it resets iron will, despite not resetting anything else like position, health, and ammo.
I discovered this playing with a friend from another continent. oh and yes, if you force close the game, this works in deep dives
I have several hundred hours in DRG and all classes close to gold promotion and I have never once thought of using a system like the "not it" system you mentioned, I'll be putting that in my server names from now on
Also, keep in mind that you can do A LOT of damage during IW to objectives like dreadnaughts and the caretaker.
If you are under the caretakers open eye, and you have IW, pop it and just hold the trigger, absolute profit.
Couldn't have said it better,thanks for informing people about iron will
I actually ran into a guy who was TOO patient with his iron will. End of the mission, only scout left alive, swarm everywhere, I tell him to just get out...... He makes it. The pod doesn't leave. My brain explodes, the gunner has iron will. We have been laying on the ground for like a solid minute. We ask why he hasn't used it and he says "I'm saving it for an emergency"......... As if the past minute hasn't been full panic mode. We finally shout him into using it so we can maybe get out with more than one person. He does and revives both me and the driller and we leave him for dead we're so steamed.
Gunners am I right?
They want to have big boy guns and still try and do stuff the other classes are meant to be doing.
Gunners off in weird far off corridors because they want to scout for Nitra instead of providing overwatch. Gunners mining through dirt to get to the next tunnel instead of waiting on the driller and... providing overwatch.
Gunners shooting ziplines everywhere and getting mad when we don't use them to go up instead of using them to get down...something something relating to providing overwatch.
It's kinda the autistic side of me.
Each class has a job, and if you're doing * your job * correctly, you'll make everybody else's job easier.
Killing bugs is the last thing on the list of job functions.
I could go on at length but I'll shut up because nobody cares.
Do your job miners, and Rock and Stone.
@@themarlboromandalorian Video game
Sure they were quite daft but I mean just leaving him is kinda dirty
@@themarlboromandalorian Gunner reaching the next blocked tunnel before driller is failure on driller's part, not gunner's. I often find myself in a situation that there's no enemies, nothing to mine nearby... but that tunnel is right there and driller is nowhere to be seen. So of course I mine my way through and get the mission rolling again.
using a mod like "better spectator" massively improves your ability to survey the area while when you're downed
you can spectate other players, watch their back, check where molly is, it's super useful
“Time to go smash into a train” 🤣
I think he said tree
He said tree
Really the only thing don't like about iron will and dash......you feel like you always have to use them. I run iron will and dash on almost all builds, all the time, because I feel like they are by far the best. But this means you can't use any other active perks, which is a bit of a bummer. Its kind of annoying to have "must have" perks around.
try to replace iron will with See you In Hell. Its also a death perk (ableit one better used early instead of later, you want people around to be able to revive you and if possible to nuke a whole bunch of bugs in the process/force bigger ones to turn away) and on top beefs up your melee every time you get hit in melee so also pairs real well with vampire, and gives you a benefit no matter at which point of the mission you are since you keep that passive side even if you didnt die once or if all uses are expanded. And 2 hits meleeing lone grunts is a great way to recover a bit of health here and there (though dont try that on shieldless mission, you will lose health if your shield isnt there to soak a hit)
I agree they’re the best but I find I’m completely fine without them. They’re by no means “Must have” perks and you can still easily get your money’s worth from running other active perks. Maybe they’re less consistent but nothing in this game is a must have, pretty much anything can work on haz 5.
@@thorveim1174 See You In Hell + Vampire is a ton of fun but i still feel like dash is still the better perk overall. The mobility is just too good.
@@stripey3860 I mean, yeah. It's mostly just what you're comfortable with, the way I see it. Yes, some are better than others, but some people get way more use out of "lesser" perks than, say, IW.
I always recommend thorns and heightened senses.
You're going to get bit.
Bite back.
Beard sense and punishing any of the grabby boys is extremely useful, and I know I could replace the slot with something else by just paying attention to audio cues but this perk always gets used every mission. It's paid for itself. And I'm the cryo vamp he mentioned so I don't need to sprint.
There are a ton of situations where you should use Iron Will before the very last person goes down, often on large objectives like on Sabotage or Salvage. 4 players worth of bugs can be too tough for one dwarf alone!
Gaming Existence made a video about the differences between the LOK-1 and Stubby and made a good point about threat overwhelm. If you don't take out threats as they appear, they will build up and become even more of a problem since it splits your attention. I think this same situation applies to Iron Will, if you let the swarm build up because your teammates can't revive you, it will be a lot harder to save a mission when there are already 50 grunts, 2 menaces, 5 acid spitters and 3 praetorians alive.
I also like to take resupplier with iron will. In the even you only have resupplies for health having 75% max health and a half load of ammo is basically the best case scenario for when you have to save the mission.
Iron Will on Vampire driller is absolutely insane btw
If you somehow go down you pick yourself up, freeze everything around you, then mulch it with your drills to go back to half hp or so
when iron will runs out you'll still be standing.
Your video inadvertently gave me the idea of trying to give Scout the health replenishing longevity Driller has with Barbed Drills + Vampire with the Cryo Cannon, and I actually was able to make a build that captures that to an extent (at least as far as Scout is concerned). It also came from your segment on Berzerker, so it occurred to me to use all this together:
Boltshark (2,2,1,1,1) with Cryo Bolts
Vampire + Berserker
Pheromone Canisters (or Cryo Grenades, but I used Pheromones and they hella pulled weight).
(I paired it with AI Stability Engine GK2 [2,1,2,1,2] and found it to be incredibly reliable on dispatching targets of all types, especially when utilizing the Special Bolt Chemical Explosion and Potent Special Bolts mods on larger enemies to in turn cause smaller enemies to take area damage when near larger enemies upon their deaths [or attracted to said larger enemies when pheromones are in use] for when Berzerker is on cooldown).
I play on Haz4 pretty much exclusively and that’s where I tested this build on, and I’ve never gone down as of yet, having ran through multiple Salvage Operations, Egg Hunts, etc.
Therefore, thank you for inadvertently helping me find a different build to use on Scout; I’ve used Special Powder for a long, long time, and I’d hate for my builds to get stale. Rock & Stone! ⛏️
While I'd personally argue that Dash edges things out in the power department (for all classes except Scout) by virtue of having high uptime and preventing players from dying altogether, keeping cognizant of the fact that Iron Will is even in the conversation for #1 when a perk like Dash exists does enough in my mind to illustrate its strength. Outstanding video, as always! Many thanks for your continued contributions toward furthering game literacy within the DRG community.
Also, I only mean to say that Dash sits atop the heap *in most cases*. Perk strength can be wholly recontextualized when considering different combinations of build, team composition, and mission type. The dynamism introduced by DRG's protean gameplay circumstances is a central contributing factor to what makes DRG so engaging!
Thank you my friend! Rock & Stone!
I like that the immunity to damage means you can throw a driller pack at your feet and detonate it immediately to clear the area, with enough time over to get red sugar or a resupply
The dedication on the short videos to showcase the strategies it's commendable!
Thanks
Iron will can singlehandedly turn around a losing mission, and because IW works so well with other abilities, most notably for me is Dash and Field medic, because dash is just a good movement ability for classes other than scout because they inherently have less movement, and Field medic is great for saving an ENTIRE TEAM at once, a single IW from a skilled player can revive 2-3 people before going down again.
Edit: I posted this before I watched the video and I realized that we thought the exact same thing.
I would like to add however that resupplier is a good option if you run IW because it lowers the amount of time it takes to resupply, therefore lowering the time it takes to get health while in IW and can even give you more time in IW
dude that part where the driller got all his health back filled a hole where i didnt think i had one inside of me
One thing to note is the ability to change to other people's perspectives which can help see whos not busy and close by to help. Helps nailing down the time when your iron will comes in handy.
many thanks, you opened my eyes about berzerker and is always nice to see people reinforcing the team work aspect of the game
Have to admit, I was in the “why take a perk that’s only useful if downed crowd” but this video changed my mind. Rock and Stone!
I think this is great advice for any vanilla missions. In high haz salvage/escort missions or modded gamemodes like 6x2 or 7x2, there are some caveats. Being down for any amount of time during a swarm or event can end up spiraling your team to a defeat that could have been otherwise remedied had you used iron will to get yourself back up and running. This is especially the case if you're on anyone aside from scout since the impact that you provide for the team is so important.
That awkward moment when you've been running all the perks and cryo cannon as Driller, but never thought to use it like that...thanks for the tips!
That gunner thing... Waiting to pop the shield until after the revive. That's brilliant and I need to remember and convey it to my gunner.
dont forget resupply pasive is also cuts down the time for pressing down button when resupply, in addition if you have "breating room" armor upgrades, you can extend your invulnerability on IW so you can revive 2 of your teammate plus resupply/red sugar.
What I took away from this is that I was using IW correctly
And that all my perks are built around saving the situation if things go terribly wrong
I will be our safety net, brothers
I think it is worth noting there are times going back up before the last player goes down can be beneficial (only if 3/4 are downed obviously). Particularily when it's apparent that it isn't a matter of if the last guy goes down but when, which is obviously a judgement call (really best made by talking with the last guy standing). This *can* still go wrong, but rarely does in my experience. It makes "clutching" a lot easier for the last dwarf, especially if you are mid-swarm with cave spawns and the last dwarf doesn't have good swarm clear in their build. It also gets the team rolling again faster because only 2 players need revives. And even if you decide not to stand up early it helps clear the air on who should get up first if they do hit the floor long before you have a timer on your screen for 10 seconds.
[Oh also good video on the importance and uses of IW, thanks for making some of the best drg informational videos out there. Rock and stone forever!]
I tend to use iron will so I can make sure I kill scout (I died from my c4 trying to kill him)
ROCK AND STOOOONE
EXPLOSIVES PLACED!
💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
IW is really great, but I do think there are diminishing returns from everyone running it. Sometimes, our EDD group runs 3 iron wills, and one Shield Link, hoping that the others can save the mission if need be, and then we use the shield link to stay up.
IMO, ideally 1 IW would be enough, if you need 2 then the mission kinda deserves to fail. That happening once can be because your team got unlucky, but it happening twice is when your team isn't good enough for the mission. The thing is, I've never seen multiple IWs working out for the team. If the firsr IW wasn't enough to save the mission, the other IWs didn't either. Only maybe once or twice had a situation where we all went down and somebody used IW to save it, and then we went all down again 5 minutes later and kept going. But it's not really worth worrying about, usually at least 1 person has IW and due to lack of communication you can easily end up with 2, 3 or even 4 IWs. Just enjoy the game and not every mission has to be a success.
If you are running 1 of each class then gunner is the best choice for iron will since with the shield it essentially guarantees a revive of a teammate
@@deeznoots6241personally i would say scouts are more impactful with iron will since they can get to ANY red sugar in the cave, easily get to far away resupplies, they often run field medic which helps a ton with IW reviving and can easily reach teammates with the grappling hook, while gunners require teammates to be nearby...
granted gunners tend to stick close to their teammates. in the end it doesnt really matter lmao
Favorite drg channel. Keep up the good work!
Thank you my friend!
Saving your Iron Will for the entire team being down is "ideal" but there are certainly times where you help the team more by popping it before the last person goes down.
The most obvious example is if Scout is the only one up and is forced into the pure copium strat of grappling around and doing minimal damage; where popping Iron Will to kickstart the rest of the team can create opportunities for yourself, the Scout, and everyone you revive to stabilize the bad situation.
If your team is separated in pairs you can use Iron Will to salvage your pair going down, preventing the other pair from needing to traverse to you while fighting through both their spawns and yours.
I think I've said enough here but yeah, sometimes an "early" pop is better.
I don't think it's a good idea to wait to Iron Will until everyone is down. A wave, event, or other danger becomes increasingly harder to manage the fewer people are up, and unless you're very coordinated it often just delays the inevitable. I find a lot more success with the more conservative strategy of popping Iron Will when there is only one other teammate up - two people can handle a situation so much better together than one person alone. Sure, sometimes your teammate might have been able to pick up the team on their own, but I think it's a much safer strategy overall.
I love your sense of humor and informative vids, keep it up good man
Thank you!
I always take Iron Will and Field Medic on my Scout. As the Scout, I'm typically the last to go down, so I typically get the most revives per mission unless something crazy happens. Because of this, field medic comes in clutch not just for the insta-revive, but because the revive is so fast that you can often pull off a tight revive window even without using an instant at all. Additionally, for the times when I DO go down before the rest of the team, as a scout, it's frequently in a place that's very difficult to reach for anyonw without a grappling hook. During those times, Iron Will can come in clutch, at the very least to rendezvous with the rest of the team.
Final note: taking Vampire or Sweet Tooth is an excellent choice for this Scout build, as it allows you to get health before you go down after you Iron Will, either by pickaxing bugs, or by quickly zipping to the nearest red sugar. Or heck, even killing some loot bugs if all else fails. Very powerful combo.
Interesting that I run my gunner with IW, Berserker, and vampire already. Because of this I use second wind so I can get some running speed at some point. When I have used field medic earlier usually we are on the second or third mission in an elite deep dive, and either a swarm or a bulk detonator or dreadnaught has decided I look good while reviving. Also sometimes the person I’m trying to get up has all the bullets we need to fix the problem.
I remember few days ago dude posted about IW being the "PRO tip" to use it, and then there were a bunch of dudes who "don't die" and called IW overrated. That was a nice thread
I pretty much only run iron will on gunner. The most common ways to dying suddenly are getting slasher slowed or hit by projectile: dash is a get out of jail free from both of them but very few people consider berserker to also be a get out of jail free button with pure damage - it allows you to instantly kill or stun anything in the game in melee range in a large aoe with instant 2 power attacks (because there is no cooldown between the normal power attack and berserker activiation attack) and then follow it up with a period of extreme damage and stun power.
With some experience, having 2 get out of jail free cards lets you essentially never die. If you add vampire the berserker also becomes an almost guaranteed 40 hp minimum heal against anything thats not bots or an oppressor. With a lot of experience berserker can also just be used as another ammo perk for your guns by smashing oppressors, bots, and turrets to death and a burst during boss weakness phases that does both massive damage and is ammo free in exchange for having to be in melee with them.
Another use of Iron Will is sometimes not to prevent a wipe but to prevent a situation from getting worse.
Karl would be proud of this stellar company service announcement.
You're totally right I shouldn't iron will the second I go down. But the bug that downed me made it personal, and they won't get away with it.
i was afraid that i wouldn’t know some of this, hopefully this video will have an impact and prevent future blunders
A must have in every Elite Deep Dive
I've seen way too many times where a Greenbeard would just pop Iron Will the first time being downed while everyone was still standing and willing to revive him, only for him to drop 6 seconds later... Kids, don't use Iron Will if there's at least one surviving member of your team still standing. It's a clutch perk, a last ditch effort. Don't let it go to waste.
Also when 2 players pop IW at the same time 😓
Nah. There are situations where it's best to use it before the last person goes down. If the probability that the last person can clutch is low or if you're short for time when you can clearly revive the whole team right now as a guarantee, then it is a much better gamble than crossing your fingers and hoping that chaining iron wills without altering the situation is going to amount to a different outcome.
@@viktoriyaserebryakov2755 You have no idea how many times I've seen somebody waste their IW that way. And it's always the impatient scouts.
As recently as yesterday I stayed alive through rest of the swarm, then AFTER it ended and I was already reviving somebody else, he decided to pop that IW.
But IW clutch after the team has gone down has worked countless times. There are some rare moments when it fails... such as oppressor camping bodies and keeps interrupting the revive and nobody gets up. But that is rare.
@@spugelo359 I'm saying when you use it is situational. It's not automatically an absolute last resort. I see iron will get wasted both ways.
Thanks for sharing!
Beautifully edited video, btw. :D
♥️
the "planning for failure" argument against Iron will is turning a blind eye to the fact that almost all the active perks are ways to either actively stay alive or improve your situation after going down
I had a player use iron will while I was mining a uranium crystal right next to them so I wouldn't take damage while reviving, no bugs around either.
It really is the perk I never take off. That and vampire are permanent staples and have saved far too many missions for me to NOT use them all the time. Truly appreciate this PSA for iron will use. Rock and Stone!
An added note: I'm a scout main and I never run any scout build without berserker + Vampire. Berserker on scout is good for two reasons. First, scout is second to driller for freezing power, be it cryo nades, cryo minelets or cryo bolts which are all very very strong choices. Secondly and much more importantly, power attacking is so fucking strong for mining. If you're playing scout properly you'll be mining all high up minerals during downtime, and without a competent or existing engineer, some scout mains have to delegate this job to hover boots. With berserker you can rapidly smash open holes on high up walls before you can fall down, can quickly dig through terrain, and speedrun any kind of gold vein in an instant, all while still having a strong active perk in emergencies. Pair that with scouts insane mobility and it makes for a great IW run as you nuke a whole bunch of enemies, get back to full and grapple to safety/another player all before the IW buff runs out.
dunno why but I'll always prefer See You In hell to Iron Will. 3 uses per mission instead of one, creates a safe area around you (effectuvely creating a safe are to be revived unless ranged enemies are all around), and more importantly also contributes even if you dont die to make hitting an enemy that just meleed you especially strong. Still helps in hard situations, can do so more per mission, and gives an advantage even if you never go down or after the uses are expended.
As for the "planning for failure" its not an equivalent to the seatbelt situation. Iron will takes an active perk slot, one that could have helped you not die in the first place. Its like in your case choosing between the seatbelt or the ability to avoid the tree altogether.
.. I use both.
I had 0 idea Iron Will buffed you in other ways too holy shit. And while I am the type of Driller Main to exclusively use the flamethrower. I always take the power attack CDR+Vampirism for the situations where I need HP and no red surgar is nearby. Or to slaughter enemies in my way. A favorite combo is power attack>Drill>power attack. Works quite well
I'm fairly certain that with Iron will's invulnerability and Field medic's faster revive speed, you can singlehandedly revive the entire team, provided everyone is right next to each other, and no bugs get in the way and even without field medic you can get two teammates up.
Technically 3 if you count yourself. But what makes field medic so good is the passive boost on top of insta revive.
Seatbelt analogy is spot on
6:28 Holy crap that's beautiful
Drill 'em and grill 'em!
Field medic is an auto include when scouting, you often go down last and can easily revive people realy fast
I used to run IW on all my classes, but I've found I get better survivability running Dash instead. Most games I don't go down a single time (humble brag). This is partly due to gamesense and skill, but also thanks to Dash allowing me to play much more aggressively and kill huge swarms risk-free. In addition, most public lobbies have at least one person running IW, so usually having IW myself is redundant and a waste of a perk slot. On Scout, though, I run IW + Field Medic because Dash is completely reduntant on Scout due to the grappling hook and the shotgun knockback overclock (forget the name). This allows me to effortlessly rescue entire teams due to Scout's mobility like you mentioned in the video.
I was not aware of the power attack cool down buff Iron Will has, nor that It's A Bug Thing works while you are downed so going down in a pile of minerals can lead to slowly being surrounded by a carpet of lootbug minerals as they approach attracted by the loose minerals around you.
Awesome tutorial! Thanks for putting your time into it. Well explained examples
One thing thats worth noting is that you don't need to wait for the entire team to go down. If you have a single player up and they aren't clearing the bugs out fast enough its often better to pop immediately so you have more people clearing bugs sooner. Several mission types get harder as time goes on and even for those that don't, not clearing bugs quickly means you don't get enough time between waves to complete objectives.
Very interesting, loved it! ROCK AND STONE
I remember one time when we all watched a gunner fall into a pit, went down, used Iron Will, fired a zipline too high up and sloooowly made his way up it, then Iron Will wore off and he fell back down the pit. Nobody was using mics and we all just looked at eachother like "Huh.."
What irritates me the most is when you go through the trouble of clearing a 4 man swarm, while you're the only dwarf alive, succeed in it, going for the revive, only to see one or more of your team mates pop their iron will because they grew impatient.
Dash is the most powerful perk bar none. Dash is literally required on all classes except scout, and even then it's kinda required on scout. Iron Will can save a mission, and it's definitely in second place as far as actives, but it saves you once. Dash saves you every 25 seconds, and has movement utility outside of it. Re-supplier is the second most powerful perk, it's just 3 god-tier perks rolled up into one. Iron will is third, and good enough you should probably always pair it with Vampire, unless the difficulty is low enough that you don't need IW, then go with Field Medic or if you're doing true solos Heightened Senses is arguably a competitor.
As a gunner/driller main, I love bringing Iron Will and Vampire.
I find field medic to be more useful because reviving someone quickly can mean the difference between saving your teammate and having enough time to escape alive, and dying because while you were reviving teammate. Plus you can use it more actively than just one time
Dash saved my ass so many times, plus it gives you that boosted jump *chef kiss*
Don't blow those Field Medics early as well! Great vid driller, as always.
I'd love to run the Iron Will + Berserker combo, it sounds fun, but Dash is just too damn powerful to give up. Berserker only makes your last stand a bit better without adding much else, while Dash lets you avoid going down in the first place multiple times a mission and save your Iron Will for as long as possible. I hope we get a perk rework at some point that makes more perks viable (both active and passive) or integrates their effects in some other way.
I remember seeing so many people use IW both in game and on YT and I never understood why since on paper it didnt seem that good. That is, until I found out receiving any health during the Last Stand will keep you alive. That's a huge detail that for some reason isnt listed in the skill description.
Completely unrelated, but the 4-player iron will clip had touhou OSTs in the background, fucking based.
The best use of iron will: finishing off a Hooli Hoarder when it's about to get away.
And people thought I was crazy when I said that IW is easily one of the most powerful perks (back when perk update came). Technically field medic serves very similar purpose but also has a passive that helps you to avoid losing a mission. As long as you're alive you can turn the situation around by insta reviving somebody. Ideally this would be a gunner with a shield near other team mates so you can revive the entire team or most of it. Which is why I have field medic on EVERY build. But on scout and gunner got both IW and field medic.
I mostly agree, but IW before a team wipe can be usefull, sometimes i'll see some other teammate has gone down, and the last two are struggling with a swarm I'll IW ASAP so i can rez the last person and regroup to help. That way you can sort out a swarm faster than waiting to see if the last two manage to pull out or not, and time is really valuable in most missions.
Granted, I tend to pick gunner, so im also carryng a major amount of the teams firepower. With scout these situations may not be as common, but still it's worth considering
I had no idea you could iron will and use vampire, that is genius
There's incorrect stats info about Iron Will's pickaxe dmg and Power Attack cooldown reduction. The correct info on wiki has been up for month and a half, but Drilling in the name of, for some reason, didn't even look there during that period nor tested it himself before presenting it to a wide audience. At the same time, the similar info about Berzerker PA cooldown rate is correct, although I fixed both IW and Berzerker the same day back then on wiki. As a result, incorrect info takes half of screen and it just looks bad.
Thanks for including “sisters” at the end :)
I always hate when me and my friends mess up with the communication and timing of iron will where we all accidentally at once even if we have a whole system of who goes when. The stress of losing a mission that’s going for almost an hour just gets to us all and we forget who goes first
Been using iron will + vampire for the past two years on every dwarf. In my opinion, it is a must have combo
9:10 the sad thing is now you may have to shield 1st due to the new enemy that can yank you to it.
Hey man I had an idea for a video. I’m not sure if it could be done but if anyone can do it you can. Drill out the entire map so there just a giant void. I think this would be the coolest video ever.
If all teammembers are close to one another, field medic is enough to revive 2 teammates and then insta revive the last one meaning you can get everyone up except yourself.
Maybe you can power attack a grunt with vampire and then insta revive -> normal revive -> everyone revives the last guy together you can get the entire team, including yourself, safe with only your own active perks used.
Really been enjoying your content as I have been trying to get more into driller. Could you do a video on your loadouts for driller?
4:01 didnt expect to see Amelia here
Awesome B roll man
Nice advice! It can be easy to forget that you're invincible for the duration and play too safe.
"shit happens sometimes"
oh boy it does, like when a bulk detonator snuck up on me because i was listering to music with on game audio on
boy am i glad bosco counts as multiple revives
The only times I use it while other players are alive is when I know I'm being swarmed badly enough that the last man will get downed trying to reach me, so I'll make a headlong sprint towards them or draw off a large number while grabbing health.
Earlier today I went down to a leech in a team with 3 greenbeards.
Leech was still up, I had no IW equipped, so I told them to not rez me yet until they got the leech first.
What did they do?
The driller made a beeline for me for the rez, no idea of what should be about to hit him.
Meanwhile another one of them just happens to be close enough to catch the leeches aggro and just kept running around unawares with the leech following him.
The driller got me up and I immediately shot the leech, what shouldve probably been a team wipe to that one leech ended up a simple rez through sheer dumb luck.
I was both utterly amazed and deeply worried by these guys.