1:45: They did not actually reduce the splash damage of the Punisher Plasma, they *increased* it. "Decreased damage falloff on the explosion" means that it does full damage further from the point of impact than it used to before losing damage.
See, as someone who used the Grenade Launcher as my "primary" weapon for so long, when they dropped the Punisher Plasma, I took to it instantly. People hated that it was a "shotgun," but you need to treat it like what it really is: an *energy grenade launcher.* It's been phenomenal against bots since it dropped, and has been able to 1 shot Scout Striders through their front plating with ease. Such a truly underrated weapon.
I love playing as mobile artillery with it. You can take plasma punisher, gl, supply backpack, and a mortar for a mostly inderect fire build. Get used to the arc with each one and you can pelt the enemy from behind cover.
i don't really like it since it takes more than half your magazine to kill a single berserker. Good against trash since its splash is large and heavy enough to kill the them with it. But I still prefer dominator since it deals with devastators much more easily upfront.
@@christmasisawesome9348 I know im late, but! With GL, it can be costly but repeated shots should break legs or arms. If you have a height advantage or if it's walking down a hill towards you, you shoot either over it's head or between it's legs to detonate the GL behind its back and hit the Cells. If you are a man of the mortar like the dude you replied to, he can probably drop it on their backs by now if he's still trying 3 weeks later. Of course, any opening at the back is 2-3 grenades to kill the hulk. I think 6 or 7 kill a tank in the back of the gun? Or if you treat it like arty or impact throws, just lob it over onto the tank. From the front. If you don't suck at it like I do, you can take down anything the dropship brings before it lets them go. Even the heavies can each be helpless depending on when and where you get your shots. If the dropship pulls past you and exposed the hulks back in the middle of a bunch of devastators, that's a whole lotta work done in 3 shots. Tank, likewise, is dead if you're within 20 meters of where it lands unless you happened to be staring at it's barrel when it touched down, or if it landed on you. And striders is kinda slow but .. uh. You can shoot off it's mgs (kind of hard to hit), and you can kill it shooting the belly, eyeball, or top of the back, or into the neck joint. And beyond that, any weakspot that gets cracked open like the brain and side plates, if you aren't close when it lands and someone punched a hole in it.
Remember helldivers, the best primary is the primary YOU are best with. the one you enjoy the most and feel the most effective with. SEAF technicians have given us a plethora of options, it's up to us to pick what we're taking in the pod with us!
@@Raionhardtcope what? All of the weapons have advantages and drawbacks. Scorcher is cool, but only like 15 shots a mag, no thanks. I'll take my Adjudicator or Diligence, thanks.
Its because how the bullet travels, it starts slow and gets faster the further it travels. I think its because they're rocket propelled rounds or something like that.
Quick PSA about the plasma punisher: Unless they hotfixed it since yesterday, you can't run the shield backpack with it. It will hit the inside of your shield and explode you. That said, I ran it against bots and thought it was *phenomenal*. No other primary weapon will wipe out 10-15 slightly clumped light enemies as fast. You can run underneath a drops hip and wipe out all the strikers and light robots in just a few shots before they land, and it has enough stagger that berserkers will never be able to touch you. Deals decently with devastators too, but it's a bit ammo inefficient against them. Machine gun emplacement are no problem; just hit somewhere nearby and it's a 1-shot with the splash damage. And once you get used to it, you can use the projectile arc to shoot over a rock or wall and wipe out enemies that can't shoot you back. It's a bit dicey if any melee robots get on top of you since you can easily blow yourself up, but a good pistol or some stun grenades will solve that for you. But yeah, exceptionally fun for its high burst AoE damage, big stagger, and unique tactics with the projectile arc.
@rthj6446 Nah, it's not good that something isn't working as intended. I don't normally use the shield, but I do when trying new weapons for the first time to get a feel for what they can and can't do. For example, I'll expose myself to a rocket devastator if I know I can reliably kill or stagger it to keep myself safe, but if I don't know the capabilities of my weapon, then I can't "consider my positioning" because I don't know what is or isn't a safe/risky place to be yet.
Agreed! The plasma punisher is my favorite secondary weapon to the AMR since it makes up for the AMR's biggest weakness (splash damage) and it can hit targets the AMR can't get line of sight on.
@@AetherShade-b5g exept it has short range and a much higher time to kill then the dominator, the dominator just shoots way faster. so both good options. But if you can consistently land headshots nothing beats the dominator against devistators.
I can’t justify anything but the punisher for my play style. I’m hyper aggressive against the automatons. Stuns, rips devastators apart, evaporates low tier enemies, and can even kill a hulk vent side. I usually use the following load out. -Punisher -Machine Pistol (don’t remember the name) -Impact Grenade -Anti-Material Rifle -Personal Shield Generator -Eagle Airstrike -Orbital Rail-Cannon/110 Rocket Pods/Orbital Laser My general philosophy is to take a weapon I have to be accurate with and one that I do not. Rapid attacks with quick output and knockdown.
The punisher plasma is my go to. There's something really nice about hitting a group of heavy devastators pinning your bros and causing all of them to stop shooting and regain their footing. Sure it's not great on the damage but that stagger makes everyone's life easier, gives breathing room, time to aim shots, and really is a huge QoL for you and your teammates.
The diligence counter sniper is the best imo. 1 shots small enemies like the dominator but handles way way better. Deals with devastators really well too.
@@johnsherry6021 tl;dr for this comment: any bots that aren't very large or striders can be cleanly killed with 2 adjudicator headshots (which deals less damage than counter sniper) if you have clean view of their head. The main thing is that (from my experience with using the adjudicator like a sniper before it got changed) almost all bots are vulnerable to headshots. Basic bots, 1 tapped on head or 2 tapped on chest, for scout striders unless you're unseen to snipe the small portion of head above the shield you'd need something else to kill them, berserkers and all devastators died in 2 headshots. Aside from these examples I didn't find ways to quick kill any heavier enemies with just medium penetration so you'll have to rely on strategems for that, I used spear but use whatever you like.
Appreciate the relative comparisons and opinions! Too many channels simply listing numbers, which honestly is not memorable enough to be useful in practice.
@@pixytorres7117 Yes, and no. The Dominator doesn't explode like that. You're probably thinking of the Scorcher. Said recoil is what makes it hard to use near you, so I never take the Dominator against bugs.
Liberator Pen has been my bot primary for a while. Loving the Adjudicator now with its changes. You have convinced me to give the Punisher Plasma a try. That stagger looks awesome.
great vid! dominator is also a consistent two-shot kill on devastators if you aim for the legs - also ik it wasn't mentioned in the vid, but as far as gunships go, the scorcher is pretty decent at dealing with them if you get separated from your support weapon, takes about a mag and a half or two when shooting the center underside. unsure how dominator or plasma punisher does against them
They said they “reduced the falloff” of the splash damage of the shotgun, essentially making its full damage FURTHER out in the blast, making it more powerful. There was no nerf applied.
I’ve been rocking plasma on bots nonstop and it rocks! Bugs I get swarmed at times. Also don’t let ppl get in your head. I’ve played every difficulty in game and I only dive suicide and up now but whatever gives you joy. Doesn’t mean you have to only Helldive unless you want to. Keep up the good work!
I think you missed a crucial point on the jars crit areas, every place on a devastators body might need 3-5 shots to deal with them, sure it’s nice and all, but you can effectively 2 tap any devastators leg area and I would argue that it’s the most important place to aim especially when dealing with rocket or heavy devastators since you have more real estate to shot at compared to how small the hitbox is on the head.
I was using the Plasma Punisher and the AMR together, but I recently did kind of a primary/support swap side grade. I've started using stun grenades the jump-pack and the Jar5 to take hulks down. Stun>Jump behind>spam Jar into heat sinks= dead hulk Paired with the Arc Thrower for crowds/enemies the Dominator doesn't deal well with has been very satisfying.
the biggest buff they gave to the plas punisher was that they increased the actual size of the projectile, not the explosion but the bullet itself - now it's the size of like a melon and before it was the size of a blueberry which meant it would sneak between enemy's legs or in between their arms or hips and ribs so you'd just miss half the shots even if you aimed as perfectly as you could.
Pretext: I mostly run 7-8. I love the Jar, its the shit when you fight bots since you can deal with most threats in 1-5 shots, for everything that it cant deal with I use the AC or an Eagle Strike. The scouts are annoying enough that I tend to just 1-2 shot them with the AC instead of wasting 2-4 Jar shots on them 😅 The only complaints I have is that the scope doesn't magnify, that it doesn't default to burst, and that the round doesn't seem to strip armour all that well.
The most cracked part of the Plasma is it was THAT good on release. Just the bullet speed was slow so it felt like a hand mortar. Was about the same as using regular thrown impact grenades as a primary. Since the trajectory is about the same as a normally thrown grenade.
I slept on the punisher plasma…. Now it’s my go to for both bots and terminids . But I only use it with the shield generator. The stagger slows them down and crowd control for swarms. Another gun I slept on is the arc-12 blitzed. I stopped using it like the arc thrower and start treating it like a “shotgun” as they said it intended for. The falloff is high on this gun, but up close it is a beast against the terminids. The only real problem I have with it is that it’s too slow when cocking it. You can kill a charger with it after like 15 shots, lol. If I’m around a large rock I and the charger can climb on, I play seasaw with it. I go up, shoot it, it goes up I jump down, shoot it, repeat. It never charges after you. (You can do this with any gun really, just keep in mind small bugs and starkers may lurk about). Most of the time you kill all others around the charger first before playing with your target. Why would I waste time doing this? It’s one of it’s weaknesses I found out during game play. (I know, why do that if you have stun grenades? Some times I don’t have stun grenades.)
Patch 1.04 even after the eruptor nerf of shrapnel damage it takes out striders in one hit + it has a 200m scope. I usually run dominator and autocannon but it was boring running the same guns all the time so I tried eruptor with either stalwart or HMG and its alot of fun. Eruptor also takes out fabricators in one shot when hitting the vents on top
Scythe gang. (Even pre-patch) Idk I play on and its easy for me to aim. Less than half a second ttk on devastators if you can hit the head and anything smaller is a point and click adventure.
This plasma has no range, unlike the Scythe. At lvl 5 plasma just sucked. Too many bots to deal with, constant reload and unable to range hit. Maybe the plasma is better on the harder lvls. I died twice hitting a close target that blew up on me, this doesn't happen with the scythe.
Dominator has insane range and allows you to take out both miniguns on the factory strider within 1 mag if you are accurate with it, it's also the best primary that allows you to solo a factory strider without the need of even using support weapons or stratagems
One of the reasons you probably hated the plasma shotgun before is because it's projectiles often phased through enemies. It made it feel really lacking, but damage wise it's the same as when it was released.
I think it's worth including gunships and factory striders in the mix. Dominator can handle factory striders, and the scorcher can take out gunships, both of which can be huge at times. I started running the scorcher specifically so I always have something to kill gunships with in a pinch.
The JAR wins for me simply because of its ability to negate long-range Rocket/Heavy Devastators. When a Rocket Dev is hammering from afar no other weapon can neutralize it as well as the JAR. Even if you miss it's stunlocked. If you cant headshot it emptying your mag will kill it. The only thing I'd say is to pair it with something that can deal with the chicken legs better. I use the Grenade Pistol or Las cannon for those. Only use the JAR against chicken legs if I can afford the time/bullet loss.
Personally, I appreciate you testing on somewhat lower levels, because many of us play on them. Learning to solo, but not sure I'll ever be good enough to take on 7+.
I want to recommend the tenderizer because it's really accurate, does good enough damage to 2 shot any devastator and the scope has great zoom to go with the great accuracy. . . . But- You gotta be accurate. I'm a decent shot, so I was loving the gun, recommended it to my friends who tried it and they were like "Yeah maybe if you're a good shot this is good but I can't hit those little heads." :\ So uh- yeah. IF you're a decent shot? It pairs super well with the AMR and resupply backpack. Tenderizer can be used for chaff and devastators and the AMR can be used for - everything else. Really nice sniper build
Best primary against bots is still the Sycle. Kneeling w/ ADS is virtually pinpoint meaning headshots are cake. Plus if you don't overheat then you don't have to worry about ammo.
I used to run the sickle because of the pinpoint accuracy as well because I’m a fucking headshot came but when you run on higher difficulties like hell dives, it gets real brutal and I find myself overheating the sickle
the Eruptor is still a primary and with its scope up to 200 it is very nice at hitting the heads over long range on the bots, and does a good amount of damage
Tried the Dominator, Slugger, Eruptor, Adjudicator, Liberator Concussive and Pummeler are all great picks for bots. Dominator being least desired of the listed, due to recoil being pretty rough.
I agree with everything except that the PP is not good versus the bugs. I play 9 only and the PP is so powerful to me, I usually don’t bring a secondary in favor of more eagle/orbital calldowns. My reasoning: it continuously punishes (sorry) breaches, pushes commanders back with ease, can kill a charger or titan if the armor is broken (railcannon plus 1-3 PP shots…search the pipz video), annihilates eggs, and is good at not missing pesky jumping hunters bc of splash damage. My suggestions are to try it with the jetpack (high ground makes this abusive), explosive resist armor, stun grenades (bunch the enemies up for aoe), the redeemer (so you can kill hunters without killing yourself), and any stratagem that you like to kill chargers with (EAT, Quasar, Eagles, orbitals, etc), though if you run jetpack/stun, you can just skip. I put it on the same level w incendiary breaker, eruptor, scorcher, blitzer v bugs. Of course that’s my opinion but I agree with so much of this channel I was surprised to find someI strongly disagree with. Cheers
I've loved the Dominator as headshots aren't as hard as they seem plus the fire rate and lack of damaging yourself is clutch. The P. Punisher always feels lacking in damage where I'm focusing on one enemy for way too long, especially berserkers.
Adjudicator, obviously Deletes devastators with medium pen. 2 shots to the head. Kills striders with ease in full auto, can deal with groups of littles in a pinch. Stun grenades and run around the hulks and kill them from behind. Post buff the gun went from useable if you know it inside out to cooking even on diff 9
Plasma Shot + Railgun is the best combo, with precision Orbital strike and Eagle Air you can deal vs every automaton and solo Kill the Factory Strider (Railgun onetap Hulk ❤)
If you're point blank, does the Plasma Shotgun blow yourself up? That was the big thing that kept me from enjoying the dominator. Also, I do think clip size is a consideration when it comes to body shots. Dominator is usually 3-4 dead devs with a single clip on body shots. Plasma would need them to be close enough for AoE to be relevant in that case, no? All that said, I'll have to give the Plasma Shotgun a try. Well, the next time the major order goes back to automatons anyway.
You'll get knocked back from the Punisher Plasma's shot if you hit something too close, or if you're wearing a shield backpack (the latter is a bug). Killing multiple Devastators with Punisher Plasma shots is possible, but yeah, they need to be close enough. If I'm not mistaken though, the weapon's blast radius increases the further it travels before hitting something, so shooting at them from further away ought to help out to a degree.
Best primary against bots? The Defender SMG Deals with anything that has exposed light armor locations, and that's a lot. Impact nades for walkers and shield devistators and tanks Your support weapon 'should' be able to down hulks/gunships, but I bring a sentry for that so I can bring the stalwart/supply backpack and be the Bullet Hell. Slot 4 is a flex slot, depending on what and how much and where
I really am trying not to be an auto-default Autocannon guy with automatons atm. I've really been looking for a good loadout with the recoilless rifle and this video has made me think that plasma shotgun might be the way to go rn, with the grenade pistol for emergency fabricator clear.
Scorcher/dominator + shield backpack + some anti-tank launcher is a standard bot loadout. Compared to autocanon, you loose some firepower against devastators/striders but gain better defense against shots and the ability to kill tanks/tank turrets/hulks more effectively
I think the normal diligence rifle is the best. I have not tested it since the latest buff but since its a buff I got no complaints. The question is simply if you can one shot devastators or if it is still a 2 shot. Either way, I find that while the diligence is a weak rifle it just barely covers the damage thresholds against bots to become a beast and in exchange for being "weak" it has a lot of ammo, has a good scope and handles like a dream. It is however a gun that expects you to hit your shots to become effective and it struggles against scout striders without armor pen which I compensate by bringing the grenade pistol.
The counter sniper is now better. More damage, better armor pen, new hip fire cross-hair *and* it seems to handle about the same now (i.e. better than Dominator) It's possible the basic one has a hidden stat like more crit damage or something in addition to the extra ammo, but nothing I was able to figure out in normal use.
@@pondracek I disagree. If it can one-shot devastators in the head then that is a big plus but at the same time it comes at the expense of ammo and probably handling (things like moving the gun rapidly). That said its academic now. Thanks to the PSN Sony debacle I will no longer play this game and so I cant test it myself.
@@Dasmaster1 The handling is now indistinguishable between them. (It was massively buffed for the countersniper with the marksman buff, in addition to a hipfire cross-hair added.)
I wish there was a s-tier assault rifle. And yes i know sickle is a sort of assault rifle. But its a laser gun. What i really want is just a reliable assault rifle.
Personally I really dislike the handling of all these weapons, although the dominator isn't too bad, it's just for some reason I find it sometimes passes through enemies like it has ghost shells and I can't work out why. At first I thought it was just poor aim but I've not experienced it with other weapons. It also seems much more noticeable in first person aim. Personally I have to go with the Sickle on cold and normal planets, but on hot planets I go Dominator or Counter Sniper. The handling on the Sickle is just really nice and enjoyable to play while also doing good damage and essentially having infinite ammo, I like to combine with the AMR and rely on eagles for taking out tanks, towers and AT-ATs. It goes great with my scout armour stealth gameplay. I never found the scorcher very enjoyable from a mix of the armour penetration, handling statistics and the amount of luck you need if your aim isn't perfect. The Dominator is the most reliable and easy to use of the choices here for someone with only mediocre aim during more intense engagements where spraying is more realistic, especially if your secondary is the grenade launcher for fab busting, if you have something like a senator or an UZI then I imagine the plasma and scorcher becomes much more ideal but takes away some of your utility
Omitting the diligence CS from this comparison is just negligent. I think the dominator struggles now to justify itself for the non-explosive pure medium armor penetration-based DMR-like weapon choice against bots in light of where the CS now stands after the latest buffs.
scorcher has always been top, and is still top. the only thing i dislike is vs berserkers chainsaw guys. cos u will take often more than 3-4 shots on whichever red parts. Dont forget, theres also another type of enemy now: Gunship.. u are forced not to use plasma shotty when u face these, and will be limited to using support weapons. (ok) Whereas a scorcher can take those down in a few hits :) very reliably when you really need that primary to kill the gunship tank turret towers = 1 shot quasar followed up with 1 shot scorcher . smooth, ez, painless and fast. i m not saying other weapons are no good for bots. but reliability, accuracy, versatility its still easily the top choice.
I love the scorcher, but sometimes it feels less powerful than the dominator. You can kill anything below a Hulk if you know how to use the dominator and exploit weak spots
That is when the scorcher shines. You don't need to be accurate to kill things which is most players do. Especially for players who are using controller where its a bit hard to be accurate.
"why dont you get footage on Helldive difficulty?" Because the enemies behave the eaxct same on ANY difficulty they are available on. The only difference if how many spawn. Of course heavy and massive enemies don't spawn on thevlowest difficulties but a Vile Titan on 6 is the exact same as a Bile Titan on 9 for the purposes of testing out weapon effectiveness. Anybodywho doesn't know that should be informed. And anybody who still wants you to get footage from Helldive difficulty should be sent to Freedom Camp because they just want you to suffer more when you are trying to donthem the swrvice of giving accurate information.
You forgot the biggest downside of the Plasma Shotty: You can't use it with a shield. It literally blows up in your face. Pretty sure it is a bug, but who knows how long it will take to fix?
We used to have 12 mags of like 8 shots, but only half refill economy. Now we get max refill with 8 mags. Can't spam as easily but it's much safer to use at range. Just completely disrespect heavy devastator shield.
1:45: They did not actually reduce the splash damage of the Punisher Plasma, they *increased* it. "Decreased damage falloff on the explosion" means that it does full damage further from the point of impact than it used to before losing damage.
Correct
I kinda remembered that was the case. Myelin was gaslighting me 😉
oh shit, i missed read that. Thanks for the correction
See, as someone who used the Grenade Launcher as my "primary" weapon for so long, when they dropped the Punisher Plasma, I took to it instantly. People hated that it was a "shotgun," but you need to treat it like what it really is: an *energy grenade launcher.* It's been phenomenal against bots since it dropped, and has been able to 1 shot Scout Striders through their front plating with ease. Such a truly underrated weapon.
it's shit
I love playing as mobile artillery with it. You can take plasma punisher, gl, supply backpack, and a mortar for a mostly inderect fire build. Get used to the arc with each one and you can pelt the enemy from behind cover.
@@Exotic-ps7vi How do you deal with Hulk rushing at you?
i don't really like it since it takes more than half your magazine to kill a single berserker.
Good against trash since its splash is large and heavy enough to kill the them with it.
But I still prefer dominator since it deals with devastators much more easily upfront.
@@christmasisawesome9348 I know im late, but!
With GL, it can be costly but repeated shots should break legs or arms. If you have a height advantage or if it's walking down a hill towards you, you shoot either over it's head or between it's legs to detonate the GL behind its back and hit the Cells. If you are a man of the mortar like the dude you replied to, he can probably drop it on their backs by now if he's still trying 3 weeks later.
Of course, any opening at the back is 2-3 grenades to kill the hulk. I think 6 or 7 kill a tank in the back of the gun? Or if you treat it like arty or impact throws, just lob it over onto the tank. From the front.
If you don't suck at it like I do, you can take down anything the dropship brings before it lets them go. Even the heavies can each be helpless depending on when and where you get your shots. If the dropship pulls past you and exposed the hulks back in the middle of a bunch of devastators, that's a whole lotta work done in 3 shots.
Tank, likewise, is dead if you're within 20 meters of where it lands unless you happened to be staring at it's barrel when it touched down, or if it landed on you. And striders is kinda slow but .. uh. You can shoot off it's mgs (kind of hard to hit), and you can kill it shooting the belly, eyeball, or top of the back, or into the neck joint.
And beyond that, any weakspot that gets cracked open like the brain and side plates, if you aren't close when it lands and someone punched a hole in it.
Remember helldivers, the best primary is the primary YOU are best with. the one you enjoy the most and feel the most effective with. SEAF technicians have given us a plethora of options, it's up to us to pick what we're taking in the pod with us!
Wise words! I like using the Scythe on bots, zapping their heads like its a sniper is fun.
Sounds like a load of cope to me
@@Raionhardtcope what?
All of the weapons have advantages and drawbacks.
Scorcher is cool, but only like 15 shots a mag, no thanks.
I'll take my Adjudicator or Diligence, thanks.
Yeah cool story
The best weapon was the democracy we spread along the way.
I love how you formatted your video. You actually answered the Title Question. Testing the weapons and actually trying it IN a Mission is awesome.
I love the JAR but i sometimes get the most inexplicable misses. It almost feels like a aim antiassist is on.
not just me then
I wish they gave it the smallest explosion radius just so all the near misses didn't... Miss.
Its because how the bullet travels, it starts slow and gets faster the further it travels. I think its because they're rocket propelled rounds or something like that.
Skill issue 😂
@@milesprower3957 don't make me issue your skill boah
Quick PSA about the plasma punisher: Unless they hotfixed it since yesterday, you can't run the shield backpack with it. It will hit the inside of your shield and explode you.
That said, I ran it against bots and thought it was *phenomenal*. No other primary weapon will wipe out 10-15 slightly clumped light enemies as fast. You can run underneath a drops hip and wipe out all the strikers and light robots in just a few shots before they land, and it has enough stagger that berserkers will never be able to touch you. Deals decently with devastators too, but it's a bit ammo inefficient against them. Machine gun emplacement are no problem; just hit somewhere nearby and it's a 1-shot with the splash damage. And once you get used to it, you can use the projectile arc to shoot over a rock or wall and wipe out enemies that can't shoot you back. It's a bit dicey if any melee robots get on top of you since you can easily blow yourself up, but a good pistol or some stun grenades will solve that for you.
But yeah, exceptionally fun for its high burst AoE damage, big stagger, and unique tactics with the projectile arc.
Dang I’m gonna have to give it a try now. Waiting for bot drops and bombing them when they drop is one my fav tactics
Good. Bring the supply pack, and consider your positioning instead.
@rthj6446 Nah, it's not good that something isn't working as intended. I don't normally use the shield, but I do when trying new weapons for the first time to get a feel for what they can and can't do. For example, I'll expose myself to a rocket devastator if I know I can reliably kill or stagger it to keep myself safe, but if I don't know the capabilities of my weapon, then I can't "consider my positioning" because I don't know what is or isn't a safe/risky place to be yet.
@@ClearAlera it's fixed
@@DMSBrian24 I heard, hooray!
The best primary is the AMR. 😌
Agreed! The plasma punisher is my favorite secondary weapon to the AMR since it makes up for the AMR's biggest weakness (splash damage) and it can hit targets the AMR can't get line of sight on.
@@ClearAlera that’s a great point. I never use it because of the way it feels but i should give it another chance.
I'd use it if the weapon was properly zeroed.
The Dominator has the stunlock going for it which is such a useful thing, especially against heavy devastators. That chaingun is brutal without.
So does PlasP except that it can stun entire groups
@@AetherShade-b5g exept it has short range and a much higher time to kill then the dominator, the dominator just shoots way faster. so both good options. But if you can consistently land headshots nothing beats the dominator against devistators.
@@MrKoalabeere What about The Punisher?
I know it's a shorter range weapon, but I tend to get up close and personal.
@@redreaper1991 It's a spread pellet shotgun with no armor piercing rounds so it struggles against anything higher than a foot minion.
@@AetherShade-b5g and probably not kill them.
Dominator can 2 tap devastator legs and kills them.
I can’t justify anything but the punisher for my play style. I’m hyper aggressive against the automatons. Stuns, rips devastators apart, evaporates low tier enemies, and can even kill a hulk vent side. I usually use the following load out.
-Punisher
-Machine Pistol (don’t remember the name)
-Impact Grenade
-Anti-Material Rifle
-Personal Shield Generator
-Eagle Airstrike
-Orbital Rail-Cannon/110 Rocket Pods/Orbital Laser
My general philosophy is to take a weapon I have to be accurate with and one that I do not. Rapid attacks with quick output and knockdown.
@guyincle126 It’s definitely good, just not my tempo
Punisher slaps hard, and it makes you *feel* like that shock trooper storming an enemy position.
@@arcshadowstorm A-right
I picked up the punisher super early and just feel like I get over run with anything else, the stagger is absolutely phenomenal
@@crestfallensunbro6001 Yeah, even the Breaker doesn’t quite hold up even pre nerf.
The plasma punisher was always good, now it’s just great. Welcome to the PP gang!
Curved PP gang unite
Does faster projectiles result in less curve?
I haven't tried it after the patch
Long PP gang up
@@gzrittzzg2463 hell yea
🍆 🍆🍆
@@kamikeserpentail3778no; it just follows its old path faster
Scorcher is my go to.
Hell yeah brother, it's too versatile to pick anything else really, it would be cool to have a battle buddy with the punisher plasma though
Scorcher is GOAT, run it with a auto-cannon and you're set.
Been lovin the Plas Punisher since it came out, it’s only gotten better
Great list and explanation. These are all good vs bugs too imo.
Finally a video that goes in depth on this stuff instead of just saying some buzzwords about the newest buffed weapon. This was helpful
The punisher plasma is my go to. There's something really nice about hitting a group of heavy devastators pinning your bros and causing all of them to stop shooting and regain their footing. Sure it's not great on the damage but that stagger makes everyone's life easier, gives breathing room, time to aim shots, and really is a huge QoL for you and your teammates.
The diligence counter sniper is the best imo. 1 shots small enemies like the dominator but handles way way better. Deals with devastators really well too.
It's the Counter Sniper 🤙
Aimdivers eating good!
Used it a bunch today. Very impressed.
I’m gonna have to give it another shot
@@johnsherry6021
tl;dr for this comment: any bots that aren't very large or striders can be cleanly killed with 2 adjudicator headshots (which deals less damage than counter sniper) if you have clean view of their head.
The main thing is that (from my experience with using the adjudicator like a sniper before it got changed) almost all bots are vulnerable to headshots. Basic bots, 1 tapped on head or 2 tapped on chest, for scout striders unless you're unseen to snipe the small portion of head above the shield you'd need something else to kill them, berserkers and all devastators died in 2 headshots. Aside from these examples I didn't find ways to quick kill any heavier enemies with just medium penetration so you'll have to rely on strategems for that, I used spear but use whatever you like.
a worse jar dominator with misaligned scope, nice
Thanks mate, youve gotten me to rethink the "shotgun". Ive always thought of it more as a grenade gun myself, but it dosnt matter really.
Appreciate the relative comparisons and opinions! Too many channels simply listing numbers, which honestly is not memorable enough to be useful in practice.
Absolutely outstanding! Thank you so much, brother!
Its the countersniper imo. Can one tap devastator heads. Its so nice
So can the dominator
@@Blarbo worse recoil and can't use it near you because the explosion will kill you.
@@pixytorres7117 Yes, and no. The Dominator doesn't explode like that. You're probably thinking of the Scorcher. Said recoil is what makes it hard to use near you, so I never take the Dominator against bugs.
Sniper has better scope and handling
Even its rel. good handling is not good enough to grant likely headshots
I don’t have all these weapons, but Diligence Counter Sniper is serving me well.
I've literally have been using that sniper recently since I wanted a change in loadout and damn, I really love it
Yup me too - been my go to primary for bots for ages
Great video man. Well made
Liberator Pen has been my bot primary for a while. Loving the Adjudicator now with its changes. You have convinced me to give the Punisher Plasma a try. That stagger looks awesome.
great vid! dominator is also a consistent two-shot kill on devastators if you aim for the legs - also ik it wasn't mentioned in the vid, but as far as gunships go, the scorcher is pretty decent at dealing with them if you get separated from your support weapon, takes about a mag and a half or two when shooting the center underside. unsure how dominator or plasma punisher does against them
Dilligent Counter Sniper
counter point, the jar looks siiick
They said they “reduced the falloff” of the splash damage of the shotgun, essentially making its full damage FURTHER out in the blast, making it more powerful. There was no nerf applied.
I’ve been rocking plasma on bots nonstop and it rocks! Bugs I get swarmed at times. Also don’t let ppl get in your head. I’ve played every difficulty in game and I only dive suicide and up now but whatever gives you joy. Doesn’t mean you have to only Helldive unless you want to. Keep up the good work!
I think you missed a crucial point on the jars crit areas, every place on a devastators body might need 3-5 shots to deal with them, sure it’s nice and all, but you can effectively 2 tap any devastators leg area and I would argue that it’s the most important place to aim especially when dealing with rocket or heavy devastators since you have more real estate to shot at compared to how small the hitbox is on the head.
Rally nice summary and reasoning even statistics! Concise and on point. Wish i saw this long ago.. but the game changes all the time.. :D
I was using the Plasma Punisher and the AMR together, but I recently did kind of a primary/support swap side grade.
I've started using stun grenades the jump-pack and the Jar5 to take hulks down.
Stun>Jump behind>spam Jar into heat sinks= dead hulk
Paired with the Arc Thrower for crowds/enemies the Dominator doesn't deal well with has been very satisfying.
I like the breakdown. I've been enjoying the plasma as well. Even switching to stuns for bots. Thinking of making a build vid around it
Plasma has been my main weapon since before the update. And this was honestly a good feeling rebalance. Ammo has never really been an issue even now.
the biggest buff they gave to the plas punisher was that they increased the actual size of the projectile, not the explosion but the bullet itself - now it's the size of like a melon and before it was the size of a blueberry which meant it would sneak between enemy's legs or in between their arms or hips and ribs so you'd just miss half the shots even if you aimed as perfectly as you could.
I wish the Punisher Plasma had a larger magazine.
Pretext: I mostly run 7-8.
I love the Jar, its the shit when you fight bots since you can deal with most threats in 1-5 shots, for everything that it cant deal with I use the AC or an Eagle Strike.
The scouts are annoying enough that I tend to just 1-2 shot them with the AC instead of wasting 2-4 Jar shots on them 😅
The only complaints I have is that the scope doesn't magnify, that it doesn't default to burst, and that the round doesn't seem to strip armour all that well.
Why would you want a gun you're trying to one-tap headshots with to default to burst-fire?
Really neat and easy to understand video. Do more HD2 content. Ty for the upload.
I love how the reload for the PP is shoving a triple A battery in it
i looove the JAR-5 so much ngl
The most cracked part of the Plasma is it was THAT good on release. Just the bullet speed was slow so it felt like a hand mortar. Was about the same as using regular thrown impact grenades as a primary. Since the trajectory is about the same as a normally thrown grenade.
I slept on the punisher plasma…. Now it’s my go to for both bots and terminids . But I only use it with the shield generator. The stagger slows them down and crowd control for swarms. Another gun I slept on is the arc-12 blitzed. I stopped using it like the arc thrower and start treating it like a “shotgun” as they said it intended for. The falloff is high on this gun, but up close it is a beast against the terminids. The only real problem I have with it is that it’s too slow when cocking it. You can kill a charger with it after like 15 shots, lol. If I’m around a large rock I and the charger can climb on, I play seasaw with it. I go up, shoot it, it goes up I jump down, shoot it, repeat. It never charges after you. (You can do this with any gun really, just keep in mind small bugs and starkers may lurk about). Most of the time you kill all others around the charger first before playing with your target. Why would I waste time doing this? It’s one of it’s weaknesses I found out during game play. (I know, why do that if you have stun grenades? Some times I don’t have stun grenades.)
So which is the best? The jar, scorl, or plusmn?
Eruptor is still king for me, but i am looking forward to trying the counter sniper on bots when the MO takes us there again
Plasma Punisher, people just don't understand.
I've been maining scorcher for ages now but the new counter diligence marksman buff letting them one shot devastators to the head is absolute gas
If you can handle the bullet drop the plasma punisher is great from range. The further the shot travels, the wider the splash damage area.
Patch 1.04 even after the eruptor nerf of shrapnel damage it takes out striders in one hit + it has a 200m scope. I usually run dominator and autocannon but it was boring running the same guns all the time so I tried eruptor with either stalwart or HMG and its alot of fun. Eruptor also takes out fabricators in one shot when hitting the vents on top
Scythe gang. (Even pre-patch) Idk I play on and its easy for me to aim. Less than half a second ttk on devastators if you can hit the head and anything smaller is a point and click adventure.
This plasma has no range, unlike the Scythe. At lvl 5 plasma just sucked. Too many bots to deal with, constant reload and unable to range hit. Maybe the plasma is better on the harder lvls. I died twice hitting a close target that blew up on me, this doesn't happen with the scythe.
@@sonicsonar Been using the Punisher Plasma on Helldive and been loving it.
Dominator has insane range and allows you to take out both miniguns on the factory strider within 1 mag if you are accurate with it, it's also the best primary that allows you to solo a factory strider without the need of even using support weapons or stratagems
But you always have strategems... Superheavy units are too rare to base your choice of main weapon on them.
Knight with recoil reduction armor. On 9, controlling flair gun use is more important than effectively killing enemies.
One of the reasons you probably hated the plasma shotgun before is because it's projectiles often phased through enemies. It made it feel really lacking, but damage wise it's the same as when it was released.
I think it's worth including gunships and factory striders in the mix. Dominator can handle factory striders, and the scorcher can take out gunships, both of which can be huge at times. I started running the scorcher specifically so I always have something to kill gunships with in a pinch.
did not know scorcher could take out gunships. I bring a laser cannon just for that lol
The JAR wins for me simply because of its ability to negate long-range Rocket/Heavy Devastators. When a Rocket Dev is hammering from afar no other weapon can neutralize it as well as the JAR. Even if you miss it's stunlocked. If you cant headshot it emptying your mag will kill it.
The only thing I'd say is to pair it with something that can deal with the chicken legs better. I use the Grenade Pistol or Las cannon for those. Only use the JAR against chicken legs if I can afford the time/bullet loss.
Personally, I appreciate you testing on somewhat lower levels, because many of us play on them. Learning to solo, but not sure I'll ever be good enough to take on 7+.
The enemies work the same, so it makes sense to test weapons on lower levels to know which spots are more efficient to shoot.
I want to recommend the tenderizer because it's really accurate, does good enough damage to 2 shot any devastator and the scope has great zoom to go with the great accuracy.
. . . But-
You gotta be accurate. I'm a decent shot, so I was loving the gun, recommended it to my friends who tried it and they were like "Yeah maybe if you're a good shot this is good but I can't hit those little heads."
:\ So uh- yeah. IF you're a decent shot? It pairs super well with the AMR and resupply backpack. Tenderizer can be used for chaff and devastators and the AMR can be used for - everything else. Really nice sniper build
Best primary against bots is still the Sycle. Kneeling w/ ADS is virtually pinpoint meaning headshots are cake. Plus if you don't overheat then you don't have to worry about ammo.
Disagree. Not enough punch to compete with the 3 in this video.
@@crewthief1431 You don't need punch for headshots. Your secondary weapon can handle the big bois.
@@germinvermin I prefer the Dominator (of the 3). I never really cared for the Sickle; I don’t like the windup. To each his own.
I used to run the sickle because of the pinpoint accuracy as well because I’m a fucking headshot came but when you run on higher difficulties like hell dives, it gets real brutal and I find myself overheating the sickle
@@Bloody_Crusader I play 9's with it and I sometimes overheat. I prefer bugs to bots though.
With the way that aoe damage works on tanks, the plas punisher is probably a tank buster, too.
Why is the eruptor considered basically a support weapon?
Used the be a sickle boy but after using the punisher plasma gotta say. Dont think my sickle will be seeing much action now.
What is your favorite weapon and why is it the autocannon?
the Eruptor is still a primary and with its scope up to 200 it is very nice at hitting the heads over long range on the bots, and does a good amount of damage
Tried the Dominator, Slugger, Eruptor, Adjudicator, Liberator Concussive and Pummeler are all great picks for bots.
Dominator being least desired of the listed, due to recoil being pretty rough.
Imo if it doesn’t stagger im not using it against bots. Devastators simply punish too much.
I agree with everything except that the PP is not good versus the bugs. I play 9 only and the PP is so powerful to me, I usually don’t bring a secondary in favor of more eagle/orbital calldowns.
My reasoning: it continuously punishes (sorry) breaches, pushes commanders back with ease, can kill a charger or titan if the armor is broken (railcannon plus 1-3 PP shots…search the pipz video), annihilates eggs, and is good at not missing pesky jumping hunters bc of splash damage.
My suggestions are to try it with the jetpack (high ground makes this abusive), explosive resist armor, stun grenades (bunch the enemies up for aoe), the redeemer (so you can kill hunters without killing yourself), and any stratagem that you like to kill chargers with (EAT, Quasar, Eagles, orbitals, etc), though if you run jetpack/stun, you can just skip.
I put it on the same level w incendiary breaker, eruptor, scorcher, blitzer v bugs.
Of course that’s my opinion but I agree with so much of this channel I was surprised to find someI strongly disagree with. Cheers
Counter sniper and plasma punisher are probably the two best primaries for dealing with automatons
I've loved the Dominator as headshots aren't as hard as they seem plus the fire rate and lack of damaging yourself is clutch. The P. Punisher always feels lacking in damage where I'm focusing on one enemy for way too long, especially berserkers.
Everything that stuns a shield devestator is good
Plasma has been my favorite weapon since it released. And now that everyone thinks its the best my baby is gonna get nerfed to the fucking ground.
Had the same thought. 😅😅
My best primary is the autocannon lol I use it like a primary
Buffed the punsiher to king now, use to be my go to before all the buffs. Had a bit of a learning curve well.
I'm staying with my good ol' reliable, the plas-1 Scorcher.
Adjudicator, obviously
Deletes devastators with medium pen. 2 shots to the head. Kills striders with ease in full auto, can deal with groups of littles in a pinch. Stun grenades and run around the hulks and kill them from behind. Post buff the gun went from useable if you know it inside out to cooking even on diff 9
The JAR is one beefy weapon. Kicks like a horse and hits even harder.
Honestly I think it’s between the punisher plasma and the CS. Plasma for CC and the CS for single target.
Plasma Shot + Railgun is the best combo, with precision Orbital strike and Eagle Air you can deal vs every automaton and solo Kill the Factory Strider (Railgun onetap Hulk ❤)
If you're point blank, does the Plasma Shotgun blow yourself up? That was the big thing that kept me from enjoying the dominator.
Also, I do think clip size is a consideration when it comes to body shots. Dominator is usually 3-4 dead devs with a single clip on body shots. Plasma would need them to be close enough for AoE to be relevant in that case, no?
All that said, I'll have to give the Plasma Shotgun a try. Well, the next time the major order goes back to automatons anyway.
You'll get knocked back from the Punisher Plasma's shot if you hit something too close, or if you're wearing a shield backpack (the latter is a bug).
Killing multiple Devastators with Punisher Plasma shots is possible, but yeah, they need to be close enough. If I'm not mistaken though, the weapon's blast radius increases the further it travels before hitting something, so shooting at them from further away ought to help out to a degree.
Best primary against bots?
The Defender SMG
Deals with anything that has exposed light armor locations, and that's a lot.
Impact nades for walkers and shield devistators and tanks
Your support weapon 'should' be able to down hulks/gunships, but I bring a sentry for that so I can bring the stalwart/supply backpack and be the Bullet Hell. Slot 4 is a flex slot, depending on what and how much and where
The dominator is so hard to aim if your not standing still or your turning
Non of those, eruptor ❤ since it came out never changed it, its recieving a buff on 9th 😂
This didn't age well
I enjoy using the new smg. It stuns all enemies so they aren't much of a threat. Combo with a ballistic shield and I stay mostly untouched
I really am trying not to be an auto-default Autocannon guy with automatons atm. I've really been looking for a good loadout with the recoilless rifle and this video has made me think that plasma shotgun might be the way to go rn, with the grenade pistol for emergency fabricator clear.
Scorcher/dominator + shield backpack + some anti-tank launcher is a standard bot loadout. Compared to autocanon, you loose some firepower against devastators/striders but gain better defense against shots and the ability to kill tanks/tank turrets/hulks more effectively
The Eruptor is still king for me
I think the tenderizer is slept on with 95 dmg and no recoil
I think the normal diligence rifle is the best. I have not tested it since the latest buff but since its a buff I got no complaints. The question is simply if you can one shot devastators or if it is still a 2 shot. Either way, I find that while the diligence is a weak rifle it just barely covers the damage thresholds against bots to become a beast and in exchange for being "weak" it has a lot of ammo, has a good scope and handles like a dream.
It is however a gun that expects you to hit your shots to become effective and it struggles against scout striders without armor pen which I compensate by bringing the grenade pistol.
The counter sniper is now better.
More damage, better armor pen, new hip fire cross-hair *and* it seems to handle about the same now (i.e. better than Dominator)
It's possible the basic one has a hidden stat like more crit damage or something in addition to the extra ammo, but nothing I was able to figure out in normal use.
@@pondracek I disagree. If it can one-shot devastators in the head then that is a big plus but at the same time it comes at the expense of ammo and probably handling (things like moving the gun rapidly).
That said its academic now. Thanks to the PSN Sony debacle I will no longer play this game and so I cant test it myself.
@@Dasmaster1 The handling is now indistinguishable between them. (It was massively buffed for the countersniper with the marksman buff, in addition to a hipfire cross-hair added.)
@@pondracek Might be interesting then. Sad I could not try it out.
Love the dominator, its as close to a Warhammer 40k bolter as you can currently get. They shouldn't have nerfed it.
I wish there was a s-tier assault rifle. And yes i know sickle is a sort of assault rifle. But its a laser gun. What i really want is just a reliable assault rifle.
Personally I really dislike the handling of all these weapons, although the dominator isn't too bad, it's just for some reason I find it sometimes passes through enemies like it has ghost shells and I can't work out why. At first I thought it was just poor aim but I've not experienced it with other weapons. It also seems much more noticeable in first person aim.
Personally I have to go with the Sickle on cold and normal planets, but on hot planets I go Dominator or Counter Sniper.
The handling on the Sickle is just really nice and enjoyable to play while also doing good damage and essentially having infinite ammo, I like to combine with the AMR and rely on eagles for taking out tanks, towers and AT-ATs. It goes great with my scout armour stealth gameplay.
I never found the scorcher very enjoyable from a mix of the armour penetration, handling statistics and the amount of luck you need if your aim isn't perfect. The Dominator is the most reliable and easy to use of the choices here for someone with only mediocre aim during more intense engagements where spraying is more realistic, especially if your secondary is the grenade launcher for fab busting, if you have something like a senator or an UZI then I imagine the plasma and scorcher becomes much more ideal but takes away some of your utility
Omitting the diligence CS from this comparison is just negligent. I think the dominator struggles now to justify itself for the non-explosive pure medium armor penetration-based DMR-like weapon choice against bots in light of where the CS now stands after the latest buffs.
scorcher has always been top, and is still top. the only thing i dislike is vs berserkers chainsaw guys. cos u will take often more than 3-4 shots on whichever red parts.
Dont forget, theres also another type of enemy now: Gunship.. u are forced not to use plasma shotty when u face these, and will be limited to using support weapons. (ok) Whereas a scorcher can take those down in a few hits :) very reliably when you really need that primary to kill the gunship
tank turret towers = 1 shot quasar followed up with 1 shot scorcher . smooth, ez, painless and fast.
i m not saying other weapons are no good for bots. but reliability, accuracy, versatility its still easily the top choice.
Except not being able to kill striders i love the counter sniper for easy devastator headshots
I love the scorcher, but sometimes it feels less powerful than the dominator. You can kill anything below a Hulk if you know how to use the dominator and exploit weak spots
That is when the scorcher shines. You don't need to be accurate to kill things which is most players do. Especially for players who are using controller where its a bit hard to be accurate.
Thing is, it actually does deal less overall damage than a dominator
For me plasma punisher because it stuns almost everyone and the splash damage is good. Support amr for ranged.
the best primary of these three will
mostly depend on your load out and your squads load out.
"why dont you get footage on Helldive difficulty?"
Because the enemies behave the eaxct same on ANY difficulty they are available on. The only difference if how many spawn.
Of course heavy and massive enemies don't spawn on thevlowest difficulties but a Vile Titan on 6 is the exact same as a Bile Titan on 9 for the purposes of testing out weapon effectiveness. Anybodywho doesn't know that should be informed. And anybody who still wants you to get footage from Helldive difficulty should be sent to Freedom Camp because they just want you to suffer more when you are trying to donthem the swrvice of giving accurate information.
You forgot the biggest downside of the Plasma Shotty: You can't use it with a shield. It literally blows up in your face. Pretty sure it is a bug, but who knows how long it will take to fix?
Personally I use the defender ballistic shield combo with a quasar cannon also
Buuuut the Eruptor is not a support weapon…
I’m going to be picking between these and the eruptor. Would have been nice to see it in here too.
Best primary is the Autocannon, with the Sickle as a support weapon.
We used to have 12 mags of like 8 shots, but only half refill economy. Now we get max refill with 8 mags. Can't spam as easily but it's much safer to use at range. Just completely disrespect heavy devastator shield.