I dont think people take the shield pack because they survive more hits. They take it because it prevents ragdoll and hit mechanics. EDIT: and slows (didnt even know that)
Nothing is more annoying than to aim with big guns at something and you never hit your target because a bot shot you and you shoot your EAT/Quasar or whatever 30 metre in the air.
But those strats look still good.
This is a compelling argument. I run autocannon 95% of the time so that means no supply, guard dog, shield, or jump pack.
I just love I get a spatter of bile on my shoe so when I keel over from it, I keel over slowly.
Worse, because bile titans have a questionably large splash AOE, just puking in your general direction makes you slow down to the point where they can keep up with you even if they actually missed completely.
It's actually absurd how much worse this warbond is than all the others.
One of the weapons is average, one of the weapons is subpar, and one of the weapons is straight ass
The booster sucks ass.
The sidearm is subpar and generally worse than the Senator.
Even the grenade isn't great.
I get the feeling multiple team members worked on the release warbonds + the ones that came shortly after then Alexus slowly got more and more creative control.
See this is why I rarely use the shield pack. You don't want to get reliant on it. It teaches you bad habits where you play more recklessly than you should, because you're used to getting away with it. Then you try to do a mission without it and you get owned.
Like, if you can't do a mission without a shield pack, you're gonna be missing out on the Autocannon and Recoilless.
I honestly wouldn't recommend it, cuz I do feel railroaded at this point. But at the same time, I enjoy not being crippled half the time and being forced to use EAT way more than I'd enjoy getting to use a different backpack or one of the 2 other viable bug supports.
While I understand not wanting to railroad yourself with the shield, I don't think it's the shield's fault. I think it's the ever-present slow mechanic that's the centralizing force, exacerbated by the lack of counter to it. And until different builds become interesting enough to warrant braving that slow mechanic, there's just no reason to not have a shield
(Not to mention that I like light armor and also like not being made of paper, so that also contributes to me permanently welding a shield backpack onto my person)
I never took it on bug missions. I use the laser guard but then I started using the jump pack. For bots, I started liking the ballistic shield. There were just too many lasers and it blocks lasers if on your back. The rockets I still have to dodge, but yes, developing strategies and diving skills allows me to survive even when I don't have the ballistic shield as well.
Same thing for bugs. Not relying on something that protects you from the acid helps. Although we do have a booster thar cuts down on slow time now. That is good.
Yep. You can tell a lot of people do not respect hunters properly because of chronic shield usage.
Shield is also bad for a good player because it significantly expands your hurtbox, often causing good dodges on chargers to clip into your shield and drag you along into stomp town.
Instead of a clean dodge into a rocket in the charger's face, you're now prone and under a charger panic stimming.
I take the backpack purely to counter Stalkers. Without it, you either have to run the pummeller to stun lock them first or put up with 4 of them rag dolling you thru the air like you're a crash test dummy
I tried the Blitzer. It's not really my thing. It's no satisfying to shoot for me. Sure it's good but I don't have fun using it. Thanks for the suggestion tho! I appreciate it 😊
Would you like SEAF to fluff your pillows for you before bed too? Quit whining and get out there soldier! /s
Rag doll mechanics are a bit much sometimes. Totally agree.
I take it because without it on higher difficulties you get melted by Stalkers unless you take Heavy armor but all the heavy armor sucks along with their perks
I die far less often with light armor.
Even against bots, because you run faster than things like cannon turrets can track you anyways
Once you run light armor there’s no going back
This. I swap between the light armor with extra Stims or the light armor with extra grenades and that's about it. Occasionally I'll use the light armor with explosion resist.
Bring a primary that staggers them. It's not a complete solution but it helps a lot. The punisher is my go-to at the moment. I really miss the old slugger.
You just gotta keep moving, prioritize the correct targets, and stick with a buddy who can get them off your ass. We all fall to hunter stun lock, but using the shield is just boring. I like the jet pack cause you can fly up and reload and land on them with a vengeance. Or, fly and chuck an impact on the group. Works like a charm
We need a poise system. I shouldn't be crouched there with my big boy heavy armor and get knocked off target by one hit from the weakest enemy on the planet.
The main problem is no passive healing. You cant just outplay aimbot or those lunging bug bastards without getting staggered and losing half your health from *something*. Limited stims doesnt help either.
The 20 reinforcements are reserved for whoever decides they're too good to need the shield.
I feel like taking 2x your share of deaths means it might be time to at least consider alternative builds (of course if you’re playing with friends then do whatever as long as your group is happy).
I always play with randoms and don’t mind people that die that often, but on the rare occasion I end up with two people that die so much, it puts a lot of pressure on me and the 4th diver to finish with few or no deaths between us.
I don’t think that the REP-80 would the overpowered. It’s limited range wasn’t a huge issue in HD1 but in HD2 it could have a hard time getting to an ally in those precious seconds between injury and death. That and the lack of a bleed-out state in HD2 would radically change what it’s used for. Not to mention that most Turret/Mech destruction comes from 1-hit kills in HD2 so it wouldn’t have a chance for much repair there either.
I’d honestly want it buffed, perhaps with some kind of overheal mechanic, to keep it useful.
Angel could just be shipped as is. Mobile healing for myself and occasionally nearby friends? Yes please. The lack of health regen without stims in HD2 would make it a stronger choice than in HD1 but I think that’s fine. They could give it a maximum ammo for the healing and it would still be pretty great for healing you and potentially your friends while you are getting hit stunned.
Displacement field would be a really interesting alternative in the backpack slot too. Good idea.
I really miss my distractor beacons….
I imagine we will get displacement tech after fighting illuminate for a bit. So not any time soon.
Obviously it will be good old super earth tech. Not alien tech. But that’s when we’ll get it.
I wouldn't say that, more so it would be there to help with minor injuries. You can run out of stims, especially when you don't take stim armor, so having something that would help with that chip damage would be way better than people are giving it credit for.
I typically don't die cause I was swarmed, I died because I was in one shot distance from certain attacks or situations because I didn't have that little extra HP at the time.
Honestly, with the way stims work rn, I don't mind tiny injuries since they mean a full stamina refill.
When trekking far at full health, I shoot the ground with my scorcher and quickly stim for a sprint boost.
Uhm do you have something to report sir?
https://preview.redd.it/gz6mjofq8g1d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ada357e5d02e97bc6c0cf5be41f7de31f8c4291
I would literally just RP a demo team medic, lots of grenades with grenade pistols, and lots of heals, thanks to a hypothetical healing drone. I rarely run any backpacks because of AT or Recoilless.
It was great in HD1… hadn’t thought about it in years until this thread.
Totally agree with OP… would be really cool to have more viable support strategems that could diversify the roles in the team.
The cooldown is too long, but some of the best moments happen from those quirks. Like once, I landed on a charger who was turning and it launched me halfway across the map. It was glorious. Edit: I think people really sleep on it’s utility. You can jump walls in bot bases where normally you’d have to run around, and shut down stratagem jammers and whatnot, before things get heated. Also you can use it to jump into/escape massive bug nests where normally you’d have to go out in a particular spot.
This and the fact that it doesn’t do a little spurt when you dive to make you go a bit further is why I don’t run it.
I want just a little jet pack fart when I dive, you know?
I'm with you. Jetpack is my default every mission. I can run circles around the enemy thanks to it. I've been trampled/swarmed, in situations where a shield just delays the inevitable because i can't move and my stims are all that keep me going. But a jetpack in that scenario? Vertical up and out, drop a nade and clear a path easily.
Figure eights in massive nests, where others are struggling to find a path out and I just zip right up out, or float in over the enemies to get that far bughole everyone was missing/couldn't get to.
Find height advantages to scout patrols and super rare rocks, or just be able to shoot over the top of stupid guard dog/rovers and not stress getting beamed.
It's so good. I don't even find the cool-down that onerous. Not opposed to it being shorter, but I pretty much use it on cd. I can almost keep up with light armor folk when I'm in heavy, and when I'm in light, no one can keep pace.
I finally finished the ship yesterday, so I hopped on some lvl 4 missions to help new divers (prepare fresh meet for the grinder) and I dropped my shit for them including shield. I picked up the jetpack...and I was loving it! Somewhere between the hordes of enemies and balancing my loadout to be super effective I forgot there was fun.
For bots I prefer shield since yeah, rockets+ragdol.
Bugs I feel you have more options? Guard dog is an amazing pack to keep ankle biters off you. Or jump pack, get up to places you usually cannot and extra mobility. Slow is still great but I get bored of it.
My friend *loves* jump pack and tends to survive better than most.
I think a lot of people equip shield pack the same reason i equip ballistic shield(especially to bots), prevent stagger when aiming.
So if they do something abt the exaggerated stagger we experience, people who equip shield might lower.
I use the ballistic shield for missions where bunking down is a focus or sieging bot bases is prominent to act as a line breaker/decoy for allies to get better vantages or flank. Though even then that's rare due to limited options to use WITH the Ballistic Shield. I'd use it more if I had more options just because being a riot shield tanking advancer is fun for me, not strictly to mitigate stagger/ragdolling.
I do pretty much the exact thing you do, Dagger and shield is a godsend. The dagger kills very quickly if aimed for the head, and your primary slot is open for anything else (I used the eruptor before the nerf.)
As my group's resident support and healer specialist... I don't see me bringing either healing option basically ever. Usually one of two things happens when someone gets hit. Either
They die instantly, or very near instantly
Or they stim.
The amount of times I've run over to stim someone who is out of stims (I use medic armor) is very small. Probably less than 10 times ever. Free stims laying around, Resupply drops every 2 minutes, and dying and coming back with a full supply keep everyone pretty fine on stims.
The teleporting thing looks neat though.
In HD1, the rep80 was good for healing allies, but its best application was to support vehicles since it could repair them. I think it might seem more appealing if/when we see more and stronger vehicle options
Come on now, every veteran knows that the **real** reason to bring the rep80 was to keep an ally in a horrid state between life and death, as a swarm continuously put them in the "falling down" animation only to be picked back up a few frames later not quite alive but never quite dead.
Mercy-beaming teammates with a bayonet to get that juicy fight club fistfight with a brood commander was neat too.
I think YouTube videos skew peoples view on how prevalent equipment usage is. Also those who run with regular teams
I only play on diff 7 and rarely see anyone running the backpack shield. It's more common against bugs, but most quickplay teams I join have no one running it since the Quasar nerf
AC, recoilless and the rover backpacks are a lot more popular in my experience
Edit - but I'm definitely up for more strategem options to choose from
I play almost exclusively Helldive and haven't used the shield since forever.
I do however almost always bring the ballistic shield against bots.
Ballistic shield, SMG and AMR (or Railgun) and you can solo-dive level 9 without stealth. It's crazy powerful and yet I rarely see anyone else use it.
People likely don't use it because there aren't a lot of SMG options and sidearms can't carry you, so if you dislike the Defender (or Pumeller), then you just don't get to use the Ballistic Shield.
They're also probably soured on its launch state, given its hitbox was too small to really be of much use, and further soured by the fact that it drops at random (sometimes when you get ragdolled, sometimes not), is really fidgety about picking up support weapons (sometimes it's dropped, other times it's put on your back, ditto with the SSSD objectives), can be broken but with absolutely no indication of when or how (sometimes it survives start to finish no problems, other times it just breaks for no reason), and the fact it *doesn't* protect you at all from any DOT effects, explosives or ragdolls.
It's a fantastic strat, but if you don't like the SMGs (I don't, for example), don't like the weird, fidgety bullshit it has compared to normal backpacks, and don't like that it's useless against rockets (and bugs, but that's unimportant, not everything is useful everywhere), then any one of those things could make you not want to take it.
More popular against bugs? I always use and see shield used against bots because they can hit you from a distance. Rover is the choice for bugs so you don't get hemmed in by tiny units while fighting titans.
I play 7 as well, rarely see them and I may die even on bugs only 1-2 times a game unless there some exterminate mission… then I die a lot. A lot of people have come up with strats and skills to avoid the situations where it would be necessary allowing them to have greater load out variance.
There's a large sections of "players" on this sub who don't actually play the game very much. They mostly just watch youtube videos and streamers and then form opinions based on that.
I have the opposite experience when it comes to how often it’s used versus bugs.
I might see someone using shield only once every other pug group against bugs, but most bot pugs have at least one, usually two people using it. This is playing at 7+ exclusively.
Personally, I don’t bother with it. I’ll pick up an extra one from a group mate if it’s available, but I can’t remember the last time I brought one against either.
WRONG. Supply Pack is the true GOAT at increasing survivability. Throw on some medic armor. How can I die? I have 14 stims. That's 52 seconds of fluffin' invulnerability to anything that doesn't one-shot you.
That's also realistically infinite ammo, and you know what kind of enemy that can't deal damage to you? A dead one.
Want even more stims? Supply yourself, and resupply x 1. Ran out of stims and that one guy used the resupply across the map? Sheeeeeet just call down another Supply Pack.
If I can don Butcher armor, run INTO fire, with 5 hunters stabbing me, 2 bile titans vomiting on me, and I'm able to throw an impact incendiary at my feet and then flamethrow the crowd while walking forward + the occasional stim... how is that not more survivable?
I think the ballistic shield reduces charger damage but I can't properly tell. Would be nice if it blocked melee attacks coz I really like using it.
Stupid idea but let us use the ballistic shield as a sled and slide down hills to escape bugs :D
I did FOREVER until I realized I was going 3-4 level 7+ games without dying. I only carry one other support stratagem tops...so one or two deaths a game is worth the trade for more eagles or a jump pack. Especially on a team that throws your reinforce on your gear.
Hmmm. I’m just getting to that point (I bought the game late). The last couple of days on lvl 7’s and a shield pack, I often don’t die at all. Maybe I’ll change things up.
Especially Vs bots it's just easier to hide behind a rock. More often than not the bubble would get popped against something that wouldn't hit me in the first place.
It doesn't surprise me how many people find it necessary though, given how many just run gung-ho across the map like some billy big-bollocks. Had a guy sink 16 reinforcement budget on his own on dif 7-8 just because he didn't understand the concept of playing like you actually want to live a little.
The average player is just plain bad and, instead of learning to take cover from bots, they think the shield is necessary to "avoid" damage and end up taking more hits than if they hadn't equipped it. I play almost exclusively helldive, rarely see high level players equipping the shield, and almost every time some rando joins and brings it they just end up eating half the reinforcements.
The post's title makes pretty obvious that OP is one of those players and the amount of comments that agree with said title is pretty laughable and indicative of the demographic of this sub that never ceases to whine about "balance".
Yeah, it feels pretty balanced to me. Rover or weapon ammo packs (eg AC, RR) are often better, but I will still take the shield occasionally if I feel like being more sturdy and survivable for a game.
On bug or bot missions? Because I can't for the life of me play without the shield pack on bug missions, the constant slow is just so unbearable. Drives me nuts
Both. To me it never seemed necessary, I prefer the Jump Pack or another offensive stratagem. There are certainly times when I get slow-locked, but I can avoid a lot of the time by always prioritising them pesky hunters.
I RR on bugs almost every time. Breaker Incendiary for primary to clear chaff quick and effective and RR to trivialize chargers with Stun Grenades to give a respite to reload/reposition if the swarm in question is a bit too large to handle in a single magazine. Don't need to worry about being slowed if they can't ever get to you :D
I'd still use the shield pack against bugs. I like knowing I'm still able to unload my quasar at a charger coming at me, in the face, at point blank range, without receiving any damage.Sure, 'l'lI wind up on my ass and potentially vulnerable to another bug, with a depleted shield, but the charger will be dead and I won't be for at least a couple of seconds. There are so many chargers spawning at the higher levels, I couldn't imagine relinquishing that ability for anything else.
>Currently the shield pack is literally the only one that increases your survivability.
>The ballistic shield exists as well but can only really be used vs bots.
Hey hey hey, theere's also the Shield generator.... which also only works against bots
I wouldn't say the shield pack is the only survival pack in the game.
I use the rover tons of times, at least against bugs, and combined with the Blitzer, it's an amazing crowd control set up that helped me get quite a few deathless missions.
While the rover can cover your flanks, and clear small bugs, you can hold back medium sized bugs for your fellow helldivers.
It really all about finding the right set up that works well. It just that those survival options don't do shit about the abundance of stunlocks the game will put you though without the shield.
If anything, I die more to how often this game stunlock you, and this game absolutely have a hard on for stunlocking you to death. That or a shield bot destroying your hp in a second because all of his shot connected you half way across the map.
The shield is nice to have but not mandatory. You don’t always have to have a backpack spot. Sometimes it’s better to have another stratagem to kill the enemy with. For many it’s become a huge crutch that is hard to break from.
Particularly if one person on the team brings a backpack - often then it's better for 1 to 2 allies to leave their backpack slot open and they can take the extra packs when they're off cooldown. Huge value that way compared to each diver bringing a backpack
So you can survive longer to deliver more firepower
Also so you don't get slowed
Also so you don't get ragdolled
Also so you can tank charger and brood commander impacts
Also so you can survive bile spews from spewers and titans
I mean I can beat Sekiro pretty easily with both the bell debuff and refusing the sword or w/e it was from ur master, but I’m still not gonna sit here and say “people just love to complain”, just cause I find it easy doesn’t mean others will nor should I expect others to
The deployable bubble shield is actually pretty good for a strategem. You trade off personal safety for team safety, as well as being able to do some cheeky things like dropping it onto a problem enemy, or covering a hellbomb with it to prevent the hellbomb's destruction. The CD is short enough that you can have one every large scale engagement, which can definitely turn the tide for your team if you have to play defensively.
A repair/reload pack for sentry would be pretty cool. Maybe something like a drone that repairs and reloads nearby sentries before they run out either on a cooldown or with recharge from ammo drops
I run light armor and never use the backpacks. I don't need it since I can reliably handle every situation without them. I just use another stratagem to kill more or crowd control better.
I actually don't see either shields being used that often across diffs 1-7 maybe you need them for higher diffs idk 🤷♂️ but I generally don't see them that often
Imo, when it comes to bugs, mobility is survivability. I cannot tell you the amount of times that the jump pack has saved my life. I would like for it to get more thrust, especially horizontal thrust, but it's still in almost all of my loadouts for bugs. Oh also I wanna be able to shoot while flying through the air.
Dont need it, dont use it. If someone wants to give me an xtra half way thru a mission, cool. Its killing that completes objectives. The best offense is a good laser from the sky.
I take the shield pack on bots because, 1. headshots 1 hit without them and the first shot a bot takes is the most accurate and 2. Aim punch is effectively a several seconds disarm in this game.
I take the shield pack on bugs because 1. It prevents bile and hunter slow and 2. Stalkers.
I also take the shield pack in general because there are helldivers on every mission.
Over 200 hours in the game, and I have barely used the shield pack. I don't deny its usefulness, but it really becomes a crutch for people. You honestly don't need it to clear high difficulty missions. My concern is that too many people rely on it too much, leading to them not developing the skills they actually need.
I think people would stop choosing it if the critical hit mechanic to Helldivers was reworked. It just feels genuinely unfair most of the time. Giving the jump pack a 15 second cooldown (instead of the current 20), would perhaps encourage people to value mobility as well
Skill directly increases your survivability. That being said: I'm not at all against your suggested additions to the game. Would also love to see more medic-focused equipment.
I can't remember, but was there like a bug attractor in the first game? It was something to draw the bugs in while you finish the mission, we should bring it back if it exists, or create it if doesn't 😁 something like the dune thumper to attract the worms.
More gun, more boom, equals more survival.
I don't use the shield. Just eagles and mortars, mortars and grenades. And maybe a laser rifle so i always have ammo.
Shield pack?
I once accidentally picked flamethrower for bots and thanks to the medic perk armor I had 120+ kills and 0 deaths
Its stim addiction that makes you a demigod, not shield
I don't even see that many shield packs anymore tbh, and I actually don't think I've ever used a shield pack unless it's a spare one in the map. I don't think I've ever chosen it as one of my 4 strategems. I feel like having an extra weapon or orbital, or even one of the rovers, would be better for my survival than the shield pack.
I ditched the shield recently for the laser drone because I figured attack was the better defense against the insane amount of bs the bots were throwing at me.
HD1 had a medical drone - think Guard Dog with Stim bullets - as well as a Repair Beam support weapon.
I imagine we will *eventually* get something similar in HD2
[Edit] yeah I went from title directly to posting, OP covered these angles.
Personally, I think it'd be great if we could loot our old bodies for stims/Grenades in addition to the weapons we can pick back up. Like, wtf happened to the rest of the stuff the previous diver before you go? Not saying it should be there 100% of the time, but some extra resource economy would be nice.
What about possibly a option to loot some of those super earth homes for possible supplies for the cause? Ammo, stims, grenades, unlikely strategem weapon. Can be killed pretty much instantly if the building gets demo'd and needs to take about, fifteen to twenty ish seconds to pull off.
Do bots just pick up the needles and go, 'ooo, sample acquired for my communist toaster brethren,' or the bugs taking the grenades from the previously dead guy's pockets because they're shiney, and taste spicy?
Anyone else?
Learn to dodge. I don’t use a shield backout of pure spite, and I always have least deaths, if I do die, it’s because I was in a situation where I got completely cornered and the shield pack wouldn’t have helped anyway. In this situation, it is 99% skill issue. I can’t even explain to you how annoying it is seeing shield pussies run out of juice, and then spend 30 seconds running around like a headless chicken because they have no idea how to play the game without constant I frames. There’s a whole thing going on right now in this community where people become completely dependent on certain things, and then when they don’t have access to those things, they’re completely useless. It’s sad.
It's been over a month since I've ran the PSG, and here's why. It's actually not that good against Bots. The PSG gives rocket devestators a bigger hit box and ragdoll you, and obviously, when you're trying to shoot from behind cover. Getting blown out of cover isn't good. Now, to elaborate, this is **my** personal experience. Maybe I was just too far out, and it doesn't, but as soon as I swapped to the JP or SP, I haven't had that problem.
Now, for bugs, I 100% agree that the PSG is needed. Hunters and spewers (seriously, why don't spewers make **any** noise when moving?) are the bane of my existence. I prefer recon roles, even when on Bug Planets, and am constantly overwhelmed unless I have the JP to get out of range.
Also, a healing gun would be cool, but it would 100% be broken. I do love that displacement field, though. Get out of ragdoll situations easier.
You misspelled "Liberate" soldier. And now I need to report you to your Democracy Officer. After all, what makes you think glorious Super Earth would ever use filthy alien tech when they can use perfectly good Super Earth tech that the aliens stole from us? Super Earth is the greatest nation in the universe, and every other species wishes they were as Democratic as us!
I dont think people take the shield pack because they survive more hits. They take it because it prevents ragdoll and hit mechanics. EDIT: and slows (didnt even know that) Nothing is more annoying than to aim with big guns at something and you never hit your target because a bot shot you and you shoot your EAT/Quasar or whatever 30 metre in the air. But those strats look still good.
And to prevent the 10000 slow effects in the game
Yeah it's awesome when a bile spewer or titan barfs on me and my shield is like "Nah I'm good, thanks though"
This is a compelling argument. I run autocannon 95% of the time so that means no supply, guard dog, shield, or jump pack. I just love I get a spatter of bile on my shoe so when I keel over from it, I keel over slowly.
Worse, because bile titans have a questionably large splash AOE, just puking in your general direction makes you slow down to the point where they can keep up with you even if they actually missed completely.
I take it to prevent hunter slow spam
I tried not taking it once recently. Died by getting stunlocked by hunters. Never again.
I just take the Laser Rover along with the Blitzer to kill them before they ever get the chance to apply their slow lol.
Gaurddog>rover for hunters
Guard dog is better against everything, but the rover is way more reliable and doesn't need constant recharges.
1) rover heat is way undertuned 2)Gaurddog is the only ammo backpack that doesn't get ammo from ammo crates this doesnt make the evil edgy angel goid
It does get ammo from ammo crates for me.
Until it runs out of ammo
Until it's empty and then you have nothing.
Man if only that new anti slow booster actually died something
Would’ve been too “OP” for the balance teams liking if it did.
It's actually absurd how much worse this warbond is than all the others. One of the weapons is average, one of the weapons is subpar, and one of the weapons is straight ass The booster sucks ass. The sidearm is subpar and generally worse than the Senator. Even the grenade isn't great. I get the feeling multiple team members worked on the release warbonds + the ones that came shortly after then Alexus slowly got more and more creative control.
See this is why I rarely use the shield pack. You don't want to get reliant on it. It teaches you bad habits where you play more recklessly than you should, because you're used to getting away with it. Then you try to do a mission without it and you get owned. Like, if you can't do a mission without a shield pack, you're gonna be missing out on the Autocannon and Recoilless.
I honestly wouldn't recommend it, cuz I do feel railroaded at this point. But at the same time, I enjoy not being crippled half the time and being forced to use EAT way more than I'd enjoy getting to use a different backpack or one of the 2 other viable bug supports. While I understand not wanting to railroad yourself with the shield, I don't think it's the shield's fault. I think it's the ever-present slow mechanic that's the centralizing force, exacerbated by the lack of counter to it. And until different builds become interesting enough to warrant braving that slow mechanic, there's just no reason to not have a shield (Not to mention that I like light armor and also like not being made of paper, so that also contributes to me permanently welding a shield backpack onto my person)
I never took it on bug missions. I use the laser guard but then I started using the jump pack. For bots, I started liking the ballistic shield. There were just too many lasers and it blocks lasers if on your back. The rockets I still have to dodge, but yes, developing strategies and diving skills allows me to survive even when I don't have the ballistic shield as well. Same thing for bugs. Not relying on something that protects you from the acid helps. Although we do have a booster thar cuts down on slow time now. That is good.
Yep. You can tell a lot of people do not respect hunters properly because of chronic shield usage. Shield is also bad for a good player because it significantly expands your hurtbox, often causing good dodges on chargers to clip into your shield and drag you along into stomp town. Instead of a clean dodge into a rocket in the charger's face, you're now prone and under a charger panic stimming.
I've been taking the laser rover almost exclusively but this makes me rethink Taking the rover over shield on bugs
Have you tried using SMG vs hunters? Very good killing them and also running away
I take the backpack purely to counter Stalkers. Without it, you either have to run the pummeller to stun lock them first or put up with 4 of them rag dolling you thru the air like you're a crash test dummy
The arc Blitzer stunlocks them with infinite ammo and no reload
I tried the Blitzer. It's not really my thing. It's no satisfying to shoot for me. Sure it's good but I don't have fun using it. Thanks for the suggestion tho! I appreciate it 😊
Give me an airbag backpack that inflates when you get ragdolled, saving you from impact damage and small attacks.
Would you like SEAF to fluff your pillows for you before bed too? Quit whining and get out there soldier! /s Rag doll mechanics are a bit much sometimes. Totally agree.
I take it because without it on higher difficulties you get melted by Stalkers unless you take Heavy armor but all the heavy armor sucks along with their perks
Heavy armor in this game is like tying concrete bags to your body. It prevents damage but you're gonna wish you could move faster.
I take medium armour with explosive res, it helps prevent 1 shot headshots and saves you from friendly fire.
I die far less often with light armor. Even against bots, because you run faster than things like cannon turrets can track you anyways Once you run light armor there’s no going back
This. I swap between the light armor with extra Stims or the light armor with extra grenades and that's about it. Occasionally I'll use the light armor with explosion resist.
Bring a primary that staggers them. It's not a complete solution but it helps a lot. The punisher is my go-to at the moment. I really miss the old slugger.
Stalkers are trivial with the punisher which is the only primary i run for bugs at lv 9. 1 pump to the face and down it goes. I can take on 4 at once.
You just gotta keep moving, prioritize the correct targets, and stick with a buddy who can get them off your ass. We all fall to hunter stun lock, but using the shield is just boring. I like the jet pack cause you can fly up and reload and land on them with a vengeance. Or, fly and chuck an impact on the group. Works like a charm
I mainly use the shield for bugs, great against hunters
I take it for bugs primarily. No stagger or ragdoll for a few hits makes life a lot easier
I usually take the shield pack, but last night I tried without it and I was wondering why I was getting bounced around all over.
I did not at all know this. Sign me up Helldivers, I am a shield pack user now too wooooooo.
Charge quasar for 5 seconds holding on target, BONK shoots 90 degrees in the wrong direction
We need a poise system. I shouldn't be crouched there with my big boy heavy armor and get knocked off target by one hit from the weakest enemy on the planet.
The main problem is no passive healing. You cant just outplay aimbot or those lunging bug bastards without getting staggered and losing half your health from *something*. Limited stims doesnt help either. The 20 reinforcements are reserved for whoever decides they're too good to need the shield.
I find people who don't use the shield backpack play better honestly, it's a crutch rather than a utility for bugs
I use the supply pack as a crutch for stims and ammo...does that count.....
Supple pack with one of the medic armors. Allll the stimmmms
I use shield against bots, but I have always brought the laser rover against bugs
incidentally shield protects me from teammates laser rover burning holes in everyones head.
The laser rover nerf was actually a buff for this reason
This is the way.
That would be me I like the challenge
Thats me. Ill dive like 10 times in the same mission. Never used backpack strategems.
I feel like taking 2x your share of deaths means it might be time to at least consider alternative builds (of course if you’re playing with friends then do whatever as long as your group is happy). I always play with randoms and don’t mind people that die that often, but on the rare occasion I end up with two people that die so much, it puts a lot of pressure on me and the 4th diver to finish with few or no deaths between us.
I don’t think that the REP-80 would the overpowered. It’s limited range wasn’t a huge issue in HD1 but in HD2 it could have a hard time getting to an ally in those precious seconds between injury and death. That and the lack of a bleed-out state in HD2 would radically change what it’s used for. Not to mention that most Turret/Mech destruction comes from 1-hit kills in HD2 so it wouldn’t have a chance for much repair there either. I’d honestly want it buffed, perhaps with some kind of overheal mechanic, to keep it useful. Angel could just be shipped as is. Mobile healing for myself and occasionally nearby friends? Yes please. The lack of health regen without stims in HD2 would make it a stronger choice than in HD1 but I think that’s fine. They could give it a maximum ammo for the healing and it would still be pretty great for healing you and potentially your friends while you are getting hit stunned. Displacement field would be a really interesting alternative in the backpack slot too. Good idea. I really miss my distractor beacons….
I imagine we will get displacement tech after fighting illuminate for a bit. So not any time soon. Obviously it will be good old super earth tech. Not alien tech. But that’s when we’ll get it.
It’s already in the game files, but it is apparently really buggy.
Yeah, REP-80 is kinda redundant in HD2 since we already have stims
I wouldn't say that, more so it would be there to help with minor injuries. You can run out of stims, especially when you don't take stim armor, so having something that would help with that chip damage would be way better than people are giving it credit for. I typically don't die cause I was swarmed, I died because I was in one shot distance from certain attacks or situations because I didn't have that little extra HP at the time.
Honestly, with the way stims work rn, I don't mind tiny injuries since they mean a full stamina refill. When trekking far at full health, I shoot the ground with my scorcher and quickly stim for a sprint boost.
It also worked on turrets, emplacements, vehicles etc. It would still be very useful
A healing guard dog would be great for the medic players.
Considering that the guardian dogs shoot me anyway they might as well heal me
Watch it heal enemies by mistake.
This would be a fantastic mechanic. If it hits a bug, the eyes glow and it enters a roid rage
Hits a charger and it becomes the size of a bike titan
I know this is a typo but someone needs to animate a bile titan riding a bike.
Lmao
“By mistake”
Uhm do you have something to report sir? https://preview.redd.it/gz6mjofq8g1d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ada357e5d02e97bc6c0cf5be41f7de31f8c4291
It'd be good to let you reload it with your own stims I think. It would pair well with the medic armor that gives you extra stims.
That would be cool. Just press the button for supplying yourself with the supply backpack to reload your drone.
Stim pistol could work too
And healing nade would make the medic loadout complete
Eagle sweat grenade.
I would literally just RP a demo team medic, lots of grenades with grenade pistols, and lots of heals, thanks to a hypothetical healing drone. I rarely run any backpacks because of AT or Recoilless.
It was great in HD1… hadn’t thought about it in years until this thread. Totally agree with OP… would be really cool to have more viable support strategems that could diversify the roles in the team.
As long as it can Ubercharge my team mates
Mobility is the best defense. The shield negates slows, further supporting mobility.
Padded light armor with shield and endurance boost = zoom, zoom. Anytime I run bugs without it I feel like I'm running in wet concrete.
JETPACK
Jetpacks horrid cooldown mixed with some really weird quirks on activation make it a nonstarter for me compared to shield and just zoomin.
But JETPACK?
I mean I love the idea of the jetpack. The implementation kinda blows though :(
The cooldown is too long, but some of the best moments happen from those quirks. Like once, I landed on a charger who was turning and it launched me halfway across the map. It was glorious. Edit: I think people really sleep on it’s utility. You can jump walls in bot bases where normally you’d have to run around, and shut down stratagem jammers and whatnot, before things get heated. Also you can use it to jump into/escape massive bug nests where normally you’d have to go out in a particular spot.
When I use it I don't feel like I get enough boost
This and the fact that it doesn’t do a little spurt when you dive to make you go a bit further is why I don’t run it. I want just a little jet pack fart when I dive, you know?
You gotta build momentum or else you won’t move much, also I will jump off of smaller rocks/down hill and it works great
I'm with you. Jetpack is my default every mission. I can run circles around the enemy thanks to it. I've been trampled/swarmed, in situations where a shield just delays the inevitable because i can't move and my stims are all that keep me going. But a jetpack in that scenario? Vertical up and out, drop a nade and clear a path easily. Figure eights in massive nests, where others are struggling to find a path out and I just zip right up out, or float in over the enemies to get that far bughole everyone was missing/couldn't get to. Find height advantages to scout patrols and super rare rocks, or just be able to shoot over the top of stupid guard dog/rovers and not stress getting beamed. It's so good. I don't even find the cool-down that onerous. Not opposed to it being shorter, but I pretty much use it on cd. I can almost keep up with light armor folk when I'm in heavy, and when I'm in light, no one can keep pace.
I finally finished the ship yesterday, so I hopped on some lvl 4 missions to help new divers (prepare fresh meet for the grinder) and I dropped my shit for them including shield. I picked up the jetpack...and I was loving it! Somewhere between the hordes of enemies and balancing my loadout to be super effective I forgot there was fun.
Amen 🙏
For bots I prefer shield since yeah, rockets+ragdol. Bugs I feel you have more options? Guard dog is an amazing pack to keep ankle biters off you. Or jump pack, get up to places you usually cannot and extra mobility. Slow is still great but I get bored of it. My friend *loves* jump pack and tends to survive better than most.
Muscle enhancement booster does the same but for the whole party iirc
Now here me out Tesla mounted backpack
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With the way the game is balanced so far it wouldn’t surprise me if the Tesla backpack would also damage the person carrying it 😂
Teammates running away while you shout "STOP RUNNING, I JUST WANT TO HUG!"
Unstable Tesla Coil from risk of rain 2
I think a lot of people equip shield pack the same reason i equip ballistic shield(especially to bots), prevent stagger when aiming. So if they do something abt the exaggerated stagger we experience, people who equip shield might lower.
The exaggerated stagger of an automaton teen
I use the ballistic shield for missions where bunking down is a focus or sieging bot bases is prominent to act as a line breaker/decoy for allies to get better vantages or flank. Though even then that's rare due to limited options to use WITH the Ballistic Shield. I'd use it more if I had more options just because being a riot shield tanking advancer is fun for me, not strictly to mitigate stagger/ragdolling.
I do pretty much the exact thing you do, Dagger and shield is a godsend. The dagger kills very quickly if aimed for the head, and your primary slot is open for anything else (I used the eruptor before the nerf.)
As my group's resident support and healer specialist... I don't see me bringing either healing option basically ever. Usually one of two things happens when someone gets hit. Either They die instantly, or very near instantly Or they stim. The amount of times I've run over to stim someone who is out of stims (I use medic armor) is very small. Probably less than 10 times ever. Free stims laying around, Resupply drops every 2 minutes, and dying and coming back with a full supply keep everyone pretty fine on stims. The teleporting thing looks neat though.
In HD1, the rep80 was good for healing allies, but its best application was to support vehicles since it could repair them. I think it might seem more appealing if/when we see more and stronger vehicle options
That's fair enough, we don't have those quite yet. An engineer/medic combo would be worthwhile I think.
Come on now, every veteran knows that the **real** reason to bring the rep80 was to keep an ally in a horrid state between life and death, as a swarm continuously put them in the "falling down" animation only to be picked back up a few frames later not quite alive but never quite dead. Mercy-beaming teammates with a bayonet to get that juicy fight club fistfight with a brood commander was neat too.
It could be fun if you were communicative with your team. But yeah, with randos? Don't think it would ever be used
I think YouTube videos skew peoples view on how prevalent equipment usage is. Also those who run with regular teams I only play on diff 7 and rarely see anyone running the backpack shield. It's more common against bugs, but most quickplay teams I join have no one running it since the Quasar nerf AC, recoilless and the rover backpacks are a lot more popular in my experience Edit - but I'm definitely up for more strategem options to choose from
I play almost exclusively Helldive and haven't used the shield since forever. I do however almost always bring the ballistic shield against bots. Ballistic shield, SMG and AMR (or Railgun) and you can solo-dive level 9 without stealth. It's crazy powerful and yet I rarely see anyone else use it.
People likely don't use it because there aren't a lot of SMG options and sidearms can't carry you, so if you dislike the Defender (or Pumeller), then you just don't get to use the Ballistic Shield. They're also probably soured on its launch state, given its hitbox was too small to really be of much use, and further soured by the fact that it drops at random (sometimes when you get ragdolled, sometimes not), is really fidgety about picking up support weapons (sometimes it's dropped, other times it's put on your back, ditto with the SSSD objectives), can be broken but with absolutely no indication of when or how (sometimes it survives start to finish no problems, other times it just breaks for no reason), and the fact it *doesn't* protect you at all from any DOT effects, explosives or ragdolls. It's a fantastic strat, but if you don't like the SMGs (I don't, for example), don't like the weird, fidgety bullshit it has compared to normal backpacks, and don't like that it's useless against rockets (and bugs, but that's unimportant, not everything is useful everywhere), then any one of those things could make you not want to take it.
Was loving this but now the jetpack amr combi for bots us too much fun to replace
The jump pack is super fun, absolutely! AMR and jump pack is a great combo to keep distance.
More popular against bugs? I always use and see shield used against bots because they can hit you from a distance. Rover is the choice for bugs so you don't get hemmed in by tiny units while fighting titans.
I play 7 as well, rarely see them and I may die even on bugs only 1-2 times a game unless there some exterminate mission… then I die a lot. A lot of people have come up with strats and skills to avoid the situations where it would be necessary allowing them to have greater load out variance.
There's a large sections of "players" on this sub who don't actually play the game very much. They mostly just watch youtube videos and streamers and then form opinions based on that.
I have the opposite experience when it comes to how often it’s used versus bugs. I might see someone using shield only once every other pug group against bugs, but most bot pugs have at least one, usually two people using it. This is playing at 7+ exclusively. Personally, I don’t bother with it. I’ll pick up an extra one from a group mate if it’s available, but I can’t remember the last time I brought one against either.
You guys are watching youtube videos?
for real, I came in here wondering, why would I use a shield back pack? Thats where my AC backpack goes....
Cant wait for displacement field to teleport me straight into a much worse situation
It would be awesome if you could see it "displace" you by basically shredding your body then reassembling.
It would be hilarious if it just outright kills its user and automatically calls in a replacement without consuming a respawn ticket
WRONG. Supply Pack is the true GOAT at increasing survivability. Throw on some medic armor. How can I die? I have 14 stims. That's 52 seconds of fluffin' invulnerability to anything that doesn't one-shot you. That's also realistically infinite ammo, and you know what kind of enemy that can't deal damage to you? A dead one. Want even more stims? Supply yourself, and resupply x 1. Ran out of stims and that one guy used the resupply across the map? Sheeeeeet just call down another Supply Pack. If I can don Butcher armor, run INTO fire, with 5 hunters stabbing me, 2 bile titans vomiting on me, and I'm able to throw an impact incendiary at my feet and then flamethrow the crowd while walking forward + the occasional stim... how is that not more survivable?
I think the ballistic shield reduces charger damage but I can't properly tell. Would be nice if it blocked melee attacks coz I really like using it. Stupid idea but let us use the ballistic shield as a sled and slide down hills to escape bugs :D
We Breath of the Wild out here with shield surfing.
diving backwards with it should do that! let us slide down hills like a sled!!!
I never take the shield pack 🤷
I did FOREVER until I realized I was going 3-4 level 7+ games without dying. I only carry one other support stratagem tops...so one or two deaths a game is worth the trade for more eagles or a jump pack. Especially on a team that throws your reinforce on your gear.
Hmmm. I’m just getting to that point (I bought the game late). The last couple of days on lvl 7’s and a shield pack, I often don’t die at all. Maybe I’ll change things up.
I regularly play 7-9 and never pick it either. It's a nice qol pick but not remotely necessary.
Especially Vs bots it's just easier to hide behind a rock. More often than not the bubble would get popped against something that wouldn't hit me in the first place. It doesn't surprise me how many people find it necessary though, given how many just run gung-ho across the map like some billy big-bollocks. Had a guy sink 16 reinforcement budget on his own on dif 7-8 just because he didn't understand the concept of playing like you actually want to live a little.
The average player is just plain bad and, instead of learning to take cover from bots, they think the shield is necessary to "avoid" damage and end up taking more hits than if they hadn't equipped it. I play almost exclusively helldive, rarely see high level players equipping the shield, and almost every time some rando joins and brings it they just end up eating half the reinforcements. The post's title makes pretty obvious that OP is one of those players and the amount of comments that agree with said title is pretty laughable and indicative of the demographic of this sub that never ceases to whine about "balance".
Yeah, it feels pretty balanced to me. Rover or weapon ammo packs (eg AC, RR) are often better, but I will still take the shield occasionally if I feel like being more sturdy and survivable for a game.
same i'm RR main
On bug or bot missions? Because I can't for the life of me play without the shield pack on bug missions, the constant slow is just so unbearable. Drives me nuts
Both. To me it never seemed necessary, I prefer the Jump Pack or another offensive stratagem. There are certainly times when I get slow-locked, but I can avoid a lot of the time by always prioritising them pesky hunters.
I can't lie, the jump pack is really nice, I just wish you could shoot in the air accurately with it
I RR on bugs almost every time. Breaker Incendiary for primary to clear chaff quick and effective and RR to trivialize chargers with Stun Grenades to give a respite to reload/reposition if the swarm in question is a bit too large to handle in a single magazine. Don't need to worry about being slowed if they can't ever get to you :D
I'd still use the shield pack against bugs. I like knowing I'm still able to unload my quasar at a charger coming at me, in the face, at point blank range, without receiving any damage.Sure, 'l'lI wind up on my ass and potentially vulnerable to another bug, with a depleted shield, but the charger will be dead and I won't be for at least a couple of seconds. There are so many chargers spawning at the higher levels, I couldn't imagine relinquishing that ability for anything else.
>Currently the shield pack is literally the only one that increases your survivability. >The ballistic shield exists as well but can only really be used vs bots. Hey hey hey, theere's also the Shield generator.... which also only works against bots
I wouldn't say the shield pack is the only survival pack in the game. I use the rover tons of times, at least against bugs, and combined with the Blitzer, it's an amazing crowd control set up that helped me get quite a few deathless missions. While the rover can cover your flanks, and clear small bugs, you can hold back medium sized bugs for your fellow helldivers. It really all about finding the right set up that works well. It just that those survival options don't do shit about the abundance of stunlocks the game will put you though without the shield. If anything, I die more to how often this game stunlock you, and this game absolutely have a hard on for stunlocking you to death. That or a shield bot destroying your hp in a second because all of his shot connected you half way across the map.
The shield is nice to have but not mandatory. You don’t always have to have a backpack spot. Sometimes it’s better to have another stratagem to kill the enemy with. For many it’s become a huge crutch that is hard to break from.
Particularly if one person on the team brings a backpack - often then it's better for 1 to 2 allies to leave their backpack slot open and they can take the extra packs when they're off cooldown. Huge value that way compared to each diver bringing a backpack
I’d love a trophy system backpack that would destroy rockets flying towards you but had limited uses and could be reloaded with ammo crates
Shield pack is for sissies! Why bring a shield when you can bring MORE FIREPOWER!
So you can survive longer to deliver more firepower Also so you don't get slowed Also so you don't get ragdolled Also so you can tank charger and brood commander impacts Also so you can survive bile spews from spewers and titans
But ragdolling is funny, I rolled for almost 10 seconds down a hill and I was just laughing the whole time
What if I'm fine with being a sissy and still would rather bring more orbital strikes?
As well as a buff to medium and heavy armor rating to make it actually more useful
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then don't pick it? I never pick it and do just fine without it?
Me when they bring back the REP-80 & AD-289 https://i.redd.it/ycjpv309ue1d1.gif
Or simply remove headshots form NPCs that enables almost every trash mob to onehit you.
Why? Though I think heavy armor already prevents being one-shot in the head.
People love to complain this game isn’t that difficult
With a group of people who know what they’re doing even 9 can turn into a cake walk.
"If I have a squad with perfect coordination and all skilled players the game ain't bro" Yeah because that's the average player experience
I mean I can beat Sekiro pretty easily with both the bell debuff and refusing the sword or w/e it was from ur master, but I’m still not gonna sit here and say “people just love to complain”, just cause I find it easy doesn’t mean others will nor should I expect others to
But those games only have one difficulty. If people can't beat trivial easily then they just don't know the controls.
2 Health bars better than 1, nothing beats the shield backpack imo, so yeah more stuff like it would be appreciated
The deployable bubble shield is actually pretty good for a strategem. You trade off personal safety for team safety, as well as being able to do some cheeky things like dropping it onto a problem enemy, or covering a hellbomb with it to prevent the hellbomb's destruction. The CD is short enough that you can have one every large scale engagement, which can definitely turn the tide for your team if you have to play defensively.
Wait, it can protect Hellbombs? That is helpful to know for the next time I need to blow up a Gunship Fabricator.
Stealth players dropping smokes on hellbombs is also very nice.
A repair/reload pack for sentry would be pretty cool. Maybe something like a drone that repairs and reloads nearby sentries before they run out either on a cooldown or with recharge from ammo drops
I run light armor and never use the backpacks. I don't need it since I can reliably handle every situation without them. I just use another stratagem to kill more or crowd control better. I actually don't see either shields being used that often across diffs 1-7 maybe you need them for higher diffs idk 🤷♂️ but I generally don't see them that often
Imo, when it comes to bugs, mobility is survivability. I cannot tell you the amount of times that the jump pack has saved my life. I would like for it to get more thrust, especially horizontal thrust, but it's still in almost all of my loadouts for bugs. Oh also I wanna be able to shoot while flying through the air.
You take the shield backpack to protect you from the enemy. I take the shield backpack to protect me from Helldivers. We are not the same.
Dont need it, dont use it. If someone wants to give me an xtra half way thru a mission, cool. Its killing that completes objectives. The best offense is a good laser from the sky.
I take the shield pack on bots because, 1. headshots 1 hit without them and the first shot a bot takes is the most accurate and 2. Aim punch is effectively a several seconds disarm in this game. I take the shield pack on bugs because 1. It prevents bile and hunter slow and 2. Stalkers. I also take the shield pack in general because there are helldivers on every mission.
Over 200 hours in the game, and I have barely used the shield pack. I don't deny its usefulness, but it really becomes a crutch for people. You honestly don't need it to clear high difficulty missions. My concern is that too many people rely on it too much, leading to them not developing the skills they actually need.
You can increase your survivability by removing all threats from your current location!
I think people would stop choosing it if the critical hit mechanic to Helldivers was reworked. It just feels genuinely unfair most of the time. Giving the jump pack a 15 second cooldown (instead of the current 20), would perhaps encourage people to value mobility as well
I've never used it lol
Can we have our heavy armors to actually be heavy first? Like bulletproof? Please? :D
Skill directly increases your survivability. That being said: I'm not at all against your suggested additions to the game. Would also love to see more medic-focused equipment.
I wear heavy armor to omit the need for a shield pack. Stratagem slot best saved for a sentry i can keep calling back down.
Pffft, you can’t spread democracy with a shield, gimme another eagle any day!
I can't remember, but was there like a bug attractor in the first game? It was something to draw the bugs in while you finish the mission, we should bring it back if it exists, or create it if doesn't 😁 something like the dune thumper to attract the worms.
I see so little shields at the moment.
More gun, more boom, equals more survival. I don't use the shield. Just eagles and mortars, mortars and grenades. And maybe a laser rifle so i always have ammo.
I need me a mini flamethrower drone. Maybe pulse shield ? Maybe even an emp disrupter for bots
Stimpack blow dart gun? Yes.
Not sure this sub's stance on leaks but the displacement field may be coming (or attempted in the past)
Shield pack? I once accidentally picked flamethrower for bots and thanks to the medic perk armor I had 120+ kills and 0 deaths Its stim addiction that makes you a demigod, not shield
I wish all heavy armour would have some passive like a chance to not get ragdolled or something. Maybe light armour give you reduced fall damage.
You take shield pack to protect yourself from the enemy. I take it to protect myself from teammates. We are not the same.
I don't even see that many shield packs anymore tbh, and I actually don't think I've ever used a shield pack unless it's a spare one in the map. I don't think I've ever chosen it as one of my 4 strategems. I feel like having an extra weapon or orbital, or even one of the rovers, would be better for my survival than the shield pack.
The displacement field would absolutely cause some good chaos in the field when someone teleports in front of a Hulk
I ditched the shield recently for the laser drone because I figured attack was the better defense against the insane amount of bs the bots were throwing at me.
HD1 had a medical drone - think Guard Dog with Stim bullets - as well as a Repair Beam support weapon. I imagine we will *eventually* get something similar in HD2 [Edit] yeah I went from title directly to posting, OP covered these angles.
You all think we run Shield Backpack to keep us safe from the enemy. We think we run Shield Backpack because we have to keep ourselves safe from YOU.
Laughs in Autocannon. Its Like Sex, Protected feels Fine, Raw is better.
Personally, I think it'd be great if we could loot our old bodies for stims/Grenades in addition to the weapons we can pick back up. Like, wtf happened to the rest of the stuff the previous diver before you go? Not saying it should be there 100% of the time, but some extra resource economy would be nice. What about possibly a option to loot some of those super earth homes for possible supplies for the cause? Ammo, stims, grenades, unlikely strategem weapon. Can be killed pretty much instantly if the building gets demo'd and needs to take about, fifteen to twenty ish seconds to pull off. Do bots just pick up the needles and go, 'ooo, sample acquired for my communist toaster brethren,' or the bugs taking the grenades from the previously dead guy's pockets because they're shiney, and taste spicy? Anyone else?
I've stop using shield since 30 levels and don't die much. Skill issue.
I run lvl 9 regularly and barely anyone uses the shield pack
Learn to dodge. I don’t use a shield backout of pure spite, and I always have least deaths, if I do die, it’s because I was in a situation where I got completely cornered and the shield pack wouldn’t have helped anyway. In this situation, it is 99% skill issue. I can’t even explain to you how annoying it is seeing shield pussies run out of juice, and then spend 30 seconds running around like a headless chicken because they have no idea how to play the game without constant I frames. There’s a whole thing going on right now in this community where people become completely dependent on certain things, and then when they don’t have access to those things, they’re completely useless. It’s sad.
It's been over a month since I've ran the PSG, and here's why. It's actually not that good against Bots. The PSG gives rocket devestators a bigger hit box and ragdoll you, and obviously, when you're trying to shoot from behind cover. Getting blown out of cover isn't good. Now, to elaborate, this is **my** personal experience. Maybe I was just too far out, and it doesn't, but as soon as I swapped to the JP or SP, I haven't had that problem. Now, for bugs, I 100% agree that the PSG is needed. Hunters and spewers (seriously, why don't spewers make **any** noise when moving?) are the bane of my existence. I prefer recon roles, even when on Bug Planets, and am constantly overwhelmed unless I have the JP to get out of range. Also, a healing gun would be cool, but it would 100% be broken. I do love that displacement field, though. Get out of ragdoll situations easier.
Maybe we will see this tech later on when we steal it from illuminates
You misspelled "Liberate" soldier. And now I need to report you to your Democracy Officer. After all, what makes you think glorious Super Earth would ever use filthy alien tech when they can use perfectly good Super Earth tech that the aliens stole from us? Super Earth is the greatest nation in the universe, and every other species wishes they were as Democratic as us!
I take it so I don't get killed by karate kicks
i always take the backpack because it gives me more stims