u/Lazy_Bowyer

If there is a question mark next to the name that means I'm either not super familiar with the weapon or suggesting a buff is just a dubious proposition. This is partly just going off vibes but if I know an improvement I'll list it. Hopefully this will fix my sins of suggesting against a jar buff as I've completely switch my stance due to one particularly intelligent helldiver.

ASSAULT RIFLES

One two: ergo

Tenderizer? Just never see it used

Reprimand?

Pacifier? This seems to have a niche

Variable? Haven't used it but I always hear it needs more ergo

MA5C assault rifle? Never see it but the stats look ok

StA-52 assault rifle? Is there a reason to use this?

DMRS

Deadeye?

Diligence counter sniper? Probably just an ergo buff

R-2 amendment?

Plas-39 accelerator rifle? Single shot mode?

SMGs

Pummeler? This one really seems fine but maybe have it come with the drum mag at base.

SHOTGUNS

Slugger?

SG-8 punisher: got powercrept like hell, it's kinda fine though because it's the first shotgun unlocked. I think a good change would be to make it come with the full choke off the rip.

Breaker S&P: my personal favorite breaker, but it should have larger drum mags. Maybe 40 shots per mag. Increasing mag size across the board would also get rid of the ridiculous amount of short mags you can carry, something like 24 with the right armor.

Breaker incendiary? Why does the S&P come with the duckbill but the incendiary needs to be level 23 to unlock it? Perhaps immediately unlocking the duckbill might make this more useful as that plays into its niche. That being spreading fire across a large area.

SG-20 HALT?

M90A SHOTGUN? Never used it but I also don't see a reason to when the sweeper exists.

META

R-36 ERUPTOR: need full auto

CB-9 EXPLODING CROSSBOW: 30 round clipazines

ENERGY

Blitzer: needs to stop getting stuck on foliage and dead bodies. ?maybe needs to target heads more often

LAS-16 SICKLE: needs the same heat sink upgrades as the scythe. Wouldn't powercreep scythe because scythe is a long range flamethrower.

Scorcher: ammo economy is shit. I think an extra 5 to 10 rounds per mag would make this less reliant on the supply backpack.

JAR-5 DOMINATOR: LOWER THE DAMN SPREAD PLEASE ITS LIKE 20× THAN MIST WEAPONS. Bring it back to 300 damage. Maybe buff ergo a bit. Keep projectile speed the same. Keep penetration the same. Alternatively, ballistic damage 200 and 100 explosive damage. Although I'm very skeptical about the implications of giving it explosive damage.

SECONDARIES

Peacemaker

Veto? I like it but it could use a faster reload.

Verdict? Not sure how you would make this more useful without making the peacemaker even more irrelevant.

Bushwhacker?

Stim pistol?

M6C/SOCOM PISTOL?

P-35 RE-EDUCATOR?

THROWABLES

URCHIN?

Throwing knife? I didn't see a stat on the wiki but from what I hear it has pretty horrible spread.

MELEES

Stun lance: more damage

Machete: a bit faster attack speed

Stun baton: a bit more range

STRATEGEMS

Shield generator relay: should go back to regenerating once the shield goes down.

Grenadier battlement?

Arc thrower: shouldn't get caught on dead bodies and foliage

Patriot exosuit? I think something should be done to its rocket pods because as of right now that is the worst mech arm in the game

Sterilizer? The clouds should linger. It's dedicated CC so it's CC abilities should be buffed considerably.

Directional shield?

One true flag? Could use some more damage similar to the stun lance.

Defoliation tool:https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/Tt1BzOpXzH

Breaching hammer: just needs more ammo, at least 12 but more like 14 to 16.

BFGL? maybe could use more ammo

Anti personnel mines? Is there a reason to bring these over gas mines?

Meltagun? the flinch on this thing is pretty ridiculous. Often throwing you completely off target. Obviously the melta is very strong but the fact that you get flinched so hard if you're hit kinda ruins it for me personally.

BOOSTERS

Stamina enhancement:

Vitality enhancement:

Hellpod space optimization: all 3 should be ship upgrades. This would greatly help with the booster meta and would allow for more interesting choices, rather than everyone just running the meta all the time.

SIDE OBJECTIVES

ANTI AIR side objective: it's range is pitiful. I've also seen it miss bot dropships. It does absolutely nothing against the illuminate also. As it stands this side objective Is pretty useless, whereas side objectives should turn the tide of battle and be invaluable.

Seaf artillery? I'd like to see better ammo spawns. I very rarely get 5 useful shells. The explosive shell barely being useful in itself. Quite often though I get like 2 or 3 smokes. Very rarely seeing a mini nuke. Again, it very rarely turns the tide of battle.

Stalker lair: needs a much bigger detection radius so it starts spawning them sooner. They're kinda a non threat most missions which makes me sad, because I remember when I had a burning hatred for these guys.

GUNSHIP FACTORY: same deal, with a decent team these often go down before they even get the chance to spawn a gunship. They should spawn gunships as soon as the mission starts, albeit at a slower rate, and when helldivers get close they begin to spawn gunships at their faster rate.

tldr: It's s the worst weapon in the game, and also has so much potential for fun.

Starting off with some generalized comparisons of support weapons that can fill the role of dedicated heavy killers.

MELTA GUN:

-Short range

-not instant

+No backpack

+More ammo

+Multiple shots per reload

LASER CANNON:

-lower DPS

-lower pen

+Infinite ammo

+1000m range

+Great chaff clear

+No backpack

RR:

-backpack

-less ammo

-1 shot per reload

+1 shot for most heavies

+Good range

DEFOLIATION TOOL:

-melee range

-lower DPS

-starts at med pen

-gets stuck on foliage and dead bodies A LOT

+Stun once you reach correct armor pen

+Infinite ammo

+No backpack

BREACHING HAMMER:

-melee range

-1 shot per reload

+More ammo

+1 shot most heavies

+Fast reload

+When you do run out of charges, you can still make use of the hammer, albeit a lot less effectively.

Some comparisons of heavy killing weapons, kinda using the RR as the baseline. Didn't include the AMR because it's pretty similar to the las cannon just with limited ammo and higher DPS. Didn't include the auto cannon because I'm honestly not super familiar with it.

When considering the fire DPS of the laser cannon, it does pretty similar DPS to the defoliation tool. Using a standard charger head as the baseline.

The point of this was to point out that the defoliation tool is still hilariously outmatched, and not just because it is a melee weapon. It's bad even when compared to melee secondaries. Even the one true flag is more useful to the team.

"You can't fix this, because it will always be bad compared to ranged weapons." Wild statement that I here all the time when there are obvious steps to take to improve it. The second half is kinda true, it will never be as good as most ranged options, but that doesn't mean it can't be improved.

Some ways to improve it:

More damage: because of where it sits right now balance wise, damage can be increased quite a bit before it starts rubbing shoulders with other weapons, namely the breaching hammer. My goal here is not to outperform the breaching hammer. The defoliation tool shouldnt be an obvious pick between the two. That isn't good balance. That being said, the beginning of my statement still stands. It's damage could be increased quite a bit before it starts to outcompete the breaching hammer, even when considering ammo economy.

More range: This could only be increased slightly though, and truthfully I think it's sitting in a decent spot when it comes to range.

Ramp up: The ramp up speed it currently has is pretty good, however starting at med pen is greatly holding it back. Ramp up is most important when it comes to the stun. Stun is integral to using the defoliation tool. If it started at heavy pen and ramped up to anti tank, skipping med pen, it would begin stunning most enemies immediately. This effect is strong enough that the ramp up speed could even be lowered, and it would still be a huge improvement. Not suggesting lowering ramp up speed of course.

Finally a fix for getting stuck on enemies and the environment. This is a major issue with this weapon and will absolutely get you killed if you so much as try to 1v1 a hunter. Luckily it is an easy fix that I've seen suggested many times. Give it different fire modes. The method of doing so being the same as the entrenchment tool. That way it is seem less and fast. When you swing the defoliation tool normally, have it cleave through targets. When you aim and swing, have it get stuck in targets the way it already does. So the ADS swing would be exactly as it is now, and the non ADS swing, which can and would have the exact same animation, would not get stuck on targets. I see people suggest making a firing mode where you just hold it out in front of you, and that would be great. But when suggesting fixes for a forgotten weapon, one must consider how much time the devs are willing to spend on that weapon. My suggestion would keep them from having to make a new animation.

My comparisons of the weapons are not super in depth, mainly because I want to push this out as soon as possible, but also because I trust the community is VERY familiar with the weapons I used. For people not familiar with the defoliation too, which is most, it has very similar DPS to the laser cannon. This is combined with none of the benefits of being ranged, and it also doesn't really benefit from having infinite ammo because you'll die WAY before you get to feel that effect.