u/WaywardOath

Warp ships genuinely have to be some of the strangest and most noticeable changes to the feel of an enemy in the entire game.

When they were introduced, blasting a Warp Ship out of the sky wasn't just easy, it was almost comically so. The EATs littering the city maps meant you could quickly and easily obliterate a Warp Ship just as fast as you can Automaton Ships. On defense it was even easier with the addition of the Anti-Tank Emplacement, making those missions nothing short of a joke.

So, this naturally mandated the addition of the shields on the ship, making them less prone to being deleted from the sky like clay pigeons. However, unlike a change like making the RR no longer one-shot Drop Ships to the body, Warp Ships have an entire new feel to how they are dealt with...they're not.

Now you almost never see anyone actually shooting them out of the sky—unless you're on a defense the commitment required to destroy them is too great to be done quickly. Even just taking down a single ship is rather difficult unless you both have an AT option available, and a teammate willing to help you gun down the shield in time (or an AT Emplacement lined up where it can get 3 clean shots on it before the ship delivers its payload).

Is this a complaint? Not really? Illuminate as a whole are pretty easy to deal with. However, I don't think there's another enemy in the game that has gotten this level of treatment. 90% of counter-play to a Warp Ship is non-existent now. I'm not sure if there's a possible middle ground to it, like making the ship take longer to deploy enemies or lowering the shield health, but honestly it is odd how severe of a change it was, the more I think about it.

Fleshmob...why can't you help your little brothers get a Helldiver off the top shelf? What else are those big arms supposed to be for?

I saw you, Luster_Dragonite. And I'll see to it your name makes it to the Wall of Martyrs.

I want you to know that the only reason I knew that invisible spot was there was because I got backed into what I thought would be a quick exit route, only to get stuck and promptly ripped apart by no less than 30 Warriors.

Okay HUGE disclaimer, I know that there are other factors at play for pick rates rising and falling than just people getting bullied for their weapon choice on Reddit. That being said, the way that drama cycles online seems to be falling into a predictable pattern:

• A weapon exists
• People start using that weapon significantly more (either discovering it's good, it being buffed, or a new enemy big air-quotes "mandates" it).
• The community starts complaining that the item gets picked a lot, does some variation of complaining about the item/who uses it (I am not free from this).
• The item's use-rate falls.

Honestly, barring any drama around any one particular item, it's pretty fascinating that this pattern presents itself with almost every item in the game. Even the Railgun—whose pick-rate mainly fell due to it being nerfed and then alternatives being buffed—had the same pattern at launch. I distinctly remember being kicked from lobbies for even equipping it.

Orbital Napalm is sort of a weird one. It's been in the game for a while now, has received no major changes, and yet it's only the last month or so that complaints about it have surged. Will it receive the same treatment as the others? I'm not certain. But, it's still interesting to see another item in the game have its turn in the hate-spotlight.

"Smile, you son of a-"

Jokes aside, sweet liberty I would've been peeved if this had been my demise.

I swear this thing plus the new armor practically turns the game into a Movement Shooter.

One of you professional Melee-Maniacs are going to have to explain to me what just happened. Did he pull a Skip-a-Turn card on me? Do I not pass Go? Do I not collect $200?

Don't get me wrong, I am incredibly happy, but c'mon, man...you're telling me you couldn't have been a LITTLE thicker? Pack a calorie in there and be my first Shundo...

Sweet Liberty what are they putting in those stims?

There were some low moments of course (namely getting blown up with the Eruptor every time I opened my lobby to the public), but MAN this flag order was some of the most fun I've had in the game in a while.

The rare game where you had 3 players hunting down flocks of wild Voteless with their spears in-hand was an experience that reminded me of the early days of Defense Missions, or the chaos of on-release Rapid Acquisition.

Frankly this is the kind of Major Order I want to see more of. It isn't always easy to pull off, but doing something where you actually feel impactful and can have fun at the same time is a wonderful drug.

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, Multi-million Dollar company?!

1/5000th of the MO in one mission by the way <3

Okay look I don't know if this is a shared experience or not, but every time I run into this specific combination of weapons, it will be a Helldiver who seemingly doesn't understand what splash damage is and will gleefully Crossbow their own teammate to kill a Berserker 30 meters away, or call a 380 on extraction with 3 players on it just because there's a few enemies nearby.

When it's just the Crossbow, or the Ultimatum, or the Quasar, or Supply Pack, everything's fine. But with their powers combined, they always seem to Captain Planet themselves into the most self-centered Helldiver known to man.

This can't just be my experience. Someone please tell me I haven't developed some kind of irrational bias.

Let me just log in on my broken screen real quick. Nothing to see here enemies of Democracy...

The Hulk Stompa has entered the battlefield.

Here we are, yet another post of me hiding my befuddlement behind the Meme tag. I'm starting to think this is how I cope with game-breaking bugs.

How long has this fancy geometry been on this base layout? I've seen all sorts of things fall into it, but this might be the first time I've fallen victim to the deadliest thing Automatons invented.

Oh sure you'll do it for him but not for me? What does he have that I don't?