**Update Changes:** - So the Concussive Liberator is in fact NOT explosive. At the time of making this video, it had 'Explosive Damage' listed in it's traits. But it was all a lie and as of a recent patch, has been removed from the tags. So don't use it for Charger Butts, etc. It's merely a tool for crowd control. - The Penetrator gained full auto now which is a nice option.
I believe the reason for the name change is so that people don't think "explosive" means aoe damage, like the JAR-5 Dominator. The bullets do explode to the point of creating a concussive force on the target, but not enough to spread heat or shrapnel to anything in the vicinity. I assume people might have reported the Explosive Liberator's inability to do aoe damage as a bug, and honestly I never got the gun myself because that's what I thought they meant by Explosive Liberator. Went to check, apparently JAR-5 Dominator doesn't do aoe damage, and it's no longer got the explosive trait despite being in the explosive category. No idea what's going on there.
The game devs seem to have made a distinction between explosive trait and explosive category. Trait deals concussive/stagger, but category deals small aoe.
@@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 actually it takes the same amount of shots a standard lib does to the butt of a charger it was tested. Also, @NoIsHub, JAR-5 is still explosive, it destroys charger butts in like 7-10 shots. it doesn't need the explosive trait because it's in the Explosive Type Category.
I think what I like most about the Liberator Penetrator is that it deals full damage to lightly armored targets while the standard Liberator deals 60% damage. This means that the Liberator Penetrator has MORE damage than the liberator against enemy parts that are lightly armored, like the heads of many bugs. One Burst reliably kills small bugs, but where you most feel its lacking damage is against the unarmored and annoying Hunter bugs.
It is worth mentioning though that, although it does do more damage, it typically only keeps up with shots to kill of the standard liberator and never out performs against it. I hope they eventually buff it as there are just better options for medium pen right now and it gets left in the dirt quite a bit
@@TheDapperSaintI think that's fine, when it's situationally gonna be more useful against the heavier armor guys. Weapons should be side grades, not upgrades IMO.
@@AlexDenton0451 I wish that was the case but the issue though is that it isn't sadly. The penetrator specifically underperforms in every area. - it's the bottom of the totem pole for assault rifles. - it's performance is overshadowed at mid-long range by actual marksmans - it's the worst option as far as medium pen goes BY FAR. And to top it off, a lot of the theoretical boons that come with medium pen are somewhat redundant due to low damage. You don't do critical damage for piercing the chest of devastators for instance. It takes mag dumping to do anything through that armor you penetrated, when you could've just dinked them in the head with any gun and killed faster. Yeah you can shoot the legs of striders, but it's ineffective at best and alternatives like scorcher are just objectively better at taking them out. I think medium penetration overall needs a rework tbh, but weapons like slugger don't suffer as much because they are at there roots a good gun, while the penetrator is a liberator with the gimmick of medium pen with crippled stats to "balance" it. There is only one case where the penetrator shines, and that's the weak point multiplier on brood commanders specifically, but even then the slugger and dominator get the same boon
@@TheDapperSaint If the penetrator has the same mag cap like the default it would've been alright. Choosing other primary guns should be about which target YOU want to prioritize. Concussion for heavy, Penetrator for medium, and default for adds.
Standard Liberator: 40%/22 damage against light armor, 0%/0 damage against medium. Liberator Penetrator: 100%/45 damage against light armor, 40%/18 damage against medium armor. That's why the Penetrator variant is much nicer than its stats suggest. Because of how armor penetration works, it actually deals twice the damage per shot than the standard Liberator against light armor. And since most enemies have light armor somewhere, that's a pretty big deal.
a tip for the concussive variant, single fire is king. The stagger animations last longer than the automatic cycle time, pumping full-auto fire into one target won't continuously stagger them, waiting for the target to finish the animation before shooting them again can help conserve ammo and spread the effect more evenly throughout a fight.
nah, its useless, that stagger effect is its ONLY positive trait, it needs double damage, bigger magazine and actual explosive damage as it was originally advertised.
@@fubarexress6359 I wouldn't say useless I think as it does need a buff, but if you did give it both double damage and a bigger mag it would become OP. Though I would say messing with the mag size and ammo reserve would help alongside a slightly higher RoF, but it is fairly useful because stagger can save you on many occasions.
@@diswazzi1683 Nah I just think people have the wrong game plan when going into this game. Your primary and secondary are not kill tools, they're defense tools. They aren't meant to kill everything you point them at, just keep you and your team alive long enough to call in the next stratagem or reload the support weapons that actually kill things.
I’m glad that you mention the loadout slotting that the concussive has. It’s raw dps isn’t great but it has a good role- team play, make space, support weapon as a primary (stalwart like you recommend, machine gun, grenade launcher for horse control, etc). The utility of the concussive liberator, I feel, gets overlooked. I’ve been able to stop devastating bug breaches and general movement from enemies like commander charges, swarms of warriors or hunters. I like to use: concussive liberator, senator revolver, stun grenades, supply pack, EATs, stalwart/grenade launcher, (flex stratagem to fill out team). Fills an underrated role imo, even in Helldives: horde control/management. Stuns can stop/slow a lot of enemies, I have plenty of firepower to deal with the light-medium enemies, and 1minute intermittent supplementary damage for heavy armor.
Sorry to say, but Liberator Concussive is pure cock'n'ball torture to use. It's likely to see enemy die from epilepsy than from the dmg this gun provides.
Its great that you have fun playing in this role, but most people prefer to be the damage dealer, so this weapon is antifun for the majority of the players
@@jingetsu4472 haha I get the feel. When I initially started using it I wasn’t a fan, a lot of the weapons with less snappy ergonomics feel odd. I feel it benefits pretty decently from armour with the +30% accuracy when crouched/prone but it’s not necessary. I still can’t disagree that compared to other weapons it’s not “amazing” by any regards.
@@Magnus_Fraus i like to think of all of my weapons as tools for certain jobs and not just dps. Maybe it’s an affliction form the -Tide games but having a utility over dps often is more valuable to me (personally) but I get the need for a standard of dps. I suppose regardless of any case I can make for the weapon it’s heavy context sensitive, and depends on the playstyle you’re looking for. After a few days of helldives I find filling this “support” role more enjoyable, and just as viable, after a while
@Heavynaut tested it last weekend, at first it seemed okay, but when a bunch of hunters, sentinels and other high tier stuff showed up, that's when its' damage starts to feel low. But it's fun to stunlock hive commanders, pushing them back for 1m each bullet hit, or stunlocking 2 stalkers at one time. It seems that this gun needs a good secondary weapon to shine. Well, we'll get some of those in future.
@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 definitely will follow, been posting my gameplay footage in this account of warhammer total war, currently huge fan of The empire, slaanesh and choas dwarf.
I like using it on higher level bot missions, since the low-quality troops often have light armor, while pairing it with an anti-material rifle or Spear. Now if only the Diligence counter sniper could also get some medium pen action, since I would use it to reliably body one-shot light armor bots.
@@GameFuMaster Slugger, Jar-5, Scorcher, hell even the Punisher is better at penatrating the face place of medium bots than the Liberator Pen, it doesn't have the capacity nor the damage even after Arrowhead's pathetic attempt at buffing it with full auto.
Hello there, great seeing you enter the Helldivers community. I've been a subscriber to your zerkovich channel from the start of total war warhammer. Always enjoy your content and I recently started playing HD2 myself, so good stuff!
Could also be that the concusive liberator is designed with teamwork in mind. If you have an organised squad that works together often one person could take this in a mission and be the designated person that keeps stalkers and chargers off the rest of the team to protect a rocket squad or something. Since we're often playing with random other people there's not been much chance to evaluate how some of these weapons could combine with other team members if working with pre-planned organised tactics.
It says explosive in the traits still. I wouldn't be surprised if that's wrong though. It would explain it's performance at that job. Although I don't know why they'd take that away and make a bad weapon even worse.
The Concussive is my favorite Liberator. Fantastic crowd control, especially of the Mid-sized. You can pair it with things which need long reload or cooldown, such as the laser cannon. You can also use it to push back the ennemy under a stratagem you've poorly thrown, such as gaz strike or big booms.
There are three powerful single shot weapons available that do the same job as the concussive while dishing out more damage at the same time. Incidentally, I found my new favorite strategy is to use the Plasma shotgun combined with a Stalwart set to max fire rate. It's basically a grenade launcher without the short ammo reserves problem.
That's really the problem with all the Liberator variants. There are other primary weapons that do the same job, but better. Sustained DPS: the Defender, Breaker, and Sickle. Long range precision: the Diligence. High stagger: the Punisher. Medium armor piercing: the Slugger and Dominator. Explosive weakpoint damage: the Scorcher and Plasma Punisher. Its fine for the standard Liberator to be the "jack of all trades, master of none" since its the starter gun. But the others, specifically the Concussive, feel like they need something more to make them stand out more.
Jack of all trades Master of none most often better then a Master of one, is a saying that only really works when the choice is be strong in one field be powerless in another and for a game where you Can have 3 weapons and some stratagems to help out with any problems specialising is best even if only specialising in a slot because you Can be a generalist by using all 3 slots rather then needing 3 generalist guns
Great all-round combo I run is Sickle, machine pistol, E-AT, and shield generator backpack. Will handle pretty much any threat, but if you want non-premium, replace the Sickle with the submachinegun or standard Liberator.
i use the concussive liberator in my turret heavy loudouts, it is quite handy for keeping bugs away from you to avoid your turrets blasting you in your back, and for if the bugs start attacking your turrets this gun is really good at stopping them long enough for the turrets to shoot back.
I have really been enjoying using the Liberator Penetrator in combination with the stalwart on bug planets, using the stalwart as a pseudo primary to deal with the bigger hordes, then switching to the Liberator for the armoured stuff
Another thing for these guns is you can change the fire mode. The standard liberator can be burst, single, or full auto fire. In addition you can change the range on your scope to get accurate shots farther away. To do these things just hold the reload button. Remember as long as you are spreading liberty the gun is just there to help
The "Concussive" Liberator would be a key component in a number of loadouts if it had a particularly large magazine to compensate for its dismal output combination of both very low damage AND low firing rate, and to accentuate its intention as a sustained assault suppression instrument that is reliable in that role while your teammates being given much needed breathing room do the killing. There are already a plethora of weapons, primarily Support Weapons, that not only are hard-focused on killing waves of enemies, but are even meta, and benefit greatly from having enemies kept out from lethally pointblank range, or having highly deadly targets such as Rocket Devastators locked down unable to fire their instant kill salvos. Having a reliably consistent suppressing weapon as a Primary would make it suddenly worthy of notice.
Actually, after testing the Liberators the Concussive's Explosive damage only deals about 33% more to Fleshy targets. So DPS wise the Liberator still beats the Concussive even against Fleshy targets, but the Concussive is more ammo efficient and has some stagger as well.
I like the concussive lay less recoil to handle and hits where you aim way more often. It still 1-2 taps the tiny bugs, and stops hunter midpounce so their body does physics impact you while dead. Need to test in screachers.
My problem with Penetrator and other medium pen weapons is that their damage is generally so low against those types of enemies, you will run out of ammo very quickly if you try to use your primary against those enemies. Its generally far better to have a good penetrating support weapon and combine it with a primary with alot of ammo.
I didn't notice the push back from the concussive liberator. Even though weapon sucks, a "support" diver can use it and help the squad massively with big hordes.
I feel like the Liberator would be a much more competitive pick vs the SMG if it had a larger magazine. This would allow it to really stand out as a weapon.
the concussive ar staggers, on an aoe. that will hold a line nicely for your squads flamethrower or keeping them in range of the eagles in route. it doesnt suck, it just fits a support role.
We really need some cybernetic or organic plasma weapons we researched from the bugs. All the weapons we use aren't really designed to fight what we fight, they are designed to fight humans
Is this Zerk from total war? Love your vids dude. Currently the only way I've made the lib concussive work is pairing it with turrets or a gas strike. You can keep all non heavy bugs permanently stuck in gas or away from your turrets. The problem is the punisher now does the same job but also kills things well. Maybe if it had more ammo it would be more useful.
First of all. Good video! Good showcase on how and when to use a gun. One thing that bugs me. I love the liberator penetrator but it needs a higher base dmg. When facing a hive guard, it is good because you can just shoot them directly but most of the time you get a white hitmark which means you do reduced dmg. In the end you need a full mag. So running around it or shoot the gaps is a little tricky but you are better off with that. I think the first balance patch was bad because the devs should have buffed the other weapons instead. The standart issue AR is cool, sounds good, does decent dmg but feels awkward when you ads. It is loud. It is accurate. You can aim fast with it. Yet the reticle bounces all over the place and makes the gun feel light yet uncontrollable. Which brings me back to the *Liberator penetrator*. It should be a straight buffed version of the standart AR. But that's just me. Peace
Im a Concussive user (at least vs bugs) and yeah its basiccally a support weapon. Autocannon is primary weapon, especcially if i can use the concussive to push bugs into a group, and the automatic as my side arm if i get swarmed by tiny bugs.
3:40 as a shunned and shamed Concussive user, i think the stun and knockback traits don't get enough appreciation. i'm out there putting steady, spaced out rounds into hordes keeping them all back while my teammates then have the space and time to mow them down more easily. good also to keep targets stunned in the area of an incoming air strike
I ran the concussive for a good while early on, largely against bugs. As you say, it's very good for keeping the annoying enemies off your face, and with a rover and/or turret support, you can make that pretty effective. However the Sickle fully replaced it just on pure utility. And then the Eruptor came along and you can do a similar playstyle, but with a gun that actually KILLS those annoying medium enemies rather than just keeping them CCed. If the concussive liberator had... I don't know, more shots, and was a little more reliable against the smaller enemies, I think it would still have a niche for turret-heavy players, as you can use it to play tower defense very effectively, but as I recall even scavengers will sometimes take a couple shots, and with the mag size and fire rate, that's pretty inconvenient.
Biggest issue of these guns is that they are entirely redundant, cause the Sickle exists. Which acts like an infinite ammo, no recoil liberator. Making it by far the strongest gun in the game. Also I think the Sickle has a faster reload to.
we really need some better primary choices. I would really love a full Gear and Weapon modification system where you could choose your ammo type. 556 has high fire rate while 762 has slower but penetrates more. Shotguns can have 00buck shot, incendiary, explosive, slug or Incendiary Explosive. and you can choose your optic that you want. Meanwhile you can put what ever Perk/Trait you want on any gear item. So that brand new really cool piece of gear you got doesn't have the perk you need just put it on it. While also being able to put plates in chests, Night Vision and Thermal in helm's and capes can have a new special perk that can increase currencies found in maps; and then you can Equip Tactical Carriers that have increased ammo capacity up to 14 mags like current gen carriers have. 4slots on the front that you can double stack, and a pouch under each arm.
I love the concussive rifle if I bring the flame thrower. I tick the DOT and keep pushing them back into the fire AOE as they tick for damage, great strategy for hive guards and the commanders
Standard - Just use the Defender SMG instead Concussive - Just use the Punisher shotgun of your choice instead Penetrator - If you want the increased accuracy and more reliable shots-to-kill on certain normal enemies, just use the Diligence DMR instead; If you really need the armor penetration, just use the Slugger instead.
I miss the Justice from Helldivers 1. stupid accurate, medium armor piercing. A super reliable weapon, in fact I didn't buy Helldivers 2 till I got confirmation that it was returning
Weapons need more detailed info in my opinion. I would like to know if the Dominator actually does explosive so I can shoot those spewers in the squishy bits without losing 90% of the damage. I did find the Concussive Liberator a bit of fun though. Pushing Brood Commanders back 10 meters and stopping Spewers from.. spewing.
I think the JAR5 Dominator should go here as it's currently sitting alone under Explosives and the form factor and firing modes are closer to rifles than to DMRs
I think the concussive liberator does great in teamplay. The other players can take care of the damage numbers, you can keep the enemies away. Granted, even so, you're probably best off using the punisher instead, unless you're really getting swarmed.
The last game that I've had this much with using all the weapons within an online shooter game has to be Halo 2/3/Reach. Every other game since then has felt like there was an S-tier and then niche weapons that pad out the "look at muh variety" statistic. Call of Duty(online&zombies), Destiny, Battlefront, Battlefield, Tarkov, Ready or Not, CSGO - all of them have a meta defining gun/loadout that rules the game season to season or for the entire lifespan of the game. Every gun in this game, except the ones not functioning properly atm, can be taken to Helldive difficulty and work efficiently if you carry the right equipment loadout to play to its strengths. I find that level of balance to be very enjoyable and significantly add to the replayability of Helldivers 2
Honestly penetrator is great overall, only issue i have is small mag size. The explosive weapon series is great against the bugs but dont seem to be useful to automatons.
The way I look at the concussive is this. It's essentially a stun dmr with a few extra bits of utility and enough damage and ammo to play the frontline if you have to. I used to run it solo vs bots and honestly it's not as bad as people think imo. It isn't *meta* but to say it's outright bad when things like the scythe, dagger, dominator, counter sniper (seriously who uses it and why), penetrator (bring a nade suit, railgun, mg, flamer, or the senator. They're all better), and starter pistol all exist and are considerably worse. Even the plasma gun and blitzer seem better in every way via them ignoring armor entirely, giving a far more powerful use.
The concussive liberator is the best assault rifle because it has a explosive damage which causes stagger which is one of the best things in the game right now. My setup for bots is concussive liberator, senator, high explosive grenade
I think the Jar-5 Dominator is just as much a assault rifle as the Liberator Penetrator as both guns have burst fire instead of full auto so you should have that as part of your list.
Until the Penetrator got full auto, I wasn't a big fan of it. Especially having to hold the trigger for a full burst as though I had to fire it like it did have full auto was disorienting to me. I'm used to just having to tap the trigger for a full burst from other games. And it's a bit underpowered to be used in semi-auto as a marksman rifle, since the tradeoff for higher armor pen is lower per-shot damage. Having full-auto added to it made it more fun for me to use it, even though I still prefer the sickle over it due to potential for unlimited ammo, relatively fast reload, and near-nonexistent recoil making it hyper accurate at long range. Though now the Eruptor is taking the spot on my list for favorite gun to use
**Update Changes:**
- So the Concussive Liberator is in fact NOT explosive. At the time of making this video, it had 'Explosive Damage' listed in it's traits. But it was all a lie and as of a recent patch, has been removed from the tags. So don't use it for Charger Butts, etc. It's merely a tool for crowd control.
- The Penetrator gained full auto now which is a nice option.
I believe the reason for the name change is so that people don't think "explosive" means aoe damage, like the JAR-5 Dominator. The bullets do explode to the point of creating a concussive force on the target, but not enough to spread heat or shrapnel to anything in the vicinity. I assume people might have reported the Explosive Liberator's inability to do aoe damage as a bug, and honestly I never got the gun myself because that's what I thought they meant by Explosive Liberator.
Went to check, apparently JAR-5 Dominator doesn't do aoe damage, and it's no longer got the explosive trait despite being in the explosive category. No idea what's going on there.
The game devs seem to have made a distinction between explosive trait and explosive category. Trait deals concussive/stagger, but category deals small aoe.
It is explosive. Among the assault rifles, it takes the fewest shots to kill a charger from the back. It couldnt do that if it wasnt explosive
@@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 actually it takes the same amount of shots a standard lib does to the butt of a charger it was tested. Also, @NoIsHub, JAR-5 is still explosive, it destroys charger butts in like 7-10 shots. it doesn't need the explosive trait because it's in the Explosive Type Category.
@@lupvirga i was watching a video testing them yesterday so one of our sources is wrong
I think what I like most about the Liberator Penetrator is that it deals full damage to lightly armored targets while the standard Liberator deals 60% damage. This means that the Liberator Penetrator has MORE damage than the liberator against enemy parts that are lightly armored, like the heads of many bugs. One Burst reliably kills small bugs, but where you most feel its lacking damage is against the unarmored and annoying Hunter bugs.
It is worth mentioning though that, although it does do more damage, it typically only keeps up with shots to kill of the standard liberator and never out performs against it.
I hope they eventually buff it as there are just better options for medium pen right now and it gets left in the dirt quite a bit
Stalkers take like 2 magazines to kill. By that time they're eating your face...
@@TheDapperSaintI think that's fine, when it's situationally gonna be more useful against the heavier armor guys. Weapons should be side grades, not upgrades IMO.
@@AlexDenton0451 I wish that was the case but the issue though is that it isn't sadly. The penetrator specifically underperforms in every area.
- it's the bottom of the totem pole for assault rifles.
- it's performance is overshadowed at mid-long range by actual marksmans
- it's the worst option as far as medium pen goes BY FAR.
And to top it off, a lot of the theoretical boons that come with medium pen are somewhat redundant due to low damage. You don't do critical damage for piercing the chest of devastators for instance. It takes mag dumping to do anything through that armor you penetrated, when you could've just dinked them in the head with any gun and killed faster. Yeah you can shoot the legs of striders, but it's ineffective at best and alternatives like scorcher are just objectively better at taking them out.
I think medium penetration overall needs a rework tbh, but weapons like slugger don't suffer as much because they are at there roots a good gun, while the penetrator is a liberator with the gimmick of medium pen with crippled stats to "balance" it.
There is only one case where the penetrator shines, and that's the weak point multiplier on brood commanders specifically, but even then the slugger and dominator get the same boon
@@TheDapperSaint If the penetrator has the same mag cap like the default it would've been alright. Choosing other primary guns should be about which target YOU want to prioritize. Concussion for heavy, Penetrator for medium, and default for adds.
Standard Liberator: 40%/22 damage against light armor, 0%/0 damage against medium.
Liberator Penetrator: 100%/45 damage against light armor, 40%/18 damage against medium armor.
That's why the Penetrator variant is much nicer than its stats suggest. Because of how armor penetration works, it actually deals twice the damage per shot than the standard Liberator against light armor. And since most enemies have light armor somewhere, that's a pretty big deal.
It also does 4x headshot damage, which is tremendous against something like a bile spewer.
It still can use more ammo.
It had a bottleneck though, being the fire rate.
@@thelouster5815
That's my biggest gripe with it
@@catodes1295 Increase its ammo to 36 and give it an extra mag or 2 and it’d be fine.
a tip for the concussive variant, single fire is king. The stagger animations last longer than the automatic cycle time, pumping full-auto fire into one target won't continuously stagger them, waiting for the target to finish the animation before shooting them again can help conserve ammo and spread the effect more evenly throughout a fight.
nah, its useless, that stagger effect is its ONLY positive trait, it needs double damage, bigger magazine and actual explosive damage as it was originally advertised.
@@fubarexress6359 I wouldn't say useless I think as it does need a buff, but if you did give it both double damage and a bigger mag it would become OP. Though I would say messing with the mag size and ammo reserve would help alongside a slightly higher RoF, but it is fairly useful because stagger can save you on many occasions.
@@fubarexress6359
It's literally called "concussive" lol
This game too fast paced for all that downtime, it's a sucky gun plain and simple
@@diswazzi1683 Nah I just think people have the wrong game plan when going into this game. Your primary and secondary are not kill tools, they're defense tools. They aren't meant to kill everything you point them at, just keep you and your team alive long enough to call in the next stratagem or reload the support weapons that actually kill things.
I’m glad that you mention the loadout slotting that the concussive has. It’s raw dps isn’t great but it has a good role- team play, make space, support weapon as a primary (stalwart like you recommend, machine gun, grenade launcher for horse control, etc). The utility of the concussive liberator, I feel, gets overlooked. I’ve been able to stop devastating bug breaches and general movement from enemies like commander charges, swarms of warriors or hunters.
I like to use: concussive liberator, senator revolver, stun grenades, supply pack, EATs, stalwart/grenade launcher, (flex stratagem to fill out team). Fills an underrated role imo, even in Helldives: horde control/management. Stuns can stop/slow a lot of enemies, I have plenty of firepower to deal with the light-medium enemies, and 1minute intermittent supplementary damage for heavy armor.
Sorry to say, but Liberator Concussive is pure cock'n'ball torture to use. It's likely to see enemy die from epilepsy than from the dmg this gun provides.
Its great that you have fun playing in this role, but most people prefer to be the damage dealer, so this weapon is antifun for the majority of the players
@@jingetsu4472 haha I get the feel. When I initially started using it I wasn’t a fan, a lot of the weapons with less snappy ergonomics feel odd. I feel it benefits pretty decently from armour with the +30% accuracy when crouched/prone but it’s not necessary. I still can’t disagree that compared to other weapons it’s not “amazing” by any regards.
@@Magnus_Fraus i like to think of all of my weapons as tools for certain jobs and not just dps. Maybe it’s an affliction form the -Tide games but having a utility over dps often is more valuable to me (personally) but I get the need for a standard of dps.
I suppose regardless of any case I can make for the weapon it’s heavy context sensitive, and depends on the playstyle you’re looking for. After a few days of helldives I find filling this “support” role more enjoyable, and just as viable, after a while
@Heavynaut tested it last weekend, at first it seemed okay, but when a bunch of hunters, sentinels and other high tier stuff showed up, that's when its' damage starts to feel low. But it's fun to stunlock hive commanders, pushing them back for 1m each bullet hit, or stunlocking 2 stalkers at one time. It seems that this gun needs a good secondary weapon to shine. Well, we'll get some of those in future.
Way more helpful than a teir list. Very much looking forward to the rest of the weapon categories.
I love your Total War channel, and this channel is no different, keep up the vids!
I thought his voice felt familiar
@@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 This the great book of grudges?
No way he makes total war? 😮I recently gotten into warhammer total war and it's awesome!
@@Aircastegamer hes a great source of info on that game. helped me greatly during my vampire game
@phylippezimmermannpaquin2062 definitely will follow, been posting my gameplay footage in this account of warhammer total war, currently huge fan of The empire, slaanesh and choas dwarf.
The Penetrator is very nice to have on higher difficulties when you have a lot more armored targets.
You would think so but for some reason it just doesn’t feel good to use magazine is so small
I like using it on higher level bot missions, since the low-quality troops often have light armor, while pairing it with an anti-material rifle or Spear. Now if only the Diligence counter sniper could also get some medium pen action, since I would use it to reliably body one-shot light armor bots.
lol, just use the slugger
@@GameFuMaster Slugger, Jar-5, Scorcher, hell even the Punisher is better at penatrating the face place of medium bots than the Liberator Pen, it doesn't have the capacity nor the damage even after Arrowhead's pathetic attempt at buffing it with full auto.
@@hawk9mm yeah, you're still requiring like a full magazine to kill most things that have medium armor.
Amazing great tips and great work showing each weapon value
Glad to see you're still making videos, love your Warhammer vids!
Hello there, great seeing you enter the Helldivers community. I've been a subscriber to your zerkovich channel from the start of total war warhammer. Always enjoy your content and I recently started playing HD2 myself, so good stuff!
Great breakdown, short and informative. You gained a subscriber today dude!
I really like how there is no annoying or pointless intro - just straight to the point. Refreshing!
Nice video dude! Getting straight to the point with examples of the good/bad parts of the weapons. Keep it up 🤗
Love the content hope there’s more to come
Could also be that the concusive liberator is designed with teamwork in mind. If you have an organised squad that works together often one person could take this in a mission and be the designated person that keeps stalkers and chargers off the rest of the team to protect a rocket squad or something. Since we're often playing with random other people there's not been much chance to evaluate how some of these weapons could combine with other team members if working with pre-planned organised tactics.
It doesn't damage yourself so it's nice on loadout centered around crowd control
If the only thing you're looking for is stagger then the punisher or slugger is a better option. Doesn't need a dedicated person to run the concussive
Not explosive. It was changed to say "concussive", which means just for crowd control.
It says explosive in the traits still. I wouldn't be surprised if that's wrong though. It would explain it's performance at that job. Although I don't know why they'd take that away and make a bad weapon even worse.
@@zerkyzerk it still works. Surprisingly it kills berserkers in red glow on belly much faster than dominator
Even saw ur shotgun conclusion too. Great way to explain and even more great are the evil badass intro of each weapon :D Funny and great!!
2 videos and 2 bangers. I'm subbing to see how many good videos you can drop in a row.
Thats some good explanations.
Answer: it is for the dumpster the moment you get literally anything else for example the basic breaker.
Nice. Looking forward to future comparisons. I’ll be one of the three percent who subbed
The Concussive is my favorite Liberator. Fantastic crowd control, especially of the Mid-sized. You can pair it with things which need long reload or cooldown, such as the laser cannon. You can also use it to push back the ennemy under a stratagem you've poorly thrown, such as gaz strike or big booms.
There are three powerful single shot weapons available that do the same job as the concussive while dishing out more damage at the same time. Incidentally, I found my new favorite strategy is to use the Plasma shotgun combined with a Stalwart set to max fire rate. It's basically a grenade launcher without the short ammo reserves problem.
That's really the problem with all the Liberator variants. There are other primary weapons that do the same job, but better. Sustained DPS: the Defender, Breaker, and Sickle. Long range precision: the Diligence. High stagger: the Punisher. Medium armor piercing: the Slugger and Dominator. Explosive weakpoint damage: the Scorcher and Plasma Punisher.
Its fine for the standard Liberator to be the "jack of all trades, master of none" since its the starter gun. But the others, specifically the Concussive, feel like they need something more to make them stand out more.
Jack of all trades Master of none most often better then a Master of one, is a saying that only really works when the choice is be strong in one field be powerless in another and for a game where you Can have 3 weapons and some stratagems to help out with any problems specialising is best even if only specialising in a slot because you Can be a generalist by using all 3 slots rather then needing 3 generalist guns
"And Titan... balls?" Perfect delivery!
The most important note about the defender over assault rifles is you can (somewhat accurately) hip fire it in any direction while sprinting.
do more of this, Good job man
Nice info! Keep it coming more.videos!!!
Great all-round combo I run is Sickle, machine pistol, E-AT, and shield generator backpack. Will handle pretty much any threat, but if you want non-premium, replace the Sickle with the submachinegun or standard Liberator.
Penetrator is amazing. I love it, the only problem is the magazine size, if it had more it would be insane. Maybe weapon customization for bigger mag?
longer reload in exchange for an extra 10 bullets?
i use the concussive liberator in my turret heavy loudouts, it is quite handy for keeping bugs away from you to avoid your turrets blasting you in your back, and for if the bugs start attacking your turrets this gun is really good at stopping them long enough for the turrets to shoot back.
Thanks for the guide
I wouldve thought there would be more assault rifles
I have really been enjoying using the Liberator Penetrator in combination with the stalwart on bug planets, using the stalwart as a pseudo primary to deal with the bigger hordes, then switching to the Liberator for the armoured stuff
Another thing for these guns is you can change the fire mode. The standard liberator can be burst, single, or full auto fire. In addition you can change the range on your scope to get accurate shots farther away.
To do these things just hold the reload button. Remember as long as you are spreading liberty the gun is just there to help
Very helpful ! Thx
wonderful
Do more of these!!
The "Concussive" Liberator would be a key component in a number of loadouts if it had a particularly large magazine to compensate for its dismal output combination of both very low damage AND low firing rate, and to accentuate its intention as a sustained assault suppression instrument that is reliable in that role while your teammates being given much needed breathing room do the killing.
There are already a plethora of weapons, primarily Support Weapons, that not only are hard-focused on killing waves of enemies, but are even meta, and benefit greatly from having enemies kept out from lethally pointblank range, or having highly deadly targets such as Rocket Devastators locked down unable to fire their instant kill salvos.
Having a reliably consistent suppressing weapon as a Primary would make it suddenly worthy of notice.
you can tap fire the penetrator, use that tip for the small bugs as its always a one to two tap
Actually, after testing the Liberators the Concussive's Explosive damage only deals about 33% more to Fleshy targets. So DPS wise the Liberator still beats the Concussive even against Fleshy targets, but the Concussive is more ammo efficient and has some stagger as well.
I like the concussive lay less recoil to handle and hits where you aim way more often. It still 1-2 taps the tiny bugs, and stops hunter midpounce so their body does physics impact you while dead.
Need to test in screachers.
Hi Zerk, I always loved your warhammer content but I never knew you were a loyal defender of the glorious managed democracy aswell!
CZcams thought it could hide another Zerkovich channel from me, not this time!
I hope you see this comment, this video was well done and viewed while drinking my libertea!
is this gonna become a series?
But of course. Democracy demands it!
@@zerkyzerk nice!
Never considered the Penetrator for Bots. I will definitely have to try that next time I am on the front.
My problem with Penetrator and other medium pen weapons is that their damage is generally so low against those types of enemies, you will run out of ammo very quickly if you try to use your primary against those enemies. Its generally far better to have a good penetrating support weapon and combine it with a primary with alot of ammo.
0:43 that hunter wanted the spotlight xD
These are pretty good, would love to see more 👍
I didn't notice the push back from the concussive liberator. Even though weapon sucks, a "support" diver can use it and help the squad massively with big hordes.
I feel like the Liberator would be a much more competitive pick vs the SMG if it had a larger magazine. This would allow it to really stand out as a weapon.
Love your warhammer content so excited your doing Helldivers! FOR DEMOCRACY!
I'd be the designer of thoses weapons i would give up taking time making cool looking gun that will end up as lackluster pea shooters.
the concussive ar staggers, on an aoe. that will hold a line nicely for your squads flamethrower or keeping them in range of the eagles in route. it doesnt suck, it just fits a support role.
We really need some cybernetic or organic plasma weapons we researched from the bugs. All the weapons we use aren't really designed to fight what we fight, they are designed to fight humans
Very much enjoyed these vids mate, it's nice to hear a fellow countryman rather than a Yank lol
Do more plx. :P
Is this Zerk from total war? Love your vids dude. Currently the only way I've made the lib concussive work is pairing it with turrets or a gas strike. You can keep all non heavy bugs permanently stuck in gas or away from your turrets. The problem is the punisher now does the same job but also kills things well. Maybe if it had more ammo it would be more useful.
First of all.
Good video!
Good showcase on how and when to use a gun.
One thing that bugs me.
I love the liberator penetrator but it needs a higher base dmg.
When facing a hive guard, it is good because you can just shoot them directly but most of the time you get a white hitmark which means you do reduced dmg. In the end you need a full mag.
So running around it or shoot the gaps is a little tricky but you are better off with that.
I think the first balance patch was bad because the devs should have buffed the other weapons instead.
The standart issue AR is cool, sounds good, does decent dmg but feels awkward when you ads. It is loud. It is accurate. You can aim fast with it. Yet the reticle bounces all over the place and makes the gun feel light yet uncontrollable. Which brings me back to the *Liberator penetrator*.
It should be a straight buffed version of the standart AR.
But that's just me.
Peace
Im a Concussive user (at least vs bugs) and yeah its basiccally a support weapon. Autocannon is primary weapon, especcially if i can use the concussive to push bugs into a group, and the automatic as my side arm if i get swarmed by tiny bugs.
3:40 as a shunned and shamed Concussive user, i think the stun and knockback traits don't get enough appreciation. i'm out there putting steady, spaced out rounds into hordes keeping them all back while my teammates then have the space and time to mow them down more easily.
good also to keep targets stunned in the area of an incoming air strike
I ran the concussive for a good while early on, largely against bugs. As you say, it's very good for keeping the annoying enemies off your face, and with a rover and/or turret support, you can make that pretty effective. However the Sickle fully replaced it just on pure utility. And then the Eruptor came along and you can do a similar playstyle, but with a gun that actually KILLS those annoying medium enemies rather than just keeping them CCed. If the concussive liberator had... I don't know, more shots, and was a little more reliable against the smaller enemies, I think it would still have a niche for turret-heavy players, as you can use it to play tower defense very effectively, but as I recall even scavengers will sometimes take a couple shots, and with the mag size and fire rate, that's pretty inconvenient.
Biggest issue of these guns is that they are entirely redundant, cause the Sickle exists. Which acts like an infinite ammo, no recoil liberator. Making it by far the strongest gun in the game. Also I think the Sickle has a faster reload to.
Am I wrong to guess Zerkovich and Zerk are the same? Really excited to see you branch out! (assuming I am guessing right)
I found you twice
Once in warhammer and Once here
Is this fate
Standard liberator has the best reticule in the game. Wish other weapons had scopes with that reticule, such as the CS, and AMR.
we really need some better primary choices.
I would really love a full Gear and Weapon modification system where you could choose your ammo type. 556 has high fire rate while 762 has slower but penetrates more. Shotguns can have 00buck shot, incendiary, explosive, slug or Incendiary Explosive. and you can choose your optic that you want. Meanwhile you can put what ever Perk/Trait you want on any gear item. So that brand new really cool piece of gear you got doesn't have the perk you need just put it on it. While also being able to put plates in chests, Night Vision and Thermal in helm's and capes can have a new special perk that can increase currencies found in maps; and then you can Equip Tactical Carriers that have increased ammo capacity up to 14 mags like current gen carriers have. 4slots on the front that you can double stack, and a pouch under each arm.
I love the concussive rifle if I bring the flame thrower. I tick the DOT and keep pushing them back into the fire AOE as they tick for damage, great strategy for hive guards and the commanders
Liberating those bugs just like how he liberates those disgusting elves on Warhammer! Great vid Zerk!
Standard - Just use the Defender SMG instead
Concussive - Just use the Punisher shotgun of your choice instead
Penetrator - If you want the increased accuracy and more reliable shots-to-kill on certain normal enemies, just use the Diligence DMR instead; If you really need the armor penetration, just use the Slugger instead.
How dare you not include best assault rifle - Sickle?
I miss the Justice from Helldivers 1. stupid accurate, medium armor piercing. A super reliable weapon, in fact I didn't buy Helldivers 2 till I got confirmation that it was returning
The default one is fine, the other two make me feel ugly when I use them
Weapons need more detailed info in my opinion.
I would like to know if the Dominator actually does explosive so I can shoot those spewers in the squishy bits without losing 90% of the damage.
I did find the Concussive Liberator a bit of fun though. Pushing Brood Commanders back 10 meters and stopping Spewers from.. spewing.
I think the JAR5 Dominator should go here as it's currently sitting alone under Explosives and the form factor and firing modes are closer to rifles than to DMRs
The thing about the Penetrator is… the Slugger also blasts Warrior armor in 1-2 shots while the Penetrator takes like half a clip.
Yep, slugger has the knockback and the medium armour penetration, and is absolutely deadly
The main reason youd use the Liberator is it takes a shit ton of medals to unlock the Slugger, so its viable for like 20-30+ hours
I think the concussive liberator does great in teamplay. The other players can take care of the damage numbers, you can keep the enemies away.
Granted, even so, you're probably best off using the punisher instead, unless you're really getting swarmed.
Huh, I was half-expecting you to talk about anti-large effects and what not ;)
I think the concussive liberator sounds awesome and penetrator too. I need to go deal out some liberty now
They suck cock, stick to the breaker and slugger, THE ONLY 2 PRIMARY WEAPONS IN THE GAME
Think we could get a video on the pistols?
the punisher has knock back as well now, is that a better choice to the concussive?
The last game that I've had this much with using all the weapons within an online shooter game has to be Halo 2/3/Reach. Every other game since then has felt like there was an S-tier and then niche weapons that pad out the "look at muh variety" statistic.
Call of Duty(online&zombies), Destiny, Battlefront, Battlefield, Tarkov, Ready or Not, CSGO - all of them have a meta defining gun/loadout that rules the game season to season or for the entire lifespan of the game.
Every gun in this game, except the ones not functioning properly atm, can be taken to Helldive difficulty and work efficiently if you carry the right equipment loadout to play to its strengths. I find that level of balance to be very enjoyable and significantly add to the replayability of Helldivers 2
Scorcher and Slugger both do everything the Concussive Liberator tries to do.
At the doubt, pick the Liberator.
A swiss army knife in form of assault rifle.
I agree, my rifle bullets that go pop should be doing better...
Hello, I am a fan of the standard Liberator and I hope one day this weapon will have a light buff, like 50 rounds and 60 damage.
Pls 😢
I still think that all the Liberators should have a 10 dmg buff applied to them, just to make them on par with the shotguns
Can you a do one with all the weapons out now please
"Titanballs"
Honestly penetrator is great overall, only issue i have is small mag size.
The explosive weapon series is great against the bugs but dont seem to be useful to automatons.
The way I look at the concussive is this. It's essentially a stun dmr with a few extra bits of utility and enough damage and ammo to play the frontline if you have to. I used to run it solo vs bots and honestly it's not as bad as people think imo. It isn't *meta* but to say it's outright bad when things like the scythe, dagger, dominator, counter sniper (seriously who uses it and why), penetrator (bring a nade suit, railgun, mg, flamer, or the senator. They're all better), and starter pistol all exist and are considerably worse. Even the plasma gun and blitzer seem better in every way via them ignoring armor entirely, giving a far more powerful use.
I heard the voice and thought I was listening to a total war warhammer 3 video.
Honestly if they just buffed the damage of the concussive it would be viable
With an intro like that, like and subscribe confirmed.
I recognise this voice, but I seriously can't remember from where.
The concussive liberator is the best assault rifle because it has a explosive damage which causes stagger which is one of the best things in the game right now. My setup for bots is concussive liberator, senator, high explosive grenade
I think the Jar-5 Dominator is just as much a assault rifle as the Liberator Penetrator as both guns have burst fire instead of full auto so you should have that as part of your list.
Until the Penetrator got full auto, I wasn't a big fan of it. Especially having to hold the trigger for a full burst as though I had to fire it like it did have full auto was disorienting to me. I'm used to just having to tap the trigger for a full burst from other games. And it's a bit underpowered to be used in semi-auto as a marksman rifle, since the tradeoff for higher armor pen is lower per-shot damage. Having full-auto added to it made it more fun for me to use it, even though I still prefer the sickle over it due to potential for unlimited ammo, relatively fast reload, and near-nonexistent recoil making it hyper accurate at long range. Though now the Eruptor is taking the spot on my list for favorite gun to use
Wish we could have attachments on rifles
to fill my gun cabinet while i use actually worthwile weapons
0:03 standard liberator
1:22 liberator penetrator
2:55 concussive liberator