A Guide to the Arc Thrower | Helldivers 2
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- čas přidán 4. 06. 2024
- I'm visiting the Arc Thrower today which has been my most used support stratagem since I started playing. It has always been in my eyes and extremely powerful beast, but why did it get its under-rated reputation?
Since the armour changes it got an extra boost to its ability and whilst its really strong, I think its in a good place.
What do you think?
Did you enjoy this format? Please let me know down below & I will get similar videos out for other Stratagem.
Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this content.
00:00 Intro
00:50 Brief Content Update
01:09 Bolt/Projectile Mechanics
02:24 Charging Mechanics
03:12 Arc Thrower vs Termanids/Bugs
04:00 Chargers
04:33 Bile Titans
05:07 Arc Thrower vs Automatons
05:33 Hulks
06:13 Automatons Continued
06:39 Tips, Quirks & Bugs
07:57 Closing Thoughts & Outro
#helldivers2 #helldivers2gameplay #gameplay #arrowhead #gameplayvideo #gaming #gamers #patch #update #news - Hry
PATCH UPDATES:
Changes in Patch 01.000.200:
Arc Thrower: fixed charging inconsistencies; it will now always take 1s to charge a shot.
Arc Thrower: reduced distance from 50m to 35m.
Arc Thrower: increased stagger force.
With its new stagger effect you can stunlock even hulks with it, surely now it can be recommended for automatons
It's SO good for Automatons now, especially when a dropship brings a Flame Hulk and some Chainsaw Berserkers, as you can keep them at bay infinitely as long as you're not interrupted.
Though also with Gunships in the mix, it can leave you helpless against them.
I only learned yesterday that the arc thrower can open those cargo containers without needing grenades. Just need to stand back a bit.
Really? I hadn't even thought to test that. Thats great to know.
It's true! I do it all the time.
Holy crap dude you're a modern Prometheus
same with the slugger shotgun
Laser canon also
I didn't realize it was firing for center of mass, that actually helps a lot with making positioning decisions.
Aye, definitely key knowledge to have. Obi-wans famous high-ground phrase really translates to the Arc Thrower experience usually.
You're the first person I've seen to cover the arc thrower's targeting in detail. It also matches my observations perfectly. The quick and dirty way I think of it, is to treat is like the grenade launcher. Don't fire it into your teammates' vicinity, but if you can shoot it past them, go for it.
Honestly, the biggest buff Arrowhead could give the arc thrower is to refine/improve the terrain collision detection.
Aye, sorting the terrain bugs would make the weapon feel 500x better!
It's literally the only thing that keeps me from using it. It is so frustrating to shoot into nothing multiple times, while you get surrounded by more and more enemies.
And First Person View indicator
I've always seen the terrain issue as part of the weapon's design. It makes sense that with the erratic nature of lightning, a percentage of your shots are going to get grounded. Electricity seeks ground and it's why the arc thrower works so we'll from an elevated position. I like to pair it with the jump pack and I encourage my allies to equip the new arc resistant armor. It makes it so they only take 5% of the damage they would have taken and effectively can double your arc range if you target them directly.
@@TheWileSpiceIt would make it too good and then they would nerf it. As it is, I think the arc thrower should be the measure for weapon balance. Damage is high, but overcoming grounding requires a bit of skill. It is also capable of taking out heavies, but you really want someone dedicated to that role. Lastly, you need to pair it with a relatively low powered rapid fire primary to quickly take it the hunters that manage to get within melee range.
not sure why but the Berserker bots must have rubber insolation or massive surge protectors because i swear they can take almost 8 shots
Yeah they are super resistant!! I suppose it makes sense balance-wise since there are generally less units to face in comparison to the Bugs.
Sometimes I can down them in three hits. I guess it's about where they happen to get hit. Same with chargers. Head in absolutely best cases kills a charger in 5-6 hits, but otherwise it might take well over dozen hits.
@@padmad3832 it's so cool that there is a weapon in this game whose effective accuracy is determined entirely by literally positioning, and not at all by crosshair placement - i.e. if you can put bug heads into the spot where center mass is, you'll do way more damage, but "aiming for the head" is literally useless. that's a totally unique thing AFAIK!!
Berserkers have loads and loads of health, but no armor. Which is great if you can blow their head off with 2 shotgun slugs, but bad when the arc automatically hits them in the chest.
The Scythe makes a great primary to pair it with as those shred zerkers. Bile spewers are also somewhat lightning resistant, tbh I find explosives like the grenade launder or autocannon best against them.
Awesome video Wile, this is a solid primer for anyone looking to pick this gun up!
There's a couple things that you didn't cover that I thought I'd mention.
As you covered with shooting over terrain, you can curve the arc's path by aiming a bit away from the target. You can use this to hit bot tanks in the turret by aiming somewhat above them, which drastically reduces the time to kill. You can to a limited extent use this arc curving to strip charger leg armour, but it's not terribly consistent IME so you're probably better off just lining up headshots.
Bot devastators go down in one headshot if you can land it, so aiming a bit above them can give you better chances of killing them super quick. Again not the most consistent, but I might just need more practice to find the right angle to hold.
Additionally, the arc thrower pairs super well with the jump pack. It gives you tons of mobility to position yourself safely. Also, you can both charge and fire the arc thrower while airborne, letting you maintain your momentum while on the move.
A bit wordier than I intended, but hope it helps!
Thank ya! High ground really is the best place to be when lining up shots with the weapon against most enemies. Thanks for the extra bits!
Also, I'm going to throw my hat in too: The arc thrower can ignore the shield on Heavy Devastators.
It really is astonishing how many people I don't see using it, it's amazing for everything under a bile titan
Its possible many just find it a boring option to be fair! Other support stratagem have more satisfying feedback in the way they shoot.
pst, also fun fact if you are eye to eye level or far enough away this thing headshots and kills bile titans in like ~3 shots
@@ichijo5312 it's very hard to normalize for bile titan damage while the bug persists that makes them WAY lower HP if you have a playstation player hosting/in your party. a search for 'bile titan crossplay' will give a ton of info
This is exactly why they are not using it. It's difficulty 5 strat. 2+ bile titans and it will become hellrunners and not helldivers
@@meridian5373What stratagem melts bile titans faster? The rail gun is the only other option and can't deal with swarms. The recent balance change to have more swarm and less armor means that the arc thrower is on top
This thing replaced the flamethrower as my goto bug killing machine, still love my thrower, but this thing is next fucking level.
Aye! I think the Charger nerf really launched it further as the armour changes made it fractionally less potent.
One thing overlooked about the Arc Thrower's DPS is that because it never needs to cool down or reload, if nothing forces you to stop firing, you just keep shooting. That steady, arcing multi-hit DPS adds up extremely fast. You can see this on large engagements, where you can hold down a breach (mostly) by yourself and never end up leaking due to pauses like other weapons have.
100% yeah. If left uninterrupted you become an absolute beast. The collaterals from the chain hits just pile in.
With finding you for darktide and now helldivers man I hope your channel blows up, I love how you do guides it's fantastic
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoy the videos, hopefully keep on moving up in the YT world this year! :)
@@TheWileSpice 4 player coop live service games built on the depricated Autodesk Stingray engine are apparently a booming market (it's very funny to me it happened twice!)
@@iamastrangeloop96 you also got Vermintide on the market too
Great video, overall excellent coverage on how to use the arc thrower.
A couple notes from my 150+ hours with it:
Chargers have independent health pools for every limb (head, each leg, body, tail). 6 to the head kills a charger, body is 12+, legs are 7-9 to strip armor, tail is roughly the same as body (granted if you have a consistent shots at a tail it’s probably because a friendly is on the other side). As such, chargers are only worth shooting if you can see their head, even if you get 10 shots into the body, the head will still take another 6. It’s significantly more task effective to shoot other targets (if there are any) and wait for the charger to look at you, rather than spending twice as many rounds in the side only for that progress to be basically nil when he looks at you and you have to start over on the head’s health pool.
Tanks and turrets take around 15 shots (hitting the turret portion, sometimes it hits the body even aiming high). While not the best method for taking out a tank, if you don’t have a cooldown ready, it will work in a pinch.
Look for small rocks/high ground constantly (primarily for bugs). Not only will it slow enemy movement, but it will also give the arc thrower an easier path to hit enemies. Drastically improves the hit rate, and stops bushes, bodies, and pebbles from blocking your shots.
Lastly, the arc thrower is very effective in add control. Your primary targets when enemies spawn should be small targets. The chargers, hulks, devastators, etc may seem like the bigger priority, but removing 15-20 small enemies in the same time you spent dealing with one hulk will go a lot further in keeping your squad alive. (If you can chain from a large target to the small ones behind, that’s the preferred choice. But, don’t spend precious time working away at a charger that’s away from the main horde when there’s 50 hunters in a pack that are hunting you down.)
Feel free to let me know if you’re use of it is different, but those are a few tips I’ve picked up that really make the arc thrower shine for me.
Thank you!
Yeah all the different sections on the Charger make sense for the average time it took me to solo one in combat being 11 shots.
Great tips, thanks for sharing.
It’s fantastic for picking off the small guys before they can call in drops or breaches.
Ah, i wasnt just imagining things when my shots were just duds sometimes. Good vid!
Definitely not your imagination! Very frustrating interaction. Thank you!
If your shots are getting blocked by the invisible walls, moving sideways or backwards will remove the "bug". Because of how frequent it happens to me I generally always side strafe while firing the arc thrower now, and if the enemy is closer than 50 meters, walk backwards to increase my time on target as well as remove the "obstacle" that's blocking my shots.
It also happens more frequently to me when trying for the faster shot time, rather than just accepting the full 1 seconds between shots for a full charge. So try fully charging it or staying with the lateral and retreating movements
I shall try strafing in my next games, if it truly does stop the bug from happening then that is life saving.
this weapon made me fall in love with the game. Its so damn fun and nothing is better
Have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying it since I started playing as well.
My friend and I started using the arc thrower yesterday with the 95% arc damage reduction armor and it makes this thing an absolute must for crowd control on 8-9 difficulties. Prioritizing stratagems for big things and deleting smaller things in an arc volley is fantastic!
Subbed! Thanks for all the cool info! I’ve only recently started to use the arc thrower and totally agree with all your observations so far 😊 I didn’t realise it could open containers
Welcome to the club! My pleasure, its an absolute beast of a weapon!
Can you do a video on the two new stratagems I’m interested in what you can find out about the quazar gun
Man the QUALITY of your Videos is outstanding. You need more subs.
I appreciate the kind words, thank you! Doing much better than I imagined for subs so far. Hopefully I can keep getting better at video making.
There is definitely something weird about the Arc Thrower's damage output vs Chargers and Bile Titans. Sometimes I feel like a god. Killing both in 4-6 shots, watching their armor get chunked off, while other times they take 15-20 shots and no visible effect until they die.
That’s because you aren’t aiming at the same spot. It is 100% consistent
@@hknova683 I am aiming head on like in the video for the majority if my shots. Even the video shows it taking 50+ shots to down a Bile titan when I've done it in 5 or so. So it is not 100% at all.
It's a known issue that having someone on PS5 in crossplay with PC causes some Titans to take way more damage than normal. Railguns could one shot BT's with a PS5 player in, then when you switch to solo it suddenly took 20.
I feel like the time it takes more shots is because they're literally 2ft away, accuracy is compromised and panic kicks in!!!! Or is it just me lol
@@hpntkz that’s why you jump away to get your shot off, if you need to create some distance with a hunter that got the jump on you, just run away and fire from the hip your pistol and then you are good to go with the arc
I've used the Arc Thrower for about 30 hours to run solo and it has a max distance of 50m. The lighting chain also has a max distance from what I can tell. I use quick spot to get inside 50m before I start firing. At 7:10 I said out loud to myself "you're too far." 😂 Thanks for spreading the good word of the Arc.
Hahaha, thats good knowledge to have! Thank you for sharing, Diver!
ITS HERE
Aw yeeee
I am more of a flamer guy, but like the idea of the new amour set. Hopefully they make one for flames too
Would be cool to see a flamer equivalent to the armour. Would drop the Napalm Airstrike and just stand in the flames like a maniac with the thrower as well haha.
It's fantastic when you have a full crew who know how to use it because no one uses ammo and even the big guys fall pretty quick when you have three or four arc throwers trained on them. One person can pretty easily hold down a bug breach without having to pause to reload.
It can also strip armor off of the titans, giving you a chance to switch to your primary to deal more direct damage.
Before this one, I never even knew you made HD2 videos. Although I'm subscribed and watch a lot of HD2 videos. Nice work YT. I wonder why it prioritized content I'm not subbed to, and left yours out for weeks.
Well anyways, great to see your guides in HD2 as well! I'll just binge all of it I guess.
Damn! I suppose I'm a very small fish in comparison to other Helldivers 2 content creators, so you may be pushed bigger things before mine!
I hope you enjoy the binge haha!
Probably because you're on the home page instead of your subscriptions page
I find the "shots not hitting for no reason" happens most with just uneven terrain which kinda makes sense for electricity wanting to go to the ground. Hell a single bush or stone and even other dead bugs can really mess up your shooting. So open ground is your best fighting situation for the arc thrower i find
Yeah, very frustratingly so! It does force you to actively seek vantage points though, even if they are just small stumps of rock to stand on top of.
that is actally very insightful! oh and if you're going to be making a video about the flamethrower, i've noticed that in my experience i can generally kill chargers fairly fast if i aim at a front leg. i know it's a common way of taking them out but i didn't think it would work with the flamethrower. it is just my experience but it might be worth testing out
I'm glad you found some learning points from it! & Thats good to know about the Flamethrower thank you, I'll keep an eye out for that.
Great video!! The Arc is definitely my favorite in the game. Since running it with my breaker, rover and orbital lazer i survive much longer.
I also rarely run out of primary ammo because of the Arc. Definitely one of the best in the game.
I absolutely love the arc thrower. Coupled with a jet pack, I can get out of reach from a charger and rain lighting as Helldiver Thor!
Having two people running Arc Throwers and keeping some distance apart can lay down some very lethal crossfire, and help to prevent enemies from getting into melee range of the other person so they could keep on firing. We even had good success playing against the Automatons on Draupnir, where the arc can reach out through the fog to hit bots we can't see. Hulks? They go down fast against this much lightning.
Shield backpacks are mandatory when using the Arc Thrower against bots though. Its quirks mean you'd probably be standing tall (and be very exposed) while using it instead of taking cover. Against bugs, I like to mix it up between the shield generator pack, laser rover, and jetpack.
The more the merrier I say. Its always super fun when more squadmates bring it into battle. Automatons still give you a nasty run for your money though haha.
@@TheWileSpice At one point, some randoms showed up with an EMS mortar and a recoilless rifle... 😈
@@TheWileSpice it reminds me of 2+ winston in the early overwatch days - stacking arcing/AOE damage over time is really really really good!!
Had a three stack with two friends and I all using Arc Throwers. The rando we were with picked one up and joined in. Difficulty 7 never felt so manageable as that set of runs, as the bugs just melted. Our biggest problem was the classic weakness of the Arc Thrower: having a hard time shooting through the piles of bodies you created.
The center of mass tip is super useful! That explains why sometimes I aim for the head but the beam striked the body.
And I will try your terrain tip. I wonder if that also applies to corpses as they sometimes block my shots as well.
Glad you found it useful! The corpses do block shots as well, so that is something to look out for.
Some tips/tricks I picked up using this weapon for most of my time in Helldivers 2:
You can get somewhat consistent headshots aiming above your target. Great for the big momma bugs that summon other warriors.
This thing can also kill turrets atop towers and similar objectives with bots. Just need the correct height/angle to do so. Usually it's something like 4-7 shots.
For purposes of arcing, small shrubs seem to block your arc launcher from properly working. Stay out of the high grass!
Beheaded bugs that are still moving DO count as a living enemy, and therefore you can still shoot them to get an arc. Useful for bug breach clearing.
When I kill one bug with a headshot, typically I'll end up getting multiple headshots on the bugs behind. Probably due to where the arc exits from, but unclear. Regardless it's very nice.
Sometimes shooting from the high ground can prevent an arc, so shoot things further from you and kill the close-up bugs with your primary.
Shooting bugs from the low ground can be a god-send, as usually more of their hitbox will be targetable by the arc launcher, however shrubbery can ruin this sometimes.
From personal experience, if a charger has it's armor stripped off it's leg, it's faster to kill using a primary to the legs vs. finishing via arc launcher.
As for not killing your friends... I'm still learning on that front. I tend to have 1 accidental per mission, or at least 1 accidental hit and not kill. My best advice for this is to essentially never shoot your arc thrower if your friend is within 85-100 meters and you're shooting at a bug. Max range on this gun seems to be around 55-65 meters, and each arc seems to be pretty large as well. But if you can train your teammates to run towards you when they're swarmed, you can clean house pretty dang quick.
Also if soloing chargers, when dodging the charge dive TOWARDS the teammate, that way when it runs past you, it'll be away from your team, and therefore less likely to kill your own teammates when you continue shocking it to death.
Sorry for the word wall, but I too am passionate about this weapon and wish to share my knowledge.
Using the audio cue to rapid fire is much easier in my opinion!
As soon as that zap sound from firing finishes playing, u can release and fire another shot of u have instantly started charging after the previous shot.
It also frees u up from having to focus on the reticle
If you hit a bile titan in the mouth while it is spitting, you can pretty much one shot them, I've done it numerous times. Hitting them in the head while walking towards you, you can kill them in 6 shots.
I think the one-shotting is a weird bug/interaction to do with having a PS5 player host the match. Its definitely the weakspot for them though regardless.
great timing with the arc crash bug
Hahaha, I know right. Hopefully fixed in the next patch!
Good video! This is my favorite weapon so far. Can you cover the new Arc Blitzer next?
Thank you! Same here, I'm looking to cover the Blitzer in the hopefully near future.
Thanks for this. I had relegated this to being useless after first unlocking it but I'm keen to master it.
My pleasure, I hope it helps in your journey to master the weapon!
The increase to its stagger is amazing against automatons when paired with a teammate using an Auto cannon or AMR. It’s a great power pair.
Been using the arc thrower and shield generator backpack all weekend and I feel unstoppable
I feel in love with the arc thrower after the railgun nerf, and it became even better after chargers head hp nerf. I'm afraid is probably in the chopping block because of it's amazing performance.
Hopefully they don't change it too much (if they even do). As its not game-breaking and its fun.
Using the arc thrower against the bugs is so fun, my loadout also includes the guard dog rover and with both of those combined I’ve taken out massive swarms no sweat and never felt like I was in danger.
Picked one up yesterday off a dead teammate who got disconnected. Managed to chain two bile titans together. Literally popped their heads blew my mind. Didn’t know it was capable of such things hahah amazing
So you can kill chargers in as few as 4 shots if you can sneak the shots under the armored head. Aiming just left or right of the mouth or waiting for the rear up that is performed before the charge will let you hit the soft spot. In practice I find that by aiming a little below the little legs under the head you can finish most chargers in 6 shots, which is easily enough to kill them before they get close to you if you are 50 meters away on the first shot. In team situations I find it best to inform your team to leave chargers that are on you to you and to move away. A stun grenade also pairs nicely for them. I've noticed tall grass and bushes can block the shots. In that clip when you asked your question I think the rocks in between you can be why. Sometimes it will prioritize the closest enemy even if it can't hit it (because it's in cover or whatever) and that will cause the shot to fail.
Aye, the 6 shot headshot is usually what I aim to prioritise when it comes to battling chargers. & You're right, it may well have been those rocks. I wish it was more obviously a visual fail, maybe if the bolt travelled to the ground rather than just disappearing.
Just coming back to this video to report my resounding success with this gun. I’m stunned at how good this stratagem is, thanks a ton for this video it helps me spread democracy
I'm glad you found the video useful! It's a great weapon that while was overall nerfed last patch, deals with most situations amazingly.
Energy weapons are aesthetically my favorites in Sci Fi, so im glad to see how good these are.
Same here! That and flamethrowers.
The new armor sets with 95% arc resistance is really nice when your squad runs multiple of these guns. You can pay less attention to team killing. But this really only works in pre-made groups because not every pub is going to have that armor on.
Would be pretty cool to see if it's viable to purposefully use teammates to chain shots across enemies as well.
Every time i use it my game crashes. Apparently there’s a bug that causes your game to crash if you use anything with arc.
Yeah! This bug came about a few days after I posted. Having Arc withdrawals at the moment.
Aiming slightly above a devastator's head can angle the arc downwards and get you headshots pretty consistently.
10k subs🎉🥳🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
From experience for Bile Titans, hitting them from the side seems to do more damage with the Arc Thrower, usually blowing off an armor plates, which weakens them a fair bit. For melee range, I've found diving backwards, with a charge aimed deals with those situations quite well. For Chargers, once you are focused in, using a full charge will kill them quicker.
Thought I was doing something wrong when it just wouldn't fire properly so glad to see it's a bug
Arc thrower is my go to support weapon now, works great vs bots and bugs both, can take out every single enemy.
Yeah! Its a beautiful all-rounder. Though you can still be punished quickly with it. Especially on Automatons.
This is Skull Admirak CAI0X from Brazil, reporting directly from Estanu, Draco Sector.
Our crew collected samples that looks like maggots with a single mouth, full of teeth. Reporting sightings of giant bug fossils that looks like Hive Lords exoskeletons as well.
Expect to encounter these foes as we continue pushing the terminids away from our galaxy.
For Super Earth.
When you approach the blue jellyfish like things floating in the air while shooting on the automaton planets, you can see how the lightning is attracted to them or even blocked. Try to avoid them. I hope this helps.
Interesting, I wonder if they block any other projectiles.
I live and die by the arc thrower. I’m glad people are seeing how good and how fun it is
Same here. A truly glorious weapon, especially against the bugs.
Thanks for Guide start using it and it pretty good
funny enough i feel like i got killed by people that use this weapon more than bugs somehow
My pleasure, its a beast and a lot of fun to use!
I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case hahaha. There have been many fallen Diver's due to electric shock.
@@TheWileSpice haha and now my weird loadout is complete Slugger. Senator and Arc Thrower with Gen Shield i bare got killed and i can take down Charger and keep my Orbital Railcannon for Big Guy
and the best part i've played like more than 10 missions now i got 0 accident hit or friendly kill because i'm good at position
this thing is nutty. on difficulty 6 and below you can just stand there and shut down bug breaches completely, minus chargers which take like 5-6 headshots and you’re still getting mob clears from the arcing the whole time. absolutely S tier for bugs. Titans are the only thing it doesn’t handle and you have other strategems for that.
Been using the arc thrower since i unlocked it. All i hear is people say its a teammate killer when 9/10 im the one with little to no friendly fire because i make sure none of my teammates are around when i let loose the lightning. Worst case, i switch to the blitzer to reduce the chance of damaging close ranged teammates. Its not the gun, its the person operating the gun. Much like hitting your turn signal stick, those 2 seconds of safety can make a huge difference.
Aye! Once the user has mastered using it in the more efficient way, theres never any issue with friendly fire or team kills.
Arc Thrower my Beloved ❤
Niiiice. Would like to see Laser canon get same treatment if possible
I'll add it to the list!
As someone who uses the Arc Thrower vs Bugs and then tried it vs Bots, one key weakness wasn't mentioned in this vid. The limited range of the Arc Thrower.
Range doesn't matter vs Bugs because they're almost entirely melee and always rushing you. But vs Bots almost none of the enemies rush towards you, and some of the most dangerous enemies stay at longer ranges...ranges that are too far for the Arc Thrower to hit. Particularly Rocket Devastators who park themselves at long range to barrage you, and Heavy Devastators who will slowly crouch walk while firing their minigun at you.
The Laser Cannon is still my go-to for Bots, given that it doesn't have that range issue while still maintaining the "unlimited ammo" perk. It also can handle Tanks and Turrets with ease - maybe 2 seconds of sustained fire to the exhaust vent is all you need.
Range can indeed catch you out sometimes against the Bots with it for sure. Positioning is definitely an important thing to bare in mind when against them.
I seriously haven't stopped playing the grenade launcher since I got it, especially with the supply backpack. This is probably the next most interesting looking weapon to me though.
The grenade launcher is a beast to be fair. Feels amazing to clear everything on a dropship before it can release them.
Yeah shame you kind of need the supply pack though. Takes up 2 strategems and your backpack slot but its worth it
I ve been using this weapon since I got my hands on it few days after release, and it's a haven, its delivery from Gods of Freedom, I love it so much against everything. IT may not be meta, but its top tier for me
Honestly I always hip fire this weapon. Y'all should try it. It works wonders in turning speed because no penalty in turn speed because you aint looking down sights. It really is that accurate. The stagger now is just *chef's kiss*
Hip Firing does feel good to be fair. Especially nice because you keep your full FoV as well. I think I still preferred the old range, but the stagger is nice.
@@TheWileSpice I'm with you on the range. I miss the old range and being able to snipe bots way before coming to me.... But I do enjoy stun locking hulkers to death now so that's a huge Plus.
firing it at striders also sometimes dismounts them but if they're clearly showing their backs, its better to kill them with your primary since the arc thrower only targets center mass
Aye you're right. Though I have never had any issues securing the kill from behind
I've found the AT feels way more reliable hip-firing vs aiming as well. Elevation is also huge.
Yeah high-ground helps avoid the buggy terrain shots as well as secure headshots on most units!
The arc-thrower seems to have a hidden 'spread' of its lock on, so ADSing tightens that spread allowing you to hit further targets.
Would that maybe make it easier to hit melee range enemies with hip-fire?
I love the Arc thrower but lately I've been a big fan of the flamethrower for bugs and the AMR for Bots. The new stun grenades make them super viable against heavies, as the AMR allows you to two shot a hulk to the eye and the flamethrower will decimate a charger upon flaming its legs. I also love flaming a bug breach and incinerating everything that pops up easily.
Flamer is absolutely awesome tbf. probably my 2nd favourite support weapon. Have always enjoyed flame throwers in games.
Been using arc thrower with incendiary breaker and either rover or shield bp since i first unlocked it. Only took a couple missions to figure out. It has a range that sometimes seems ridiculous far if you're elevated and unlimited ammo. I go almost or whole mission without dying regularly with that eagle strike and orbital laser. Bugs or bots it crushes. Especially if there are 2 of you running em competently
I always love playing with a squad mate running one as well. Feels very fun.
YOURE TELLING ME I CAN HOLD THE BUTTON DOWN AND IM JYST LEARNING THIS NOW?!?!
Think the best thing i found out is that it doesnt need a full charge constantly one full charge and you can just half charge it if you keep firing
Aye! You don't even need to fully charge it once to start half charging. Though you will probably find it easier to gauge the charging if you charge the first shot properly still.
this thing has consistently gotten me 300+ kills on difficulties 5-7. i love using it for crowd control and using my orbital laser and 500kg to take care of the bigger threats. i can even solo a charger relatively easily if my stratagems are on cooldown
Yeah its an absolute beast at racking up the numbers. As long as you have tools to deal with tanks or bile titans, you're pretty much set!
I tend to aim higher than my target for better head shot chance and to avoid terrain jank.
Do you find that terrain jank happens regardless sometimes? It pains be a lot when it happens to me.
@@TheWileSpice Yes, I remember playing a match 2 days ago and got killed because the arc refuses to latch on to some bots, it seems to happen to pockets of areas you just have to move out of so I'm guessing it's either a tile thing or rng generated (not sure how maps are spawned).
@@TheWileSpice But aiming higher sometimes works if the arc is just getting eaten by the ground (if the lighting fired but dipped into the ground before hitting the intended target.
Yes one more priest spreading the word of the Arc Church. A tip from a avid Arc user, high ground gives the Arc Thrower a big advantage, reducing chances of hitting invisible walls, dead enemies and if you really need to take down a Titan with it, try getting in the same horizontal line of the Titan face, the Arc will hit the face and the 2 green sacks increasing the damage done. So a Jetpack can really help you with your arc extermination.
I am proud to be a member. Obi-wan was right, when we have the high-ground, it is indeed over.
Arc thrower are my must choice on every load out. That much I like it. Especially that ammo Economy. I can left more supply to teammates, even now I have that new laser rifle on close encounters.
Same here. Gives the team more economy for their weapons & its just so fun to use.
few more tips hip fing can help with some terrain bullshit and the thing where you can pop titans in a few shots happens a lot more when you have a PS5 player on your team. even slight elevation like a rock helps a lot and on the Bugs running this with the laser guard dog helps cover for your tunnel vision and lost dps when repositioning also it get you all the kills
I think my paranoia of feeling exposed without the shield stops me from picking the guard dog usually! Can see how it helps cover your back from the close range targets.
I heard about the PS5 interaction, looks pretty wild, I knew you can do more damage to the titans if you get their mouths but I could never replicate the 1-2 shot!
@@TheWileSpice i do have a clip its pretty wild and consistant you have the distance with the PS5 thing anyway it can happen otherwise but its like a 1 in 1000 thing
You can kill a charger in about 6 shots with the Arc Thrower if all shots are to the head. It's important to note that the Chargers have SEPERATE HEALTH POOLS for their head and body, so shooting it 5 times in the head and once in the body won't kill it. Basically, focus on one or the other, but try to prioritize the head. A team with 2 Arc throwers focusing a Charger will take one out in seconds. This is made even better if you have access to the Cutting Edge premium Warbond, as the armors within give you 95% resistance to Arc damage, which basically makes you immune to the Arc thrower. I got shot twice in a row while wearing the armor and took less damage than a small fall.
My current meta is Arc Thrower, Shield backpack using light armor, an Orbital and an Eagle and honestly it's pretty OP right now.
Aye, I show you can do it in exactly 6 to the head.
The separate health pools explains why my average shots to kill was around 11 when unable to consistently hit headshots.
One thing that would help is if more people practiced not crossing lines of fire. I always walk behind someone if they are even aiming, but many people have so little situational awareness that they will walk in front of you while actively firing. Granted things can get chaotic sometimes so it's not always their fault but it happens pretty often when the squad is holding a firing line on distant enemies.
Thats definitely a good point, I imagine the average players awareness of their squadmates position is maybe on the lower side. Likely because they are focused on the enemy as you mentioned.
The charger takea 6 headshots to kill, the reason you get variation is there are phases in their charge animation or pathing issues that causes the head hitbox to not be between you and their center of mass. You can verify that it always take 6 headshots if you just stun one with ems and calmly zap them from the front on.
I verify exactly this literally in the next clips after
I just like feeling like a Red Alert tesla trooper. I always take a tesla coil with me for that reason as well.
Hahaha, the tesla coil SFX from Red Alert started playing in my mind after reading this.
The Arc thrower when combined with the 110mm rockers is a NASTY Titan killer, I've been able to drop my share doing thay
The extra firepower would definitely help open it up for the bolts!
A couple of things not addressed, does it do more damage and/or more range when fully charged vs partial charge? It feels like it can throw further at max charge, but never did any formal testing
I didn't observe any penalties to damage or range for half charging during my testing. I could be wrong though!
For the Bugs I suggest equipping a jetpack. I tend to go to the highest point and electrocute ze bugs from a whopping 50 meter away with the Arc thrower
Highground do be king with this weapon!
The arc thrower *can* destroy tower turrets (and automaton mortars) even with frontal shots, takes a bit but it works
It can definitely be done in a worst case scenario yeah, hopefully theres an offensive stratagem at the ready instead though!
im apart of a discord i made with a couple guys from the SESF server that we use to organize teams with 3 or 4 arc throwers(I'll drop the link if anyone wants). The arc thrower gets better against large enemies with a group focusing its fire.
I can imagine a team with 4 Arc Throwers is amazing hahaha. Would make short work of everything!
What's your game id. All I run is arc bugs or bots and love when teammates have them too.
Been loving the recoilless rifle you can one shot a charger if you get it on the head under its armour.
Yeah, happy to see the Charger nerf boosting the usability of the other weapons.
I really liked the recoilless rifle at first but now I mostly use the disposable one.
Thing with the recoilless is that if there's no chargers or titans it just sits on your back wasting space with that backpack and everything.
The disposable one has a cool down of a minute or something so you can just call it in when needed and it frees up your backpack and support slot.
If you dive backwards when being melee'd, itll create enough of a gap for the arc to target them.
You can indeed, I do this often! I do find though that a lot of the time the no shot terrain bug happens due to being so low to the ground which is why I recommended switching weapons.
@@TheWileSpice fire off the arc just before you land and it works just fine. If you fire prone you are just asking for the arc to ground out.
Pairing this thing with the new stun grenades makes light work of chargers.
Honestly for shooting cooling vents on bots the laser cannon is the way, but may be superseded by throwing impacts.
Laser Cannon does to good damage against the weakspots to be fair.
Dude i have been running a full laser build using ZERO ammo and never needing reload even on challenging, hard and even extreme difficulty.
👇
- Support: Quasar Cannon or Laser Cannon (Quasar preffered for Automatons & higher diff)
- Primary: Sythe or Sickle (both excellent, but im really loving the sickle)
- Secondary: LAS pistol
- Grenade: Impact / Stun
- Backpack: Personal Shield Generator / Guard Dog Rover
(On Medium or Lower diff. missions I take the Guard Dog Rover)
- Strategem: Orbital Laser
(Duh)
-Strategem: Rail Canon Strike / Orbital Precision Strike / Auto cannon Turret (depending on mission type)
👆
I am about to get the Arc Blitzer in the Cutting Edge Warbond...
Might try making an Electric weapon Crowd Control Build ⚡️
I started using it at the end of February after i saw how quickly an guy fired it. Nowdays i "try" to awoid my team but if you gonna run before me while i'm mowing down a horde that death is on yourself. Also a tipnfor killingbthe Titan fire at it not from below but roughtly on it's level. The Titan is not a single body enemy but it is constructed from parts hanging by the same model. You fire from below you only gonna hit one point you fire from above or better from it's diagonal high you gonna hit moultipple times in one shot. Takes a while like the charger but about the same shoot count. Altitude matters (Gonna remember this for the Hive lord )
Fellow Divers knew the dangers of combat when they signed the contract. If they run in front of an ally, it was only democracy at work.
But yeah a few others have mentioned the same regarding the Titan. Which makes sense for doing more damage at distance and highground.
I don’t aim down sights with it, it’s great. I have a dot on my screen so I use that for aiming in every game 😊
Makes sense! As long as you can see the charge reticule
Just learned today that the Arc Thrower can also destroy Automaton Mortars and possibly other buildings if you shoot at them long enough
Would be intriguing to see if it can destroy fabricators. Though I'd probably just use a grenade or offensive Stratagem over doing it.
One of my fellow divers kept saying "Arc Thrower is worst support weapon in the game". Ha! Thats before I teach him how to properly use it and now it's his favorite weapon against bugs =D
Haha! Only people who aren't used to it would have such a belief! Unless they think its boring to use I suppose.
@@TheWileSpice nah, it is actually not that good until you learn how to shoot faster, how to aim properly and how to not constantly kill your teammates)
Arc thrower + slugger is an excellent combo
Yup! Anything powerful at close range will work perfectly.
I would like to say that for the bile titans i've easily been able to one shot them multiple times if you are standing on the right of them shooting at the head
Did I miss the part where he tells me how to use it? He is talking about charging it? A higher level player dropped that thing for me in one run and I managed to fire it but my controller made strange noises and started vibrating. Also I did not have to press the button but hold it for a while?
Have you tried killing chargers by having the beam pass through their front leg instead of their face? Does that make any difference?
I'm still trying to teach my brain to fire at the maximum rate. I always short my follow-up charges, resulting in having to start the process all over again.
TLDR: I suck with this weapon.
Hahaha, it does take a bit if time to fine tune it into your muscle memory. Most of the time I charge a fraction more than the limit to make sure I get the shot off.
I’ve been using the arc thrower even before the railgun nerf
Same here, has been mostly the same beast since launch! Charger nerf made it unstoppable in Bugs now though. Which I love.
Don't shoot Chargers while they're turning around and just clear the other bugs, if you notice a charger ~50m away you can usually kill it just before it gets to you, otherwise shoot it 3 or 4 times in the head then dodge the charge and focus on the smaller bugs before the charger turns around and then finish it off with another 2-3 headshots.
Kinda wished you went into a littler more detail on the firing mechanic. Also, that you should always instantly press the fire buttons as soon as the shot goes off to get the next charge going. You don't have to wait until the arc ends, which is what I was doing earlier.
I guess it wasn't something that came across my mind as I'd not been consciously doing it!