how to make han-d feel good to play?

[fnart]

i have been going for golden drone on rainstorm w/ default modern settings and i cannot get him to feel good with any item combos. i've been using attack drones but if his attack speed gets too high then he just pushes the enemies away, limiting DPS. I tried his alt special but it misses too often to be useful, so i just went back to running hammer. more often than not the first/second stage of second loops is where the run ends, but I made it to third and fourth loop a few times ONLY thanks to the time clock since hits during time freeze dont move enemies. but then 20 overloading tubers appeared and it was over.

any thoughts? it would be great if he had much better armor or a mobility skill, which is why loader and merc feel good even in a 2d setting, but han-d just feels soooo bad singleplayer.

[IGull]

Han-d is kinda meant to be more of a "stand your ground" kind of character, able to stunlock most enemies elites just with his primary. His lack of mobility is balanced by that. That and his drones that are basically free sustain while also being able to deal with flying enemies pretty easily. If it really is too dangerous to stick around, you can easily get away with just using the hammer.

Honestly Han-D has been go-to whenever I want an easy Monsoon win. If you have trouble with the pushback, there's so many steps and walls you can just push and stack enemies against to stunlock them there.

[fnart]

Originally posted by IGull:

Han-d is kinda meant to be more of a "stand your ground" kind of character, able to stunlock most enemies elites just with his primary. His lack of mobility is balanced by that. That and his drones that are basically free sustain while also being able to deal with flying enemies pretty easily. If it really is too dangerous to stick around, you can easily get away with just using the hammer.

I'm realizing it's more of a hit and move/stand your ground playstyle but the lack of basekit armor, invulnerability, and range makes it pretty difficult, at least for me. I had no trouble with enforcer bc he had range, directional invulnerability and mobility with his alt secondary.

ig i just need to focus more on mobility itmes to hit and run more easily, but melee for han-d just feels like it scales poorly without a few key items. any overloading flying enemies just rock my ♥♥♥♥

[Valamanj]

I relate, man. Han-D can be a headache. Getting the golden drone as Han-D can be 10 migraines. That achievement was just plain not fun to get.

I personally use the blast drones along with Disassemble instead of Forced Reassembly. The thing about Disassemble is that it cranks the Overclock gauge up to full every single time. I haven't had any issues with it missing, though you have to be careful as it doesn't take long for it to stop making enemies flinch. Throw out a couple blast drones in between Disassemble uses, and you can keep yourself in Overclock mode nonstop for a long time. Personally, I find this set up pretty fun, but unfortunately, it's about the only way I have fun with Han-D.

Sadly, the overloading enemy problem is probably going to be an issue no matter what you do. Han-D is one of the only characters with almost no practical tools against overloading enemies, and being forced to loop hoping the RNG blesses you with the attack drones you need for the golden drone is likely going to result in an eventual overloading enemy dump, such as overloading Magma Worms or Lynx Totems. Admittedly, Forced Reassembly is a much better hit and run tool against them than Disassemble is.

Playing with Command enabled to patch up Han-D's shortcomings may be the best thing to do if you're not enjoying his kit. Or you can fuss with the damage modifiers if you want to just get it over with.

[fnart]

Originally posted by Valamanj:

I relate, man. Han-D can be a headache. Getting the golden drone as Han-D can be 10 migraines. That achievement was just plain not fun to get.

I personally use the blast drones along with Disassemble instead of Forced Reassembly. The thing about Disassemble is that it cranks the Overclock gauge up to full every single time. I haven't had any issues with it missing, though you have to be careful as it doesn't take long for it to stop making enemies flinch. Throw out a couple blast drones in between Disassemble uses, and you can keep yourself in Overclock mode nonstop for a long time. Personally, I find this set up pretty fun, but unfortunately, it's about the only way I have fun with Han-D.

Sadly, the overloading enemy problem is probably going to be an issue no matter what you do. Han-D is one of the only characters with almost no practical tools against overloading enemies, and being forced to loop hoping the RNG blesses you with the attack drones you need for the golden drone is likely going to result in an eventual overloading enemy dump, such as overloading Magma Worms or Lynx Totems. Admittedly, Forced Reassembly is a much better hit and run tool against them than Disassemble is.

Playing with Command enabled to patch up Han-D's shortcomings may be the best thing to do if you're not enjoying his kit. Or you can fuss with the damage modifiers if you want to just get it over with.

fair enough, I try not to mess with artifacts unless the challenge is incredibly dumb, and the golden drone may just be one of those challenges. Honestly I think I just need blast drones and I'll enjoy han-d much more, might switch back to disassemble when I get them, but everything else you said was spot on.

[IGull]

Originally posted by fnart:

Originally posted by IGull:

Han-d is kinda meant to be more of a "stand your ground" kind of character, able to stunlock most enemies elites just with his primary. His lack of mobility is balanced by that. That and his drones that are basically free sustain while also being able to deal with flying enemies pretty easily. If it really is too dangerous to stick around, you can easily get away with just using the hammer.

I'm realizing it's more of a hit and move/stand your ground playstyle but the lack of basekit armor, invulnerability, and range makes it pretty difficult, at least for me. I had no trouble with enforcer bc he had range, directional invulnerability and mobility with his alt secondary.

ig i just need to focus more on mobility itmes to hit and run more easily, but melee for han-d just feels like it scales poorly without a few key items. any overloading flying enemies just rock my ♥♥♥♥

Pushing enemies isn't a bad thing, it stacks enemies. Then you just hammer everything and you get all these drones to deal with things like overloading flyings. And again, you can always push them against a wall and then just stand there with enough attack speed.

[fnart]

Originally posted by IGull:

Originally posted by fnart:

I'm realizing it's more of a hit and move/stand your ground playstyle but the lack of basekit armor, invulnerability, and range makes it pretty difficult, at least for me. I had no trouble with enforcer bc he had range, directional invulnerability and mobility with his alt secondary.

ig i just need to focus more on mobility itmes to hit and run more easily, but melee for han-d just feels like it scales poorly without a few key items. any overloading flying enemies just rock my ♥♥♥♥

Pushing enemies isn't a bad thing, it stacks enemies. Then you just hammer everything and you get all these drones to deal with things like overloading flyings. And again, you can always push them against a wall and then just stand there with enough attack speed.

that's true, it's just when im caught between a fresh spawn of scavengers or something similar is when i need mobility to not get rekt by the mob i've been keeping at bay with melee when im forced to move. but yeah it seems like you cant go full deep as han-d, just gotta take advantage of the 2d element and group enemies up. honestly i just miss mul-t's kit since he was always my fav in ror2 and i rly wanna get good as his counterpart

[Valamanj]

Originally posted by fnart:

fair enough, I try not to mess with artifacts unless the challenge is incredibly dumb, and the golden drone may just be one of those challenges. Honestly I think I just need blast drones and I'll enjoy han-d much more, might switch back to disassemble when I get them, but everything else you said was spot on.

Oh yeah, guess it's kind of dumb of me to recommend using the blast drones for getting the achievement that unlocks the blast drones. LOL. Boy did I space that.

Originally posted by IGull:

Pushing enemies isn't a bad thing, it stacks enemies. Then you just hammer everything and you get all these drones to deal with things like overloading flyings. And again, you can always push them against a wall and then just stand there with enough attack speed.

Sounds like you enjoy playing as Han-D. How do you typically deal with overloading enemies as him? The drones will only get you so far when they're limited and you can't pick your target. Things get pretty rough when you have to start looping to get the right drones. I find that running into an overloading Lynx Totem is usually just a run ender for Han-D.

[IGull]

I usually stack Drones with small enemies so I can deal with big threats like overloading enemies, either by bursting them down with them or sustaining through the damage they deal. Just kill everything that isn't overloading so it targets them, and if they are close enough to zap you they should be the first target anyway. You can also reach with hammer without getting zapped and you got time in-between the zaps anyway if you keep a watch for them.

[RadiantPotato]

I use speed drones and the buzzsaw, they work great together.

[Percussigant]

I like to use the default skills on HAN-D, the healing drones are just too good, and I find the hammer more reliable than the buzzsaw. He is better in singleplayer than in multiplayer imo, because you're guaranteed to make all the kills and generate your drones in solo.

The healing drones scale decently well, but the fact that you don't keep them from stage to stage for some reason (miner keeps his scorching bar, drifter keeps her scrap bar) is a bit of a problem. HAN-D is strong early on (because drones + special), then he becomes kinda weak (because no mobility/i-frames) until you get to the point where it doesn't matter anymore which survivor you're playing and your items are killing everything in sight.

I feel like HAN-D is definitely better suited for short runs than for looping, both because drones eventually fall off from not being conserved from stage to stage and because he lacks mobility.

That being said, he is quite good at short runs. Imho it's all about snowballing your earlygame strength and staying ahead of the time/difficulty curve. Grab an invulnerability equipment (watch or forcefield, etc), maybe get a few attack drones, use your drones sparingly during the Providence fight and you should win easily enough.