How do you kit and utilize the dreadnought?

[Catnap]

I'm just curious to hear if anyone has found a different way to make use of the thing.

My own current conclusion is that playing Psycannon + Missile pack is head and shoulders above other options for the following reasons:
-Melee is bad: Unlike Knights, the dread can't move and attack with a single AP, making melee a wasteful use of AP at the best of times. The charge is good, but it can be difficult to make sure you end a charge in punching range of anything; enemies might get knocked around our of reach if you miss your angle by a degree, etc.
-Missile pod is great: a load of missiles will soften up basically all targets in an enemy group, and the explosions clear away obstructing terrain, making it easy for other long range fires to reach their targets with minimal movement from start positions.
-The mechanophage Scrapcode Assault warp effect is VERY dangerous to a close combat dread. It's potentially dangerous to any dreadnought, but a dreadnought pushed to the front, into melee hitting range of however many enemies... Suddenly being unable to fight for a turn can be a very expensive repair ticket, or at worst, a dead dread.
-Psycannon above other main weapons: It has the bar none best range, which minimizes the need to spend AP on movement instead of shooting. It's capability for shutting down enemy psykers and ranged weapons can also be invaluable on occasion. The other main guns just don't seem to compare.

But yeah, I'm interested to hear if anyone else has had luck with some different tactics.

[Maximus]

Mecha Wings님이 먼저 게시:

Silver Bulwark is worthless to me since I'd rather have a Knight go down and come back with a prosthesis than wasting 12 servitors and 25 days of inability to repair the Dreadnought.

I get your point but you only consider the situation where you need to tank a whole team of enemies with the dreadnought. I usually take advantage of it when I can't finish off a couple enemies and, rather than having a couple knights wounded, I just use the big armor value on the dready to soak any damage. Of course in that case you need to prioritize enemies with armor piercing or psychic abilities first since they can directly damage its HP.

Situational but it does have useful applications.

And as for the OP question:

I went with power fist+psycannon. Psycannon is just overall nice (solid damage, silence and the cone-shaped aoe is great) but the power fist... oh boy, such a disappointment.
I think I only ever use it when melee enemies gets naturally close to it (which it rarely happens) as trying to move+attack is way too expensive AP wise in my book and the flamer is just meh even when used in tandem with the other cone aoe. But I have yet to try a combo with the chaplain (stun litany ofc) and my stun-based justicar so maybe there's that.

Next time is definitely gonna be missile launcher+psycannon/melta.

[ZexxCrine]

Catnap님이 먼저 게시:

Nunda님이 먼저 게시:

Oh the meltagun isn't the safer option at all. The dread will have to be close for the instakill and lots of enemies will shoot it. But with full upgrades and a melee weapon, even an injured dread's armor can tank 3-4 bolter marines for eternity.

I took the upgrade that stops enemies from targeting my troops next to the dread too so it really gets to tank.

Is that actually playable? You don't wind up with frequent unaffordable repair costs?

on legendary at max level a "WOUNDED" dread has like 38 health and 12 sheilds or something ridiculous like that. there is no reason to ever repair him.

[ShartinYaeger]

My go to's on Dreadnought are always plasma cannon and nemesis doomglaive. There is really no reason to run the other weapons.

Doomglaive provides armour pierce innately, which is huge later in the game or on higher difficulties, where ARM stacking gets completely out of control on enemies. It also has a huge arc, so usually if you angle your charge right, you're right next to multiple enemies.

Plasma cannon solves several issues in one. If you need to break up enemy packs/disable Overwatch spam or knock them off ledges, you can fire off 3 blasts. If you need to meganuke a tough enemy pod, charge + mega blast + doomglaive sweep will kill a lot. It can also Overwatch (I never bother), and it isn't affected by range modifiers because they don't apply to blast weapons.

The fist sucks because its built around stun, and yet the Dreadnought can't benefit or perform executions. Also, the flamer on the doomglaive is just better.

Lascannon is a trap because it encourages you to hold back, and then range modifiers ♥♥♥♥ you over. The Support Fire ability quickly falls off mid-late game. You're also wasting the main drawcard of the Dreadnought, which is that it comes with a charge ability to knockback and destroy terrain. This solves one of the more annoying issues you face, tough enemies hunkering down in solid terrain too far away for a move to flank.

Multi-melta seems good, but in reality the plasma cannon does more overall damage to pods (you rarely need huge single target focused damage, and they don't let you take the Dreadnought into boss battles because no fun allowed). You are also always forced to charge into short range, because range modifiers.

I tried to get the psycannon to work, but the reality is that anti-psyker just doesn't matter in missions. If you see a dangerous enemy priest or sorceror, you're just going to kill them anyway as a priority. As a direct damage weapon, it has a big magazine when upgraded, but the multi-melta is better at single target and the plasma cannon ♥♥♥♥♥ on pods better.

[Nunda]

War dogs can't have their armor pierced. If a prognosticar tells you there is one, the melta is what I'd always go for.

And if armor is that much of a problem, melta can take out all of it and afflict vulnerable in an aoe from further than the doom glaive.
I didn't find that I had to charge in that often because it still does good damage from medium or long range.

The plasma cannon is still a lot of fun. I imagine that's why the first dread mission gives it to you.

[Mecha Wings]

Maximus님이 먼저 게시:

Mecha Wings님이 먼저 게시:

Silver Bulwark is worthless to me since I'd rather have a Knight go down and come back with a prosthesis than wasting 12 servitors and 25 days of inability to repair the Dreadnought.

I get your point but you only consider the situation where you need to tank a whole team of enemies with the dreadnought. I usually take advantage of it when I can't finish off a couple enemies and, rather than having a couple knights wounded, I just use the big armor value on the dready to soak any damage. Of course in that case you need to prioritize enemies with armor piercing or psychic abilities first since they can directly damage its HP.

Situational but it does have useful applications.

Understandable, I tend to play very aggressively so usually at the end of my APs either everything’s dead, or the Dreadnought is too far away and I’d rather get in one last attack before the enemy’s turn.