Cow mangler...yay or nay?

[Handsome Jaques]

I personally find the cow mangler to be a great rocket launcher in MvM but what dp ypu guys think?
I also find it useful when fighting tanks because of infinite ammo (would you rather have 5 secs of crits then 15 secs looking for ammo or 20 secs constant damage?)
Also the 'cant be crit boosted' is a burden but is kinda negated by the fan o war on giants.
So yay or nay?

[Dave]

It's an okay Rocket Launcher for MvM. It's roughly on par with stock, just DO NOT use it:

1) On the Mecha Engine missions.

2) When there is a Kritzkrieg medic on the team, but no Demoman / Second Soldier.

[Littlefoot]

It's an ok weapon (better than the liberty launcher), though not being able to do crits at all is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

I still prefer the beggar's bazooka though.

[Purple Haze]

Its ok but not being able to be crit boosted can be a real downside and if robot engis are present your basicly shooting yourself in the foot.

while you may not get kicked for using it I highly recomend you use somthing that gives you more advantages.

[Subterranean Homesick Walrus]

It is pretty useless. I mean, it's almost stock so it's not LL level of bad, but it's still pointless to use.


Dispenser completely negates the infinite ammo upside, a smart engineer that places his dispenser where needed wrecks this stat. Only sometimes useful when tanks come and engineer dies. If you are fighting robots normally at the start, totally useless with upgraded dispenser range. You have breathing room between little 'waves'.

Charge shot? Bleh. Waste of ammo. Use Buff Banner and you have mini-crits on every shot.

It can't be crit boosted. That alone lowers your damage output sooner or later.
And it has that hidden reload penalty.

No reason to use it over Black Box, or the best RL ever, Beggar's Bazooka.
Maybe useful if you are doing all-Bison run, infinite ammo and all that without engineer. Anything other, absolutely pointless.

[Nihil]

it is the same as stock RL but without random crits or the ability to do crit damage at any point in the game (which sucks in the current meta of 'we need a medic') AND it doesnt do damage against buildings which usually the solly should take care of.

but the upside: it shoots laz0rs

[TF Comics #7 actually came out w]

1) Slower Reload.
2) No Critboosts.
3) Is not the Beggar's Bazooka.

[TNT]

Great? Nah. It has its uses, particularly if you have a terrible engie or no engie at all. It was better justified in the days when robot pyros wouldn't reflect the blasts. Not going to complain about anyone using it, and will occasionally equip it myself--it's a fun weapon, nice for carefree roaming--but calling it "great" is a stretch.

[Rock Pikmin]

In what universe does it take you 15 seconds to find ammo? Also You're not running out of ammo right as you kritzed if you're making your team's life easier using beggars to deal with tanks, since you should have ammo capacity. So, with ammo being a non-issue for decent soldiers Cow Mangler, when you think about it, is a downgrade to stock, regardless though, it's fine, because it functions similiarly to stock and what are the odds your average pub medic will kritz the soldier? usually never from my experience because they think using the charge once or twice a wave on the heavy on a giant or two is helpful even though it really isnt ( More often then notI get more kritz when I use my KGB to kill a stray scoutbot when playing heavy, how sad)
tl;dr I'd say nay, but it's not the worst soldier primary

[Bob3]

If there is no Kritz medic, then it's perfectly fine as a stock alternate. Using the Charge shot with max reload as an opener is pretty nice since it also does burn damage.

[StarfishAtLarge]

The Cow Mangler lacks the rapid-fire capabilities of the Bazooka, ammo shouldn't be a problem in general if your Engineer's any good, and I think I read somewhere that its reload is still slightly slower than the other launchers.

So I wouldn't call it the best weapon in the world.

[Soldier Claus]

Originally posted by Soon?:

1) Slower Reload.
2) No Critboosts.
3) Is not the Beggar's Bazooka.

Ooooooh snap. The Cow Molestor DOES reload slower than Stock. All those downsides just because you're too lazy to manage ammunition.

[EyeOculus]

Originally posted by Soon?:

1) Slower Reload.

Only the first reload is slower. The consecutive reload one is the same as Stock.

[chester stone racer]

Yay replying 3 yrs late :D

[chester stone racer]

Didn't the mangler get buffed anyway?

[EyeOculus]

The reload thingy was fixed, thats about it. Its a stock rocket launcher that has infinite ammo but cant be crit boosted.