Did Carpet Bomber died?

[Grizzly]

Havent seen a single carpet bomber gunner in like 2 months

[Matcha Buddies are TAKING OVER]

at least speaking for me, with Neurotoxin Payload being as good as it is I see no reason to use anything else outside of preference/fun. would be nice if the alternatives got buffed to NP's level, Thunderhead feels kinda pitiful otherwise.

plus, newer players will only have the Minigun, <and> with the interest in the new primaries, it's hard out here for the Thunderhead nowadays.

[mayonaise]

Didn't Carpet Bomber die a while ago, thought it got nerfed and it just ended up better to use anything else for an AoE build. Also heard that neurotoxin is OP now, and we also just got a new weapon that's heaps more fun to use than AC and maybe better at AoE than it was.

[Barser]

I stopped using it after it got nerfed to much. I guess it is still alright, just other builds are better.
But since the relase of the hurricane that is the one most people use atm.

[Vault Traveler]

You guys see that?

[xenoonex369]

Only used Carpet bomber once, not my thing. I have been running ammo OC and max fire rate and just bully the hell out of everything.

[Songbird]

I mainly use Combat Mobility nowadays.

Imho Combat Mobility > Carpet Bomber > No Overclock > Neurotoxin

Never ran out of Nitra since multiple updates now

[marcusaddamsson]

From my perspective, Carpet and Neurotox have kinda been similar yet opposing OCs. Historically speaking, the Neuro wasn't good enough to counteract the havoc that Carpet plays on the battlefield (read: reduced movement), but that ended a while back now... Neuro has been the AC meta for a while; if the new gunner guns weren't new, I think we'd still see most gunners gunnin' with the Neurotox (myself included, as an avowed NTP/AC user)...

And maybe someday my gunner secondary won't be a lead spray full-auto BRRT, but damn that thing is just too good.

[Chibbity]

Carpet Bomber is still a great workhorse build, but it's not a s popular as it once was.

I still use it on my A/C, but a lot of people are doing Neurotoxin builds these days, which is great; but it's just not my style as far as the Autocannon is concerned.

Also, the new Primary choice is obviously taking up a lot of most Gunner's time right now.

[moerty]

it got nerfed, i used it when i wanted to see glorious explosions shattering bug formations in salvage but ever since it's demise it's just not as fun to use.

the glorious Ka-BOOM got turned into a Ka-Whimper.

[ShugoTheRipper]

I run it 24/7 currently.

[Erin the Angry]

It got neutered. I have switched to big bertha. It's odd to get used to.

[Addison1024]

It doesn't seem like it got nerfed all that hard. Unless I missed something, this is what happened to it:

Increased the direct damage penalty and slightly reduced the effect radius bonus on the Carpet Bomber OC

Those changes don't really sound too bad to me, and I felt it probably was a bit overpowered before the nerf anyways
However, since we also got this in the same update (U34):

Reduced the direct and area damage penalties slightly, extended the effect radius and increased the chance to apply the toxin effect for the Newutoroxin Payload OC
, it's not too surprising that carpet bomber popularity dropped way off

[Night_Sniper]

In my case, it never was even remotely fun or good. Yeah, bugs go pop, but what's the point if you have to switch to you secondary every time you see a guardian or, in worst cases, a slasher?

I also was using Big Bertha for QUITE a long time (this was my second overclock I ever have gotten, and I kept using it up until almost last update), but what's the point if you can't hold the Haz4 4 players swarm? It has become like that since feedback loop nerf.

So, basically, autocannon's OCs are more of hindrance gimmicks than anything. Thankfully, we got 2 safe overclocks, both of which are straight up amazing, to work with. Maybe its boring, but I like it. Can't choose between Splintering shells + 110 mag and Composite drums + 220 mag currently.

[SCamp]

Carpet Bomber died when they hit it with the AoE nerf. I don't remember/care what the other nerf CB got was. As AoE range was the primary draw of the OC.

Now it has the same AoE as Neuro Toxin Payload (both at 2.0m base, 2.6m w/ T4), which means CB isn't differentiated enough from NT to justify picking one for playstyle. It also has LESS direct damage, LESS AoE damage and LESS CC. The latter two are due to NT's poison proc on AoE. (Also NT drops a useful visual effect on bugs that's visible even in darkness.)

With NT losing immediate AoE damage isn't a big deal: Because Thunderhead has fear CC on T5, they'll be poisoned and dead by the time they reach the player. (And you don't have to spend extra ammo on things that are poisoned, feared and slowed.) If they do get in range of the player, NT is still very much able to direct-hit bugs for the extra damage.

If there's any consolation... CB AoE damage still gets the bonus from T5 Feedback Loop, right?

tldr: Carpet Bomber and Neurotoxin Payload both play the same. Despite CB having more immediate damage, NT is better overall just because of neurotoxin.

I miss CB's fast-and-loose flakking playstyle. Now I'm just using Composite Drums on a ROF build to do it.

[Fryskar]

NT has always been strong, before the questionable buff to it.
CB still works, hurling as much ammo as you can on bugs to kill them. Its just not that ammo effective.

The main drawback NT has, is that it needs large numbers of bugs to get anything close to optimal results. Means it tends to underperform below h5 and overperforms with mods that increase the number of enemies.

For me, there are basicly only 2 overclocks worth picking. NT and composite drums.

Splinterin is nice, but its effect isn't that big.

Carpent is widely like NT. It gets better, the more bugs you got to shoot at. Its direct dps are better tham NT unless you modded the max enemy count, but it got no CC (fear is straight bad for CB) and its sustain is worse.

Combat mobility, why even? Be a bit more accurate at the cost of half your clipsize? The speed gived you a little buffer if you want to try and walk away, but most bugs should be dead either way and all are quicker/accurate enough so it barly matters.

Big bertha hits hard and a bit more accurate, but thats all it does. Its burst dps aren't bad, but LS just outmatches it and in sustained dps its matched with comp drums. But comp drums got no clipsize drawback and even if you pick it, it loses out on less dmg.