Cryo Cannon Seems Over-Powered, and the Flamethrower Seems Boring

[TheBlueBomber343]

--- Introduction ---

After playing around 500 hours as driller, but I find myself sticking to the Sludge Pump 95% of the time because the other 2 primary weapon options seem like they're in such a rough condition.

--- Cryo Cannon ---

Let's start off with the Cryo Cannon. It's a super cool weapon with a ton of potential, but I feel like it's just a bit TOO good.
The fact that I really just don't have to worry about 99% of enemies while using it, and can often come out of fights with more health than I had before by way of the Vampire perk is just... Insane.

Beyond that, once you get the Snowball or Ice Spear overclocks, you can really build the weapon in such a way that it really will be extremely viable against like, every single enemy type in the game.

--- Flamethrower ---

Next is the Flamethrower... Man, compared to the other primaries it's just so boring. All the flamethrower overclocks are simple stat changes, while the other two primaries get overclocks that massively change how the gun works, and even ones that add entire extra abilities.

And don't even get me started on dreadnoughts being immune to being set on fire, seemingly just because it makes sense in the world. This further limits the flamethrower and it's viable generalist builds.
I know you can just choose to 100% focus on wave clearing, but again, the other guns can do both things pretty well so... Yeah.

--- Conclusion ---

I'm think I might just switch to Gunner.

[Chibbity]

Nah.

They are both good, just depends what you want to do, if you find Flamer boring, then that's just an issue of your playstyle not gelling with it. I love Sticky Flames, and find it very fun to use. "Fun" is subjective.

Switch to Gunner? You haven't been playing all 4 classes?

[Angarvin]

personally, i always struggle ammo-wise with cryo. that never happens with other two guns.

[76561199455560242]

Agree on both points, cryo is OP and always has been, flamer is for people with 4 iq.

[King Fossil]

The downside to cryo is teammates bringing heat weapons and ruining everything for you. Very complex balancing feature but it works.
Agreed that dreads shouldn't be immune to fire. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get the volatile bullets bonus on autopistol against them.
Actually, no, that might be too good when combined with revolver volatile bullets. Except dreads have been immune to burning since long before overclocks even existed, let alone that specific one, so I guess the devs just hate flamer/autopistol/both? Not sure what's with that.

[TheBlueBomber343]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Nah.

They are both good, just depends what you want to do, if you find Flamer boring, then that's just an issue of your playstyle not gelling with it. I love Sticky Flames, and find it very fun to use. "Fun" is subjective.

Switch to Gunner? You haven't been playing all 4 classes?

Honestly I just hate how limited it feels compared to the other two weapons. I can build the Sludge Pump and Cryo Cannon in so many different ways, where as when it comes to the Flamethrower I kinda feel stuck to either Sticky Fuel, or Face Melter. Face Melter is a boring OC, that just offers higher direct damage, and Sticky Fuel just consists of placing a line of flame between you and the enemy. (Obviously placing a wall of fire down is pretty cool; it's just that I just don't find it very engaging after a while.)

With the Sludge Pump I get the same ability to lay damaging particles on surfaces, but there's also direct damage and fragment damage to think about, which offers the ability to really maximize damage output depending on how you use it. Oh and the Sludge Pump projectiles also arc, meaning you can shoot them over other objects to hit things behind them, which can be great for supporting teammates from far away, and selecting for focusing down a specific enemy/group of enemies, in a swarm.

With the Cryo Cannon I have to decide on a freeze order. Ether focusing down the high-value targets, first, or clear the smalls first to keep from getting swarmed, leaving the high-value targets more open. Then there's the Snowball overclock that can be used to support team-members from long distance, or insta-freeze an entire wave of fliers if you aim it right.
Oh, and the Ice Spear overclock is pretty cool as it allows you to be super effective against larger targets, and requires precise aim, which is something you don't get very often with driller weapons.

[TheBlueBomber343]

Originally posted by Angarvin:

personally, i always struggle ammo-wise with cryo. that never happens with other two guns.

Try using the Tier 5 perk: 'Cold Radiance'. With it you can almost run directly into swarms, and freeze everything around you. This keeps you from having to direct-hit everything in order to freeze it, which saves a massive amount of ammo.

Oh, and beyond that, 'Cold Radiance' also helps to freeze targets that you're also shooting directly as long as they're within the 4m AOE. This means that you can speed-freeze things if you're able to get close, which again, helps save a lot of ammo.

[Alucard †]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

The downside to cryo is teammates bringing heat weapons and ruining everything for you.

Silver lining : free temp shock spam

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by TheBlueBomber343:

-snip-

Well, Flamer was his first weapon, then Cryo got added; then Sludge Pump.

So, like every class and weapon set really, the first ones are typically simpler and more to the point; and they get more complicated as they get newer.

That's sort of their appeal though, the Sludge Pump is cool yes, and I love it; but some people would rather just have a simple reliable Flamethrower.

[TheBlueBomber343]

Originally posted by King Fossil:

The downside to cryo is teammates bringing heat weapons and ruining everything for you. Very complex balancing feature but it works.
Agreed that dreads shouldn't be immune to fire. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get the volatile bullets bonus on autopistol against them.
Actually, no, that might be too good when combined with revolver volatile bullets. Except dreads have been immune to burning since long before overclocks even existed, let alone that specific one, so I guess the devs just hate flamer/autopistol/both? Not sure what's with that.

That depends on if you're playing with randoms, with friends, or solo. Yeah, with randoms you don't really get to choose what build they use, but with friends you can tell em you're going ice, and that they should probably pick stuff that won't conflict with that. Or on solo you just don't worry about it at all.

There's also a temp shock thing, where when a flaming target is frozen, or frozen target is caught on fire, the lose both status effects, and take a sudden burst of damage (If I remember correctly). So having fire and ice on the same team isn't always a bad thing as long as you're good at working together.

[6h0$t942]

yea. the flamethrower is very underwhelming comapred to the other two. Sticky flames OC's are kinda fun but it has such low ammo

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by 6h0$t942:

Sticky flames OC's are kinda fun but it has such low ammo

Low ammo?

But you can kill half a wave with a single wall of fire lol?

[CCShad]

Idk, I think it might just not suit you.

Compared to the other two, it is slightly more simple, but since when is it bad to have a simple option? It IS the default driller primary after all, the weapon that every new driller starts with.

It's certainly not weak, either. It's actually one of the strongest, and most ammo efficient weapons in the entire game. It doesn't have the immediate stopping power of the cryo cannon, or it's vampire synergy, but it has it's own benefits, such as sticky flame walls, fire spread among enemies, and deep ammo reserves.

[Plumber]

flamethrower has next to no utility, sludge has plenty, and cryo has boatloads of it; that's why there's this big rift. there's cases where flamethrower outperforms cryo handily though, like for crowd control vs big groups of swarmers you don't want to have to babysit and also robots/stingtails/etc dying fast to fire are self explanatory, so having an extra driller can be very comfy.

All OP has identified is that flamethrower could use a buff against the standard fare of enemies that sludgepump pretty much eclipses it against, unless burning enemies stick together to stay aflame indefinitely

[Qua2ar]

Originally posted by Chibbity:

Originally posted by 6h0$t942:

Sticky flames OC's are kinda fun but it has such low ammo

Low ammo?

But you can kill half a wave with a single wall of fire lol?

If you kite them all into the wall lol, try that in multiplayer were no one cooperates and jumps around like headless chicken, it's strong IF it works but a hindrance with randoms.

When it comes to max potential, Flamethrower does however beat the other 2 weapons 100%.

[Chibbity]

Originally posted by Qua2ar:

If you kite them all into the wall lol, try that in multiplayer were no one cooperates and jumps around like headless chicken, it's strong IF it works but a hindrance with randoms.

Works great on Salvage, everyone essentially has no choice but to cooperate with your strategy lol.