Stalkers are too OP?

[Microcosm]

3rd Edit, putting this at top since people are too lazy to read.

This problem is exclusive to helldive. But if they nerf stalkers, it will also affect the other difficulties. The issue is helldive is supposed to be the peak difficulty, but with how stalkers are balanced on it, it becomes a teammate issue rather than a skill issue. You need to be playing with friends or VOIP with randoms to succeed, meaning there is no skill factor in killing stalkers at the highest difficulty.

Stalkers have been the 2nd largest killer to my drops- the first being teammates team-killing. The team-killing can be largely avoided by kicking the unskilled players, but the stalkers can't. It's supposed to be a glass cannon bug but its the third strongest bug in the game that comes with its own nest that doesn't appear on the map.

It is more agile than the hunters, has more health than the brood commanders, its attacks combo you harder than a charger, its attack is equivalent to a brood commander, and they're faster than you unless you have like 540 speed. Oh they also are partially invisible :). Literally the only thing that makes the game playable against them at the moment is their invisibility highlighting them in spore clouds, a bug that I hope gets fixed AFTER a nerf or rework.

Stalkers spawn in a Stalker Nest, and can stack up to 6 stalkers from what I've seen if you're in the spawn radius but not aggro range. If 2 stalker nests stack in their spawn ranges, you'll have to fight up to 12 stalkers just for a chance to close one of the nests. It is absurdly broken and so far is the only enemy I've seen that feels like almost no though was put into balance. I fear stalkers more than bile titans at this point.

Edit: Is there some tips I'm missing because after doing countless runs, they're the ONLY bug that seems to have no definitive way to smash it.

Edit Edit: Lots of these bozos are giving tips asthough I don't know how to play the game. I play on helldive. Maybe the stalkers are fine on lower difficulties but unless you've also reached the peak and play helldive, shut the hell up. You have no right to speak about nerfs and buffs if you haven't reached the max difficulty

[Slithy]

Originally posted by Salty Slothy:

Stalkers can tank 2 hits to the face with a recoiless rifle but die in 4 shots with a breaker. I don’t even know what’s going on with this game and its damage anymore.

The damage calculations for this game really are super confusing. This game seriously needs a testing ground/firing range like what Darktide has because as it stands right now what does what to whatever makes zero sense half the time.

*Edit: Also, penetration values to weapons need to be a thing. "light" and "moderate" penetration means squat. Grenades give us a penetration value, why not weapons? Because does "light" mean 3 or 5 or 10? What does moderate equal? What exactly are the values of armor on enemies that legitimize penetration? What is the Railguns penetration so we have some idea of what values it has so we can compare things to do since it seems to ignore armor?

Too many "What?"'s in the games items.

[Salty Slothy]

Originally posted by Slithy:

Originally posted by Salty Slothy:

Stalkers can tank 2 hits to the face with a recoiless rifle but die in 4 shots with a breaker. I don’t even know what’s going on with this game and its damage anymore.

The damage calculations for this game really are super confusing. This game seriously needs a testing ground/firing range like what Darktide has because as it stands right now what does what to whatever makes zero sense half the time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that certain weapon types do more against a certain enemies and vice versa.

[Microcosm]

Originally posted by WastingSanity:

Originally posted by Microcosm the Catboy:

It never lets me spot it because of the transparency until is ontop of me holding me hostage with its satanic tongue so I've never had a chance to read it. It's pretty stupid like I said, to have to dedicate one entire stratagem slot just because of one very annoying and broken bug. I feel like the LMG should be for mowing down light armored swarms and providing suppressive fire on automatons to decrease accuracy. Using a LMG on an enemy with its attributes feels wrong and stupid from a gameplay and logical standpoint, considering it's supposed to be an "assassin" type enemy meaning they have strong attacks but low hp and stealth abilities.

The LMG also cuts through medium bugs with armor. Completely ignoring the armor. I normally see them farther away as I typically look around a lot. If you spot one farther away, put some rounds into it and it should appear for a moment.

I know the LMG can absolutely slaughter stalkers and armored bugs, but it feels just wrong to use it on a stalker. All the other bugs that can be killed by it are relatively slow and horde together making it a perfect horde killer, but it doesn't feel like it should also be the primary way to kill a stalker.

It's like saying a tank destroyer can kill a tank, but it could also kill a person. But the issue is that the tank destroyer is the only way of killing the person, because that persons skin is immune to bullets. I'd prefer to keep the LMG for hordes, and anti-tank missiles for bile titans and whatnot.

If they buffed the stalkers speed and invisibility and attack strength while greatly reducing the health, I would enjoy that and I would start playing the game again.

[WastingSanity]

Originally posted by Microcosm the Catboy:

I know the LMG can absolutely slaughter stalkers and armored bugs, but it feels just wrong to use it on a stalker. All the other bugs that can be killed by it are relatively slow and horde together making it a perfect horde killer, but it doesn't feel like it should also be the primary way to kill a stalker.

It's like saying a tank destroyer can kill a tank, but it could also kill a person. But the issue is that the tank destroyer is the only way of killing the person, because that persons skin is immune to bullets. I'd prefer to keep the LMG for hordes, and anti-tank missiles for bile titans and whatnot.

If they buffed the stalkers speed and invisibility and attack strength while greatly reducing the health, I would enjoy that and I would start playing the game again.

What exactly do you use your primary weapon or side arm on?

[Legatus Jack]

I recently had stalkers show up for the first time in a mission and yes they do indeed have way too much health for an ambush type enemy

[Sergio]

theres a lot of problems, not only the fact that some level 4+ missions are literally impossible to do solo is ridiculous too.

[Microcosm]

Originally posted by WastingSanity:

What exactly do you use your primary weapon or side arm on?

Default starter liberator. Every other gun sucks compared to it since I need to be the one doing the objective. Liberator Penetrator definitely doesn't have a "medium armor penetrating" trait as thats the main gun I tested with the stalkers, and it did less damage than the liberator...

[Microcosm]

Originally posted by Sergio:

theres a lot of problems, not only the fact that some level 4+ missions are literally impossible to do solo is ridiculous too.

they are not "literally impossible". I can do suicide mission solo and if I wanna play ballsy as hell, I can do impossible. If you're struggling just to do challenging, solo, that is unfortunately a skill issue..

[Drumadin]

Just the health pool being too high.

I use the plasma scorcher and even with the light armor pen and AOE splash damage hitting it all over I still need over half a mag to kill one

Combine that with 2 or 3 running at you at max speed

[Willem]

Stakers are nasty mf indeed but not OP just don't let them sneak up on you and back-stab you like a pinata, easier said then done yes but hey who said spreading democracy was going to be easy

[Microcosm]

Originally posted by Drumadin:

Just the health pool being too high.

I use the plasma scorcher and even with the light armor pen and AOE splash damage hitting it all over I still need over half a mag to kill one

Combine that with 2 or 3 running at you at max speed

For me it tends to be 6. If I just drop in, I'll be able to kill any stalker nest near me within 2 minutes, but past that it becomes near impossible without wasting 2-3 reinforcements minimum. I'll legit be fighting 6 solo with no teammates helping me and instead focusing on shooting the front armor of a charger... :(

[Commander Hitman2b]

they need to change the hit marker each time i see red it mean kill to me which is not the case but red is like over penetration and white is penetration

[WastingSanity]

Originally posted by Microcosm the Catboy:

Originally posted by WastingSanity:

What exactly do you use your primary weapon or side arm on?

Default starter liberator. Every other gun sucks compared to it since I need to be the one doing the objective. Liberator Penetrator definitely doesn't have a "medium armor penetrating" trait as thats the main gun I tested with the stalkers, and it did less damage than the liberator...

It is apparent that you are confusing armor penetration with damage. The tank bug has heavy armor that is why you see bullets bounce off of it most of the time. The bug that bunches up and goes into a defensive stance has medium armor on its face including its front legs. The liberator penetrator can penetrate the armor on the bug's face, the liberator's bullets just bounce off. Sadly penetrating armor does not equate to higher damage.

Stalkers have light armor. The Liberator Penetrator does 45 damage, while the Liberator does 55. If you want something better for Stalkers that is a rifle the Diligence does 112 damage. But it only penetrates light armor.

As for the LMG recommendation. The Stalwart LMG is meant more for the smaller bugs. As the player can remain mobile while keeping their accuracy and reload faster. I believe it only penetrates light armor. The mg-43 MG is a high powered machine gun that penetrates medium armor and does good damage, making it ideal for taking out medium to large bugs including the medium armored bugs.

Hopefully that helps clear up a few things. Happy hunting.

[BilliBobBillsen]

skill issue. those guys die quick.

[Microcosm]

Originally posted by WastingSanity:

It is apparent that you are confusing armor penetration with damage. The tank bug has heavy armor that is why you see bullets bounce off of it most of the time. The bug that bunches up and goes into a defensive stance has medium armor on its face including its front legs. The liberator penetrator can penetrate the armor on the bug's face, the liberator's bullets just bounce off. Sadly penetrating armor does not equate to higher damage.

I know but with how ridiculous it is to kill a stalker, I assumed it had medium armor so I was using the penetrator even though I didn't see any armor icon things when fighting before. I had just assumed that it being "light armor" while having such high HP, meant that it was a visual bug and it infact had medium.

I've found that leg legs make them easier to kill... by like 5 shots, and thats if you track it near perfectly. Laser cannon is defintely the best support weapon to kill them without wasting an absurd amount of ammo/valuable ammo.