Arc Thrower at high difficulties

[Roy]

Is it worth using at all?

I tried rocking it during a hazard 8 mission and i had very mixed feelings about it.
As for style points it gets 10/10 because it looks cool, but sometimes it seemed like i was just tickling the bugs.

I guess a major plus side is ammo economy and the ability to kill chargers/titans, but the latter is where it gets mixed.

I've killed both using it and sometimes it took just a few zaps to the head, while other times it took too many to even bother anymore.

As for mobs/smaller units it feels really useful but not really better than a shotgun, MG or grenade launcher for that matter.
Anyone know if it's worth taking at higer difficulties?

[Steak]

not really, there's really just way too much heavy armor on high diff bugs for it to be worth using. And the targets you want to be shooting at are just instagibbed by the nade launcher before you're even finished charging your first shot. All of this is ignoring the really buggy nature of it and how it simply doesn't fire half the time

[blurryhunter]

It isn't actually that bad, but I think the problem is consistency. We just need to have a clearer indication on when it will arc or not. There's just no readability.

Also, comments about 'not taking it because too much armor' that's why you have other squadmates. Diversifying into specialty loadouts between the squad is not as bad as people think despite what the 'meta Rambo Lone Wolf' slaves want to preach.

[Pierrot]

Originally posted by Robert_Robusto:

not really, there's really just way too much heavy armor on high diff bugs for it to be worth using. And the targets you want to be shooting at are just instagibbed by the nade launcher before you're even finished charging your first shot. All of this is ignoring the really buggy nature of it and how it simply doesn't fire half the time

Arc thrower ignore armor, though.
4 people with 4 arc throwers is kinda fun.

[Steak]

Originally posted by Pierrot ♫♪:

Originally posted by Robert_Robusto:

not really, there's really just way too much heavy armor on high diff bugs for it to be worth using. And the targets you want to be shooting at are just instagibbed by the nade launcher before you're even finished charging your first shot. All of this is ignoring the really buggy nature of it and how it simply doesn't fire half the time

Arc thrower ignore armor, though.
4 people with 4 arc throwers is kinda fun.

I want you to compare railgun TTK on a charger then do the same with the arc rifle. Night and day.

[Chaos]

It's pretty good....when it work,
Since the aim is somewhat random and sometime won't hit anything at all but it have okay damage, go through armor, have nice chain effect and true infinite ammo.

But yeah Railgun still rule, especially on bots game, where you need to kill that devastator fast.

[SomeRanGuy]

Definitely doable. Just takes a little getting used to. Bodies pile up and block firing...Sometimes you can just aim a little higher and sometimes you need to reposition.

[SomeRanGuy]

Originally posted by Robert_Robusto:

Originally posted by Pierrot ♫♪:

Arc thrower ignore armor, though.
4 people with 4 arc throwers is kinda fun.

I want you to compare railgun TTK on a charger then do the same with the arc rifle. Night and day.

Debatable. I feel like the railgun has ease of use. People are familiar with it and it's mechanics. Rapid firing arc can drop a charger pretty darn quick.

[Panda-Bishop]

Not sure if I was just imagining things, but I noticed if I hit a cloaked Stalker with the Arc Thrower, it forces them to become visible. Now I admit it's not that hard to spot them while they're cloaked, but you can't ping them in that state, so it's nice to force one (and up to two of his buddies if they're close to each other) to decloak and ping them for some concentrated fire.

[IIpocTo urpok]

I tried to use it for solo Helldive against bugs it can clear hordes easily the problem is as people above mentioned is consistency. It needs good LOS to connect and it wont shoot past corpses so if you killed lets say a spewer his corpse will block all your shots until targets are visible. As for big stuff it kills chargers in 8 shots if all of connects to the head. Not sure about titans since it's hard to headshot them from ground but it took 30+ shots from me before it died.

It is really good because of infinite ammo, decent headshot damage and bounce for clearing chaff but corpses and auto aim not allowing you to shoot freely is definitely not helping, also friendly fire.

[Myth Alric]

It is one of the best group clearing weapons, since it arcs around and kill all the annoying stuff, while also doing high damage to the big stuff. It isn't great against chargers, but it will hit the charger and also kill annoying stuff hanging around it. And it will kill the charger, which some weapons struggle to do at all.

I would say it is better than the machine gun at clearing groups, though the machine gun has longer range. It is probably better than the grande launcher in a longer fights, though the grande launcher can spam very quickly. So I like it more than those two in many situations, but the others can be good in other situation. The shotgun isn't a hoard clearing weapon though.

I would use it, it is one of the better weapons in the game. Just make sure your friends are behind you.

[Nandoholic]

Originally posted by Robert_Robusto:

Originally posted by Pierrot ♫♪:

Arc thrower ignore armor, though.
4 people with 4 arc throwers is kinda fun.

I want you to compare railgun TTK on a charger then do the same with the arc rifle. Night and day.

Railgun is great. Arc Thrower is a little better when being swarmed though

[Nandoholic]

i'm thinking of switching out my railgun for the arc thrower for if i go roaming hunting for the special samples solo while the rest gets the obj done. it is quite a useful weapon

[IIpocTo urpok]

Tried it against automatons. Regular bots die in 1 hit, devastators/berserkers in 3-4, hulks in 10, tanks in 20 (rear). Might sound good on paper but remember inconsistency? You will miss twice as much shots here. This weapon won't connect until you can clearly see most of enemy body and single broken strider can block it from shooting anything behind. It gives me vibes from that toxic gun from HD 1 which was called "bug spray" by community because it was useless against anything but bugs.

Also range is 50 meters if anyone curious.

[[HN]]

The one thing it really has for it is the infinite ammo, which can become very thight on higher difficulty, but that's basically it.

It's not awful, but there is way better weapons for specific uses.
Need to deal with heavy crowd? Get a Flame Thrower.
Need to deal with a lot of large targets? Get a Grenade Launcher.
Need to deal with the highest tier enemies? Get a railgun.

[Moffin Bovin]

tickles bugs.

nukes players.