Is the Scorcher Overrated?

[Zet395]

So, I finally unlocked the last weapon of the base game Warbond. I now have every weapon. I've been through the good, the bad, and the so-far-beyond-terrible-I-don't-even-know-how-it-came-out-the-way-it-did tier stuff. Something I always found consistent, though, is the amount of times I've seen people put the Breaker, Scorcher and SMG as the kings of weapons. (The Breaker and Scorcher more-so. SMG is hit or miss with the community it seems.)

Excited, I put it to the test, and the warnings I got were not missed. Ammo goes fast, mag capacity isn't the best, and splash damage can also kill you in a bad situation of enemies being up close. So, basically, never use it against bugs is what I got from that. However, over my time of using it, I came across a lot of flaws. First, I was told you can kill Striders from the front. With testing, you can, but I usually kill them in 2 to 3 hits. Why not use a railgun? I was told you can hit through the shields of the heavy robots. You can, but I have yet to be able to hit their eyes, which kill them the quickest. Why not use a railgun?

Don't get me wrong, it can still be good against small stuff, but at that point, why not just use the shotguns? They're strong, a tad more ammo efficient, and won't kill you if things are in your face -- if anything, it becomes better when they're in your face. By all means, if somebody helps me see the light, I welcome it with open arms, but someone please tell me if I'm right or wrong.

[ImHelping]

As a former EAT lover, recoilless does actually have better aim than the EAT. and it does not have that awkward delay before you are allowed to fire it either.

EAT you press 3 then wait a subjective eternity for it to allow you to fire (or get the 'invisible guns' glitch switching back to your primary in a hurry).

Recoilless I can push three then 180 no-scope a dropship out of the sky in 3rd person.... which proved to be a waste of time due to jank yeah.

Plus later debuffs to recharge and randomizers make the EAT lose all the reasons to bring an eat... Recoilless may have a garbage reload time solo, AND is woefully weak for such a weapon (but so is the eat, regardless of my feeding a titan one kills in lower difficulty). But the game does not go out of it's way to ♥♥♥♥ you over for using it as much as it starts doing to EAT users. ("Just bring it as a second support weapon idiot!" "three strat slot limit debuff")

[Malidictus]

I rather like the Scorcher against bugs, actually. The AoE tends to stagger them and it can damage Hive Guards / Heavy Spitters through their plate armour. Not ideal, though, as it's harder to aim against small, fast-moving targets. Pretty good against bots, though. It can damage enemies through Medium Armour and does a great job stripping arms and guns off of the larger bots.

"Why not use a Railgun?" That's a fair point, though I've honestly been trying to use other Support weapons. As effective as the Railgun is, I'm tired of using it.

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Dord :---DD:

Originally posted by Drunken Weirdo:

I can have fun with it, same with the autocannon and arc thrower. I think we can agree however on one thing, the Spear could be a decent rocket launcher if it would be able to lock on properly instead of bug out most of the times, it really is too wonky.

Autocannon and arc thrower are objectively good weapons, though. The recoilless needs to 1-tap chargers, or when firing at the flank of a charger with a rocket, the armor stripping needs to make it able to be shot by smaller arms because where its currently at is crazy. It's just not powerful enough to justify its bad ammo economy.

You're right about the spear. Not just the lock on, though: It needs to resupply at least one rocket from the common ammo drops on the map. Besides the lock on being literally broken most of the time, the ammo economy for this, too, ruins it.

IMO recoiless should 2 shot anything in the game, or 1 shot anything against a weak point.

Spear should 1 shot anything in teh game no matter what, and should have its lock on method changed, It should work like the rail canon.
When you fire a sspear, it just shoots stright up into the air, then comes down on the biggest target in the path of where you launched it just like a rail canon. thats how it should work.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

I rather like the Scorcher against bugs, actually. The AoE tends to stagger them and it can damage Hive Guards / Heavy Spitters through their plate armour. Not ideal, though, as it's harder to aim against small, fast-moving targets. Pretty good against bots, though. It can damage enemies through Medium Armour and does a great job stripping arms and guns off of the larger bots.

"Why not use a Railgun?" That's a fair point, though I've honestly been trying to use other Support weapons. As effective as the Railgun is, I'm tired of using it.

Come back to team autocannon. 20 railgun ammo is not "A lot" unless you are lying to yourself that running away not shooting anything is the same thing as a large pool of ammo for combat. AC can even finish off hulks through their eye slot unless I'm just missing something else finishing the job every time, too.

that 20 ammo capacity you REALLY feel when you are a railgun user vs bots, and every other autocannon player is making it their mission in life to ignore walkers while watching people's back at an objective. "So I hear everyone hates rocket bots" "uh huh" You gonna shoot any of them?... yeah didn't think so."

Plus hogging a support pack to yourself on a team just proves ammo capacity is trash. (see also, grenade launcher)

[Khloros]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

I rather like the Scorcher against bugs, actually. The AoE tends to stagger them and it can damage Hive Guards / Heavy Spitters through their plate armour. Not ideal, though, as it's harder to aim against small, fast-moving targets. Pretty good against bots, though. It can damage enemies through Medium Armour and does a great job stripping arms and guns off of the larger bots.

"Why not use a Railgun?" That's a fair point, though I've honestly been trying to use other Support weapons. As effective as the Railgun is, I'm tired of using it.

Run the plas 1 + ammo pack + grenade launcher against bugs, you just run around being a personal air strike. Its great. you can deliver so much AOE damage.

[Akameka]

It's very usable, it trades some DPS from the breaker for more quality of life, so IMO it's fine and I take it over the breaker now.

Addition on the breaker :
- reach further than breaker
- Can destroy shrooms from across the map in 5-6 shots
- can kill bile spewers in 5-6 shots on the big acid part.
- can easily kill armored bugs from the front
- can kill charger in a pinch in 1 mag and a little more if you shot the butt.
- can easily destroy bile titans weak points in AOE
- can stunlock most ennemies, including stalkers, and even kill them in 5-6 head centered shots.
- can AOE kill small bugs
- Will literally MURDER egg nest missions

- can kill walkers from the front in 2-4 shots
- can kill most robots in one hit, maybe 2, even from afar.
- can kill shield bearers and medium armored robots about as fast than breaker, and melt them if you hit their backpack/missile pods.
- can kill hulks in the back really easily, even when trying to go around it, because AOE damage
- Can kill tanks in about 10 shots in the heat sink
- will destroy a heavy cannon turret in a single mag aimed at the heatsink.
- Can destroy AA guns and mortars in a dozen hits or so in the heatsink.

Disadvantages are :
- a little more clunky than breaker
- can kill you if you shoot point blank.
- Has noticable spread at mid range but not that much
- less DPS against charger legs, stalkers and medium armor bots, but still kill efficiently enough.
- "bullet" speed is not hitscan
- Its pewpewpew sounds like a wet noodle hitting the ennemy.
- Unless their shield is almost full, It will insta gib any ally in case of friendly fire, especially if they do not wear a 50% explosive damage reduction armor

[Zet395]

Originally posted by Akameka:

It's very usable, it trades some DPS from the breaker for more quality of life, so IMO it's fine and I take it over the breaker now.

Addition on the breaker :
- reach further than breaker
- Can destroy shrooms from across the map in 5-6 shots
- can kill bile spewers in 5-6 shots on the big acid part.
- can easily kill armored bugs from the front
- can kill charger in a pinch in 1 mag and a little more if you shot the butt.
- can easily destroy bile titans weak points in AOE
- can stunlock most ennemies, including stalkers, and even kill them in 5-6 head centered shots.
- can AOE kill small bugs
- Will literally MURDER egg nest missions

- can kill walkers from the front in 2-4 shots
- can kill most robots in one hit, maybe 2, even from afar.
- can kill shield bearers and medium armored robots about as fast than breaker, and melt them if you hit their backpack/missile pods.
- can kill hulks in the back really easily, even when trying to go around it, because AOE damage
- Can kill tanks in about 10 shots in the heat sink
- will destroy a heavy cannon turret in a single mag aimed at the heatsink.
- Can destroy AA guns and mortars in a dozen hits or so in the heatsink.

Disadvantages are :
- a little more clunky than breaker
- can kill you if you shoot point blank.
- Has noticable spread at mid range but not that much
- less DPS against charger legs, stalkers and medium armor bots, but still kill efficiently enough.
- "bullet" speed is not hitscan
- Its pewpewpew sounds like a wet noodle hitting the ennemy.
- Unless their shield is almost full, It will insta gib any ally in case of friendly fire, especially if they do not wear a 50% explosive damage reduction armor

Where would you hit a Charger to kill it that fast? I know about the leg weak points, but you usually have to tear off the armor first, don't you?

[Akameka]

Where would you hit a Charger to kill it that fast? I know about the leg weak points, but you usually have to tear off the armor first, don't you?

You shoot in the butt (the glowing one where you should usually not shoot with normal weapons)
The thing is, scorcher is explosive damage so double damage on it, and AOE insure most hits will actually deal damage, unlike normal ammo where a lot of them will just bounce over the armored bit just besides. If you hit a full magazine or a little more if you miss some, it will pop out the butt part, then you just let it bleed to death in a dozen seconds or a little more.

Again, it's to do in a pinch, as it takes longer and more ammo tahn dedicated weapons. It's still easier and faster to hit the front leg with heavy explosive or railgun, then shoot at the leg. Again, double damage from explosives means you'll kill in about half or 3/4 of a magazine, just like with the breaker.

[Zet395]

Originally posted by Akameka:

Where would you hit a Charger to kill it that fast? I know about the leg weak points, but you usually have to tear off the armor first, don't you?

You shoot in the butt (the glowing one where you should usually not shoot with normal weapons)
The thing is, scorcher is explosive damage so double damage on it, nad AOE insure most hit will actually deal damage, unlike normal ammo where a lot of them will just bounce of the armored bit just besides. If you hit a full magazine or a little more if you miss some, it will pop out the butt part, then you just let it bleed to death in a dozen seconds or a little more.

Again, it's to do in a pinch. It's still easier and faster to hit the front leg with heavy explosive or railgun, then shoot at the leg. Again, double damage from explosives means you'll kill in about half or 3/4 of a magazine, just like with the breaker.

I see. I guess I didn't consider the double weak point damage. I usually never tried hitting it in the butt, because I'm so used to going for the legs instead. I guess I'll try and see how well it works next time I play.

[Myth Alric]

Why not use a railgun? Because a railgun takes up a special weapon slot and one of your equipment drops, and the scorcher is a primary weapon you get for free. If you are taking a railgun, then you don't need it, but if you are taking something else, then it is useful.

[Dragon]

Think about it also - using it as your primary allows your heavy weapon slot to be used for things other than the railgun because it goes through armor so well. I normally use the GL with the scorcher on bugs, you can clear entire hordes super easy. Run an anti heavy strat or two (railcannon/500) and chargers/titans aren't generally an issue as long as your team is nearby anyway (who will normally have 2-3 railguns anyway on high diff).

Bot its no contest. Scorcher is the best primary. Its the only one that can easily kill tanks/cannons/secondary objectives in their heatsinks, scout striders through the front without even needing to aim, and still pretty effectively kills all the devastators.

[Akameka]

I see. I guess I didn't consider the double weak point damage. I usually never tried hitting it in the butt, because I'm so used to going for the legs instead. I guess I'll try and see how well it works next time I play.

Well, the thing is, it's still an almost guaranted 200 DMG per shot on the butt part, compare that to the breaker that is 320 + 10% IF every single pellet hit the weak part (which never happens).

Also, unlike the explosive liberator for exemple, it has enough explosive damage to actually relatively quickly pop the part just like a grenade launcher or autocanon does with enough damage, meaning that it dies faster than how it should, assuming you let it bleed out.

Why not use a railgun? Because a railgun takes up a special weapon slot and one of your equipment drops, and the scorcher is a primary weapon you get for free. If you are taking a railgun, then you don't need it, but if you are taking something else, then it is useful.

It's indeed quite redundant with the railgun, and having one makes it a little less usefull. Still, having more ammo for priority targets is always good. And if you take someting else as support, like recoil-less or EATs or grenade launcher for nests & factories, it will really shine as a main weapon. I personally keep the railgun against bots for targets that need to disapear NOW, like hulks, devastators and shield bearers, and use scorcher against walkers and other ennemies.

[Zet395]

Originally posted by Dragon:

Think about it also - using it as your primary allows your heavy weapon slot to be used for things other than the railgun because it goes through armor so well. I normally use the GL with the scorcher on bugs, you can clear entire hordes super easy. Run an anti heavy strat or two (railcannon/500) and chargers/titans aren't generally an issue as long as your team is nearby anyway (who will normally have 2-3 railguns anyway on high diff).

Bot its no contest. Scorcher is the best primary. Its the only one that can easily kill tanks/cannons/secondary objectives in their heatsinks, scout striders through the front without even needing to aim, and still pretty effectively kills all the devastators.

I guess I didn't think about that. I'd love to use more stuff for crowd control.