Artillery call-ins and "The Artillery Guy" build

[Pope Innocent the 69th]

After trying the 120mm call-in and later the 380mm call-in I got hooked on the idea of taking both and combining the two to absolutely level whatever is in the general vicinity of the beacons. I even got the Super Destroyer upgrades for them so I get an extra barrage (12 shots instead of 9) and so that each shell deals better AOE damage.

While this is a ton of fun, I find it difficult to assess the usefulness of this build and just how much of an impact it has. Other call-ins seem to do more raw kills, because they can be used in close-quarters where the enemy is swarming us in numbers, so the post-game stats of someone using a gatling sentry or the orbital lazor are consistently higher.

Another reason I struggle to assess how good this strategy is that I have to run a kilometer away from the call-in point not to kill myself with it. It's not always obvious what I killed with my arty.

The main advantage seem to be that by the time the barrage ends, around 2/3rd or more of the bug holes are already closed (haven't tried it vs bots yet) and there are only a few bugs to mop up. In essence, this call-in combo one shots a heavy/medium hive, but instead of getting a ton of kills, it prevents the bugs from ever leaving their hidey-holes. (Thus, no need to even kill them). We also save on supplies, especially grenades, but those don't seem to be a major issue most of the time.

There's also the question of the "Walking Barrage" which I also have. I'm tempted to take all 3 of them and just make it rain, but again, I feel like this would leave me as a less impactful teammate for close quarters clusterf*ck situations.

Questions:

1. Do you find these arty call-ins useful/good/competitive? Of course, dropping massive arty shells on the bugs/bots is never a bad thing, but what about the opportunity cost?

2. Do you think a dedicated build using 2-3 such abilities in tandem would be a useful addition to a team? Would you be happy or upset to see me on your team with this loadout?

3. How could I get the most out of such a build? I'm already rocking scout armor for extra mobility, sneakyness and the ping scan so I can sneak up on a hive and drop my beacons accurately (and then run like the wind afterwards), thinking about taking some dedicated AT weapon with it as 4th slot so I'm useful that way.

What do you think?

[Mosey]

I feel like all the barrage are too slow and too unpredictable to be useful for more than taking out a handful of objectives that could be taken out using other more reliable stratagem.

Presumably they could be useful for smashing an approaching megahorde, but the various atmospheric effects really hurt barrage a whole lot.

I'm level 50 with everything unlocked, and feel there are just much better options than any barrage.

[Noun]

1. Competitive doesn't matter, it's a coop game you don't compete. The 120 is good at medium outposts/nests and the 380 is good for large ones. Both are also good for blocking one side of an extraction when defending.

2. It depends on the mission. eradicate or evacuate missions, hell no. Blitz missions or destroy airbases, hell yeah.

3. The best way to get the most out of it is to make sure you are bringing it on missions that it's well suited to, and making sure your team is ready to back up your deficiencies, the barrages will struggle to take out patrols or approaching waves due to them being mobile meaning you are mostly limited to softening up hard targets before rushing in.



I would recommend making sure you have throw farther armour equipped with this to allow you to throw your strats from as far away as possible, instead of sneaking in it's usually better to just lob the artillery from a distance since you want rush in as soon as it stops.
Throwing from long range lets you keep running in the entire time to avoid wasting time.

[Imnuktam]

I think you will lead the team in Team Kills every match ;)

I quit using the 380 barrage unless I am alone, you just cant out throw your team enough and even with my buddies in voice chat it feels like flipping a coin to see if they die or not half the time.

[[OTS]EchoZenLogos]

Artillery call-ins are honestly a bit weak right now compared to the Eagle stratagems. The abilities themselves aren't too bad, but waiting something like 100-240 seconds for an orbital ability to cool down while an equally powerful Eagle ability might give you 2-5 uses (then a 150 second cooldown) is a bit of a let-down.

I hope they buff orbital call-ins to have shorter cooldowns and more power in general.

120 mm is decent enough for use on nests or when defending against large groups of incoming enemies in a small area over time (like when defending for an incoming escape).

380 is harder to take advantage of but can do massive damage if the shots land. Works best in my opinion if you also have EMS or other methods of keeping enemies in the kill zone though.

To maximize its use, having the extra throwing distance on armor could help so you can "fire and forget" to an extent more easily and move on. Also using it on objectives that it is useful for - such as bug nests, fabricators, and so on is probably ideal.

I wouldn't mind having someone with 3 of these on my team, as long as they are competent, but properly using those abilities is a bit tough.

[Le Hatch]

1. The 380/120 are a bit too unreliable in their aiming really, it can be nice to toss a 380 into a large base and let it do some damage before pushing in, but all of that is just done better by the walking barrage, which seems infinitely more reliable in its damage output and coverage than the above. The CD on it is a bit of a pain, but its a great tool to push towards things with on high difficulties.

2. Depends on the mission, depends on if you use them. There's some people who will take ""The Meta"" stratagems and only call them once a map. And do nothing with them. All in all: Depends on how you actually play.

3. Personally, I'd take Walking + Either or of the 380/120, then a more precise extra one like the eagle airstrike, and an anti tank on a 4th, then while your team inevitably gets bogged down fighting infinitely respawning enemies, you can either throw your stratagems to push to the objective at hand, or flank and toss some airstrikes (Or equivalent) precisely while your team is 'voluntary' bait.

[Mad Max]

Eagle Cluster Bomb, Eagle 500kg Bomb, Orbital Laser, Orbital Railgun

The answer to all problems.

[Doomvora]

Originally posted by Pope Innocent the 69th:

1. Do you find these arty call-ins useful/good/competitive? Of course, dropping massive arty shells on the bugs/bots is never a bad thing, but what about the opportunity cost?

You're better off just using air strike, walking barrage and a support weapon, it can be useful but having 4 strategems (especially barrage) limits your output due to the variance barrage brings.

Originally posted by Pope Innocent the 69th:

2. Do you think a dedicated build using 2-3 such abilities in tandem would be a useful addition to a team? Would you be happy or upset to see me on your team with this loadout?

The barrages specifically? probably not, they have a really unreliable spread. You do you.

Originally posted by Pope Innocent the 69th:

3. How could I get the most out of such a build? I'm already rocking scout armor for extra mobility, sneakyness and the ping scan so I can sneak up on a hive and drop my beacons accurately (and then run like the wind afterwards), thinking about taking some dedicated AT weapon with it as 4th slot so I'm useful that way.

You'd probably want something like throw distance, and you'd likely want a dedicated support weapon like AC/GL/RG/EAT

[Snobby Hobo]

No. It's terrible. All the barrages suffer the same problem; extended suppression of an area is very rarely actually useful and they become entirely useless when you get slightly cornered. Only Walking Barrage is "somewhat usable"; as in, I won't think you're a complete goober for even running it. On top of that you pay for them with gargantuan cooldowns.

The only Super Destroyer weapons that you should consider from a competitive standpoint are the Orbital Laser and the Railcannon - and honestly I think the Railcannon is pretty bad too (too little value). Skilled players will just stick to Eagle Stratagems for barrage needs.

[Captain Vredesbooty]

The 120mm and the 380mm are just too random to be useful even on large nests/groups/areas. Sometimes I might get a nest or two if I chuck one of them in a nest pit, most of the time I just get a few bug kills and block my team from doing anything in the area until the barrage has finished.

[Echo2Omega]

120 + 380 on the same target?

The Ministry of War approves.

Carry on Helldiver.

[Mistress Creamy Pancakes]

I have to agree with others that running a little something other than just the orbital bombardments would be best for a walking artillery piece type of build. Something like two of the 320/120/walking barrages and then something like EAT and eagle barrage so you can blast some closer range things too for your battle buddies. Of course its always best to coordinate your strats and such to cover each other.
To answer question 2 in particular, strat combos are good. Other things such as mortar + ems mortar or orbital ems + gas strikes on a bug breach to spawntrap the waves of bugs are good too.

[Tekkarath]

Personally I prefer the walking barrage since it's a bit more concentrated than the other two, and while I understand your reasoning behind using scout armor to see enemies, it seems like you're mainly using it for the nests, which means you already know where they are without the ping assist. The grenadier armors would probably suit you better with the +30% throw range to allow you to drop them from farther out and avoid the blasts.

As long as you learn the area of effect and can properly keep them away from your teammates I wouldn't mind having someone with a bombardment loadout on the team, but for gods sake use your mic and call out your explosives. Especially on higher difficulties where it's hectic and harder to pay attention to what the team is doing.

Just my two cents.

[Watermelons]

I ask because I don't know, can shield emplacements protect from friendly mortar fire? If they do, perhaps that could be an option, OP? Maybe take two, not three mortars, and bring the shield emplacement as an umbrella.
I haven't unlocked it yet though so if it doesn't protect against that, that's a shame.

[Pope Innocent the 69th]

Originally posted by Imnuktam:

I think you will lead the team in Team Kills every match ;)

I quit using the 380 barrage unless I am alone, you just cant out throw your team enough and even with my buddies in voice chat it feels like flipping a coin to see if they die or not half the time.

Strange, I very rarely had even randoms walk into it...having said that, I do yell "BACK, BACK, BACK, RUN, RUN, RUN!" with Push-to-talk every time so maybe that helps?

Also, because of my scout armor, I usually get there first (also part of the idea), so by the time they get there they realise what I'm doing and so they stay away.

[Doomvora]

Originally posted by Watermelons:

I ask because I don't know, can shield emplacements protect from friendly mortar fire? If they do, perhaps that could be an option, OP? Maybe take two, not three mortars, and bring the shield emplacement as an umbrella.
I haven't unlocked it yet though so if it doesn't protect against that, that's a shame.

Yes, they can.