Heavy machine gun first impressions

[Chuck]

TLDR its good if you adapt for it and work around its strengths and weaknesses.

I always use the machine gun or stalwart. I am a machine gunner. I will probably be using this weapon most of the time, at least vs bots, though I will need to get into more situations and see when it shines most. That being said, i think it needs some changes, and id also say its a really misunderstood weapon.

If i had to simplify this guns role, or its type, i would call it a "trench machinegun". It is best in 2 situations:

A) There are enemies so close to me that recoil or the lack of aiming reticle isnt an issue, and i need as much DPS as possible, right now (as in, youre in a trench, fighting something else in the trench with you).
This weapon can do that. at 1200rpm, with armor piercing, this gun probably has the highest (burst) dps of any weapon in this game (that you can carry with you)

B) I am in a great position with lots of cover or the enemies are distracted with my teammates. In this case, its weaknesses are less impactful and its in a situation where its strengths can shine. Lay down, turn the rpm to 750, and look for thick targets your team is struggling with. Devastators, berserkers, even hulks if your aim is good. It certainly can fight infantry, and id recommend 450rpm for that so you can stretch your ammo, but its great against more armored enemies.

In other situations, it has a lot of weaknesses. High recoil, no 3rd person reticle, really long reload time, low mag capacity for its fire rate+reload time. Its not the best weapon, but it is very useful if you are in a position to use it. Its certainly misunderstood though. Id say the other 2 machine guns, the stalwart and MG, are "rambo style" machineguns. You can use them on the move to decent effectiveness, but this gun is not at all that way. I recommend using heavy armor with fortified, and bring a supply backpack, for ammo of course (you get back all your mags with the bag, very nice), and also for stims because youre gonna take a lot of hits trying to use this thing effectively.

If i had to recommend changes though, it would be this: Give it more mags, make its ammo a backpack slot like the recoiless rifle or autocannon (with crew served functionality), and give it its 3rd person aiming reticle like every other weapon. I really dont understand why its aiming reticle isnt there, its a clunky enough weapon as it is, it doesnt need to be even more clunky.

[C4NNED]

It's absolute dookie to put it lightly. Basically you get all the disadvantages of a portable HMG but non of the advantages of an HMG.

It would be fine if it had the characteristics of a 50 caliber weapon and that is high damage and very good armor penetration. It should be chunking chargers and bruisers but it doesn't

[Chuck]

I wouldnt say dookie just niche. You must sit still, you must be prone (or crouched), you should run fortified armor, and should run the supply pack. It can be very strong, but you must absolutely focus on using it properly, which i will admit, sometimes its not possible. Niche, and heavily situational.

It absolutely does chunk hulks though, if youre in a clear position to use it. I killed a hulk bruiser in less than a second with this gun during my inital testing.

its CAPABLE of being a very strong weapon, but the circumstances that make it capable are not always present on the battlefield.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

everthing you just listed the other MG does better expect for hulks but if your team has problems with hulks then you have way bigger problems if you could use the bipod then that would be a whole other story but we will never get that feature

[Plagues]

Imo the negatives far outweigh the positives. It either needs better recoil/handling, more damage, or a faster RPM do it can just be used as a quick bullet storm vs heavy enemies.

It has all the characteristics of other heavy weapons, only with a stand still reload, low ammo and high recoil.

Its decent damage wise, but you basically need to sit still to fire it anywhere near accurately, and even then, the range on it is trash with how much recoil there is.


Now, that's not to say it can't be fixed with a few tweaks. But as it is now, I'll pass.

[ImHelping]

Technically, if I put away the heavy machinegun because it can't kill a scout walker faster than a scorcher, and then kill everything else smaller than a hulk with the scorcher too in fight... yes that would be "Working with it's strengths and weaknesses"

Just use the AMR instead (against bots) Seriously.

Take all the whining bad faith "You are just not using the machine gun right! you are supposed to turn down the RoF and make careful semi automatic headshots with it!" troll posts advice.

Then apply it to the AMR, which will kill a gun devastator in 2-3 quick clicks without even bothering to aim for the face. AMR even kills scouts faster, and part of the problem with the AMR is it kills scout walkers slower than it can kill hulks, and the heavy MG kills scouts even slower even on max rof

heavy MG can't even punch through charger armor, and as a bullet it still suffers mega damage reaction against their, ass, soooooo great job being a waste of space against bugs too compared to stock machinegun.

[Madjar]

I was crouching on lowest ROF
Gun jumped so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ high the 2nd shot of my 3 round burst missed my target
Garbage.

[Chuck]

Originally posted by Troja:

if you could use the bipod then that would be a whole other story but we will never get that feature

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by Troja:

if you could use the bipod then that would be a whole other story but we will never get that feature

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

Too busy giving us "realistic" inability to bend our spines up past 30 degrees prone to allow "Realistic sights actually aligned properly and not throwing our spare mags into the dirt (why did you even render ammo pouches on uniforms)"

[Plagues]

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by Troja:

if you could use the bipod then that would be a whole other story but we will never get that feature

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

Tbh, that would just make you even less mobile, which is a massive downside.


Cool yes. But if you aren't moving, you're getting hit

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by Troja:

if you could use the bipod then that would be a whole other story but we will never get that feature

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

jea same dream buddy

[C4NNED]

Originally posted by Chuck:

I wouldnt say dookie just niche. You must sit still, you must be prone (or crouched), you should run fortified armor, and should run the supply pack. It can be very strong, but you must absolutely focus on using it properly, which i will admit, sometimes its not possible. Niche, and heavily situational.

It absolutely does chunk hulks though, if youre in a clear position to use it. I killed a hulk bruiser in less than a second with this gun during my inital testing.

its CAPABLE of being a very strong weapon, but the circumstances that make it capable are not always present on the battlefield.

Sorry brotater but the MMG clowns on the HMG. I'm aware that the HMG is supposed to be a niche weapon it just doesn't perform in any niche or is good enough to take over the MMG. That's the issue. Your better served using the MMG which can deal with any medium threat far more efficiently than the HMG and still deal with fodder efficiently.

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Originally posted by Chuck:

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

Too busy giving us "realistic" inability to bend our spines up past 30 degrees prone to allow "Realistic sights actually aligned properly and not throwing our spare mags into the dirt (why did you even render ammo pouches on uniforms)"

i think it's to disguise the horrible bullet spread if your weapon has little to no recoil you beginn to notice the atrocious bullet spread

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by Plagues:

Originally posted by Chuck:

I CAN DREAM DAMNIT!
I dont understand why we cant use bipods tho.

Tbh, that would just make you even less mobile, which is a massive downside.


Cool yes. But if you aren't moving, you're getting hit

You already cant move while aiming when prone as it is, which is why I just crouch strafe of dive forward at enemies for midair shots over and over even with marksman rifles instead.

Plus, landing sideways makes even your 3rd person crosshair misaligned.

Originally posted by Troja:

Originally posted by ImHelping:

Too busy giving us "realistic" inability to bend our spines up past 30 degrees prone to allow "Realistic sights actually aligned properly and not throwing our spare mags into the dirt (why did you even render ammo pouches on uniforms)"

i think it's to disguise the horrible bullet spread if your weapon has little to no recoil you beginn to notice the atrocious bullet spread

As an engineer/fortified lover who is still landing all their shots with the new heavy MG?

It is still a letdown with 90% accuracy on your hits.

Then again, I am as said above, leaning into the "This is videogame ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ land, only dead helldivers fall for the 'realistic gunplay skill issues' spy troll posts" action.

To the point I will just dive off a cliff to headshot as I fall rather than wrestle with the overturned flinching when taking damage mechanics.

[MonK]

What intern came up with this weapon xD

[Neon Samurai]

The chargers are best left to the folks with anti tank weapons. They are heavy armor, so no surprise the HMG sucks against them. It does do well against light and medium, though I do think the damage could be a bit higher (but I think this of the other two machineguns as well, particularly the 'machinegun'). Turning down the RPM is also a good idea if you want to run around and hit stuff with it (or fire really short burts). I am honestly puzzled why they gave it such a high maximum RPM vs the other machine guns, as is barely controllable at 1200 RPM even prone with the recoil armor, and it is faster firing than any of the other two.