Polar Patriots Warbond Criticism & Ideal Weapon Changes

[VioHazzard]

I believe I've got some unique criticism for Polar Patriots others haven't discussed yet. Page 2 is great, but pages 1 and 3 are genuinely compromised and make this warbond an undesirable purchase for both newer and long term players.

First and foremost, the weapons themselves lack fun, impact, and/or a use case because they're outdone by other weapons by every metric. Read spoiler to know why.
The AR-61 directly competes in use cases with the default AR-23 but deals less damage over more time with even more frequent reloads resulting in even less damage. It even fails to hold up against the BR-14 Adjudicator.

On the other hand, Page 3's PLAS-101 can only be used vs. automatons since charge time makes it nonviable for Terminid missions due to increased densities of pouncers & hunters; this places our Purifier against both the Jar-5 Dominator and the SG-8P Punisher Plasma. Since the Sg-8 does AoE better, it can only compete in long range vs the Jar-5 which is a hard sell.
The equipment being offered in Polar Patriot's being so rivalrous with Steeled Veterans and Cutting Edge yet failing to out outperform either means we already have better versions of the guns offered. Newer players are also better off taking Steeled Veterans and/or Cutting Edge first.

I'm also seriously conflicted over Motivational Shocks regarding its overwhelmingly beneficial effect against bugs, I've had this creeping feeling that you intentionally increased the density of hunter/pouncer spawns to sell us the cure later. It could just be coincidental, but the end result is the same and it leaves me feeling just a tad bit bitter.

(EDIT 5/12/24) IDEAL CHANGES
I've held back on proposing my ideal changes since I wanted to do more research and let others comment on the state of the weapons. With that said, here's how I'd make the weapons better/more fun.

Starting with the AR-61 Tenderizer, there’s a minority of players who enjoy it… but its current stats just don't cut it. Its strengths lie namely in recoil and ammo efficiency, bolstering accuracy and increased ammunition for its edge over other ARs. The main selling point of the AR-61 is low recoil. I'd double down on this aspect making its recoil 6-8 to broaden its loadout and usage flexibility. Secondaily, the AR-61’s ammo superiority is sourced from smaller mags, but larger reserves which, without the HSO booster, creates a 3K damage deficit compared to the AR-23. Reducing the max mags to 9 but raising its capacity to 40 would make it more accommodating. Also, for its namesake, why is the tenderizer so ineffective against the durable sections of enemies. What would personally really break this weapon out for me is if it did increased durable damage or weakened durable sections through repeated fire.

Next up is the SMG-72 Pummeler which is perfectly fine. Disregarding my confusion over stats not befitting SMGs relative to ARs, as a weapon the pummeler’s concussive properties help break the SMGs out of ballistic shield territory vs automatons. Honestly this weapon’s just good enough to make me ask why other concussive weapons lack a similar punch like the AR-23C.

Third is the P-113 Verdict which… is alright? Maybe it's just me, but for whatever reason I feel my shots land just off of where I’m aiming which makes it feel wierdly unatural and imprecise. Also, maybe it’s the inaccuracy or lackluster jack of all trades stats, I’ve yet to hear any real opinions other than “it’s okay.” It’s not much but, maybe switching out its underbarrel laser for a rear sight and allowing it to shine down sights alongside the ironsight with a minor boost to its precision would help it stand out?

Lastly is the Plas-101 Purifier, a weapon so unfun, unviable, and impractical for current HD2 that, given how development works, makes me think it was designed to fit a previous version of HD2. The Plas-101 suffers from a fundamental flaw, that being its so unwieldy and sluggish that it’s one of the least engaging weapons to use. While the weapon's nice, mere stat shifts may align it to closely to the SG-8P or the Plas-1. I’d personally take inspiration from Warframe's Angstrum and let it fire a volley of explosive plasma over a concentrated area. If the charge time is nonnegotiable, then it needs to be rewarding both visually and statistically.

[Sebb]

I don't really know about the unique part, but I absolutely agree with everything you said, polar patriots is underwhelming and feels heavily uninspired with the tenderizer being a worse version of the liberator (the weapon description straight up lies), the pummeler is the only decent thing and even then its just very similar to the defender and actually scrifices power to have more staggering.

The purifier is horrendous, and not only agains bugs but in general its just ass, it has an insanely slow fire rate which also makes it not ideal against bots since you want to kill devastators as soon as possible, it has horrible dps and takes 4+ hits for a single devastator, plus each shot takes forever to shoot so in this regard it is just better to take the scorcher, it does have an AoE but its very small and can only really matter against small enemies.

The only thing I can't really talk about is the secondary which I still haven't unlocked, but I haven't seen many people talk about it.

Overall this warbond is currently in competiton with democratic detonation for worst warbond after the eruptor nerf.

[VioHazzard]

Originally posted by Sebb:

I don't really know about the unique part

When I say unique I more refer to how Polar Patriots feels almost cannibalized by the others. I've only really seen general discussion about how certain weapons feel or stack up to their betters, not discussing how it fails when viewed under the lens of progression and how it affects the game at large based on sales.

It feels like AH made the AR-61 and PLAS-101 without knowing the underlying reasons why players choose the weapons they do to begin with. Perhaps its indicative of why their balancing is so confusing?

[McFuzz]

Even on bots, the PLAS-101 is outshined by the Plasma Punisher in every way.

[С Г エ χ]

There's literally no excusing how bad the new plasma and AR are. They clearly were never actually used in game. And what about how they're STILL recycling armor passives. They don't even need new art or animation to make new armor passives.

[Echun]

New warbond is mostly ass, if you actually paid 10 bucks for that you just got played.
Fire lead dev CEO, he is a muppet that needs to go!
Arrowhead needs to get their employees in check, going on pissing matches with randos on discord, its genuinely pathetic.