Are the Guard Dog backpacks supposed to be nearly useless?

[Rand]

Are the Guard Dog backpacks supposed to be nearly useless?

Because they are. Or, at least, far more trouble than they're worth compared to the supplies pack and shield pack.

First, let's start with the problem both have.

They float way too low, and off to your right most of the time. Since they float so low, they're almost guaranteed to shoot the user in battle, very often in the head. Why would they not attempt to float a meter over your head? Obviously they would move around some, but this position would make Guard Dog user fatalities exceptionally rare.

Also, since their position is weirdly right and low, you have trouble telling what they may have line of sight to if you're near an obstacle. Though sometimes you can hide and have them attack the enemies while in cover. If it will track and shoot, that is.

Now, about each specifically.

The MG Guard Dog is objectively terrible. I can accept it running out of ammo and needing to reload, but it needs better AI. Half the time it just floats there and won't shoot, even loaded and with enemies in the open, well in range. Contrast this with turrets that do not have an issue locating and tracking targets. It rarely misses (unless it's shooting the user in the back or head) so there's that.

The laser Guard Dog doesn't seem to have as bad of an issue with finding targets, but it still has trouble at times and is way worse than turret AI. It also, especially after the latest patches, seems pretty unwilling to engage targets more than 20 meters or so away, despite having a range of hundreds of meters.
But the main problem (other than constantly burning the user during combat on rough terrain because it flies too low) is that it aims at stupid locations on enemies, missing them for no reason. Take the scavengers: it aims at the ground at their feet much of the time. It has trouble aiming reasonably at a lot of other enemies as well, especially bugs, but some bots too.
Lastly when it will aim and fire, it often selects and aims perfectly at enemies whose armor it clearly cannot penetrate (deflection sparks visible), continuously attacking while uselessly locked on instead of switching to an enemy it could actually kill.

These both need some work. Maybe the game has trouble with the AI because unlike turrets, the Guard Dogs are moving around. But a lot of the enemies, such as gunships, also move a lot and they don't seem to have a lot of trouble acquiring targets and aiming.
If nothing else, getting the things to float at a reasonable position a meter above the user's head would at least end them constantly shooting the user, and also help avoid shooting teammates as it would tend to fire over their heads as well.

[dat_potatoe]

You forgot the Dog's Breath, which is even more useless.

[FireMage]

Guard dog was perfect for the last major order where we fought the Jet Brigade. It would just pop jetpack bots out of the sky so you could focus on other things.

Since it now has 45 ammo per magazine and uses the PenLib for its AP rating it's quite good.

It didn't kill me once in the last few days that I was using it. And I didn't use it before cuz Lazer was better in every way.

[Midas]

... what? The ballistic guard dog is absolutely nuts vs bugs. You can almost forgo a light enemy weapon entirely when using that.

[Frostbeast]

Originally posted by dat_potatoe:

You forgot the Dog's Breath, which is even more useless.

You have no idea how useles it is. Once, i dodged a Shrieker, and my Bot followed it 40m in the air and tried to shoot it. It was almost funny.

[[Asgard] Thor]

Literal nonsense I didn't even read it, I'm sorry. The laser rover before the last patch was almost always chosen for bugs. Still has unlimited ammo and now lights things on fire. The kinetic guard dog got buffed and regularly deals with bots with no issues. Dog breath is bad I'll give you that.

[Galahad]

Welcome to the contrasting themes and how they contradict a milsim live service shooter that has builds metas and stuff like that.

Same for turrets, why can't they just give it some basic ass friendly recognition software?

The joke is meant to be, super earth has kinda ACME level gadgets and weaponry. And stupid budget constraints that make zero sense.

Like we can travel through the galaxy at warp speed in hundreds of thousands of super destroyer battle ships, all paid and covered for no problem.... but we only get 35 minutes down on the planet to use stratagems???

It creates a hopeless, wretched scenario that is fun and epic the first month you play it, but after nearly a year, it's just like, why are you doing this to me, game? Can't you just be a normal game....

And thus here we are. The jokes have grown stale, the high octane is just stressful. But in the end, Helldivers 2 needs to have these broken ♥♥♥♥ items for it to retain its theme.

[six togetoge]

I don't agree.

Laser rover is very good and has only gotten better with the changes to the way laser can more easily set enemies on fire. However, I've hated that thing and its constant presence since the game's launch, the nerf to helldivers' health meant that the friendly fire the drone dealt was almost a guaranteed instant teamkill. I'm glad it overheats now because I see it less, if I saw it any more I'd shoot the diver packing it and call it an accident.

Bullet rover is something I use a lot. It got better and better, it now resupplies off of ammo boxes found in the field and has a larger magazine. Now it even has medium armor pen, so it's never been better. It has occasionally shot me in the back of the head but usually only when I'm trying to mantle or get to higher ground (moving my head up into its line of fire before it floats upward).

Target prioritization could be better too, but what I've noticed is that it never overkills: It will never fire more bullets at a target than are needed to kill it, which makes that 45-round mag actually account for a fair number of kills. The only exception are heavies, which cause the drone to derp out and empty its mag uselessly at a charger or something.

Shield pack is a crutch for bad players.

Supply pack may be best-in-slot, because it offers you four supply boxes' worth of healing and grenades and offsets the ammo-hungriness of stuff like the AMR. It's hard to argue against simply having way more stims or thermite.

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Rand:

The MG Guard Dog is objectively terrible. I can accept it running out of ammo and needing to reload, but it needs better AI. Half the time it just floats there and won't shoot, even loaded and with enemies in the open, well in range. Contrast this with turrets that do not have an issue locating and tracking targets. It rarely misses (unless it's shooting the user in the back or head) so there's that.

The Liberator Guard Dog is extremely good against bots after the update that made it AP3. My problem with it is the opposite of what you describe - it loves to magdump Hulks because, apparently, the change that made turrets not magdump things that they can't damage has not been applied to the Guard Dog backpacks.

Making the damn thing go back onto the backpack is also unresponsive and doesn't reload ammo, making the targeting problem even worse.

[FriendlyFireFetishist]

Guard Dog is my go to now. It tears through enemies even on lvl 10

[Chaos]

Originally posted by dat_potatoe:

You forgot the Dog's Breath, which is even more useless.

Can you blame him?
It was so ♥♥♥♥ I forgot it was even in my arsenal.

As for the OP.
While I agree it could fly higher to avoid FF from the dogs (that ♥♥♥♥ is only funny the first few times) while having better angle.

And maybe Laser dog could use a revert to their 30% dps nerfed while fixing it never going overheat to make to fair. since that fire effect build up is slow enough to be not mattered on smaller bugs not really useful against Hiveguard and above to make up for the less DPS.

Oh and better targeting too yeah, sometime it just spin around unsure of what to shoot next.

But The Gun dog is actually pretty good now with Lib pen so it less likely to waste bulllets on something it can't pen, not to mention you can now toggle it off if it start shooting at useless stuffs like charger/husk.

Gas dogs need a new custom AI too, one that switch target after it was gassed not dead.

[☼Solaire Of Astora☼]

Originally posted by FriendlyFireFetishist:

Guard Dog is my go to now. It tears through enemies even on lvl 10

which one though? there's 3 of them...

[Iridar]

Originally posted by Rand:

They float way too low

Their floating height depends on your crosshair elevation. If you aim at the ground, they will float low. If you aim at the sky, they will float high. Using a Guard Dog effectively means having to use your crosshair to manipulate their altitude.

But yes, in general, Guard Dogs are pretty bad, which is honestly fine for a free auto-aiming turret you can carry with your at all times.

[Mega]

You have to learn how to work with the Laser Guard Dog. You bring up all valid points with its behavior.

For bugs it's insane.

You have to traverse terrain in a different manner in order to avoid it cutting your head off. You cannot move as freely with the laser guard dog. Go up and down hills slower and at an angle, if you out run the LGD, it cuts into your head due to the low flying height. Just slow down a little.

It burns down the small trash almost instantly and lets you concentrate on the mediums.

On dark maps it's a great "laser pointer" telling you where the enemy is when you can't see them.

Something trying to sneak up on you from behind? The early warning is nice.

And since the last update, hit 5 to toggle it on and off so you can avoid setting fellow Helldivers ablaze when in close quarters or sneaking past a patrol.

The LGD and Blitzer are a fun combo against bugs even on D10.

And I don't know why AH lets the LGD outperform it's in game description. It NEVER needs to cool down. It fires constantly until every bug near you is dead.

[🚛 Akehiko ⬛️💀🟧]

Pre-patch bullet rover was useless, even if it did more damage, acquired targets faster , etc

But after patch the bullet rover can even get rid of enemies requiring medium pen with ease

Laser rover when it starts firring it will not stop until everything around you is dead, regardless of range, if it stops it will need some time to start up again

Might say skill issue, but I can't since this is hard to know info

[blankitosonic]

Liberatoe dog is insanely good now , before this patch i didnt even touch it more than 2 times
But now that damn thing erase bugs patrols alone , leave me nothing to kill with my blitzer when something is in range, only in breaches where there is a lot of crap to kill or when is out of ammo
Before was the laser boy but i got sick of that thing getting stuck in any hive guardian