Remote Detonation vs Lock-on Burst

[Uscari]

I guess this will become a series now.

I used to think Remote Detonation was my preferred choice because it's more ammo-efficient, as one rocket doing damage to multiple enemies will rack up more than each lock on rocket doing damage to just 1 enemy.

But honestly it seems like Lock-on rockets only have a modest damage penalty per round, like 833 dmg vs 900 dmg, and the firing speed more than makes up for that in raw DPS.'

Also, you can achieve similar or even better results damage wise for crowds by just using rocket's normal fire and letting it detonate on a surface, which I'm pretty sure does more damage than air detonation.

The one thing remote detonation has that I think makes it genuinely good is the guaranteed falter, very useful to have.

I'd give the edge to lock-on burst because I honestly think the stickybomb launcher is better for crowd control than remote detonation, and there's other ways to falter, but only the Lock-on burst gives me such high damage consistently at mid-range.

Which do you think is better?

[Žviks]

I don't use Remote Detonate at all. I can only see it useful against Pinkies like in 2016 but that's it but even then there are multiple options against them in Eternal. Lock On kills many heavies with 1 burst so I use it a lot. But DPS wise it's just better to quick switch.

[Umrite]

both

[DanySD]

Lock on burst no competition, SLOB is insanely powerful when you learn it.
For those who don't know SLOB is fast lock on or sylar lock on as it's named after the guy who discovered it.

[Mortimer Reed]

Both, but mostly remote detonation.

[spearten.com]

Lock on is super powerful because of just how much stronger rockets are in this game.

I would love to use Remote Detonate more but you get like 1 falter and you can't falter again for several seconds. It also used to work on the Marauder to falter him but it was removed in what I would call a stupid decision. The dude as a massive dash mechanic that allows him to jet across the screen and get behind you but we remove the primary ability of Remote Detonate. Meanwhile, we still have Feet Ballista which is even more powerful. Doesn't make sense to me.

If Remote Det Falter was more consistent and had more utility (like remove ground hazards from Dreadknights or Mancubi, and also faltering enemies mid air to prevent their attacks) it could be much better. Plus, in 2016 we had the super strong shrapnel upgrade that caused bleed damage from a remote detonate, as well as being able to detonate the rocket as many times as we wanted until the rocket hit a surface.

If Lock-on is as powerful as it is now, I don't get why we lost all the cool features of remote detonation.

[Kyoki]

Both. Although remote det gets more use from me personally. I only ever whip out lock on for possessed hellknights.

[Grampire]

LoB is more effective simply due to raw damage. It can even outshine most weapon swap combos.

If you want to challenge yourself, remote is fun and a bit easier to combo with. But LoB is a problem solver in UN - it's just going to make life easier.

[Hundinger]

Both. Remote det is my default and I'm switching to lock on when I feel I need to.

[MattCryptid]

Lock on beats it out slightly but remote det is way more fun.

[chester]

Messaggio originale di 76561198326968863:

Lock on burst no competition, SLOB is insanely powerful when you learn it.
For those who don't know SLOB is fast lock on or sylar lock on as it's named after the guy who discovered it.

Yeah. I never even used lock on until this tech was discovered, now I use it frequently

[mistahbungle]

Different tools for different jobs.

[Uscari]

It seems the consensus is that Lock-on burst is better.

I personally feel like the damage is just too high. 2700 in less than a second? I think the only thing that can compete with that is Super Shotgun + Precision Bolt, but those require you to be a lot closer and compromise your movement because of the imputs.

You could bring that down to 2000dmg and it would still stagger or kill half the heavy enemies in the game. It would be a good option for quickly dispatching medium health mobile enemies without becoming a total damage hose.

Meanwhile the remote detonation feels underwhelming damage-wise. In order to deal even the splash damage of a normal rocket you have to master this and detonate while the proximity flare is active.

I think they should make the base splash damage for remote detonation the same as primary fire, and make the proximity flare add 300 damage, so you deal the same damage with well-timed remote detonation as you do with a direct rocket.

[QUAKETALLICA]

No preference, both good for their intended uses. Lock-on Burst is more useful against a single demon with high HP (heavy, super heavy). It's good for Cacos, Pain Elementals, Hell Knights, Mancubus/CyberMancubus, Barons, and Tyrants. Also against those Prowlers, teleporting bastards.

Remote Rockets on the other hand are either useful for quickly taking out a large batch of smaller enemies, usually whom you've set on fire for quick armor, or good for shooting enemies from behind a corner without having to expose yourself to fire (thanks flare). They're also great against those armored Pinky demons/Spectres.

Really just depends on the scenario.

[QUAKETALLICA]

If this were Doom 2016 though I would have definitely given preference to Lock-on Burst. But in Eternal, both are well-balanced that I have no preference.

[QUAKETALLICA]

I will also add, that if we are just choosing between unupgraded lock-on vs unupgraded remote det, like when you first get to choose an attachment in Doom Hunter Base, then I think remote detonate is more useful, because initially the time to lock-on and reload is quite high. But if you can afford to upgrade as soon as you get it, then I prefer to go with lock-on and upgrade the time it takes to lock-on to targets.