Storm Bolter or Redemption for Apothecary?

[Master Surgeon Cezrael]

As the title says, which is more valid? I love my fully modded Redemption, but i would like to have some diversity. So before i spent renown in the Storm Bolter`s modding, is it way way weaker than the Redemption? :-)

PS: Before anyone screams "Hellfire", i hate that gun, to slow for my taste and i don`t want aoe because og friendly fire. ;-)

[Alby]

I prefer the Redemption, shotgun feeling and with the right perks quite powerfull. The Stormbolter I use solely when my finger gets tired.

[cszolee79]

Way weaker, yes, but excellent for long range sniping. And if you're good you can headshot swarms.
Mk2 has a lot of dakka but only medium-short range. Not so good for sniping unless you use the recoil mod and even then worse than the bolter.
I prefer
Bolter: damage mod, for long range, good against brown stealers and hybrids.
Mk2: damage mod, for short-medium range, useful against white stealers as well. With recoil mod it's a bit better at longer ranges, but the loss of damage does not really make it worth imho.
Redemption: accuracy mod, for all ranges. Medium tier weapon, excellent for non-codex games.
Hellfire: damage mod, for all ranges, AoE damage, staggers enemies, kills whites really fast. Top tier weapon, one of the best in game. Shoot at the ground or walls in front / behind the bugs.

[Master Surgeon Cezrael]

Okay, then i stay with my accuracy Redemption, and maybe give the Hellfire another try, even if i don`t like that it is unusable in narrow infights to pick Nids from my Teammates when FF is on. :D

[Woodcot3]

I really do like both the bolters especially with 20% perforation perks and damage mods along with the armour buffs for extra armour or extra range damage, self heal cooldown and 50% acid - this works for Lion and below but if is a NM game then i do tend to go to a Redemption

totally with you on the Hellfire though...horrible.... slow firing and completely blocks line of sight ok it does a lot of damage but wheres the fun in that

try a Bolter only rules server.... then you will see how effective Bolters can be...just learn to side step and overlap covering fire for reloads. .. :)

[Terrortoma]

Both, one in each hand.

[DarkFire]

Hellfire is my personal favourite for the Apothecary. Slow firing but does decent damage and AOE damage, staggers the stealers and has decent AP against the big boys.

[Piderman]

Originally posted by DarkFire:

Hellfire is my personal favourite for the Apothecary. Slow firing but does decent damage and AOE damage, staggers the stealers and has decent AP against the big boys.

But totally anoying if you play with ff on. Have yet to meet players who are actually aware of this.

[cszolee79]

Originally posted by Uncle Dolan( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°):

But totally anoying if you play with ff on. Have yet to meet players who are actually aware of this.

Same goes for any weapon.
Some days ago I was the heavy gunner with Vengeance Cannon (no mercy, ff on) and the chaplain dude managed to burn off my weapon arm. Twice.

[hillslam]

Redemption is most often better. But clearly you haven't run a squad of 4 Tacticals, all running Strategist perk and rocking Stormbolters.

Praise the Emprah

[DarkFire]

Originally posted by Uncle Dolan( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°):

Originally posted by DarkFire:

Hellfire is my personal favourite for the Apothecary. Slow firing but does decent damage and AOE damage, staggers the stealers and has decent AP against the big boys.

But totally anoying if you play with ff on. Have yet to meet players who are actually aware of this.

Fair comment, that's true. It's unfortunate that many of the better weapons become nearly unusable with FF turned on: hellfire, spear & plasma gun are all deadly in tight areas with FF turned on.

[Woodcot3]

Originally posted by DarkFire:

...many of the better weapons become nearly unusable with FF turned on: hellfire, spear & plasma gun are all deadly in tight areas with FF turned on.

... and there lies the reason i always prefer FF on as you have to 'think' about positioning and covering fire.... playing with FF on does give the game an extra 'tactical' side to gameplay

[cszolee79]

Spear with projectile speed mod has almost zero AoE damage, it is pretty useful in FF games with extra recharge mod and quick reload perk (for Heavy).
Plasma Cannon and Thunder Hammer are a big NO :)
Well I suppose Plasma Cannon with projectile speed (half AoE) mod is... somewhat viable with good positioning, away from the team.
Hellfire has low FF damage. If the choice is to take a leaper jump attack or take Hellfire AoE damage, I'd rather take Hellfire. Ten times over.

[hillslam]

Does Quick Reload perk affect Spear recharge? I hadn't noticed a difference. hmmm

[DarkFire]

Originally posted by Woodcot3:

Originally posted by DarkFire:

...many of the better weapons become nearly unusable with FF turned on: hellfire, spear & plasma gun are all deadly in tight areas with FF turned on.

... and there lies the reason i always prefer FF on as you have to 'think' about positioning and covering fire.... playing with FF on does give the game an extra 'tactical' side to gameplay

Good point, and I like some extra tactical considerations, but my friends & I generally leave it off as having to compensate for FF AOE becomes a real burden at higher difficulties.

[Jinn Devraigne]

Originally posted by hillslam:

Redemption is most often better. But clearly you haven't run a squad of 4 Tacticals, all running Strategist perk and rocking Stormbolters.

Praise the Emprah

This is awesome.

Originally posted by cszolee79:

Originally posted by Uncle Dolan( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°):

But totally anoying if you play with ff on. Have yet to meet players who are actually aware of this.

Same goes for any weapon.
Some days ago I was the heavy gunner with Vengeance Cannon (no mercy, ff on) and the chaplain dude managed to burn off my weapon arm. Twice.

:D

My best FF moment was the guy who picked plasma cannon in the lobby, and then when we were still in the teleportarium, started just shooting it around to try it out. Obviously did not realise it was FF on (though it was in the server name). I was trying to frantically signal for him to stop as I heard the damage alerts.

And then the host walked up to him and thunder hammered him in the face XD

To be fair, he asked why he'd been killed, and I said "friendly fire is on, and that thing has huge aoe, my torso is now flashing red before I've even entered the map" and he went:

"..."

"... so sorry"

"I have the double aoe mod on it too"

He immediately switched weapons and was awesome for the rest of the game, so it was all good in the end.

Also, one of the less mentioned problems with the Hellfire is the blinding effect of the big fireball. It's especially bad for melee team-mates, who often rely on being able to see stealer attacks to time their own attacks, blocks or evades.

The heavy flamer has this issue too and to a lesser extent the Spear.

I'm not suggesting no one should use those weapons, but just be aware of that downside that isn't obvious from the stats and performance. You just have to be careful and pick your targets. Try not to shoot targets your melee team-mates are actually fighting - it blinds them and prevents them seeing any stealers following up. A melee terminator is pretty devastating - they should be able to deal with whatever's in front of them so it's best to trust them to do it... and if they don't, shoot the target after your team-mate's gone down.

Whereas with the Storm Bolter or Mk 2, you can pretty much give supporting fire with no problems if you have a clear shot (i.e. from the side)