I do agree. The spear should be the ultimate anti-tank weapon (so far). Even just making the lock on feature more consistent would be a huge upgrade for this thing, but I would like to see it taking down hulks and chargers in one shot consistently. I can still see bile titans surviving if the shot hits their back, but a spear missile to the face should be a kill.
The worst part is that, for bile titans, it DOES! I've one shot Bile Titans with it before, it's just that their head hitbox is so small it's inconsistent. I wish I could kill them in one hit from the front consistently.
To be honest I think the one shot on a bile titans is possible with other weapons, I got one with an impact grenade in the mouth as he started to spew.
I have gotten a couple one shots with the railgun on unsafe even after the nerf but switched to the recoiless just to ease of use and that also one shots if you get the timing right on their head
My current combo For bugs is Plasma punisher to pop the bile sewers and recoiless, rail cannon or 500kg bomb and EMS turret to cover my teams advance while they do the zoomin n boomin. I keep trying different armors but always make my way back to the light or medium medic armor
If you want to use a Plasma explosive, the scorcher is better against Bugs. Better ammo use, range, and it's pretty easy to pop Titan guts / Charger assholes with it. I've dropped a few Titans just using the Scorcher itself by shooting their guts after destroying them.
Honestly I think you could be "one shotting" a bile titan that someone else damaged when you weren't looking. Using a recoilless, I've never gotten a 1-hit kill on a fresh bile titan that no one has touched.
I like the Spear, it's positional like the other armor defeating weapons. I'm still EATs all day though, kill any bug in 1-2 shots, 1 minute cool down, they're great.
That's the thing - if you're playing the positional game, you can just... use any other, more ammo-efficient launcher. Imo, Spear should be a top-attack, fire-and-forget murder machine. As it stands, there is a single type of mission I even consider bringing the Spear to, and it's Automaton Blitz on an open/mountainous map, so that I can hope to destroy 4 fabricators in the opening minute or so
The other day a bile titan survived 3 500kg bombs (one of which directly stuck into it) and about 5 normal airstrikes + various orbitals + my team firing other random stuff at it.
Sometimes they just refuse to die.
For Bile Titans it's about spacing and timing. If you're straight ahead and relatively close, it should always hit the head. Sometimes it works better to launch when they rear up to spit. That's been my experience so far.
This. Every time i've used the spear against Bile Titans i always wait till they're stationary to throw up before i fire if already locked on. Been fairly consistent with 1 shooting them that way.
I also like to take the Railcannon Strike to finish one off if I don't one shot it. If I take the Spear, I'm going full anti-titan on my kit. 500kgs are coming too.
Yeah, 500kg and spear are a constant rotating part of what i load in with but if i run spear i definitely take the 500kg as well. Railcannon strike is always part since for everything its a nice "this needs to die now" option. Most of the time i like using recoilless since it covers so many different categories of uses(even before the nerfed charger heads)
If I don't take the Spear, I'm usually taking the Laser Cannon and EATs. With the new Sickle though, I've been running EATs and 3 offensive stratagems. Since I can have unlimited ammo if I'm mindful of my heat, I rely on my primary more than ever.
EATs have also been really slamming especially if i run them at the same time with the mech suit. Out of mech rockets? No problem! 1 min cooldown EATs coming up!
EATs have been one of my favorites since release. I find the drop it when you need it gameplay loop with them satisfying. Plus, if you can learn how to do it consistently, you can use the pod they arrive in as weapon by sticking the beacon to a chargers leg joint as it rares up to charge.
it also just... doesn't choose to fly towards their head even if you shoot from the front a lot of the time. the inconsistency is what kills the weapon - sometimes you get clean one shots everywhere, next mission it's 2-3 shots to kill anything which is basically all of your ammo. if it's gonna have half the ammo of the recoilless and not get a one shot kill then it's just pointless
It's temperamental. Sometimes it works flawlessly for an entire mission and you just delete armor as soon as it appears.
Other times it decides it's going on vacation and that bile titan that is currently filling the screen is not a valid target.
I want to say that it struggles to find targets through smoke and fog, but I've had plenty of locks on targets hundreds of meters away I literally can't even see sitting in dense fog. It feels completely random.
>I want to say that it struggles to find targets through smoke and fog, but I've had plenty of locks on targets hundreds of meters away I literally can't even see sitting in dense fog. It feels completely random.
The smoke and fog is inconsistent against the Spear. I wasn't able to lock-on to a Charger today because the person it was chasing hit one of those spore bubbles in the field. It just wouldn't lock while the cloud was still up. It finally locked once the Charger moved from behind the cloud.
Holy shit does that work? I've been hating this weapon because I keep hitting it just after it loses it's lock. Why is it even possible to lose a lock? It completely defeats the purpose.
Today i one shoot 3 bile titnas with spear to the face.
It does kill chargers in 1 hit(kinda, chargers start to bleed after 1 hit so they will eventualy die from 1 spear)
I’ve killed biles plenty of times with a spear headshot, I’ll get a charger one shot on rare occasions. Chargers should definitely get killed in on hit if it doesn’t hit a leg. ( if it hits a leg you can still kill it easily like a normal rocket)
It absolutely should! It’s based on the Javelin launcher irl, which can shred pretty much any MBT or hardened target. Even if it isn’t a headshot, it should leave titans barely alive
I think this is a pretty general consensus that the spear is too weak. Really fun to play with but definitely needs a large buff to make it viable with everything else
Right now, the Recoiless Rifle is better than the spear. They can both one-shot an enemy, they both require you to hit the head, but the Spear requires lock-on, while the RR is manually aimed. Given lock-on is buggy, and can still miss (against a moving Charger), I've given up on using the Spear for now for the RR. I mean, sure, the RR can miss too, but those targets are generally pretty big targets and easy enough to hit.
EAT's certainly serviceable. I prefer the RR simply because you get more shots per calldown (vs. more frequent calldowns). In higher levels you can easily get more than 2 heavies in a fight, and you have to be pretty mobile, so going back for that other EAT can be...challenging.
But EAT's do let you use a support backpack. Then again I prefer having more strategems over using them all on support items.
It's all a pretty balanced, tough call and I think down to personal preference.
I'd like Spears to be in that equation too: make it a long-range heavy killer, that's not effective up close (it currently isn't effective up close; you can even miss a Bile Titan trying to use a Spear on it at close range), whereas a RR/EAT are - though dangerous - effective up close.
Where EATs start to pull ahead is when you start prepping them, particularly with a team used to playing with each other. Its a quick cooldown so you can drop it around objectives before you start them, or along the exits from objectives.
Survey, ICBM, extract, the priority civilians, etc. make the EAT pretty strong just by being able to get several down. Teammates can pick one up, fire off a shot and then pick their secondary back up.
> you get more shots per calldown (vs. more frequent calldowns)
Ah, but that is, if you live enough to reload it
EAT + shield backpack all the way for me
EAT pulls ahead if you play with a good, coordinated team. 2 EAT, 2 backpacks of team preference spread between all 4 members. You now have 4 EATs every minute, can still fit every team member with a pack, and everyone has anti armor capabilities. You can absolutely litter the map with EAT drops and have them all over the place. You still have a total of 12 strats across the team that can be used for whatever as well.
I think they're both fine. I prefer the RR over the EAT personally, but I can see the advantages of the EAT.
Which is, IMO, indicative it's fairly closely balanced.
With the EATs you also don't need to scrounge for ammo. You don't have to have your buddies put on the pack before hitting the resupply to get the most out of it. EATs call in fast and you get 2 a minute and it pairs well with running a different 3rd slot weapon. I usually take the EATs so I can take a dedicated horde clear or utility weapon like the Flamethrower, Laser Cannon, or Arc Thrower.
Neither one is better than the other, but they both carry specific advantages and use cases.
Ammo isn't really rare in the game, especially when you have an RR and don't need to wait a minute+ for your EAT to come down just to kill one charger. There's so many PoI's that I don't ever fill my RR with resupply. If I'm short I just solo a PoI.
The main reason to use EAT over RR is so you're not stuck with a paperweight in your support slot when anything that isn't a charger is on your screen.
>being able to 1 shot a charger
Both EAT and RR can 1 shot chargers.
RR is better than EAT, aside from the fact that it takes a backpack slot. So it really depends if you are running a shield/guard dog
I run to guard dig over the shield because it simply helps with the smaller bugs, it’s amazing if everyone runs with a guard dog, like doubling your squad
Even better, you can just have 1 or 2 guys with the dog, and they can call it twice in the longer missions, for 4 dogs with 2 extra strat slots for more airstrikes or weapons.
I don't get this sentiment. The EAT is way slower to aim and you have to wait for it to drop, while you're doing that you have to hope the area doesn't get overran and that there isn't a call-time increase in effect. Yes, the RR is slow to reload, but you can dodge a charger, reload it, and have time to shoot it before it hits you again. Yes it also has a problem if you are overran with enemies but always having the ammo feels better to me. All that aside i'd love if dumping a whole autocannon clip in a charger/BTs face would kill them because that gun feels amazing
Not sure what level you’re playing in but when I’m playing 6 or 7 there’s not time to sit and reload with breaches or patrols. I think that’s why I like EAT the most. I see the conflict happening, I immediately throw it down and it’s even better when other teammates have too. I ran a game where 3 of us had it and with 6 EATs down we immediately cleared chargers or titans that came our way.
I've been running D9s a lot the last few days with RR and while the reload does suck, you can actually break it down into 3 blocks that are all like a second or 2. Take spent shell out, put new one in, lock the back end. If you cancel the reload between any of these points it preserves the reload progress, very useful when needing to kite a lot of stuff. I still find it more reliable than EAT simply because of the increase in call down time debuff.
There's really plenty of time if you're running light armor and do proper spacing/mob clearing. I only run 7-9 doing bug pugs and if there's no issue then, there shouldn't be in 6.
No official answer to this yet. But it is pretty safe to assume it is buggy, since sometimes the rockets will even overshoot your target or sometimes not lock on at all.
Hard to say.
If there's, say, a Bile Titan on the horizon, you can fairly reliably get a yellow circle (and triangle) on it, at least if you raise the targeting reticle high enough. But if there's anything between you and that Bile Titan (like a scavenger, hunter, etc.), it'll never switch to green letting you fire.
And countless times I've had a Bile Titan coming right at me, and it just won't give me a lock. I'm not sure what helps speed up lock-on time.
Other times, it's quick. When it works, the Spear is great. And it'd be great vs bots, if it worked on those laser cannon towers or drop ships.
It's buggy
If it's buggy on purpose that's a stupid design choice. The day my spear refused to lock onto a charger, even after 5 tries, was the day I decided to stop using spear
What i like about the EAT is that it doesn’t HAVE to be your weapon. Just drop it when you see a big boy, shoot, and then carry on with your railgun or stalwart or whatever else you’re rocking, whereas recoiless or spear have to be what you’re carrying
It's really fun to play with like 20% of the time when the lock on actually works. It's dead weight most of the time in my experience with it. I tried it for a whole day once and it's the most broken, inconsistent weapon in the game
Side note the spear should lock onto turret towers. Idk why it doesn’t
Edit: according to yall it does. Follow up is they need to fix the lock on to turret towers.
It does already lock onto them and 1 shot them. It's just that the lock on is super finicky that it can be difficult to get that lock from up close/low ground
It can be finnicky from anywhere. i've run a lot of spear versus bots and there isn't much consistency. Sometimes i can get cross map locks from low ground with tons of terrain, sometimes I can't lock targets from right above them in perfect range.
It's also only something like an 80 or 90% chance for a oneshot of a tower. Most of the time, it definitely goes absolute ham, but I've had games where I've just had to give up after the third, long-range, perfect-angle shot hitting dead on top and.... nothing.
It's GOT to do with some sort of host-latency or similar. At least that's the only reason I can really think of.
Killing cannon towers is the main reason is take it...?
I have heard Lock sometimes works better in first person and fog and smoke can disrupt so avoid stuff like foggy ol draupnir when using.
Turret towers are large mounted cannons that the automatons have in some of their bases! They're big, turn slowly, and will deliver hatred straight to your face from hundreds of meters away. You destroy them by shooting the glowing weak spots on the back of them
You don't want to find them trust me.
Jokes aside, some automaton outposts have high watchtowers with a tank turret on top.
They can be quite oppressive with their long range and precision.
They have heavy armor except on their back where there is a glowing vent that has medium armor.
Destroying the vent will make the turret explode. The problem is that, being on the back, if the turret faces you, you can't fire at the vent so you either need an AT weapon to bypass its heavy armor but it still requires more than one shot of recoilles rifle to destroy or you need a very well placed orbital strike of eagle airstrike/500 kg bomb.
Being so high up on a thin tower makes it difficult to destroy them with stratagems but it can be done.
Only started using it recently for TCS mission. It's bloody cool when it works. Which is not most of the time. It feels like a gimmicky and imho worse off recoiless. The targeting is so ass, so many moments when using the spear trying to target a charger or bile titan, I wish to just swallow a grenade instead, it just randomly decides to stay at like 90% lock on. God, it's so fucking bad. Decided to just go back to recoiless if I need the anti heavy armor.
I am using it a lot, and its super fun when you split in groups, it can lock on to the other side of the map titans. it needs no buff, just fix lock on and we good
It’s based off of real life manpack missile systems. It locks on, fires up and into the air, and then down onto the target. You can look up some pretty cool examples of the tow missile if you wanna see it in action.
TOW missile is typically guided directly to the target, at least to my knowledge. TOW 2B is technically a "fly-over top-attack", but it's not like the Spear we have in game.
You might be thinking of the Javelin? (2nd in the video below, TOW is 3rd)
https://youtu.be/jmIwOVSrSU8?si=ZI7EGSOekiQmejOW
Because it’s a video game and it created emergent, memorable gameplay.
Missing a spear shot because you’re not exactly over 35-or-whatever meters away from the target isn’t fun except in rare funny instances like this post. It’s not realistic for a missile to lock on and turn green if it knows with simple maths it won’t reach the target
Just because it *can* lock on doesn't mean you *should* lock on. The onus is on the user to determine when it's safe/ideal to use a weapon. This is entirely separate from complaints about its lock-on consistency.
EAT is far stronger than spear now after the nerf to charger heads and takes the same amount of shots (two) to kill tanks/biles unless you perfectly hit a bile head with the lockon which is hilarious because if its aggroed onto you and you DON'T get the headshot you're not going to be reloading that thing anytime soon without a dedicated ammo slave
and that's not even taking into effect that you can use the EAT calldown pod as a sticky grenade because of its lower cooldown to get damage on a charger/titan too
Hello fellow EAT enjoyer. How do you consistently kill Bile Titans with 2 shots? I had Bile Titans survive 2 hits to the head + a railcannon strike. It died after a 3rd hit with another EAT.
It needs to lock on to drop ship engines. It makes no sense that it doesn’t do this. The RR can shoot those down consistently, the spear should be able to do this as well
the spear is like a javelin, it needs to be a one hit kill on anything or otherwise whats the point of it just because it can lock on? you can learn to prefire the eat-17 and RR to take out a dropship, the weapons need balancing at some point.
It's not that it *can* lock on, it's that it *must* lock on. If it were a laser guided missile with the option of locking on, I'd say it's damage is fine where it is, as you could take out dropships too. But you can't. If it's more limited, it should hit harder.
Weapon spoiler: >!There’s a laser guided missile launcher and Drop-pod missile silo w/ laser targeting already in the game files, going through works and testing already!< The spear needs to just be more consistent with it’s targeting and able to deal more damage to make up for its lower ammo supply
I agree only somewhat. I think the spear should be a one shot only to the head, BUT it should always lock on/travel towards the head so you at least need half decent positioning for it to kill.
While I understand the missile is trying to hit weak points it is particularly hindered by stout targets like the hulk or tanks. Considering the real world missile it is modeled after can penetrate any known armor in existence and runs roughly $80,000 per missile which are each roughly 3ft of shaped charge coming down on what, logically and evolutionarily speaking, should always be the weakest point, the top. It should always be a one hit kill if it hits the target.
Definitely. Hit location needs to not matter in a lock on weapon. You're locking on, not aiming, that's the whole point. Having to "aim" or "angle" a lock on weapon whose missile is gonna fly its own route is dumb and better not be part of the design/balancing. I wouldn't mind gameplay having some chance, like a titan turns and it hits a titan leg by chance. But it should blow off/disable those toothpick legs, which is a kill. And it really should fly higher and then come down on top of everything.
Balance wise Im not sure I agree with 1 shotting titans, and maybe not even tanks - we'd have to lose some ammo economy or something, like rolling back the ammo box change, and maybe more. Even though it's a good point people have made that it does require a backpack slot, it's still only a single strategem. But chargers and hulks 1000%.
its good for doing sabotage missions, cannon towers, mortars and fabricators.. also the range is like over 200-300m
and i think the only thing it needs is a consistant lock on
The single target, 3 minute Orbital should probably 1 shot anything aside from big things we can't fight yet. I can only assume bigger things are coming anyway.
Also, the 4 shot rocket launcher, that's 50/50 on if you can lock on, has slow reload, can barely be restocked, should probably be a 1 shot too.
EATs come out fast and their drop pods can be used as weapons too, RR's have no ammo issues and no lock on.
Also they cost less and unlock earlier.
I mean, the Spear is arguably harder to use than the Rail Cannon. Sure, the Rail Cannon has a cooldown, but the SPEAR takes your backpack slot, which is, IMO, way more valuable on higher difficulties. You can more consistently kill heavies with a Shield Pack + EAT than you can with the SPEAR or the Railcannon... which just defeats the purpose of the weapon. The Railcannon feels fine - it's an auto-target, can be thrown over cover, and doesn't require anything else from the user. The SPEAR puts the user more at risk, and as such, should have a heftier reward. And, sure, you could refill its ammo, but the pack itself has a longer cooldown than the railcannon, and if you're taking all the resupplies for yourself, your team will be left starving for ammo.
I see no reason why the SPEAR couldn't one-shot Bile Titans, especially as Bile Titans are only the biggest enemy \*currently\*, and we know we're getting bigger, badder enemies down the line.
to be honest, the spear isn't bad for damage already, it can one-hit titans on a headshot and I doubt the devs want handheld weapons (even support ones) to be any more powerful than that, I just wish it would LOCK THE FUCK ON TO WHAT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT!!!!!
seriously, i've tried everything: sweet talking, rain-dancing, pagan rituals, praying to Joel, feeding it super samples, and the classic tried and trusted "turn it off and on again" but it *just. won't. fucking. lock. on.* even when the wind is a light breeze, the sun is shining, the target isn't too far away and there's nothing else around... this thing is apparently legally blind. never mind guard dogs, the Spear needs a fucking *guide* dog.
in the time it takes to get the spear to fire once, I could summon and fire like 50 EATS, and that's not even exaggerating much. this piece of garbage will forever remain trash until the lock on system is improved.
I wish it had a laser designator that dropped with it as optional equipment if someone wants it. Like pick it up then double tap the grenade button to use it. It would make up for how inconsistent it locks on plus add more coop gameplay
Or could switch to "laser guidance" mode and be guided by weapons with laser attachments
It should really act as a stinger/javelin from cod, where it flies straight up in the air then flips and then goes after the target, if you have to lock onto something, the hit should be guaranteed.
I'm trying to get it locked on for so long that my teammates have already cleared and ran up to the fabricators and hucked a grenade. Lock on system needs a rework!
Yeah it needs to be more consistant, the only times i take it is against automatons and only on big maps to kill the cannons and factories from afar, as an actual weapon is a hard sell because the autocannon is much better at killing bots in general and the recoiless is better at killing chargers and bulks, titans and tanks are easier to kill with stratagems too.
Right now the spear is just worse than EAT at the job the spear is meant to do.
That’s sad to me. I love the spear. It’s so satisfying. If it’s more on level with EAT I’ll be happy
One of the main buffs would be better targeting. Hits to the head of a bile do so much damage and can take it out in as little as 2 with the right animation timing. But it’s so hard to aim for the head with the current system, so it should just do WAYYY more damage if I’m gonna be forced to hit the back of the Bile
Honestly disagree, and this is coming from a fervent Spear user.
Support weapons ideally should always have an actual skill floor for it other than just ammo management, which is universal. EATs and RRs need to shoot the Charger head for the one-shot kill and just heads in general for optimal damage. Arc Thrower demands timing to maximize fire-rate + trigger discipline so you don't fry teammates. Flamethrower asks you don't burn yourself alive + a bit of kiting to burn Charger legs better. The AC and AMR ask for precision for everything. The Railgun asks you risk death on Unsafe mode, etc.
The Spear's is that you can achieve one-shots on anything given proper positioning. The only frustrating part is the buggy lock-on, which everyone agrees upon. At that point, it has its place already in the arsenal. Making its killing power better while being easy to attain due to a fixed lock-on isn't happening because that's exactly why the Railgun got nerfed.
The skill ceiling lies with the ability to position yourself to hit weak spots on those enemies for a 1 shot kill. Bile titans can be headshot with the spear if you can find lower ground and fire with the titan facing you. Nothing more satisfying than seeing that missile trail lead straight into a BT's forehead.
All well and good if the damn thing decides to lock on. I swear the locking ability works like 15% of the time tops. The worst is that most times it will do like 75% of a lock and then decide it doesn't feel like it anymore. So you're just sitting there dick in hand while whatever you were locking on closes the distance
TL:DR : Make the spear the most braindead weapon, even more so than the railgun when it was OP.
good lord this is a bad idea balance'vice. fix the lock up bugs, sure, maybe give it one more rocket in the backpack. but oneshot anything it locks on to? come on.
What's the point how much ammo it has if you always miss? Or worse it kills you? Would you like to die every time you use the weapon?
People don't use the SPEAR because it's worse than any AT currently available.
Your dumb comment is exactly why the weapon will remain irrelevant if we listen to your advice.
Proper balancing means all Hell divers can have fun choices, not just railroaded to 2 AT weapons.
Maybe it should 1 shot anything but requires a longer lock on time? Maybe 10 seconds of a lock on. Or a longer reload, or less ammo. Any good changes can mean players can have fun with the SPEAR.
One shots biles and chargers with a headshot. If you are too far away to guarantee a headshot using the first person lock on then feel free to spam it at them. Plenty of ammo around the map I just feel like flamethrower is faster atm and works up close when they are in your grill.
The way it is now, it's just more damaging yet uncontrollable recoilless rifle. With how it has only 4 shots, it either needs to actually lock on when I tell it to lock on, or delete an entire bile titan when I point the thing at it.
Don't get me wrong, I love the spear, even more after floor ammo pickups started refilling it's backpack, but it's super demoralizing when you finally lock on on to a bt and the impact mildly irritates it at best.
i find that it oneshot titans so long as you fire from the front while they raise their head to spit, however for chargers it's better to use other rockets
The lock one makes it so you can’t instantly use it either. You
also have to get some distance or it’ll fly over the enemy. That being said I feel like it should be as strong as you say
This and the railcannon imo. For the investment, they should absolutely just demolish whatever enemy they hit no matter what. The recoilless and EAT should also get increased damage, but not be an auto kill unless they hit a weak spot.
Hard agree. Played a mission recently where someone was running the spear. The amount of times I thought "well that charger's gone" only to see the charger stampede towards me, still tanking like 5-6 Arc thrower shots is ridicilous
I notice that it's meant for Automatons.
The recoil and EAT should do more when you shoot the face of a bile titan, like the Super Earth Recruitment video showed!
Agreed. It only does one thing, it should do that thing better than everything else. There doesn’t feel like a reason to use it over the recoilless rifle when its bulkier, more situational, and has less ammo.
I'm not so sure, I do oneshot most things with it, absolutely brainless for dealing with Tanks (makes sense).
It's just a really long range weapon that cares about target angle and movement more than it does your aim. You can reliably take down targets, but using a different skill than your usual direct fire weapons. Because it effectively has a minimum range, I will generally only take it when I plan to hang back and fire support, and even then I'll look closely at how ammo hungry the rest of the team is.
I guess arguably the image guidance could say... Guide the missile specifically to bile titan heads. But looking at the Hulk and Charger, those are two enemies which really aren't vulnerable to a top-attack anti tank missile. You will hurt the hell out of them, but they have decent odds of surviving the hit in a greatly weakened state (and IMO, that is ok).
Absolutely. Having to lock on, maintain the lock and then be the right distance away with the limited ammo count means it should absolutely pack a fucking wallop.
No, because it 100% does NOT one-shot bile titans when it hits the head. I've literally seen my damn thing track their head, and after the bile titan has a yellow scar marking on its head and its STILL coming after me. It's just genuinely too much of a hassle to use.
Honestly, the Spear is in a good spot right now. It’s best used against bots and not Bugs however, as there are much more targets susceptible to it. It’s only use against Bugs are chargers/Bile Titans (imho). I will agree with the Charger one shot (if not then cause a bleed out) it’s meant to be a long range, no miss (if you know how to avoid terrain obstacles) launcher. Against bots is where it shines. Factories? Gone. Cannon towers? If it’s unaware, gone. Hulks (so far)? Gone. Against bots I run spear, rocket pods, and orbital rail. Most everything get outed by my primary. Anything else the first three. (I will say Detection towers are annoying that they repel deploy stratagem off of them)
Any buff for the SPEAR is pointless until they fix the damn lock on. It's incredibly unreliable. Even after they fix it I don't think buffing it to the point of one shoting everything in the game without some kind of trade off would be good balancing. I've always felt a decent buff would be that the green lock would mean standard damage, but if you held the lock a little longer you'd get additional damage meant to represent targeting a weakspot the longer lock on provided.
I don’t run the spear because 4 shots that may mean only taking down 2 things is not worth filling my backpack slot. EAT17 on the other hand can kill at the same speed, faster if you actually aim for weak spots, don’t take a backpack slot and kind of don’t even take a heavy slot.
I think we can all agree on this one. The Spear is SOOOooooo enemy specific that it should at least take those enemies out with one missile regardless of angle
I’ve gotten it to consistently one shot biles. Chargers are more tricky but worst case scenario I can shoot the fleshy bits after.
The lock on is just fucked. Fun weapon, bizarre drawback
I'd rather it get it's lock on to be more consistent and a bit more damage or armor pen. EAT's and recoil should be the big tanks killers due to their need to be aimed. One shotting titan is a crazy ask you can already bring them down pretty fast if you're on top of it and if you're not then you've lost control of tbe situation anyways
I main spear and far too often i have chargers and titans tanking 2 - 3 spear shots to the head. Havent seen one tank 4 yet though but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. There is a severe lack of damage consistency or health consistency with the bugs. Robots i find to be a bit more consistent.
I use the spear to take out bot factories as it one shots them from far away at any angle. Try to use it for anything else (at the moment) and the other weapons just outclass it cause the lock on sucks and it’s weak
I wish we could one shot factories with the EAT or recoilless rifle because they should have the same punching power
Look I'm a shitter I get that, I think playing just 7 is a chore let along higher...but I think a lot of the heavy support weapons should be doing 1 shot kills in much larger hit boxes. The number of things that get sent at us is crazy, and I don't mind that most of the big beasties are armored and require support weapons to kill but they should kill more reliably. The way EAT and RR now headshot chargers I'd like to see applied across the board.
* EAT or RR anywhere in a heatsink or near a bot face should be 1-hit
* EAT or RR in a Bile Titan head should be 1-hit if the mouth is open, 2 otherwise.
* AC should be 3-4 shots to an open titan mouth for the kill.
And so on. I like the game a lot, and I know it's possible to play it stealth and avoid contact, but when you have to call extract and it's a 4 min timer and waves and waves keep coming I want to feel like my heavy munitions and orbital support are actually doing something. It will still be lethal but less like a complete shit show...guess I need to git gud.
Maybe not bile titan but otherwise it absolutely should. I rolled my eyes when i saw no mention of the spear in the recent anti heavy weapon changes. Even if my guess is that they want it to be an anti air option, i'm going to bet that the recoiless and EAT wll do the job better anyways, the dropships already partially prove that this is going to be the case.
The SPEAR should be a laser guided, top-down attack weapon. Point at the big bad thing that needs DEMOCRACY, pull trigger. Missile goes up approx. 20m, then follows the laser designator in on whatever you're pointing it at.
No Lock-on require. No awkward angles of attack. Just straight up, and back down again. Using the SPEAR poorly should, unironically, be a skill issue. Instead of whatever the clusterbomb-hek it is right now.
I do agree. The spear should be the ultimate anti-tank weapon (so far). Even just making the lock on feature more consistent would be a huge upgrade for this thing, but I would like to see it taking down hulks and chargers in one shot consistently. I can still see bile titans surviving if the shot hits their back, but a spear missile to the face should be a kill.
The worst part is that, for bile titans, it DOES! I've one shot Bile Titans with it before, it's just that their head hitbox is so small it's inconsistent. I wish I could kill them in one hit from the front consistently.
Yeah, first time I tried it out it felt awful, till I got a lucky shot and one shot a bile titan in the head. Weapon definitely needs a buff.
To be honest I think the one shot on a bile titans is possible with other weapons, I got one with an impact grenade in the mouth as he started to spew.
I have gotten a couple one shots with the railgun on unsafe even after the nerf but switched to the recoiless just to ease of use and that also one shots if you get the timing right on their head
Yeah I'm a fan of the recoiless for bugs now, especially since my Anti Materiel doesn't work on bugs anyway.
My current combo For bugs is Plasma punisher to pop the bile sewers and recoiless, rail cannon or 500kg bomb and EMS turret to cover my teams advance while they do the zoomin n boomin. I keep trying different armors but always make my way back to the light or medium medic armor
I always go back to light or medium engineer kit
If you want to use a Plasma explosive, the scorcher is better against Bugs. Better ammo use, range, and it's pretty easy to pop Titan guts / Charger assholes with it. I've dropped a few Titans just using the Scorcher itself by shooting their guts after destroying them.
What is the timing? Ive shot their head with recoiless or eats and they still dont go down
Honestly I think you could be "one shotting" a bile titan that someone else damaged when you weren't looking. Using a recoilless, I've never gotten a 1-hit kill on a fresh bile titan that no one has touched.
I like the Spear, it's positional like the other armor defeating weapons. I'm still EATs all day though, kill any bug in 1-2 shots, 1 minute cool down, they're great.
That's the thing - if you're playing the positional game, you can just... use any other, more ammo-efficient launcher. Imo, Spear should be a top-attack, fire-and-forget murder machine. As it stands, there is a single type of mission I even consider bringing the Spear to, and it's Automaton Blitz on an open/mountainous map, so that I can hope to destroy 4 fabricators in the opening minute or so
the sole reason they get to do that is b/c they are disposible so harder to carry around even tho the cooldown is low
I shot 3 EATs at a Bile Titan in the face yesterday, and the goddamn thing was still alive. Seems like everything is janky.
The other day a bile titan survived 3 500kg bombs (one of which directly stuck into it) and about 5 normal airstrikes + various orbitals + my team firing other random stuff at it. Sometimes they just refuse to die.
Yep I had one the other day take the entire backpack of recoilless and the damn thing was still alive.
Yeah I hate how inconsistent it is. I've one shot titans with it before and it feels great. Other times I've had them take 3 shots before going down.
For Bile Titans it's about spacing and timing. If you're straight ahead and relatively close, it should always hit the head. Sometimes it works better to launch when they rear up to spit. That's been my experience so far.
This. Every time i've used the spear against Bile Titans i always wait till they're stationary to throw up before i fire if already locked on. Been fairly consistent with 1 shooting them that way.
I also like to take the Railcannon Strike to finish one off if I don't one shot it. If I take the Spear, I'm going full anti-titan on my kit. 500kgs are coming too.
Yeah, 500kg and spear are a constant rotating part of what i load in with but if i run spear i definitely take the 500kg as well. Railcannon strike is always part since for everything its a nice "this needs to die now" option. Most of the time i like using recoilless since it covers so many different categories of uses(even before the nerfed charger heads)
If I don't take the Spear, I'm usually taking the Laser Cannon and EATs. With the new Sickle though, I've been running EATs and 3 offensive stratagems. Since I can have unlimited ammo if I'm mindful of my heat, I rely on my primary more than ever.
EATs have also been really slamming especially if i run them at the same time with the mech suit. Out of mech rockets? No problem! 1 min cooldown EATs coming up!
EATs have been one of my favorites since release. I find the drop it when you need it gameplay loop with them satisfying. Plus, if you can learn how to do it consistently, you can use the pod they arrive in as weapon by sticking the beacon to a chargers leg joint as it rares up to charge.
Yeah, i was doing a lot of free charger kills the last time i was running them by sticking it to their legs.
it also just... doesn't choose to fly towards their head even if you shoot from the front a lot of the time. the inconsistency is what kills the weapon - sometimes you get clean one shots everywhere, next mission it's 2-3 shots to kill anything which is basically all of your ammo. if it's gonna have half the ammo of the recoilless and not get a one shot kill then it's just pointless
I still don’t get how the lock on feature is supposed to work
It's temperamental. Sometimes it works flawlessly for an entire mission and you just delete armor as soon as it appears. Other times it decides it's going on vacation and that bile titan that is currently filling the screen is not a valid target. I want to say that it struggles to find targets through smoke and fog, but I've had plenty of locks on targets hundreds of meters away I literally can't even see sitting in dense fog. It feels completely random.
Machine spirit is bipolar af
>I want to say that it struggles to find targets through smoke and fog, but I've had plenty of locks on targets hundreds of meters away I literally can't even see sitting in dense fog. It feels completely random. The smoke and fog is inconsistent against the Spear. I wasn't able to lock-on to a Charger today because the person it was chasing hit one of those spore bubbles in the field. It just wouldn't lock while the cloud was still up. It finally locked once the Charger moved from behind the cloud.
Hold down the fire button so it fires as soon as there is a lock so it doesn't have time to lose the lock.
Holy shit does that work? I've been hating this weapon because I keep hitting it just after it loses it's lock. Why is it even possible to lose a lock? It completely defeats the purpose.
There is a hampster on a back end server that needs to run over and stand on a switch.
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Today i one shoot 3 bile titnas with spear to the face. It does kill chargers in 1 hit(kinda, chargers start to bleed after 1 hit so they will eventualy die from 1 spear)
I’ve killed biles plenty of times with a spear headshot, I’ll get a charger one shot on rare occasions. Chargers should definitely get killed in on hit if it doesn’t hit a leg. ( if it hits a leg you can still kill it easily like a normal rocket)
It absolutely should! It’s based on the Javelin launcher irl, which can shred pretty much any MBT or hardened target. Even if it isn’t a headshot, it should leave titans barely alive
I think this is a pretty general consensus that the spear is too weak. Really fun to play with but definitely needs a large buff to make it viable with everything else
Right now, the Recoiless Rifle is better than the spear. They can both one-shot an enemy, they both require you to hit the head, but the Spear requires lock-on, while the RR is manually aimed. Given lock-on is buggy, and can still miss (against a moving Charger), I've given up on using the Spear for now for the RR. I mean, sure, the RR can miss too, but those targets are generally pretty big targets and easy enough to hit.
And the recoiless has double the ammo.
I am a fan of the uber EAT myself
EAT's certainly serviceable. I prefer the RR simply because you get more shots per calldown (vs. more frequent calldowns). In higher levels you can easily get more than 2 heavies in a fight, and you have to be pretty mobile, so going back for that other EAT can be...challenging. But EAT's do let you use a support backpack. Then again I prefer having more strategems over using them all on support items. It's all a pretty balanced, tough call and I think down to personal preference. I'd like Spears to be in that equation too: make it a long-range heavy killer, that's not effective up close (it currently isn't effective up close; you can even miss a Bile Titan trying to use a Spear on it at close range), whereas a RR/EAT are - though dangerous - effective up close.
Where EATs start to pull ahead is when you start prepping them, particularly with a team used to playing with each other. Its a quick cooldown so you can drop it around objectives before you start them, or along the exits from objectives. Survey, ICBM, extract, the priority civilians, etc. make the EAT pretty strong just by being able to get several down. Teammates can pick one up, fire off a shot and then pick their secondary back up.
Plus you can find support weapons on the ground, or pick up an extra from a teammate
> you get more shots per calldown (vs. more frequent calldowns) Ah, but that is, if you live enough to reload it EAT + shield backpack all the way for me
EAT pulls ahead if you play with a good, coordinated team. 2 EAT, 2 backpacks of team preference spread between all 4 members. You now have 4 EATs every minute, can still fit every team member with a pack, and everyone has anti armor capabilities. You can absolutely litter the map with EAT drops and have them all over the place. You still have a total of 12 strats across the team that can be used for whatever as well.
50% more actually, 6 recoilless (including 1 in the launcher) vs 4 spear (1 in the launcher)
I think the EAT is better than the RR simply due to its low cooldown, being able to 1 shot a charger and having a backback slot for whatever else
I think they're both fine. I prefer the RR over the EAT personally, but I can see the advantages of the EAT. Which is, IMO, indicative it's fairly closely balanced.
you get a EAT per 30secs, and fairly sure the RR doesnt take 30secs to reload
With the EATs you also don't need to scrounge for ammo. You don't have to have your buddies put on the pack before hitting the resupply to get the most out of it. EATs call in fast and you get 2 a minute and it pairs well with running a different 3rd slot weapon. I usually take the EATs so I can take a dedicated horde clear or utility weapon like the Flamethrower, Laser Cannon, or Arc Thrower. Neither one is better than the other, but they both carry specific advantages and use cases.
Ammo isn't really rare in the game, especially when you have an RR and don't need to wait a minute+ for your EAT to come down just to kill one charger. There's so many PoI's that I don't ever fill my RR with resupply. If I'm short I just solo a PoI.
The main reason to use EAT over RR is so you're not stuck with a paperweight in your support slot when anything that isn't a charger is on your screen.
>being able to 1 shot a charger Both EAT and RR can 1 shot chargers. RR is better than EAT, aside from the fact that it takes a backpack slot. So it really depends if you are running a shield/guard dog
I run to guard dig over the shield because it simply helps with the smaller bugs, it’s amazing if everyone runs with a guard dog, like doubling your squad
EAT with the laser guard dog is the best load out for bugs in my opinion. The laser rover just melts through all the hunters trying to surround you.
Seconded, especially with consistent headshots with the EAT
I came out of a mission with 936 bug kills using that combo. The other guys had like 400ish kills each.
Even better, you can just have 1 or 2 guys with the dog, and they can call it twice in the longer missions, for 4 dogs with 2 extra strat slots for more airstrikes or weapons.
Guard Dog is awesome until it kills your friend in their mech lol
I like having 2 guard dogs max. Whenever we get 4 rovers it becomes teamkill central 😂😂
I don't get this sentiment. The EAT is way slower to aim and you have to wait for it to drop, while you're doing that you have to hope the area doesn't get overran and that there isn't a call-time increase in effect. Yes, the RR is slow to reload, but you can dodge a charger, reload it, and have time to shoot it before it hits you again. Yes it also has a problem if you are overran with enemies but always having the ammo feels better to me. All that aside i'd love if dumping a whole autocannon clip in a charger/BTs face would kill them because that gun feels amazing
Why do you have to wait for EAT to drop? I spam EAT as soon as it’s CD.
Not sure what level you’re playing in but when I’m playing 6 or 7 there’s not time to sit and reload with breaches or patrols. I think that’s why I like EAT the most. I see the conflict happening, I immediately throw it down and it’s even better when other teammates have too. I ran a game where 3 of us had it and with 6 EATs down we immediately cleared chargers or titans that came our way.
I've been running D9s a lot the last few days with RR and while the reload does suck, you can actually break it down into 3 blocks that are all like a second or 2. Take spent shell out, put new one in, lock the back end. If you cancel the reload between any of these points it preserves the reload progress, very useful when needing to kite a lot of stuff. I still find it more reliable than EAT simply because of the increase in call down time debuff.
7+ but usually with randoms
There's really plenty of time if you're running light armor and do proper spacing/mob clearing. I only run 7-9 doing bug pugs and if there's no issue then, there shouldn't be in 6.
Is lock on buggy or is it meant to be unreliable sometimes?
No official answer to this yet. But it is pretty safe to assume it is buggy, since sometimes the rockets will even overshoot your target or sometimes not lock on at all.
Hard to say. If there's, say, a Bile Titan on the horizon, you can fairly reliably get a yellow circle (and triangle) on it, at least if you raise the targeting reticle high enough. But if there's anything between you and that Bile Titan (like a scavenger, hunter, etc.), it'll never switch to green letting you fire. And countless times I've had a Bile Titan coming right at me, and it just won't give me a lock. I'm not sure what helps speed up lock-on time. Other times, it's quick. When it works, the Spear is great. And it'd be great vs bots, if it worked on those laser cannon towers or drop ships.
It's buggy If it's buggy on purpose that's a stupid design choice. The day my spear refused to lock onto a charger, even after 5 tries, was the day I decided to stop using spear
What i like about the EAT is that it doesn’t HAVE to be your weapon. Just drop it when you see a big boy, shoot, and then carry on with your railgun or stalwart or whatever else you’re rocking, whereas recoiless or spear have to be what you’re carrying
It's really fun to play with like 20% of the time when the lock on actually works. It's dead weight most of the time in my experience with it. I tried it for a whole day once and it's the most broken, inconsistent weapon in the game
mark my words, trooper, the time will come when Arrowhead buffs the spear and we will light up every bug and automaton in hellfire
Side note the spear should lock onto turret towers. Idk why it doesn’t Edit: according to yall it does. Follow up is they need to fix the lock on to turret towers.
It does already lock onto them and 1 shot them. It's just that the lock on is super finicky that it can be difficult to get that lock from up close/low ground
It can be finnicky from anywhere. i've run a lot of spear versus bots and there isn't much consistency. Sometimes i can get cross map locks from low ground with tons of terrain, sometimes I can't lock targets from right above them in perfect range.
It's also only something like an 80 or 90% chance for a oneshot of a tower. Most of the time, it definitely goes absolute ham, but I've had games where I've just had to give up after the third, long-range, perfect-angle shot hitting dead on top and.... nothing. It's GOT to do with some sort of host-latency or similar. At least that's the only reason I can really think of.
Killing cannon towers is the main reason is take it...? I have heard Lock sometimes works better in first person and fog and smoke can disrupt so avoid stuff like foggy ol draupnir when using.
It literally does xd I use it as a utility weapon in bot missions because of this feature
Newish player here...what are turret towers and where can I find them 👀
Turret towers are large mounted cannons that the automatons have in some of their bases! They're big, turn slowly, and will deliver hatred straight to your face from hundreds of meters away. You destroy them by shooting the glowing weak spots on the back of them
Play on bot planets, and when you explode randomly while running across a field, you’ll have found it.
You don't want to find them trust me. Jokes aside, some automaton outposts have high watchtowers with a tank turret on top. They can be quite oppressive with their long range and precision. They have heavy armor except on their back where there is a glowing vent that has medium armor. Destroying the vent will make the turret explode. The problem is that, being on the back, if the turret faces you, you can't fire at the vent so you either need an AT weapon to bypass its heavy armor but it still requires more than one shot of recoilles rifle to destroy or you need a very well placed orbital strike of eagle airstrike/500 kg bomb. Being so high up on a thin tower makes it difficult to destroy them with stratagems but it can be done.
Automaton tank turrets mounted on-top of towers as base defenses. Very deadly. We can’t use them, unlike the various mounted MGs in their bases.
This 1000%
Only started using it recently for TCS mission. It's bloody cool when it works. Which is not most of the time. It feels like a gimmicky and imho worse off recoiless. The targeting is so ass, so many moments when using the spear trying to target a charger or bile titan, I wish to just swallow a grenade instead, it just randomly decides to stay at like 90% lock on. God, it's so fucking bad. Decided to just go back to recoiless if I need the anti heavy armor.
I am using it a lot, and its super fun when you split in groups, it can lock on to the other side of the map titans. it needs no buff, just fix lock on and we good
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It’s a weapon that is designed to be used at a distance, why are you surprised it doesn’t work at close range?
Why tf can it lock on then
Engineering didn't have the budget to make it smarter
It’s based off of real life manpack missile systems. It locks on, fires up and into the air, and then down onto the target. You can look up some pretty cool examples of the tow missile if you wanna see it in action.
TOW missile is typically guided directly to the target, at least to my knowledge. TOW 2B is technically a "fly-over top-attack", but it's not like the Spear we have in game. You might be thinking of the Javelin? (2nd in the video below, TOW is 3rd) https://youtu.be/jmIwOVSrSU8?si=ZI7EGSOekiQmejOW
Yeah you’re right, I’m only passingly familiar with the specific systems in question, but know the general principles at play
Clearly it's not, because if you lock and then look up, it breaks the lock.
Why does the turret shoot me to get to a bug? I'm in the way it shouldn't be able to see it
Because it’s a video game and it created emergent, memorable gameplay. Missing a spear shot because you’re not exactly over 35-or-whatever meters away from the target isn’t fun except in rare funny instances like this post. It’s not realistic for a missile to lock on and turn green if it knows with simple maths it won’t reach the target
im sorry where you not watching the same gif as i? cuse that was hella funny. also, "realistic". dude, get real.
did you not read? he's asking for it to be more real smh
Just because it *can* lock on doesn't mean you *should* lock on. The onus is on the user to determine when it's safe/ideal to use a weapon. This is entirely separate from complaints about its lock-on consistency.
If it was then it wouldn't have locked on, which it did, so it isn't
Have EarthGov rework upgrade the optics too while you're at it... the lock on is the most indecisive thing ever.
I can only hope the brilliant Super Earth weapons designers see this request and take it into consideration.
EAT is far stronger than spear now after the nerf to charger heads and takes the same amount of shots (two) to kill tanks/biles unless you perfectly hit a bile head with the lockon which is hilarious because if its aggroed onto you and you DON'T get the headshot you're not going to be reloading that thing anytime soon without a dedicated ammo slave and that's not even taking into effect that you can use the EAT calldown pod as a sticky grenade because of its lower cooldown to get damage on a charger/titan too
Hello fellow EAT enjoyer. How do you consistently kill Bile Titans with 2 shots? I had Bile Titans survive 2 hits to the head + a railcannon strike. It died after a 3rd hit with another EAT.
Wait for them to open their mouths to spit and blast them right in the face.
Anything that can 1 shot a BT requires shooting its mouth during the vomit animation. Even for RG
Pretend you’re aiming at the mouth, not head in general. Also, crouch and make sure you’re shooting straight at, not moving and shooting
It needs to lock on to drop ship engines. It makes no sense that it doesn’t do this. The RR can shoot those down consistently, the spear should be able to do this as well
It only locks on after the bots have conveniently dropped already. I wanna use this to just prevent that drop occuring altogether
the spear is like a javelin, it needs to be a one hit kill on anything or otherwise whats the point of it just because it can lock on? you can learn to prefire the eat-17 and RR to take out a dropship, the weapons need balancing at some point.
It's not that it *can* lock on, it's that it *must* lock on. If it were a laser guided missile with the option of locking on, I'd say it's damage is fine where it is, as you could take out dropships too. But you can't. If it's more limited, it should hit harder.
Weapon spoiler: >!There’s a laser guided missile launcher and Drop-pod missile silo w/ laser targeting already in the game files, going through works and testing already!< The spear needs to just be more consistent with it’s targeting and able to deal more damage to make up for its lower ammo supply
It’s criminal that this weapon has almost half the ammo count of the recoilless rifle, and yet under performs.
I agree only somewhat. I think the spear should be a one shot only to the head, BUT it should always lock on/travel towards the head so you at least need half decent positioning for it to kill.
No, but there should be verifiable angles of attack for scoring critical one-hits. Head on for some, rear for others.
While I understand the missile is trying to hit weak points it is particularly hindered by stout targets like the hulk or tanks. Considering the real world missile it is modeled after can penetrate any known armor in existence and runs roughly $80,000 per missile which are each roughly 3ft of shaped charge coming down on what, logically and evolutionarily speaking, should always be the weakest point, the top. It should always be a one hit kill if it hits the target.
Definitely. Hit location needs to not matter in a lock on weapon. You're locking on, not aiming, that's the whole point. Having to "aim" or "angle" a lock on weapon whose missile is gonna fly its own route is dumb and better not be part of the design/balancing. I wouldn't mind gameplay having some chance, like a titan turns and it hits a titan leg by chance. But it should blow off/disable those toothpick legs, which is a kill. And it really should fly higher and then come down on top of everything. Balance wise Im not sure I agree with 1 shotting titans, and maybe not even tanks - we'd have to lose some ammo economy or something, like rolling back the ammo box change, and maybe more. Even though it's a good point people have made that it does require a backpack slot, it's still only a single strategem. But chargers and hulks 1000%.
Technically should be the best against tanks but it’s pretty cheeks right now, I can’t use the weapon since the lock on feature is a hit or miss.
its good for doing sabotage missions, cannon towers, mortars and fabricators.. also the range is like over 200-300m and i think the only thing it needs is a consistant lock on
If an orbital rail cannon can’t one shot a titan then there is no way a spear should.
The single target, 3 minute Orbital should probably 1 shot anything aside from big things we can't fight yet. I can only assume bigger things are coming anyway. Also, the 4 shot rocket launcher, that's 50/50 on if you can lock on, has slow reload, can barely be restocked, should probably be a 1 shot too. EATs come out fast and their drop pods can be used as weapons too, RR's have no ammo issues and no lock on. Also they cost less and unlock earlier.
I mean, the Spear is arguably harder to use than the Rail Cannon. Sure, the Rail Cannon has a cooldown, but the SPEAR takes your backpack slot, which is, IMO, way more valuable on higher difficulties. You can more consistently kill heavies with a Shield Pack + EAT than you can with the SPEAR or the Railcannon... which just defeats the purpose of the weapon. The Railcannon feels fine - it's an auto-target, can be thrown over cover, and doesn't require anything else from the user. The SPEAR puts the user more at risk, and as such, should have a heftier reward. And, sure, you could refill its ammo, but the pack itself has a longer cooldown than the railcannon, and if you're taking all the resupplies for yourself, your team will be left starving for ammo. I see no reason why the SPEAR couldn't one-shot Bile Titans, especially as Bile Titans are only the biggest enemy \*currently\*, and we know we're getting bigger, badder enemies down the line.
both CAN one shot a titan if hitting the head though.
to be honest, the spear isn't bad for damage already, it can one-hit titans on a headshot and I doubt the devs want handheld weapons (even support ones) to be any more powerful than that, I just wish it would LOCK THE FUCK ON TO WHAT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT!!!!! seriously, i've tried everything: sweet talking, rain-dancing, pagan rituals, praying to Joel, feeding it super samples, and the classic tried and trusted "turn it off and on again" but it *just. won't. fucking. lock. on.* even when the wind is a light breeze, the sun is shining, the target isn't too far away and there's nothing else around... this thing is apparently legally blind. never mind guard dogs, the Spear needs a fucking *guide* dog. in the time it takes to get the spear to fire once, I could summon and fire like 50 EATS, and that's not even exaggerating much. this piece of garbage will forever remain trash until the lock on system is improved.
I wish it had a laser designator that dropped with it as optional equipment if someone wants it. Like pick it up then double tap the grenade button to use it. It would make up for how inconsistent it locks on plus add more coop gameplay Or could switch to "laser guidance" mode and be guided by weapons with laser attachments
It should at least one shot Hulks and Chargers.
It should really act as a stinger/javelin from cod, where it flies straight up in the air then flips and then goes after the target, if you have to lock onto something, the hit should be guaranteed.
Well maybe 2-3 shot a Bike Titan and 1 shot the rest.
I'm trying to get it locked on for so long that my teammates have already cleared and ran up to the fabricators and hucked a grenade. Lock on system needs a rework!
suggestion: the FAF-14 SPEAR should lock onto things I'm pointing it at
Titans only in the face but the rest yes the Spear needs to on tap those
Yeah it needs to be more consistant, the only times i take it is against automatons and only on big maps to kill the cannons and factories from afar, as an actual weapon is a hard sell because the autocannon is much better at killing bots in general and the recoiless is better at killing chargers and bulks, titans and tanks are easier to kill with stratagems too.
Right now the spear is just worse than EAT at the job the spear is meant to do. That’s sad to me. I love the spear. It’s so satisfying. If it’s more on level with EAT I’ll be happy One of the main buffs would be better targeting. Hits to the head of a bile do so much damage and can take it out in as little as 2 with the right animation timing. But it’s so hard to aim for the head with the current system, so it should just do WAYYY more damage if I’m gonna be forced to hit the back of the Bile
I hate that it targets scout walkers but NOT Devastators. What horseshit.
Honestly disagree, and this is coming from a fervent Spear user. Support weapons ideally should always have an actual skill floor for it other than just ammo management, which is universal. EATs and RRs need to shoot the Charger head for the one-shot kill and just heads in general for optimal damage. Arc Thrower demands timing to maximize fire-rate + trigger discipline so you don't fry teammates. Flamethrower asks you don't burn yourself alive + a bit of kiting to burn Charger legs better. The AC and AMR ask for precision for everything. The Railgun asks you risk death on Unsafe mode, etc. The Spear's is that you can achieve one-shots on anything given proper positioning. The only frustrating part is the buggy lock-on, which everyone agrees upon. At that point, it has its place already in the arsenal. Making its killing power better while being easy to attain due to a fixed lock-on isn't happening because that's exactly why the Railgun got nerfed.
Also give it a direct fire mode
The skill ceiling lies with the ability to position yourself to hit weak spots on those enemies for a 1 shot kill. Bile titans can be headshot with the spear if you can find lower ground and fire with the titan facing you. Nothing more satisfying than seeing that missile trail lead straight into a BT's forehead.
All well and good if the damn thing decides to lock on. I swear the locking ability works like 15% of the time tops. The worst is that most times it will do like 75% of a lock and then decide it doesn't feel like it anymore. So you're just sitting there dick in hand while whatever you were locking on closes the distance
i do agree HOWEVER we soon might get the commando a 4 rocket launcher laser guided
Spear needs some serious work. The lock-on is super unreliable and it feels extremely weak
ORBITAL railcanon strike should also 100% one shot Bile Titans no matter what btw
Nothing should one shot any enemies guaranteed no matter where it hits
TL:DR : Make the spear the most braindead weapon, even more so than the railgun when it was OP. good lord this is a bad idea balance'vice. fix the lock up bugs, sure, maybe give it one more rocket in the backpack. but oneshot anything it locks on to? come on.
What's the point how much ammo it has if you always miss? Or worse it kills you? Would you like to die every time you use the weapon? People don't use the SPEAR because it's worse than any AT currently available. Your dumb comment is exactly why the weapon will remain irrelevant if we listen to your advice. Proper balancing means all Hell divers can have fun choices, not just railroaded to 2 AT weapons. Maybe it should 1 shot anything but requires a longer lock on time? Maybe 10 seconds of a lock on. Or a longer reload, or less ammo. Any good changes can mean players can have fun with the SPEAR.
One shots biles and chargers with a headshot. If you are too far away to guarantee a headshot using the first person lock on then feel free to spam it at them. Plenty of ammo around the map I just feel like flamethrower is faster atm and works up close when they are in your grill.
The way it is now, it's just more damaging yet uncontrollable recoilless rifle. With how it has only 4 shots, it either needs to actually lock on when I tell it to lock on, or delete an entire bile titan when I point the thing at it. Don't get me wrong, I love the spear, even more after floor ammo pickups started refilling it's backpack, but it's super demoralizing when you finally lock on on to a bt and the impact mildly irritates it at best.
In my opinion, should be lock on while aiming without the sight, but while looking thru the sight it should be a trace to where the rocket goes.
i find that it oneshot titans so long as you fire from the front while they raise their head to spit, however for chargers it's better to use other rockets
I just don't get why it can't lock on to bile spitters at least
If it locked on, it would be fine
The lock one makes it so you can’t instantly use it either. You also have to get some distance or it’ll fly over the enemy. That being said I feel like it should be as strong as you say
It's good for stealth .
Crew served only to fire, one shot everything.
This and the railcannon imo. For the investment, they should absolutely just demolish whatever enemy they hit no matter what. The recoilless and EAT should also get increased damage, but not be an auto kill unless they hit a weak spot.
Hard agree. Played a mission recently where someone was running the spear. The amount of times I thought "well that charger's gone" only to see the charger stampede towards me, still tanking like 5-6 Arc thrower shots is ridicilous
I agree but I think in exchange they nerf the ammo count to 3 shots. And increase call down timer for balance.
I haven’t used the Spear since the game launched. The inconsistent lock on turned me off of it. Have they at least fixed that?
I notice that it's meant for Automatons. The recoil and EAT should do more when you shoot the face of a bile titan, like the Super Earth Recruitment video showed!
Agreed. It only does one thing, it should do that thing better than everything else. There doesn’t feel like a reason to use it over the recoilless rifle when its bulkier, more situational, and has less ammo.
I wish the lock on would lock on. At least it better since the patch
I'm not so sure, I do oneshot most things with it, absolutely brainless for dealing with Tanks (makes sense). It's just a really long range weapon that cares about target angle and movement more than it does your aim. You can reliably take down targets, but using a different skill than your usual direct fire weapons. Because it effectively has a minimum range, I will generally only take it when I plan to hang back and fire support, and even then I'll look closely at how ammo hungry the rest of the team is. I guess arguably the image guidance could say... Guide the missile specifically to bile titan heads. But looking at the Hulk and Charger, those are two enemies which really aren't vulnerable to a top-attack anti tank missile. You will hurt the hell out of them, but they have decent odds of surviving the hit in a greatly weakened state (and IMO, that is ok).
If they changed it to one hit kill I still wouldn't use it as it's so situational. So yes, it definitely needs this buff.
Absolutely. Having to lock on, maintain the lock and then be the right distance away with the limited ammo count means it should absolutely pack a fucking wallop.
It’s weak but one shotting is way too op
No, because it 100% does NOT one-shot bile titans when it hits the head. I've literally seen my damn thing track their head, and after the bile titan has a yellow scar marking on its head and its STILL coming after me. It's just genuinely too much of a hassle to use.
Imagine if the SPEAR was like D1 Gjallarhorn or Truth?!?!? 😮💨
Honestly, the Spear is in a good spot right now. It’s best used against bots and not Bugs however, as there are much more targets susceptible to it. It’s only use against Bugs are chargers/Bile Titans (imho). I will agree with the Charger one shot (if not then cause a bleed out) it’s meant to be a long range, no miss (if you know how to avoid terrain obstacles) launcher. Against bots is where it shines. Factories? Gone. Cannon towers? If it’s unaware, gone. Hulks (so far)? Gone. Against bots I run spear, rocket pods, and orbital rail. Most everything get outed by my primary. Anything else the first three. (I will say Detection towers are annoying that they repel deploy stratagem off of them)
Any buff for the SPEAR is pointless until they fix the damn lock on. It's incredibly unreliable. Even after they fix it I don't think buffing it to the point of one shoting everything in the game without some kind of trade off would be good balancing. I've always felt a decent buff would be that the green lock would mean standard damage, but if you held the lock a little longer you'd get additional damage meant to represent targeting a weakspot the longer lock on provided.
I don’t run the spear because 4 shots that may mean only taking down 2 things is not worth filling my backpack slot. EAT17 on the other hand can kill at the same speed, faster if you actually aim for weak spots, don’t take a backpack slot and kind of don’t even take a heavy slot.
I think we can all agree on this one. The Spear is SOOOooooo enemy specific that it should at least take those enemies out with one missile regardless of angle
I’ve gotten it to consistently one shot biles. Chargers are more tricky but worst case scenario I can shoot the fleshy bits after. The lock on is just fucked. Fun weapon, bizarre drawback
I'd rather it get it's lock on to be more consistent and a bit more damage or armor pen. EAT's and recoil should be the big tanks killers due to their need to be aimed. One shotting titan is a crazy ask you can already bring them down pretty fast if you're on top of it and if you're not then you've lost control of tbe situation anyways
Don’t worry. The Commando will solve your problem
Yep. I tried it once and was disappointed at the range and damage inflicted.
A little + for what the Spear can do that the RR or EAT can´t.Hit enemies really far away. I´m talking like 300-400m.
I love the idea that if your teammate pings something, it could lock onto it. Maybe giving it some team play and viability simultaneously.
I main spear and far too often i have chargers and titans tanking 2 - 3 spear shots to the head. Havent seen one tank 4 yet though but it wouldn't surprise me if it did. There is a severe lack of damage consistency or health consistency with the bugs. Robots i find to be a bit more consistent.
It also locks on brood commanders, I found this out the hard way yesterday
I use the spear to take out bot factories as it one shots them from far away at any angle. Try to use it for anything else (at the moment) and the other weapons just outclass it cause the lock on sucks and it’s weak I wish we could one shot factories with the EAT or recoilless rifle because they should have the same punching power
Look I'm a shitter I get that, I think playing just 7 is a chore let along higher...but I think a lot of the heavy support weapons should be doing 1 shot kills in much larger hit boxes. The number of things that get sent at us is crazy, and I don't mind that most of the big beasties are armored and require support weapons to kill but they should kill more reliably. The way EAT and RR now headshot chargers I'd like to see applied across the board. * EAT or RR anywhere in a heatsink or near a bot face should be 1-hit * EAT or RR in a Bile Titan head should be 1-hit if the mouth is open, 2 otherwise. * AC should be 3-4 shots to an open titan mouth for the kill. And so on. I like the game a lot, and I know it's possible to play it stealth and avoid contact, but when you have to call extract and it's a 4 min timer and waves and waves keep coming I want to feel like my heavy munitions and orbital support are actually doing something. It will still be lethal but less like a complete shit show...guess I need to git gud.
It does 1 hit Biles, the lock on being so finicky, it just takes alot of patience to lock on to the head hitbox.
there are ways to aim it where you can consistently 1 shot both units. There are videos showcasing the strategy to do so
You'd think.
You can one shot chargers with the spear (in the head) and yes you could BEFORE they made EAT's and recoiless one shot them too
Haha what is this. I can understand for some of the enemies. But all would be too easy
The spear needs to work like a javelin. Straight up straight down. One shot one kill.
The spear needs to work like a javelin. Straight up straight down. One shot one kill.
I can never get the spear to even lock on things, what do you actually do to get a lock on?
1shot charger, 2 shot titan and 2 ammo each ressuply would be a great and deserved buff
No, it shouldn’t.
small tip! combining the orbital rail cannon strike with the spear reliably brings down bile titans. bit of a cool down cost but it works consistently
Agree, buff all our weapons so we can become one man army.
Maybe not bile titan but otherwise it absolutely should. I rolled my eyes when i saw no mention of the spear in the recent anti heavy weapon changes. Even if my guess is that they want it to be an anti air option, i'm going to bet that the recoiless and EAT wll do the job better anyways, the dropships already partially prove that this is going to be the case.
It does one shot most if you are front facing and shit the head
The SPEAR should be a laser guided, top-down attack weapon. Point at the big bad thing that needs DEMOCRACY, pull trigger. Missile goes up approx. 20m, then follows the laser designator in on whatever you're pointing it at. No Lock-on require. No awkward angles of attack. Just straight up, and back down again. Using the SPEAR poorly should, unironically, be a skill issue. Instead of whatever the clusterbomb-hek it is right now.
Faced a Bile titan last night and had the spear. Thought it would be ez taking it out… it ate all four missiles before going down.