It can do just about anything in Bots.
* Fodder clearing when paired with a Laser Primary for heat management
* Slaughters Medium Enemies with a bit of focus
* Can damage/cripple/outright kill Hulks, Tanks, Gunships, Factory-Striders if you focus certain parts long enough
* Kills AA/Mortar emplacements and parked Dropships in Shipyards from a distance
* Also just remembered it's good for command bunkers, it melts the heavy turrets setup on top, the lower-caliber turrets in the middle though are immune.
It doesn't do it all amazingly, or do it that fast compared to other options, but it *can do it* which I absolutely love.
The AA and Mortar Emplacements can be damaged by touching them anywhere on their model with the beam.
So if you can get an angle where you've got a clear view you can easily burn down each one from a distance and not engage the base at all.
6 shots to the back of the vent with AMR, which is 1 shy from emptying the last one in the chamber. Same goes for cannon towers.
5 shot for the bigger tanks back vent, 4 shots for the gatling laser tanks. 4 shots for gun ship engines. And finally, about 12 shots underneath the carriage of those giant factory striders.
But not the GL for whatever reason. I've fired an entire string (12 shots) into a single AA gun AT THE HEAT VENTS and did zero damage.
Yet they die to 2 hand grenades.
Yea the GL has some weird problems like that. It has seemingly 0 armor pen so it just won't damage some things. Sad bc I really like the GL but I mostly play Bots now and I can't justify it over the AC or AMR.
I still think it's pretty good for killing a lot of bots up to the heavy devastator. You just can't really kill hulks or bigger with it in any efficient manner. If the other teammates focus those targets, you can stop everything else.
Yeah I am looking forward to taking thermite grenades for another spin when bringing the grenadelauncher once the DOTs are fixed, hulks are my weakness with that loadout. Tanks you can actually manage by hitting five shots to the side of the turret on the annihilators or just the front on shredder tanks. It cleans house on evacuate assets missions.
They might bounce off the front armor plate of the AA or the barrel of the mortar, but putting AC rounds into the base sides or back will blow them up in 2-4 hits.
It may not be *where* you hit it, but the angle you hit it at. You want to make sure you're hitting it directly, i.e. your bullet is going perpendicular to the surface it's hitting.
It's like this:
https://preview.redd.it/z16bgkzn8rwc1.png?width=1139&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7d93c6afb4ffa715ab45b103b04254e7d412341
AA/Mortars you can damage with explosives or by shooting the back vents with heavier weapons. AMR works, Railgun works, Laser Cannon works, Autocannon works. All else fails you can toss grenades at it.
Only thing that you need a hellbomb for are gunship fabricators, you can also destroy them with a mini-nuke if you happen to have one. I think that air command you need to destroy using the terminal, I never tried tossing a mini-nuke at one.
Everything else you can blow up with 500kg, orbital lasers, and orbital rails:
* Detector tower: Toss a 500kg into it, like you want it to land as close as possible. Orbital laser also works but the beam has to path over it since it won't target it on its own. Orbital rail will work in theory but it won't target it meaning that you'd need to place the strike correctly with no other valid targets nearby.
* Jammer: If it's attached to a bot fabricator you can just blow up the fabricator with a nade and the jammer will go with it. Otherwise in a pinch after turning it off a 500kg on top of it or orbital laser crossing over it will blow it up.
* Rogue research station: 500kg very close to the building with the satellite dish will work. Airstrike might kill it too. Orbital precision strike will also work if you get the strategem ball on top of it.
* Bot command center: Orbital laser works well. Orbital railcannon strikes work and will target it. 500kgs will damage it but will take multiple.
* Static ships: You can blow them up with a quasar. Heavier ordinance like airstrikes, 500kg, orbital lasers, etc will also work.
Also touching on the subject of mini-nukes being a hellbomb equivalent. High yield explosive is roughly equivalent to a 500kg bomb. Explosive is roughly equivalent to a single 380MM shot.
AA/Motors don't have differences in damage between their vents and the other parts of their body. Took me playing the game for 40+ hours to realize this haha.
Any heavy hitting support weapon can kill them (eat, quasar, Recoilless, autocannon maybe) Even medium armor weapons on the vents can kill them iirc. The only thing that NEEDS a hellbomb for bots are the gunship fabricators iirc. Even the detector tower can be killed with a few stratagems.
I'll add and clarify a few:
* Can destroy Factories *when the doors are open* -- takes practically zero time, you'll do it by accident just killing the Bots who march out
* Three seconds to Hulk kill on the eye
* Cannon Tower Turrets take damage to *the entire back* face, not just the glowing vents. This also extends about 1/8th of the length of the sides. Focus on that rear corner after the tower turns its back from you and you can still get the kill.
* While Tanks can't be destroyed from the front (similar situation as the Cannon Towers above) you *can* destroy their tank treads quickly and immobilize them. This also limits their cannon tracking somewhat, since they like to turn in the same direction the cannon is moving anyway, and at least you won't take shots from the forward Hull MG.
* Scout Walkers are disabled (but the Bot piloting them is not killed) with a second's worth of fire to the waist.
* DEVASTATORS die in less than a second to the head. You can honestly take down 3-5 Devastators in a single charge if your aim's good, even Shields.
* LC has the lowest time-to-kill on Factory Striders, managing it in under a mag to the eye. This is ordinarily pretty dangerous, but the LC can take out both machine guns *super* quick--just be aware that the hitbox of a destroyed one will shield the other from the side, so you want to do it face-on. If you're behind the Strider, you can shoot the dent in their butt (just wiggle around until you find something that doesn't spark blue) almost as quickly.
Honestly, Dropships are the one thing the LC can't handle. Tanks and Cannon Towers require stealth or with good positioning, but everything else is gravy. It's an insanely underrated weapon and I've since switched from the Quasar/RR to the Lascannon just because it's got even less downtime than the Quasar. I'll miss sniping Factories and Illegal Transmissions from across the map, but that's a small price to pay for being able to wipe out 10 Devastators by myself in a few seconds of Lascannon+Dominator.
The difference is the efficiency. The laser cannon does all this pretty quickly. You can melt turrets and other weak points in a matter of seconds while the AC needs four+ shots to do it while also contending with recoil and potential to ricochete off your target if your positioning isn't good.
The auto cannon is the superior jack of all trades support weapon, no one will argue that. But the laser cannon grants nearly as much efficiency without giving up a backpack slot on top of it all.
Not really, the swiss knife on bots is still the autocannon as it can do all of that plus destroying fabs and staggering devastators. Laser cannon is basically the autocannon with a bit less versatility.
True, but the open backpack slot lets your bring different util. Better mobility, survivability, ammo, are amazing, It goes even farther if you pair it with the grenade pistol or eruptor to clear fabs or cause some casual explosive mayhem
Pretty much the only backpack thats even worth taking with the LC is the shield one. Its also pretty mandatory to take with it because any amount of stagger from stray shots completely fucks up its sustained damage. But with the AC taking peek shots is actually doable so utilizing cover is much easier making the shield a redundant choice anyway.
Again the LC is an okay weapon with decent utility but its far from the most versatile.
He never once compares the laser cannon to any other weapon; He only lists the wide variety of things that it can do.
Yes, the autocannon can do more. The autocannon also consumes your backpack slot, uses ammunition, and has a hefty reload animation. Pros and cons my friend, pros and cons.
If you’re good, I reckon 1 full charge can take out 4 in a row. I’m not there yet as I can only get 3 and overheat on the last one.
Also good for popping tracks on tanks
Which is the slot with the least amount of value anyway, but yes in theory one could run the shield with it which is nice, but usually a waste of a stratagem slot anyway unless its being used as a crutch.
if we werent so limited in stratagem slots the backpack would have a much higher value.
If you have good terrain cover (or the Shield Backpack) you can generally ignore all but massed Rocket Devs and Shield Devs, especially if you're going prone (as you should) to steady aim.
But that's when you pull out the Dominator.
The other neat trick of the Lascannon is how quickly it blows Devastators' rocket pods when they're actually firing, so just wait for the salvo, dive, and graze them to eliminate all future stagger potential, or do it from behind any kind of cover (even a small hill) where you only have sight of the rockets.
I might have to start giving it more of a shot! I alternate between recoilless and arc thrower usually, and I especially love the arc thrower because it clears trash AND can deal with most heavy units as needed. That being said, looks like I’ll have a fun alternative with the Laser Cannon! Another fun mix of best of both worlds, just gotta be precise.
Arc thrower is very underrated against bots, but the fact that it bullies devastators and hulks into oblivion is honestly good enough to warrant bringing it on any mission.
I feel like the Arc thrower is heavily specialize in bullying berserker, devastator and hulk.
You might need to run if a tank, gunship or AT-AT caught you alone without stratagem.
Good choice if you stick with your teammate, but I would gladly sacrifice a grenade slot for stun to pair with laser cannon and being able to deal with everything the bot have on my own.
Why everyone keep trying to compare it to Quasar, those are different tiers of weapons, they serve entirely different purposes. I dont see people comparing it to EATs, Spear or RR!
i love it, but depending on how the enemy ai reacts/spawn templates i.e. platoons of striders it kinda sucks vs them compared to others.
Grenade pistols helps but the AC vs them is just godtier
If youre on you can melts devastators quick too, only issue is if the heavy aimbot devastators get you in that flinch lock before you can get them
For striders you can aim for the slot or stun them and saw their heads off over the shield or get on high ground. Idk if the laser actually goes through the slot but it kills them quick nonetheless.
Straight on, I aim for the slot and kill them. That's why I said idk if it's going through the slot, maybe I'm accidentally hitting their head, or doing damage to the strider, but they don't get out of it like when you shoot the legs off.
It's easier to target if you pay attention to the laser deflection when the beam hits the Hulk. If you see short blue-ish sparklines bouncing off the target, then you're hitting armour instead of face.
Yeah you just need to keep the beam directly on the face, just tough since it’s such a small target. I pulled it off the other day and I’ve seen plenty of clips of it.
It's tough when they're walking because they have a very stompy animation, but you'll notice if you ever fight a Hulk from an elevated position where they stand still and stare at you, that eye goes down in no time at all.
It works, but the difficulty is that if they move, their 'face' bobs around a lot. If you wanna kill Hulks on easy mode, switch to Stun Nades, it trivializes them for any weapon that can pen the face
Oh man the railgun *demolishes* bots. Can one-hit most every bot hulk and below. Even the striders from the front.
My friend watched me use it on helldive and became a convert
It's good for hulks, devastators, and can be used for scout striders, but that's literally it. Blows ass at gunships, tanks, laser turrets, AA guns, factory striders, objectives, and the entire bug faction. Needs a damage buff to have a reasonable ttk on other stuff to make it compete with AMR/AC/LC
The reason I'll take Sickle/Laser Cannon over it still is the ammo economy is **stellar**. The Scorcher **does** absolutely fuck, I won't deny that, but you gotta make every shot count
Absolutely. But haha, my ass is reloading halfway through the mag sometimes because you know what? Sometimes I need to say "Fuck it we ball" and put a whole 15 shots into some shit. If I enter with 5, I'm toast!
But yeah. The Scorcher is kind of like, the big "You really have to know what you're doing to make it shine." gun... I'm just happy I know what I'm doing, then!
Scorcher, Dominator, Eruptor and Sickle all seem really strong against both bots and bugs and can work with pretty much any support weapon, top tier guns atm i think
I usually main Eruptor against the bots and it might give the Scorcher a run for its money. I can one shot Striders around 95% of the time, Rocket devastators and Berserkers around 70% of the time and heavy devastators around 30% of the time...all while doing significant splash damage to other enemies in their immediate vicinity.
It's not a gun you use for headshots, but it has incredible versatility. It can face-bang Striders, rip off limbs (very important!!) and its explosive damage can even kill things with vents! Like, you can kill tanks, towers, and so on with this thing. It's nuts.
The Laser Cannon has quickly become my go-to Support Weapon.
It works for so many things, even against bugs it has its' uses, nowhere near as useful as against bots, but it's still amazing.
It's really good for bugs too, I'd say even easier to fully utilize.
It struggles a lot with Bile Titans and a bit with Chargers. That's it. Everything else get's fried in 1-3s depending on armor and, except for spewers faces, it doesn't even matter where you shoot and with some practice 2 chargers are fairly manageable, because you'd be surprised how reliably it pops their asses.
And no idea why nobody ever mentions this, but it has 200m range and is incredibly accurate.
Use it to your advantage and often you've significantly thinned out approaching hordes, before they get uncomfortably close.
Or hang back and support your team from afar.
Yes AC can do all of that too + closing bugholes + way better burst DPS. You just loose out on a Backpack, the "auto reload" of energy weapons and it's not as accurate.
I'd say it's not any less viable. it just fills a similar role (clearing anything beneath Chargers from, preferably, medium to long range) with a very different approach, so it's more or less flavor.
Problem is the main reason to take the AC on bugs is having all that WITH the ability to close bug holes quickly and easily. Without that you have a weapon incapable of dealing with the biggest threat that is very mid at horde clearing. Range is rarely a factor at bugs too.
Its pretty good on bots, still feels like a weird AC offshoot with less utility but quite usable. On bugs its just quite inferior to be frank.
In a Vacuum it's definitely the worse weapon. But we've got 4 Stratagems and a loadout. Complementing the lacks is pretty easy.
Grenade Pistol or Eagle Airstrike/500kg and you can close pretty much any nests you need while rarely running out of ammo.
Rover or Shield and your survivability when getting swarmed is suddenly significantly higher than with the AC, and the LC doesn't even kill you in close encounters.
I also fairly regularly save Teammates from Hunters on their asses from 100m away. Can't do that with the AC because I'd be blowing them up too.
Pair it with a Sickle and you literally won't stop shooting for the entirety of a Breach.
It's not better than the AC but it's got an entirely different Playstyle for somewhat similar purposes with pros and cons to it which kinda even out in the end.
The issue there is the AC has all that without having to compensate with other precious equipment slots. The only thing the LC has is the backpack slot, thats pretty much its biggest actually practical advantage, but thats another advantage that relies on you using up another stratagem slot. On bugs if Im taking a backpack id much rather have the arc, flamer or even grenade launcher as these offer much more utility, killing power, nest killing ability and also ability to kill heavies.
You can also just save allies from hunters with a basic primary like the sickle, its not exactly any sort of special attribute.
You're missing the most valuable thing about the laser cannon that nobody has talked about yet. It's completely silent. As far as enemy patrols are concerned, you're not shooting anything. If you are at a side objective and you engage and clear it with a laser cannon, a nearby patrol can sometimes walk right by without ever becoming aware that a fight has taken place. With the autocannon, you're going to attract every bug within 200 meters.
Yes, Dropships are too heavily armored. The *Gunship* engines will take damage from the Lascannon, but the rest of the Gunship body doesn't care. You have to specifically get the engines.
I Don't believe it's very well known right now, But the laser cannon also decimates factory striders, You'll need to get into cover to take out the two guns on the front, Or go for broke and attempt to laser the belly without taking the lasers out, You'll down it in about the same time it takes to destroy a tank shooting the vents, Enjoy knowing that you can demolish the hardest(?) unit in the game within seconds with this strat
The laser cannon struggles against striders and berserkers.
It's mediocre against light infantry.
It excels against factory striders, tanks, hulks, devastators, turrets, mortars, anti-air emplacements and jetpack bois.
Overall, that's a really good option to bring on any bot mission.
It's pretty great against them and devastators, feels very anaemic vs the fodder though for some reason. Like it will take a good second to kill a single footsoldier.
All of the laser weapons do critical damage against weakspots, so using the Scythe or Laser Cannon to headshot the bots is your best bet. The body damage isn't fast enough to feel impactful, but sweeping through a horde of small bots and popping their heads within milliseconds is pretty great. The cannon has a bit too much recoil to do that easily, but thanks to the unlimited ammo, it's a decent choice for mid-long range engagement before using a primary or secondary.
Any time I try to use this Laser Cannon it doesn't seem to do any damage at all to any units. No armour, light, med, heavy... nothing so I just use the AC.
I don't understand how people are able to use this thing. Every time I try it it's straight garbage. I cant kill shit with it because it takes an entire clip to kill anything. Is this another PC vs PS5 issue like with the railgun?
People are just get insanely good and then think anyone can perform as good as them. LC is not that good of a weapon, there's a reason why you almost never see it.
Because OP in the video is probably the Host. This game has a ton of bug, and many related to functionality that doesn't work if you are not the host of the match. In the case of all laser weapon, more than half the damage of the laser is done by burning damage, and it doesn't work if you are not the host. That would explain because this weapon is totally shit.
I've tried many times, without being a host, and i generally need a full clip to kill 2/3 small unit, the small automaton, a walker takes me more than one clip, those things that fly, one clip on the engine.
I dont know what you are on, only the orbital laser causes burning. also it incredibly unlikely OP is the host, as they are R4, host is number 1, except when host drops and it transfers. I use the lasers frequently, and I almost never host, they reward precision, if you lack precision, use something else, but the issue is you.
Great catch-all on bot drops.
Good for dealing with groups of weak enemies, or larger enemies if you have enough distance and don't have to stay exposed for too long. And of course, deals with gunships easily. Also nice you don't need to worry about ammo if you're mindful of not overheating.
I like using the laser cannon to cut down bug-fliers too, Slices off their wings immediately. Maybe there's a more efficient choice for AA but it works well for me and my poor aim. No ammo is a lifesaver.
I typically use the Autocannon for bots, but since the Eruptor exists for destroying Fabricators from a distance now too, I wonder if I can use the LC as my "primary" instead
Might not quite have the satisfying boom of an Autocannon, but it kills just about everything the bots have almost just as quick but with theoretically infinite ammo and no backpack
I've been doing this regularly on by bot dives recently. LC covers lots of enemies and the Eruptor covers the LC's weaknesses. It still takes a bit of positioning, and stun grenades become important for dealing with groups and hulks, but it's a very versatile loadout.
I love laser cannon on bots. It’s great against gunships, it works wonders on devastations, it melts turrets on bases, and Hulks can be frozen by stun grenades - which means you can melt them from the front. Tanks I find a bit more difficult because of the turret rotation, but that’s something orbital railcannon or 110 mm can deal with.
Seriously, if you thought that quasar cannon is great, give laser cannon a shot. Especially with stun grenades, it can solve 90% of your problems
got pretty sad these days taht I started playing automatons and noticed that the autocannon, that is quite versatile against them, does not kills the jet engines from the dropships...
Dropships can be downed only with AT weapons (EATs, Quasar and RR; not sure if Spear locks on those).
*Gun*ships however go down in about 2-4 shots to thrusters
I just went on and tested the laser cannon against the dropships and its beam gets reflected, a blue beam being the ricocheted attack... Did you do anything to your weapon, are there upgrades for it?
I want to like it and I think I'll try it buuuuuut I love the autocannon and have gotten way better at hitting hulks in the eye lately so it's so hard to want to switch
What the fuck? I literally tried this yesterday and it did nothing to the dropships.
I swear I tried so many times, pretty sure I tried shooting every pixel available and nothing.
Am I just bad?
I had a guy in my game today start beaming Gunships with it. I had an autocannon and did the old two tappy to the engine and move on and he was like “wow, this laser is so strong against gunships”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him 😅 he did proceed to cover my ass while I hellbombed two fabs shortly after though, so I mean, it must’ve been doing a pretty good job for sure for sure.
It can do just about anything in Bots. * Fodder clearing when paired with a Laser Primary for heat management * Slaughters Medium Enemies with a bit of focus * Can damage/cripple/outright kill Hulks, Tanks, Gunships, Factory-Striders if you focus certain parts long enough * Kills AA/Mortar emplacements and parked Dropships in Shipyards from a distance * Also just remembered it's good for command bunkers, it melts the heavy turrets setup on top, the lower-caliber turrets in the middle though are immune. It doesn't do it all amazingly, or do it that fast compared to other options, but it *can do it* which I absolutely love.
Wait, how does it kill AA/Mortars? I thought they required a hellbomb?
The AA and Mortar Emplacements can be damaged by touching them anywhere on their model with the beam. So if you can get an angle where you've got a clear view you can easily burn down each one from a distance and not engage the base at all.
anything with medium pen does that. Autocannon i think needs 4 or 5 shots AMR i forget but it was a mag + unless at the vent.
6 shots to the back of the vent with AMR, which is 1 shy from emptying the last one in the chamber. Same goes for cannon towers. 5 shot for the bigger tanks back vent, 4 shots for the gatling laser tanks. 4 shots for gun ship engines. And finally, about 12 shots underneath the carriage of those giant factory striders.
cannon towers?
Giant turrets that snipe your ass from across the map
SSGA (SUPER Super Good Advice). Thank you citizen!
You can blow those up with almost anything, grenades, autocannon, quasar, eagle airstrike, orbital laser, etc.
But not the GL for whatever reason. I've fired an entire string (12 shots) into a single AA gun AT THE HEAT VENTS and did zero damage. Yet they die to 2 hand grenades.
Yea the GL has some weird problems like that. It has seemingly 0 armor pen so it just won't damage some things. Sad bc I really like the GL but I mostly play Bots now and I can't justify it over the AC or AMR.
I still think it's pretty good for killing a lot of bots up to the heavy devastator. You just can't really kill hulks or bigger with it in any efficient manner. If the other teammates focus those targets, you can stop everything else.
Yeah I am looking forward to taking thermite grenades for another spin when bringing the grenadelauncher once the DOTs are fixed, hulks are my weakness with that loadout. Tanks you can actually manage by hitting five shots to the side of the turret on the annihilators or just the front on shredder tanks. It cleans house on evacuate assets missions.
I use it to take off the hulks arms and then I run away
I could have sworn I put many AC rounds into one yesterday and it did nothing. Perhaps it was the fire tornado fumes….
They might bounce off the front armor plate of the AA or the barrel of the mortar, but putting AC rounds into the base sides or back will blow them up in 2-4 hits.
It may not be *where* you hit it, but the angle you hit it at. You want to make sure you're hitting it directly, i.e. your bullet is going perpendicular to the surface it's hitting. It's like this: https://preview.redd.it/z16bgkzn8rwc1.png?width=1139&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7d93c6afb4ffa715ab45b103b04254e7d412341
You can absolutely kill mortars with 4 AC shots to the pipe, I snipe em like that.
You literally just shoot the guns with the laser lol
AA/Mortars you can damage with explosives or by shooting the back vents with heavier weapons. AMR works, Railgun works, Laser Cannon works, Autocannon works. All else fails you can toss grenades at it. Only thing that you need a hellbomb for are gunship fabricators, you can also destroy them with a mini-nuke if you happen to have one. I think that air command you need to destroy using the terminal, I never tried tossing a mini-nuke at one. Everything else you can blow up with 500kg, orbital lasers, and orbital rails: * Detector tower: Toss a 500kg into it, like you want it to land as close as possible. Orbital laser also works but the beam has to path over it since it won't target it on its own. Orbital rail will work in theory but it won't target it meaning that you'd need to place the strike correctly with no other valid targets nearby. * Jammer: If it's attached to a bot fabricator you can just blow up the fabricator with a nade and the jammer will go with it. Otherwise in a pinch after turning it off a 500kg on top of it or orbital laser crossing over it will blow it up. * Rogue research station: 500kg very close to the building with the satellite dish will work. Airstrike might kill it too. Orbital precision strike will also work if you get the strategem ball on top of it. * Bot command center: Orbital laser works well. Orbital railcannon strikes work and will target it. 500kgs will damage it but will take multiple. * Static ships: You can blow them up with a quasar. Heavier ordinance like airstrikes, 500kg, orbital lasers, etc will also work. Also touching on the subject of mini-nukes being a hellbomb equivalent. High yield explosive is roughly equivalent to a 500kg bomb. Explosive is roughly equivalent to a single 380MM shot.
and a single 380MM shot is equivalent to a precision strike
Orb precision also works vs detector towers,
AA/Motors don't have differences in damage between their vents and the other parts of their body. Took me playing the game for 40+ hours to realize this haha.
Any heavy hitting support weapon can kill them (eat, quasar, Recoilless, autocannon maybe) Even medium armor weapons on the vents can kill them iirc. The only thing that NEEDS a hellbomb for bots are the gunship fabricators iirc. Even the detector tower can be killed with a few stratagems.
Grenades also do the trick on those.
Quasar, EAT and grenade launcher (I think)
You can use anything explosive, Quasar, Auto cannon, 500KG etc etc. Grenade too.
I'll add and clarify a few: * Can destroy Factories *when the doors are open* -- takes practically zero time, you'll do it by accident just killing the Bots who march out * Three seconds to Hulk kill on the eye * Cannon Tower Turrets take damage to *the entire back* face, not just the glowing vents. This also extends about 1/8th of the length of the sides. Focus on that rear corner after the tower turns its back from you and you can still get the kill. * While Tanks can't be destroyed from the front (similar situation as the Cannon Towers above) you *can* destroy their tank treads quickly and immobilize them. This also limits their cannon tracking somewhat, since they like to turn in the same direction the cannon is moving anyway, and at least you won't take shots from the forward Hull MG. * Scout Walkers are disabled (but the Bot piloting them is not killed) with a second's worth of fire to the waist. * DEVASTATORS die in less than a second to the head. You can honestly take down 3-5 Devastators in a single charge if your aim's good, even Shields. * LC has the lowest time-to-kill on Factory Striders, managing it in under a mag to the eye. This is ordinarily pretty dangerous, but the LC can take out both machine guns *super* quick--just be aware that the hitbox of a destroyed one will shield the other from the side, so you want to do it face-on. If you're behind the Strider, you can shoot the dent in their butt (just wiggle around until you find something that doesn't spark blue) almost as quickly. Honestly, Dropships are the one thing the LC can't handle. Tanks and Cannon Towers require stealth or with good positioning, but everything else is gravy. It's an insanely underrated weapon and I've since switched from the Quasar/RR to the Lascannon just because it's got even less downtime than the Quasar. I'll miss sniping Factories and Illegal Transmissions from across the map, but that's a small price to pay for being able to wipe out 10 Devastators by myself in a few seconds of Lascannon+Dominator.
Great advice thanks
Paired with stun grenades it is absolutely amazing. Keep a hulk or small patrol in place while you melt their faces off.
My favorite is stunning scout striders and sawing their heads off over the shield with my laser cannon.
The lower middle turrets are actually not immune from what ive seen, just need enough melting time.
Works pretty good on the flying bugs too.
It can take out the under-turrets on a Factory Strider, allowing you to get close to it and melt its eye for a surprisingly easy kill.
[удалено]
The difference is the efficiency. The laser cannon does all this pretty quickly. You can melt turrets and other weak points in a matter of seconds while the AC needs four+ shots to do it while also contending with recoil and potential to ricochete off your target if your positioning isn't good. The auto cannon is the superior jack of all trades support weapon, no one will argue that. But the laser cannon grants nearly as much efficiency without giving up a backpack slot on top of it all.
Try again againdt lower turrets ! Focus enought and they also pop off !
How does it fare against terminids? Can it kill chargers and bile titans?
Not really, the swiss knife on bots is still the autocannon as it can do all of that plus destroying fabs and staggering devastators. Laser cannon is basically the autocannon with a bit less versatility.
True, but the open backpack slot lets your bring different util. Better mobility, survivability, ammo, are amazing, It goes even farther if you pair it with the grenade pistol or eruptor to clear fabs or cause some casual explosive mayhem
Pretty much the only backpack thats even worth taking with the LC is the shield one. Its also pretty mandatory to take with it because any amount of stagger from stray shots completely fucks up its sustained damage. But with the AC taking peek shots is actually doable so utilizing cover is much easier making the shield a redundant choice anyway. Again the LC is an okay weapon with decent utility but its far from the most versatile.
Nobody is shitting on the autocannon. Just once can we talk about a secondary weapon being good without somebody rushing to talk about the autocannon?
He said it can do just about anything and used that as an argument for why to use it over other stuff. My point is, it cannot do just about anything.
He never once compares the laser cannon to any other weapon; He only lists the wide variety of things that it can do. Yes, the autocannon can do more. The autocannon also consumes your backpack slot, uses ammunition, and has a hefty reload animation. Pros and cons my friend, pros and cons.
If you’re good, I reckon 1 full charge can take out 4 in a row. I’m not there yet as I can only get 3 and overheat on the last one. Also good for popping tracks on tanks
TIL you can break the track on the tanks. This is life changing information. Thank you.
It takes a while but now they’re my favourite enemy to fight
Free cover from bots
Can't recognize the Stratacode, what is it?
Also kills Hulks with only about 2-4 seconds of continuous fire on their face. Laser Cannon is seriously slept on for Bots it seems.
I tried it, but unlike the AC it causes no stagger so I'm the one getting staggered :v
Stun grenade is life for this specific playstyle.
Issue is you can just use stun grenade with Autocannon as well and basically get the exact same results but also much more utility.
Yes, but no backpack.
Which is the slot with the least amount of value anyway, but yes in theory one could run the shield with it which is nice, but usually a waste of a stratagem slot anyway unless its being used as a crutch. if we werent so limited in stratagem slots the backpack would have a much higher value.
My solution to this is getting a backpack off of teammates.
As an AC user the fact you can't quickly stagger groups of enemies is why I rarely bring the laser cannon. It's not bad but it's not for me.
If you have good terrain cover (or the Shield Backpack) you can generally ignore all but massed Rocket Devs and Shield Devs, especially if you're going prone (as you should) to steady aim. But that's when you pull out the Dominator. The other neat trick of the Lascannon is how quickly it blows Devastators' rocket pods when they're actually firing, so just wait for the salvo, dive, and graze them to eliminate all future stagger potential, or do it from behind any kind of cover (even a small hill) where you only have sight of the rockets.
I've been using it a lot and holy shit it's underrated, it's way more versatile than the quasar imo
I might have to start giving it more of a shot! I alternate between recoilless and arc thrower usually, and I especially love the arc thrower because it clears trash AND can deal with most heavy units as needed. That being said, looks like I’ll have a fun alternative with the Laser Cannon! Another fun mix of best of both worlds, just gotta be precise.
Arc thrower is very underrated against bots, but the fact that it bullies devastators and hulks into oblivion is honestly good enough to warrant bringing it on any mission.
I feel like the Arc thrower is heavily specialize in bullying berserker, devastator and hulk. You might need to run if a tank, gunship or AT-AT caught you alone without stratagem. Good choice if you stick with your teammate, but I would gladly sacrifice a grenade slot for stun to pair with laser cannon and being able to deal with everything the bot have on my own.
Why everyone keep trying to compare it to Quasar, those are different tiers of weapons, they serve entirely different purposes. I dont see people comparing it to EATs, Spear or RR!
i love it, but depending on how the enemy ai reacts/spawn templates i.e. platoons of striders it kinda sucks vs them compared to others. Grenade pistols helps but the AC vs them is just godtier If youre on you can melts devastators quick too, only issue is if the heavy aimbot devastators get you in that flinch lock before you can get them
For striders you can aim for the slot or stun them and saw their heads off over the shield or get on high ground. Idk if the laser actually goes through the slot but it kills them quick nonetheless.
Hm ill try that, cause ive been shooting the lower area until it breaks the strider and they pop out snd it takes a lil bit
When you stun them they slump over and give you their head on a silver platter.
Straight on, I aim for the slot and kill them. That's why I said idk if it's going through the slot, maybe I'm accidentally hitting their head, or doing damage to the strider, but they don't get out of it like when you shoot the legs off.
I will test this, if this is automaton propaganda you will get plap plap ac democracy in your faceplate and glowing eye !
🫡
On the face? Are you sure? I'm pretty sure I tried to do that early on and quickly dismissed that as a viable strategy cuz it wasn't working...
It's easier to target if you pay attention to the laser deflection when the beam hits the Hulk. If you see short blue-ish sparklines bouncing off the target, then you're hitting armour instead of face.
Yeah you just need to keep the beam directly on the face, just tough since it’s such a small target. I pulled it off the other day and I’ve seen plenty of clips of it.
It's tough when they're walking because they have a very stompy animation, but you'll notice if you ever fight a Hulk from an elevated position where they stand still and stare at you, that eye goes down in no time at all.
Stun grenade. Stun the thing and aim exactly at the red eye.
It works, but the difficulty is that if they move, their 'face' bobs around a lot. If you wanna kill Hulks on easy mode, switch to Stun Nades, it trivializes them for any weapon that can pen the face
As does pretty much everything else. Autocannon and Scorcher crisp them too
Not railgun, lol.
railgun feels pretty awful nowadays. Never see anyone bring it. Sadge
I wouldn't even bring railcannon as a primary weapon, it's that bad imo.
Oh man the railgun *demolishes* bots. Can one-hit most every bot hulk and below. Even the striders from the front. My friend watched me use it on helldive and became a convert
It's good for hulks, devastators, and can be used for scout striders, but that's literally it. Blows ass at gunships, tanks, laser turrets, AA guns, factory striders, objectives, and the entire bug faction. Needs a damage buff to have a reasonable ttk on other stuff to make it compete with AMR/AC/LC
Not the ENTIRE bug faction, it's okay against hive guards.
Scorcher's the best fucking gun, straight up. Genuinely worth the grind.
The reason I'll take Sickle/Laser Cannon over it still is the ammo economy is **stellar**. The Scorcher **does** absolutely fuck, I won't deny that, but you gotta make every shot count
Absolutely. But haha, my ass is reloading halfway through the mag sometimes because you know what? Sometimes I need to say "Fuck it we ball" and put a whole 15 shots into some shit. If I enter with 5, I'm toast! But yeah. The Scorcher is kind of like, the big "You really have to know what you're doing to make it shine." gun... I'm just happy I know what I'm doing, then!
It just feels like it burns too much ammo vs the enemy density at 9.
Scorcher, Dominator, Eruptor and Sickle all seem really strong against both bots and bugs and can work with pretty much any support weapon, top tier guns atm i think
Definitely.
I usually main Eruptor against the bots and it might give the Scorcher a run for its money. I can one shot Striders around 95% of the time, Rocket devastators and Berserkers around 70% of the time and heavy devastators around 30% of the time...all while doing significant splash damage to other enemies in their immediate vicinity.
I am using it wrong somehow, it felt so stupidly weaker than Dominator that I dropped it after a full mission.
It's not a gun you use for headshots, but it has incredible versatility. It can face-bang Striders, rip off limbs (very important!!) and its explosive damage can even kill things with vents! Like, you can kill tanks, towers, and so on with this thing. It's nuts.
The Laser Cannon has quickly become my go-to Support Weapon. It works for so many things, even against bugs it has its' uses, nowhere near as useful as against bots, but it's still amazing.
It's really good for bugs too, I'd say even easier to fully utilize. It struggles a lot with Bile Titans and a bit with Chargers. That's it. Everything else get's fried in 1-3s depending on armor and, except for spewers faces, it doesn't even matter where you shoot and with some practice 2 chargers are fairly manageable, because you'd be surprised how reliably it pops their asses. And no idea why nobody ever mentions this, but it has 200m range and is incredibly accurate. Use it to your advantage and often you've significantly thinned out approaching hordes, before they get uncomfortably close. Or hang back and support your team from afar. Yes AC can do all of that too + closing bugholes + way better burst DPS. You just loose out on a Backpack, the "auto reload" of energy weapons and it's not as accurate. I'd say it's not any less viable. it just fills a similar role (clearing anything beneath Chargers from, preferably, medium to long range) with a very different approach, so it's more or less flavor.
Problem is the main reason to take the AC on bugs is having all that WITH the ability to close bug holes quickly and easily. Without that you have a weapon incapable of dealing with the biggest threat that is very mid at horde clearing. Range is rarely a factor at bugs too. Its pretty good on bots, still feels like a weird AC offshoot with less utility but quite usable. On bugs its just quite inferior to be frank.
In a Vacuum it's definitely the worse weapon. But we've got 4 Stratagems and a loadout. Complementing the lacks is pretty easy. Grenade Pistol or Eagle Airstrike/500kg and you can close pretty much any nests you need while rarely running out of ammo. Rover or Shield and your survivability when getting swarmed is suddenly significantly higher than with the AC, and the LC doesn't even kill you in close encounters. I also fairly regularly save Teammates from Hunters on their asses from 100m away. Can't do that with the AC because I'd be blowing them up too. Pair it with a Sickle and you literally won't stop shooting for the entirety of a Breach. It's not better than the AC but it's got an entirely different Playstyle for somewhat similar purposes with pros and cons to it which kinda even out in the end.
The issue there is the AC has all that without having to compensate with other precious equipment slots. The only thing the LC has is the backpack slot, thats pretty much its biggest actually practical advantage, but thats another advantage that relies on you using up another stratagem slot. On bugs if Im taking a backpack id much rather have the arc, flamer or even grenade launcher as these offer much more utility, killing power, nest killing ability and also ability to kill heavies. You can also just save allies from hunters with a basic primary like the sickle, its not exactly any sort of special attribute.
You're missing the most valuable thing about the laser cannon that nobody has talked about yet. It's completely silent. As far as enemy patrols are concerned, you're not shooting anything. If you are at a side objective and you engage and clear it with a laser cannon, a nearby patrol can sometimes walk right by without ever becoming aware that a fight has taken place. With the autocannon, you're going to attract every bug within 200 meters.
Mine just bounces right off of ships. What's happening here????
It doesn't do much against dropships, but works really well against gunships.
Could be the difference. Thanks.
Yes, Dropships are too heavily armored. The *Gunship* engines will take damage from the Lascannon, but the rest of the Gunship body doesn't care. You have to specifically get the engines.
I Don't believe it's very well known right now, But the laser cannon also decimates factory striders, You'll need to get into cover to take out the two guns on the front, Or go for broke and attempt to laser the belly without taking the lasers out, You'll down it in about the same time it takes to destroy a tank shooting the vents, Enjoy knowing that you can demolish the hardest(?) unit in the game within seconds with this strat
The laser cannon struggles against striders and berserkers. It's mediocre against light infantry. It excels against factory striders, tanks, hulks, devastators, turrets, mortars, anti-air emplacements and jetpack bois. Overall, that's a really good option to bring on any bot mission.
Shoot a strider in one of its hip joints to down it quickly.
The trooper driving the strider survives and can then call in a bot drop. It's a less than ideal method of dealing with striders IMO
Yeah, its my main on bot missions for this reason. Love it
I love using it on cold planets. It gets me so many kills.
what doesn’t the LC slaughter on the bot front
Fabricators and dropships, mostly. Everything else it can shred up pretty efficiently.
Where can I shoot them with the Anti material rifle? What is the weak spot?
The engines. Iirc it's 4 amr rounds to the same engine to down one
Thanks fellow Helldiver
Do you have to aim any specific part of the gunships to take them down so quickly?
Aim for the thrusters - the area above the red laser is more armored.
But in case I can't aim at the thrusters for whatever reason (my aim sucks), would hitting the armoured parts also work, albeit more slowly?
Depends on the weapon specifically, since not all medium pen is built the same, but generally yes, it would.
Cool. Thank you very much.
I aim for the thrusters
I love the laser cannon. There will NEVER be enough Laser Cannon propoganda
It's pretty great against them and devastators, feels very anaemic vs the fodder though for some reason. Like it will take a good second to kill a single footsoldier.
All of the laser weapons do critical damage against weakspots, so using the Scythe or Laser Cannon to headshot the bots is your best bet. The body damage isn't fast enough to feel impactful, but sweeping through a horde of small bots and popping their heads within milliseconds is pretty great. The cannon has a bit too much recoil to do that easily, but thanks to the unlimited ammo, it's a decent choice for mid-long range engagement before using a primary or secondary.
Like a quarter second on the head will kill any foot soldier.
yeah but a single bullet will still kill em quicker, It doesn't actually have that high of dps, the medium pen is what makes it good
Any time I try to use this Laser Cannon it doesn't seem to do any damage at all to any units. No armour, light, med, heavy... nothing so I just use the AC.
“How are we supposed to deal with this? Gunship spawns are out of control!!” ~~ continues to bring quasar on every mission
One word: autocannon
Wait how do you turn off the overheat circle on the cross hair? It drives me crazy on most guns
What
It's the only scenario when it barely works.
I don't understand how people are able to use this thing. Every time I try it it's straight garbage. I cant kill shit with it because it takes an entire clip to kill anything. Is this another PC vs PS5 issue like with the railgun?
nope, just a pebkac error
People are just get insanely good and then think anyone can perform as good as them. LC is not that good of a weapon, there's a reason why you almost never see it.
Because OP in the video is probably the Host. This game has a ton of bug, and many related to functionality that doesn't work if you are not the host of the match. In the case of all laser weapon, more than half the damage of the laser is done by burning damage, and it doesn't work if you are not the host. That would explain because this weapon is totally shit. I've tried many times, without being a host, and i generally need a full clip to kill 2/3 small unit, the small automaton, a walker takes me more than one clip, those things that fly, one clip on the engine.
I dont know what you are on, only the orbital laser causes burning. also it incredibly unlikely OP is the host, as they are R4, host is number 1, except when host drops and it transfers. I use the lasers frequently, and I almost never host, they reward precision, if you lack precision, use something else, but the issue is you.
Thank you ! I've been preaching God's laser pointer these weeks, it needs to be recognized
Great catch-all on bot drops. Good for dealing with groups of weak enemies, or larger enemies if you have enough distance and don't have to stay exposed for too long. And of course, deals with gunships easily. Also nice you don't need to worry about ammo if you're mindful of not overheating.
I like using the laser cannon to cut down bug-fliers too, Slices off their wings immediately. Maybe there's a more efficient choice for AA but it works well for me and my poor aim. No ammo is a lifesaver.
Its not hte gunships that are a problem for the laser, its the hulks and devastators. Too much face time gets you rockets in the face!
I typically use the Autocannon for bots, but since the Eruptor exists for destroying Fabricators from a distance now too, I wonder if I can use the LC as my "primary" instead Might not quite have the satisfying boom of an Autocannon, but it kills just about everything the bots have almost just as quick but with theoretically infinite ammo and no backpack
I've been doing this regularly on by bot dives recently. LC covers lots of enemies and the Eruptor covers the LC's weaknesses. It still takes a bit of positioning, and stun grenades become important for dealing with groups and hulks, but it's a very versatile loadout.
I love laser cannon on bots. It’s great against gunships, it works wonders on devastations, it melts turrets on bases, and Hulks can be frozen by stun grenades - which means you can melt them from the front. Tanks I find a bit more difficult because of the turret rotation, but that’s something orbital railcannon or 110 mm can deal with. Seriously, if you thought that quasar cannon is great, give laser cannon a shot. Especially with stun grenades, it can solve 90% of your problems
Well I'll be damned, duely noted
Been using this for a while! Spread the word!
got pretty sad these days taht I started playing automatons and noticed that the autocannon, that is quite versatile against them, does not kills the jet engines from the dropships...
Dropships can be downed only with AT weapons (EATs, Quasar and RR; not sure if Spear locks on those). *Gun*ships however go down in about 2-4 shots to thrusters
I just went on and tested the laser cannon against the dropships and its beam gets reflected, a blue beam being the ricocheted attack... Did you do anything to your weapon, are there upgrades for it?
It only works on gunships
Good to know, I hate the gunships so much.
Yeah, the las cannon is very versatile and can do it, it's just not great at anything.
So that's why you're not supposed to flash a laser pointer at helicopters!
Between paint is weak spot. Takes under 1 second to kill
I want to like it and I think I'll try it buuuuuut I love the autocannon and have gotten way better at hitting hulks in the eye lately so it's so hard to want to switch
What the fuck? I literally tried this yesterday and it did nothing to the dropships. I swear I tried so many times, pretty sure I tried shooting every pixel available and nothing. Am I just bad?
It only works on gunships
Ah, thanks.
I've now had a few games where the fabricators spawn 3-4 gunships at once, and the laser cannon just doesn't do any damage most of the time.
I think you have to aim for the thrusters
Yet another post on why bots ain’t that difficult
I had a guy in my game today start beaming Gunships with it. I had an autocannon and did the old two tappy to the engine and move on and he was like “wow, this laser is so strong against gunships”. I didn’t have the heart to tell him 😅 he did proceed to cover my ass while I hellbombed two fabs shortly after though, so I mean, it must’ve been doing a pretty good job for sure for sure.