Probably the least fun mob the bots spawn. They're already tanky enough, but the way slide forward as you shoot them and sway as they run towards you makes headshotting them obnoxious.
Just make it belt fed from a back pack and it'd be awesome. Only refillable once the back pack is fully empty as a draw back if you like. Edit: Gentlemen, those of you saying "just take the Supply Pack", are missing the point. It's the low magazine size and loooong, stationary reload time that bugs me about this otherwise very potent gun.
I saw another suggestion like this, and I really like it. It would be awesome if it came with a backpack for large capacity belts, but if you didn't want to sacrifice your backpack slot you could dump it and reload using the standard 75 rd box mags.
I like the idea and it is more than feasible since the Ironman ammunition backpack is in fact a thing developed for use by the U.S. Military to work in tandem with the MK46/M249 SAW, allowing a single continuous belt of 500 rounds.
Don't really understand why the MG support weapons are so undertuned in terms of ammo and reload. Like, I love the MG. The medium armor pen is so dang comfy.
I think it has a lot to do with role that they fill. It's effectively the same role as the games current primary weapons. The support weapon slot is often used for its utility. If it can't close bug holes, kill chargers/striders from any angle, blow up shrieker nests, destroy radio towers or demolish fabricators then it's largely ignored. Once we get some utility options added to the other weapon slots, I imagine more people will lean on the MG's (at least the stalwart) for their general horde clear. Edit: Oh! I misread "undertuned" as "underrated"... That makes a lot more sense now.
Considering how some weapons can do everything like the arc thrower It does feel like some weapons are undertuned It doesn't take much either, give this HMG armor pen and leave the ammo count as it is so the three machineguns go from low dmg high ammo to high dmg low amo with a middle step in between
The term you are looking for when talking about the shot placement versus the dot is height over bore. Which is pretty realistic if the optic is considerably higher then the barrel of the firearm. Arrowhead seems to enjoy inputting real world things into their guns so it would make sense that the machine gun is sighted in for a much longer distance than point blank.
@Ashen_Night116 well, I mean, you're already shooting a high powered round and the weight distribution on the HMG looks like a nightmare so yeah the poorly weighted heavy gun firing massive rounds in rapid succession is not accurate, especially when standing straight up 😅
I wish ALL support weapons came with an optional backpack on the other side of the drop pod like the autocannon. For lasers, a cooling pack, for bullet weapons a large ammo pack, for mg's a belt fed backpack, the arc thrower a stronger battery for + 1 Arc etc. You can either carry it for a better support weapon or leave it to run a shield or rover.
It's either that or the supply pack needs to somehow be much better. Like allowing you to throw supplies at long range instead of needing to come over?
The main reason I dislike the first person is how hard it is to see. Some weapons have a lot of muzzle flash and smoke that spews out of your gun and it can be pretty tough to stay on target
I'm reasonably sure the game was originally intended to be played entirely in third person, with weapons like the AMR doing the old-school "black out everything outside the scope" style of aiming.
to be honest, i wouldn't be surprised if it was a bug. after all, the devs somehow didn't notice the spear didn't pick up ammo from the yellow ammo boxes around the map for OVER A MONTH.
Sweet fucking Liberty, it pierces TANK and Hulk armor?! no wonder we only get 75 shots. The bullets coming out of this thing have got to be fucking MASSIVE. Edit: For it to be able to pierce bot tank armor but not organic bug armor is the biggest pile of shit I've ever seen in my life.
Yeah, I'd like to point out that .50 BMG can penetrate about an inch of steel at 100 or 200 meters, if memory serves. Soooooo....the penetration makes sense, as does the low ammo count, in order to make it man portable.
I think people need to realize that no singular stratagem or weapon needs to be, or is designed to be, a one application fits all scenario. If you aren't changing up your loadout between switching from bugs to bots, then there is an issue. Your loadout and subsequently the game infrastructure should definitely have benefits and weaknesses based on the faction you're going against. I don't expect my flamethrower to be able to do much against the bots, not effectively at least. However against the bugs? It's pretty damn good. Don't get me wrong, there is *SOME* things that are the exception that should be beneficial all around, such as the Shield backpack.
@@Titus.70bce Eh, I'd agree if my most hated enemy wasn't those damn Hunter bugs. For a "trash mob" I die more to those than any of the actual *hard* bugs. The Chargers' are cake, the Bile Titans seem scary, but are easy to outrun and have a less than effective attack with or without its spitting ability. Same with the rocket bots, I'll be minding my own business and I swear those things can scope me out from across the map. It's hilarious when I ragdoll to infinity, but without the shield I die instantly. I think people also need to realize that we are missing A LOT of other critical stratagems, guns, and support weaponry too. There is talks of a healing type rover, which may take over any of the other backpack types. People don't understand that we have only a fraction of the content that was in HD1 and my guess is that once they've got everything incorporated that they'll do checks and balances.
@@Titus.70bceIt should be changed, not removed. Make it situationally useful rather than generally useful so it doesn't become part of your standard loadout. Fighting a horde of ranged bots? Grab a shield, stand in the open and laugh. See a flamethrower, bile spewer or pack of hunters? Hope you have a respawn.
Okay, I just did some testing on the weapon sight to see if this really is height over bore. It isn't. The cross hair is improperly offset to be higher than it should be. I have a monitor that lets you place a dot in the very center of your screen. HMG shoots on that center dot regardless of whether you're at 10m, 25m, 75m, 150m, or 300m from the target.
That is what I was wondering as well, good that someone else thought the same. I figured it would mimic a real world situation, as in the red dot being "sighted" at a certain range, but from my testing also, this isn't the case.
I remember that the director mentioned that they have staffs that are experienced in shooting guns (Something about their country's military, probably mandatory training?) Do someone have any idea, if perhaps HMG in real life have that offset from the aiming reticle and the bullet impact point.
@@DisIngRaMthe optics are off, period, kinetic weapons in this game have almost no drop. Either because of the relatively short distance that we can engage or see targets or there is not enough drop to make use of a BDC.
Stawart is 150/3 mags, the Machinge Gun is 150/2 mags if they gave the HMG 100/3 mags with how fast it can fire and dealing nearly double the dmg of the standard Machine gun. The other Machine guns would be render 100% useless as a support weapon if they buffed the HMG having extra mag and ammo capacity. It's in a good spot, maybe even a bit too strong honestly rn.
Stalwart is very good as crowd control. And cover fire because you can run, reload and move at the same time however heavy mg doesn't achieve anything that the mg or stalwart does @@theFORZA66
The more i ADS with this gun, the more i realize the actual problem: The sight is in fact centered. the red dot, on the other hand, is NOT centered. it sits above the middle of the circle for some odd reason. put the dot just above your enemy and you can land shots fairly reliably. ...still should be addressed though.
Something I think would help balance the bots a bit better is reducing their turning speed more as the unit gets larger. Hulks being able to waddle 180 degrees in like 2 seconds is whack.
4:27 the slugger also does this, and it hit's dead center at longer distances. i think it's related to the distance between the sight/scope and the barrel. the bullets do not come out of your sight/scope like they do in many other games, they come out your barrel.
height over bore is the term, and this is a real thing that happens with guns. Basically you zero it in at a long distance, as it is a gun, but it means you're zero at point blank will be off as the optic isn't meant for those close distance engagements
@@KinbakoThe maximum possible height over bore effect is the distance between the red dot and the barrel. For this gun that's like three inches at most. It shouldn't be so exaggerated that you feel like you're a foot off.
It's likely more that there's some big height over bore on the sight, since this crooked sight feeling is prevalent on other guns too. Basically just another property of the weapons they want to hide from us
@@gtf234 Height over bore makes sense, but the problem is that there is never a distance where the bullet never ever hits intended zeroed distance. Like you'd expect it to hit in the middle of the red dot crosshair after like 50-100m, but the bullets will just keep on hitting below the dot, it seems to be a problem on every weapon that uses the red dot.
@@alphawolf6708 On a surface glance, it seems a lot of this is rooted in their insistence on hiding most of the weapon parameters from us, especially on support weapons. If the thing has some absurdly long zero distance, I feel we should be told in some in-game reference what that distance is. It feels more and more they want us to run around like headless chickens wasting hours just trying to brute force guess the properties of the weapons, which I don't perceive as respecting my time.
Sight isn't misaligned, all of the weapons with the exception of the ones that are able to have a selectable range have a height over bore characteristic. You're not meant to sit literally in the face of an enemy with something as *beefy* as this thing. It's supposed to sort of act like a bridge between itself and the stationary HMG, both having the same drawback being that you are probably not in for a good time if the thing you're shooting at reaches you.
Tried it out myself and when it hits it can shred but it's really REALLY hard to do on the fly, but it's a decent defend weapon when you can sit prone not having to move much
Absolutely trashes crowds of medium enemies, handles heavies too. Although it definitely lends well to a defensive playstyle. Being crouched/prone helps the recoil a lot.
I really feel helldivers could benifit from utility packs. For example pressure canisters boosting range on the flame thrower and a ammo feed backback that works for both machine guns. Youd switch to backpack feed with thr same button you self supply with.
That would be a cool addition and make for interesting play. Choose the Feeder backpack and you don't have to reload, but give up the utility of either rovers or a supply pack.
Also we need a flame armour We got an armour that reduces arc damage We need one that prevents burning and reduces fire damage taken Because the flamethrower is very prone to setting the user on fire
I want a flamethrower backpack that is similar to its real life counterpart. The drawback being that if a bug punctures the backpack, or a bot manages to land a shot, you go up in literal flames. The upside is that you get a lot more "ammo," longer range, and if you have a backpack-buddy, a quicker reload.
To be fair, unlike the other MGs. The HMG when you pick up ammo or supplies gets both belts back. Not only one. Works like the scorcher that way, less ammo but easier to resupply.
The math are simple... 75 bullets / 3 Firerate mods : 420 rpm - 12 sec. of constent fire > 750 rpm - 7 sec. of constent fire > 1200 rpm - 5 sec. of constent fire For aproximatively 8 seconds of stun releoad _( meaning you can't move or you cancel it all )_ The gun is strong. Crazy strong. But utterly flawed by its lack of crossair, the missaligned targetting/shooting, and a poor ammo capacity... if those are fixed ( cause I refuse to believe they are features ) and the magazine extended to a 100 rounds, we'll have a very potent weapon to manage the varmint and hteir heavy armors.
I feel like Arrowhead has some big problems with their QA system. Every time they add something it has a bunch of problems that need to be fixed. The exosuit still one-shots itself randomly to this day and the HMG genuinely looks unfinished. I don't know why it doesn't have a 3rd-person crosshair when even the autocannon does.
@@shadows_star Eh I'm willing to give them a lot of grace after they stated they weren't going to over-hire extra staff to handle the unexpectedly high player counts on launch specifically because they didn't want to have to lay those workers off again after the buzz died down. There are still more bugs than I'd like to see in a game months after release but I don't think it's greed or carelessness I think the Arrowhead staff are genuinely doing the best they can. They're probably overworked as hell. Here's hoping everyone on the team gets a fat bonus check for making it through the rocky launch.
@@SirKickzAgreed, but I really really hope they plan for a long peroid of bug fixing and balancing after they are done with the content they had planned for the lunch period or better yet, postpone some of that content.
For me, something is wrong with the ADS in this game. Instead of focusing on the enemy, it focuses the sights and blurs the enemy, making it essentially useless.
I have that issue whenever I use the gpmg because Arrowhead made the muzzle flash happen above the actual muzzle. I swear that I turned depth of field off... Yup depth of field is off so this isn't the fix I think folks were talking about honestly, the dot gets instantly lost in the giant fireball, that's why I tend to use 3rd person aiming because at least I'm not blinded AND I retain my FOV, unlike, for some ridiculous reason, first person view where your FOV is like 20, it's like I'm back on my old 360 playing BF:BC1!
Speaking of the off-sight problem, it’s became more problematic when you try to shoot the rockets from mech. I spend like 2-3 rounds before I could correct the trajectory to even close a single goddarn bug hole lol
This is a parallax, an extremely unpleasant thing, especially when shooting from a third person. But as an avid player in various tank projects, I'm used to it.
The reason for that I believe is how they implemented the fix to the "mechs blowing themselves up" issue. The rocket goes a lot more straight now, less towards your crosshair. Maybe before it would actually change the firing angle a little depending on where you aimed, dunno for sure. I use the left spread reticle as my guide now, and it's... Decent-ish
I got pretty good at those janky rockets vs bug holes. The rocket hits pretty far to the left of the cross hair, one time I was able to to very quickly hit a bug hole and move on in the middle of machine gunning the bugs which after all the trajectory headaches felt greay
@@qwertyram4598 As an avid mech user even when it was busted, it did have some level of auto-aim that tried to track the missile onto the exact point of your reticle. Caused some goofy aiming when you were spamming rockets and something walked past, because your reticle snapping would also snap the rocket trajectory, so one rocket would be wildly off-target. Since the rockets are fired from the left side of the mech, you have to aim to the right of whatever you're aiming at, more extreme the closer you are. If you get good at aiming, the mech is absurdly efficient, as with the recent charger health changes, a single rocket can kill a bile titan or a charger, assuming it's a well-placed headshot. So 1 mech can handle a ton of large threats. Plus 1000 rounds of med armor piercing is nothing to shrug at. But, 10 minute cooldown and a penchant of getting randomly 1-tapped by silly things like charger drifting and unfortunate friendly grenades make it a hard sell
tbh I wish it would be more consistent with the crosshair to where I aim but it is what it is, guess I have to work around it. Maybe in the future, hopefully they will address this problem.
Brother, I was in the Army in the infantry. We had 50 cals and we used to take them on patrol and set them up in machine gun positions, the ammunition that we carried I would kill for the ammo reload time and ammo Count that the chainsaw has in a Browning M2.
I wish everyone would think about this for a moment these dudes are carrying M249's with 250 round boxes M240B/M60's with 150 round boxes and now a man portable M2 Browning .50 cal with 75 round drums Our Helldivers are friggn super soldiers in their own right
4:41 the shots are landing low because you are close to target, and the HMG has obscene height over bore, the distance between the weapons optic and the barrel will cause your shots to land super low here
@@Titus.70bceunless you're using the AMR then even shooting a target correct distance with correct zeroing it's still aiming way above where you think the round will go
Muzzle flash isn't even that immersive, modern guns don't muzzle hiders often by default unless you swap them out for muzzle breaks or suppressors. This is particularly egregious with the stalwart which for some reason shoots out more smoke than a black powder muzzleloader. It's unshootable in first person.
@@Dweller. Especially considering it has to reticle in third person, which must mean it's meant to be used in first person, so why not make it COMFORTABLE. Doesn't it have enough MASSIVE downsides already. I'm sure they'll find a way to nerf it anyway.
@anonimus370 I wasn't able to use the hmg for more than a burst beforei took a rocket, but to me the worst out of the original 2 has to be the MG. The muzzle flash has zero transparency and seems to appear above the muzzle. It's a huge barrel way more than any modern gpmg yet somehow it doesn't burn off any of the powder?!
The lower capacity for the larger and larger machine guns makes sense IRL, but it doesn't for their in game performance. Usually when you're going from light machine gun to heavy machine gun IRL, it's referring to the caliber of the round. So it's quite literally a heavier gun because it's shooting a heavier bullet. Again IRL, that makes sense that less rounds of a heavier bullet would weight the same as more rounds of a lighter bullet, so you can therefore carry more lighter bullets. Why it doesn't make sense in game is that heavier bullets usually are built with a lot more power and therefore can and will pierce more armor. The HMG not being able to pierce chargers is insulting. If you're carrying that fewer rounds, then those rounds have to be really hefty and pack a larger punch. Apparently since it's not an explosive or railgun, it's a moot point. All I'm saying is that heavier gun usually means heavier rounds, meaning fewer rounds, but equivocal to greater destruction to smaller models. The fact this has marginally more destructive power (about a fart's waft away) than the MG-43 is pathetic. It's really not a heavy machine gun if all it is is heavier. Theoretically speaking, by that measure the US Military's CWIS gatling guns are some of the heaviest machine guns out there because they're strapped to ships, which obviously weigh a lot, putting them solidly in a heavy category. That's absolutely wrong because, again, the reality is that it's more or less the size of the round fired that determines the classification of the weapon.
I mean, IRL pretty much every western HMG feeds from a standard 100 round ammo can, or in the case of vehicle mounts, 100 to 200 to 500 on the likes of the CROWS. In the end, the .50 BMG out of the likes of the legendary M2HB should be blowing chunks off of functionally everything in game thats not a automaton tank. There is even a version of the M2, the M3M / M3P which has the same exceptionally high rate of fire that our HMG can sport but is usually used on aircraft with massive belt feeds. In the end, this thing needs a flat 100 round belt and it needs a slower ROF in exchange for far FAR more power, it should be chugging along like a ma duce, ripping apart everything infront of it, but only if you can get it set up, otherwise ma duce will win and take you for a ride, and you are not hitting anything when that happens, bar the sky.
My guess is that a lot of sacrifices had to be made to make the engine as dynamic as it is (with its physics, capes, ragdolls, different weapon weights, etc.) and the result is a lot of jank with crosshairs and bullet spread. I’ve been noticing a similar thing with the exosuits where my bullets are going more to the left or right of my crosshair depending on which arm it’s fired from.
they used to be pin point on the mech. since the patch that fixed the rockets blowing up the mech when you fire at an angle, the rockets/minigun no longer track the crosshair
@@MEGABUMSTENCH thats likely because before the rockets would go wherever you were aiming but now they go wherever the rocket launcher is pointing which is sometimes misaligned from the place you are aiming as its a physical object with rotation restrictions.
A rather cool fix to that would be having a separate crosshair for each. I think I saw it in a different game before, but imagine having two reticles, one for each gun
for the longest time i thought the aim bug was just the way the game was, i used the slugger against automatons and assumed the headshot hitbox is just really stubborn and inconsistent, but yeah its just off a lot of the time.
The AMR sight is actually worse with the misalignment of the scope. If you have a gaming monitor, with a Virtual reticle and you go prone, you can see how badly both weapons are misaligned in 1st person. The AMR is basically alligned to the southeast and the HMG is alligned to the south, instead of the middle of the screen, as it should be. Its actually crazy that this hasn't been adressed yet for the AMR, since its been out since day 1. They need to fix both!
HMGs usually use the same ammo as AMRs so kinda makes sense for it to be strong, have low capacity (especially if handheld), & reload slow, tho I wasn’t expecting such a high fire rate. We still don’t have handheld HMGs IRL.
@@necro4258 Stims are magic, HMGs are not. The reason I bring it up is because most people don’t seem to know what an HMG is and how heavy they are when they say “give it more ammo, faster reload, and less recoil”, idk if a person can even carry one with a 75 round box. I like how some of the weaponry and usage is based on what it’s like irl, I think it’s pretty cool cuz most games don’t do that, and I know this game is far from realistic.
The Supply Backpack fixes any ammo issues this weapon might have on top of giving you tons of grenades and stims to use ad nauseum. Perfect synergy between these two, they work well together.
A lot of the weapon sights are off center. It's a very well known issue but one the devs haven't commented on yet. Love the game but way too many issues with it
Is it off as in the bullets aren’t originating from the sight, or off as in the sight sits a bit high on the gun? Cause from my perspective, it looks like the sight being physically offset.
I have to shoot higher to hit my slugs, I know they fall but for things right in front of me the shot comes from lower than my iron. I think maybe projectiles are created out of our chests instead of guns?
@@Grayfox354 your scope’s higher than the barrel. I haven’t sat down and tested the offset yet, but it’s possible you’re used to bullets coming from your eyes (a trick most games employ)
Oh that sight being well above where it shoots explains the quick test I did against the bugs where it felt like it wasnt doing much against the Spewers, 80% of my shots must have gone into the ground below the head or something since when I was closer and aimed less and sprayed they went down real quick so it felt really really inconsistent. Fog + rain = terrible visibility so couldnt even really see my bullets, I kinda assumed they would hit closer to where I aimed than they apparently do.
I personally am loving the HMG, specifically against the bots! Works so well with suppressive fire and VERY quickly taking out devastators and heavies. It just actually totally shreds them to peices. I also find zero issues with the anount of ammo, just remember to use your primary and secondary weapons. Slugger pairs so well with this, taking out chaff in a single shot from 300 feet away. I definitely noticed the aiming being a bit off, but this clearly wasnt meant to be a long ranged weapon, and at close-mid range is where this weapon was meant to be used. Definitely need to fix the ADS ofc, and needs a reticle idrk why there isn't
I always bring the supply pack with me when i use the MGs to begin with, so ammo is never an issue. If people need their shield-crutch that's on them, use a laser weapon in that case.
Agree on at least giving it more magazines. I also highly recommend turning down the rate of fire unless you ONLY shoot high value targets with it. You really don’t want to overspend bullets with just 75 in the mag
I feel like the Heavy Machine they should add a backpack with the Heavy Machine Gun, to make it potentially a crew-served weapon, just how HMG's are like IRL. This way your buddy can take the back pack and help you reload faster. It would be really great against hordes during extraction or while defending objectives. Some Cons they could add is that its heavy, so it slows you down and its really unwieldy to fire when not crouched or prone. It could be a strategm you save for late game or only for defending early on against bug breaches or something. Then you throw it away when running around the map. If anything, I think they could better balance strategems by tailoring them to certain playstyles or moments. Because right now, there is no reason not to take something like the Quasar Cannon or Autocannon over any of the machineguns, especially if you're playing solo or with randoms. I also think that they could add a booster in the futre that gives you an extra booster or something, if you play solo. This way you could use, for example, the Autocannon and its backpack to take on some Chargers and Bile Titans. Then you drop it and call in a Grenade Launcher and Shield Generator to take on some bug holes. Idk, just some thoughts on ways to make all the Strategems more viable and balanced.
Sidenote try switching to 1200 shots per minute and burst fire. It will get more shots on target before recoil does its thing. If something is too close just keep pulling the trigger.
Someone during the stream gave the perfect fix. Make it belt fed if tou are using the supply pack. Then it will just auto consume the packs and not need the reload.
Idk, why if AC is just better at everything and also works as an utility tool to blow up nests/fabricators and containers. Seems like a sidegrade to an already underwhelming MG.
And AC doesnt suffer from the lack of a 3rd person crosshair and *feels* like it has better ergonomics too...Not to mention the aoe and ammo efficiency, as well as a more manageable recoil on full-auto, somehow.
@@Starshina200 Yet what seems to be the most common want for the HMG I'm seeing is a belt-fed ammo backpack to let this gun really rip rather than feel like it's instantly out of ammo with a long immobile reload time; that is to say they're more than happy to spend the backpack slot for this gun's improvement
HMG feels very clearly designed to be a bot-mobbing weapon. You keep your shield pack, but can actually kill things without being a slugger sniper. You lose all utility, but the game is designed with 4 players in mind, and I've seen more than enough arc-thrower users to know utility isn't something many people seem to care about with their support weapons.
Even on the weak spot of the charger it seems to be wildly inconsistent. Someone else tested it and showcased killing it via weakspot VERY quickly (in a few seconds). Don't know if it has to do with trajectory/entry point direction or something but yeah... Very weird.
They just need to reduce the armor on the legs of the charger to light vehicle armor. Not only would that buff the HMG it would be a HUGE buff to the AMR.
I'm extremely disappointed that the HMG that's been talked about has even less ammo than the MG. Like man I want a machine gun that does halfway decent damage and has tons of ammo so I can actually use it like you should, not this burst fire crap. It could have 1 spare mag and twice the reload time for all I care, just give me an equivalent to the base MG with like a 300+ round magazine. The only machine gun it feels like you can properly spray with is the stalwart, which doesn't kill fast enough unless it's on the highest fire rate and even then it chews through ammo like the rest.
The issue I always have with LMG spraying is less the ammo and more the corpses that absorb the shots(atleast against bugs). If you could move bodies with gunfire, I feel like you can comfortably hold down the trigger against groups of mid-sized squads.
Adjust your rate of fire then. You have something like a 150 round magazine on the basic LMG, at 600 rounds per minute, that's 15 full seconds of uninterrupted fire. You can get a good 15 kills before you need to reload it.
mag size 100 and 3 mags, so still same ammo capacity as mg, but have to reload it more often and keep reload being longer as well. Plus fix the scope and add basic reticle for when ADS aiming.
I think if they'd make HMG pen charagers, it would quite literally kill in in 6-10 shots, because charger legs are considered a weakspot, which is why they die so quickly when shot there. There has to be some things that still don't get penetrated by HMG, otherwise we get another railgun situation, which i think we already going to have with Quasar.
I dont know why theyve given us 3 machine guns that all feel like they do the same job in slightly different ways. This should have had some serious pen. The original MG should have had some pen.
we must be playing different games, these machine guns are nothing alike and have completely different uses. The stalwart is a run and gun machine gun that acts as a beefed up primary. Its for taking out tons of fodder enemies fast, but can't penetrate above light armor. The machine gun is more stationary, but can still run and gun somewhat and is decent for fodder as well as slightly more armored enemies like hive guards and brood commanders. The heavy machine gun is not at all for movement and solo play. Its designed to be used in cooperation with your team from a stationary position, and is good for taking out medium targets like striders and devastators, which the other machine guns cannot.
The stalwart is a complete SAW in that it uses liberator ammo, which has no real armor pen whatsoever, the MG-43 has medium pen to deal with Devastators and Guard bugs, the HMG has the same penetration profile as the Autocannon, without the risk of mulching yourself if something jumps at you.
here's a thought i had for the hmg: make it crew served, like the recoiless. give it 100-150 in the belt, and a backpack with 4 boxes of ammo for it. increase reload time a bit, make it about on par with solo recoiless, but much faster with team reload. would actually be epic on static mission types, like geo survey or wait for extraction, laying down with your buddy next to you, cranking the rpm up to max, and laying down mass quantities of daka xD
using hmg with bugs is just like using the regular machine gun, bring the jump pack and start the reload midair to remain mobile for part of the reload
When it comes to the machinegun red dot, I think slugger suffers from the same exact issue. When I figured out that you can one tap all devastators and berserkers by just aiming 1/2 heads higher then their actual head is this weapon became a monster at any distance. At first I thought it was a bullet drop, but then I realized that no matter the range I always have to aim about one head higher to hit the dome, no matter if it's point blank or 200m.
I have a feeling that there will be future perks either for customizing the gun or some sort of class perk to decrease reload times. That might mean you have to spec into some of these weapons being more worth it.
This gun is indeed broken as hell but sadly, we gonna hear some BS coming from the same people who called "Meta slaves" or said "skull issue" gonna whine and complain about how Op this was a weapon like they did with railgun before, smh 🙄
@@AncestralTsu setting aside unintended bugs/glitches/errors, nothing is broke everything has a purpose and a role. You just need to remember that you have to play that role and know it's limitations. If you're going to specialize in a role you can't expect to fulfill others. It's literally skill and tactics that makes it "easy" not "I got the meta damage kit" or "this is trash because it doesn't do what I WANT it to do" it's literally that simple. On top of all that EACH mission objective has a different tactic and execution. And you also have to plan for objectives you can't predict such as stalker nests, mortar/AA POSTS, JAMMING stations, even environmental effects and hazards need to be taken in to consideration. We literally have every tool we need. Dome work better than other for specific needs and tactics. Learn them all.
One gun that can handle all bots with high rate of fire is a lot of power in one option. I haven't had much time with it, but conceptually, having all those downsides sounds like it makes sense. Looking forward to giving this one a try.
Any weapon equipped with a bipod is meant to be used from prone (or a position from which you can rest the weapon on the bipod on a secure surface irl) - they are not meant to be fired from standing using only your body to absorb the recoil
You goober he wants at least the scope alignment fixed and for the weapon to carry a realistic amount of ammo per mag at least 100. It’s an HMG do you see how big the drum appears to be on this thing? 75 rounds is pretty hilarious considering you get to shoot for 3-5 seconds’ worth if you don’t use the slowest rpms.
@@absoluteandrew398 The scope isn't misaligned, it's height over bore thing that guns have, especially something like the HMG. All of the guns have it.
@@SpeCifiC0507 Sci-fi guns do not need it. You’re going to tell me that, for example, with the Anti Material Rifle, having to aim at the top left of the reticle is a legit design choice by the devs?
@@absoluteandrew398 What the guns do and do not need isn't up for discussion here. It's just a matter of fact that height over bore exists on all the guns. Whether the AMR's scope is a little on the janky side is a different story and the height over bore aspect may just be intensifying that. But, considering the devs haven't come out and said anything about it, I'd hazard a guess in saying that perhaps the AMR reticle is a design choice.
The Heavy Machine Gun does not need more ammo or clips, this thing is an absolute beast. Literally deletes everything in seconds. I like the limitations on it as it makes building around it important. Supply Pack+ Fortified/Engineering Kit. Covers both it's weaknesses somewhat, also crouching or going prone helps reduce recoil as well. 30%/60% respectively or with the said above armor set perks while standing it's 30% reduction and an extra 30% for every other standing position. 30%/60%/90%. The only thing the HMG can't do is destroy dropships and Bile titans.
On that note of when you can even unlock the HMG it's at level 12 with anything above it in the Patriotic Administration Center section of the stratagems purchasing menu being accessible before it such a things like the E.A.T, the Recoiless, the Flamethrower, and then autocannon. And in case anyone forgot it costs 6000 Requisitions which i guess isn't bad since the Recoiless costs the same but there are just better stratagems you could be buying. And on a personal note I'm pretty sure that everything the HMG is capable of the regular MG can handle either just as well or with a bit more effort on the users part.
This is an accurate gun sight, the sight is so far above the barrel it's accurate only a certain distance from you otherwise you shoot low. It is a skill issue because it doesn't take long to get used to aiming a bit high when close
@@slacksviii9824 At NO point is the bullet accurate to the sight, go in the game and shoot a building from any distance its ALWAYS low, you're full of crap.
I think they should revert the Railgun back to its original state, lower the level to unlock, or add more magazines or charges to it. The quasar makes it very underwhelming now, IMO. I welcome a counter argument.
with the rail gun you can rapidly kill many heavily armored things in very quick succession (hulks) with the quasar you have to have a little cool down between the killing
counter argument, quasar sucks at dealing hordes of devastators, railgun can easily do it with 70% charge with the heavy devastators needing 90% just in case you hit the shield.
I noticed the JAR Dominator also fires a bit below the dot. But at least that has a green laser that actually does indicate where it fires. Who knows if it's intentional or not since technically the barrel is positioned below the scope, but you'd think all weapons would work like that if that were the case. I like using machine guns in shooters, but the underperformance of both mg and hmg is so painful that I cannot bear to use them. They have bipods, it should at the very least have an extra extra stability boost from proning
It should absolutely NOT kill chargers. The whole point of them is that they’re literal bug tanks. Machine guns shouldn’t be killing tanks. That’s the milsim aspect of this game, specific weapons for specific roles, and despite some weapons really needing rebalancing, the way armour plays in this game is very, very well done. The developers of this game actually served in the military, and most of the weapons are very well done representations of real life weapons. We shouldn’t shit on that.
@@OhDough when I mean tanks, I mean the role a real like main battle tank plays, not a mob category. A heavily armoured thing that needs specialized weaponry to fend against. It’s probably the biggest challenge to those that play solo, because you need a dedicated anti tank guy to clear the armour out. It’s very milsim like, and very much by design by the Devs, they’ve talked about it before.
how much do you know about tanks? Machineguns have been used IRL to kill a wide variety of tanks, ifv, apcs, etc. Light tanks of many different makes can be penetrated by a 50 cal, hell even some modern armor can depending on the angle of attack. Serving in the military doesnt mean jack when it comes to weapon knowledge.
@@Maarxman it depends on what you’re referring to as a tank. A main battle tank? Hells no! Maybe some APCs but a lot of modern ones are designed to take up to 20mm from all angles, and 30mm from the front.
It’s sad cause the only reason I use it is cause I can’t get over how cool the 1200rpm mode is It’s literally like an assault cannon from 40k Except has 1/10th the ammo, doesn’t cause things to explode from how hard it’s hitting, can’t penetrate armor and has more recoil then a sawn of shotgun
I wonder if they made the off-centered reticle as a way to counter the recoil for high fire rate. Still kinda bad it doesn't adapt to the rate of fire.
I think it has its places where it is really strong and in a team setting (which they have designed everything for) it can fit perfectly in the right mission
the recoil is fine, its a heavy machine gun. have you tried shoulder firing a machine gun? and aiming for a machine gun is a cone of fire, put the enemies into your beaten zone. basically where your rounds land in a cone shaped pattern. the drum size sure, or 1 more. the time, machine guns like that usually run crew served, with a guy reloading. some of the developers are swedish vets. this american infantry vet loves their weapon development. crouch, go prone. engage at a distance. thanks for coming to my ted talk
4:29 that's just the game having a Height-over-bore implementation, Basically, your scope range is sighted or actually specified to hit targets at 25-75 meters, causing the so-called misalignment because the barrel is actually lower than the elevated optic. You can notice it alot more on the weapons with lasers on them, ADS and play with the zoom, notice how the laser shows where the barrel is actually lined-up. Edit : I see what you mean tho, regardless of the distance, the optic is actually just misaligned.
i did like the machine gun and stalwart on lower difficulties and was excited for the hmg, but between the sight issue, recoil and muzzle flash the gun is borderline unusable for it's intended purpose. at any reasonable distance the muzzle flash and recoil make even seeing what you're shooting at pretty difficult. ps: yes i used the machine gun/stalwart for headshots and planned to use the hmg the same way but was let down. had hoped it would be the machine gun for higher difficulties.
I am a machine gun lover. The Stalwart is amazing for crowd control and for low difficulty run&guns, the MG is amazing with it's medium armor pen, okay range, and solid ammo management. The HMG tries to be the machine gun variant for heavy takedowns, but just doesn't accomplish that as well as even the laser cannon, flame thrower, or arc thrower. Every alternative has either better damage, or much easier ammo management. The biggest buff it could see is making it have a backpack (for faster reloads when you have people to help, along with more reserve), give it more armor pen for chargers, and you wouldn't even have to change the capacity that way. This will make it a viable weapon for low and high levels as a high risk weapon akin to the recoilless, but with the potential added crowd control in desperate situations.
When I use a machine gun im not looking for a precision tool, I'm looking to spray bullets at enemy hordes. The heavy MG just feels bad to use, which is really disappointing.
Oh I also got that reticle bug not seeing the reticle in 3rd person, and I also usually point in 3rd person view, so that might be an issue that the developer will work in the future.
It would go well with this support wep if they introduced a fast reload armor perk. Would synergize with, and indirectly buff, the recoilless/spear as well.
I love the machine guns I use both of the at all tiers , Hmg for me , feels really bad , no sight , have to fist person , low ammo , low magazines ( reloads ) recoil is too high for the damage. Fixes - increase damage , increase mag size , increase total carry drum mags , add 3rd person aiming and weapon penetration
Leave the long reload as is and the number of reloads you can do, but double the mag size, and it'll be usable. As of now, it's more practical using an Autocannon than the HMG, heck even an Auto that's been emptied fully reloads faster than the HMG, all while the Auto being reloadable at half ammo so you never have to run around with low ammo and not wanting to reload as it waste ammo reserves, which isn't the case with the Auto. You shouldn't even be using your support weapons on small fries, unless what you're running with does exactly that (Flamethrower, Grenade Launcher, Stalwart). The long reload is meant to punish Helldivers who don't fight smart. That's why the only buff the HMG needs is double the mag size, anything more and it just becomes OP. Edit: I just read a few comments saying just make the HMG belt-fed via backpack as a fix. You're forgetting why it has a long reload and only reloadable twice. It's a potent gun, if it is belt-fed as some are suggesting, that means the HMG can fire indefinitely until it needs to reload. That would be too OP and defeats the purpose of forcing players to learn to fight "smart" as the devs never intended any stratagem to be an "all around solution". Leave the long ass reload and limited reloads as is, just make the mag size double and that's a solid fix already (even that's already overkill of a fix if I'm being honest, the devs might make it from 75 to 100-125 per mag instead). Any more than that makes it too OP which the devs do not want any one weapon/stratagem becoming.
The term you were looking for was height over bore but you’re right that the scope should be zeroed in. It probably got bounced around in the hellpod on the way in.
With mech rockets the not-sighted-in problem is even worse, you can blow up your mech if the rocket clips something because it doesn't shoot where the reticle is
After some testing I found that setting the RPM to the lowest value and using an armor that decreases recoil by 30% (Battlemaster is my favorite for this) is the way to go, but, even like this the ammo inefficiency makes it objectively inferior to the Autocannon. Its still a very fun weapon to use if you are willing to adapt your playstyle for it, but I would not recommend it if you are playing on suicide difficulty or above
