Still having a hard time with it.. But its so much fun First impressions with the airburst rocket launcher Enjoy! Timestamps: #helldivers #helldivers2 #helldiver
@@AnonD38 well then the scientists on super earth watched too many ww2 movies when they designed the mines. I apologize for my inaccuracies, I havent stepped on too many real mines myself, and have only seen them on tv
Honestly, Anti Tank Mines should be less likely to do teamkills just from how they usually work. Humans aren't heavy enough to trigger them, so you and your squad should be able to run over them. But in this game they are just mines with a bigger boom, that still gets triggered in the normal way, even if a tiny scavenger steps on them. And with the issue of mines sometimes being invisible, they have just the same issue as every other mine.
Not only that, it also detonates the first time it gets anywhere near an enemy. So I learned quickly that if you are trying to shoot past nearby enemies at something in the distance, it will just blow up in your face
I find it funny he says it's lvl 9 difficulty but it's nothing like lvl 9 difficulty....hardly any tanks hulks or heavy devs..even factory striders...on lvl 9 difficulty I get 2 factory strider drops at least
The idea with airburst is to fire over the enemies to spread the burst over a larger area. You don't just shoot straight at them like a normal launcher.
That does not work as well as it should either, since the explosives it throws out do not go straight down at all - They only fly out to the back/front/sides in a circle.
This seems like a good crowd control weapon. People are disappointed because it cant kill heavies, but we already have EATS, RR, SPEAR, QC for heavies. If it was able to kill heavies, it would render the other rocket stratas useless. Also it seems to trigger the cluster based on proximity instead of direct impact. Can be a good weapon with the right player
The problem is that "crowd control" support weapons are kinda relegated to the low tier by default. It's like how noone runs the Stalwart at above-mid difficulties. This is because primary weapons can handle crowds, but they can't deal with heavies well. So by default, you want your support weapon to fill that niche. If it can't, you're kind of throwing (If you're playing at any kind of higher difficulty, where you will be constantly drowning in heavies).
And also, I think if you shoot in the weakspoints, it can do some damages. But this weapon seems to be really great for crowd control ! Maybe it will become one of my favorite support weapon !
@@BackwardsPancake It seems like the only Primary the Airburst could be paired with is the Eruptor. It's the only one with any hope against heavies. But you better be the top percentile in accuracy, cuz that ammo conservation is going to be tough.
Always good to have variety in a squads loadout as you can always get a spare off a friend if one isn't working out. I think this thing will be welcome as long as the players using it know how to use it and aren't teamkilling everyone.
This weapon is definitely meant to function well in a "crowd control" loadout where you kill all of the small to medium enemies so then the other members in the squad can effectively take out the heavy enemies without the constant pressure of being over-runned.
Thing is, this just isn't a real problem that needs solving in practice. One cluster bomb strike will do the same job with way less risk. Not to mention, literally every player carries a means to deal with small and medium enemies by default.
Small bugs and bots are really a problem only for level 10 player at best. Primaries are meant for these things. Cluster should take out mediums. Getting overrun ny devastators is much more serious threat than by usual small bots.
The only meaningful use I've found for this thing is to sit 300m away and bombard objectives, until you get lucky and hit one of the submunitions into a fabricator vent. If nothing else, it eventually clears up the enemies on the point just by sheer volume of fire, and when you're that far away the slow reload and annoying targeting isn't as problematic. It can work for ambushing light patrols too of course, but I think it's way too slow and random at it. You just can't ever rely on it to kill everything, and it ends up taking more time than just shooting everyone.
The trick for throwing Seaf shells and explosive barrels is that picking them up sucks them towards your hands, but if you cancel the pickup in time it won't stop at your hands and will instead continue onward in the same direction with the same momentum. So if the thing is slightly behind you it'll get a medium upwards and forwards momentum, if it's at the max distance behind you where you can still pick it up it'll get a very high forward momentum at a low angle. And if it's too far in front of you, you'll throw it behind you.
That works with explosive barrels as well. And they will reliably take you along. So if you do that technique with a far away barrel, you get your very own skateboard.
The point of the Air Burst Rocket Launcher is that it doesn't need to impact a surface or enemy to detonate, just the proximity is enough to set off the charge and make a cluster of bomblets to cover the area below it. Shooting just slighty above enemy groups or buildings will make so the explosive detonates marginally later, but gives a lot more height for the bomblets to disperse into a wider area, greatly increasing its efficiency.
24:44 Worth noting, the Penta maps seem to have the automaton spawn bug very consistently - That's why the rounds are easier there. That is to say - Bot patrols will walk to the center of the map and not despawn like they should, so eventually the enemy cap stays full and new patrols don't spawn anymore. I almost wonder if it's intentional, since you could probably get some impressive streaks with the new launcher if you wait 20 minutes and then go to the center...
My last map seriously liked to disagree. Every second patrol had a homing hulk, not to mention the dropships, and the extraction point was a full blown base with a factory strider and gunships in range. But I also had a lake in the middle, so patrols simply couldn't go there to get stuck. So I am kinda thinking the devs tried to do some jank workaround for that bug, but when it doesn't happen at all it throws everything out of whack.
It doesn't - The submunitions spread out to all sides in a circle pattern, but they do not go straight up or down at all. If you manage to get it to detonate directly above a patrol, anything directly below will usually walk away unscathed.
@@BackwardsPancake Strange. I've had the complete opposite effect. Maybe the blast doesn't go all down but surely much more concentrated than if you just use it like a normal rocket launcher. Also pretty easy to get it to detonate over enemies (and friendlies). Seems to be completely proximity triggered.. But then again. Given all that doesn't work properly in this game I so no reason why this should.
I wish you could manual trigger the air detonation, like destiny 2 breach load GL’s, hold shoot and release shoot when you want the submunitions to come out
@@norrecvizharan1177 Right now the trigger is just stupid in the first place. That death at 7:00 shows how it activates with the slightest bit of foliage, which honestly it shouldn't. And the intro deaths show just how absurdely far the clusters can fly.
for which noone needs this in the first place....limited ammo, long reload, dumbass collision protocol, takes up 2 slots , cant be used in confined space , like when defending the pad etc etc etc. Its a dumb weapon for dumb people.
@@norrecvizharan1177 It's called my comment was meant as a joke. I watched the video and thought it was funny. I haven't even logged into the game yet today to even try the stratagem since I've been at work. Lol. 😂
@@IgorZhuravlev Looking at his deaths, this weapon just seems completely out of whack. For the three intro deaths: Why do the clusters fly so far backwards in the first place? And especially at 7:00, why does this little bit of foliage trigger it directly when shooting it?
@@Schilani Three intro deaths look clearly like trigger by the ground. So far backwards - because well - thats the area it covers. At 7th minute I bon't think it was triggered by foliage but yep this one was strange. Most problems with this weapon are generated by combo: it is ready to trigger right in the barrel (without any ignition time) + it triggers not just on enemies but it seems like on any structure it can destroy (mines etc), teammates and also it has some radius that triggers it before impact if it is on collision course to anything (including ground) it can't pass through. So there can be something to trigger it right next to you, under your feet or mb even behind (didn't try that) - and it will go, which is stupid ofc. I mean yep, the weapon itself is problematic but the user here adds to it.
I believe this is more effective to use when initiating a fight at 30m above rather than midfight due to it’s proximity trigger which can detonate upon rushing melee enemies during a fight.
@BenOfficial94 sounds like not my problem. Especially since so many others in this community do the Same. Damn. THING. Lucky for me, I dont allow randos into matches. Only Steam/In-game friends can join me mid-mission.
Honestly, if there was a way to control when it detonates into cluster, this would be way better. Right now, I'm having difficulty figuring out if shooting it will hit my targets or just kill me.
People took the leaked videos of this rocket launcher as a basic that it one shots elites. Devs already knew about it and changed it. Basically it’s an eagle cluster bomb. Expect a lot of TKs at the bug front.
Any turret or shield generator or hellpod will trigger the airburst btw. Resupps, weapons backpacks, even the extract ship will proxy and the rocket will blow up point blank. Explosive barrels trigger it as well, certain walls will too
backpacks do not set it off. I tested by dropping the airburst backpack and firing over it, and it flew past it and exploded downrange. Ammo boxes do set it off though
I was trying it solo on Penta on a chill lvl 4 mission. It's best use might be first striking bases, point of interests, patrols, etc, at a distance to clear out all the little guys that can call in drop ships. Whenever I try to first strike with an orbital or eagle it always seems like the dropship call goes through. For whatever reason, my map had a massive group patrol and I killed 18 in one shot. That felt good
To toss the shell, make sure its behind you. Youll notice when you pick it up it kinda jumps into your hands. When you switch weapons you "drop" the shell but it keeps its momentum.
Tossing the shells on the SEAF artillery kind of depends on where you're standing compared to the shell when picking it up before weapon swapping, as well as how late you swap. Basically, the force that acts on the shell when you pick it up stays on it, as long as you swap weapons before your hands hold it to cancel that force. It's quite useful once you get used to it.
I changed my mind from fighting for airburst to liberating Menkent and then go on to Choohe(?) for the mines. Lost a completed Helldive mission with 80% of the Samples collected as a Helldiver fired it and it blew up in our faces. No enemy in sight.
Well after all this is prototype technology since the people on the planets are under seige by the bots. Should we liberate them they can add in new failsafes and tweaks once they are safe and have our combat data for calibration
It's just like with the mechs: they were rushed prototypes that often blew themselves up, but shortly after the tech was secured, the newly produced models were tweaked and upgraded to fix that (aka the devs updated things so that it wouldn't happen, but I like explaining it away in a lore sense).
I might be wrong, but shouldn't the air burst rocket be fired above the enemies instead of at them? I mean the idea behind airburst weapons is to detonate in the air and rain death down on them for bigger area coverage.
This rpg is amazing as long as you aim above the enemies it’s actually ridiculous the crowd clearing you can do it’ll definitely be one hell of a bug clearer
It seems to me that it needs to have different effects depending on how far away the rocket explodes from the user. As in if the rocket hits a target say within 50 meters it just explodes as an HE blast and the user is outside of the effective blast radius, but it won’t go through heavy armor like EAT 17. It’s intended to be an anti-air and crowd control weapon. This is going to be the Mortar Sentry on steroids with how many accidental deaths there are going to be.
After using it a for a few missions, I would say the Airburst support weapon definitely needs some changes, but with the right changes it could be a fun weapon. As of right now though it will take more team lives than it saves
Looks fun but seems like a cluster bomb is just better in most scenarios. The cluster can be thrown safely from behind cover, doesn’t accidentally explode, doesn’t take a weapon slot, doesn’t take a pack slot, doesn’t require ammo, etc. The advantages of the rocket seem to only be that it shoots the air units and could be shot from further away than a cluster can be thrown.
Don't forget that it can also be used while inside the range of a strategem jammer, whereas a cluster bomb can't (you can also say the rocket is more "on demand" than the cluster as well, especially with complex strategem plotting active)
@@NoNo-xh7ru True, but you gotta remember, once the trial period expires this thing will be competing for the same stratagem slots that could be used to pick anything else instead. So in that sense, it's a valid comparison.
@@CBeavr Yeah but when that hulk comes running your way while you're jammed, hope your team has a better heavy weapon or you'll have to deal with it using your primary.
@@KillFrenzy96 everyone brings along at least SOME anti tank support weapon nowadays, you can instead fill the role of clearing the small annoying chaff that usually calls in reinforcements before you even *see* them (potentially anyway, the airburst needs more testing to see how reliable it is and how to properly use it)
for some detector tower layouts (like the one in this video), you can walk up to the outside perimeter closest to the detector tower and call the hellbomb there, the detonation will still take the tower out
also for tossing the SEAF artillery shells, it helps to be walking slightly ahead of where you want to throw it before picking it up and swapping back to your weapon
I think the underlying issue it suffers is likely the same as is suffered by the spear and the arc thrower. All three of them have trouble that comes down to misidentifying inanimate objects as a thing to trigger the airburst/arc to/conflict the locking process. I'd spitball that a fix is likely to come to all three at once when/if they refine a way to make the weapons with that common thread of a target identification mechanic more selective about picking up only on "mobs".
you can one shot hulks and tank , aim above the belt slightly behind for the hulk (ideally an ennemy right behind him) , for tank if you aim slightly above the tail it should one shot the heatsink but it's a bit inconsistent. But for the hulk i could reproduce it everytime
Worth noting, it is also sensitive to a bunch of weird things that it really shouldn't be - Such as your own equipment stratagems. If you try to shoot it past a supply drop or an objective (like the geological survey drill), it will trigger. It will also trigger on a bunch of random enemy equipment, like certain walls, or mines, or the automatic cutter arms in some of the automaton outposts.
I didn't get why the missile seemed to randomly go off early until i saw the description after we fully unlocked it. It goes off when it's somewhat close to any enemy, but the game also considers buildings, mines etc. as enemies. So 1:55 the mine set it off immediatly, and at 7:00 it was the little soldier near you. You just have to be really aware of your surroundings when you use it but ultimately I think it's too unpredictable to be worth using atm. Hopefully they tweak it
tbh, I imagined it to be like the orbital airburst, when it gets to a certain distance, it'll explode into a cone to wipe a wide area. This acts more like a cluster bomb.
It seems similar to the spear in that you need to understand how it works and be willing to adjust how you play to use it effectively. I killed myself a lot the first time I used it but realizing it seemed proximity based fixed that problem, mostly lol. Like the spear this is not a peeking weapon. With some experience it looks like it will be fun
So what i am seeing, we should push for the anti tank mines. This launcher does what several stratagems already do. The mines at least will kill armored targets and create area denial or at least a delay of enemy advancement.
I like the ABRL. I accept that it is not going to upset the solo dive meta, but its fine. I've been taking it with scorcher, orbital rail, and rocket pods and I've been able to deal with most threats (solo 7 for context).
Confident with it now. Pretty sure it detonates when detecting a specific distance from ground or Rocky outcrop terrain. Also having pretty drastic bullet drop for a rocket. Once you learn to aim it, it becomes truly deadly. A horde chasing you on your tail? Aim right above heads should explode just far enough back to clear most and their back up. Sometimes will lightly clip you but the ragdolling shoves ya further to safety
I just tried this weapon out for a few missions. It has a massive blast radius which is nice for clearing out a group of light enemies. Medium enemies may survive. Heavy enemies like tanks, hulks, and cannon turrets don't really take much damage at all. Surprisingly, this weapon is really bad against gunships, which feels like it takes a ton of luck to kill. The amount of times I killed myself with this weapon though lol. It seems pretty cool, but in practice I'd rather slot in eagle cluster bombs and use a different heavy weapon. I hope I get to try it on bugs when I can too.
I think the airburst would be a lot better if it gave us manual control of the fuse. Something like you holding down the trigger and releasing it when you want to to go off. The way it is I only see it being useful from a high vantage point where you can shoot into the center of a group, but needing a backpack means you can't take something like the jump pack to help with that.
Actually this thing can kill hulks and annihilator tanks. For hopes you either aim at their backside directly or you shoot below their feet and then the explosions circle around it and blow up their backside. With annihilator tanks you would add bare minimum shoot it from the side so that the explosions can circle around and blow the back or the back side, shooting it directly from the front isn't going to allow the explosions to circle around enough to blow it up.
ITS A TRAP! SWITCH WHILE YOU CAN FOR THE ANTI TANK MINES. Btw this weapon is bugged and cant shoot through shield generators. So youll just team wipe while shielded with this thing
@@Adeon55 I shot in front of the generator, and it exploded inside with ever single mini shot also blowing up inside the generator. So no stupid, go sit down and rethink why you should shut your mouth before making yourself look stupid.
@@Adeon55 so I'm running tests on it now, it can one shot tanks. It does horrendous against hulks, haven't tried air ships yet but it doesn't do anything to drop ships but does wipe out the enemies before the drop down. Thing is it's just bugged in the sense that the proximity is janky. But for the most part if you hit them dead on its never an issue. As for the shield I think it may have to do with group play as I tested it and it does shoot through it but the explosions OUTSIDE can still rag doll you to oblivion. I'm wondering if enemies grenades or shots also cause the proximity to go off so I'll be testing that next
The anti tank mines were the obviously right choice from the start. Airburst Rocket Launcher just sounded way more fun. And it still seems more fun, they just have to make the proximity detonation not consider every little bit of foliage. Also I want the anti tank mines to be actual anti tank mines. If a scavi can trigger some anti tank mine, that's just a random mine with a bigger boom.
Tonight I picked my first one up, fired it at a pack of enemies about 50-60 yards away, and it instantly blew up in my face. I decided after that to put all my efforts into liberating the anti-tank mines. Although maybe a more open map without trees everywhere would make this thing look a bit more favorable. Can't wait to see it against bug breaches, since it looks really unlikely that the community will change their minds and go for the AT mines
I just played a game where someone was using it. We were waiting for extraction and we were past the mission time, so no reinforcement. Dude tried to shoot his weapon at the enemy instead it exploded a second after he shot it and it killed all of us. What a silly goose
I think the tree might not the one trigger explosion I saw one of the small automaton ahead nearby after the blow. He probably walk nearby and trigger it
I'm gonna be honest, I don't think they playtested this. The proximity fuse is abysmal. Every single speck of dust in the air will make it explode 2m in front of you
pretty late, but for the SEAF artillery speed up strat you need to switch *before* the shelll reaches your hands. think of it as like the shell bouncing off your weapon as scuffed as it sounds
I'm just stoked we have a rocket launcher that's literally an RPG-7, the devs just have to add a safety fuse/arming distance and tweak the proximity fuse sensitivity
I think if they made it not trigger on trees and leaves, but still trigger near rocks and the ground, it would be perfect. Some maps have so many plants it would be impossible to use this on them
i used it on chargers (target away from them to catch them on tiny explosions) and kind of stun them for a short time. they stop and turn to explosion point.
I might prefer the mines to this squad killing stratagem. At least with the mines I can avoid them, but I can’t avoid a random firing that thing next to me and wiping the whole squad. As it is now I don’t like this rocket launcher. There already are better stratagems to choose.
I didn’t try too much that weapon. My first experience seeing it in action was from a teammate, took down 2 Drop ships and I thought the weapon was pretty good at his job. I tried using it and the rocket kept exploding in front of me,but it didn’t kill me, just knocked me down. I thought I was doing something wrong,that it’s one of those that you have to hold the trigger and would explode on release of the trigger. Tried that and it still exploded in front of me. I stopped trying and gave up on it after I saw a teammate crash after they fired the weapon.
Looking at the war map, Penta will be liberated before Menkent is done. But maybe the planet modifier for the Anti Tank Mines will stay for the time of the Major Order.
Modern air-burst munitions have target detection (e.g. detecting car-sized metal) and/or a time fuse (activate after some ms exiting the barrel). I cannot believe superearth technology is so backward.