Defender + Ballistic Shield makes for a pretty badass frontline build. The shield actually blocks shots now and you can even survive a rocket hit, at least with medium armour.
I don't think the Ballistic Shield reduces the AoE damage from the rockets, it just flings your shield away after all. Though they did fix a bug that apparently was making rockets have a chance of dealing multiple damage instances before, so maybe that's why you take less damage now.
@@sivel7493 It's also possible that the small distance from the explosion due to missiles colliding with your shield instead of landing a direct hit is just enough to prevent an instakill.
it block shots before but now its even better at doing it. I've gone a whole game without getting shot while being in the front drawing ALL the fire from bases, The combo has been slept on for awhile and I think the buff they gave the shield will make it a more common choice
Don't call for a defender nerf, it's in a good place rn and it's really fun to use as is. It's not the defender's fault the default primary weapon and the weapon you have to pay extra for which the devs explicitly said they didn't want to feel pay to win are not quite as strong.
I don't think it will get hard nerfed, but maybe made obsolete by future weapons like the Tanto (basically the las-sickle but an smg) and other one-handers
Calling for a nerf of a weapon you’re showcasing seems undemocratic. Especially on the back of numerous weapon nerfs while so many Bugs (not Terminids) persist.
I like Knight a lot, haven't played Defender recently, but Knight is my favorite primarily because it feels really satisfying to use. I think its lack of ammo efficiency is a fair tradeoff for its obscenely high DPS. I find that Burst Fire helps with ammo efficiency and swapping to First Person ADS helps with its accuracy over short to mid ranges, it can't do any long range work (lets be realistic here, it's an SMG) but I run it on bots and it's relatively consistent, it's only really inconsistent when it comes to devastator heads, which is unfortunate because I really really do love the feel of the Knight. I hope AH releases the Knight to the rest of the player base so they can try it out too, and it'd be nice to see if it gets a buff, even just a very minor damage or recoil buff would help its performance significantly, probably not both but one or the other would be nice. Because whenever I see someone talk about this weapon one of the major complaints is ammo efficiency and how difficult it is to control, better recoil would solve both of those issues imo.
Knight, Revolver, AMR and ballistic shield is a wild combo. It's very fun to use. I never really got into the defender. It just feels like a weaker AR, even though the numbers say it's better than the AR. My brain just isn't a fan.
Defender is one of my favorite guns to use, especially in missions to carry a battery it’s amazing that you can still use the defender since it’s a one hand weapon
I suspect it'll be a long time before the defender gets a nerf because I really don't think that many people run around with it, despite the fact that it's a pretty good gun.
@@George_M_ Most of the weapons that out pen the defender are either support weapons or extremely weak like the armor pen liberator. So you're not really missing out anything you can't fix with a stratagem slot.
I find the Knight to be a really solid secondary to the Autocannon. If you get swarmed with melee units, you can switch and hose down everything in front of you with 50 rounds in 2.5 seconds. If there are any left, you can run and shoot to keep creating distance.
"What are they both for?!" - The Knight is for the trashcan, IMO. The Defender was, up until the Sickle was released, a better AR than the rest of the rifles in the game.
Asking to nerf the Defender? It honestly baffles me that people call for things to be less enjoyable in a PvE exclusive game.The Defender is perfectly fine. It's not an end all be all weapon as it fits a particular role. The problem is that the other guns are incredibly underpowered on the harder difficulties, 7 and above.
I feel like the defender is meant to be a direct upgrade of the liberator default assualt rifle to show the player that since the game very chaotic eventually you want a submachine gun 🔫 unique feature where you get to use other items or gadgets on one hand while having a weapon at the other, thus why in the description talks about multi-tasking. Its still a very good submachine gun and hopefully it doesn't get nerf Also i love the fact that the defender has its ammo clip at the side instead of the usual underneath as most guns 🔫 has to me its a unique feature. 👌 Edit: recently used the Defender and its very versatile submachine gun has full auto, brust and single fire.
I hope they add more One-handed primaries. Since the patch I've been toying with the Ballistic shield and I'd like to see more variety in what i can shot with it. Maybe some kind of One-handed Shotgun or an ultra high fire rate SMG with a drum mag and low damage ( Think the Redeemer with a stock and drum mag).
I absolutely adore the defender. I've recently been having fun with the Sickle, but I'll still use the defender every now and then. Maybe I'll try pairing it with the ballistic shield sometime.
The defender is the best assault rifle in the game. If that wasn’t enough it’s magazine size, lack of recoil and its rate of fire makes it one of the best primary slot sniper weapons. If we didn’t have an fast firing shotguns it would probably fill that role best as well.
Hey Zerk you forgot that the knight doesn't have green aiming laser like the defender which means that you almost can't target it when using ballistic shield. I was so suprised when I first tried it, I thought using shield was suppoused to be a major selling point for smg.
I love taking the Ballistic Shield and Defender with explosion resistant armor and drawing enemy bot fire while a teammate uses the AMR to pick off anything with rockets or heavy weapons. Then I bring the orbital laser and Eagle Air Strike to take out tanks and Turrets. I just wish I had more than one weapon to choose (I don't have the Knight, but it's less my style anyway). It's such a fun way to play, being like a gun paladin defending your team from the trash units. There's just little variety available to fulfill the fantasy.
Niceeee. I fuck with this channel. Told me everything I needed to know that was relevant! Thanks man good shit on delivering. Keep it it up man I’ll be back for more.
The defender with the shield is an amazing devestator killer. The shield blocks all small arms, so devestators and machine gun turrets can unload into you, and you’d be fine. Take pot shots at the heads, or let your teammates take them down while you have their attention. I think the shield and defender is very underrated, but you can’t take a backpack. Because the autocannon is the best not killer, that does knock it down quite a bit. As for the knight, it’s a great spray and pray gun. I think if the damage is on par with the machine pistol, it would be in a great spot without feeling pay to win. I think with that buff, it would combo better with the revolver or the new grenade pistol
Would appreciate a buff for guns the Knight outclasses rather than a nerf to the Knight. The Lib Pen and Con should have 45 rds per mag and the standard Lib should have 60 rds. Maybe give the Lib and Lib Pen damage buffs to 60 and 50 respectively.
I use the defender as my primary for the higher damage per shot over the assault rifle and same ammo count. I think I like the AR better feelwise as the higher rate of fire is better for groups but the defender is better on ammo so I go for it to rely less on supply drops.
I forgot the ballistic shield even exists. I stopped using it cuz of the rocket spam that the bots love to utilize. Sure it can stop bullets, but it can't stop you from being sent flying across the map from a direct hit from a tank blast.
I actually like the Knight for Bots because of my "raider style" gameplay. Combine that with the Grenade Launcher and you can basically go full US Army Ranger style on them.
I hope we get an AR or space AK that is just a beefed up version of the defender SMG. just a steady rate of fire, with high damage per shot, and a little more recoil.
As much as I love the knight for clearing out all the little shitter units, I do think it needs a buff. As a few comments said, maybe increased mag capacity. maybe 60-70 rounds?
Honestly I don’t use the smgs because while they may be powerful they don’t feel powerful. The ars feel like my shots are doing damage but the smgs for some reason don’t to me
Sometimes I do wonder if the SMGs actually deal less damage, despite the damage stat number, compared to other guns, even the base Liberator, due to maybe...some hidden stats or sth. Cuz I use the Knight a lot, it does feel like it takes an entire mag to kill a Stalker most of the times, when the Liberator takes maybe like half its mag here and there. I haven't done any testing of course, so could be wrong.
Armour pen impacts damage; If your armour pen is lower than the targets armour then you see the shield symbol and your shot bounces doing no damage. If your armour pen is equal to the targets armour then you do damage but its reduced and you'll see white hitmarkers. If your armour pen is greater than the targets armour then you do full damage and you'll see a red hitmarker. This is why the lib penetrator with just 45 damage decaps a brood commander in less shots than the standard liberator with 55 damage. But then also why the 2 diligence snipers need 2 shots to kill a devastator to the head the head seems to be "no armour" so the new medium pen on the counter sniper varient makes no difference to that kill threshold.
honestly. considering how quickly you get the defender. the knight should just have the exact same stats. i mean the armor you get from super citizen is just a nicer version of another armor you can get pretty early to. would make a lot more sense.
Because you get clips for all your weapon slots when picking up ammo, using the Redeemer frequently is very optimal. I will bring the defender and light armor for the missions that see you ferrying SSDs, makes that a breeze. I've tried using it with the ballistic shield, but between how that screws up your animations, and gets dropped whenever you fall over, not worth it honestly (needs a buff).
Idk man, defender feels like a pea shooter sometimes. Sickle is better if you want an assault rifle. Esp when you consider its potentially unlimited ammo
@@birgir3399 I can’t believe people are suggesting nerfing the defender it is mid at best at higher difficulties. The majority of weapons need like 5-10 extra bullets, extra mag or 5-10 more damage or all three tbh. I want more fun not boring balance that makes weapons mediocre. I
@@birgir3399 Nerfing in a pve game is sensible, there are different reasons to do so a example is to keep a tone or gameplay style (Example a horror game like alien isolation but the gun now can kill the alien in two shots would ruin the tone and such) Defender wise, I am unsure if it needs a nerf, it ie nice early on but gets weaker in various ways over time
It is very weird that the Defender somehow does more damage than both variants of the AR-23 like it is submachine gun after all. In fact it is a straight upgrade from the AR-23 Liberator, however right now it is very obvious that it is very very underrated, but if you enjoy the Liberator you should definitely use the Defender. I'm gonna be honest if the Defender raises its popularity it will most likely get nerfed.
If you want a good fast-firing weapon that's good close and at range, just go with the Liberator Pen. There's really no reason to use the Knight or the Defender, unless you're really dead set on using the absolutely terrible Bassictic Shield backpack. In which case... you're just a masochist, or you enjoy challenging yourself by using terrible loadouts.
I would like to have the knight...but it's not worth the upgrade since it would be the only think I'd get since I already own the warbond that comes with it
Do you actually put it in burst fire mode? I mean, usually I think a burst fire mode is kinda useless because you can just do it yourself with practice, but with an absurd fire rate of fucking 1380 it actually probably is useful lol.
I find burst fire is helpful to minimize wasted ammo, because like he said in the vid it's got a fair bit of recoil and a shit lotta fire rate, plus the 3-round burst helps it remain accurate without you spraying 2 or 3 more bullets downrange because your target's already dead or because said recoil throws the barrel of the gun up too much and makes you waste more ammo trying to stay on target. If anyone runs Knight, I always recommend Burst + 1st Person ADS, it'll just make the weapon feel way better and help keep you from burning through mags stupidly quickly. Plus, even in a situation where you need to mag dump something, it's not hard to just spam click an enemy to mag dump them if you really need it.
I just hope we get more one handed guns in the future. I prety much main them so i carry ssds and let my team do most of the dmg with bigger guns. So give me more one handed guns please
I tried the Knight once, and I wasn't a fan at all. The combination of recoil and just absolutely dumping its magazine in a half of a second just... doesn't appeal to me. It's useless over ranges over about 30 meters in my experience. Defender... that thing with the Ballistic Shield is my #1 bot build. It is better in every way than the Liberator, but you can use it while being frontally immune to most ammunition.
Can we PLEASE not ask for weapon nerfs when more than a few of them needs buffs? We want more options not less please. And besides, the Defender is in a great state. Its not overpowered against either bots or bugs compared to other popular guns (Sickle or shotguns are generally the best option for bugs, and Scorcher and Dominator are preferred for bots), and has a great niche in being a long range one handed weapon. You slap more recoil on that thing and then it won't be as useful at popping bot heads, and with a slower fire rate it won't be useful at all really against bugs.
The defender should probably get an ammo capacity nerf of like -5 or -10 considering it has the same amount as the regular liberator, but does more damage so that slight nerf would put it more in line with the regular liberator.
@@huevote9474 I'm not saying they shouldn't buff some other weapons, but some are in a good position in terms of balance i.e the Liberator which this smg overtakes so it makes sense to put it more in line with the most standard weapon.
@@centurion-gaming9334 I understand your line of thinking but it just doesn’t make sense in a PvE game. Nerfing weapons even when they are totally average because most weapons are subpar. Liberator needs a small buff, even 5 more bullets would be great.
2:42 why the fuck would you say that? You see what nerfs do to a community? Everyone is now anticipating the next nerf. The Defender feels great to use, you really think it needs to feel worse? Come on man
Don't ask for nerfs in PVE games please everyone. Specifically when devs of said game have a tendency to nerf good and fun things to make them as shitty as the weaker stuff instead of buffing said weaker things so people can have fun with them too. (at least before people cried about some nerf I don't remember a few days ago) PVE games needs lots of fun tools to use not "balanced" nerf toy guns. I agree tho but stop
perhaps all Liberator need a damge buff than a nerf to DEFENDER? seriously the penetrator having the lowest damage for medium armor pen is not worth the trade off
@Wonback what does that mean? Slavery still exists; so how is the date a relevant point of contention, in any context? P2W can not exist in a game that has zero competition amongst players. Imagine if your counter argument was the date and an assumption about me because of the date, imagine.
@Wonback Nah. How does one win in a game that is not competitive? You are applying a concept meant to identify unfair advantages in a competitive environment accessible by those willing to, or able to, spend more money than another so to gain a competitive advantage. Helldivers 2 is not competitive in any way, so P2W as a concept is inapplicable.
I def feel like the defender could use slightly less ammo per mag, but even without that nerf it’s not monstrously ahead of the other primaries. The knight on the other hand could use some love, either more ammo per mag or just slightly less aggressive recoil, that being said it’s still one of my fav guns and I understand why the devs don’t wanna make the premium-edition exclusive weapon too good
Hearing something needs a nerf... In helldivers is like a blind person complaining about the bright room lights. TF you talking about nerf... Cut that nonsense
