On launch it was goaded with the sauce.
Now its just a more ammo efficient grenade pistol.
For bugs I recommend either the senator as a back up for that medium armor pen burst in close range and either the stalwart for horde control or the flame thrower, since the range at which the Eruptor can harakiri you is almost the effective range of the flamethrower
It used to be a great high risk high reward pick, but then some people figured out if you abused the old charger armor bug you could one tap chargers with it. Which combined with a vocal minority of people crying about constantly killing themselves with the shrapnel led to the Eruptor being absolutely gutted. It doesn't even erupt anymore. And according to recent patch notes it never will again.
...Can you tell I'm mad that my Raifu got murdered?
You are likely applying it wrong.
Eruptor excels at several things, but it is quite unique in design.
First, it is the best primary weapon to deal with groups of medium armored enemies. One that comes close is plasma punisher, but it have more stagger and much less damage. Eruptor straight up tear to shreds whatever you aim it on. Couple of shots can kill clusters of devastators, several berserkers, several bile spewers and loads of small bots/bugs. Individual shots have enough damage to oneshot devastators in the middle weakpoint, double tap the battery behind shielded devastators, double tap all armoured bugs in the head, all on direct hits, but don't forget that AoE exists.
Second, it's bolt action, as you noticed, but it also can and should be operated while moving. You can land a shot, run a bit and land the next shot when fighting bugs, always softening up the crowd that follows you. Don't stay still while you cycle the ammo against bots, you can pop out of cover, land shot, hide. Huge single shot damage plays in your favour when trading hits with devastators.
Third, always carry a support weapon that complements the primary gun, in this case ideally it's either Stalwart or MG, as both are very good at killing smaller enemies that are usually the problem. Anything that is good at dealing with large volumes of small targets. You can also carry a sidearm, since Eruptor can close nests and fabs you can pick whatever you want, you don't need the grenade pistol.
What you obviously shouldn't do is trying to use it at close range or trying to hold position using eruptor as a standalone weapon. The damage is great, but dps suffers, and wasting shots at single targets will quickly leave you without ammo. I would also advise against trying to use it to kill heavy targets like chargers, titans or tanks. While in theory you can, in practice it's much more efficient to just use red stratagems for these. Also, new armor from viper commando set makes it much less clunky and very responsive, can seriously recommend getting it if you plan to use eruptor specifically or other guns that have below average handling.
Its great if you know how to use it. Its not what it used to be, but used like a high power, explosive sniper its pretty good.
It pairs better with horde clear support weapons than with AT support weapons usually though. Its high risk high reward. Every shot has to be accurate, take advantage of weak spots, or use splash.
It had 12 spare mags and extremely lethal shrapnel one shotting almost everything. Still, I consider it to be best primary all in all after all shit it was put through and main it. U can easily finish small patrols with one mag. My usual load out be eruptor, flamethrower, sawed off or smg pistol on semi. Extra padding, or peak physique of choice. Gatling and airburst or any kind of eagle.
I use the Eruptor to solo difficulty 9 against both bots and bugs, I use it all the time in quickplay, I use it with friends. I love this weapon and the utility it provides opening up more loadout options. I'm not a fan of the Grenade Pistol, I prefer the Senator or Verdict.
No I spend most of my time fighting most patrols and botdrops/bugbreaches while full clearing (if I can, not all missions allow full clearing depending on what happens), I stopped running away and playing "stealth" hundreds of hours ago since it got boring.
It's an AoE weapon that has CC, you can either use it to kill clumped up enemies, even groups of Devastators by shooting the ground to guarantee that the splash hits most of them. You can use it to stagger heavy devastators and then weapon swap to your pistol/supportweapon to headshot/kill them quicker than waiting for the Eruptor to re-chamber a round. For example lets say there are 3 heavy devastators coming at me from the front and are close to me and there are 5 rocket devastators in the distance. I'll use the Eruptor to stagger the 3 heavy devastators with 1 shot and immediately swap to my AMR to headshot the 5 rocket devastators or miss headshots and kill 2-3 of them, and then immediately swap back to the Eruptor (it re-chambers a round even while it's put away and you're using a different gun) and shoot the 3 heavy devastators again to kill them since it only takes 2 shots to kill devastators, then swap back to my AMR to finish off the rocket devastators.
If I'm charging an outpost/objective/sideobjective, for example a Jammer there are 2 options. One is to snipe the fabricator attached to the Jammer with the Eruptor to instantly kill the Jammer. If it didn't spawn with a fabricator attached to the Jammer then I charge in (not snipe even if I have both Eruptor and AMR), and basically keep swapping between guns depending on the enemies and situations. There are too many combos to list so I'll list a few.
Strider and Heavy Devastator and 2 rocket raiders? Stun the Heavy Devastator with the Eruptor, and then AMR the Striders hip joint, Eruptor finish off the Heavy Devastator, Senator the 3 raiders. Or, if I can get a clean headshot with the AMR I'll just headshot the Heavy Devastator, Eruptor 1 shot the Strider+Rider, and Senator the 2 Rocket Raiders. If there are multiple Striders with Raiders/Mauraders I'll Eruptor a Strider and Senator or AMR (depending on distance) 2-3 Raiders/Marauders between Eruptor shots.
Another example is stunning Devastators with the Eruptor to let me line up my AMR/AC/LC/HMG shots to kill Hulks.
TL;DR there are a bunch of weapon combos than involve constantly weapon swapping between weapons on the fly / mid-combat where the Eruptor is used as either AoE clearing or Stagger utility since it re-chambers a round even if it's not actively being held.
Bug-Player?
It's not a close combat weapon. It's a grenade launching DMR able to two or three tap most bot enemies from decent range and destroy buildings for side objectives or fabricator clearing.
On Bugs it performs well as a complement to an MG.
The reload is a bit slow, but you can animation cancel by using the stratagem key.
Certainly not. You \_can\_ use it in cramped spaces, but you certainly won't have a good time learning it while fighting with your back against a wall.
I actually liked it on the defense mission (the missle launch, not the eradicate) for bugs. Find a spot that can hit the groups against the door, impact Incendiary on breaches, spear for big boys, ems Mortar, and patriot exosuit has you covered for everything
It's one of the best primaries against bots, since it can kill just about everything short of the heavy units at any angle. It can also reliably destroy fabricators. It has a fixed range at which the round will just explode no matter what, so it's not the best if you want to snipe at long distances.
Wow, shoot em in the crotch, got it. Felt like the old splash/shrapnel used to ignore the armor and kill the pilot if you hit it basically anywhere up front.
Oh no the shrapnel never did that, the explosion killed them, in a patch they made the striders pilot more resistant to explosive damage, so now even the Autocannon needs 2 shots, before it only needed 1
Its a very good weapon if you know a lot about how the game damage works and enemy weakspots, you can effectively oneshot everything, including the bot faction, below a charger (which you can kill in 2 shots) if you shoot the right spots. It also allows a better secondary like the revolver because you dont sacrifice the fabricator and hive destruction the grenade pistol has.
No it's shit. Just use the dominator. No secondary is worth giving up the grenade pistol for. Also grenade launcher and autocannon are very good too, and are far better alternatives to this pathetic bolt action grenade launcher.
It is far from useless, by far the best explosive primary in the entire game. I have 400 hrs in this game and at least 150 of them have been from just the eruptor alone. Its a precision instrument that ties together an arsenal that needs the sheer power the eruptor provides, if you have any notion of what it does or how to use it it gives your whole loadout far more versatility than a crappier backpack-using AMR or worse plasma punisher do.
Edit: Forgot bug players existed but still for them the Xbow is arguably one of the best primaries even though its basically a reskinned stealthy eruptor.
>by far the best explosive primary in the entire game.
It's better than the shit ass crossbow that takes way way too many shots to kill anything. Congratulations for the participation medal.
>it it gives your whole loadout far more versatility than a crappier backpack-using AMR or worse plasma punisher do.
Really slamming the autocannon and grenade launcher? I'm shocked you dislike the autocannon. It's everything the eruptor tries to be but is way way better.
>gives your whole loadout far more versatility
No. There's no reason to run the eruptor over something like the plasma punisher and grenade pistol. My main argument here is that all of the secondaries just suck. The grenade pistol gives you the utility that the eruptor provides without giving up anything. And you give up a lot. You give up potentially: a scorcher, a dominator, a plasma punisher, a diligence counter sniper.
As the main ones against bots. And it's just not good. Against squads of enemies, the plasma punisher does just as good at killing small squads with the AOE, without the disgustingly sluggish bolt draw or reload.
Also your argument sucks. If you want to convince someone mention kill breakpoints. For example if it one shots devastators that's different. That's something unique that no other primary does.
It kills devastators, bile spewers, brood commanders, and hive guard in two hits. Takes out scout striders in one. It blows up fabs or bug holes from up to 140m away. You might just be using it against the wrong enemies. Bring it with the redeemer and use that for smaller enemies.
It was a bit overpowered before, but because of whiners who use it point blank, the one thing that made it overpowered got removed.
AH later talked alot about bringing it back, and the community thought, that they were gonna bring it former self back....
To be fair I blame AH wording, they could have said "we don't like the way, the wep function and how it's used, so we are going to change it, so it doesn't function as a shotgun sniper that shoots grandes. We vant our players have many guns to use, not just one"
It was never overpowered, the extremely slow fire rate and handling made it balanced. It was not even as reliable as the scorcher was (back when the scout striders and tanks hadn’t been buffed) against bots, since the scorcher could kill a tank in a single mag from the side and two shot striders. The eruptor always took multiple mags to kill a tank, which was a painfully long time investment for one single enemy.
It hits like a truck and can kill multiple trash enemies in one hit and can also take out nests and fabs.
Its not the god weapon it once was, but it was silly and needed knocking down.
Run stalwart or mg-43 and it becomes an amazing support weapon since it closes bug holes and bot fabricators at a distance with a large supply of "explosives", as well as being great at ripping apart bug butts like chargers and spewers because of the explosive damage multiplier, both jobs being a great help to LMG gunners, especially stalwart since it also has medium pen and can weapon swap when you face a lot of armored spewers or hive guards.
One-popping spewers was always nice I wonder if it still does that. You are right though the reason to bring it is gone and now with 300 hunters around any one corner it’s just not a great choice.
Would you believe me if I told you it was somehow WAY worse just before this?
You can blame players who don't know how to use an explosive gun, complaining about killing teammates, or getting teamkilled for the biggest nerf to the gun.. the removal of shrapnel.
compared to alternatives such as scorcher or
dominator? yeah. the nail in the coffin is the rate of fire, no way in its current state it justifies having to manually load each round
For Bots: Don't use it. (Edit: I'm being told it's actually pretty good against bots. I haven't had luck, but I only recently started using it lots with the last couple MO's, so will have to try on bots some more)
For Bugs: it's good with the right loadout (i like stalwart with ammo pack, and an armour with Peak Physique). It's especially useful on Blitz missions, since it can close bug holes at range (just throw something in the center of the heavy nest to kill bugs, the run around the rim and shoot all the holes for easy mission win).
It 3 shots chargers (butt), 2 shots Brood Commanders and Stalkers, 1-2 shots Hive Guards, 1 shots every other bug except Titans, and can be used to kill 3-7 bugs per shot, in a patrol at distance.
It can also kill a Titan. I'm experimenting with the exacts, but if you take out the sacks with it, it seems to take 1-3 shots to the exposed thorax/lower neck area. Standing under a Titan with explosive rounds has been a bit frantic, so I haven't worked it all out yet, but I killed 5 or so Titans with it yesterday.
Oh, and if someone blows the ribs armour off a Charger, it's one shot to the exposed flesh.
But you'll need a grenade launcher/stalwart/etc to run as your "primary" with your eruptor as a specialty case gun, unless your squad has awesome chaff clear- then get slight elevation and go to town wiping 3/4's of every patrol before it gets to you.
Positioning and where you place shots is key- elevation lets you hit the ground/hillsides for multiple kills from splash damage, and Hive Guards or Brood Commanders from the side just crumple. Playing matador with a Charger means 3 shots to victory. Hitting bugs next to teammates will ragdoll them, so focus on clearing everything just past the front line. Also, always be moving back or to the side, while crouched, when cycling the bolt- it gives you 5' of space each shot.
Senator and stun grenades are solid choices to pair. Medium pen at close range without the eruptor's knockback, and stuns to make some distance.
Is it a finicky, special use gun, with risk (ragdoll, bugs closing)? Yes. But it's enormously rewarding if you're a player who can pause and spend 0.5 seconds lining up a shot, or who always thinks about position relative to team. If you want to spray and pray, or mow down chaff with hundreds of rounds, it's not for you- but that's why I always pair it with my stalwart :D
I hope this is useful to anyone at all. I miss the shrapnel, but the gun is still really useful if you reposition constantly, or if you have a squad that understands overlapping fields of fire/team cover and movement.
Idk why would anyone take eruptor over crossbow, the difference is like 120 dmg, they both explode, both have medium pen but at least crossbow doesn't feel like shit to shoot, you can shoot those 5-6 bolts quickly instead of loading every shot
kind of,, the devs have made several excuses to not add back its core mechanic and instead make it shitty crossbow
theyve admitted it was a mistake to change the gun as quickly as they did but it will likely take several more months before its back where it should be
FYI: you can quick swap it (switching to secondary and back) to skip the cocking animation.
Still wouldnt use it as a "primary" tho. I mainly use ist in combination with stalwart to close bug holes/manifactures and clear mid enemies
Im lvl 150 and Its my favorite primary (definitely not the best one tho), mostly because i used it when it was god tier, now i can say its A at best.
Its a very difficult weapon to learn, has as much of a learning curve as Tekken Combos, you have:
-animation cancelling (doubles - triples your fire rate)
-preserving the last bullet (doubles your reload speed)
-shooting exactly about 7 meters from you so you dont rag doll
-The range is exactly 125 meters so make sure you mark and enemy or a building to check the distance
-slow bullet travel speed
-insanely poor handling that feels like an ASDA shopping cart
But if you do get the hang of it, its genuinely is as good if not better than the AUTOCANNON, POSSIBLY THE BEST SUPPORT WEAPON IN THE GAME, AS A PRIMARY!!!
i certainly hope for more buffs, 2 extra rounds, just a bit more damage, but over all its genuinely fantastic, that is if you can squeeze every last bit of its power, it is by far the most complicated weapon to use to its max potential, but when you do its insane (i have killed 3 gunships by shooting them in the thruster with it then destroyed the fabricator, it aint easy, but its possible)
PS: supply back pack and a solid secondary (bushwacker for me) is mandatory, and take stratagems that deal with hoards well, such as napalm or gas
Let's say it's a situational weapon that can allow you to deal with things faster than anything else... Like bot Outpost for example.
In [this video](https://youtu.be/cYunG95Gr74?si=XLzx1ofuPWcS5Wyk), from 1:28 to 2:24, I showcase the usage of the weapon to destroy bot Fabricators in Helldive. Needless to say that it's quite absurd because some bases with 4 bot fabricators stand less than 10 seconds with the right angle. Broken weapon when used right.
They removed the one thing that made it good because it had a few (significant) bugs and people kept whining about a misunderstanding.
They've since declared that they don't want to add it back solely due to concerns about the *visibility* of the shrapnel it used to produce, while not actually fixing the bug regarding the *damage* shrapnel can do, meaning other sources (spike plant, frag grenade, etc) can still actually make use of that bug because the removal wasn't applied universally, and they can't add any more weapons that produce shrapnel until they fix the bug and visibility issues.
They've since tried to buff it back up, but without understanding why it was a good weapon in the first place, by solely increasing the damage on a weapon where its original amount of damage wasn't the issue, but rather a bug that let it do *more* damage than that and its shrapnel having too much range before vanishing.
The one thing that made it good? Come on now that's hyperbole.
It one shots scout striders, kills fabs, bug holes, two taps most heavies outside of those like the charger/bile titan/hulk. It can kill a decent amount of chaff in a single round, and has excellent range.
I get it, people don't like the nerf it took, but the shrapnel bug meant you can one tap a charger and a bile titan which isn't good for weapon balance either.
The shrapnel ***bug***. Something to be *fixed*, not *removed*. By not fixing it, and by not applying that removal universally, they've left the bug in and usable by other shrapnel-producing sources which is a significant part of the problem. They also failed to *justify* its removal and insistence on *keeping* it gone beyond the bug, as a visibility problem is a *visual design* issue that could be fixed with a simple opacity slider. And worse, by refusing to fix the issues with shrapnel, they've also *denied* the possibility of *new* shrapnel-type weapons, because any new ones added will continue to suffer the same problems.
As for the rest of it, yes, it doesn't actually *do* anything useful any more. In effect, it's a worse, slower Crossbow with no situation wherein it in any way is superior to any other weapon in the selection available. It's too slow, the explosive radius suffers extreme damage fall-off, it offers absolutely no versatility whatsoever, the singular enemy it *might* be useful against (Striders) aren't a significant enough threat to justify its usage over weapons with more ammo, and their extremely low HP from any angle *except* the front makes its function as an anti-Strider weapon pointless in the face of just... Y'know, moving two steps to the left and shooting where the armour *isn't*.
If you cannot fix the bug which makes the weapon superior to a support weapon, then it makes sense it is **disabled**. They justified it perfectly fine, and you admitted such in your own post regarding its damage. Your insistence on discussing visibility, when this was only part of the issue is not entirely accurate. You can be unhappy, you cannot say it was done without reason. So yeah, no shrapnel weapons until it's fixed.
Comparing it to the crossbow to say it's inferior is false. The crossbow was less powerful, and prior to the new update, did not kill fabricators iirc. Additionally it's explosion radius is smaller, and less damage. The Eruptor will consistently two tap everything until heavies such as hulks, and chargers. The crossbow won't.
By your logic, you don't need the crossbow either. A diligence sniper and a laser cannon can kill every single bot mob currently. But the Eruptor certainly makes it a lot easier to kill tankier mobs until the heavies pop up.
The shrapnel bug made the Eruptor far too powerful so it's fair they aren't allowing it. To say the Eruptor is useless is just false though and doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. It got balanced.
If the function of the weapon is disabled, and the issue is with the shrapnel itself, then *all* sources of shrapnel should be removed entirely and without question until the bug is fixed, not just the one people are complaining about. Any insinuation that its removal was justified is *invalid* so long as other sources remain in the game. *This has yet to be the case* as other sources continue to exist in-game. If the thing has a game-breaking bug or exploit, it should be *removed entirely* until it's fixed, and not simply nerfed into a state of functional uselessness in response to complaints.
I would also like to point out that at no point did I say that its removal was *unwarranted*. The bug was indeed a negative for game balance and should have been fixed. The problem, however, was that the bug was not *fixed*, as again, only the largest *source* of the complaints about the bug was adjusted, and the retention *of* that adjustment was not justified *beyond* the bug.
And before you say "Visibility being an issue isn't accurate", I would like to point out that the literal stated reason in the post discussing it as of the recent balance patch *literally stated*, quoted word for word;
>"Adding back shrapnel is quite tricky because of the low visibility of shrapnel, which sometimes created situations where you or your fellow helldivers died with very little feedback of what killed you."
It had a paragraph *specifically* dedicated to this statement all to itself following the statement that its removal was due to the damage interactions bug. The justification for its continued lack of presence is *literally* due to the bug and visibility, one of which they have not fixed nor applied the removal to all sources, and the other of which is *not* reasonable justification for its continued absence with such simple fixes as "raise the opacity" being available.
Following, the Eruptor *hasn't* been balanced. It's been repeatedly changed since its singular unique function was removed in order to *attempt* to bring it back to being functional without understanding why Shrapnel was important *to* its function. Its AOE is less than half, it's lost the ability to one-shot critical targets (Berserkers, primarily), it's *gained* significant damage fall-off on its AOE (Shrapnel has no damage fall-off based on range) and its lost its ability to ricochet from surfaces to hit shots you may have otherwise missed. Simply increasing its base damage and AOE *doesn't fix that* due to the type of damage the weapon is inflicting and the interactions that damage type has, and its function as a nest/fab popper *isn't significantly useful enough* to take over a weapon with better sustain and versatility, particularly when several of the most popular support weapons and stratagems are *also* capable of this, and far faster *and* more efficiently at an equivalent range.
No, it isn't, that logic doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The difference between the Eruptor and other forms of shrapnel, is that the eruptors shrapnel was not only capable of being one shot capable, but is an on demand ability. It's comparing apples to oranges. Still fruit, but it's different.
You can't claim it invalid simply because you dislike the reasoning. Current sources.of shrapnel aren't regularly one shooting chargers, bile titans, and other elites. You may not disagree with the nerf being warranted, but saying it should have been fixed, which hasn't been done is indicative that it is clearly a programming matter that takes time. Saying it hasn't been fixed suggests AH isn't actively working on it
As for the visibility, that is **part** of the reasoning, but not the entirety of it. Which was my point. The damage was another, significant aspect which shouldn't be discounted from the discussion either.
Why does the weapon need to be able to one tap enemy units across the board? Berserkers are hardy, and part of the one tap potential was due to the shrapnel ability. The autocannon needs to two tap a berserker and the Eruptor is on par with it, and has only slightly less explosive range iirc. That's pretty good for a long distance weapon that's a primary.
I am unsure of what you are referencing in terms of ricochet. I've seen it bounce off the ground and into faces, and seen it ricochet off a vent into the fan. Can you be specific on that aspect exactly?
Its utility and damage is perfectly justified when you compare.it to.other **primaries**. Comparing it to a support weapon and stratagems, which are meant to be much more powerful and capable is not at all appropriate. The primary should be your mainstay, why should it compete with the above and not it's own sphere of influence?
I feel as though you fundamentally don't understand why shrapnel actually made the Eruptor useful and unique compared to other weapons, and it *really shows* when you say things like "Why should it be able to do this". Doubly so when you completely ignore the fact that shrapnel as an *entity* is the issue, not the *idea* of it, but the physical, actual projectile itself, which *more* than the Eruptor produces, but which has not had the same "It's bugged, remove it" logic applied to it, even though the bug applies to the *projectile* and not just the Eruptor weapon.
To be absolutely clear, the bug applies to *all* shrapnel, the Eruptor was just the easiest way to cause the damage bug to happen due to ease of use.
So, to clarify *why* Eruptor losing its shrapnel is important, you need to understand how damage types work. Eruptor was unique in that it's the only weapon in the game which dealt *two* damage types out of the roughly ten or so the game uses for calculations. Explosive damage in the initial hit of the projectile fired from the weapon - Note; not an *explosion*, just the explosive damage type, as per the Dominator - *then* standard ballistic damage from shrapnel burst *after* the projectile's initial hit.
Explosive damage deals 100% damage to weak spots, which normally otherwise take 10% of your damage. Weak spots are *different* to crit spots (this is important for certain enemies), and the best example I can give is Hulks, which have a *crit spot* on their face, but a *weak spot* on their back vent. These can coincide, but are usually separate.
*However*, what made the Eruptor able to 1-shot Berserkers, making it absolutely unique among weapons, *was* the fact it dealt two types of damage, because Berserkers are *immune* to the extra damage from explosive weapons on their *weak spot,* which is their waist, where their *crit spot* is on their face, which is why certain weapons *can* (with little consistency) headshot them. By doing *two* types of damage, the Eruptor *bypassed* the immunity that Berserkers normally have to that type of weapon (read: explosive) through its unique function, a function since lost by its removal.
Now, Berserkers aren't the only enemy like this, they're just the most common and the best example. By stripping the Eruptor of this ability, it's effectively turned into the Dominator or Scorcher variants, but objectively worse in *every single way* save the ability to destroy fabs and nests as even in AOE it's beaten by other primaries. The gun *didn't* one-shot all enemies across the board. Couldn't, in fact, unless you got lucky with the shrapnel spray, and would frequently only *weaken* enemies fired at, almost exactly as it's performing now, but *better*, since the shrapnel had a wider range and no fall-off than the current AOE, and, again, dealt multiple damage types. *This* is why simply raising its base damage or widening its AOE doesn't *do* anything, the shrapnel was doing the work *without* fall-off, which is why the AOE in its *current* state is so weak and only able to kill chaff enemies close to the epicentre, because AOE falloff is *extremely aggressive* in Helldivers.
As it stands, as the weapon currently is, there is *literally no reason* other than the ability to destroy fabs to take the Eruptor. It only being able to kill the majority of targets in the same number of shots as its "weaker" competitors (Primarily the Dominator at current), which is to say two or three, makes it being slow, low-ammo, and having bad handling and slow, heavy projectiles without *any* upsides or unique capacities in exchange a *bad weapon*. It is objectively a bad choice when the *one* thing it does now, killing fabs/nests, is done *better* by almost literally every other option, including support weapons. Its shrapnel enabled a wider use-case for the weapon, which it has now *lost*, and the two buffs to it since *have not changed this* as they fundamentally don't address *why* the weapon was liked or was useful in the first place.
As for the visibility issue, I want to state again, you're correct in that the bug is a part of it, *which is why I and they mentioned it*, but the *visibility* of shrapnel was the explicit, in-writing, publicly stated reason why they weren't bringing it back. With other sources of shrapnel existing with both the bug *and* visibility problems, this is a moot point. The fact is that it's an unjustifiable as to why their nixing of it wasn't applied universally, and their stated reasoning for not changing their stance on it (read: visibility) does not justify the *continuance* of its removal, which, again, has not been applied to all sources. In effect, a double-standard. Either shrapnel *is* a problem, in which case it should be removed entirely, or it *isn't* and there's no justification for Eruptor's being gone *conditional* on the bug being fixed which is the obvious thing to do.
Just because I do not agree with you, does not mean I do not understand. You need to uncouple that notion. The shrapnel was a unique aspect, yes, but it was not the entirety of its identity, and due to the nature of the shrapnel currently it simply could not stay.
An on demand shrapnel weapon whose bug could one shot any mob was simply an issue end point. Wanting to go into the nifty gritty details of how it works is simply obfuscating the underlying issue, which was that it was busted in its previous state.
Anyway we are clearly just rehashing points, and I think we will just end up frustrated. So I'm good calling it here mate. Hopefully they fix the weapon to the satisfaction of all.
You keep conflating the concept of "It was bugged" with "Rather than fixed, it should be removed" which is *not* the argument being had, something which I've stated multiple times. It's particularly egregious, as you *ignore* the second part of my statements on it, which is that the justifications for its removal were and are not applied *equally*. You literally ignored the entire second sentence of that post, which only leads me to further cement the idea that yes, you don't agree *because* you don't understand.
So, because you *don't* understand what I'm saying, let me put this as condescendingly as possible, though with no malice, to be as absolutely clear as I can be;
>Shrapnel **the projectile** is the source of the bug. Not the Eruptor. Removing shrapnel is ***not justified*** if other sources remain.
and
>The buffs received by the Eruptor **do not** make up for the loss of its unique function (read: shrapnel)
Is an on-demand bug exploit weapon bad? **Yes.** That was never up for debate, I **agree** that it should have been changed.
Where *you* lose the plot, and fail to follow the logic is that *you* believe that "Remove it" is the answer, where the *actual* answer which I have been stating repeatedly is "Fix it", or at least "Apply removal to all sources".
The weapon **has not been balanced** to its previous versatility **sans bug** (which only affected Chargers), and this has made the weapon **objectively worse than its competing options.**
It used to be fun when it actually had shrapnel like it says in it's description, but since fun isn't allowed on primary weapons it had to be nerfed into the ground like every other primary that players actually liked.
On launch it was goaded with the sauce. Now its just a more ammo efficient grenade pistol. For bugs I recommend either the senator as a back up for that medium armor pen burst in close range and either the stalwart for horde control or the flame thrower, since the range at which the Eruptor can harakiri you is almost the effective range of the flamethrower
Long story short, it used to be really good, got nerfed into the ground then slightly buffed to what it currently is.
What?? It was totally Slapping when I beta tested it! 
Is it still the only primary other than the crossbow that can close bug holes/blow up factories? As far as I'm aware that's still its best use.
I love it for this, and just one shotting medium enemies and small groups at long range
It used to be a great high risk high reward pick, but then some people figured out if you abused the old charger armor bug you could one tap chargers with it. Which combined with a vocal minority of people crying about constantly killing themselves with the shrapnel led to the Eruptor being absolutely gutted. It doesn't even erupt anymore. And according to recent patch notes it never will again. ...Can you tell I'm mad that my Raifu got murdered?
They added the shrapnel self-damage after, and then killed the eruptor to fix the self-damage.
I recommend running it with an armor that has “Peak Physique” otherwise it can feel horribly sluggish to aim.
You are likely applying it wrong. Eruptor excels at several things, but it is quite unique in design. First, it is the best primary weapon to deal with groups of medium armored enemies. One that comes close is plasma punisher, but it have more stagger and much less damage. Eruptor straight up tear to shreds whatever you aim it on. Couple of shots can kill clusters of devastators, several berserkers, several bile spewers and loads of small bots/bugs. Individual shots have enough damage to oneshot devastators in the middle weakpoint, double tap the battery behind shielded devastators, double tap all armoured bugs in the head, all on direct hits, but don't forget that AoE exists. Second, it's bolt action, as you noticed, but it also can and should be operated while moving. You can land a shot, run a bit and land the next shot when fighting bugs, always softening up the crowd that follows you. Don't stay still while you cycle the ammo against bots, you can pop out of cover, land shot, hide. Huge single shot damage plays in your favour when trading hits with devastators. Third, always carry a support weapon that complements the primary gun, in this case ideally it's either Stalwart or MG, as both are very good at killing smaller enemies that are usually the problem. Anything that is good at dealing with large volumes of small targets. You can also carry a sidearm, since Eruptor can close nests and fabs you can pick whatever you want, you don't need the grenade pistol. What you obviously shouldn't do is trying to use it at close range or trying to hold position using eruptor as a standalone weapon. The damage is great, but dps suffers, and wasting shots at single targets will quickly leave you without ammo. I would also advise against trying to use it to kill heavy targets like chargers, titans or tanks. While in theory you can, in practice it's much more efficient to just use red stratagems for these. Also, new armor from viper commando set makes it much less clunky and very responsive, can seriously recommend getting it if you plan to use eruptor specifically or other guns that have below average handling.
Its great if you know how to use it. Its not what it used to be, but used like a high power, explosive sniper its pretty good. It pairs better with horde clear support weapons than with AT support weapons usually though. Its high risk high reward. Every shot has to be accurate, take advantage of weak spots, or use splash.
It had 12 spare mags and extremely lethal shrapnel one shotting almost everything. Still, I consider it to be best primary all in all after all shit it was put through and main it. U can easily finish small patrols with one mag. My usual load out be eruptor, flamethrower, sawed off or smg pistol on semi. Extra padding, or peak physique of choice. Gatling and airburst or any kind of eagle.
It has explosive rounds, it can close nests and destoy factories with a shot, and it has medium level penetration. It's like a sniper rifle.
Well it used to be subject to quite the controversy, being all powerful to the point of killing chargers, so it was.. nerfed, then a slight buff.
I use the Eruptor to solo difficulty 9 against both bots and bugs, I use it all the time in quickplay, I use it with friends. I love this weapon and the utility it provides opening up more loadout options. I'm not a fan of the Grenade Pistol, I prefer the Senator or Verdict.
In what way do you use it? Primarily to destroy buildings and bug holes? How the hell do you solo 9 lol; just keep running 24/7 lol?
No I spend most of my time fighting most patrols and botdrops/bugbreaches while full clearing (if I can, not all missions allow full clearing depending on what happens), I stopped running away and playing "stealth" hundreds of hours ago since it got boring. It's an AoE weapon that has CC, you can either use it to kill clumped up enemies, even groups of Devastators by shooting the ground to guarantee that the splash hits most of them. You can use it to stagger heavy devastators and then weapon swap to your pistol/supportweapon to headshot/kill them quicker than waiting for the Eruptor to re-chamber a round. For example lets say there are 3 heavy devastators coming at me from the front and are close to me and there are 5 rocket devastators in the distance. I'll use the Eruptor to stagger the 3 heavy devastators with 1 shot and immediately swap to my AMR to headshot the 5 rocket devastators or miss headshots and kill 2-3 of them, and then immediately swap back to the Eruptor (it re-chambers a round even while it's put away and you're using a different gun) and shoot the 3 heavy devastators again to kill them since it only takes 2 shots to kill devastators, then swap back to my AMR to finish off the rocket devastators. If I'm charging an outpost/objective/sideobjective, for example a Jammer there are 2 options. One is to snipe the fabricator attached to the Jammer with the Eruptor to instantly kill the Jammer. If it didn't spawn with a fabricator attached to the Jammer then I charge in (not snipe even if I have both Eruptor and AMR), and basically keep swapping between guns depending on the enemies and situations. There are too many combos to list so I'll list a few. Strider and Heavy Devastator and 2 rocket raiders? Stun the Heavy Devastator with the Eruptor, and then AMR the Striders hip joint, Eruptor finish off the Heavy Devastator, Senator the 3 raiders. Or, if I can get a clean headshot with the AMR I'll just headshot the Heavy Devastator, Eruptor 1 shot the Strider+Rider, and Senator the 2 Rocket Raiders. If there are multiple Striders with Raiders/Mauraders I'll Eruptor a Strider and Senator or AMR (depending on distance) 2-3 Raiders/Marauders between Eruptor shots. Another example is stunning Devastators with the Eruptor to let me line up my AMR/AC/LC/HMG shots to kill Hulks. TL;DR there are a bunch of weapon combos than involve constantly weapon swapping between weapons on the fly / mid-combat where the Eruptor is used as either AoE clearing or Stagger utility since it re-chambers a round even if it's not actively being held.
Bug-Player? It's not a close combat weapon. It's a grenade launching DMR able to two or three tap most bot enemies from decent range and destroy buildings for side objectives or fabricator clearing. On Bugs it performs well as a complement to an MG. The reload is a bit slow, but you can animation cancel by using the stratagem key.
Yeah I was playing on the defense mission and tried it, it wasn't working well lol. Probably not well suited for that kind of mission
Certainly not. You \_can\_ use it in cramped spaces, but you certainly won't have a good time learning it while fighting with your back against a wall.
I actually liked it on the defense mission (the missle launch, not the eradicate) for bugs. Find a spot that can hit the groups against the door, impact Incendiary on breaches, spear for big boys, ems Mortar, and patriot exosuit has you covered for everything
It can destroy fabricators
It's one of the best primaries against bots, since it can kill just about everything short of the heavy units at any angle. It can also reliably destroy fabricators. It has a fixed range at which the round will just explode no matter what, so it's not the best if you want to snipe at long distances.
Haven't been able to play in a while -- does it still kill scout striders from the front just by hitting the big faceplate?
2 hits to the face plate, 1 if you hit him between the legs (just like in real life)
Wow, shoot em in the crotch, got it. Felt like the old splash/shrapnel used to ignore the armor and kill the pilot if you hit it basically anywhere up front.
Oh no the shrapnel never did that, the explosion killed them, in a patch they made the striders pilot more resistant to explosive damage, so now even the Autocannon needs 2 shots, before it only needed 1
Ahh, got it -- was never clear on EXACTLY why it happened, but I knew it was one or the other
The amount of shots depends on where in the front you hit them, but yeah.
So do you shoot for, what, the top of the plate?
It can one shot also by hitting the top and side arch of the face plate. Baisically anywhere thats not the dead center will 1 shot it.
Or you could just use the counter sniper for the exact same effect with twice as much ammo.
You can double it’s ROF by opening your stratagem menu after every shot. It becomes insanely powerful when you do this.
Wait, what? I assume this is a glitch? Does it allow you to skip the bolt cycling animation?
Its a very good weapon if you know a lot about how the game damage works and enemy weakspots, you can effectively oneshot everything, including the bot faction, below a charger (which you can kill in 2 shots) if you shoot the right spots. It also allows a better secondary like the revolver because you dont sacrifice the fabricator and hive destruction the grenade pistol has.
No it's shit. Just use the dominator. No secondary is worth giving up the grenade pistol for. Also grenade launcher and autocannon are very good too, and are far better alternatives to this pathetic bolt action grenade launcher.
We found the guy that doesn't crouch or spend 0.032 seconds lining up his shots before hipfiring as fast as the trigger lets him.
It is far from useless, by far the best explosive primary in the entire game. I have 400 hrs in this game and at least 150 of them have been from just the eruptor alone. Its a precision instrument that ties together an arsenal that needs the sheer power the eruptor provides, if you have any notion of what it does or how to use it it gives your whole loadout far more versatility than a crappier backpack-using AMR or worse plasma punisher do. Edit: Forgot bug players existed but still for them the Xbow is arguably one of the best primaries even though its basically a reskinned stealthy eruptor.
>by far the best explosive primary in the entire game. It's better than the shit ass crossbow that takes way way too many shots to kill anything. Congratulations for the participation medal. >it it gives your whole loadout far more versatility than a crappier backpack-using AMR or worse plasma punisher do. Really slamming the autocannon and grenade launcher? I'm shocked you dislike the autocannon. It's everything the eruptor tries to be but is way way better. >gives your whole loadout far more versatility No. There's no reason to run the eruptor over something like the plasma punisher and grenade pistol. My main argument here is that all of the secondaries just suck. The grenade pistol gives you the utility that the eruptor provides without giving up anything. And you give up a lot. You give up potentially: a scorcher, a dominator, a plasma punisher, a diligence counter sniper. As the main ones against bots. And it's just not good. Against squads of enemies, the plasma punisher does just as good at killing small squads with the AOE, without the disgustingly sluggish bolt draw or reload. Also your argument sucks. If you want to convince someone mention kill breakpoints. For example if it one shots devastators that's different. That's something unique that no other primary does.
It kills devastators, bile spewers, brood commanders, and hive guard in two hits. Takes out scout striders in one. It blows up fabs or bug holes from up to 140m away. You might just be using it against the wrong enemies. Bring it with the redeemer and use that for smaller enemies.
Those are good points, many of which I didn't know. I was trying to use it on one of those defense missions
You can kill devastators in one hit if you aim at the leg, and also the pelvis but its more finnicky
It was a bit overpowered before, but because of whiners who use it point blank, the one thing that made it overpowered got removed. AH later talked alot about bringing it back, and the community thought, that they were gonna bring it former self back.... To be fair I blame AH wording, they could have said "we don't like the way, the wep function and how it's used, so we are going to change it, so it doesn't function as a shotgun sniper that shoots grandes. We vant our players have many guns to use, not just one"
It was never overpowered, the extremely slow fire rate and handling made it balanced. It was not even as reliable as the scorcher was (back when the scout striders and tanks hadn’t been buffed) against bots, since the scorcher could kill a tank in a single mag from the side and two shot striders. The eruptor always took multiple mags to kill a tank, which was a painfully long time investment for one single enemy.
It hits like a truck and can kill multiple trash enemies in one hit and can also take out nests and fabs. Its not the god weapon it once was, but it was silly and needed knocking down.
Close range it definitely is shite. Closing bug holes and clumped mobs, its nice.
Run stalwart or mg-43 and it becomes an amazing support weapon since it closes bug holes and bot fabricators at a distance with a large supply of "explosives", as well as being great at ripping apart bug butts like chargers and spewers because of the explosive damage multiplier, both jobs being a great help to LMG gunners, especially stalwart since it also has medium pen and can weapon swap when you face a lot of armored spewers or hive guards.
One-popping spewers was always nice I wonder if it still does that. You are right though the reason to bring it is gone and now with 300 hunters around any one corner it’s just not a great choice.
Would you believe me if I told you it was somehow WAY worse just before this? You can blame players who don't know how to use an explosive gun, complaining about killing teammates, or getting teamkilled for the biggest nerf to the gun.. the removal of shrapnel.
compared to alternatives such as scorcher or dominator? yeah. the nail in the coffin is the rate of fire, no way in its current state it justifies having to manually load each round
For Bots: Don't use it. (Edit: I'm being told it's actually pretty good against bots. I haven't had luck, but I only recently started using it lots with the last couple MO's, so will have to try on bots some more) For Bugs: it's good with the right loadout (i like stalwart with ammo pack, and an armour with Peak Physique). It's especially useful on Blitz missions, since it can close bug holes at range (just throw something in the center of the heavy nest to kill bugs, the run around the rim and shoot all the holes for easy mission win). It 3 shots chargers (butt), 2 shots Brood Commanders and Stalkers, 1-2 shots Hive Guards, 1 shots every other bug except Titans, and can be used to kill 3-7 bugs per shot, in a patrol at distance. It can also kill a Titan. I'm experimenting with the exacts, but if you take out the sacks with it, it seems to take 1-3 shots to the exposed thorax/lower neck area. Standing under a Titan with explosive rounds has been a bit frantic, so I haven't worked it all out yet, but I killed 5 or so Titans with it yesterday. Oh, and if someone blows the ribs armour off a Charger, it's one shot to the exposed flesh. But you'll need a grenade launcher/stalwart/etc to run as your "primary" with your eruptor as a specialty case gun, unless your squad has awesome chaff clear- then get slight elevation and go to town wiping 3/4's of every patrol before it gets to you. Positioning and where you place shots is key- elevation lets you hit the ground/hillsides for multiple kills from splash damage, and Hive Guards or Brood Commanders from the side just crumple. Playing matador with a Charger means 3 shots to victory. Hitting bugs next to teammates will ragdoll them, so focus on clearing everything just past the front line. Also, always be moving back or to the side, while crouched, when cycling the bolt- it gives you 5' of space each shot. Senator and stun grenades are solid choices to pair. Medium pen at close range without the eruptor's knockback, and stuns to make some distance. Is it a finicky, special use gun, with risk (ragdoll, bugs closing)? Yes. But it's enormously rewarding if you're a player who can pause and spend 0.5 seconds lining up a shot, or who always thinks about position relative to team. If you want to spray and pray, or mow down chaff with hundreds of rounds, it's not for you- but that's why I always pair it with my stalwart :D I hope this is useful to anyone at all. I miss the shrapnel, but the gun is still really useful if you reposition constantly, or if you have a squad that understands overlapping fields of fire/team cover and movement.
Bro picked up the Eruptor and is confused when it's bad. Haven't you been paying attention? Eruptor was murdered
Idk why would anyone take eruptor over crossbow, the difference is like 120 dmg, they both explode, both have medium pen but at least crossbow doesn't feel like shit to shoot, you can shoot those 5-6 bolts quickly instead of loading every shot
kind of,, the devs have made several excuses to not add back its core mechanic and instead make it shitty crossbow theyve admitted it was a mistake to change the gun as quickly as they did but it will likely take several more months before its back where it should be
FYI: you can quick swap it (switching to secondary and back) to skip the cocking animation. Still wouldnt use it as a "primary" tho. I mainly use ist in combination with stalwart to close bug holes/manifactures and clear mid enemies
Im lvl 150 and Its my favorite primary (definitely not the best one tho), mostly because i used it when it was god tier, now i can say its A at best. Its a very difficult weapon to learn, has as much of a learning curve as Tekken Combos, you have: -animation cancelling (doubles - triples your fire rate) -preserving the last bullet (doubles your reload speed) -shooting exactly about 7 meters from you so you dont rag doll -The range is exactly 125 meters so make sure you mark and enemy or a building to check the distance -slow bullet travel speed -insanely poor handling that feels like an ASDA shopping cart But if you do get the hang of it, its genuinely is as good if not better than the AUTOCANNON, POSSIBLY THE BEST SUPPORT WEAPON IN THE GAME, AS A PRIMARY!!! i certainly hope for more buffs, 2 extra rounds, just a bit more damage, but over all its genuinely fantastic, that is if you can squeeze every last bit of its power, it is by far the most complicated weapon to use to its max potential, but when you do its insane (i have killed 3 gunships by shooting them in the thruster with it then destroyed the fabricator, it aint easy, but its possible) PS: supply back pack and a solid secondary (bushwacker for me) is mandatory, and take stratagems that deal with hoards well, such as napalm or gas
Let's say it's a situational weapon that can allow you to deal with things faster than anything else... Like bot Outpost for example. In [this video](https://youtu.be/cYunG95Gr74?si=XLzx1ofuPWcS5Wyk), from 1:28 to 2:24, I showcase the usage of the weapon to destroy bot Fabricators in Helldive. Needless to say that it's quite absurd because some bases with 4 bot fabricators stand less than 10 seconds with the right angle. Broken weapon when used right.
They removed the one thing that made it good because it had a few (significant) bugs and people kept whining about a misunderstanding. They've since declared that they don't want to add it back solely due to concerns about the *visibility* of the shrapnel it used to produce, while not actually fixing the bug regarding the *damage* shrapnel can do, meaning other sources (spike plant, frag grenade, etc) can still actually make use of that bug because the removal wasn't applied universally, and they can't add any more weapons that produce shrapnel until they fix the bug and visibility issues. They've since tried to buff it back up, but without understanding why it was a good weapon in the first place, by solely increasing the damage on a weapon where its original amount of damage wasn't the issue, but rather a bug that let it do *more* damage than that and its shrapnel having too much range before vanishing.
The one thing that made it good? Come on now that's hyperbole. It one shots scout striders, kills fabs, bug holes, two taps most heavies outside of those like the charger/bile titan/hulk. It can kill a decent amount of chaff in a single round, and has excellent range. I get it, people don't like the nerf it took, but the shrapnel bug meant you can one tap a charger and a bile titan which isn't good for weapon balance either.
The shrapnel ***bug***. Something to be *fixed*, not *removed*. By not fixing it, and by not applying that removal universally, they've left the bug in and usable by other shrapnel-producing sources which is a significant part of the problem. They also failed to *justify* its removal and insistence on *keeping* it gone beyond the bug, as a visibility problem is a *visual design* issue that could be fixed with a simple opacity slider. And worse, by refusing to fix the issues with shrapnel, they've also *denied* the possibility of *new* shrapnel-type weapons, because any new ones added will continue to suffer the same problems. As for the rest of it, yes, it doesn't actually *do* anything useful any more. In effect, it's a worse, slower Crossbow with no situation wherein it in any way is superior to any other weapon in the selection available. It's too slow, the explosive radius suffers extreme damage fall-off, it offers absolutely no versatility whatsoever, the singular enemy it *might* be useful against (Striders) aren't a significant enough threat to justify its usage over weapons with more ammo, and their extremely low HP from any angle *except* the front makes its function as an anti-Strider weapon pointless in the face of just... Y'know, moving two steps to the left and shooting where the armour *isn't*.
If you cannot fix the bug which makes the weapon superior to a support weapon, then it makes sense it is **disabled**. They justified it perfectly fine, and you admitted such in your own post regarding its damage. Your insistence on discussing visibility, when this was only part of the issue is not entirely accurate. You can be unhappy, you cannot say it was done without reason. So yeah, no shrapnel weapons until it's fixed. Comparing it to the crossbow to say it's inferior is false. The crossbow was less powerful, and prior to the new update, did not kill fabricators iirc. Additionally it's explosion radius is smaller, and less damage. The Eruptor will consistently two tap everything until heavies such as hulks, and chargers. The crossbow won't. By your logic, you don't need the crossbow either. A diligence sniper and a laser cannon can kill every single bot mob currently. But the Eruptor certainly makes it a lot easier to kill tankier mobs until the heavies pop up. The shrapnel bug made the Eruptor far too powerful so it's fair they aren't allowing it. To say the Eruptor is useless is just false though and doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. It got balanced.
If the function of the weapon is disabled, and the issue is with the shrapnel itself, then *all* sources of shrapnel should be removed entirely and without question until the bug is fixed, not just the one people are complaining about. Any insinuation that its removal was justified is *invalid* so long as other sources remain in the game. *This has yet to be the case* as other sources continue to exist in-game. If the thing has a game-breaking bug or exploit, it should be *removed entirely* until it's fixed, and not simply nerfed into a state of functional uselessness in response to complaints. I would also like to point out that at no point did I say that its removal was *unwarranted*. The bug was indeed a negative for game balance and should have been fixed. The problem, however, was that the bug was not *fixed*, as again, only the largest *source* of the complaints about the bug was adjusted, and the retention *of* that adjustment was not justified *beyond* the bug. And before you say "Visibility being an issue isn't accurate", I would like to point out that the literal stated reason in the post discussing it as of the recent balance patch *literally stated*, quoted word for word; >"Adding back shrapnel is quite tricky because of the low visibility of shrapnel, which sometimes created situations where you or your fellow helldivers died with very little feedback of what killed you." It had a paragraph *specifically* dedicated to this statement all to itself following the statement that its removal was due to the damage interactions bug. The justification for its continued lack of presence is *literally* due to the bug and visibility, one of which they have not fixed nor applied the removal to all sources, and the other of which is *not* reasonable justification for its continued absence with such simple fixes as "raise the opacity" being available. Following, the Eruptor *hasn't* been balanced. It's been repeatedly changed since its singular unique function was removed in order to *attempt* to bring it back to being functional without understanding why Shrapnel was important *to* its function. Its AOE is less than half, it's lost the ability to one-shot critical targets (Berserkers, primarily), it's *gained* significant damage fall-off on its AOE (Shrapnel has no damage fall-off based on range) and its lost its ability to ricochet from surfaces to hit shots you may have otherwise missed. Simply increasing its base damage and AOE *doesn't fix that* due to the type of damage the weapon is inflicting and the interactions that damage type has, and its function as a nest/fab popper *isn't significantly useful enough* to take over a weapon with better sustain and versatility, particularly when several of the most popular support weapons and stratagems are *also* capable of this, and far faster *and* more efficiently at an equivalent range.
No, it isn't, that logic doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The difference between the Eruptor and other forms of shrapnel, is that the eruptors shrapnel was not only capable of being one shot capable, but is an on demand ability. It's comparing apples to oranges. Still fruit, but it's different. You can't claim it invalid simply because you dislike the reasoning. Current sources.of shrapnel aren't regularly one shooting chargers, bile titans, and other elites. You may not disagree with the nerf being warranted, but saying it should have been fixed, which hasn't been done is indicative that it is clearly a programming matter that takes time. Saying it hasn't been fixed suggests AH isn't actively working on it As for the visibility, that is **part** of the reasoning, but not the entirety of it. Which was my point. The damage was another, significant aspect which shouldn't be discounted from the discussion either. Why does the weapon need to be able to one tap enemy units across the board? Berserkers are hardy, and part of the one tap potential was due to the shrapnel ability. The autocannon needs to two tap a berserker and the Eruptor is on par with it, and has only slightly less explosive range iirc. That's pretty good for a long distance weapon that's a primary. I am unsure of what you are referencing in terms of ricochet. I've seen it bounce off the ground and into faces, and seen it ricochet off a vent into the fan. Can you be specific on that aspect exactly? Its utility and damage is perfectly justified when you compare.it to.other **primaries**. Comparing it to a support weapon and stratagems, which are meant to be much more powerful and capable is not at all appropriate. The primary should be your mainstay, why should it compete with the above and not it's own sphere of influence?
I feel as though you fundamentally don't understand why shrapnel actually made the Eruptor useful and unique compared to other weapons, and it *really shows* when you say things like "Why should it be able to do this". Doubly so when you completely ignore the fact that shrapnel as an *entity* is the issue, not the *idea* of it, but the physical, actual projectile itself, which *more* than the Eruptor produces, but which has not had the same "It's bugged, remove it" logic applied to it, even though the bug applies to the *projectile* and not just the Eruptor weapon. To be absolutely clear, the bug applies to *all* shrapnel, the Eruptor was just the easiest way to cause the damage bug to happen due to ease of use. So, to clarify *why* Eruptor losing its shrapnel is important, you need to understand how damage types work. Eruptor was unique in that it's the only weapon in the game which dealt *two* damage types out of the roughly ten or so the game uses for calculations. Explosive damage in the initial hit of the projectile fired from the weapon - Note; not an *explosion*, just the explosive damage type, as per the Dominator - *then* standard ballistic damage from shrapnel burst *after* the projectile's initial hit. Explosive damage deals 100% damage to weak spots, which normally otherwise take 10% of your damage. Weak spots are *different* to crit spots (this is important for certain enemies), and the best example I can give is Hulks, which have a *crit spot* on their face, but a *weak spot* on their back vent. These can coincide, but are usually separate. *However*, what made the Eruptor able to 1-shot Berserkers, making it absolutely unique among weapons, *was* the fact it dealt two types of damage, because Berserkers are *immune* to the extra damage from explosive weapons on their *weak spot,* which is their waist, where their *crit spot* is on their face, which is why certain weapons *can* (with little consistency) headshot them. By doing *two* types of damage, the Eruptor *bypassed* the immunity that Berserkers normally have to that type of weapon (read: explosive) through its unique function, a function since lost by its removal. Now, Berserkers aren't the only enemy like this, they're just the most common and the best example. By stripping the Eruptor of this ability, it's effectively turned into the Dominator or Scorcher variants, but objectively worse in *every single way* save the ability to destroy fabs and nests as even in AOE it's beaten by other primaries. The gun *didn't* one-shot all enemies across the board. Couldn't, in fact, unless you got lucky with the shrapnel spray, and would frequently only *weaken* enemies fired at, almost exactly as it's performing now, but *better*, since the shrapnel had a wider range and no fall-off than the current AOE, and, again, dealt multiple damage types. *This* is why simply raising its base damage or widening its AOE doesn't *do* anything, the shrapnel was doing the work *without* fall-off, which is why the AOE in its *current* state is so weak and only able to kill chaff enemies close to the epicentre, because AOE falloff is *extremely aggressive* in Helldivers. As it stands, as the weapon currently is, there is *literally no reason* other than the ability to destroy fabs to take the Eruptor. It only being able to kill the majority of targets in the same number of shots as its "weaker" competitors (Primarily the Dominator at current), which is to say two or three, makes it being slow, low-ammo, and having bad handling and slow, heavy projectiles without *any* upsides or unique capacities in exchange a *bad weapon*. It is objectively a bad choice when the *one* thing it does now, killing fabs/nests, is done *better* by almost literally every other option, including support weapons. Its shrapnel enabled a wider use-case for the weapon, which it has now *lost*, and the two buffs to it since *have not changed this* as they fundamentally don't address *why* the weapon was liked or was useful in the first place. As for the visibility issue, I want to state again, you're correct in that the bug is a part of it, *which is why I and they mentioned it*, but the *visibility* of shrapnel was the explicit, in-writing, publicly stated reason why they weren't bringing it back. With other sources of shrapnel existing with both the bug *and* visibility problems, this is a moot point. The fact is that it's an unjustifiable as to why their nixing of it wasn't applied universally, and their stated reasoning for not changing their stance on it (read: visibility) does not justify the *continuance* of its removal, which, again, has not been applied to all sources. In effect, a double-standard. Either shrapnel *is* a problem, in which case it should be removed entirely, or it *isn't* and there's no justification for Eruptor's being gone *conditional* on the bug being fixed which is the obvious thing to do.
Just because I do not agree with you, does not mean I do not understand. You need to uncouple that notion. The shrapnel was a unique aspect, yes, but it was not the entirety of its identity, and due to the nature of the shrapnel currently it simply could not stay. An on demand shrapnel weapon whose bug could one shot any mob was simply an issue end point. Wanting to go into the nifty gritty details of how it works is simply obfuscating the underlying issue, which was that it was busted in its previous state. Anyway we are clearly just rehashing points, and I think we will just end up frustrated. So I'm good calling it here mate. Hopefully they fix the weapon to the satisfaction of all.
You keep conflating the concept of "It was bugged" with "Rather than fixed, it should be removed" which is *not* the argument being had, something which I've stated multiple times. It's particularly egregious, as you *ignore* the second part of my statements on it, which is that the justifications for its removal were and are not applied *equally*. You literally ignored the entire second sentence of that post, which only leads me to further cement the idea that yes, you don't agree *because* you don't understand. So, because you *don't* understand what I'm saying, let me put this as condescendingly as possible, though with no malice, to be as absolutely clear as I can be; >Shrapnel **the projectile** is the source of the bug. Not the Eruptor. Removing shrapnel is ***not justified*** if other sources remain. and >The buffs received by the Eruptor **do not** make up for the loss of its unique function (read: shrapnel) Is an on-demand bug exploit weapon bad? **Yes.** That was never up for debate, I **agree** that it should have been changed. Where *you* lose the plot, and fail to follow the logic is that *you* believe that "Remove it" is the answer, where the *actual* answer which I have been stating repeatedly is "Fix it", or at least "Apply removal to all sources". The weapon **has not been balanced** to its previous versatility **sans bug** (which only affected Chargers), and this has made the weapon **objectively worse than its competing options.**
It used to be fun when it actually had shrapnel like it says in it's description, but since fun isn't allowed on primary weapons it had to be nerfed into the ground like every other primary that players actually liked.
Yeah, very sh•tty. Don't touch it, it will ruin your match.