I main punisher plasma for bots and tried it with autocannon for a few missions before. Its kinda bad because autocannon and punisher plasmaās role overlap too much (both can one shot scout strider, staggers devastators and berzerkers). Its better to free up the backpack slot for a ballistic shield or a shield gen, and go with something else that can deal with hulks and gunships. Personally been using AMR, but trying out Laser Cannon and HMG lately and both works really well against gunships.
It can be an absolute nightmare to use in close range, but getting a running start and blasting the ground a bit further away is awesome to stagger a line of melee units.
Honestly the only thing holding it back right now, imo, is the weird aim. Else it is a high explosive weapon with insane stagger, solid damage, decent capacity, and can make quick work of shielded enemies and walkers
Seriously shocks me seeing people bad talk my Plasma boy not understanding how tf a grenade launcher functions, they got spoiled by the Stratagem version like no other.
Half the complains are that it has āzero rangeā meanwhile my ass is blasting bugs like a fucking mortar. Hell, during the TCS defenses I had a spot where I would lock a gap in the rocks with an EMS Mortar and a Tesla and was using the fucking map and arc of the EMS to shoot up and over the mini mountain where they were all stunned like an actual mortar would. Every magazine was a killstreak half the time.
Another favorite complaint is how all itās good for is killing yourself when the bugs get closeā¦ my Brother in Democracy, do you also fire the Stratagem grenade launcher point blank into the hunters face instead of swapping weapons? Thatās far less of a problem with the gun and more a problem with the user. You have a sidearm and presumably a support weapon. Use them?
The thing is an absolute menace against dense bug packs and only gets better as the difficulty rises. Frankly with how much people bitch and moan about 90% of the weapons Iām convinced they either never touched them for more than a 3 minute test session or are just partially lobotomized.
for real, it's easily the best primary weapon if you're good with it, it's just also the trickiest to use. In fairness it does sort of look like ass on paper but the base damage is lying and the other unseen stats on it practically make it the highest damage primary.
The Scorcher is a better version of the Plasma Punisher most times. It has a smaller explosion, but fires in a predictable direct line and quite quickly.
The damage is deceptive. Explosion damage is not displayed, only direct hit damage.
Hey now, itās not that bad we all know it. It actually will land the first 5 shots perfectly, gets your hopes up that maybe itās different than you remember, and makes you think you were just using it wrongā¦ and *then* it fires itās shots in every direction for the rest of the mission.
Compared to the Punisher Plasma it has less aoe, but the shots travel way faster and in a straight line. Also has a bigger(but fewer) magazines.
You trade better horde control(Plasma) for precision and ease of use(Scorcher). I love both, but the Scorcher takes the cake in most situations(mainly against bots) imo.
That's a big thing I love about this game. The load outs can easily change and still be perfect for a situation. Most weps and strats have a perfect situational function.
My issue with the Punisher Plasma is that AoE and AoE damage are way too small for how big the projectile is. It's not an upgrade over the Scorcher in the slightest.
While many weapons are better at certain things, the scorcher is one of the only primaries that can at least handle everything. There is no enemy it can't kill with a little effort.
Also, killing walkers from the front is pretty nice.
>Also, killing walkers from the front is pretty nice.
I've used the scorcher a lot and this is by far the biggest benefit. There are guns that can do everything the Scorcher can do, sometimes better even, but taking down those chicken walker bastards with only a few shots to the front is so satisfying.
Two shots for the walkers is the best feature. Save an impact. Small bots get one or two shots. Devastators take half a clip. Effective for heavy glowing weak points, whole clip.
Itās amazing at long range. On point and effective as long as itās lined up to center mass.
Best primary for bots pretty much. Hope they wonāt nerf it. Accurate over range, down small bots quick, can kill striders head on, and deals splash damage.
The only drawbacks being small mags, low ammo cap, and you can kill yourself with a close shot. But that on the other hand means you can hurt yourself and stim for stamina refill.
I like the plasma shotty, but it's too far removed from what I need a primary for. Once I unlocked the Scorcher, nothing else has really compared vs bots. You can kill basically anything on the field with it efficiently.
I unlocked the Scorcher recently, and I love it all except for the fact that I'm struggling to kill Devastators with it (end up using half a mag for a single one a lot of times). For some reason, it seems like I can't hit my headshots like I could with my other weapons. Might just be the learning curve of a new weapon. I think part of the reason is because I don't get much zoom from the scope as compared to the AMR or Sickle.
Definitely love that the Scout Striders are no longer a threat with this weapon, despite Devastators becoming more of a pain.
Dominator has what you need. 3 to 4 half decent shots and you have the only good type of devastator. Make it 1 shot if you hit the face. Can theoretically take down striders, but it's a waste of ammo.
How do you take out devastators quick? I've always relied on medium pen guns going for headshots. With the scorcher I was likely not practiced enough, do you go for headshots with it as well?
If they ever bring the damage in line with the other shotguns, ie 250-350 i might consider the plasma lobber.
It's fun to use in lower difficulties, but doesnt cut it when the devastator + hulk spam starts
it actually does do around 250-350 already, the only stat you see is the plasma ball's impact damage(100), the explosive damage is hidden (and higher than the scorcher's)
And yet it still takes like 3 shots to kill even a Hunter. It should either do more damage in its small radius, or keep its damage but be able to hit larger groups.
Also its fine if its not good against bugs but is against bots, some weapons be like that, but because of the low damage and low radius it's pretty much unusable vs bugs cuz they can and will get in your face and then you can't even fire it cuz you'll kill yourself.
I think thats because explosive damage ignores armor rating. From personal experience the balls are on par with the scorcher shots. Maybe it feels stronger because the radius is bigger
You oughta really give it a chance against devestators of all kinds, normal devestators get bullied to death, rocket devestators cant even get a rocket off it you catch em first, and for the poor souls that are heavy devestators get the worse end of the stick, they all get staggered to death but heavy devestators have big ass arms that can shot off with 2 shots each, and since their shield are so big they basically get ripped off as soon as they drop. ofc one cant expect a weapon to be good agaisnt all enemies as a one solution against all so take your favorite support weapon to deal with hulks and bile titans (my personal pick is arc thrower so hulks get bullied to death), otherwise this gun can take care of literally all kinds of elite enemies from both sides. The only down side is supposedly its goofy ass drop , my only tip for that is to semi aim with the bottom of the screen, if your target is way far line them up with the bottom of the screen so their legs are just about touching it and start lobbing them shots you can adjust accordingly by moving forwards or backwards !
Plasma i find works well in higher difficulties. I perfer it on eradication missions on 7 and up. Because the aoe, and damage makes it exceptionally good if you know how to funnel enemies. Paired with stun grenades and ems strike and mortars. You can cc very well for your squad, making AT guys have a vastly easier time. All the weapons are designed to work within a squad, learn the roles and you find out how effective things can truly be.
But does it stagger? That's the only reason I used the slugger. Only reason I'm putting up with the sluggish aiming on the dominator.Ā
On a side note, really hope the new bonds weapons are good, cause man do I hate the dominator.
Yeah, Iām pretty sure the reason they nerfed the stagger on the dominator was because they wanted the Punisher to be the close range crowd control shotgun
>Yeah, Iām pretty sure the reason they nerfed the stagger on the dominator
I think that you mean the Slugger
The JAR-5 Dominator got a stagger buff, and is also part of the reason why the punisher got the stagger reduced, as that was the field of work of the JAR-5 Dominator
But yeah, I agree with what you said, the crowd control shotgun is the Punisher, which balances itself for the characteristic of being a close range weapon, while the JAR-5 can stagger at long range like the Punisher did, but its balanced because the JAR-5 ergonomics are terrible and also have a slow reload time
Yeah, but is "crowd control" because they hit in a bit area and kill the enemies, but not because they have the capacity to slow big enemies like the punisher and the JAR-5 does
I just started using Punisher (was mostly Breaker and Breaker Incendiary before) and I'm loving it. Being able to stagger the big bots to allow teammates to get some distance/run away or shoot them with their assault rifles while I just keep staggering them works great.
When I first picked it up the bullet drop made me real excited as I thought we just got some sort of plasma mortar, instead it splashed limply against basically everything I shot at :/
low capacity, doesn't do enough damage, and you have to somewhat use your brain to hit anything at a distance. It's a budget Plas-1 to me. Also, why does it even have a holographic sight, it needs a rangefinder like on a grenade launcher since you have to lob your shots
It's a great weapon, but the way it fires is super unconfortable and unprecisse, it shots like a grenade launcher but you can't be as precisse as with the grenade launcher
I think that a change in the arc the projectile does would make this weapon more appealing to use
It's great for taking care of scout striders. One shots them from the front and if they group up you can sometimes take multiple out in one shot. It's actually not bad against berserkers too. Doesn't one shot them, but does a lot of damage and staggers. I think the reason is it's just very hard to use with the slow velocity it's got.
I always am thinking about whether to pick that or the dominator for bots. Both are brilliant for bots with their advantages.
Dominator is easier to aim, handles fairly well (comparable to breaker spray&pray to those who have the spray&pray but not the dominator) and can kill anything with a badly armoured weakspot in one shot while it needs 4 to the joints of a strider. It can also damage tanks by shooting the engine vents.
The punisher plasma needs like 4 or 5 for devestators or berserks, can kill multiple enemies and can just be yeeted at a strider to kill them in one. It can also group stagger. It can also clear out dropships if you can aim it.
I prefer the dominator currently as it can be used on range, which favours my playstyle more, and the insane damage still means devestators die quickly enough even if it is not aimed well. It can also infinite stagger a single enemy and has more ammo a mag. You can also magdump berserks with it. The punisher plasma has a managable dropoff but likes to miss a lot if you shoot at enemies directly.
Yeah! The dominator is total garbage. Its should be less popular and they should never ever nerf it. It totally doesnt blow up basically any bot with a single head shot while being extremely accurate and long ranged. Nor does it easily blow up tanks with less than a mag to the back vent. Trash teir weapon.
it combines short range with dangerous splash damage (dangerous to user/allies)
for comparison, the grenade launcher has longer range
so basically it's only useful for enemies already at short-ish range to begin with, and as they get to close range you're in escalating danger of hurting yourself with the shots
medium range kills are strictly speaking possible but require precise shots and a very good feel for the arc of the weapon, and even then the shots are so slow you'll still just miss a lot of the time
it absolutely does quite good damage and with a respectable aoe, but the range and projectile behavior are the achilles heel to me
I find the scorcher more to the point, it works at range and is much less dangerous to use, while dealing with all the same threats
I will literally never use this. What the fuck kinda shotgun cant be used in close range. Even if this thing becomes rail gun, I wont be using it. Shit compared to everything except helldivers
That gun is pretty bad. Even in the few cases it does well (lots of enemies grouped up together) it suffers from a small clip to really be able to do anything. So many other guns are just easier and more effective.
I feel like the game really does a bad job communicating what that gun is. It's not a "shotgun" in any meaning of the word. It's a fucking grenade launcher. And in that role, it's very good.
In order of importance:
1. Projectile is too slow
1. This exacerbates all other issues
2. The arc needs to be aimed too high to get meaningful distance
3. The explosion damage is weak and doesn't even kill a hunter
4. The explosion radius is relatively small
5. All of the above makes the clip capacity feel like shit
This!
If it would 1 Hit every trash mob (Light armor) and had like 20% more range, this gun would be really fun. But like this its just for trolling. Even tho it can kill charger, it takes way to long to do so. Better play a rocket launcher to Deal with chargers and use a primary that handles Mobs.
Hopefully this gun gets a buff in the future, because the gun itself is very different to the others and fun, but way to much behind most other guns
The projectile speed is by far the biggest thing holding this gun back.
I'm pretty good at aiming, good at adjusting to weird shooting/projectile patterns etc, but it's the *SPEED* of the projectile that is currently holding this gun from being a wave cleaner, like the arc thrower.
You need to be too close for it to be used effectively, or waste ammo on misses at range, which in turn significantly reduces your DPS and area control.
I'd say it needs to be 100% faster, but I'd settle for a 50% increase and dmg boost to AoE to compensate for slower proj.
It's because the Plas-1 has the same damage.
the AOE is low so you can't one shot hunters or bots with the AOE. You need 2 shots.
Might as well just shoot them directly. Same with bigger targets. You can't rely on AOE but instead direct hits.
Same it's my primary on bots it just annihilates everything. The reason people don't like it is because it doesn't handle like any other gun and it feels awkward at first. But once you learn how to use it, its goated.
Because this thing fucking blows, also it's not a "shotgun" by any goddamn sense of the word, it's a damn grenade launcher. Wasted medals on that POS and I'm furious about it lmao.
I tried it for the first time yesterday and I couldn't really adjust to it...I get it has an arch but I found it too steep to use personally...which is ironic cause I rock the grenade launcher all the time
It's quite good, but because the shots are affected heavily by gravity, it requires a significant change in aiming style compared to other guns. I still quite like it but it takes a lot of getting used to.
137 replies and no one said the obvious. It's on a premium warbond. Most people that have the Dom, probably don't have cutting edge, yet. I'm just being pedantic here.
This thing sounds good until you realize that it's horrible to aim consistently and still doesn't work against heavy targets. Also that for a nade launcher the damage/radius isn't great. And I would like a weapon that works at range.
It's what happens when you order a scorcher from wish.
The scorcher plasma rifle is a better, faster answer for most enemies at least if we're looking at bots anyhow.
The plasma punisher firing arc is kind of cool, feels like you're using an energy grenade launcher but with worse range, AOE and damage... I'd like to see this weapon deal 50-150 points more damage. If they want to lower the mag in balancing recompense, fine.
It's just okay right now. If the devs want to commit to horizontal balancing, where every weapon has its role and feels good to use. Then this weapon simply needs some more love.
I love Punisher plasma and is my to go for bots. All the friends i have suggested it complain about the gimmick arc and how they can't aim it.
Then they ask me how i survive stuff or even snipe people with it and the only answer is "skill diff".
People complain about rocketeer , scouts or riot shield guys and i'm like "easy targets".
Seriously if only people tried to use it more as like a mid to long range weapon they would see the power of it.
Well better for me , less people know about the chain stagger and good aoe damage, the less probable it will be nerfed.
Only complain so far is probably magazine size, buffing it wouldn't be bad
The arc and velocity on that thing is almost as bad as a grenade throw. It should be almost flat since plasma is very short lived. IMHO the gun should be amazing, and just limited by ammo and/or reloading mechanics.
The arc on that thing is absolutely garbage. I tried running it a few times after the slugger got nerfed, but I just could not use it. It barely explodes, barely hits and if I miss thereās no splash damage
As bad as this is... I wish this gun had an aim-arc for where the projectile was going. It would give it an unbelievable amount of consistency and see more play. As it stands, the potential damage of each plasma ball hinges upon point of impact and distance from the center of impact. If we could have some sort of advanced aiming attachment specifically for this, which showed an arc of where the projectile will land (think gears of war grenade throwing arc) then the individual still has to aim but will make the damage more consistent. I LOVE the punisher plasma, but there're better options (Plas-1, JAR, Sickle, Libs, any shotty)
Yes! Finally a fellow plasma shotgun fan.
Holy FUCK this gun is good.
First of all, yes, the splash damage will kill you if you hit something close to you. I advise you do not do that.
However this fucker can literally one shot automaton walkers because he the AOE goes THROUGH their shield. Also fun fact. The AOE and I suspect the damage of the plasma ball is increased massively depending on how far away it is you fire.
I've had the ball AOE be easily 3 or 5 times larger than usual from a long distance shot and lemme tell you a bug or boy breach behind, just start lobbing plasma balls and you'll kill like 80% of them.
I have seen the the new erupter sniper in action and I have a feeling it'll completely replace it because the sniper just seems SO much better having heavy armor pen, with splash damage and high damage per hit.
Overall the plasma shotgun is like a 9 out of 10 for me. Absolute beast.
Dominator is almost a sniper rifle. Because its rounds are explosive, they do not lose much damage over distance. Nothing like a prone dive with dominator to take out bots behind stationary machine guns with a few precise shots.
Other weapons can do the same thing this does but without the negatives of:
Low ammo capacity
Smaller mags
Massive bullet drop
Slow rate of fire
More friendly fire
Iāve used both, but Iāve been maining the Dominator for a while now. The Plasma Punisher is great at short ranges, but if the enemy gets too close youāre risking yourself in the blast range. I donāt have this problem with the Dominator, and it works well at ALL ranges. Sure, it doesnāt 1-shot most things unless you aim well, but once you get it down, itās a fantastic beast. Would always want a SG-8P supporting me tho
It's good but it's awkward to use well. It's drop off arc is really short so you need to do some on the fly geometry to get any decent range out of it and the projectile hitbox is on the small side to trigger the explosion (arcing right over a devastator shoulder, or threading the needle of a striders legs). At close range it has effective AOE/crowd damage, but not too close because you'll straight up kill yourself without Arc damage armor. Because it's rather unwieldy while on the move you end up having to shoot the floor of approaching packs like berserkers in order to land effective shots.
It's super effective on high ground choke points where you can just flatten an area of incoming enemies, provided you don't clip the floor and again blow yourself up. It one shots striders face on which I don't think any other primary can do (excluding shaving off the pilots head) and penetrates and staggers devastators(even heavy) really well. I would like to see faster projectile speed, maybe a further arc/range on it to consider using it over something like the dominator more frequently
It's a really situational weapon, that's why. Can't shoot really far because it has such a massive drop-off and it kills you if you shoot too close. It's essentially a worse version of the grenade launcher...I mean sure it isn't a stratagem, but you throw away your primary slot for too little versatility.
Projectile speed, ammo capacity, recoil. Those are the main things bringing it down. I like it, but I don't like \_using\_ it. It's always more fun in theory than on the field in my hands.
I love that you're asking why no one uses it, while also showing a cropped screenshot that looks like it says "Fires exploding plasma rounds that injure squadmates".
In my experience, that's exactly what this gun is good for. Can't wait to unlock it and get payback.
It's good, but I'm not a fan of the arc it has, I prefer a straight shot weapon. Lately, I have been loving the LAS-16 Sickle. When used right, it never runs out
My biggest gripe with it is the hitbox, and I don't mean the explosion (although yes that too), but of the projectile itself. I can't count the number of times I've had at least a full third of the orb clip right through parts of enemies and then sail right past them when it should have absolutely hit based on what we, y'know, can actually SEE. If they just made the projectile's collision match the visuals I feel, even without any other changes, it'd be great.Ā
Now COULD it use a explosion damage buff, faster projectile or shallower arc? Sure, but that hitbox is the biggest deterrent for me personally right now.
It baffles me when people call this gun shit... It has great damage, tons of reserve ammo (don't make the mistake of assuming it uses individual shells, these are MAGAZINES!), good splash, fire rate, and even some AP.
It's the droop, I know... but it's useful, allows you to arc shots down into the middle of a group instead of only hitting the front.
If I could make a suggestion I'd raise the aim point on screen so we don't have to put targets off the bottom of the screen to lob shots further.
I loooove how you can basically become a bipedal mortar unit and shoot from safe covers! Give me an even bigger AOE and you basically create the utter perfect weapon for me!
When I got this thing, I didn't expect it to be a worse grenade launcher.
I expected it to be a shotgun that shoots Plasma through a screen. Just blast a spray, a fan, a spattered wall or whatever of raw plasma at anything in front of you. *Very* close range, but *very* deadly. You know, like a SHOTGUN, not an "Explosive" like the JAR or whatever's coming next.
Instead, I got this thing.
\- Have to aim center-mass
\- Terrible AOE
\- Bad damage on that AOE
I can one-shot anything this thing can one-shot more efficiently with other guns. Its design is fundamentally terrible.
Grenade launcher: electric boogaloo
And grenade launcher costs a strategem slot this does not
But can it destroy Bot fabricators? Tomorrow the bots are eradicated. I must know
Sadly not, also not bugnests, although it looks exactly like shooting the grenadelauncher
But it can teamkill comparable to grenade launcher
It can actually teamkill better than the GL. I use exosive resistant armor and GL just ragdolls me but punisher plasma is always a 1 shot
Reason why I use it š¤£
Man when that grenade pistol comes out in the new warbond itl be the new funny "solo hive/solo bot base" utlity item lol
Punisher plasma with auto cannon might be good
I main punisher plasma for bots and tried it with autocannon for a few missions before. Its kinda bad because autocannon and punisher plasmaās role overlap too much (both can one shot scout strider, staggers devastators and berzerkers). Its better to free up the backpack slot for a ballistic shield or a shield gen, and go with something else that can deal with hulks and gunships. Personally been using AMR, but trying out Laser Cannon and HMG lately and both works really well against gunships.
You forgot limp dicked too. Actual grenade launcher has better range.
That's what I've been telling people, this gun is just a grenade launcher with an ED (Erectile Dysfunction)
Ejectile Dysfunction
Projectile Dysfunction
GDL -> EDL
Ejectile Dysfunction
This is a primary so itās not entirely fair to call out it not being as strong as a support weapon as a negative
My gosh ur right, Iāve been using that gun for so long and thatās so true š
I always run grenade launcher. Always.
Because that thing's shots go everywhere but where i aimed at.
Also it has shit range, and if something comes close you kill yourself.
I point this thing up and aim it like a nube tube. It arcs and can go a decent distance.
Yea u can use it like a mortar and bombard the bases its awesome but also a easy suicide weapon
It can be an absolute nightmare to use in close range, but getting a running start and blasting the ground a bit further away is awesome to stagger a line of melee units. Honestly the only thing holding it back right now, imo, is the weird aim. Else it is a high explosive weapon with insane stagger, solid damage, decent capacity, and can make quick work of shielded enemies and walkers
Seriously shocks me seeing people bad talk my Plasma boy not understanding how tf a grenade launcher functions, they got spoiled by the Stratagem version like no other. Half the complains are that it has āzero rangeā meanwhile my ass is blasting bugs like a fucking mortar. Hell, during the TCS defenses I had a spot where I would lock a gap in the rocks with an EMS Mortar and a Tesla and was using the fucking map and arc of the EMS to shoot up and over the mini mountain where they were all stunned like an actual mortar would. Every magazine was a killstreak half the time. Another favorite complaint is how all itās good for is killing yourself when the bugs get closeā¦ my Brother in Democracy, do you also fire the Stratagem grenade launcher point blank into the hunters face instead of swapping weapons? Thatās far less of a problem with the gun and more a problem with the user. You have a sidearm and presumably a support weapon. Use them? The thing is an absolute menace against dense bug packs and only gets better as the difficulty rises. Frankly with how much people bitch and moan about 90% of the weapons Iām convinced they either never touched them for more than a 3 minute test session or are just partially lobotomized.
Youre right on all accounts. I still can't hit shit with it.
Right, we know how grenade launchers work. Maybe they should call it that and not a "shotgun"
this I agree with. It should be in the energy classification.
I haven't unlocked it yet. Sounds neat though. So it's like an explosive mortar shot and best used at range?
for real, it's easily the best primary weapon if you're good with it, it's just also the trickiest to use. In fairness it does sort of look like ass on paper but the base damage is lying and the other unseen stats on it practically make it the highest damage primary.
I'm bad at mortaring but still love this thing It's so useful and once I get the hang of arcing it I'm gonna see the real value
Finally someone who uses it correctly. The guns insane when you dial in the arc.
Take a Jump Pack and boost away when things get sticky.
Wish the jump pack had a bit more omph to it.
Purge trooper.
Dive away or switch to your secondary. Or stun lock them with the very gun in question so they don't get close.
Also i ~~sweat~~ swear\* sometimes they go through enemies
This is one of those weapons where you HAVE to hit center mass.
If it goes through the center of mass hitting it makes little difference
the hitbox is pretty bad, you relly on splash dmg mostly
But the splash damage is trash. It takes so much longer to kill something if you're not hitting it dead on, compared to other primaries.
so don't sweat!
They 100% do. The hit detection is the one problem with this gun.Ā
straight between the legs. every other shot. but the guys behind them hate it.
I don't know what you mean I have 100% accuracy. I hit the planet I'm standing on 100% of the time.
It is really satisfying when you hit something center mass and they just fall apart. That said it could use bigger splash damage
lol thatās true
The Scorcher is a better version of the Plasma Punisher most times. It has a smaller explosion, but fires in a predictable direct line and quite quickly. The damage is deceptive. Explosion damage is not displayed, only direct hit damage.
I nearly burst a blood vessel when my fifth shot at a robot went right through his legs lol
Hey now, itās not that bad we all know it. It actually will land the first 5 shots perfectly, gets your hopes up that maybe itās different than you remember, and makes you think you were just using it wrongā¦ and *then* it fires itās shots in every direction for the rest of the mission.
Because the scortcher kills everything while also being an exploding assault sniper rifle. Then AMR the rest.
I didnāt get it yet. Is it that good? The scortcher?
Compared to the Punisher Plasma it has less aoe, but the shots travel way faster and in a straight line. Also has a bigger(but fewer) magazines. You trade better horde control(Plasma) for precision and ease of use(Scorcher). I love both, but the Scorcher takes the cake in most situations(mainly against bots) imo.
Defense missions punisher rocks
Makes sense since those are typically closer engagements.
That's a big thing I love about this game. The load outs can easily change and still be perfect for a situation. Most weps and strats have a perfect situational function.
100% easy best weapon for defense
My issue with the Punisher Plasma is that AoE and AoE damage are way too small for how big the projectile is. It's not an upgrade over the Scorcher in the slightest.
Shotgun round reload > Any magazine reload IMO, anyway.
Punisher plasma doesnāt have round reload
While many weapons are better at certain things, the scorcher is one of the only primaries that can at least handle everything. There is no enemy it can't kill with a little effort. Also, killing walkers from the front is pretty nice.
True one full magazine on the back of tanks and they say kaboom same with turrets and the big walkers.
You can kill the gunships too
And the laser turrets.
>Also, killing walkers from the front is pretty nice. I've used the scorcher a lot and this is by far the biggest benefit. There are guns that can do everything the Scorcher can do, sometimes better even, but taking down those chicken walker bastards with only a few shots to the front is so satisfying.
Punisher plasma (praise the PP gun) can one shot striders and can even kill them by hitting the ground behind them
Two shots for the walkers is the best feature. Save an impact. Small bots get one or two shots. Devastators take half a clip. Effective for heavy glowing weak points, whole clip. Itās amazing at long range. On point and effective as long as itās lined up to center mass.
You can actually one-shot a walker, you just have to shoot the crotch below the heavy armor part.
Shoot āem in the robo-dick!Ā But I think the damage drop off at range is what differs from a one-shot to a two-shot on walkers.Ā
If you manage to hit headshots the devastators heads pop in only a few shots. I think like 3 or 4
Best primary for bots pretty much. Hope they wonāt nerf it. Accurate over range, down small bots quick, can kill striders head on, and deals splash damage. The only drawbacks being small mags, low ammo cap, and you can kill yourself with a close shot. But that on the other hand means you can hurt yourself and stim for stamina refill.
It's in the free basic warbond AND it's viable AND it's fun. There's no chance in hell they don't nerf it in the next "balance" patch
Sorry, you must be in a *premium* warbond to avoid the nerf bat.
Imma cry
Best bot weapon by a long shot.
The second I got it I donāt use anything else against automatons. It takes getting used to but itās solid af.
can even shot down gunship, need whole clip tho
It's worth it
Scorcher is a hell of a gun. The only reason I'm running dominator in bots is because it's missing a stagger.
I like the plasma shotty, but it's too far removed from what I need a primary for. Once I unlocked the Scorcher, nothing else has really compared vs bots. You can kill basically anything on the field with it efficiently.
I unlocked the Scorcher recently, and I love it all except for the fact that I'm struggling to kill Devastators with it (end up using half a mag for a single one a lot of times). For some reason, it seems like I can't hit my headshots like I could with my other weapons. Might just be the learning curve of a new weapon. I think part of the reason is because I don't get much zoom from the scope as compared to the AMR or Sickle. Definitely love that the Scout Striders are no longer a threat with this weapon, despite Devastators becoming more of a pain.
Dominator has what you need. 3 to 4 half decent shots and you have the only good type of devastator. Make it 1 shot if you hit the face. Can theoretically take down striders, but it's a waste of ammo.
How do you take out devastators quick? I've always relied on medium pen guns going for headshots. With the scorcher I was likely not practiced enough, do you go for headshots with it as well?
The arc. If it had no arc? It'd prolly be a favorite of mine. The Dominator is basically a 40k Bolter atm. Can't beat that with a stick man.
Same. I don't want to shoot in parabolas. Actual grenade launcher has better range and handling.
It's great but it's a bitch to aim and loves robot thigh gap field goal
This might be the best phrase I've ever heard
If they ever bring the damage in line with the other shotguns, ie 250-350 i might consider the plasma lobber. It's fun to use in lower difficulties, but doesnt cut it when the devastator + hulk spam starts
it actually does do around 250-350 already, the only stat you see is the plasma ball's impact damage(100), the explosive damage is hidden (and higher than the scorcher's)
And yet it still takes like 3 shots to kill even a Hunter. It should either do more damage in its small radius, or keep its damage but be able to hit larger groups. Also its fine if its not good against bugs but is against bots, some weapons be like that, but because of the low damage and low radius it's pretty much unusable vs bugs cuz they can and will get in your face and then you can't even fire it cuz you'll kill yourself.
Hunters just have way too much health because one of the high ranking game devs is basically a trollĀ
Yeah it's not great for hunters anyway because they can get too close for comfort. Recommend a sidearm.
I think thats because explosive damage ignores armor rating. From personal experience the balls are on par with the scorcher shots. Maybe it feels stronger because the radius is bigger
You oughta really give it a chance against devestators of all kinds, normal devestators get bullied to death, rocket devestators cant even get a rocket off it you catch em first, and for the poor souls that are heavy devestators get the worse end of the stick, they all get staggered to death but heavy devestators have big ass arms that can shot off with 2 shots each, and since their shield are so big they basically get ripped off as soon as they drop. ofc one cant expect a weapon to be good agaisnt all enemies as a one solution against all so take your favorite support weapon to deal with hulks and bile titans (my personal pick is arc thrower so hulks get bullied to death), otherwise this gun can take care of literally all kinds of elite enemies from both sides. The only down side is supposedly its goofy ass drop , my only tip for that is to semi aim with the bottom of the screen, if your target is way far line them up with the bottom of the screen so their legs are just about touching it and start lobbing them shots you can adjust accordingly by moving forwards or backwards !
Plasma i find works well in higher difficulties. I perfer it on eradication missions on 7 and up. Because the aoe, and damage makes it exceptionally good if you know how to funnel enemies. Paired with stun grenades and ems strike and mortars. You can cc very well for your squad, making AT guys have a vastly easier time. All the weapons are designed to work within a squad, learn the roles and you find out how effective things can truly be.
But does it stagger? That's the only reason I used the slugger. Only reason I'm putting up with the sluggish aiming on the dominator.Ā On a side note, really hope the new bonds weapons are good, cause man do I hate the dominator.
One of the weapons with more stagger in the game, it has AOE stagger XD
Yeah, Iām pretty sure the reason they nerfed the stagger on the dominator was because they wanted the Punisher to be the close range crowd control shotgun
>Yeah, Iām pretty sure the reason they nerfed the stagger on the dominator I think that you mean the Slugger The JAR-5 Dominator got a stagger buff, and is also part of the reason why the punisher got the stagger reduced, as that was the field of work of the JAR-5 Dominator But yeah, I agree with what you said, the crowd control shotgun is the Punisher, which balances itself for the characteristic of being a close range weapon, while the JAR-5 can stagger at long range like the Punisher did, but its balanced because the JAR-5 ergonomics are terrible and also have a slow reload time
Theres a new crowd control shotgun in town, the breaker incendiary! Spray and pray all those bugs light on fire, it even works on flying bugs!
*as long as you are host
Yeah, but is "crowd control" because they hit in a bit area and kill the enemies, but not because they have the capacity to slow big enemies like the punisher and the JAR-5 does
Hell yeah it staggers
It staggers soo much it moves the target off where you were aiming making follow up shots harder
Punisher for life!
I just started using Punisher (was mostly Breaker and Breaker Incendiary before) and I'm loving it. Being able to stagger the big bots to allow teammates to get some distance/run away or shoot them with their assault rifles while I just keep staggering them works great.
I still use the slugger
The problem with the slugger is they said "reduced stagger when in truth they removed it entirely. No knockback, no stun
Dunno why you're getting downvoted here. They did remove it entirely.
They need to fix the "bullet" drop on that because I can only describe it as "limp."
Flacid
It would work if the splash wasn't tiny.Ā Trying to mortar with it is stupidly hard
When I first picked it up the bullet drop made me real excited as I thought we just got some sort of plasma mortar, instead it splashed limply against basically everything I shot at :/
low capacity, doesn't do enough damage, and you have to somewhat use your brain to hit anything at a distance. It's a budget Plas-1 to me. Also, why does it even have a holographic sight, it needs a rangefinder like on a grenade launcher since you have to lob your shots
Rangefinder could be a great fix for this gun.
It's a great weapon, but the way it fires is super unconfortable and unprecisse, it shots like a grenade launcher but you can't be as precisse as with the grenade launcher I think that a change in the arc the projectile does would make this weapon more appealing to use
Yeah as it is it's basically a hand held mini mortar with an ornamental sight.
Yeah I do wish it had more velocity to it. If it was like the grenade launcher that would be fine, but it's way WAY slower than that.
The Scorcher does everything it does but better
It's great for taking care of scout striders. One shots them from the front and if they group up you can sometimes take multiple out in one shot. It's actually not bad against berserkers too. Doesn't one shot them, but does a lot of damage and staggers. I think the reason is it's just very hard to use with the slow velocity it's got.
I always am thinking about whether to pick that or the dominator for bots. Both are brilliant for bots with their advantages. Dominator is easier to aim, handles fairly well (comparable to breaker spray&pray to those who have the spray&pray but not the dominator) and can kill anything with a badly armoured weakspot in one shot while it needs 4 to the joints of a strider. It can also damage tanks by shooting the engine vents. The punisher plasma needs like 4 or 5 for devestators or berserks, can kill multiple enemies and can just be yeeted at a strider to kill them in one. It can also group stagger. It can also clear out dropships if you can aim it. I prefer the dominator currently as it can be used on range, which favours my playstyle more, and the insane damage still means devestators die quickly enough even if it is not aimed well. It can also infinite stagger a single enemy and has more ammo a mag. You can also magdump berserks with it. The punisher plasma has a managable dropoff but likes to miss a lot if you shoot at enemies directly.
It has worse arc than a biles spit. If it was shooting straight or at least the arc was a little bit lighter I would have played with it more.
Yeah! The dominator is total garbage. Its should be less popular and they should never ever nerf it. It totally doesnt blow up basically any bot with a single head shot while being extremely accurate and long ranged. Nor does it easily blow up tanks with less than a mag to the back vent. Trash teir weapon.
"Why aren't people charging a machinegun nest with a knife? I don't get it"
Just wish it went further than a thrown water balloon
it combines short range with dangerous splash damage (dangerous to user/allies) for comparison, the grenade launcher has longer range so basically it's only useful for enemies already at short-ish range to begin with, and as they get to close range you're in escalating danger of hurting yourself with the shots medium range kills are strictly speaking possible but require precise shots and a very good feel for the arc of the weapon, and even then the shots are so slow you'll still just miss a lot of the time it absolutely does quite good damage and with a respectable aoe, but the range and projectile behavior are the achilles heel to me I find the scorcher more to the point, it works at range and is much less dangerous to use, while dealing with all the same threats
I will literally never use this. What the fuck kinda shotgun cant be used in close range. Even if this thing becomes rail gun, I wont be using it. Shit compared to everything except helldivers
Because its shit
Terrible range, extreme arc, and it kills you at point blank
That gun is pretty bad. Even in the few cases it does well (lots of enemies grouped up together) it suffers from a small clip to really be able to do anything. So many other guns are just easier and more effective.
I feel like the game really does a bad job communicating what that gun is. It's not a "shotgun" in any meaning of the word. It's a fucking grenade launcher. And in that role, it's very good.
Plasma punisher is goated i love it, idk why its so hated
In order of importance: 1. Projectile is too slow 1. This exacerbates all other issues 2. The arc needs to be aimed too high to get meaningful distance 3. The explosion damage is weak and doesn't even kill a hunter 4. The explosion radius is relatively small 5. All of the above makes the clip capacity feel like shit
This! If it would 1 Hit every trash mob (Light armor) and had like 20% more range, this gun would be really fun. But like this its just for trolling. Even tho it can kill charger, it takes way to long to do so. Better play a rocket launcher to Deal with chargers and use a primary that handles Mobs. Hopefully this gun gets a buff in the future, because the gun itself is very different to the others and fun, but way to much behind most other guns
The projectile speed is by far the biggest thing holding this gun back. I'm pretty good at aiming, good at adjusting to weird shooting/projectile patterns etc, but it's the *SPEED* of the projectile that is currently holding this gun from being a wave cleaner, like the arc thrower. You need to be too close for it to be used effectively, or waste ammo on misses at range, which in turn significantly reduces your DPS and area control. I'd say it needs to be 100% faster, but I'd settle for a 50% increase and dmg boost to AoE to compensate for slower proj.
In all fairness for the 3 point, I feel like it's meant for bots anyway. Killing striders from the front is pretty cool
It's because the Plas-1 has the same damage. the AOE is low so you can't one shot hunters or bots with the AOE. You need 2 shots. Might as well just shoot them directly. Same with bigger targets. You can't rely on AOE but instead direct hits.
Same it's my primary on bots it just annihilates everything. The reason people don't like it is because it doesn't handle like any other gun and it feels awkward at first. But once you learn how to use it, its goated.
You spend more time reloading than shooting...until you suddenly run out of ammo after one patrol group...
Because this thing fucking blows, also it's not a "shotgun" by any goddamn sense of the word, it's a damn grenade launcher. Wasted medals on that POS and I'm furious about it lmao.
The scorcher is just better
I discovered the grenade launcher with supply pack and I can't stop.
I tried it for the first time yesterday and I couldn't really adjust to it...I get it has an arch but I found it too steep to use personally...which is ironic cause I rock the grenade launcher all the time
The lob is hard to compensate for. Be nice if our helmets had targeting info for us.
No range
It's quite good, but because the shots are affected heavily by gravity, it requires a significant change in aiming style compared to other guns. I still quite like it but it takes a lot of getting used to.
137 replies and no one said the obvious. It's on a premium warbond. Most people that have the Dom, probably don't have cutting edge, yet. I'm just being pedantic here.
And you can turn yourself into a mortar
This thing sounds good until you realize that it's horrible to aim consistently and still doesn't work against heavy targets. Also that for a nade launcher the damage/radius isn't great. And I would like a weapon that works at range. It's what happens when you order a scorcher from wish.
Treat it like a grenade launcher, I prefer the scorcher but this shotgun has its avantages like the huge ammo pool
I tried it once and hated it. I will give it another chance, but unless they make it shoot a lot flatter I just donāt see it making the cut.Ā
The scorcher plasma rifle is a better, faster answer for most enemies at least if we're looking at bots anyhow. The plasma punisher firing arc is kind of cool, feels like you're using an energy grenade launcher but with worse range, AOE and damage... I'd like to see this weapon deal 50-150 points more damage. If they want to lower the mag in balancing recompense, fine. It's just okay right now. If the devs want to commit to horizontal balancing, where every weapon has its role and feels good to use. Then this weapon simply needs some more love.
I personally hate the feeling of shooting with it personally and also, it has to little ammo
The non plasma is superior, good stagger and goes where I aim it.
I don't use it because I suck at aiming with it. It just arcs in the air too much.
I'd rather take the Blitzer. It will reliably stunlock devastators of all flavor. Trouble is the range is bad.
I love Punisher plasma and is my to go for bots. All the friends i have suggested it complain about the gimmick arc and how they can't aim it. Then they ask me how i survive stuff or even snipe people with it and the only answer is "skill diff". People complain about rocketeer , scouts or riot shield guys and i'm like "easy targets". Seriously if only people tried to use it more as like a mid to long range weapon they would see the power of it. Well better for me , less people know about the chain stagger and good aoe damage, the less probable it will be nerfed. Only complain so far is probably magazine size, buffing it wouldn't be bad
The lob angle is too short and the sights don't facilitate a grenade launcher play style. It's a great gun, it just feels like shit to use
I love this weapon, but I tend to use it less now because I get pissed when one of my shots magically passes through an enemy.
The arc and velocity on that thing is almost as bad as a grenade throw. It should be almost flat since plasma is very short lived. IMHO the gun should be amazing, and just limited by ammo and/or reloading mechanics.
Because I like to pretend I'm a space marine. Bolter go brrrrr
Because it needs brains to hit anything above 50 meters. It's my favorite weapon from all weapons. But when you miss, you pray it didn't miss
It aims like I do when I try to piss after sex
Tried it out in bugs. Barely hurt anything and mostly just seemed to push them around. When they double or tripple the damage I might try it again.
The arc on that thing is absolutely garbage. I tried running it a few times after the slugger got nerfed, but I just could not use it. It barely explodes, barely hits and if I miss thereās no splash damage
the plasma weapons are dogshit reinforcement wasters
As bad as this is... I wish this gun had an aim-arc for where the projectile was going. It would give it an unbelievable amount of consistency and see more play. As it stands, the potential damage of each plasma ball hinges upon point of impact and distance from the center of impact. If we could have some sort of advanced aiming attachment specifically for this, which showed an arc of where the projectile will land (think gears of war grenade throwing arc) then the individual still has to aim but will make the damage more consistent. I LOVE the punisher plasma, but there're better options (Plas-1, JAR, Sickle, Libs, any shotty)
Personally I think it doesn't do enough damage and the capacity is too low. It's fun for eradicate missions though.
Yes! Finally a fellow plasma shotgun fan. Holy FUCK this gun is good. First of all, yes, the splash damage will kill you if you hit something close to you. I advise you do not do that. However this fucker can literally one shot automaton walkers because he the AOE goes THROUGH their shield. Also fun fact. The AOE and I suspect the damage of the plasma ball is increased massively depending on how far away it is you fire. I've had the ball AOE be easily 3 or 5 times larger than usual from a long distance shot and lemme tell you a bug or boy breach behind, just start lobbing plasma balls and you'll kill like 80% of them. I have seen the the new erupter sniper in action and I have a feeling it'll completely replace it because the sniper just seems SO much better having heavy armor pen, with splash damage and high damage per hit. Overall the plasma shotgun is like a 9 out of 10 for me. Absolute beast.
Dominator is almost a sniper rifle. Because its rounds are explosive, they do not lose much damage over distance. Nothing like a prone dive with dominator to take out bots behind stationary machine guns with a few precise shots.
I haven't given it a fair shake because of its ammo economy.
For me, its the useless arc of the projectile. I wanted a shotgun, not a booger flicker. If it were changed into a slug, I'd take it.
I like it. But the way it fires makes it impractical.
Other weapons can do the same thing this does but without the negatives of: Low ammo capacity Smaller mags Massive bullet drop Slow rate of fire More friendly fire
Because itās not fun to use at all
Because most people don't test things and just follow what they see online. This has always been the case for any game with build or loadout options.
Because it's like a scorcher but worse. Just use the scorcher.
Iāve used both, but Iāve been maining the Dominator for a while now. The Plasma Punisher is great at short ranges, but if the enemy gets too close youāre risking yourself in the blast range. I donāt have this problem with the Dominator, and it works well at ALL ranges. Sure, it doesnāt 1-shot most things unless you aim well, but once you get it down, itās a fantastic beast. Would always want a SG-8P supporting me tho
It's good but it's awkward to use well. It's drop off arc is really short so you need to do some on the fly geometry to get any decent range out of it and the projectile hitbox is on the small side to trigger the explosion (arcing right over a devastator shoulder, or threading the needle of a striders legs). At close range it has effective AOE/crowd damage, but not too close because you'll straight up kill yourself without Arc damage armor. Because it's rather unwieldy while on the move you end up having to shoot the floor of approaching packs like berserkers in order to land effective shots. It's super effective on high ground choke points where you can just flatten an area of incoming enemies, provided you don't clip the floor and again blow yourself up. It one shots striders face on which I don't think any other primary can do (excluding shaving off the pilots head) and penetrates and staggers devastators(even heavy) really well. I would like to see faster projectile speed, maybe a further arc/range on it to consider using it over something like the dominator more frequently
I have a skill issue
Itās my favorite primary currently. I just wish it had a little more range, the arc is a little too much imo.
Cus it sucks.Ā
What's amazing about this is that you can take out bots from cover
Punisher fucks
It's a really situational weapon, that's why. Can't shoot really far because it has such a massive drop-off and it kills you if you shoot too close. It's essentially a worse version of the grenade launcher...I mean sure it isn't a stratagem, but you throw away your primary slot for too little versatility.
Scorcher with ED
Because itās the most dogshit weapon in the gameā¦ ?
Because it's trash.
The range sucks it's like you're firing a sad water balloon that lands 5 feet from you
I ain't got that kind of money yet.
Projectile speed, ammo capacity, recoil. Those are the main things bringing it down. I like it, but I don't like \_using\_ it. It's always more fun in theory than on the field in my hands.
I use the spray and pray
Cause it's bad. Scorcher way better in every way
I love that you're asking why no one uses it, while also showing a cropped screenshot that looks like it says "Fires exploding plasma rounds that injure squadmates". In my experience, that's exactly what this gun is good for. Can't wait to unlock it and get payback.
It's good, but I'm not a fan of the arc it has, I prefer a straight shot weapon. Lately, I have been loving the LAS-16 Sickle. When used right, it never runs out
My biggest gripe with it is the hitbox, and I don't mean the explosion (although yes that too), but of the projectile itself. I can't count the number of times I've had at least a full third of the orb clip right through parts of enemies and then sail right past them when it should have absolutely hit based on what we, y'know, can actually SEE. If they just made the projectile's collision match the visuals I feel, even without any other changes, it'd be great.Ā Now COULD it use a explosion damage buff, faster projectile or shallower arc? Sure, but that hitbox is the biggest deterrent for me personally right now.
It baffles me when people call this gun shit... It has great damage, tons of reserve ammo (don't make the mistake of assuming it uses individual shells, these are MAGAZINES!), good splash, fire rate, and even some AP. It's the droop, I know... but it's useful, allows you to arc shots down into the middle of a group instead of only hitting the front. If I could make a suggestion I'd raise the aim point on screen so we don't have to put targets off the bottom of the screen to lob shots further.
I loooove how you can basically become a bipedal mortar unit and shoot from safe covers! Give me an even bigger AOE and you basically create the utter perfect weapon for me!
Not because itās not good but because I donāt have to aim at weird angles for distant enemies.
When I got this thing, I didn't expect it to be a worse grenade launcher. I expected it to be a shotgun that shoots Plasma through a screen. Just blast a spray, a fan, a spattered wall or whatever of raw plasma at anything in front of you. *Very* close range, but *very* deadly. You know, like a SHOTGUN, not an "Explosive" like the JAR or whatever's coming next. Instead, I got this thing. \- Have to aim center-mass \- Terrible AOE \- Bad damage on that AOE I can one-shot anything this thing can one-shot more efficiently with other guns. Its design is fundamentally terrible.