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With all the rage over constant nerfs and changes in Helldivers 2, some players think that the real issue lies elsewhere.
Helldivers 2 is constantly updated, arguably more than the majority of other games. Weapons and Stratagems that prove to be too good get nerfed, while those that do not perform as intended get reworked. But, when some combinations that became “meta” get nerfed, a lot of players do not take it lightly. They take to social media to express their dissatisfaction, starting arguments upon arguments. However, some players do not think that the issue lies with those weapons. Rather, the issue is, according to them, that those weapons are practically mandatory on higher difficulty levels.
Heavy Enemies in Helldivers 2 Are More Tedious Than Difficult
Enemy heavies are designed to be challenging, but some Helldivers 2 think they are more of a chore than a challenge. The general idea in Helldivers 2 is that you should use Orbitals, Airstrikes, and heavy Support Weapons to deal with massive enemies. The problem is that, on higher difficulties, those heavies appear more often than your Stratagems can handle. And the fact that your Primary Weapons are all but useless against them adds to the idea that you’re practically defenseless if your Stratagems are on cooldown.
This is all detailed in one Reddit post, made by ProxyDamage. In a very long post (which we recommend that you read), he states that it takes more than your whole arsenal to handle a single Bug Breach on high-level play, and that is just the beginning. “That took all of my Grenades, 2 x 500kg bombs, 3 x eagle air strikes, my guard dog constantly firing and shooting the Quasar nearly on cooldown”
He then offers that the design of those heavies is the real issue here. They practically require you to have the best heavy weapons out there to even have a fighting chance. “The problem isn’t that I love the Quasar specifically, but that these elite enemies pretty much require stratagem-specific answers, I can’t do anything to a Bile Titan with my normal weapons and I’ll die of old age before I reasonably deal with multiple Chargers with my primary…”
It all boils down to this: “And I need to stress this point, it’s not about difficulty. Staring at a Bile Titan and 2 Chargers when you don’t have an anti-armor stratagem available isn’t difficult, it’s pointless… It’s boring. Because taking these units down without specific anti-armor tools isn’t some hard, skill-intensive, challenge… It’s just not possible.”
Community Ideas to Fix the Issue With Heavies
Others chime in with their opinions. One player mentions that, apart from Stratagems being mandatory for taking down heavies, high-difficulty missions usually have some negative modifiers that affect your Strategems, further reducing your options. “Meanwhile 16/18 level 9 bot missions have -1 stratagem and +25% cooldown and the other 2 operations are +25% cooldown and +50% call in time.”
Others ask for more low-to-mid-range enemies, instead of just every new enemy being a heavy. “I feel like the semi-binary state of either heavy armor that nothing but heavy weapons can touch and light armor that primary can chew through means that higher difficulties rely too heavily on spamming heavy armor, “ said Powerful-Eye-3578.
Two solutions are offered by the OP. Either make those heavies more susceptible to Primary Weapons, with more weak points that actually have a purpose, or reduce the number of heavies spawning while making them tougher to compensate. Both of them have their merits. Unfortunately, the current state of the game is somewhere in between those two options.
This is a very interesting take on this whole situation. Heavies indeed have weak points, but they are usually well-armored (Hulks) or resist so much damage (Chargers) that the majority of Primary Weapons are all but useless against them. True, Support Weapons and Stratagems should be your main method of dealing with them, but often they spawn more than players can handle, leading to two-minute chases across the map (cue Benny Hill music), until your Strategems are back up again.
For more on HD2, check out Players Urge Helldivers 2 Devs to Never Add This Game Feature, What is the Current Major Order and Reward, and Helldivers 2 Devs Finally Address Impossible High-Difficulty Missions.