Why Helldivers 2 feels horrible after new update

Why Helldivers 2 feels horrible after new update
Helldivers 2 made changes in the new patch that drastically alter the experience of the game
Creator Code: ohdough
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[mrazbyte]

I have to disagree with 1 point slightly.
The elite spawn rate NEEDS to be toned down, because right now there's 20 rocket devestators and at least 10 hulks on top of 6 tanks, you can't spawn in without dying instantly, the same goes for charger spam but that's more managable.

[billping]

Deep Rock Galactic handles modifiers well, not only do negative modifiers increase rewards upon completion; there are also positive modifiers that provide a buff of some kind.

[Arunnn]

The AI change is probably the most annoying one. Before, I used to be able to attack (from long range) a patrol or bug hive hole with my autocannon and the mobs wouldn't realize where they were getting shot from. The autocannon is supposed to only attract mobs to the destination the shell hits, not from where the shell was shot (it's stated in a Training Tip and it also used to work before the patch). Now, as soon as anything happens: if you call down an airstrike, shoot in the air, have your stratagem ball direct impact a bug, or anything, then the mobs instantly know where you are and start b-lining it towards you. It completely ruins the immersion of someone like me, who likes to play a lone ranger type of role, sniping things and being a little more strategic and sneaky in how I approach objectives.

Also, before the patch, I never noticed enemies spawning or despawning. Now, I'll be sneakily doing an objective -- doing 180's to check my surroundings and checking my map to see any distant red dots -- and all of a sudden, an entire patrol will just appear out of thin air in a spot that I just checked and confirmed to be clear. I know why its happening too. The game notices I'm being sneaky and spawns a patrol to check out my location to force me to engage and exit stealth. It feels way too targeted and not at all genuine. And you lose any ability to prepare and any feeling of accomplishment after sneaking past one patrol, just to find another spawned right next to you since the last patrol failed.

[munchkingod]

1000% agree on all counts. I’m level 35. I have every Strategem unlocked. I have more than half of the ship upgrades, but I am hard locked out of further upgrades by the need for tier 3 samples. And like…. Being real playing at a difficulty 7+ is not fun for me. It’s stressful, I spend the whole game running, and the constant deaths usually feel unfair. Getting 12 hunters spawned on top of me isn’t a skill issue, it’s just bullshit.


I don’t give a fuck if they want to nerf or balance or whatever. But the game was ABSOLUTELY more fun before the patch and I really wish I could play that version of the game again.

[Notllamalord]

The biggest problem is the Patrol AI. they have this hyperborean third sense for where you are once they see any sign of your existence. Leave a minefield at an old objective? patrol will find it, instantly know where you are, and call a breach. Stray bullet lands on the opposite side of the objective? patrol will see that and start running towards your location. It happened before but with the new aggressiveness changes a normal fight will be pulling patrols from all over the map, leading to a breach loop and your inevitable death. That's why it always feels like patrols are pathing towards your location constantly. The patrols need to be toned down, they should enter a "searching" state when they find evidence of your existence where they split up and try to find you instead of instantly getting your location

[NBSYBORG]

"We made primaries weak on purpose so you'd have to rely on stratagems."

>gives most stratagems long cooldowns
>hits you with multiple modifiers that make your stratagems unreliable and increases their cooldown
>most stratagems are honestly bad or low impact for how long the cooldowns are
>swarms you with high aggro, tanky enemy that can one or two shot you

It's like they're expecting you to do a high-end raid in an MMO but with mid-tier gear. I'm ok with the game being hard but you don't even have the resources to reasonably deal with enemies on the highest difficulties. Like, what's the counterplay to the 8 bile titans and 5 chargers running at you while your stratagem (which will likely only kill one of them at best) is on a 7 minute cooldown? We often end up b-lining to the objectives, suiciding at them until we complete them, then running circles around the extraction because you have no choice but to run from combat. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't play shooters to not shoot things.

[hebrewhammer]

The real crappie part about the modifiers is that it doesn't even give you anything extra for clearing it.

[Astronomica]

Honestly everytime I play now I almost instsntly rage quit, it's like no matter what I use nothing can actually do a good job, and I get ganged up on by everything with almost no way to defend myself. It's like I'm trying to cut a rock with a plastic fork, it just sucks.

[RustedBuddy]

I just think Hunters shouldnt have acid in their melee. It pisses me off, especially when the Arc thrower doesn't wanna cooperate, at least in my limited experience in close range, so I have to switch to another weapon. Or at least have armor resistant to the speed debuff. But yeah. Armor feels unimportant when they can land head shots as easily as getting killed by mortars.

Edit: Just want to add. I'm rank 28 right now. I'm fine with everything else in the game. The weapon changes are fine. The difficulty is fine. Stalkers are fine. Head shots can use tinkering or just simply be removed for now. My real only gripe is that Hunters annoy the f$ck out of me. That's all. It would be nice if either they didn't lick acid on me or if there was armor that resisted the slow down where I dont have to resort to using the personal shield, thats it. The slow down *from Hunters specifically* piss me off.

Also, I lied, there's another gripe, though far less occurring, but still enough to be made annoying. F#ck those Automatons, I forget their name, that jet pack up to you and die and ragdoll towards you consistently and explode. It's BS. If I shotgun it, it should be sending it back or clotheslining it, not being Amazon primed directly to my feet. That should be two separate enemies. A suicide bot and a jet pack bot. At least Hunters have the decency to not explode.

[Florkl]

Arrowhead’s big problem, and I noticed this before the update just from the way the difficulty works, is the inability to understand how problems compound exponentially. If you increase difficulty in several ways while cutting back options to deal with difficulty you’re going to get massive difficulty spikes.

[WhatMinimap]

Charger tanking an entire orbital laser is crazy

[curiousconsultant]

I definitely agree that the cool factor of Helldivers 2 is the ability to tear the map to shreds with artillery support via stratagems. So us getting swarmed should not be a problem if we have what it takes to still come out on top. But adding enemies, making enemies stronger, and reducing our firepower takes the game off of the sweet spot that it landed on by sheer luck.

[yamchayaku]

What I hate most, and I think has been consistent from the very start is rocket devastators one shotting you from out of the blue. They'll be completely out of your sight, and somehow they'll see you and take you out.

[ValkisCalmor]

"The automatons are somehow more balanced."
Easy. They have meaningful weak points. Devastators and Hulks can be handled by basically any support weapon and even primaries if you just hit them in the face, and even the heaviest (Hulks, tanks, and turrets) have unarmored vents in the back that allow any weapon to destroy them quickly. You can bring anti-tank weapons and make quick and easy work of them if you want to, but other weapons can handle them with skilled play.
On the other hand, chargers are completely immune to small arms from the front and their rear "weak point" still takes drastically reduced damage from most. Bile Titans straight-up can't be killed by most weapons as there is a limited amount of damage you can deal to the sacs. Both of these enemies REQUIRE specific weapons to be dealt with in a reasonable amount of time, while the automatons are all designed in such a way that bringing the "right" weapons just makes them easier to deal with.

I've already noticed the Arc Thrower sliding in as the new meta, because it's now the only weapon that ignores Charger armor while still being useful against hordes and not requiring a backpack. Throw in the PS5 bug and it can also shred Titans. Nerfing the railgun without addressing the underlying issues didn't fix anything.
Edit: Yes the Flamethrower also works and is usually even better against chargers, but it's less of an all-purpose weapon because of its limited range.

[guardiantko]

not to mention, "these devs are SO transparent and great with their community!" mean while, they stealth buff EVERY ENEMY, massively buff patrol spawn rate, enemy count per patrol, and they will go out of their path to go TOWARDS you even if they "haven't detected you". they linger in the area until you mess up stealth. its shit, and stupid how fast they call in for reinforcements, you pop the bug or bot that's calling it the second they started? oh sorry, INSTANTLY another one is doing it, oh you caught THAT one too? SORRY. another one (behind cover this time) is doing it. FORCED. reinforcement loop. every. time. engagement. happens.

[absoluteandrew]

I love when I dodge a charger and it immediately converts into an olympic ice skating champion

The close range crushing attack they do is an insta kill as well, even with a fat man suit on so they’ll rag doll you into a rock or something and then crush you before you can stand

[raptoid]

The worst part is the "off-screen" random spawns. I had a charger spawn in front of my face on screen without the orange smoke breakout. Wish I remembered to shadowplay it.

[trazyntheinfinite]

Modifiers that only dish out disadvantages are garbage

[generalseal]

the fact chargers and tanks can now bounce orbital railcannons is insanity

[WindingDreams]

I wish the modifiers were like 'this mission has 100 titans' or 'this mission has 1000 small ads' so you actually could counter it. Now I usually run the same loadout all the time cause you gotta be ready to do it all.