As Helldivers 2 players digest the game’s first balance patch, developer Arrowhead has discussed the thinking behind changes to weapons and stratagems, calling on players to give them a chance.
They nerfed the strongest options (most of which I completely agree with) and then buffed 4 things that were either completely unusable (breaker spray and pray) or borderline unusable (Laser cannon, 120mm barrage and 380mm barrage). All of those are now usable but effectively useless in higher difficulty. The only weapon that got buffed that is useful in higher difficulty is the flamethrower, and my take is that it’s going to be the new “meta” weapon that they will eventually nerf because I think that is now stronger than the pre-nerf railgun. As for the nerfs, they primarily targeted gear people used to complete higher difficulties.
On paper it seems like they hit it from both sides, but in practice they made higher difficulties harder. And if you play with randos most of them struggled without even getting close to the highest difficulty, so natually people are annoyed.
They nerfed the strongest options (most of which I completely agree with) and then buffed 4 things that were either completely unusable (breaker spray and pray) or borderline unusable (Laser cannon, 120mm barrage and 380mm barrage). All of those are now usable but effectively useless in higher difficulty. The only weapon that got buffed that is useful in higher difficulty is the flamethrower, and my take is that it’s going to be the new “meta” weapon that they will eventually nerf because I think that is now stronger than the pre-nerf railgun. As for the nerfs, they primarily targeted gear people used to complete higher difficulties.
On paper it seems like they hit it from both sides, but in practice they made higher difficulties harder. And if you play with randos most of them struggled without even getting close to the highest difficulty, so natually people are annoyed.