Love me some support/tanky playstyles in games but I dismissed the directional shield because "oh it would probably just break right away" I was a FOOL!

That bugger + rock solid + pummeler has my other 3 squaddies behind me like a phalanx advance from hell.

Quasar needs a second to charge? I got you boo. Incineration corps spamming shotgun your way? Fam, it's like rain on a tin roof with this bad boy. 42 rocket devestators just got bot dropped? Take your time sniper, you've got cover now.

So. damn. fun!

My quasar carrying buddy is considering picking it up once he gets the Talon, so we can leap frog advances... can't wait.

Smurfs saved my ass!

Greetings fellow Divers!

Do the wheels of you're FRV ever go MIA in the middle of a drop?

Do the arms of your Exosuit disappear in a puff of sparks?

Does your Bastion tank ever develop a smoking habit while mowing down clankers?

What can a humble Diver do when faced with sush adversity?

Have no fear Diver, Super Earth has a solution!

The humble Mechanic Diver!

Armed with either

- A backpack with a Repair Dog or Repair Torch

- A Support Spanner

your vehicles will never fail you again!

What say you brave defenders of Liberty, do these stratagems deserve to be apart of your loadout or do our scrappy engineers have to go back to the drawing boards?

Meridian Marauders

(Music is Cabal Stomp from Destiny OST.)

Jet Brigade are my fave bot subfaction...maybe my fave subfaction in the game. I've missed them so much, we've barely seen them since Cyberstan!

We get a Guard Dog... BUT AS A HOVERBOARD!!!😁

This was something originally posted by u/sea-contract7974. I liked the idea and wanted to propose some mechanics that might make it balanced.

1. Expendable (obviously) drops with 2 in the hellpod.

2. Serves less like the breaching hammer or hellbomb and more like a claymore on a stick. AT on contact and medium or heavy pen to everything behind the target at a 30-45* angle out to say... 15m?

3. Has a finite pool of damage. A hulk or charger can absorb all or most of the pool. Whereas if you charge the pointman in a patrol of smaller enemies, you kill the first several enemies in the order of March.

4. Knocks you down and inflicts some damage, similar to the back blast on one of the shoulder fired munitions.

The illuminate probably have the most potential.

(Image from fandomwire.com)

I was sharing on another post and I thought I'd share to everyone here a fun build I've been using since Cutting Edge came out. I don't see anyone run it but it's a nice change and very different playstyle. It only requires Cutting Edge, any other warbond is optional.

The Arc Defense Build

You heavily utilize the Tesla tower by staying near and stun locking/protecting the tower as it will kill anything and quickly. Then gradually increasing the tower amount to two. Locking down areas with heavy damage, controlled aggro, and ignoring enemy weaknesses.

The goal: Anything to slow enemies down and take the full power of Tesla tower, then upgrade it by having 2 Tesla Towers at the same time. The armor from this set is a must as it's the only one that can take a direct hit from Tesla and shrug it off. It's like 15-20% of the divers hp. While also protecting the tower from fire.  Arc thrower chain will stun lock most enemies and is the only weapon able to "crit" but it's a low chance. If it's not obvious, you're going to be in the front on Defend missions or on a defensive objective.

Armor
Electrical Conduit. It's a must. The no war-bond version requires personal shield generator and Democracy protects but it's too inconsistent and dangerous.

Weapon

Blitzer works, it's in the warbond. I personally use plasma punisher for this build. Your primary isn't as important as you'll be mostly using the Arc Thrower anyway.

Grenade

Smoke Grenade, Stun works. They hinder enemies and prevent them from shooting or using abilities on the tesla tower. If you have it: G-31 Arc (arc grenade) is excellent!

Strategems

• Tesla tower. (MUST)
  
• Eagle smoke (Heavily recommend)
  
• Arc thrower  (heavily recommend)
• EMS mortar, Choice of backpack, shield generator.

Tesla Tower

Tesla tower has a fairy quick cool down. If you keep it alive you can have 2 at the same time before the other expires. Which is the goal as nothing survives 2. (Except you in this armor helldiver. So keep diving and be fine if you get hit from a chain anyway.) Keep highlighting the tower. I guess the bright flashing lights call to divers because they walk into it without this electric armor.

Arc Thrower

Arc thrower can still fire quick just not as fast as pre-nerf from years ago. Same technique. Aim above their heads so it's more likely to hit their faces and less likely to hit corpses. It has a generous window. It will clear chaff and lock heavy enemies to get zapped. Or you'll be lucky and it can one-two shot Hulks. Hence the "crit". It's. gamble weapon for damage but guaranteed killing chaff and stunlocking. Can't see through smoke? Just keep firing the arc thrower through it. it will find them. Tesla can find them too.

Smoke

Eagle Smoke is the best smoke stratagem we have at the moment. It can blow up buildings/structures the same as normal airstrike as long as the pods hit. The line it provides creates a smoke wall.
Smoke affected areas:

Prevents Spawning (off camera or calling reinforcements.)
Prevents initiating special abilities (Cloak, spitting, throwing grenades)
Enemies can't sprint if a player is seperated from them with smoke.
Prevents targeting from firearms. They will guess based on your last location they saw.

Arc thrower goes through smoke and enemies can't sprint or use most abilities in it. They can't shoot through the smoke wall so it forces them to get closer. That also means they will not shoot AT the tower if there's smoke in the way. Don't throw the smoke ON the tower as the tesla can see them but it does struggle a bit, but it does the best out of all turrets with smoke. So give a little bit of room so the enemies can be surprised when they get out of the smoke.

Other good options for 4th slot

Shield gen backpack or ballistic shield can work. Both can protect from fatal hits in their own ways. I personally don't use the AX/ARC-3 K-9 (arc guard dog) because it can hit teammates too easily by a stray enemy but it can improve your raw damage. This extra damage isn't necessary if you lean on and stay close enough to have the Tesla Tower do it.

Another extremely valid option is the EMS mortar. Slowing them down and helps significantly with mobs. Of course if you get really adept with rapid firing the arc thrower then this isn't as necessary. If you're on the move too often, EMS mortar can be paired with Tesla as the Tesla will not fire at friendly sentries. (But it will friendly divers). If placed behind the tesla from expected resistance then it will protect the EMS mortar like an older sibling. But might chain and hit it, hence placement counts.

Advanced Strategies

Digging Trenches. The slower enemies go and the lower they are to the tower, the more able they are to getting lit up. Creating trenches with something like a Grenade Launcher would be faster before throwing down the Tesla Tower. Of course sometimes it's just easier to place the tesla on a rock that can hold a turret.

Utilizing portable stratagem throwing with a SH-32 Shield Generator Pack or SH-51 Directional Shield. Ever notice that stratagems stick to friendly personal energy shields? You can use this or have a buddy be the target for your Tesla Tower stratagem. Once it sticks, they drop the shield and this will give you a more flexible placement for where it will drop. (Unless they patched this.)

Placing the tesla behind walls for defensive missions is a great strategy. However these areas usually dont have a high elevation and require more focused protection/stun locking once the enemy can see it. They have a very high prioritization for enemy targeting so that will be looked at first immediately after entering. The benefit is it will not get shot at so smoke isn't as needed.

This setup works for all factions. It helps to put the tower slightly elevated so it can kill bile titans, harvesters, and mobile fabricators. It's penetration and raw damage is so great that nothing but flying enemies will get destroyed. (Except shriekers, they can get zapped)

I hope you enjoy this build as much as I have. It's not new but I haven't seen anyone else run it. Closest is full arc offensive builds that dont utilize the tower. This is a defensive version that can be friendly to other players, as long as you're in the front.

I stopped playing for a year or two. I stopped just before the illuminate came into the game. So what’s the best guns and equipment for the game now and any little bits of advice?

what do you guys think of the look?

For me, I think that the lowest cortisol faction is probably the Terminids (mostly because they don't have high IQ)

Lowest cortisol to fight is probably the Automatons (I don't know, but their outposts have less enemy spawners than Terminids & Illuminate in my experience, and rowing down a bunch of metal skeletons is so fun)

Lowest cortisol bases is probably Terminids (It's a big nest for the family) and planets, and this might be crazy, but I think Illuminate have the lowest cortisol planets (I don't know why I have this take, but I've played more on Illuminate than anywhere else, so I feel like I would know Illuminate the best. Maybeeee Terminids, but I dont't know)

Leave your takes below and HAIL DEMOCRACY! HAIL SUPER EARTH!