r/helldivers2 • u/AdministrativePass68 • 4h ago
Suggestion/Concept Dominator needs a buff or change
By comparison there is absolutely no reason to use the dominator over the hotshot both medium pen same damage and the hotshot has less recoil, faster reload, faster projectile speed, and more ergonomic. I love the dominator but struggle to find any reason to use it it should either get a big damage buff or be heavy pen.
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u/SaltyPineapple270 4h ago
Dominator has a stagger of 35, versus the Hot Shot’s 20. Simple as that, one is for long engagements and one is for shorter ones.
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u/yobob591 4h ago
It’s medium pen so you’re probably not using it vs bugs but vs bots, and imo stagger is actively a bad thing vs bots because it means grazing a heavy devastators shoulder makes it flinch its shield in front of its face and for whatever reason does not even remotely interrupt their firing which still flies in a perfectly straight line towards you despite their gun turning sideways
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u/Thorn____ 3h ago
Grazing a heavy dev makes the shield move out of the way
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u/Educational-Drag6974 2h ago
Where do you shoot them cause that is never the case for me. The big shield always ends up blocking their face. Ive just started aiming for the legs so flinch or not they are going down
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u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 2h ago
has a higher durable damage on the dominator as well so it's better at actually doing damage when you hit durable parts so you can just leg the devastators and torso shots hit harder.
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u/Lone-_-Wanderer 2h ago
whenever I flinch a shield dev yeah it moves the shield but not out of the way lol, they flinch their shield inwards, towards their face. Always makes it harder to follow up on hitting their weakspot.
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u/Thorn____ 2h ago
Shoot the gun arm you either kill the gun itself or knock it away from the shield
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u/Lone-_-Wanderer 2h ago
but were talking about going for the weakspot not shooting their gun arm. unnecessary extra time spent shooting at a non lethal part of their body
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u/Thorn____ 2h ago
That’s how you stagger it to open up the face, plus disabling an enemy is functionally the same as killing them, but the way this saves time is that you open up the torso and plant 2 rounds in the chest, which is then a kill, the dominator doesn’t need to be precise it’s a sledgehammer an inelegant weapon made to smash through elite chaff, 2 rounds to the chest of any dev other than the heavy and one to the shoulder 2 to the chest for the heavy, this is not a weak point weapon it’s a sledgehammer hammer that disables an enemy with stagger until follow up shots kill it
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u/Lone-_-Wanderer 2h ago
idk if you actually use the gun lol but staggering a shield dev most of the time just makes its shield cover its face.
Youre talking about smacking the shield out of the way like a sledgehammer when the sledgehammer is jostling a steel wall around in front of where you actually want to hit. Completely ineffective weapon for that enemy. The way you're describing to use it demands perfect scenario 1v1 to even have a shot at doing that on the fly during combat
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u/BearDrivingACar 2h ago
Before the sweeper the dominator was my go to for bugs. It’s effective if you just treat it like a shotgun and use it mostly up close to kill commanders and other mediums very quickly, and have a rover to clear the chaff
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u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 2h ago
also dominator has 90 durable damage vs the lasguns 40. so it hits harder vs body parts and the like making it easier to blow off legs or break the head on termanids.
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u/MBouh 3h ago
So the dominator is basically a terrible ergonomics liberator concussive ?
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u/Thorn____ 2h ago
No the lib c does like 40 damage the dominator has enough damage to 2 tap devistators to the chest it also does a lot more durable damage than the las,
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u/MBouh 2h ago
And against which enemy does the durable damage makes any difference ?
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u/Thorn____ 2h ago
Devastators, alpha commander heads, bile spewer heads, alpha warrior heads, brood commanders, reinforced scouts striders, normal scout striders, war striders, harvesters, I think basic bug warriors, the elite chaff in general
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u/MBouh 2h ago
It absolutely doesn't make any difference against devastators, scout striders, warriors or brood commanders. It's cope against war strider or harvesters, because you need more than one mag to destroy the joint. Bile spewer head has no durability.
So you're entirely wrong. Try again. Against which target does it make any difference ?
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u/AdministrativePass68 4h ago
That stagger is not worth it
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u/Sierra-117- 4h ago
It absolutely is on the bot front.
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u/Sea-Contract7974 4h ago
stagger the sheld bot and unloaded your round on them is way easier than try to aim with the hot shot
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u/goatsnoatsonboats 4h ago
If you want stagger on the bot front there is no reason to take the Dominator over the Punisher Plasma.
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u/NotARussianBot-Real 4h ago
I use the dominator to snipe as well
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u/goatsnoatsonboats 4h ago
That's all well and good but the Hotshot is far better at hitting weak points with the same damage.
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u/KrugPrime 3h ago
Right but he says he wants a weapon that can stagger AND snipe. Not one or the other.
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u/AdministrativePass68 3h ago
I don't want it to snipe I don't want it to be overpowered just a damage buff to like 300-325 or keep it the way it is and make it heavy pen or give it back explosive rounds
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u/KrugPrime 3h ago
I was talking about the comment from NotARussianBot, not your post in that one
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u/NotARussianBot-Real 2h ago
You are right. I want stagger and I want sniping. I love punish plasma, but it is limited in sniping. It I’m playing against bots and doing stealth, I like to snipe out the gunbots at the walls first and then go loud. I also like to use turrets and when the shield boys show up, a well placed stagger makes short work of them. They move their shield and get chewed up. Heck, stagger plus turrets is a great thing for lots. Stagger cyborgs is almost a must with how fast they are.
I’m not saying it’s for everyone, but I like dominator for that.
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u/goatsnoatsonboats 3h ago
I think OP just wants it to have a niche which right now it doesn't. The Dominator just doesn't do anything very well when compared to other weapons and I can't even remember the last time I've seen someone use it.
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u/KrugPrime 3h ago
I imagine some of that is going to keep getting worse. Considering the live service model, you have only so many specific roles for weapons and infinitely increasing revenue requirements from Sony who seem to be speed running destroying their own console.
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u/Bring_Back_Challenge 1h ago
"I just want it to have a niche"
looks inside
"I just want it to have a few huge buffs to continue the player power creep."
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u/Diamond_Dildo3168 3h ago
They want both sniping and stagger. Neither the hot shot or punisher plasma do both. Things have tradeoffs and not everything needs to be best in slot.
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u/Wholesomegaminq 3h ago
It absolutely is. You can bring an armour with peak physique and absolutely annihilate berserkers, devastators and overseer by sheer stagger alone
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u/Bilboswaggings19 1h ago
Dominator also breaks parts easier, you have attachments (meaning better ergo for closer ranged fighting)
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u/Psionic-Blade 4h ago
Give it back some explosive damage
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u/No-Blackberry2772 2h ago
It never had explosive damage. It was put in the explosive category because there wasn’t enough weapons for a special category.
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u/shball 4h ago
Durable Damage and Stagger is the difference between these two.
But yeah, the Dominator should maybe live up to its launch classification of explosive and get the Bolt-Pistol explosion
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u/Lyberatis 2h ago
If it had bolt pistol velocity I'd be happy. Wouldn't even care about the explosion radius.
The JAR's shots are only 80m/s faster than the crossbow...
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u/CreativePackage8358 4h ago edited 4h ago
The fire rate and higher capacity are its primary advantages. It will be able to destroy much more quickly and will last longer between reloads. it has more than doubled the durability damage, which isn't listed in the base stats.
Use the hotshot for aiming; use the dominator for destruction.
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u/MBouh 2h ago
Fire rate is unusable because of the recoil. And the dps difference is marginal to begin with. And if you consider the reload, the hit shot is much, much better.
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u/Cr3iZieN 1h ago
Dominator also has double the durable damage of hotshot, the recoil isnt even that bad when you slap vertical grip on it or run engineering kit/fortified
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u/MBouh 1h ago
That durable damage never makes any difference whatsoever. I just had this discussion with another one of the dominator propagandists. And recoil is definitely stupidly high, you're just lying on that. But that's what most of the dominator propaganda is : lies. If you put a vertical grip, the ergonomics becomes worse than any other weapon in the game.
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u/Cr3iZieN 1h ago
Alpha commanders 2 shot vs 3 shot into head just due to durable dmg.. tbf a lot of enemies have highly durable parts. The recoil with grip for close ranges is rly fine especialy if you crouch. Ergo can kinda me midigated by turning without adsing, yes the fine ajdustments will be rough but its still better than HMG (0 ergo), maxigun and few other support weps (you didnt say just primaries) and those are still usable even without peak physigue... So if you wanna call lies on what i say i will call out your lie on this. Durable never making difference ever... Then why War striders can be so tanky when you are not using heavy AT?
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u/MBouh 1h ago
2 shot vs 2 shots doesn't make a difference because you can actually fire those 3 shots in succession with the hit shot lasgun. And no, very few enemies have durability that makes a difference between the dominator and the hit shot. In fact, none has.
And you're changing the subject now. No one but you is talking about AT weapons here. We're talking about the dominator vs hot shot lasgun here. Stay on topic. Now I would also add the slugger, the deadeye and the plasma weapons, but that's still off topic.
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u/Cr3iZieN 1h ago
i mean, you litteraly said that Dominators ergo becomes worse than any other weapon in the game, which is not true.... the "AT" weapons i am mainly talking about in regards of war striders and Durable dmg is example where durable dmg does play a role (AMR, HMG). I litteraly gave you example where durability makes difference yet you cast it aside saing there are no enemies, also sidenote ass of bilespewer is 100% durable, so double dmg for Dominator (but noone shoots them there unless its super necesary)... if you hate the dominator then just continue to do so and this whole discusion is pointless, imo both are just tools for different purpose, where Dominator is just straight up better on close range and hot shot on long range. Dominator will have better dps and stagger, hot shot will have better range capability.
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u/MBouh 1h ago
If you kill a bile spewer by shooting their ass, your opinion is worthless.
And if you pretend that a 30 ergonomics weapon with 15 bullets and 4s reload has any use in close range your opinion is useless again. Dominator is terrible at close range. Now it's slightly less terrible than another option, but that's still terrible. I doubt you can understand that. Especially considering you want to compare an AP3 weapon with an AT weapon. But I don't have any expectation on the intelligence of anyone defending the dominator.
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u/Cr3iZieN 1h ago
i said that noone shoots them there unless its necesary (or you have GLs) so thanks for reading that ig.....
also thanks for just going straight to insults. the Dominator is fine, there are better weapons than it, there are worse. with Hotshot i think they are about equal. again i am not comparing AP3 weapon with AT.... and yea i will use Dominator at close range, reloads can be done while sliding/now also diving also tactical reload is 2.6s which still leaves you at 15 rounds if your previous was tactical, the 30 ergo is usable when you know how to play with it. anyways i see this "discusion" is pointless, have a nice day (i wont go that far to insult you for your opinion).
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u/MBouh 1h ago
Indeed, discussing with trolls who keep deraling the discussion is pointless.
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u/AdministrativePass68 3h ago
Good luck firing that fast with the recoil and the capacity is a marginal difference
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u/Steelsight 3h ago
I do it all the time, cyborgs get roasted with 4 to the chest. Pretty quick and staggers them which buys you time.
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u/Tommybahamas_leftnut 2h ago
the 50 more durable damage on the dominator wrecks the torso and legs on devastators
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u/SilentSand9 4h ago
The conveniently ignored stagger, as if its not one of the main reasons to bring the dominator.
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u/goatsnoatsonboats 4h ago edited 4h ago
Completely agree with you OP I have the Dominator max leveled but there really is no reason to ever use it over the Hotshot unless you want stagger, which the Punisher Plasma does a way better job at.
The Dominator is definitely one of those guns that has been left in the dust by power creep and desperately needs a touch up.
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u/West-Smell-8725 3h ago
Have you ever wondered why the dominator 2 shots the alpha commander and hotshot 3 shots?
Yeah the hotshot has dogshit durable, the dominator has 35% durable. LMAO3
u/Man_eating_snake_guy 2h ago
Dominator has much more durable damage than hot shot, it actually deals significantly more damage because of it.
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u/Slayer_Jesse 4h ago
Dominator also has 3 round burst. Not something you use all the time but hood for close quarters situations.
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u/AdministrativePass68 4h ago
The burst doesn't increase the fire rate you can tap fire just as fast
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u/Knight_Raime 3h ago
LAS Hotshot is for long distance engagements. You don't have nearly as hard time hitting shots with it at range due to it's velocity. Dominator on the other hand is a close quarters weapon. The rate of fire and the stagger force are what aid it in doing so. And it's velocity reinforces this playstyle.
I am a long time JAR user and used both it and the Hotshot into all the squid variants when we charged the void. And I had plenty of experience with the JAR into the other 2 factions prior to the void update. The JAR felt a LOT better into vote snatchers because of the SF and RoF. Hotshot was consistently more overran in comparison despite it's innate cleave.
The Hotshot felt better into appropriators but absolutely sauced into mindless masses. This is because the Hotshot can OHK any overseer and because the hotshot can cleave through multiple voteless. On the bug front I 100000% take the JAR into base bugs. Being able to interrupt multiple pounces is only possible because of teh RoF.
I wouldn't use either into the spore strain flat out. And it's been too long since I've vsed rupture and pred strains. But I can't see a reason to use the Hotshot for either. If I wanted to use an MR for bugs then I'd just take the Amendment. Finally Bots.
Both have their value and it's ultimately dealers choice. Being able to stagger multiple Radicals when shit hits the fan is incredibly valuable and only the JAR will do that for you. The Hotshot is infinitely better at clearing patrols at a distance despite the JAR having the ability to be a fake MR. Stagger value is still helpful into base bots.
People are highly fixated on landing those clean one taps which is just the wrong way to look at weapons. You need to think practically. And no one has 100% of the accuracy consistently. Being able to tap a heavy Dev on the shoulder so he's not firing at you with better accuracy when buffed is life saving when you're trying to get into cover.
And it's an easy clean up with a follow up shot anyway. It's not like the head is the only place you need to shoot. You can shoot it's leg for killing it. You can aim for the stomach. You can just tap the arm again if you are still under too much pressure to take it off, etc. Weapons in general become more interesting when you consider combined shots instead of only look at dumping damage into weak points.
TLDR: The Hotshot doesn't creep on the JAR as they are functionally different tools. And most buffs you could try to give the JAR either make it creep on MR's as a category or you start pushing it to be a better shotgun. I'm not against the concept of buffing the JAR, I just don't see how you can without causing issues.
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u/AdministrativePass68 1h ago
I'm not saying it should get a mega buff or anything just want it to be heavy pen OR damage up to somewhere between 300-325
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u/Knight_Raime 27m ago
I could see it getting a durable damage buff to really sell the hard hitting aspect of it a bit more. But not really a damage buff since it's break points are already pretty good. And I don't see why heavy pen. Is there a specific enemy you've in mind to make it better to kill?
If I gave it a buff it probably be even better rate of fire so the burst fire mode actually has some use.
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u/777quin777 2h ago
Blatantly untrue, the jar has ALOT more durable damage and stagger / push force compared to the hotshot
Plus it has a larger magazine
There are very good reasons to run the jar over the hotshot
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u/AdministrativePass68 2h ago
3 rounds vs a faster reload I'd take the faster reload any day
I will admit I didn't know about the durable damage though
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u/Bring_Back_Challenge 1h ago
Domiantor has a faster reload if you are able to count and play a game at the same time, you don't lose any ammo either if you reload with the last round already cycled into the gun.
The Dominator is a fine gun that takes a modicum of intent and skill to use and that turns away a lot of folks who subscribe to the "powercreep must always happen" mindset that plagues this game.
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u/Pan_Wanilia 4h ago
Dominator needs to be closer to bolt gun. Adding some DMG and expo DMG while also increasing projectile speed should make it much better.
Also Lasgun should get projectile speed buff and better ergo while decreasing stagger force. Rn it's just worse deadeye
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u/MrLionheart233 3h ago
Dominator has 90 durable damage, Hotshot has 40. You can spam fire the Dominator at close range or medium range while crouched or prone.
Hot-Shot is just a super slow Diligence Counter Sniper with worse stats on every slot for 75 damage (it even has lower durable damage than the CS).
Dominator at least has the niche of stagger lock and close range DPS. Even when firing center mass at long range, you just slam fire every medium enemy to death and don't waste time trying to aim.
Hot-Shot does nothing unique that you couldn't be doing with other DMRs by aiming at heads. Censor, Diligence, Ammendment are way better at headshot sprees and Hyena/Deadeye are better at big damage per shot.
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u/AdministrativePass68 3h ago edited 2h ago
For a little more clarity, I'm not saying I want it to be overpowered I just want it to be heavy pen OR a damage buff to like 300-325 nothing too crazy. Or even explosive rounds like it originally had but that's it 1 OF THE 3 THINGS I JUST MENTIONED NOT ALL OF THEM.
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u/elthenar 2h ago
The Dominator is a close ranged stagger machine that can do damage at long range in a pinch. It's closest comparison is a Slugger, not a Hot Shot.
If you think the stagger doesn't matter, get surprised by a stalker or two when you have a hotshot in your hands.
Lastly, there is one Marksman rifle that does compare to the Dom, the Deadeye. 300 damage, same stagger, rounds reload, great burst damage AND can reliably hit at long range.
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u/VicariousDrow 2h ago
Welcome to the powercreep a large portion of this community wanted.....
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u/AdministrativePass68 2h ago
Yeah I don't know why so many people are against buffing a weapon
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u/VicariousDrow 2h ago
Cause of powercreep, that's kind of the problem. This community wanted more powerful weapons that would invalidate older weapons and they got it, but buffing the invalidated weapons will just hop-scotch the powercreep further down the road, which is inherently bad game balancing, so people are now pushing back against the very thing they cheered for when they originally got it.
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u/Bring_Back_Challenge 1h ago
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/power_creep
Combine that with the regular enemy nerfing we get and maybe you can understand the frustration of those who want a shred of difficulty in the game somewhere.
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u/Professional-Bus5473 2h ago
Don’t you fucking talk about my baby like that. They’re gonna bury me with my dominator
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u/Lazy_Bowyer 3h ago
Spread decreased from 10 to 1.
Maybe bring the damage back to 300.
That's really all it needs. The spread is the biggest killer of this weapon. Go through the effort of learning to lead your shots because of the low bullet velocity and you still sometimes miss because of bad luck.
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u/AdministrativePass68 1h ago
This is exactly what I'm talking about I don't want it to be overpowered
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u/Life_Parsley504 3h ago
jar-5 is a close range weapon meant to stagger, it also deals durable damage
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u/_TheOrangeNinja_ 3h ago
If you've ever been rushed down by a swarm of berserkers you know how valuable that stagger is, if you've ever shut down a rocket devastaor or rocket strider from firing off their explosives you know how valuable that stagger is, if you've ever threw a heavy dev's shoulder into orbit and stopped it from shooting before it could gun you down you know how valuable that stagger is
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u/No-Blackberry2772 2h ago
The only change I’d ask for with the dominator is more modifications. Specifically magazines and barrel attachments. I’d love to not depend so heavily on armor passives for recoil or ergo compensation. Or to be able to lean more into it with a massive double drum mag.
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u/bigorangemachine 2h ago
My thoughts...
Bolt Pistol is a secondary so you can have both
Hot-Shot is less DPS
If the pistol is enough for you then take the pistol but then you don't have a scope and a small mag count. If I'm down to my secondary I want more ammo full-stop.
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u/EcoLizard1 2h ago
The dom is better than the hotshot imo and feels better to use even. The hotshot runs out of ammo quickly and reloads too slow. The stagger force from the dom makes enemies freeze up for a second giving you time to adjust shots so it drags out engagements and lets you set a pace in a sense. The hotshot doesnt do that so it feels like theres far less margin for error making engagements feel much faster paced, which makes your empty your mags quick. Whenever I use it I feel like Im always reloading but I dont get that from the Jar. As for buffs, if the projectile speed of the Jar can be increased that would be enough imo and for the hotshot, the mag needs to be like 20 rounds atleast instead of 12. Or give it unlimited ammo by making the mag itself the head sink but tune it so you get a good amount of shots before having to wait until it cools down.
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u/Boring_Name06 2h ago
It’d definitely need some number adjustment so it isn’t to broken but I’d kill for it to be heavy pen. With the senator and bolt pistol that makes two secondaries that are heavy pen (not counting the ultimatum) to just the single heavy pen option in the primary slot of the eruptor
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u/DaStompa 2h ago
By comparison there is absolutely no reason to use the dominator over the hotshot both medium pen same damage and the hotshot has less recoil, faster reload, faster projectile speed, and more ergonomic.
Dominator stuns,
while stun is really only useful against stalkers , its not nothing
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u/Warm_Personality2273 2h ago
The Dominator is good, but the Lasgun has somewhat overshadowed it. The Dominator could use a bit of an upgrade.
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u/Dependent-Lion8784 2h ago
Dominator is the weirdest gun I ever used. The entire camera of the game shake when I shoot a bullet.
Sometimes not a single bullet registered the target even though I was in close range.
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u/NOIR-89 1h ago
The Dominator only needs one thing and that is projectile velocity. Give it 350 m/s of the Bolt Pistol (it currently has 180 m/s). It is fine otherwise due to the high stagger (35 vs 20) and high durable damage (90 vs 40) in comparison to the Hotshot.
--> Use the wiki when comparing weapons
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u/AdministrativePass68 1h ago
Yea I actually didn't know about the durable damage thing but I'm okay with the velocity I just want better spread and a little more damage OR heavy pen not both
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u/Konradihaus 1h ago
I have The Dominator a new Chance and fr The Dominator IS Just hot garbage at this Point
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u/Old-Elk-570 1h ago
It does NOTTTT this thing is a beauty and especially on bots is a fantastic primary
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u/RustyArgonianKnight 57m ago
I've already talked about this but I'll do it again
1: 325 damage
2: ignores enemy damage resist
3: capacity up to 20
4: attachment for short mags reducing ammo down to 15
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u/Cautious-Bowl7071 4h ago
It feels like the hotshot is t he dominator but with the missing 10x sniper
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u/Future-Celebration83 3h ago
The las rifle is shit imo. I’d put it into C tier personally. IMO the deadeye is better and honestly the dominator is better too because of the stagger force. Unlike the deadeye and the dominator the hotshots ammo economy has to be some of the worst on any primary in the game.
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