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Microwave gun any good?

Auron472

FNG / Fresh Meat
Mar 17, 2020
1
0
Basically what the title says. Any reason to take it over the flamethrower or any other gun for that matter?
On the wiki it says that the microwave gun does less direct dmg and less DOT dmg than the flame thrower, but is much more expensive than the thrower. But it does have a much larger AOE.
 
The push back effect of the alternative fire mode is its best asset, as it allows you to distance yourself from lunging big Zeds so you can avoid taking damage when they melee attack.

I've always used it with Dual Spitfires (upgraded - for the small Zeds) and prefer this set-up to anything else.
 
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Microwave does more dmg to big zeds than the trash zeds, so you'd still have to use flamethtower or anything else for crowd control.
But then there's also helios rifle that does a better job at killing big zeds than a microwave gun.

This. The MWG used to (literally) melt anything and anyone. It got tweaked significantly in quite a few updates to the point it reached now : which is definitely alright but with the inclusion of the Helios... It simply ceased to be relevant. The Helios may not be as insane against fleshpounds, but it can deal with everything, with the added privilege of having more range.

So is the MWG good? Yeah. But they are other weapons which are even better.
 
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Microwave does more dmg to big zeds than the trash zeds, so you'd still have to use flamethtower or anything else for crowd control.

Well yes but actually no; despite the microwave damage-type is particularly effective against large-Zeds where Scrake and Fleshpound boasts x1.1 and x1.0 multiplier respectively (versus both at x0.3 with fire-type damage), the AoE nature of their damage delivery still renders both of them very inefficient to take on the body health of large Zeds given the differential to the head health is 90-300% throughout various difficulty as well as player-count setting.

Furthermore, the Microwave Gun blast cannot induce groundfire hence could not redeem the perk skill of the same name -- especially that both of said component and perk skill being a major source of Firebug's damage output. So totality-speaking, both the Flamethrower and the Microwave Gun were already bad weapon of choice for large-Zeds in the first place -- albeit the latter is somewhat more efficient plus the extra utility offered by the blast.


But then there's also helios rifle that does a better job at killing big zeds than a microwave gun.

Yep, the fact that Helios Rifle shoots physical projectile and able to hit the head really makes the difference.
 
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Killing zeds is of course the end goal in the game, and MWG is not impressive for doing that. It's not a good weapon for good circumstances. However, when problems come up, MWG can do a great job bailing you out.
Heat Wave combined with MWG's primary fire's area of effect eliminates the issue of crowds of zeds blocking your movement, since you can stumble everything nearby easily, clearing your path as you go. "Parting the zed sea", if you will.
The secondary fire blast pushes zeds. Small zeds launch into the air, where they bounce off of each other and slide along walls. When these unpredictable and chaotic results stop being amusing to you and your teammates, they start being annoying. But for the heavy zeds, FP/QP/SC, it's just a decent nudge, which is pretty predictable and practical for making their attacks miss you.
 
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Killing zeds is of course the end goal in the game, and MWG is not impressive for doing that. It's not a good weapon for good circumstances. However, when problems come up, MWG can do a great job bailing you out.
Heat Wave combined with MWG's primary fire's area of effect eliminates the issue of crowds of zeds blocking your movement, since you can stumble everything nearby easily, clearing your path as you go. "Parting the zed sea", if you will.
The secondary fire blast pushes zeds. Small zeds launch into the air, where they bounce off of each other and slide along walls. When these unpredictable and chaotic results stop being amusing to you and your teammates, they start being annoying. But for the heavy zeds, FP/QP/SC, it's just a decent nudge, which is pretty predictable and practical for making their attacks miss you.

Yes, but that puts the weapon in a "tool" or "situational weapon" category. Which would be fine by itself... For a T2 or T3 weapon. I mean, the freezethrower had a similar role until the secondary fire was added. The C4 definitely has that spot too. I think we do need some weapons like that, but they shouldn't be so damn expensive if they can't be used in a reliable way as a primary. Of course the bigger the team, the easier it is. But even in a full game... Would you be willing to spend so much dosh to simply have the supportive role?

Hell, in a way : both the Demo and Sharp do need their team to back them up, as most of their weapons are highly-damaging guns with poor RoF, allowing them to dispatch higher threats but relying on their teammates to defend themselves against the trash.

Now of course the MWG can inflict some damage, but not nearly enough.
 
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