The katana and AK feedback and questions thread.

[HunnyPot]

After a few days of running around with my Commando packing a Bullpup / AK, I still prefer the Bullpup as my primary. I had a lot of fun running around with my Zerker and a Katana, but I have gone back to playing as a Sharpie...

 

[Nanostrike]

I dunno...the Sharpie lost a lot of ground to the AK Commando. Because the AK is basically Lever Action Rifle with more ammo, a bigger clip, faster reloads, and a full-auto option!

Sharpshooter needs something new to appeal to me these days. Handcannons are kinda meh, the Lever Rifle and 9mm don't do enough damage on Hard, and the Crossbow's scope can make it downright useless in many situations. Bring on that M-14, TWI!!!

 

[HunnyPot]

meh...don't give up hope Nano! I haven't really taken a liking to the LAR at all, and I really don't care for the AK. It's probably because of my laid back, patient, playing style. The few times that I have played on hard was with a low perk team, and we couldn't get past wave 4. I would love to play with a decent team on hard, and at that time I may change my mind about the AK. But until then, I am content to play on Normal enjoying the game and picking and choosing my targets as a Sharpie...

 

[Monolithos]

commando are a bit better at dealing with gorefasts. i give you that. then again both handcannon and LAR stun them... All perks can handle clots, stalkers, bloats and crawlers - including sharpshooter using nothing but a 9mm... Unless you play on suicidal you even one-shot-kill them with one LAR bullet...

sharpshooter using xbow is amazing. i take out scrakes before berserkers can rush them with a katana. I get two xbow bolts on fleshpounds before they even move - and a thrid (or some handcannon spam to the head) before they reach us let me will kill it solo without anyone getting hurt or wasting ammo (six player hard mode).

I find sharpshooters to be the best perk at later waves dealing with the stronger zombie types. I find commando (or berserker or firebug or support spec - depending on the map and what mode i am in) to be the best perk at early waves before scrakes show up. But on hard lever action rifle one-shot-kill clots (need two at suicidal) so i kinda dominate early waves as sharpshooter as well...

They don't need another weapon. Besides M14 would just be a bullpup - but with more damage per bullet, smaller magazine and more recoil (AK47?)

What i would like to see is that sharpshooters can align the LAR iron sights on their target when it is time for their next shot. right now i am in the middle of an animation by the time i take my next shot...

 

[HunnyPot]

I agree with Mono about the Sharpie. Maybe giving us the capacity to carry more arrows as a perk like the others would be nice, but who else can do a 1 shot kill on a scrake or a 3 shot kill on an fp w/o having to run up to it and not take any damage? I do most of my work with the 9mm until the scrake round. I love having the ability to just stand there and let them line up so I can take heads off with 1 round each...I suppose you can guess that I don't care to move around much...

 

[Nanostrike]

Well, the sharpshooter 1-shotting Skrakes is pretty tricky to pull off on all but the roomiest of maps due to the almost mandatory use of the scope to do it. It is satisfying, though, and it's something that Commandos can't do (I don't care what ANYONE says, the AK just can't handle Skrakes on Hard!).

But I meant that the Sharpshooter has lost more ground in the 'sweeper' role. I liked being able to own a long string of targets with the Handcannon and LAR. 8 Handcannon shots + 10 LAR shots = 18 kills before a reload. You could potentially get a few more kills if you go dual handcannons, too!

But the Commando easily tops that with the AK. 30 AK shots can equal at least 20 kills before a reload if you aim properly...and that's BEFORE considering that the Commando perk boosts clip size! And the fact that you have the Bullpup in backup, which can lead to another 20 or so kills! Then reload both of them in under 10 seconds total (Whereas the Lever Action Rifle alone takes almost a full 8 seconds to reload even with Sharpshooter reload speed increases!) and go again. Commandos easily outshine the Sharpshooter as sweepers now, sadly...

 

[dextronaut]

it's something that Commandos can't do (I don't care what ANYONE says, the AK just can't handle Skrakes on Hard!).

whoa whoa hold the phone my friend! im purely a commando player, so heres what i do when i play on hard and suicidal when facing a scrake. first, i use no nades, i instead weaken him with my bullpup (50 rnd mag), then when he charges i blast him in the face with my AK47 (37 rnd mag), his head pops, and i walk away.

 

[Monolithos]

If i want to primary play a "sweeper" i would play Commando. That perk is simply best for that role... Others can do it, but not as good as a Commando.

If i want to primary control the whole swarm and let others take care of bigger targets I would play a Firebug. Others can do it too, but Firebugs excel at it.

If I want to primary hold my ground in tight doorway or staircase against the swarm, including scrakes, while my back is covered by welded doors or teammebers (think bioticslab or office) I would play Support Spec.

If I want to zoom around the map solo and play hit 'n run tactics one-shot-killing everything i touch without getting hit I would play berserker.

However, if I want to be the guy that primary take out big strong targets such as scrakes, fleshpounds, sirens and the patriarch I would play Sharpshooter. Others can do it too, but not as good as a Sharpshooter.

If you want to play your sharpshooter as a sweeper (as i said, all perks can do it - just not as good as the commando) you would want to use Lever Action Rifle and Handcannons as your primary weapons. Lever Action Rifle one-shot-kill clots with one shot to the body and Handcannon one-shot-kill crawerls and stalkers with one shot to the body. Don't forget to use handcannons for crawlers and stalkers or you run out of LAR bullets. No need to aim, learn to place them bodyshoots from the hip. As long as they are not lined up you will probably even kill them faster than commando do. You decapitate bloats with 9mm (if you want them to bleed out) or LAR/HC (if you want to instant kill them from full HP). A handful of HC bodyshots bring down a siren - or a single headshot using LAR. You shoot scrakes in the headshot hitbox (his left ear or even a bit at the side of his entire head) with your LAR until it enrage, then switch to handcannons and stun-kill him at melee range without taking damage. You constantly reload the LAR, as long as i have bullets left I almost never get zero bullets left in my LAR magazine (shoot some, reload some, shoot some more) and if I do i can use handcannons to stun gorefasts and clots with a single bodyshot to block zombies form rushing me long enough to buy me time to reload some more. You let your party help you with the fleshpound...

However, the power of sharpshooter is not to play him as a "sweeper". The true power of the perk is when your team take care of most lesser zombies so you can focus your crossbow to take down scrakes and fleshpounds long before they pose a threat to anyone. If everyone do their job right (and let you place your two bolts on fleshpounds before attacking them) a good sharpshooter will let his five team members only have to worry about clots, stalkers, crawlers (when there are no sirens, scrakes or fleshpounds you will take down crawlers with two 9mm bullets each), bloats and gorefasts. Last waves will basically play out just like early waves before scrakes show up... gg.

Yes, a-bit tricky to one-shot-kill scrakes that someone else is attacking (so he is walking towards them instead of you) or if he is already enraged. But that is where you handcannons come in. Before it enrage; Make sure you reload your dual handcannons. When it enrage; Step up to melee range and shoot him in the head. You will keep him stunned until he dies (at hard you need to be level five to deal enough damage for this to work though).

When playing xbow sharpshooter, do not underastimate the 9mm. 9mm in the hands of a sharpshooter is basically the same as AK47 set to semi-automatic-mode in the hands of a Commando. It deal about the same damage - probably more on headshots - per bullet. Fire at the same speed. Got a smaller clip-size and less total amount of bullets, but compensate this with a really fast reload speed and less (no?) recoil. At later waves I often run out of 9mm bullets before the wave is over - thats how much i use it. It is my primary weapon. Handcannons are just for backup, taking out sirens and stunning gorefasts that get too close or making a path through the swarm of zombies. Xbow for taking out scrakes, fleshpounds, the patriarch and sirens if i spot them on long range.

 

[Double_Deagle]

-snip-

I use Sharpshooter the majority of the time, and the way you describe it is exactly how I play. And you know what? It is intensely satisfying to play like that and know that my team doesn't have to deal with those high threat targets.

 

[Skunkee]

My initial impressions of the Katana and AK-47:

AK-47-

I think it's a great addition to the game. It does respectable damage, has a decent amount of ammo, and the magazines run out quite fast so it's not overpowered in the least. The bullpup is still useful even with this gun available and the weight of the weapon allows Commandos to carry both.

The recoil on it is fairly realistic and the reload animation is just long enough to scare non commando classes when they are forced to reload in a hectic situation. Great work.

Katana-

I had my apprehensions about this weapon but overall it's very fun. It does a lot of damage (at least it does at rank 5 for me), has a very fast swing speed, and conveys a fast run speed like all other non chainsaw melee weapons.

My one complaint is how light the sword is. It weighs the same as the machete, so personally I think too many perks are able to get a katana without sacrificing much else. It seems like a weapon with too many pros and not enough cons. I tend to agree with the people who say it should be bumped up to 4 or 5 blocks. Aside from the expensive price of the Katana, there's not much of a reason to use any other melee weapons other than the chainsaw when one becomes available.

 

[HunnyPot]

Ahh! Now I understand what you meant Nano... I play as the latter part of Mono's post also. Just the other night some guy said I was overpowered because he watched me when he died taking out fp's n scrakes all by myself in rds 9/10, and then standing my ground and dealing the kill shot to the Pat whilst everyone else was scrambling trying to take cover. He said that he didn't know that the Sharpie was THAT good..hehe. When I 1 shot kill a scrake or 3 shot decap an fp w/o anyone taking damage, including myself, and people notice, they always compliment with a " WOW! nice shot! " And no, the AK does NOT take out the scrake in 1 shot unless it's already weakened, and the Katana still takes a few strikes to kill the scrake although it does stun him. The xbow can take out a scrake in 1 shot at full health with Sharpie perk.

 

[Nazarov]

I dunno...the Sharpie lost a lot of ground to the AK Commando. Because the AK is basically Lever Action Rifle with more ammo, a bigger clip, faster reloads, and a full-auto option!

Sharpshooter needs something new to appeal to me these days. Handcannons are kinda meh, the Lever Rifle and 9mm don't do enough damage on Hard, and the Crossbow's scope can make it downright useless in many situations. Bring on that M-14, TWI!!!

G41 is on the way. Everything will be cool. G41 has high calibur rounds and will do tons of damage. Haha

 

[Nanostrike]

whoa whoa hold the phone my friend! im purely a commando player, so heres what i do when i play on hard and suicidal when facing a scrake. first, i use no nades, i instead weaken him with my bullpup (50 rnd mag), then when he charges i blast him in the face with my AK47 (37 rnd mag), his head pops, and i walk away.

Yeah, but you realized that you're emptying BOTH of your primary weapons on ONE enemy and having to ignore any other enemies around to do so? The Sharpshooter can simply use one or two shots and the Skrake is down (Not to mention that the Bolt can pass through any 'blocking' enemies like Clots). And after he pops the Skrake's head, his other weapons are still loaded and ready to go.

I'm not saying that a Commando CAN'T take down a Skrake on his own. I know very well that he can (I do the same thing as you said, but incorportate a grenade before finishing with the AK, BTW), but in doing so, he takes MUCH longer than other perks, puts himself at risk of being charged, usually empties his primary weapons, AND uses a lot of ammo (1 mag from both the Bullpup AND AK is roughly 10% of your ammo, man!). It's possible, but not economical or effective.

I'd say the biggest problem with the new weapons that I've seen is that people are using them improperly. Using them just because they can. A Berserker will almost always do better holding a long hallway with a Chainsaw, but I see tons of them get the Katana and end up dying to swarms of Gorefasts anyway.

Or when a long corridor would obviously be better covered by a Support or Firebug, I almost always see a ton of AK Commandos trying to "meat grinder" through the enemies with full auto fire... I hope the new weapon syndrome wears off soon...

 

[Phantomspiker]

I'd say the biggest problem with the new weapons that I've seen is that people are using them improperly. Using them just because they can. A Berserker will almost always do better holding a long hallway with a Chainsaw, but I see tons of them get the Katana and end up dying to swarms of Gorefasts anyway.

I really don't think that the chainsaw that much better than the katana at holding down hallways. From the handful of times that I have played the perk since the HM pack's release, I have been successful at being both offensive and defensive with the katana. In my opinion I think that the katana is the most well rounded of the two weapons.

 

[Monolithos]

I think Katana > Chainsaw is almost all situations.

I find chainsaw better when holding my ground (say a doorway or a staircase) while having a team to cover my back.
I find chainsaw better at decap fleshpounds that are going after me.

I find katana better when i can move around and pick my targets one by one (as fast as you can swing - which is fast), when I run away solo or if my entire team is dead.
I find Katana better at hunting fleshpounds that are going after my team members.

I find Katana to be more fun and in most situations more efficient. Fast 'n furious ftw.


on office i rather have a chainsaw as long as my teammembers are alive - and i rather have a katana if they all die - so on that map i actually pack both (so many hallways, staircases and doorways to hide behind that sirens can be dealt at melee distance and you can pick off crawlers at melee distance when they round the corner).

[On other maps I normaly i go with Katana and Handcannon - and at later waves i add a bullpup (decap fp) - but with some more training I will probably start using only Katana and nothing else (4/15kg) even for later waves].

 

[Nanostrike]

on office i rather have a chainsaw as long as my teammembers are alive - and i rather have a katana if they all die - so on that map i actually pack both (so many hallways, staircases and doorways to hide behind that sirens can be dealt at melee distance and you can pick off crawlers at melee distance when they round the corner).

That's one of the problems, too. The Katana is better for a Berserker looking out for themselves and going all-out-offense, but leaves him unable to 'stun lock' multiple enemies and shield his teammates as well as he can with the Chainsaw. Compare the Chainsaw and the Katana's performance against about six charging Gorefasts and you'll see where I'm coming from: With the chainsaw, a quick strafe will hit almost all the gorefasts, putting them in their 'stun' animation so you can finish them. The Katana simply can't do that, as it has to kill each one, one at a time...

...and most Zerkers say 'Screw it, let the team handle themselves' and buy the Katana now because it's more fun and asthetically pleasing for them (No moving like a semi truck and having to listen to that god-awful chainsaw motor!) and actually improves THEIR ability to move and kill quickly, though contributing very little to the team. I'd say that since the Katana popped up, around 2/3 of the 'Zerkers I've seen are totally useless in a team setting because all they do is randomly charge things with the Katana now.

Don't get me wrong, there are a select few, myself included, that use the Katana to get to teammates in need faster or to get up close to engage Skrakes faster, but we're by far the exception rather than the rule...

 

[brick_top1982]

i've seen in some other post that you can decap the FPs with the Katana/AK. I havent been able to pull it off, so this is my question, can you at least do it with the AK since its pretty simple to do with the bullpup?

 

[Benjamin]

It's possible, but it's better to do it with the Bullpup as I believe it's faster firing and less powerful.

 

[HunnyPot]

You can at least decap an fp with a knife if you so desire...

 

[Monolithos]

yes you can decap a fp in melee range with any weapon, including - but limited to - ak47, katana, 9mm and knife (i also seen fps being decapitated at range quite a few times now so that too is possible, not sure what trigger it though).

berserker with chainsaw have the highest attack rate of all weapons in the game, no need to "reload" and a high damage per second - so it is easier for them as they just need to press primary attack until the head pop, the fp dies or the berserker dies

if not playing berserker or not having a chainsaw i think bullpup is the best weapon as it have a high rate of fire and lower damage per second that often let you decapitate the fleshpound without first enrage it.

my third weapon of choice to decap a fp in melee is the ak47.

after that it doesnt really matter as you will have to do the "one-attack-timing"-trick to decap it. probably 9mm or knife as they are fast low damage attacks and you always have them with you, but as long as you learn to time it right - any weapon will do, including katana.


To straight out kill it (if it for example hunt your partner) best weapons are probably xbow, nades (does "x4 damage" on fleshpounds), hunter shotgun, katana (preferable alt-fire), AK47, dual handcannons, chainsaw (preferable alt-fire) or L.A.W. (does "double" damage on fleshpounds, so it is actually half decent) - in that order.