Servalion;n2327093 said:
Does anyone ever use the perk option to increase ammo count by 5? Because I feel like that's tailored entirely around the C4 to allow enough of it to be viable.
The +5 extra ammo skill is tailored quite the opposite, it doesn't apply at all to C4. The Demolitionist passive benefit for ammo does apply, though, and that makes a world of difference for C4. Without that, you can carry only three C4, pretty useless. At high level you get several of them, still quite limited, but it's workable. They're alright for a FP, QP, or dense crowd here and there, while mostly using another weapon. They're terrible for scrakes, which resist explosions. Sticking C4 on a zed's face can look hilarious, but bashes are the only damage C4 can actually do to a zed's head health.
The only time I find it to be really practically worthwhile to buy C4 is for the boss, paired with RPG, hoping for Pat or KFP.
-- PATRIARCH: C4 is the perfect way to end a fight with Pat early. Stick them all on him, don't detonate any of them. Avoid his attacks while RPGing him. When he starts fleeing to heal, chase him and keep RPGing him as long as you can, until he gets around a corner. Detonate two C4s. Now wait three seconds, which will reset the stacking resistance feature. Detonate two more C4s, wait three seconds, repeat. Skip the waiting if you see the health bar is really really close.
-- KING FLESHPOUND: For this fight, explosive heavy hitters are perfect, RPG/C4 is simply a great loadout. Somewhat counter-intuitively, it seems best for demo to focus on Quarter-Pounder patrol, while letting teammates deal with the king. The more slowly and gradually the damage to the king comes, the more slowly and gradually the QPs spawn, which means one demo alone can handle the majority of them, which means the team won't get overrun by a dozen of them at once. The fight will become easy for everyone who properly anticipates the king's laser. (Never be mildly uphill from the king while he isn't raged, and you'll be able to just duck under the laser by crouching)
-- ABOMINATION: C4's mediocre for him. You might want to stick them all to him at the beginning when it's easy to get close to him, before things get messy. Then patiently occasionally detonate one at a time throughout the fight, 3+ seconds between, to get full damage, instead of letting stacking resistance do anything. No rush with the C4, you can get plenty done in the meantime with the RPG.
-- HANS VOLTER: The worst boss for C4ing. They're slow projectiles, and he likes to dodge. If you have C4+RPG, that's pretty inefficient for the other zeds that spawn during a Hans fight, and there's limited remaining inventory space to add something else for them. SW500 and MedSMG are possible, yet I find myself always just going medpistol. Sometimes I throw an HX25 on the ground, to swap C4 for that if the boss is Hans.
Something mild that could help make C4 appealing in demo loadouts more often would be if HX25 was lightened to 3. That way, they could fit together in more loadouts. C4+HX25+RPG, or C4+HX25+HuskCannon, or C4+HX25+M32 would become possible, maybe worthwhile.