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Tactics Chainsaw tips?

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Salad Snake

Salad Snake

Grizzled Veteran
Aug 2, 2010
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Honolulu, Hawaii
#1
Now that the Chainsaw has been buffed, I've taken to using it now & then as Zerker. However, I still find that the Katana is more versatile a weapon, and I typically end up getting injured quite severely when using the Chainsaw. Does anyone have some tips on using it, and how it's fighting style differs from the Katana?
 
#2
It was a very viable alternative in the beta when one touch decapped trash.
Now it's 2 and it's just a katana downgrade with no real niche to fill again, albeit better than pre-patch.

Basically with the saw, you never really move towards enemies, you let them come for you and maybe backpedal while holding m1 and let everything fast that follows you (aka gorefasts and stalkers) nibble on its blades while always being paranoid of stuff being behind you (spoiler: there always is something behind you. Always.).
Husks are a bigger problem than with a katana, sirens are a bigger problem and so are crawlers. Grab a LAR or something for those.

Oh and you're not a tank with a saw. Move.
 
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#5
The chainsaw is really really good for taking out clots, gorefasts, and stalkers. It can do it much faster than the katana. So the chainsaw is great for the first wave. It used to be completely useless as the knife was better on the first wave, but they nerfed the knife and buffed the saw so it's good for wave 1.

Anyways, I have yet to come up with a technique with the chainsaw to quickly take out crawlers with it. I wouldn't be surprised if it can't be done, I also wouldn't be surprised if it can be done. No one plays with the chainsaw enough, it seems, to find such a technique, including me.
 
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#6
I use chainsaw in really tight maps where there is no room to run, but in open maps prefer the Katana. A couple things I have learned is that it is better to tap primary than to hold it down. And also, if you alt strike then primary strike halfway to 1/3 of the way before the alt strike is done, it will do damage of alt strike plus primary so in this way you can do a lot more damage to scrakes or FPs than with a Katana, however you will take more damage too because you can't backpedal fast enough to evade their swipes.
 
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#7
Euclix said:
Anyways, I have yet to come up with a technique with the chainsaw to quickly take out crawlers with it. I wouldn't be surprised if it can't be done, I also wouldn't be surprised if it can be done. No one plays with the chainsaw enough, it seems, to find such a technique, including me.
Click to expand...

Just backpedal and let them hop into it.
Should kill them.
Only problem is that you're slow and there's always something behind you to ruin your day.
 
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#11
I used the chainsaw all the way to rank 6 and I found it's best to crouch in front of team mates and kill everything that comes near us, while everyone behind me shoots over my head. If I see crawlers coming, I quickly pull out the LAR and kill as many as I can before other specimen get close, since my team mates almost always ignore them or don't see them. When Husks or Sirens get close for some reason, I walk up to them and use alt fire then immediately press and hold M1 to insta kill them and anything nearby.

The chainsaw is real bad while on the move because you move so slow and when you use primary fire, you move even slower.

Load-outs I use are:
Chainsaw + LAR
or
Chainsaw + Katana + medic gun (need to play medic first wave)
 
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#16
On HoE, it falls short in every way versus the Katana and Axe when it comes to closing the distance between yourself and the Husks, Sirens, Bloats, etc due to its moving speed reduction.

Only possible means of using it would be in a tight corridor, but then again that means that ranged attackers can take pot shots at you without being able to hit them.

Maybe Medic + Chainsaw for holding the corridors would be more viable.

But other than that, the ultimate tip? Sell the damn thing.
 
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#18
Umm... if you spawn as sharpshooter (you can switch perk one more time in the first 10 seconds), you get $600 worth to sell. You can buy a saw and armour and still have $1 left... plus the killing money...

So unless you really want to play the saw @ wave 1, or you cannot survive with xbow berserker @ wave 1, you have no reason to not spawn as sharpshooter.
 
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#19
Use the chainsaw in one hand, and the hunting shotgun in the other.

Devante used it, and see his results:

bruce_campbell_army_of_darkness.jpg
 
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