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Tactics Weapons from most recent update.

Deadbolt

Grizzled Veteran
Jul 23, 2008
670
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Hello. I played the game once or twice since the latest load of weapons have been added to the game, but all in all I've been pretty out of it with this game. What is the general consensus of the new weapons? Is it worth using the m4 + scar rather than my usual ak + scar. Is the mp5 a better choice than the mp7, or should I run both. Is it really worth using the husk cannon or m4 w/ nades? Is the new revolver a viable option compared to the HC? And also, what about the new sword for zerk. I'm not looking for set answers, as it all boils down to preference, but I'm just looking for some other vets' opinions on whether I should add some of these weapons to my repertoire. Thanks.
 
The .44 magnum sucks for sharps in almost every respect. It costs more, has a smaller magasine, takes longer to reload, deals less damage... The only advantages (lower weight, more ammo) won't really come into play for sharps most of the time IMHO. Good off-perk pistol for other classes once they fix the weight though.

MP5 and MP7 work well to take both guns. If you have no other slot 3 weapons, you can easily fire both heals, press 3, fire both heals, press 3, fire heal, press 3, fire heal, etc. L6 medics can keep up an almost constant flow of heals this way.

M4 for the commando I'm told is cool, but I don't use commando so I'm going by heresay.

M4 203 for demo sucks though. It costs hell loads, and has very few grenades. I guess it could be useful for demos who plan for the worst (ie. has a team who don't kill the small individual mobs before they get to the demo) but in the main it's not worth it.

Husk cannon can stun scrakes, but apart from that most people agree it's inferior to the flamethrower. Fun to muck around with though.

Claymore is basically like a cross between an axe and a katana. Hits harder than the axe, but quite a bit faster and has a long range. Takes a bit of getting used to, but means you can take only it instead of a katana and axe on higher modes. Some people hate it, some people swear by it.


Also, your name sounds familiar. I think you just came into a game I was playing, like 5 mins ago. Lol.
 
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Yea sorry, we were on a friends-only game. Got tired of L1 commandos jumping in with M79s (wat?).


Combat shotgun (knew I missed one! is again good or bad, depending on whom you talk to.
It's basically a shotgun, with a smaller mag, longer reloading time and almost no time inbetween shots. Players who have a HSG may like it because it can unload it's shells very quickly. I personally don't like it because with the rapid shooting ability, it's too easy to fire off 2-3 shots at something you should only fire one at. Which is yes, my fault. But wiht a longer reload per shell, firing 3 shots off at a zed takes 3 seconds to reload again. If you have more restraint than me though, it might be good. It's disproportionately expensive though, bearing in mind it's pretty much as good as a normal shotgun, it shouldn't cost, what, 5x the price?
 
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The only gripes I have gotten out of my experience:

The Combat Shotty is great for what it is, but its price for both ammo and the gun itself is bang out of order. The reload speed is debatable. Still effing great as a main weapon as an alternative to the pumpy, but sod the things stated above.

The Magnum ammo is too pricey, and maybe the gun price could be lowered, considering how its supposed to sit between 9mm and HC. It's weight of 2 blocks also needs to be brought back. The only use this has is for whipping out quickly to spam a siren to death.

The M4 is great and everyone should have one. But its sound in fullauto needs a fix, as well as the MP5 I think. M4 is fantastic when used as a semi-auto trash-sharpshooting weapon, and fullauto is great for sirens and sometimes husks. But if you're using it full-auto for general use, you're doing it wrong - that's what the AK is for.

The M4/203 is IMO far too expensive for what it is, and IMO it could do with some more nades. A slower fire rate would be nice too, though. I guess. I suggest that everybody avoid this weapon during serious play.

Dunno about the others.
 
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Given the choice between .44 and HC, since they both weight the same (4 blocks), handcannon every time. If/when .44 goes back to 2 blocks, then I'd say it's an open question.

M4 vs. AK depends, in my opinion. You should be going for headshots as a Commando as much as you can anyway. So in that regard, you'll appreciate the 3 extra magazine the M4 offers you. I think it's just personal preference.

Mp5 vs. mp7? If you can/ want to run both, run both. That way you can alt fire - alt fire / swap to the other and alt fire- alt fire for four rapid healing darts. If you had to pick only one though, I'd say MP5.

The Claymore has more power and range, so you *could* use it as a substitute for Katana/ Axe. At the very least try it, get a feel for it, see if you like it. It makes a pretty effing awesome *woosh* sound when you swing it. :D But you're trading swing speed for power and range, so it's up to you.

If you're dicking around on normal or hard and playing demo, you should at least try the M4 w/ M203. You get bullets and you get rifle grenades. It's fun to goof around with, but on Sui/ HoE you might be better with an M79.

The combat shotgun is expensive, but is pretty fun. If you can get a Support teammate to buy it for you, use it as a Commando with an assault rifle. Spike damage is great, and your Commando reload speed is fun. Sort of like how some Commando's will get an M32 to help against FP's. You lose out on the dmg bonus, but you have the reload speed. So again *tossup*.

Bottom line is that all of the new weapons are worth trying and goofing around with. Have fun! :IS2:
 
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The only gripes I have gotten out of my experience:

The Combat Shotty is great for what it is, but its price for both ammo and the gun itself is bang out of order. The reload speed is debatable. Still effing great as a main weapon as an alternative to the pumpy, but sod the things stated above.

The Magnum ammo is too pricey, and maybe the gun price could be lowered, considering how its supposed to sit between 9mm and HC. It's weight of 2 blocks also needs to be brought back. The only use this has is for whipping out quickly to spam a siren to death.

The M4 is great and everyone should have one. But its sound in fullauto needs a fix, as well as the MP5 I think. M4 is fantastic when used as a semi-auto trash-sharpshooting weapon, and fullauto is great for sirens and sometimes husks. But if you're using it full-auto for general use, you're doing it wrong - that's what the AK is for.

The M4/203 is IMO far too expensive for what it is, and IMO it could do with some more nades. A slower fire rate would be nice too, though. I guess. I suggest that everybody avoid this weapon during serious play.

Dunno about the others.
agreed with your gripes, but i use it quite often now in placement of the M79. paired with an M32 and pipes, and no FP will be able to touch your team, and you dont have to rely on the 9mm for close up trash. oh and i usually only play on sui/HoE
 
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Going into more detail on why I hate the .44 for Sharpshooters...

Comparing it to the Handcannon, the handcannon:
Costs less to buy and fill with ammo
Deals more damage
Has a faster reload time.
Has a larger magasine

The magnum:
Weighs less (or at least, it should do. I assume in this article the weight will be fixed to 2.)
Has a larger ammo pool.

However, sharpshooter loadouts normally consist of pistol/crossbow, or LAR/EBR. It's rare to see decent players take alternative loadouts.
The LAR/EBR means you weigh 15/15 - you aren't taking a pistol with it. HC/Xbow weighs 14/15 to my memory, which means taking a single magnum would change that to 12/15, a nice weight save.

However, thinking about it, what weapon can you take that costs 3 weight and would be actively useful? Katana.... Medic gun? o_O That's about it. While I could possibly see a sharp bringing along a katana, sharps stereotypically stand further back to make use of their range, doubly so if they have a crossbow, so katanas probably wouldn't see much action except in a worst-case scenario. And weighing 12/15 instead of 14/15 makes pretty little difference in terms of movement speed.

Magnums do however have a larger ammo pool, which sounds good because it's easy to run dry with a handcannon, but wait! We already established that most of the time you're using a magnum on-perk, you pair it with a crossbow. In this case, you'll use crossbows against scrakes, fleshpounds, maybe sirens and husks, and magnums against everything else. You're going to need to shoot a lot of things quickly with the magnum, in which case you're going to suffer from the smaller magasine and the slower reload speed long before you benefit from the additional ammo. Especially if you are firing fast enough that you'll get through the 90 ammo per wave and actually -need- the extra ammo the magnum has.


Having said all that, magnums would rock for something like a berserker to use off-perk, giving them a gun which hits pretty darn hard. Not quite as hard as a LAR, but it's a third of the weight, and with a berserker using it as a last-ditch gun and not a first resort, the magasine size doesn't matter so much.
It just sucks on-perk.
 
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I've yet to, in my experience find anything of worth in the Xmas weapons. Everything they do, a different weapon does just as well if not better (and usually for much less dosh.)

The Husk Gun is ludicrously overpriced and does nothing that the m32/m79 don't do far better (except stun scrakes, but there are far better ways of stunning them) while at the same time being heavy enough and having a slow enough ROF that it becomes very difficult to deal with the trash, which is supposed to be the firebug's forte.

The M4 203 is also expensive to the point of ridiculosity for no good benefit, yet could be OK with a few tweaks. As it is now it has too low of a nade capacity, too slow of reloads, and is just flat out too weak for the higher difficulties for its weight and price.

The plain old M4 is even worse. In essence it's a nerfed compromise between the SCAR and Bullpup where it has the Bullpup's low power and low accuracy with the SCAR's slow reload, ridiculous recoil, and crazy ROF, all together with truly horrible irons all its own that are too small for quick ADS shots yet big and clunky enough to constrict your view and give you horrible tunnel-vision. Furthermore, it's perhaps the only gun that the community was unanimously opposed to adding prior to the holiday update. Of all the unique 5.56 guns they could have used, they had to use the oldest, most unoriginal, out of place gun they could find. Oh, and they had to make it look like cowadooty.

The Combat Shotgun has potential, but right now its only merit is that weighs 8 kilos, so low level supports can carry it together with a (plain old) Shotgun until they can carry a Shotgun & Coach Gun/AA12. Like the M4, the "CSG" is a nerfed compromise: it doesn't have the power for damage spikes a la the coach gun, yet is too slow to reload and too ammo inefficient for a trash gun. It could be a fun novelty alternative to the regular Shotgun if the price were brought down, but as it is now--it's not so much that it's bad, as it's hurting Britain. Please please please Tripwire, stop hurting Britain, don't make us pay 2500 quid for a mediocre spread gun because it has a tacticool reflex sight.

The .44 was the funnest weapon in the game, that is until TWI had to interfere. As it stands now, it's exactly the same as the deagle brand deagle, except less powerful, slower reload, lower capacity, more expensive, and slightly better irons. A good Sharpshooter could theoretically get some use of out the higher ammo cap on lower difficulties, but at that point you might as well just use the 9mm and save the weight for a better gun. The worst part of all is how bloody easy it would be for TWI to fix; hell, scary_ghost, who explicitly said that he's not a modder did a fix for it and some other glaring glitches in the game in all of a week. All they would need to do is bring the single weight down to 2 kilos, and it could be good--or at least fun again. In the meantime, what am I supposed to do with all these Dirty Harry references?

As for the Claymore, I can at least respect the other weapons because they're in SOME WAY different, but in my experience the Claymore is literally a heavier and more expensive Axe with a new model. I did some experimenting on KF-Testmap6p on HoE as lvl6 berserker and found that it takes exactly as many alt-fires to kill a scrake and FP, either by swings to the head or torso with axe as with the claymore. I'll just leave it at that.

Finally is the MP5, which is probably the best weapon (read: only weapon a player will likely use after the novelty of the others has worn off) in the new Xmas update, and how one feels about it will likely boil down to a matter of preference. I personally do not like it because it feels like the damage per round is lower than the MP7 yet draws from the same pool of ammo, and the large magazine seems to encourage spraying. Once again, the price comes off as an unreasonable barrier to entry, but as for the weapon itself I think it can hold its own well (enough) against the MP7.
 
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This came out waaaaay longer than I thought it would, so I put everything in spoiler text to reduce the post length, with a general opinion summarizing the text.

Let's see:

Husk Gun

In Short: Eh.

Spoiler!


M4

In Short: Good! (if you use it right)

Spoiler!



The M4 M203

In short: No Bloody Way (Demo), Maybe? (Commando)

Spoiler!


Combat Shotgun

In Short: Good! (if you're a careful spender)

Spoiler!


44 Magnum

In Short: Fun, but inferior

Spoiler!


Claymore

In Short: FREEEEEEDOM! (Good if you use it correctly)

Spoiler!


MP5

In short: Why aren't you using this?

Spoiler!
 
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and the reload speed, i find myself preferring the MP7 almost all the time, unless im using it offperk.

Plus, the healspam makes you sloppy with your aim using the MP5, which is why I quit using it. MP7 is a head destroyer, even on HoE.

I hated the combat shotgun when I first started using it, but now I actually like it. .44 is ok, should have stayed 2 slots. M4, not really sure about. It is a pretty common weapon worldwide. Also, MW2 is actually a decent game once you turn off that loud annoying music, at least the singleplayer is.

For the commando, I find the AK fine at all ranges. It is pretty much my "everything" rifle.
 
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I'm probably nowhere near as experienced, but my thoughts on stuff I've used:

CSG: It's been a nice sidegrade from the shotty, but it's just so costly in comparison. If it was flat out better I could roll with the pricetag, but since it's been balanced to be different, instead of better, the price should reflect that.

Magnum: Hate it on Sharp, hate it a lot, but it's proven itself a very worthy companion as a Zerker. I hate crawlers with a passion and this just kills them dead easily. I think the general consensus of "2kg pls" would really help it fit in to a role of an off-perk weapon for classes that need something that "shoots the bullets" without sacrificing much weight. Maybe drop the price 50-100 or so as well.

Claymore: I love Katana Zerker too much to really play with it a lot, much prefer fast attacks.

M4 203: Took it once, never again. M74 just does anything I want that this could do anyway, besides popping smallfry, which is what having a sidegrade gun is for. I'd probably consider it more if it was cheaper, but with how unearthly expensive it is, I've always had better luck just taking a sidearm.
 
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However, thinking about it, what weapon can you take that costs 3 weight and would be actively useful? Katana.... Medic gun?
MP5 is actually excellent for a sharp, if he can get it at discounted price. The healing altfire can be a noteworthy advantage if your team or medic aren't great. But the real reason it's good with sharps is that the sharp's universal headshot bonus lets you decap trash in one shot, even on HoE. So it's a great trash weapon, .44 is a decent siren/husk gun, and Xbow makes Scrakes easy and FPs manageable.

Sorry for the digression, back to what OP asked:
MP7: Awesome
.44 Mag: When they reweigh it back to 2, awesome, but for now it's a poor choice unless your main concern is looking cool.
Claymore/M4/Combat Shotgun: Nice intermediates between existing roles
M4203: Rarely worthwhile, but always fun.
Husk Gun: Neat, but it has more intricacies than I know, so I don't don't know how potentially good it can be.
 
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yeah but the 20 round cap offperk is crippling, add the high ROF into the equation and you have yourself an empty magazine a good deal of the time. also the MP5's quicker syringe recharge is much nicer offperk. if the MP7 had 25 rounds unperked, id choose it over the MP5 every single time, i already do as medic.

also to anyone questioning the usefulness of the combat shotty, ill leave this here:
Killing Floor: Even Moar Demo Derpiness - YouTube

it has become one of my favorite weapons to carry offperk, it especially rocks as commando due to the reload speed buff
 
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