I couldn’t find anything on this weapon, no discussions nothing but a short sections in tire lists. So, as a slugger advocate id like to ask y’all what your opinions are on it. To my knowledge its widely considered a bad to mediocre weapon at best, and id like to know why that is
Veteran divers remember the days when the Slugger was the best DMR in the game. RIP in peace, old friend
I'm not even mad they took that away from us. But I am FURIOUS that they lowered its demolition force.
Yeah, given that it's currently a Worse Deadeye, it should probably get its demo force back.
Don’t disagree per say, but I wouldnt call it a worse Deadeye. On Rapid Acquisition it was my go-to weapon, since it reloads ungodly fast compared to the Deadeye. In fights where you want to be staggering literally everything and don’t have time to reload, it does a great job.
What can the Slugger do that the Punisher Plasma cannot do better? True question.
Not turn my teammates into shredded cheese when they’re waddling by a Bezerker with a platinum bar in-hand.
In all seriousness, I like the close proximity use of it. It’s like a brawler way of playing against automatons. One shot anywhere staggers them, and then you can line up a quick headshot on a bezerker of devastator to send them to super-Jesus.
Imo after its dmg buff its better than second worst marksman rifle in the game
It’s not worse, the much larger magazine and faster reload is a good sidegrade with the significantly worse range. They both have their uses.
I love it for city maps. The high ammo capacity and good reload means I'm not left in a "oh shit oh shit oh shit" running away and reloading Deadeye moment when it gets crowded. Really useful for bug/zombie hordes while still headcapping overseers and rupture bugs. Also shooting it mid-reload feels more reliable than the deadeye.
It was the first gun I brought to 25. wish it could have a Flashlight for when a bot planets or hive worlds are pitch black.
So absolutely bonkers that they removed the slugger's ability to breach destructible doors since IRL they use shotguns with non-pellet rounds for that exact purpose.
And they made that nerf back in the days of the bacon flavoured apple and everything... used "realism" as a pretense to remove one of the most realistic utility purposes of the slugger.
The sluggers nerfs were one of the funniest out of that whole thing.
"We dont want a shotgun to be the best DMR." Fair. Shotguns shouldnt be used as DMRs.
"So we're going to nerf demolition force, and stagger." ???? Wouldnt that still leave it as a highly accurate slug shotgun?
"Yup."
To be fair, frangible slugs are used to destroy door latches or hinges to make it possible to kick a door in; the slug doesn't blow the door off the hinges, and it certainly isn't used to breach Connexes.
This is the real pain for me.
They should at least consider a secondary breaching shotgun, like the super shorty
Do you mean the stagger force?
Nope, demo force, it used to be able to destroy spore spewers and open cargo doors and stuff.
Nope. Demo force. You used to be able to break open Containers with it. I know it is by no means an important nerf but godsdammit, that was the Slugger's thing, and we want it back!
I remember
Oof, the comments on that post are heartbreaking to read now
What is love…
Baby don’t hurt me…
-Uuuhh memba Chewbacca? Yeeeah I memba. - hey shut the fuck up back there... We are gonna kill you. Memba?
I was the best sniper in the game with this shotgun
And I was the second best
Real ones know.
Rest in peace in peace?
Rippin in piece, bro
smh my head
SMH my head at you youngsters.
Yes, that's the joke
Extra respect for a little extra democracy, noice
Iykyk
mmmmm
rest in peace in peace
Slug that damn Stalker in the face from afar, best memories indeed.
I still remember the moments where it can open creates with one shot.
Like, Reach DMR?
https://i.redd.it/p60m56jql3ag1.gif
It's still a good friend tho :)
I'll never forget 🫡
Devastators never stood a chance
It was dope before the nerfs I know they reverted them but felt like the game had already gone well beyond it. Used to be my go to to deal with bile spewers used to be able to stun lock like three at a time
They didn't revert the drag factor, which is the only one that matters.
This. AH has the dumbest decisions for balancing. Slug shotguns are balanced in other games by sacrificing spread and crowd control for a high damage single projectile. You are suppose to treat it like a rifle and enemies can push your shit in at close range if you hit your shots. It heavily punishes bad aim while rewarding good aim. The drop off just sucks along with the removal of the demo force for any unit utility
Now it’s just a close range dead eye but majority of the stuff that get in that range are berserkers and other melee units that surround you with numbers. Ironically this is what buckshot is for and not a slug… very contradictory balancing. Reminds me of the fucking accelerator which was a sniper rifle and it used to have a worse drop off range than the shotguns lol
That's because there was "wide" support over nerfing DoD, rather than nerfing damage all together (Aside from buffing Marksmen). It was one of the talking points everyone clowned AH for when their excuse was "It was the best marksmen in the game."
I tried it a bit, got to 25.
I find it as a side grade to the Deadeye — more rounds to shoot without reloading in exchange for needing closer engagements for optimal damage. Both weapons need precision shots, Slugger needs CQC because of the drag and falloff, but are otherwise similar enough. Siege Ready or Reinforced Epaulettes for the enhanced reload speed help tremendously as well. Hit headshots and weak points, and you’ll be good to go.
Nice and concise review pal, couldnt agree more. Deadeye slotted in over Slugger for me when Borderline Justice dropped.
Perfect analysis. Did the same, recently. Good gun once you get used to it. Take time with each shot but it’s okay if you miss because it’s got a fair number ready to shoot. Good projectile damage. Poor handling and aim. Doesn’t beat out the deadeye but it’s a good gun.
In a world where the Dominator exists, the Slugger is a useless weapon.
Doesn't fire slugs. 0/10.
I treat it like a close range deadeye. Love it in bot city missions where combat's more close quarters. Very solid close range option that can 1tap devastator heads but heavily limited by its drag and slow projectile speed.
Also much faster reload than the deadeye so youre less likely to get caught with youre pants down in intense firefights
Yeah people are saying deadeye is way better but the reload on deadeye is straight ass
I simply will not use it without the urban armors
Deadeye exist will always be the answer.
To be honest if they gave it more stagger it would find use but now it is kinda pointless to use.
It's better than the Deadeye up close, the slugger holds more rounds at once which means less reload time, and it's got better ergo for switching between targets quickly.
It's the deadeye for bugs
It's snappier than the dominator and while the deadeye is better for sniping, I really don't like using the deadeye without any of the reload speed armours, which I usually never wear. The slugger doesn't need the reload speed armour usually, the normal reload speed is sufficient fomost situations
Deadeye and Dominator are simply better, deadeye is more accurate, dominator has better firing rate and range.
The whole line of punisher shotguns isn't very good with the exception of the cookout.
And the punisher plasma
Underrated. The only rapid fire explosive weapon in game (scorcher doesn't count!!!!) that isn't a support stratagem. 2-3 shots a bile spewer anywhere although struggles with alpha commandeers, definitely one of the better weapons I've unlocked so far
That’s my stagger machine. Love it.
I discovered recently how good Dominator is on bug front. Iron sight + vertical grip + peak physique. Better dps than any medium pen AR and stagger
Brother, each time I see someone else with it they say it's bullshit or hard to use or something equivalent. Angled foregrip, iron sight, and learning to take the 0.2 seconds longer it needs to aim makes it usable with any armor. I'm always happy to see someone else use it but they never do for long...
Sorry but it's much harder to sell without peak physique, bugs require a lot of snap movements. This also allows you to take vertical grip and maximize your rate of fire
My playstyle doesn't significantly change between peak physique and vertical foregrip and just angled foregrip since I want to be aiming my shots either way.
Why just the Cookout? The regular Punisher is fantastic on the bug front, and so is the Plasma.
standard Breaker is better in every aspect at being a regular shotgun with the exception of raw damage per shot, and the plasma variant is just a side grade to the purifier.
Cookout has actual utility, incendiary shotgun that sets enemies on fire and deals DoT and staggers them making it an excellent crowd control weapon.
The Punisher does the exact same thing minus the setting enemies on fire part, but kills them faster in return. I'd say that's a pretty worthy exchange, especially considering the recent fire nerfs.
Also, let's not forget ammo economy on Punisher vs Breaker comparos
NGL, I liked the normal punisher when they gave us the weapon customization (putting a choke on that bad boy made it very versatile)... Until they dropped the halo shotgun which is just straight up just better in everything except for the ammo part.
So many weapons have that problem where they behave the same but some have clear better stats which is a bit sad. I really wished they gave them some niche/unique features like when you could open container doors with it.
Another example is the spray and pray which is absolutely just a weaker copy of the incendiary breaker. It should have even more ammo in the mag so you have a clear difference between the incendiary, the breaker and the spray n pray (kinda like how the machine guns are different with the armor pen and ammo count where they feel very distinct) instead of all feeling the same.
(Side note: there's also some that definitely should have just been skins so that they don't get overshadowed that easily, like the killzone AR & smg being almost exact copies of already existing weapons but a tiny bit worse since you can customize them...)
Eh I still see the slugger having its niche vs both of them. Inside 20m the handling advantage over the dominator and the MAJOR ammo advantage over the deadeye are both huge. You can reload a shell into the slugger between shots and your damage suffers only slightly, which means it's effective capacity in continuous combat is quite excellent.
The dominator's slow bullet velocity is also really rough for long range targets with tough to hit weakspots like the overseers. Even with the slugger I feel held back on long shots vs overseer heads, and the dominator is much lower velocity.
I kind of love this about this game ... there are so many useful playstyles, that people wildly disagree about guns.
IMO:
Punisher (standard) is one of my alltime favorite bug primaries.
Punisher Plasma is S-tier on every faction and probably the 2nd most nerf-worthy primary after Eruptor.
I guess different playstyles really effect how people see guns. Like ... I see so many people saying Machinegun is awesome on squids, and I just can't make it work. But Stalwart and HMG are two of my favorites for squids.
It’s decent. It hits hard with medium one, but has very high damage drop off. It’s just decent. That’s it.
Still one of my favourite weapons.
"But the Deadeye" The Deadeye reloads slower, but is useful for long distance fights.
The Slugger is good at short to medium distances, for prolonged fights. Shoot, load, shoot, load, until you run out of your 76 shots you carry, The mag is double of the Deadeye, so even without spamming reload, you can engage in a fight longer.
Also, amazing staggerforce, this weapon will get enemies away from you, even better for a CQC weapon.
Only Shotgun I have fully maxed out right now. Puts down the a good amount of Bugs, Bots, and Squids in 2-3 hits which is appreciated.
Loved it at launch, it's still not bad by any means... But I miss being able to break crate doors and fences with it.
For new players it is just a mediocre weapon. Neither bad nor good. And with all the arguably better alternatives available it is mostly forgotten nowadays.
It got buffed recently, but that did little to make it stand out in any way. Especially compared to what it once was. It wasn't just a shotgun.
It had utility.
And once they took that away the weapon lost all its appeal. And for veteran players it probably will never return into their loadouts just because it carries the painful memory of what it once was. It feels like a sad, hollowed out empty shell of its former self.
So, new players don't know why to bother and old players are heartbroken about it. As a result nearly nobody is using let alone talking about it.
I was disappointed as a Punisher fan. The regular gun has decent range for buck with spread, I expected the slugger to really reach, but instead it feels like the slug nose dives and drops most damage at 20m.
Just never succeed with that gun and it just feels weird.
Fuck it make it unique. Add a ragdoll to enemies it hits.
Make it use actual slugs that don’t give a fuck what range you’re at.
Add different slug fire modes like ragdoll rounds, incendiary rounds or explosive rounds.
Make it do something other shotguns don’t do.
Slugger is my go-to weapon against any Bug faction. Or at least it was until I maxxed it out and thus have been levelling other guns since.
Pop goes the devestator head
It used to be my favourite weapon at launch. It got seriously nerfed soon after and while it’s slightly better, and a got bit weapon now, it’s a shadow of its former self.
Slugger fucks. Kinda like a Dominator with better handling.
Double Freedom fucks harder.
They nerfed this gun during the initial confusion at launch when AH was still trying to turn this game into a soulslike shooter, then they forgot about it after they decided to buff everything
I can't use it because it used to be my main, preferred primary before they took its demolition force away.
I can't forget what we lost.
The slugger is in a pretty decent spot now. Its a better close to medium range than the Deadeye but its arguably worse than the JAR-5 in its intended ranges.
The history of this gun kinda irritates me. People were fucking pissed off when a slug shotgun was a the best DMR back in the day when Arrowhead used realism based balancing in our favor. Like a slug is still very lethal out to 100 meters irl, but people can't get over the label of "shotgun". It gave AH the leeway to nerf it while I always saw the slugger as more akin to scout rifle. Reminds me when the Abjudicator was viewed as a bad DMR, but somehow just swapping its weapon's class to assault rifle made it a sleeper hit.
Many moons ago the slugger was king of battle. Much like what ford has done to its vehicle in search of innovation. It's former glory has yet to be restored.
It has similar stats to the Dominator, which shoots faster and doesn't have projectile drag. Also the fact they removed its demolition force to open container doors didn't make any sense.
Was dope before it was nerfed. Same ol’ story.
Yeah…Deadeye is better…and the Deadeye is 💩.
AH just can’t let a good gun be good.
It's too weak and too slow. It's just a much worse Deadeye
after the recent buff it still bad. however, i find it niche againts illuminate. which you can also replace with deadeye. So...
One of my favorite primaries. The only things I like better are the Blitzer and the LibPen.
Because double freedom exists😎
I like to use it with the warp pack, and especially against bugs.
it’s a great gun but i refuse to use it
While I get it used to be better and wish it still was like how it used to be I still think it’s a really good shotgun
It's just not good anymore compared to other options due to all the nerfs it got for no reason
It got range nerfed, so its precision isn't useful as compared to regular spread shot shotguns since you won't have the damage to take advantage of the slug.
It got its demo force removed so you can't open containers anymore.
Compared to launch, we have a lot more shotguns that are stronger in certain scenarios so there is less reason to use Slugger (Cookout, Halt, Halo Shotgun, Double Barrel)
It would probably see use if it got its range nerf reverted and got its damage buffed up a bit more, but a slug shotgun with such poor range defeats the point of it being a slug
I still like it
slugger? i hardly know 'er!
aint the best, sure as hell fun (rupture strain ooooo)
It's pretty alright, tho you def have to aim for weak spots and heads to get the most out of it. More suited for bots/squids depending on the rest of your loadout, I grown to enjoy it but def feels underwhelming at times.
The Slugger used to be so good that you felt like a damn one man army.
I like taking it when I’m running laser cannon on bugs as I’ll use that for most of my killing and then bust out the slugger if I get swarmed
There are times when I really think they should solve the Slugger problem by combining the Punisher with the Slugger and making it function similar to the Halt. But I suppose then that introduces the whole problem of chokes and rifled barrels for their respectful ammo type, so perhaps not.
While its lack of range and slow rate of fire makes it punishing on bots and unviable on bugs and squids I still find it to be a really fun weapon on bots due to its ability to one shot anything short of a hulk. I just wish every single shotgun in the game had a slug variant
Was the only good marskman rifle back in the day, has absolutely 0 niche today.
The damage is overkill for weakpoints but the durable damage is way too low to centermass (much like deadeye), too much drag for long ranges, too little crowd clear for short range.
This gun has been totally and utterly forgotten by the devs (and the playerbase tbh). While I miss the old one, it really just shined because DMRs were terrible back then.
It's just a marksman rifle pretty much
In it's current state, hot garbage compared to most other primaries.
I loathe the slugger. Slow firing slow projectile not as accurate as dmrs. I hate it. Trash on bots and squids. Leveling it was the worst experience, 2nd only to the breaker spray and pray and the punisher, and the cookout
Ever since the hit to its drag it is no longer a long range weapon, it still works really well against Bugs unless you get swarmed by Shriekers.
Against other fractions, don't even bother to bring this weapon the damage falloff and drag really harms this weapon beyond anything more than 50m.
The damage buff to 330 is nice makes it more consistent in 1-2 shotting Bugs and Shrieker no longer can survive a somewhat long range hit from the weapon now (if you can).
Kinda outshines the dominator imo now ya it fires faster and has no dmg falloff but it lacks punch which is the reason I would use it
slugger just FEELS better to shoot now
I still ran this after the nerf, delivered so much democracy with that bad boy :(
If they removed the stupid drag or increase its fire rate I would have used it more
Was kinda fun to use against bots before I unlocked the deadeye.
Deadeye fucking suck and it is still like, 10 times better than this thing
I still use it if I'm using marksman techniques while the rest of my squad infiltrates.
Mid
GOAT shotgun
Got me through D10 Oshaune
Used it on bugs almost every mission before illuminate came
Damn that thing was a beast back in the day
Never gave it a second look after they butchered it
Make rocket propelled slugs great again
It used to be a good weapon, couldn't snipe with it but was great to kill stuff at close and mid range. It wasn't overpowered, it just felt useful and good to use. It's not like you'd see sluggers or even just 1 slugger in every match, in fact.. far from it. But they decided to butcher it nonetheless for whatever reason, and nobody really ever used it again.
Finished leveling up the weapon yesterday and I liked the way it performed. Being medium pen, good damage (330, 90 for durable) and holding 16 shells in a mag. Found it really good against bots, pretty good with bugs and meh with squids. I love coming to a devestator and firing 2 shells into his stomach (or if I'm lucky, a perfect shot into his face). The only thing I hate is the sway, but that might be because I mostly used smgs and regular shotguns before it.
Overall a pretty decent gun.
I like it, but it is very meh. Best use case is against the bots, can headshot devastators at close or maybe medium ish range and kill them in like 4 body shots at close range, kills scout/rocket striders in the crotch.
But dilligance and sythe can do headshots from much further and have more ammo than slugger; pair them with a senator or talon to kill scout/rocket striders. Or just take the dilligance CS and it can kill devastators in 5 shots to the body at almost any range and kills scout/rocket striders too and probably has about the same total ammo count as the slugger. Jar is also a better option once you get the angled grip; more damage, technically infinite range, and huge stagger.
It's just overshadowed by other weapons.
Was an amazing close to long range sniper rifle
To me it's like the dead-eye, but with less range. I suck at aiming, so i never take it with me sadly
Solid Bot weapon but could definitely use a buff. A good alternative to the Dominator, trading power for better ergo and projectile speed.
Excellent weapon. If the Punisher series had a vertical grip with flashlight, I would recommend this in every situation if you feel like shotgun time. Lack of light is a detriment in certain situations, like Hive world tunnels.
It's got like infinite range. I got it to 25, im leveling other weapons right now but ill come back to it when I can. 8/10.
I love it. It’s fun to use.
Shotguns in general are not in a good state! Against bots, I can’t find one worth using!
One of the best weapons if you ask me 😌
my girlfriend really enjoys it on bots , im not really a fan of it myself.
It used to be so frickin good!
I love it, along with the Punisher. They're just incredible on the bot front, and the Slugger specifically feels great on bugs. They kinda suck against diff 6+ squids, since you just can't clear voteless fast enough and you need to dump half a mag on Overseer, but they're still very very fun
I honestly forgot it existed...
It's aight, sorta the Deadeye for bugs
I loved it for a long time. Scorcher is way better though
It's crazy how many nerfs happen in a PVE game. Why are they so opposed to fun?
I love it against bots and maxed it a a month or two ago. I still use it occasionally. I alternate between this and the deadeye typically for bots.
Honestly if they re-worked this gun back to what it was many would be very very happy. It was perfect the way it was and if they buffed around it instead of nerfing it into obscurity I think the game would have been allot better off.
I like it on bugs.
https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1pt8d3a/give_the_slugger_heavy_pen/
It's not a bad weapon - but it never got buffed, only nerfed since the start of the game. There's no reason to use it against any other weapon. It has a slow reload, is less accurate than any of the rifles (now) and has very limited upgrade mods.
It doesn't even have heavy penetration...which is bizarre, since the senator does.
It doesn’t have range, but it pushes enemies back. And it can one-hit kill alotta stuff.
Once you get used to the hip-fire, and how to swing it around quickly for quick shots, you’ll feel unstoppable.
The secret is to keep reloading ;)
It's fine. I honestly don't think there are any bad primaries.
I still use it sometimes on the bot front, because I still find fun in it. I don't use plasma weapons...ever. so it's not the best by any means, but still gets me out of shit.
It's damn good because like the base Punisher, it staggers on hit and with the slugs, there's far more damage at range. It being medium penetration with decent damage and a pump action/rounds reload puts it above average. I would not consider this mid outside of the fact that all of the shotguns are just that good in and of themselves. It's only disadvantaged by the Halt's flachette rounds doing more overall damage.
I used to use it all the time before the reprimand dropped, very good stagger and very good against the bot front but it lacks the versatility that the reprimand and liberator carbine bring to the table.
Slugger is great.
It just has a bad reputation from the relentless string of nerfs and balancing changes it went through.
Great stagger, damage and range but low firerate and not that much ammo. Decent on bots and squids (can oneshot overseers), but i prefer the deadeye
Xbox diver here! The slugger was one of my first weapons to hit lvl 25. I found it most useful on bots, the stagger force makes shield devastators vulnerable to follow-ups from myself or my team. The damage is high enough to one tap smaller units reliability. I also found use for it on squids, against all overseers types. One tapping enemies to the head will always be super satisfying. I found the slugger to be difficult to use against the bugs. They're too numerous and fast for the single shot; and they're are just better options.
The slugger is a definite favorite of mine. It's not a world beater, but rewarding and fun to use. Just like with any other build you'll need to cover up weaknesses. Stalwart/MG38 for horde clear just for an example. I think you'll have enjoy using it!