A huge, sweeping, and slightly controversial balance patch hit the beachhead of the Helldivers 2 servers yesterday, and I’ve had some time to chew on the changes. As you may or may not already know, the Quasar Cannon got hit with a pretty huge nerf – a 5 second increase to its cooldown time (a 50% increase!). This change seems like it should be a death knell for the weapon, but I’m here to argue otherwise.
You have exactly two other ways to fill the niche of the Quasar Cannon: the EAT-17 (expendable anti-tank rifles) or the regular Recoilless Rifle. Let’s take a look at why these puny, rocket-based launchers are still no match for the might of a charged particle cannon.
First, the EAT-17. Seems useful, right? You can call down two rifles on a measly 70 second cooldown, with the added bonus that the rifles can be picked up by your buddies as well. Too bad this rounds out to just 1.7 shots per minute, compared to the Quasar Cannon’s 4 shots per minute. Even after nerfs, that’s more than twice as many shots of the same caliber with the added bonus of not having to call in a stratagem! This is also assuming perfect call-ins, with no wasted downtime between them.
Next up, the Recoilless. This one is a little simpler to neg: next time you’re in a difficulty 7 or higher mission and you’re fighting anything that might require a missile, stand still for five seconds. Oh, you don’t want to stand still for five seconds, because it would get you killed? Well, that’s what you’re signing up for every time you want to reload the Recoilless. What’s that? You can just have a teammate reload it for you? Well good luck getting a friend (let alone a random) to give up their backpack slot, stand next to you, and stop everything they’re doing just to reload your gun.
For these reasons, plus the fact that it just looks cooler than those other guns, the Quasar Cannon remains king.
