7 replies to this topic

[Amidatelion]

I did it again. I bought a weapon that I just can't seem to use. After playing a crapload of Infiltrator, and finally having enough HC to unlock it, I decided to bite the bullet and pick up the heat cannon. Everyone said great things about it! All I ever see is Infils with it, and maybe sometimes EOC!

I apparently suck donkey balls with it.

Now, I freely admit I might need practice, but I was completely worthless with the damn thing after playing so long with the AR. I went from a frantic, side-dashing flanker who you could just not get away from to... Feeble McMissalot.

I think it might be that I use the AR as a kind of tracer to figure out where the grenade is going to go... but with the heat cannon that sort of aim-assist just isn't there. I do the same thing with the SMC and mini-flak on the Vanguard, which influenced my move to the Infil.

Tips please_ I am desperate not to waste another 6300 HC on this thing.

[Silverfire]

This is specifically about a HEAT Scout, but it still applies to the HEAT Infil:

Preternatural, on December 02 2013 - 12:40 PM, said:

DO YOU LIKE USING THE HEAT CANNON_ Odds are, your answer was no.

[font=arial, sans-serif]Heat Cannon popularity was on a pretty steady decline for a pretty long time. Nowadays, it is extremely rare to find a Heat Scout, and even rarer to find one who is decent. [/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]However, I like using the difficult stuff. So I took my little prestiged Scout and perfected the art of destroying better players than me with splash damage from both the TOW and the Heat Cannon, most of the time without these enemies even taking half my health. [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]Flak and Mini Flak Scouts are the pesky fly-bys of the battlefield; they just zip around and unload tons of bullets at you from short range...and require little-to-no skill. Aim, fire, boom 120 damage. If you're anything like me, choosing an easy way to destroy my opponents holds no appeal, so I tried out the Heat Cannon...and slowly fell in love with it. It is, IMHO, much more versatile than the Mini/Flak.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]Devastating your enemies with the Heat Cannon's humongous splash is one of the most rewarding feelings you can get in this game.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]The splash radius of the Heat Cannon is one of the largest of any primaries in the game, and only require you to launch a shot around your opponent, not hit them directly. [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]For players with low frames like me, it is extremely hard to hit players with any kind of low-projectile-speed weapon. But the Heat Cannon's splash makes up for its weaknesses (such as projectile speeds, slow reload time, small round). [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]If your internet connection is also suffering, it is hard to hit fast-moving pros with a Flak Cannon. Again, because of the splash, your aim does not have to be perfect.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]Heat Cannon, if put in the right hands, can easily best a equal skill leveled Flak player. Of course, once that Flak player gets in your face, a Heat player stands little chance. Here's how you can beat any mech (even pesky Flak Scouts) with a Heat Cannon.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]1. Stay at medium range, where burst weapons aren't as effective, and your Heat Cannon is still extremely dangerous. If you have to, or want to, close in quickly and make sure they aren't armed with [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]an extremely bursty weapon and/or have [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]over half-health.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]2. Get the high ground, where you can use the Heat Cannon's splash to your advantage. Jumping sporadically works very well. DON'T FLY, JUMP.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]3. Buy the "air compressor" internal, so you pose a harder target to hit whilst jumping.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]4. Aim at the ground around the enemy with charged shots. There is no point trying to hit a fast-moving player with your little Heat round.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]5. Master uncharged shots. A charged Heat shot only does like 10 damage more than an uncharged, so charging a shot drastically lowers your DPS but does drastically improve splash damage. Learn to use uncharged shots.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]6. Run from shields. The Heat cannon's splash will hurt you as much as you hurt the enemy, and therefore it is better off to run away and live to fight another day than kill your enemy and yourself.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]7. If you find yourself in a 1v2 situation, retreat. The DPS of Heat Cannon is simply too low for a low-armored Scout or slow Rocketeer to combat multiple enemies. I'm not saying it's impossible to beat 1v2s with a Heat Cannon, it is just very hard (for me, anyway). [/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]8. Don't let your enemy see you. What I mean by this is hit your enemies from around corners using splash damage. There is no reason why you can't do fuzzy bunny-tons of damage to an enemy without them seeing you. [/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]9. Go for the combo! Heat+Secondary is extremely deadly, and if you manage to land one or two good combos, it is almost impossible for you to lose a skirmish.[/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]10. Recognize splash damage as your BFF. Cannot stress it enough, the splash damage of a Heat Cannon is your most important ally, especially when going up against bursty weapons. [/font]

I hope I changed that answer to the question I asked you at the beginning of the post.

[Amidatelion]

Yeah, not a whole lot new for me there, though I will take #5 and #10 to heart, thanks!

Maybe the slower speed of the grenade vs a tow is messing with me.

Edited by Amidatelion, April 18 2014 - 08:55 PM.

[FakeName]

Amidatelion, on April 18 2014 - 08:23 PM, said:

I did it again. I bought a weapon that I just can't seem to use. After playing a crapload of Infiltrator, and finally having enough HC to unlock it, I decided to bite the bullet and pick up the heat cannon. Everyone said great things about it! All I ever see is Infils with it, and maybe sometimes EOC!

I apparently suck donkey balls with it.

Now, I freely admit I might need practice, but I was completely worthless with the damn thing after playing so long with the AR. I went from a frantic, side-dashing flanker who you could just not get away from to... Feeble McMissalot.

I think it might be that I use the AR as a kind of tracer to figure out where the grenade is going to go... but with the heat cannon that sort of aim-assist just isn't there. I do the same thing with the SMC and mini-flak on the Vanguard, which influenced my move to the Infil.

Tips please_ I am desperate not to waste another 6300 HC on this thing.

I experienced the same. First time Heat cannon I felt like "OMG, GOD DAMN hit the enemy! Why you so slow projectile_! No automatic fire_ FUUUUUU!"

But I can advise to change your palystyle now.

To keep it simple: AR is a SUSTAINED weapon which continously deals dmg over time as long as you are in sight of the enemy and blah blah.

Heat-cannon is either an active or passive weapon. You can hit your targets even behind corners. And that is what Infiltrator is about.

Indirect Damage

You don't have to see your target to hit it. That's why you have the Grenade LAuncher. Due to its slow projectile speed, you can shoot, dodge behind a cover and wait until your enemy chases you to detonate your grenade right in his face.

[bacon_avenger]

Another vote for what the others said.

When I unlocked the HEAT for my scout, I massively sucked with it.  I swore it off for quite some time.

IIRC, I picked up my inf sometime after the scout, and the alternate was the HEAT.  I kept seeing people saying the HEAT was their weapon of choice with the inf and scout (and saw the amount of heated debates over the scout with a HEAT cannon), so I decided to bite the wax tadpole and force myself to learn it, and I'm glad I did.

Yes, it is a major playstyle change
Yes, it will probably fuzzy bunny you off to no end for a while, enough to make you rage and swear to never use the $#%$ piece of fuzzy bunny ever again if you don't have experience with similar weapon mechanics.

Stick it out and practice, practice, and practice.  It's very rewarding once you start to get the hang of it.

[Amidatelion]

Yeah, ok, I've sucked it up and started practicing and I've noticed a change in my ability. Guess I just have to keep at it.

I am going to miss the top of the leaderboards for a while now.

[SoldierHobbes11]

Heat Cannon is not easy to use, and take a lot of practice. However, in the higher MMR servers which I play in (2000+) almost every infiltrator I see, including guys like Xacius, Loc_TR, and other players from the game's Alpha days and even some of the game developers all used the heat cannon on their infiltrators. Once you learn how to use this weapon, I can guarantee you won't want any other. Practice with it in the offline mode first, so you get used to using it and how the weapon feels. Once you can comfortably destroy AI, move on to plowing through players.

Edited by SoldierHobbes11, April 19 2014 - 01:09 PM.

[Scyfex]

I don't see how the EOC isn't better in every way except for solely playing peek-a-boo. It just has better stats.