What is the state of the helbore lasgun?

[theChrispysPrattle]

Good afternoon all.

Been away for a bit. How is the helbore with all the weapon/crafting changes?

Which is the best mark? Perks? Blessings?

Thanks in advance.

[Ragnarok101]

Still fairly godawful due to the terrible sights.

They’ve swapped the Mark names around as well.

[Molonious]

The equip time is insanely long, long enough to completely miss critical targets or get trapped/dogged/overrun/etc.

The sights are bad, the gun doesn’t have actual proper rear sights, it’s got an unused optics rail that is used in lieu of an actual rear sight, leading to an awful sight picture.

[JanZamoysky]

Sights are still mostly terrible, you could say that some marks don’t have sights at all, they literally have rail mounts instead, which is just tragic. The bayonet charge can be used for mobility, and bayonet attack has it uses (unless you have the chop attack instead). The whole “ready up” animation every time you pull it out should have been removed 2 years ago.

With Armourbane blessing Helbores are not terrible even in Havoc, so you can make them work, just don’t expect them to be meta.

I still wish we got Helbores without the whole charge up animation, just a slow firing hard hitting lasgun with some kick.

I used to run the heaviest variant in Auric for a while. I don’t like the chop bayonet animation, as its slow and far less useful than the stab, but I think that variant had the best iron sights. It was pretty good at special and elite hunting.

[MixedLetters]

They…are ok.

As someone who’s been running around with my Veteran re-factoring a few builds (after playing Ogryn for so long Serrated Blade was calling my name and turns out it makes a lot of things actually work VERY well, who knew stacking 2 bleed a hit on a Knife/Heavy Sword/Combat Axe/Sapper Shovel I would suddenly make them VERY potent), I can say with utmost recency that they are…

Fine.

One Motion helps with their ‘pull out game’ but the animation is just so clunky I don’t understand why it’s needed. I yank my Boltgun over my shoulder or drag up my plasma gun in half the time still and it’s like why, why am I twiddling my thumbs against the weapon before I can fire it, make that part of the reload animation I can animation cancel or something I don’t need to do it every time I pull it out.

Beyond that, you’re stuck between ‘a fairly under powered weapon with a good Bayonet poke’ being the IIIa (actually really fast stab forward that’s honestly pretty good/I use in a build with Serrated Blade to proc Weapon Specialist for my Combat Blade, since it counts as a ranged kill while still applying bleed so you can stab forward with it and then go to town with the knife), or a Solid hit for something that can have infinite Ammo (because Shocktrooper) with a bayonet strike that might as well be deleted from the game for a flash light, being the IV (the ‘overhead stab’ is single target and just, so worthless).

And as has been mentioned, the sights still feel terrible, making the weapon feel very inaccurate as you try and line up heads only for it not to count and result in you pumping like 5 shots into a gunner because you are hitting their shoulder blades and not their dome because they are bent backward slightly and puffing out their chest so haha there goes your headshot. They very much feel like if they got a proper lasgun sight (like a few mods used to be able to provide easily), a bit more forgiving of a weakspot ‘cone’, and a proper pull out animation that feels like you’re actually trying to kill something and not taking out your prized collectors item, they could be pretty good.

But for now, they sit in ‘gimmick’ tier awaiting help (which will hopefully come when they touch on Veteran with their ‘new weapon’ totally 100% right yes huffs the copium harder).

[xscyther]

The state of the helbore is a weaker bolter, sights can be replaced with weapon customization so that doesn’t matter to me but it lacks the more consistent damage cuz the hitscan projectile isn’t the size of a soccer ball like bolter.

[Palumtra]

When built for crits it’s one of the most ammo effective guns in the game on Vet. Damage output is not bad either, can 2 tap crushers.
Main issues:
-has one of, if not THE longest equip animation/time, which coupled with ADS and charge time can really add up
-ADS is just bad without an actual sight or - Emperor forbids - a scope
-the bayonet attack should be the same for all MKs

[CopperBack1]

Yah when built right its decent, I’ve been trying a high crit left tree focus can body shot pretty much everything with a crit just need to hold the charge long enough for crit blessing and other talents to be 100%

Also pairing with ES & Marksman for quick draw/zoom and ranged finesse strength… a bit fragile but super ammo efficient

this helps too Helbore passive charge at Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Nexus - Mods and community

[Gideon404]

They’re good fun. More effective than the infantry lasgun. The lack of a useful bayonet on the heaviest mark makes it a bit of a one trick pony.

They also saw a rise in popularity among the higher skill players running havoc due to ammo efficiency.

[wanderingsoul]

It’s slow enough to kill you in every way

[lw88]

If you can actually aim it’s nigh on the best ranged damage in the game. Only bested by plasma gun’s ability to deal with bulwarks.

Exe stance with marksman’s focus at 15 with the 15% rending you can pop heads pretty damn reliably, including reapers and crushers. If you take bring it down your boss damage can get ridiculous pretty quickly.

Best talents are probably surgical for the crit buildup over time for damage and ammo conservation, and hot shot for cleave so you can hit outlined targets through whatever’s blocking them like a horde or melee elites.

The sights are pretty poor, but honestly mostly solved for by aiming low and flicking up to the head when whatever you’re aiming at is in an animation you can predict. With time you get pretty good at anticipating head movement and focusing entirely on landing that shot. It can be pretty easy to tunnel vision though, especially with the extra zoom from exe stance, so it’s probably a good idea to make sure you’re only using it when you’re sure you can be safe for a bit.

I find outlining shooters to be great for exe stance sustain, but ogryn highlight is probably better for auric or havoc if you’re up for those.

The draw time is honestly there to stop it being so easy to hold a charge and double swap back without taking the shot and wasting ammo/magazine space. That’s mostly what it punishes. If you reliably swap to your ranged between horde waves you’ve pretty much always got your gun out when specials and disablers show up.