THE ROCKET SENTRY WAS UPDATED IN PATCH 1.000.400 Update Video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b6hyeryUyNuYg40.html Rocket Sentry Changes: - Decreased spread - Prioritize larger targets - Increased target distance from 75 to 100m - Decreased Rockets per salvo 2 to 1 (to get a better ammo economy) - Increased explosion radius from 1m to 4m - Decreased explosion armor penetration (Explosion can no longer damage heavy armored enemies. The projectile still has enough AP to damage heavily armored targets.) - Increased projectile damage from 200 to 300

Someone should ask the devs to swap out the sentry explosive resistance with a small personal shield for the sentry instead. You know, because the explosion resistance doesn’t make a difference

Imagine you send a sniper on a mission to take out an enemy officer. He says he will prioritize Officer Joe, he returns from the mission and only shot privates. When you ask him why he says he prioritized the closest target, but if there was a tie between officer Joe and a private officer Joe would be dead You'd probably shoot your sniper for rampant incompetence. The rocket sentry targeting absolutely needs to be fixed, that or it's target priority section should be removed from the description

So I have found ONE niche senecio where the rocket sentry actually outshine the AC sentry. On evacuate high asset automation missions, the ones where you play tower defense till the timer runs out, if you place the sentry to only face at the area where the drop ships come and drop off the automatons, you can use the rocket sentry like a SAM turret. And it actually really does a quite impressive job at it too. So much that it turns the mission damn near trivial to complete even on helldivers difficulty. However, there is a trick that you got to do though. Since the drop-ships always come in at the same angle and stop at the same place to drop off their load, you have to position the rocket sentry in a spot where it pretty much faces the engines of the drop ship to one shot the drop ships before they can release their loads. And although the AC can do the same thing, because the AC runs through ammo a lot quicker than the rocket, you’ll only have the AC up for maybe a minute while the Rocket sentry will have a permanent up time in comparison. This is the one scenario where I run the rocket sentry over the AC sentry and it outperforms it.

Your deep dive on these (i hate to say it) non-meta choices is the only reason i try them out lmao. I hate to try them especially on 3 stratagems mission, only for them to be a dud or unsuitable for the occurance. Good video mate, keep it up.

This is a fantastic sentry so long as you take its characteristics in mind. To get more out of its anti armor rockets you should run this on a crowd control build as an anti armor pocket pick. Weapons like the air burst and stalwart are going to quickly clear the board of all the chaff so the sentry can target the heavies. Eagle cluster, gas, napalm, orbital gatling, orbital air burst and mines are all good picks to compliment. The rocket sentry works best when it can focus its fire onto its intended targets from moderate range. Something to note about sentries as a whole is that enemies not targeting a hell diver will prioritize sentries. This is important with the rocket sentry as it has a minimum range. Knowing this allows you to use that to your advantage. You can place a sentry at an angle your not attacking from to catch enemies in a cross fire. This forces the enemy to either target you or the sentry thus dividing enemy aggression. You can also use the sentry as bait for retreats or for hit and run ambushes. Good placement and good weapon and stratagem synergy is going to allow you to get a lot more out of this sentry then just picking it at random.

oh so it blows. thanks for the info big bro, keep it up

Loving the Deep Dive series. Auto Cannons are just so much better, sound cooler, only thing Rocket takes home is the looks. Love the look of rockets streaking out overhead and smacking something.

I'd love for the rocket turret to have some kind of guidance for large units. It would make it extremely useful against flying enemies, as long as you can keep smaller enemies from reaching the turret

The only time I use rocket sentries is if I'm running an all turret build, at which point I use it when the Auto Cannon Sentry is on cooldown. It's to the AC sentry like the MG is to the Gatling Sentry: not inherently bad, but subpar and only really viable if you need a second turret of the same kind you already have. Great video!

so basically it's the Auto-cannon turret... but worse in every way

I feel like the rocket sentry would work better as a miniature SAM sentry. Aka: bigger damage (probably EAT damage but higher armor penetration), with slight tracking (not spear style, rather curving toward targets), but with a slower fire rate (1 salvo of 2 rockets every ~6 seconds) and less ammo (~24 rockets meaning ~12 salvos). The sentry would launch 2 high damage rockets with high armor penetration as it would use shaped charges, meaning it has the same low splash damage and range. It would be designed so that 1 salvo of 2 rockets would be able to single handedly take down a drop ship. But it wouldn't clear whole bot drops because the lower fire rate means it'd take down at a maximum of 2 drop ships per bot drop. (Because the sentries aim at center of mass instead of at the engines, it may need a damage buff specifically against dropships.) The tracking is there because as a SAM sentry, it is designed to deal with gunships as well, and gunships notoriously move around a lot, making even the recoilless hard to land. And of course, it should only be 1 salvo per gunship, especially since there's more of them. Now just because it's a surface-to-air missile, doesn't mean that its shaped charge rockets can't be useful elsewhere. Because of its high damage and penetration, it'd also be good at dealing with larger, more armored targets. Examples include Hulks, bile titans, chargers, tanks, factory striders, and fabricators (mostly convenient coincidence). Chargers and hulks should be a 1 salvo clear while tanks would be 2, and bile titans or factory striders would 3+. Now, having ~12 salvos by default (instead of 16) would seem overpowered as that is 12 chargers, 12 hulks, or 12 dropships. But keep in mind that it retains its low health, and since its fire rate is lower its acting as an automated recoilless rifle, specifically one that can't move and is thus easily overrun by cannon fodder. Side note: Its target acquisition should be better and target larger targets regardless since it should know it's futile to aim at a scavenger and waste its rockets. Especially if it's too close to shoot. TLDR: Can drop bot dropships for you to lessen the horde, dominates heavily armored targets, but is overrun easily by smaller enemies and is much less effective against the bugs since they rely on quantity instead of quality like the bots. (Might need tweaking, but overall, it should improve its current state by increasing both its upsides and downsides, specializing it.)

This should have a laser pointer. So you can designate which target

I see someone else mentioned it but this thing is really designed to take down drop ships IMO. If you can get it behind a rock that breaks line of sight to ground forces so that it can only "see" dropships you are golden.

After watching the entire video, it turns out that the best use of rocket sentry at 13:27 ;D

I feel like this sentry is just completely overshadowed by every other sentry. It's advertised purpose is done better by the AC sentry by leaps&bounds and despite being "explosive" it doesn't have any meaningful splash damage so it feels like there is 0 reason to run this over a gattling sentry, AC sentry or a mortar. It doesn't help that it's aim is godawful and loves to miss targets because it doesn't know it shoots a projectile.

Thanks for the Science! You're giving me the information I need to make informed decisions on my loadout. I don't play "meta" builds, but I want the strategems I pick to actually perform how I expect.

You know what this turret needs to be truly viable? Homing rockets. Change it into a missile turret and the accuracy problem would be gone, AND it would be indispensible around gunship fabricators.

For Bugs, Equip a stealth armor Equip a STUN Grenade (stop chargers running into your turret) Give yourself enough space from tne fight and always call in a Machine gun or gatlin sentry and pair it with the rocket sentry. The machine gun keeps all the tiny critters away while the rocket focuses the big guys. And ofcourse carry a Quasar, EAT etc. So help shoot the big targets with the rocket....you will SHRED. If you are doing this with Automatons, remove the machine gun and replace with Generator Shield Relay so the bots can't shoot it down.

that one deployment turned from tragic to comedic when the stategem bounced off the rock but stuck to the bile titan and taking it out when the sentry pod hit its back xD

"Well, that's one way to kill a Bile Titan with a turret" ~ me, more often than you'd think

The difference between large and small units can be seen on the radar - Striders are considered large targets (large red dots), while Devastators are infantry and are displayed as a small red dot. Bugs have the same “oddity” - the brood commander is considered an equivalent target in size to the charger - even an orbital railgun, if thrown between them, but closer to the commander, will target him. The Brood Leader also appears as a large dot on the radar, rather than a small dot like smaller bugs.

Rocket Sentry should just be a salvo of arcing, highly aggressively tracking SPEAR missiles capable of achieving a lock around cover, so you can station them behind a rock their payload can arc over.

Awesome video. Really appreciate the deep dive findings.

You are very good at these! I appreciate you playing the stuff I always die with, and hope you'll someday uncover some magic trick to fill a niche

Great video. I love your deep dives.

Can't wait for a flame turret, or maybe a gas mortor. If maybe they added some stagger it could do better too

can't wait for the rocket sentry mark 2 that's just two Spears slapped together and mounted in place of the current box launcher

1:30 69 warbone medals, nice

If the rocket sentry actually did what it says in the description, it would be great. Problem is, it does not prioritize targets the way the description reads. It will blow shots away on random medium enemies while chargers and bile titans are within range, making it completely worthless, since the autocannon turret will do the same thing, faster, better and at longer range, with more accuracy, and with more ammo.

i'm just seeing 16 minutes of explanation (and i do appreciate the deep dive as a viewer!) to tell me "just take the autocannon sentry" yes, it kills itself with enemies too close, but similar to understanding personal positioning, understanding where to put that thing is vital, not to mention, unlike the rocket sentry, it staggers hulks and chargers.

My current build is an Orbital drop bunker when comes to turrets, i pair the Autocannon with either the minigun or rocket sentry followed by the dome shield. Basically makes a safe zone for cover when fighting the bots.

From what you found, Like all turrets but mortars, position and line of sight are key to effectiveness. Having a gatling 20-30m in front of and below it or seperated by terrain will help clear light enemies , or a closer AC for medium and heavies. Additionally, like HM or AC emplacements, it will be a fine decision to have multiple on the team, like on geo surveys, where you have high ground and trigger a large enemy response. The sentries will possibly focus fire, significantly dropping TTK on heavies.

Chance and placement really affect how it works too. I had a factory strider drop directly on top of a rocket sentry where the sentry could shoot directly at belly doors, and it killed the factory strider in 3 volleys

This video seems less like a guide and more like a top 10 reasons not to use the rocket sentry

That throw at 13:26 :D :D :D

THANK YOU I was literally just thinking about this damn sentry today. If it could at least target drop ships and heavies first, damn!

Give it homing missiles and make it prioritize large high priority targets over chaff enemies. Right now it serves the same role as the autocannon sentry and does everything worse than it. Make the rocket sentry serve a unique role.

Love your content!!!

Best way to use rocket sentry is as an opening or to defend a chokepoint with walls. Its not good out in the open or when it needs to turn a lot.

Sooo much research! GG!

@Wallbouncing, I love the LBP background! Very fine video. Have you collaborated with RykenXIV, Cashcrop, Eravin, or Thiccfila at all? You guys among some others have been real helpful to us Helldivers out here, and I figure we are stronger together.

I wasn't paying attention what its good at exactly lol

Hadn't considered using smoke to control target priority. I use smoke to protect hell bomb drops as enemies ignore it when it's smoked out. The big thing I've determined rocket sentry is for is for if you need armor pen sentry but the autocannon runs out od ammo too quick. IE longevity is the rocket sentry while burst is the autocannon. Easy to see why AC is usually the pick in a frantic firefight

Thanks! Useful tips!

Honestly I'm only watching your vids, keep it up man

Wow, that rocket sentry sounds like really high maintenance if you want to make it work :)

It is nice on the Helms Deep mission of placed against the stairs near the main gates. I think the best boost would be a 2-4m splash.

They should either rework this into a SEAF sentry, targeting airborne enemies and bile titans only, with homing, or they should increase the firing rate to 4 rockets per shot instead of two, like a rocket devastator.

The problem is the rocket turret is inferior to the autocanon turret and the machine gun inferior to the Gatling so there’s never a reason to pick those 2. It doesn’t help that the bots can take them out almost instantaneously and from halfway across the map! I really hope they buff the underperforming turrets so we have more variety

Rocket sentry is amazing with CERTAIN situations. Like the doors mission. Necessary.

If they removed the sticky targeting, and made the rocket sentry automatically switch to the largest target not in it's deadzone, then it might be a decent side-grade to the AC turret. As is, it is unfortunately trash.

Expected a deeper autocannon comparison. The two serve the same basic role.

They must of changed/reduced aggro on sentries recently. Prior usage, everything just swarmed them. I used some last night and things would walk passed it while getting blasted by it towards me, who was also blasting them. Never seen that happen before.

In this state I‘d rather take the AC sentry it melts chargers. The R sentry could have less, but stronger and smarter ammo/targeting. Option to target manually‘d be a blast.

Keep it up brother!

It would be cool if the missles acted more like a spear with lock on more dmg

Great breakdown, I'd wondered why it felt so lackluster by comparison to autocannon sentry.

My take is that it's a turret that does explosive damage just like the Autocannon Sentry, but has much less penetration. Therefore it would be an excellent anti-spewers weapon if not for the multitude of negative aspects to this pick. You could tale it to destroy parked dropships, but a 380 barrage can do the same job with more reliability, firepower, and same CD

I hope the rocket sentry gets some TLC, it was the one I was most excited for when levelling up and then I was utterly disappointed by. The rockets should pack more of a punch, they should have homing too to help with accuracy issues, and some decent AoE would really boost this things performance.

very thourough, well done.

The reason I take the rocket over the auto canon (other than style) is the long time it can stay up if undamaged but moreso, because it penetrates annihilator. Auto just bounces. I love this sentry but there are very few reasons to take it over the auto canon

I enjoy bringing it on Geologic Surveys where I'm often packing 3 turrets, but I really think it needs more splash to differentiate it from the autocannon sentry.

I love the rocket sentry, but it just doesn't do what it advertises. I'll occasionally bring it on automaton missions because I want more sentries and it deals with devastators and scout striders reasonably well, but I can't rely on it to take out anything larger. It sucks when a hulk scorcher just runs up to it after taking 6 shots and flamethrowers it only to move on with no problem or when it's hitting heavier units but just getting the armor indicator somehow. Meanwhile the autocannon sentry annihilates anything in a fairly quick manner and with perfect accuracy. I think it needs either extra stagger to help it actually deal with chargers and hulks, or it needs slightly faster fire rate, a bit more accuracy, and better armor pen. Obviously the ammo problem should be fixed too either way.

The rocket sentry feel more like a support sentry and is best paired with another sentry mainly the autocannon or Gatling. It really could use an increase in accuracy and perhaps fire two rockets simultaneously that have splash damage.

Issue with the rockets from automations most of the damage (like the rocket sentry) are kinetic not the explosive damage. It may have more effect vs bile spewers I think.

Such a disappointing sentry that needs a lot of work to be considered viable without being outclassed by the autocannon sentry for efficiency in the same role. Changes necessary for viability include considerations like: -tweaks to unit priority -ignoring units that close the 10m minimum threshold for firing range -following expected performance when prioritizing heavier units rather than priority in proximity -taking fabricators and drop ships out of the targeting pool if current interactions with rocket effects are preserved -faster projectile velocity or target tracking, maybe both -increased engagement range -More durable to explosives (all sentries need that) I really don’t think it needs any buffs to damage or rate of fire for the sake of keeping it balanced and avoiding competing with the autocannon sentry for a similar category in purpose, preserving its identity.

I named my Ship Panther of Steel because Steel Panther send a love rocket even to the fat ones.

Is the super citizen upgrade worth even tho i got the steel vet bond?

AutoCannon Sentry > Rocket Sentry but ultimately, the great thing about HellDivers, is you can run any loadout you want and still do serious damage in the game =]

Pro-Tip: When selecting the rocket sentry highlight it and select something else.

They should replace the turrets rockets with the same ones fired out of the mech. Already balanced rocket and can actually compete against the auto cannon then.

I always believed the missiles should be able to lock on to their targets since they are so slow. To many times where these rockets would completely miss it's targets. Best to just bring the autocannon.

would be cool if it could retract when enemies get close, would be stupid broken on terminids planets since they always try to target sentries

A-tomatons , A-A-Ron - GJ on the Review

I want it to be good, but it's just inferior to the Autocannon in almost every way. It needs a massive buff. Higher armor penetration, bigger splash damage, and slight homing.

Nice video. Is it possible to blow up the automaton bot fabricator if it hits it when the doors open? Like when a bot is exiting? I also hate using it =/ Hope it gets buffs.

So... is there any point to taking this thing over the autocannon turret?

are you sure it prioritize targets at all?

Its so annoying we cant drop sentries on high ground. They already have limited fire and health and the devs reduce their effectiveness further by not allowing deployment on high ground. Just pointless overbalancing BS

Sentries are so goated when you max upgrade them but yeah, Rocket Sentry might be the worst one out of the bunch. Would rather have a Gatling, Machine Gun, Autocannon and Quasar Cannon set up

This thing would be good if it would only target bile spewers and up, devastators and up, and had some homing for aerial targets. As it stands, this isn’t a decent off meta pick, it’s just kinda bad by comparison to most other options.

Rocket sentry should have lock on targeting. I would run it regularly if so. Especially against bots and gun ships.

Before watching, it's good for medium enemies and down but once anything armoured turns up it might as well explode. I see no reason to take this over the Autocannon as the Rockets large enemy preference ruins it.

14:27 you said there’s 2 ship upgrades that affects the rocket sentry. I believe there’s 4? The one that gives health, ammo, turn speed, and blast absorption (which is currently bugged).

Rocket Sentry sadly not beating the "Autocannon Sentry but worse" allegations.

This is great with the shield generator since it runs out of ammo so fast

I've tried to use this specifically for the gunships on bot missions but after like 3 missions I got tired of it cause it couldn't hit shid

I am not positive, but i think that it has more overall ammo/damage than the auto cannon. But the auto cannon is more consistent and does the damage faster and to me, it seems to have more hp. Even with a build set up for chaff clear it seemed kinda meh except for the defense mission where everything comes through a choke point in order to get to the generators to stop our missile launches then it is more noticable how it out lasts the auto cannon. Also vs bugs chargers prioritise sentries which even further decreases their effectiveness. I almost never use sentries against bugs except maybe gatling and even then i would prefer orbital airburst followed by gatling barrage. If your teammates are dropping anti tank weapons then just bring a couple of eagles to offset your orbital strikes. You can only really get away with sentries on bot missions or really dam good positiong away from all the fighting against bugs but you will soon find everything on cooldown and they are still spawning in. I do wish the regular machine gun at least had much more ammo. I might be tempted to try gatling/ machine gun, but otherwise, you're probably better off with rover back back even without a support weapon as chaff clear. It wont plow you out of a pickle, but it simply does more over time.

great video ! hope you will update if needed !

So unfortunate that you made this video just for the update to change so many things about it :P Good video though, as always :)

i would take the rocket sentry over the gatling or machinegun everyday not gonna lie, the gatling just targets everything that i do not want it to (waste it’s ammo on a damn charger or hulk)

They really do NEED to buff rocket sentry, i mean, with the name such as Rocket sentry, it does not do its intended work, buff either its fire rate or damage or explosive range so that each rocket affects multiple enemies, 1 of the 3 would make a big difference for this sentry and would actually very viable.

well that sucks. both the mech and this should get proper eat/rr rockets imo, right now this sentry is just a worse autocannon sentry it seems (at least it can't blow itself up)

Guys, just use the auto cannon turret. It's way better. Shreds hulks and factory striders, has the muzzle velocity to rarely miss it's targets. Rocket turret is just bad in comparison, in its current state

Autocannon sentry deep dive next?

"it is even able to one shot a ballistic shield and outright destroy it" oh cool so it'll shred heavy devastators? 12:05 hmm why does this apple taste like bacon

Just give me a laserpointer with the sentry so that I can aim where the rockets go so that I can turn it into a longrange support turret

you should listen to steel panther when aboard the panther of steel

00:03 (...thats the stun mortar, not the rocket sentry icon ;3) but for real tho, i whish the rocket mortar would home in like the microwave SEAF Antiair, because it seems to miss more times then not