Shockwave Launcher
The Shockwave Launcher is a very interesting weapon. It feels like the Howitzer Gun in terms of power, but with agility and the speed of its shots, it feels more like the Thumper. Speaking of Thumper, that weapon is better than the Shockwave Launcher. If you have access to it, use it instead, as its ability to one-hit KO most players and the shot's dipping effect make it an overall more powerful and versatile weapon.
With the Thumper aside though, let's discuss all that this weapon offers over other weapons. The first thing it does well is its damage output, which is very similar to Howitzer, but thanks to its faster fire rate, it is technically faster at killing than Howitzer. It's range is also just as good, which make this weapon threatening at all ranges. However, before you write off the Howitzer and other splash damage weapons as completely outclassed, consider some of the Shockwave Launcher's flaws. Its first flaw is its mediocre shot travel speed. It's the same speed as the Cold Beam Rifle, which isn't bad, but still provides some missed opportunities. It means that players have a brief opportunity to strafe around the Shockwave Launcher in order to evade being shot; if they're successful, the shockwave will fly straight past them and just hit a wall. The weapon also has a low clip size of just 4 shots before it goes through a slow reload, making it fairly inefficient in that regard. |
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When I play with this weapon, I constantly feel tempted to go somewhere high up and camp it out due to the weapon's shaky accuracy at ground level, where it can't easily hit the ground for splash damage. Hitting a moving player is even more difficult. It's unfortunate, since the weapon actually has a decent agility stat that could be useful, but instead I'm often sitting in one spot shooting at players below. I definitely like the weapon - it's worth buying with the A.S.P Armour if you really want to pass the Earth Day event - but I still believe Thumper is better since it deals with ground-level combat more efficiently and can kill players in one hit rather than two.
TL; DR
Good weapon. It just loses out on a few perks that Howitzer and Thumper have, which means it doesn't compete with the best weapons in the game quite as well.