How to Use the JAR-5 Dominator Against Automatons in Helldivers 2

UPDATE: The Jar did receive a slight nerf. The Damage is now 275 instead of 300. I haven't tested it yet, but I don't think this will make a huge difference. Let me know if you see any noticeable changes!

On bots it’s my “get out of jail” free card when you turn a corner and you have a conga line of devastators just waiting for you.

the new jar is the old slugger

All Hail King Eruptor, first of his name.

Regarding Reticle/Aiming UI: I'm like 230ish hours into Helldivers 2 and JUST RECENTLY I've realized how amazing that "CIRCLE RETICLE" is! It's always where the Barrel of your Gun is currently facing, but just having that there adds a TINY SKILL GAP, where if you are paying attention you can land shots accurately while moving alot! Perhaps it's b/c I'm so many hours in that I've noticed how AMAZING THIS SMALL FEATURE IS! EVERY 3RD PERSON SHOOTER SHOULD ADOPT THIS RETICLE STYLE!

The dominator is better if you have armor that have recoil reduction and kneel down. Especially at longer ranges. I think the scorcher is more popular because it works with the popular light armor run and gun method. Personaly I use the dominator as my go to gun since i unlocked it. Sometimes I switch to the regular shotgun or crossbow for variation and depending on what else i bring. But i use heavy armor almost always.

I love the Scorcher for bots. It's got better handling, what feels like a faster projectile, and deals striders better, as well as handling tank/turret/hulk weakspots better as well. That said, I think I prefer the Dominator as my go to for bots, even on helldives. The reason being that it handles devastators and berserkers so well. It kills them faster than the Scorcher, staggers them, and has that awesome one shot on the head. It handles the regular bots easy also, one tapping them usually. Sometimes the Scorcher feels like it needs a two tap if it clips them or they're further away. The most dangerous and numerous bot enemies feel like the devastators, especially the shield and rocket ones. Being better at killing them, while being good or adequate at the rest, makes it more valuable. For the hulks/tanks/turrets, I'm usually bringing something different anyways. AMR, quasar, AC, stratgems, etc. The Scorcher is super easy at dealing with striders, but striders aren't really that dangerous. There's usually far less of them than devastators/zerkers, and even if you struggle for the leg shots, they're easy to flank or toss a grenade at.

What bothered me most is the smoke, firing it is like firing a musket, those smoke always cover my vision and make second shot miss.

I use Dorminator cuz I'm a WH40k fan, and I'm a berserker and devastator killing beast in my team, and I wish my friends would use it too every time I see them struggle to kill with the Sickle lol. Also quick tip, turn the flashlight completely off, you're welcome 😂

Incredibly insightful, thank you for this!

Dominator is far superior to the Scorcher. The Scorcher is only better at the striders, but lacks considerably against all devastators and, most importantly, infantry bots. The Dominator far more reliably 1-shots infantry bots than the Scorcher, thus it is far easier to wipe a squad before they can call in reinforcements. The Scorcher beating the Dominator at tanks/hulks/towers is a moot point since support weapons and stratagems already beat both by a country mile.

I've always loved the Jart5, I b-lined to unlock it and have always considered it to be the best gun until I got to play with the scorcher, which generally did just do a better job at the same role. I was surprised they buffed the damage so much (300 then 275 up from 200) since it already was able to put down an insane amount of damage. I always thought it was better than the breaker and the slugger, but worse than the scorcher, now I think it's actually better than the scorcher - scorcher is kind of a win-more weapon as was the slugger, but the jar was just capable of pumping out more damage in the same window without much fuss provided you could get a handle on its heft. Ironically the stagger is a bit redundant because you can kill anything it's capable of staggering in like one burst if not a single good shot - aside from the scout striders which I actually find a bit more annoying to deal with since you have such a small weird target to shoot from the front and they move a ton when you stagger them and they move quicker than you can keep them in your sights so you just end up staggering them and by the time you line up the next shot they're out of the stagger and back to shooting you.

First, lights off. That Dominator smoke is excessive

Ya that stagger really does a lot for me personally. Idk if I would say I like it better than the scorcher because of the splash damage it offers, but it's very rewarding in the right hands.

Jar-5 is my favorite for automatons! The ability to stagger the shielded and rocket devestators makes it amazing!

The jar is great for giving cover fire, I've saved loads of teammates by rotating fire between devastators to stop their suppressive fire, you can basically hold back 3 of them at once when you've gotten good at it and they're close together

I think after trying both weapons. Scorcher and the Jar 5 can be considered sidegrades. Each of them excels in their jobs while having relatively different playstyles.

I've been running this gun for months now. Such an underrated sleeper

My favorite primary. I discovered the stagger ability of it and started going to town on elite units.

I love the dominator because it makes me feel like a space marine from 40k cuz its literally a bolter.