I find myself struggling to use an HPR effectively because it’s too slow to react to T3 pushes to be up on the front, but without IFF you’re mostly just stood there waiting for marines to fail and rout to be useful. You can get some value by watching flanks but this isn’t always available, and you’ll have less security from defenders and warriors.
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In my experience, the best way to set up is with a wall directly next to you, ideally with a straight firing line (no walls) open ahead. drop a portacade down and try to keep that lane clear. If marines ahead move up into your lane, undeploy and move up with them. The portacade in front of you will give you time with the undeploy slowdown and will help use up time of the slowdown in picking it back up. Be prepared to lose those portacades.
Also, learn the huge multitude of things you can quick set up on, it’s more expansive than you would think. I’ve seen marines carry chairs with them for quick deployment.
Honestly though I usually put a vgrip or agrip on the HPR when it’s not FOB sieges/boring ass cave entrance hold (I bring the bipod as well so I can do both).
It might actually help you to know that the Bipod decreases fire rate below standard when not deployed. If you’re struggling on a mobile front, or struggling getting into position, you can carry a V-Grip on you and just have the V-Grip on until the front is static enough that you can deploy and Bipod. The HPR with V-Grip has worthwhile fire-rate, damage and accuracy plus the scary HPR sound so you can run & gun until you’re ready to settle down and put the Bipod down.
Plus, you can hear the Queen and quickly put the bipod on and float around ready to instant-deploy and beam the Queen.
It got -2 for some reason but I think birb is pretty accurate to say HPR with bipod is more about zoning than owning. You can lock down vital ground as a lone player if you position yourself smart while your team focuses the push elsewhere. If we consult the diagram we can clearly see that the warriors want to grab Noir but cannot because the HPR is zoning off the room.
I saw someone suggest wearing deployable cades on your backpack slot to deploy them and then use bipod on it. Don’t need tools I think to pick them up either. Haven’t tried it myself but if it works then could be useful
behind other marines
sorry uh, yea mostly flankwatch or if there’s like an established fallback spot (line of cades) on a choke, you can fence-sit.
plinkster should answer this since he’s an hpr hero; i don’t run HPR for exactly the reasons you’ve stated and is why i prefer running m2c in similar-ish scenarios/builds, since i can swap to destroying walls when i don’t have good angles
thanks for the tips
The best position is one where you can’t get lunged or flung from. Find some trash, keep yourself behind two tiles of debris that would block a warrior. Additionally, you should be covering an angle with low forward traffic from the marines. This applies to just about any bipod affixed weapon. You should also not be afraid to fire into the distance you cannot see, if lurkers are the ones trying to push you, they hate that.
Does deploying the bipod still give IFF?
Hpr is less about getting kills, more about using the dmg to pressure and thus zone. So you dont have to be in the right position alwaysz you just need to use it as a tool for pushing or support.
Knowing where the enemy wants to be is important and positioning to create a firing lane comes with practice. Further use ur underbarrel keybind and put bipod down asap, constantly reposition. Backup weapons r rly good to have if you need to swap to kill xeno mode.
Most struggles r fixed with practice. But can be exacerbated by enemies playing around you - which is the intended effect, and is what causes zoning, and when used intentionally is the strength of the weapon.