With your last paragraph.

OR you can use Polaris skillfully and even save your teammates from zombie leaps. Like my guildie did. ^.^

It should be used for destroying gunpuppies without allowing them to shoot you
It should not be used for anything else, unless you are solo
To be considered a pro user of a polaris, refer to 1 & 2
To be a nub with a Polaris, do the opposite of 1 & 2
Your friend is a moron.

Now, all that being said, it is possible to use the polaris as a main weapon, without being a nub about it. You shoot two shots, one of them slightly off the side of the enemy, and then another to the opposite side. What that will do is negate the knockback, and actually have two bullets do damage. Rinse, repeat. Larger enemies like lumbers can be dealth with this way.

DO NOT shoot the polaris into a mob, you are begging for a beating from your party mates doing that.

It's great for devilites when solo or in pairs too. They slide back and forth into properly placed bullets. They practically kill themselves!

What should you do with it to be considered a "pro" user of Polaris?

Shoot in a way that all your shots connect before expanding, unless as stated previously, shooting at anchored or rooted objects.

~Luke

OOO just remove the entire pulsar line altogether and refund all our monies/CE/mats/ w/e and all this complains stop

Then you have the people that rage because they lost the safest solo gun

Then you bring it back and then...

MORAL OF THE DAY: YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE, IF SOMEONE DOES THIS WAY, SOMEONE IS GONNA COMPLAIN IT'S WRONG, IF THEY DO THE OTHER, SOMEONE WILL STILL COMPLAIN.

/thread

I know in the right hands it can be used well and more beneficial than harmful. I meant that last post as a joke. :P

Given how you can't tell whether the next shot will immobilize a target or send it flying, even when playing carefully it can potentially cause problems. That's why I usually don't like it, but it can be good in cases where the enemy is already pinned by Shock, normally immobile, or against large groups that need to be pushed back from a distance (so long as it doesn't mean into other players). I've used and seen it used to push Trojans off of players stuck in corners, so while inconsistent it has its uses.

Generally, though, you get higher DPS when enemies aren't flying around every which way inconsistently. The Shock doesn't pair well with Freeze, either, and unfortunately some people spam it on frozen enemies anyways.

@Eins

1) yeah sure, it shocks about 1 time in 5 or 10. The rest of the time, it's an imprevisible direction knockback, super useful to put the mob just out of reach of the sword (for half the damage the sword would do), or worse, an attacking mob you dodge just in front of you so you get hit. Super useful. To die.

2) how do you anticipate something you can't anticipate ? You know, when you got on the side of a lumber and suddenly the lumber got moved in front of you ? No matter how good you are, you are going to get that arm in your face.

3) yeah, people can use whatever they please. There is a kick option for a reason. Just don't blame the leader for getting kicked if you play in a team unfriendly manner. As for as I am concerned you can use a Nitronome if you want. You'll just have to do it without me.

4) well, I don't agree with devs being idiots in the first place.

5) see 3)

6) you mean you actually consider it hard to dodge projectiles while gunning ? You are supposed to be far away, you'll have a good second more than the swordsman to see it coming. And you don't have to dodge any close ranged attack ...

7) well, see 1) too

8) wolvers are SO hard now that they attack in the straight path ... I may have agreed before that patch, but now, nope.

9) hum, well seems we agree. Apart from Blitz which really is an exception, gunning is not that hard.

10) see 3) but hey, in Shadow Lair, turrets silencing is in my opinion a pretty big deal.

@Eins
1) Not everyone makes a gigawatt, so many don't have the additional effect of shocking targets
2) map awareness doesn't extend equally in all directions; you get greater depth perception on things on the upper half than you do that lower half, a polaris change explosion can knock a monster completely out of player sight and into melee attack range. Being 'aware' also doesn't help from near intentionally griefing when a person is using polaris against a lone target , like a trojan, and attacking from a direction that WILL knock him toward another player.

Riicecake: Here's a classic example of annoyances on polaris usage: On jelly runs, second stage there's a section with 4 gates that players need to get at least 3 key to progress. The Upper-leftmost chamber (or northeast I guess) has 3 'rooms' each with a combination of jellies, lumbers gunpuppies and silkwings. In many runs I've been on, someone with a polaris will weave in and out of gunpuppy range, not to shoot the gunpuppies (and be useful) but to push back the rest of the monsters just enough to keep them centralized into a middle area between the gunpuppy attacks. This pushes monsters out of range of most other weapon combinations and shields in the silkwings, (which continue to shrug off what damage the polaris user might be doing via healing) and obscures vision for anyone else that may try to attack. This makes it difficult for swords to engage, near impossible for bombers to get close and pretty much leaves someone else with a gun (or DA/GF) to kill the puppies from range so that everyone else might be able to get closer, or at least so that the polaris gunning will push the monsters into a corner (which in 2/3 of this area doesn't work very well cuz of destructible blocks)

Other such annoyances may include other areas of said jelly runs or other levels (like arenas) where a large number of monsters appear and there's limited room to control them because of spikes/traps. So while a polaris could be useful to heard a group of mobs into a single corner and keep them pinned there, many polaris noobs will instead fire into the middle area, or counter-directional to how everyone else is trying to evade/kite.

So some things to considering when using polaris:

Am I in another players blindspot? (yes they exist)
Would attacking a mobster from this position send something hostile directly toward someone?
Does someone else have agro on [a given target?]
Are their more knights than living mobs? ext: Have we killed all the gunpuppies/turrets/etc
Are there useful bombs being used in my group?

If you can answer 'yes' to those questions, then those are usually bad times to use a polaris.

1. You spam the Polaris on every living monster.

2. What shouldN'T it be used on? Ummmm... this one is an N/A. You use it on EVERYTHING.

3. To be considered pro? See answer to number 1 above.

4. To be a noob is to use Polaris as a sidearm, because that means you are probably a swordsman.

5. Your friend is accurate.

Polaris is a mediocre weapon, but an excellent UTILITY. Blame the fools using the tool incorrectly, not blame the tool.

> What should the Polaris be use for?
1. To make gun puppies shut up. When you are in a PUG, someone messed up in last wave of arena and woke up all the shock puppies, you'd be glad you have a Polaris to save the day. (Standing in a corner you'd be targeted by 3 puppies. Shoot one, dodge/block the other two.)

2. Keep enemies away. The knock back direction is controllable, unlike what the uneducated may think. Put down your controller, grab your mouse, turn off auto-target and practice. Don't aim with your cursor close to you, aim with your cursor further away from your knight. Open your eyes and look at the size of the expanded bullet, how it touches an enemy and which direction the enemy is knocked back from that contact.

3. Setup zone control. Sending out a carpet of knock back, trapping enemies behind a narrow passage, where your teammates can rain death into with sword charges and other guns. Left and right rooms of Jelly Palace 1 are great examples for this use.

Lockdown is another where Polaris does the job most wonderfully -- just look at how people rage and you can see it's effective. What the raging targets need is to use tactics... who said you *have* to barge through that carpet of polaris bullets? The polaris users can't do anything other than to keep controlling the zone; why don't you leave one or two people here to entertain them, make them keep spamming while your other teammates take the other paths and steal the capture points?

> What shouldn't it be used for?
1. Nothing. But while Polaris can be used for damage, but there are other guns which will be more efficient.

> What should you do with it to be considered a "pro" user of Polaris?
1. Be able to control knock back direction.
2. Situation awareness, such that you know where your teammates are and don't knock enemies into them.
3. You treat Polaris as utility, not weapon, and only take it out when the situation calls for it.

> What do you do with a Polaris that makes you a noob?
Opposite of the above.

> My friend says that spamming a Polaris takes more skills then swording.
It does. I've seen people who can't seem to control when they click, and those who'd panic. Put a polaris in their hands and they will fail to use it right.

Even used properly, the Polaris is outclassed at everything except killing turrets.

Is the polaris better against devilites than a toothpick? No.

Is the polaris better against anything a brandish can be effectively used against? No way. Brandish is crazy OP.

What about using it for knockback, to clump enemies for a brandish charge? Better than Vortex? I think not.

It is a safe, defensive weapon, but once your skill and armament improve, you will always find better options.

No, there are NO WIPES in Spiral Knights. You people. I suck at this game and I plow through everything regardless of noob party members. If you wipe, Good Lord.

I hope by extreme cases you mean there is a bug that makes the respawning plates keep respawning devilites.

It's good for cornering monsters and holding choke points or openings.
Any weapon with a massive knockback has that factor of endangerment of the the party. Levi has the same problem. Nitro also has the problem.
Basically, the safe place to be when your teammate is firing a Polaris is BEHIND HIM. Either that, or play along and try to keep the monsters from closing in.

@Rawr: Elitist much? Not everyone is perfect. In fact, NO ONE is perfect- humanity and perfection are mutually exclusive.

Anyway, there are many ways to use Polaris. I think people make a little too much fuss out of the whole thing, and some of them have too much ego to admit they made a mistake, but nonetheless you shouldn't be stupid about it. Here's a list of Do's and Don'ts.

DO:
-Silence those **** Gun Puppies. The bomber will thank you for it.
-Slam enemies against a wall. When you can easily hit an enemy against a wall with no (feasible) chance of the enemy hitting one of your fellow players, those expanded shots will wipe the floor with your unhappy victim.
-Fire into a Vortex. The knockback isn't strong enough to knock enemies out of it, and the clumped enemies will be hit both by the blast, and by each other's Shock. Also, if a Quicksilver's caught inside, it'll do a little extra damage.
-Knock enemies off of hazards. Nothing's more annoying to a guy with RSS than a Slag standing on those **** Fire Grates. I assume swordies don't like it either.
-Knock enemies into bombs. Use caution, as the bomber might be nearby. Keep in mind, though, that it's his fault if he stands next to a Vortex and gets hit. Also, sending an enemy into an AoA while you and a demoman are kiting is a pretty good strategy.
-Break up crowds. Sometimes you don't want all the enemies crowded up, and in this case, a Polaris will send them all flying. Great for picking off Menders in arenas, as you can knock the other enemies away while your allies wait with Sentenzas and Acherons at the ready.
-Use it in Lockdown. I hate being hit by it in LD, so it must be pretty good.
-Use it however you want while soloing. When soloing, you have the freedom to knock enemies wherever you want. Nitro spammers also do this.

DON'T:
-Push enemies into other players. Granted, some of it is THEIR responsibility, especially when the monster isn't coming from below, and some of us are too quick to play the blame game. But don't do it on purpose, and don't give them a good reason to want you kicked. Keep your eyes open, and never purposefully knock a Lumber into an ally. (Unless they wield a Final Flourish in Lockdown... okay, I'm joking.)
-Hit Quicksilvers. Unless they're safely in a Vortex and surrounded by other enemies... that'll show 'em. But otherwise, don't hit Quicksilvers on purpose, ever. It's hazardous for everyone.
-Bother slinging it against Beasts and Gremlins you're not trying to move. If you just want to kill them, break out something that will... you know... do damage.
-Spam it wildly. People just hate that. Of course, this doesn't apply if the monster's against a wall- if they still don't like it, they can suck it up because you're blowing the **** out of that monster.
-Do anything that disrupts the party's strategy. If I shivered Vana and both the Slag Guards, don't break the slags on purpose (unless you're SURE you can wipe those suckers out in one shot). And if the RT switches are set up just right so both twins are gonna take a rocket to the face, don't hit the switches! (I should listen to this, seeing as I'm Mr. Sun Shards all the time, but... so should you.)

As for Polaris knocking enemies out of sword range... damage is being dealt. Suck it up. It isn't Lockdown. It's not timed and nobody's counting the damage. (I'm a bomber, I would be as annoyed as you, if not more, if it was really that bad.)

Dissenting opinion: The weapon's 'push into other players' bonus feature is only unlocked when players are not working closely together. So it might not make sense to use the weapon when you have swords everywhere or other sword-friendly tactics like Graviton bombs are used. If your mates are also gunning at the moment, though, it can help you keep the mobs far away. The argument against Polaris could be used against traditional bombing as well, and that certainly isn't going away.

I only use the Pulsar in T2 LD, as a recon. Cloak, fire one shot at a kilowatt-wielding dusker clone, watch as he tries (and fails) to find me using it and his toothpick. Apart from that, I never use it.