I feel happy with my loadout vs bugs. Spray and pray is easy to understand. Run and gun. I’m not as confident with bots.
Loadout: Armor is medium with crouch aim bonus. Base gun, the Adjudicator (assault rifle) from Democratic Demolition because of its armor pen. 2ndary is Autocannon and ammo backpack. Strategems are orbital laser, eagle airstrike, and mortar sentry.
All the advice I read is “go slower, avoid patrols, etc.” and I’m fine with that but everyone I play with does the opposite. They engage EVERYTHING. I feel like I’ve got OK damage per shot, but everyone is getting there faster and killing things faster because they got there earlier. So I end up feeling like I’m not pulling my weight.
Since it seems like your teammates are often Leroy Jenkins-ing their way into every engagement, it might be a good idea to consider switching to more of a support role. I’ve found that the Diligence Counter-Sniper works really well against bots after the recent buff (it will one-shot every Devastator type if you can land a headshot, and one-shots every infantry unit to the body), and it keeps you pretty safe from afar. Replacing the mortar sentry with the EMS mortar will also do you some favors, as it’ll be less likely to kill your teammates, and also keeps enemy movement suppressed, keeping you safer for longer, and makes landing those headshots on Devastators a lot easier.
Since you seem to mostly play on Difficulty 4, I’d recommend dropping the Autocannon for something else. AC is hella fun, but it’s also hella overkill for lower difficulties, as you won’t be dealing with Factory Striders, Gunships, or Hulks at level 4 (I think Hulks will spawn at 4, but they’re scarce). I’d recommend swapping the AC for a shield generator backpack instead, as this will make better use of your available strategem slots for this difficulty. If you’re using the AC for bot fabricators, those can be easily dealt with by using Eagle airstrikes or the grenade pistol.
I’d also consider replacing the orbital laser, as well. You only get 3 per mission, and there’s a pretty good cooldown between uses, so chances are you likely end up saving them for “when you really need it”, and end up finishing the mission without using it hardly at all. I’d switch this one out for a different support weapon; I suggest the laser cannon, but any non-backpack support weapon will be a good use of this strategem slot, IMO. Alternatively, you could also go without any support weapon at all, and pick one up off the ground or a dead teammate. At Difficulty 4, you can do a surprising amount with just your primary and strategems, so you could also consider swapping this for something like orbital gas or even just a precision strike.
I feel like these mixups to your loadout will offer you a lot more flexibility to your missions, while allowing you to secure objectives safely and keeping your teammates safe.