Good god what happened to this bloody Lascannon thread Canon debate ... Can't we just get a bbcode smiley that auto-links to Gav Thorpe or Marc Gascoigne's quotes on GW canon already Anyway, was thinking about the Lascannon and how it's portrayed in the novel Void Stalker with enormous recoil and the firer having to brace themselves to absorb the punch. I don't know why Laser tech would have recoil but: That. Add that. If a Dev/Havoc is camping a spot then they DO deserve to have total dominance on their FoV, although adding recoil to break their shots would be nice as well. Rather than having zero-potential for sniping I mostly just hate the idea of them moving around with a Lascannon as if it weren't a weighty weapon with a generous kick even for an Astartes in powered armor (Sar Zell must have been a wimp). If anything a combination of: Sluggish movement of the bearer (similar to the Terminator's 'average-speed low-acceleration' mechanic, not as drastic). Preventing them from ever firing while moving. Having their 1st-person zoom thrown off at a random angle after firing. Even 5°-ish. The 4 round clip size. 5 second reload. And the 2.5 sec firing cycle (not counting the time to reacquire the target after recoil distortion ^). Plus: Leaving fat-arse streaks of bright plasma trails from your kill all the way back, advertising your position like a neon-red magnet of impending doom While balancing let them be the best turret-class build the L/CSMs can access, where the MM Dev/Havoc should be all about fleet movement and responsive play (before actually firing it that is. Yeah yeah, I read the MM thread). But you want to make sure that sniping basic classes with the damn things, while possible, is so ill-advised that the THQ:SM abomination of a Lascannon never rears it's ugly head and like TT should only be attempted if their aren't multi-wound Heroes and hull points to obliterate.
Honestly, the way I see it the lascannon is best seen as the equivalent of a heavy missile launcher such as the Javelin (minus the lock-on capability, but against a tank-sized target hitscan is close enough). It hits like a truck, but you really can't sustain fire with it and simply don't have the ammo to engage a large number of targets. Though this does raise the question of how they plan to handle the actual missile launcher, which is usually weaker than the Lascannon in exchange for the versatility of switching between frag and krak rounds.
Nice, that's a good comparison of purpose, adding to it that there is no travel time. It's not a 'Sniper' weapon it's a 'Vehicle Sniper' weapon I'm sure MLs deserve their own thread but ... oh well: Neither missile varieties should feature the pin-point accuracy, instant hit (where Krak has travel TTT) and the sheer damage of the Lascannon. Once you say that a Lascannon round will annihilate the average base class you only need to worry about balancing the heavy weapon stuff against Elites, Heroes and Vehicles (I expect Heroes get Iron Halos and Termies get inv saves) so Las>Krak and Plasma>Frag is not too hard of a balance rule to follow. Talking vehicles I still expect a full MM burst, at optimum range, should burn through a Rhino/Trukk in one shot, so if Las has a 2-hit kill then Krak should probably take 2-3 rounds with some RNG. TT AP matchup and all that . That said, as a trade off the ML has the tactical advantages of: Adapting to anti-personnel and anti-vehicle encounters (come oooon Flakk missiles). This should probably definitely require a reload when swapping. mid-range balance between the extreme long range of the Las and the "mid-range burny:short-range BURNY!" mechanic of the MM. Probably some template-style blast radius, at least for Frag. I'd have one for Krak too although it should be a 1/4 the size at most. More mobility than a Lascannon, following on from my suggestion previously that the Las is heavier than t-rex balls even for Power Armor. Freely fire on the move, with the usual decreased accuracy that results in of course. Really for me, and this is probably just me, I feel like more serious armor (like the Predator) should grow exponentially more resilient as you move away from AP:1&2 weapons, to the point where Krak(3) and HB/AC(4) are slow to cause significant hurts. I get that dulls the ML's comparability to something like a modern SMAW; as an MBT killer, but we don't have Landraider or Leman Russ front armor ORLas/Melta tech in 2014. It's not without purpose or functionality in the AV role though, probably will be the heavy weapon of choice vs Ork vehicles, especially with adaptability for anti-horde rushes. It makes me wonder whether bE will adopt the single-round ML of the LSMs or the Havoc-style launcher with the built in magazine. Seems like an area of issue. Though on the anti-personnel side (last thing I promise) I think having the Frag inflicting more damage at the blast center (say 100% within 10% of the epicenter and 10% at the edges) while the Plasmacannon bolt gives 100% of it's damage within it's entire radius (with considerable armor/shield negation). Would love to see Plasmacannons have a short-lived, ground-target AoE DOT-effect that ignores most of whatever resilience armor provides, in addition to the initial blast strength, at the cost of Gets Hot, but that's for another overly long-winded off topic post
The Krak Missile is the 40k version of the modern RPG warhead. It even works in a similar way, using a shaped charge to blast super-heated molten metal through armour, it even has a similar shape. Though the materials and explosives are probably different. But still, you'd feel the blast wave from its detonation. I'm a yes for knock-back mechanics!
