Right now it is improperly designed because it is based around the game's current statistics, most of which are far off from the values they should be. The weapon is using an improper lock-on for its firing mode and also improperly kills infantry regardless of where on their hit-box it hits them.
I don't see how its AV function is affected by that at all. I can hit moving Rhino easily with the lock-on.
In the tabletop game, if you were allowed to switch your Devastators' lascannons to heavy bolters, plasma cannons and such in the middle of the game, wouldn't that be something most players would do after they ran out of vehicles to kill? Fair point, that was a bad argument. A better argument for me to use would be that the lock-on requirement (which apparently has some bugs which need to be fixed) was introduced specifically to make it hard to shoot infantry with the lascannon as a game mechanic. Game mechanics don't always follow the lore exactly. Also, some of the books apparently have lasguns (not lascannons, lasguns, the standard armament of Imperial Guard infantry) able to be overcharged to blast through Astartes power armor. Other books have lasguns that plink off the armor by the hundreds. Point is, the books are written by a plethora of different authors and the last I heard about GW's opinion on what's canon and what's not canon is that players can pick and choose from the different books and stories what they want to view as canon.
Great idea to end all discussions!!! We Take the lascannon, and turn it into that beam weapon in DoW3 version of the LC. Its damage increases over time, so tanks get slaughtered and people just have to dodge a laser light show. =) (jk)
I don't understand why the lascannon has to be a strictly AV weapon and I do not understand why many posters feel that the lascannon being an AV weapon is canon. Lascannons are also good for terminators and monstrous creatures. The lascannon is a heavy weapon. Heavy weapons are supposed to be powerful. I'm sorry that the devs cannot think of some creative way to make the game more lore based by limiting heavy weapons while keeping their potential. The lascannon as of now is horrible. I feel ripped off when I use it. Compare the lascannon to the plasma cannon and the lascannon is a horrible one trick pony. Why can't they use the same mechanic for the lascannon as they do the plasma cannon? Who cares about the sniping. That is a lame argument, the plasma cannon is a one hit death with an AOE. The way they treat the lascannon they should just yank it from the game. It is really only good for Harkus.
against chaos mon it seems to take two full charges or one over charge which is weird, but against the rest they all die!!! I do find it weird that people would rather be dieing by PC and seem to hate the idea of the lascannon being able to kill people. The PC just takes practice before it becomes an AoE sniper. And since the PC does well against vehicles it almost negates the necessity of the LC. Remove the lock-on, require a longer charge and CD with more damage to make up for the charge up for vehicles, and the LC will still be AV but will allow for fighting infantry. The charge up will allow them to roll away or run behind a wall while the CD will allow the people attacking the LC to get up to or shoot up the LC. But till then, i will use the one shot one kill plasma cannon( the over charge does not require a direct hit btw). All those against getting rid of the auto-lock, i will meet your melted remains from my one shot PC on the battlefield!!! P.S. if you havent noticed, i just named a weapon one shotting and sniping people that we have right now, so the LC not having Lock-on will make little difference on the battlefield. P.P.S. Thank you @Nobb_of_Waaagh for opening my eyes.
You could hit a moving Rhino easily with delayed fire where the reticle locks in place with a targeting laser displayed before firing. The former are Hot-Shot Lasguns or Hellguns that are much more powerful than the standard Lasgun, which is the typical plink-pew-pew weapon that removes the paint from Astartes Armour. The LC should have a short delay(I.E. 0.5-sec) before firing, during which time the reticle would lock in place and a targeting laser would appear. In addition to needing to recharge(I.E. 1-sec) between each shot it would also generate heat, which could cause it to overheat if fired too often within a certain period of time. As far as the PC goes, it should require 2 direct Charge Shot hits in order to Down a C/SM and it should take ~0.5-sec to charge a shot, giving it a 1-sec TTK. Basic Shots should need 4 direct hits so with a fire rate of 0.35-sec would have a 1.05-sec TTK.
