I would prefer if they made several patterns of the Plasma Gun and Plasma Cannon, though followers of this are far and few in between. This is just an outcast, but it should decently explain my idea Plasma Gun Pattern 1: - Semi-Auto with Charged Shot - Low RoF - Medium to High Damage - High Penetration - Slow to overheat Plasma Gun Pattern 2: - Semi-Auto with Charged Shot (will deal lower damage as a result of the lowered base damage) - Full-Auto - Medium RoF (slower than a stock Bolter) - Low to Medium Damage - Medium to High Penetration - Relatively fast to overheat - Slightly more expensive to field, due to this Pattern being less used. - Maybe it should be exclusive to the Loyalists, to show that Plasma Weapons are more common? Plasma Cannon Pattern 1 (Anti-Heavy Armour and Anti-Vehicle): - Semi-Auto with Charged Shot - High Damage - High Penetration Plasma Cannon Pattern 2 (Anti-Infantry / Anti-"Massed Infantry"): - Semi-Auto (High Damage, Medium Penetration) - Mortar Mode (Large AoE, High Damage near the impact area, relatively Low Penetration)
I'm pretty sure there are going to be multiple variations of each weapon. Just how drastic these changes will be, I do not know.
Point is though a plasma weapon shouldn't have a higher or same'ish rof than the bolter no matter what variation imo. The PG just is too powerful right now imo but not because how powerful each shot is, the damage per shot should be high, but because how fast it fires. The only reason it's not as much used is because the visual clutter it causes on firing makes it harder to aim I think - well and people probably like the iconic Bolter.
It's strange but the Plasma Weapons in the game aren't reflecting what I was thinking about them. I always thought that plasma weapons needed to be carefully handled because you had to watch the overheating AND the Plasma Coil's Charge. I like the Heavy Plasma Gun, even if (from my point of view) it pretty limited depending of the Maps. For the Plasma Gun (Tactical one), it's... weird, definitly not what I was thinking about plasma weapons. Plama weapons aren't supposed to be insanely dangerous for the user as well as for the target?
If it had been anyone else, I would've believed them, but seeing as this is coming from you Bladerunner... It is. Also, saying that topics like this aren't "______", usually means that they are. Still, I guess we needed some forum whine to go with all that Plasma Cheese
Plasma Guns aren't really fragile and most of them are ancient (for a weapon at least), the person who wields the weapon is often a bit more fragile though, especially if they do not have a Power Armour. The Mechanicus essentially made it so that the weapon would vent the most efficient way in case of a critical overheat, regardless of whether or not the wielder would survive the experience. Also, a Plasma Gun is more costly than an Imperial Guardsman and the Space Marines can take a bit of plasma, so there are no need to fix this.
The plasma cannon from the last patch was one of the worst weapons I have encountered in a game for quite a while. It was useful at all ranges, did almost as much damage as the lascannon but could be charged on the move, and it had splash damage. I probably died more to this ranged weapon than bolters because of people who would sit on a tower and lob balls into combat rather than play the game. Quite frankly, I still don't understand what they want this weapon to be because it outperforms the lascannon in every regard. It also allows for high reward low risk game play which is always a terrible place for a weapon to be in.
After playing some games with the new plasma cannon i have to say its better now. Its much harder, but you still get insta kills if your aim is good and they feel much more earned right now. Its not a "shoot somehwere, score anyway" weapon any more, but actually something you have to get really good at. Even if you get blasted away by it, you feel like your enemy was just plain better or you made a mistake, not like before. I have to say, i start to like these changes, hope they stay!
I haven't had a chance to hop on this week yet, so my opinions are based solely on what I've heard. And this is just my personal opinion. As of patch 16, the plasma cannon was still a major pain. That being said, I don't think damage or aoe radius was inherently the issue. I'd rather see the patch 16 PC with a longer charge time to make it harder to just spam these group insta-killing charged shots. If necessary, I'd be fine with it seeing a buff to anti-vehicle effectiveness so that it's average dps vs vehicles saw no net change.
I don't think the nerf should have been done like this. I would rather see plasma weapons detonating when you abuse the overheat mechanic before we start touching the stats of the weapons themselves.
