Here's my professional observations on the melta thus far: Pros: -Deceptively long range -Pretty simple to use -Looks cool as fuck -You get a lot of killy power before it overheats -Has overtaken the stormbolter as CQC weapon of choice, does too much damage to infantry right now -Blinds the shit out of targets -Great for dealing with pretty much any class -It's a real dickish and rage inducing weapon, losing a duel only to watch them die to the burn is hilarious, and it blinds the shit out of everyone, everywhere, when used in large numbers. Neutral: -Single meltagun does not work fast on vehicles at all, two meltas takes them down in good time, three+ shits on vehicles. I'd imagine once terminators and dreads get in, three man melta hit squads will be the norm for dealing with them. -The visual is pretty overwhelming, might need to be toned down. -Turns many duels into stalemates (Both people get downed) Cons: -It's still a short range weapon, stay indoors -You need to focus one target at a time. Spray a crowd, and you might as well be healing them for all the damage you did -People with bad computers are likely going to have a bad even worse time with this being used in numbers -It's a real dickish and rage inducing weapon, killing someone first or outskilling them only to be killed by the dot is silly, and also infuriating. The blinding is going to be a big topic of complaint as well.
I agree with those points, very good ideas. I was also thinking that instead of a wind up time the heat build up could take longer to accumulate. That way it's less effective at dealing with fast moving foot soldiers and more focused on non moving/ slower moving vehicles. Although your idea of having a wind up time would do the same thing. I've messed around with the Melta myself and my new anti vehicle loadout is a tactical SM with Melta gun and melta grenade. The combo is super effective, just toss your melta grenade on a rhino, go to the other side of it and let loose, the meta grenade will take out half the rhinos health and the melta gun will take out the rest.
An idea for the DoT effect. It could be changed so that it only takes out shields, which vehicles seem to have now, the burn effect would also keep the shields down to make it easier to take vehicles out. For infantry battles having the DoT only effect shields would prevent players dying from burn damage. The melta guns base damage would still obviously do damage to your health though.
Haven't tried the storm bolter except on vehicles honestly. Is it similar to Space marine? Also regarding the melta, maybe instead of the flameresque mechanic it has: a start up delay for first and subsequent shots, a no lockon targeted beam mechanic (think sorcerer style effect), and the ability to one shot if the beam is landed x% (enough to reward efficient melta gunners). Not sure how slowing it down to reward efficient infantry shooting would make it worse vs. Vehicles/fortification...if the devs can tune resistacne types they could make melta nasty.
The range is too long. You can use the cheesy old school side to side strafing from shooters "back in the day" and AOE everything in front of you without even really aiming. I was hoping it would be strictly an anti armor, anti monstrous creature, super heavy unit killer like it is in TT and the Lore. While there are indeed instances in the lore of the Melta being used as anti infantry it's usually not used extensively in an anti infantry role because it tends to get really hot really fast. That and it explodes in your face quite often and doesn't have an endless source of ammo. The impression I always get from reading about Melta use in the novels is you want to save it for when you really, really, REALLY need it versus a Terminator, Carnifex, Baneblade, Landraider, Dreadnaught, Meganob, Daemon Prince, monstrous creature of the warp. What we have currently is a flamer with seemingly endless ammo for all intents and purposes. It's being used 90% of the time as a flamer versus hordes of enemy infantry, not quite it's intended purpose. I have some ideas on how we could tone down it's overuse while keeping the concept Nathan spoke of, as far as implementing it like the "blowtorch" Nathan described according to GW's description of how it's supposed to work. Keep in mind these type weapons are designed to take down Monstrous Creatures, Super Heavy tanks, Meganobz, Carnifex, Landraider, Dreadnoughts, Daemon Prince, Baneblade. As in something so big and heavy and SLOW it's not moving and reacting fast like infantry in EC. 1. Requires a charge up, like the Lascannon, and an armored target like the lascannon. 2. Fires the blowtorch in a 2 to 5 second burst and is VERY unwieldy when firing so the user can barely hold it on a target in a straight line in front of them. No more of this spraying the whole darned room 180 degrees in front of the use back and forth back and forth like it's a flamer. 3. After each burst of blowtorch fire it's really freaking hot! Really freaking hot to the point it might damage users armor a bit. Takes a good long while to cool down before the user can fire it again.
And what is the point of having it then? Why would anyone use Melta when Lascannon works the same way except you can use it from across the map instead of going near the enemy vehicle. It needs to be effective against infantry otherwise it's entirely pointless. I do think that range should be nerfed a bit, and perhaps they should greatly decrease mouse sensitivity when you use it so you can't easily track a running enemy or change targets without letting go of the trigger.
Point of it is you can equip it on your tactical. You have the mobility of a Tactical. You can use that mobility to get in nice and close to your target, having your other squad mates keeping enemy infantry off of you while you focus on that Monstrous Creature, that Terminator, that Landraider.
So you can have a mobility of tactical to get close while you squad mates have to protect you, or you can snipe it from another end of the map with a Lascannon while your squad mates do something else.
We've been playing 3 maps and have seen a tiny portion of the game world we'll be discovering. You're assuming that in every situation where you need to take down an enemy super heavy unit, that super heavy will be able to be seen from across the map. The current Melta is being used as a flamer from TT and the lore for all intents and purposes. It's better than the shotgun antics we saw in THQs Space Marine though it needs a few tweaks in order to see it's full potential as a killer of super heavy type units rather being used as an anti horde weapon, which again, is the job of the flamer. And I totally agree with you on the point that the Melta is filling a role that's already being filled by the Lascannon. It's redundant at this point and total overkill because we only have Rhino and Predator and there are currently 13 different methods of disposing with those vehicles.
I always expected Melta to be the opposite of Plasma Gun. It's great against vehicles but can still threated infantry. Right now it doesn't fulfil this role, but your suggestion is to basically turn it into a short-range Lascannon that can destroy vehicles quickly but is pretty much useless against infantry. And even if you won't be able to see enemy vehicles from across the map, Melta will hardly be better. The mobility of Tactical is rather negligible, and if your squad mates cover you then Lascannon will still be better, since you can use it on both the long range and short ranges, while Melta is stricktly short-range.
