This thread will die when Lock-on will be removed As already been said despite your bias it's not matter of snipering it's matter of viability of Lascannon againts something else than vehicle. Yeah, no. Just go away since there is no arguments from your side.
A lot of the "viability" issue can, and probably would, be resolved by giving Devastators their Bolt Pistols. Worst case, if the pistol solves nothing, perhaps adding a Lascannon variant or mod that doesn't need a lock-on but has some heavy drawbacks. Something like; longer charge and immobile while charging, while still not being able to hold a charged shot indefinitely, which would stop 'pop out' attacks from around corners.
It's not about class viability but about weapon's. Just example Dev/Hav(with lascannon) agains anyone(melee) range one mile. What table top and lore says - that dev/hav has chance against that melee especially before melee reaches him. But in game this is impossible because of lock-on. Lock-on does not preserve balance but breaks it, "balance" means that any build is viable to some extent and lascannon loadout is out of range of that extent.
The lock on also makes hitting vehicles pretty difficult. If your laser target moves off the vehicle then you can't fire and have to start over. This is pretty easy to do especially if they are moving, one bounce, sudden stop, pass by a narrow wall, etc and your shot is ruined. I'd gladly trade no lock on for a reduction in ammo. Not like most people will ever get 30 shots of anyways.
I agree completely. While the lascannon isn't a sniper weapon per se, there is no reason why it can't be used as one. It is a long range, very accurate, very powerful weapon. It can (and should) be used at long ranges against heavy infantry. I know its not its intended purpose but it can take on that role. I mean, it's more like an actual canon mounted on top of a Space Marine. So why not? Balancing it with this silly lock-on is just lazy and boring game design. The drawbacks should be that it has a very slow ROF, it encumbers you a lot, also its low ammo count. But not this lock-on crap.
You deal with that fact that I and a lot of other people are disgruntled with the awful lock-on mechanic on the lascannon, which is doubled by the fact that the lascannon mechanic affects literally every faction so far except the eldar, which time and time again YOU have been biased towards.
The Lascannon should have a brief delay(I.E. 0.5 to 0.75-sec) before firing. During this time a targeting laser should appear to warn any possible targets and either the reticle should lock in place or the character model's tracking rate should be reduced. The Lascannon should generate heat with each shot so that if fired too often within a certain period of time it has to cooldown. The Lascannon's damage should be reduced overall, for example taking 5 shots to destroy a Rhino from behind, 6 from the sides/front, being able to 1HK a full Armor/HP Marine with a HEAD SHOT and Downing them with a Body Shot. If the Marine's Armor/HP was low a Body Shot could 1HK. Each shot made against infantry not only takes time due to the delay, shot discharge and recharge but also generates heat, which could make you overheat when firing at an enemy vehicle and give them time to reach cover for repairs. So, you are best off focusing your efforts on taking out enemy vehicles but can still provide allies some assistance even if there are no vehicles in sight, being a bit more helpful against Elites/Heroes that could be slower and/or bigger than the base classes(I.E. Terminators, Nobz).
I disagree with the overheat mechanic: in the fluff each shot is powerful enough to overheat the weapon and ask for powercell replacement and barrel's cooldown. it'd be better to limit its infantry killing ability through time between shots (before and after firing) rather than the strength of them, I say.
Lascannons that are not connected to an external power source need removable charge packs a.k.a. batteries to fire. One shot consumes one charge pack which must then be replaced. The whole thing looks similar to breach-loading artillery guns, but instead of a shell you load a new battery, all this being very true to the Imperial Guard's style. Space Marine Lascannons are connected to that big backpack you see, which holds enough charge for several shots (maybe it is a capacitor for their Power Armor's power supply?) so you don't need to swap anything. But you make a good point in that the barrel is easily worn out by shooting and needs to be periodically replaced. This could be translated into a nice game mechanic where after each shot you lose accuracy, this would have a cumulative effect, so after 10 shots you couldn't hit jack shit. This could be "repaired" by repair kits that would represent changing the weapon's barrel. And this, combined with a lower ammo count (say, 10 shots max?) would foster teamplay, requiring the squad to carry a lot of ammo and repair kits if they want the lascannon to keep blasting.
Decided to 'try' and use the Lascannon after reading this. yeh its useless. does about 7-10% damage to a tank per shot. about 7 seconds between shots. so going to take over a minute to kill a tank, when also dealing with that lock on feature, and other player trying to murder you. In TT i take LC to take out heavy units, and tanks. Remove that lock on feature, and give it a damage buff to vehicles. They are meant to shred tanks easily. Another reason people use PF's, its a lot easier to kill tanks with it, then the LC.
