You need a direct hit with the PC to get a kill, the surrounding explosion won't kill you unless you have weak armour or a Warlock or something. The kannons damage is the same where no matter where abouts the blast hits you, it what make the kannon so good it can insta kill you from around corners and there is literally no way for you to survive the blast even with a vet, you also can dodge the rocket whereas you can see a ball of plasma coming from a mile away.

The only advantage the PC has is its snap fire function which works pretty well sometimes.

That is part of the Asymmetrical balance of the game. The alt fires of both guns are different. The problem is before you could reload it while braced almost no one used the Kannon so its room sweep ability wasn't as well known as the original PC, but now that its known its been looked at by the devs and changed to be brought more in line with but still have a bit of difference from the LSM/CSM weapon.

If you feel exposed using a kannon, then I wager you are not using it right, the kannon excels at defending on fortress maps where you have good elevation and you can literally rain instadeath down on the enemy from a distance they can't retaliate or even dodge.

And who cares about it's capacity as a defensive tool really? You don't take a Plasma Cannon as a defensive weapon in organized and competitive play. You take it precisely for that niche, you take it as an offensive area denial tool, that's it's job, and that's why you should field them. Niche is not weak either, it's not even average, a plasma cannon or a kannon deffgun shouldn't have to defend itself because it's got other people backing it up, it's a bloody heavy weapon.

Nor did I take an old MoN GA to do firefights or heavy weapons area denial, I used him to linebreak, I used him to cap points, he did his role but he did his role way too well.

Aoe shot on the PC stuns you and leaves you easy prey for a followup snap shot. Or even another charged shot a second later. Or you can fire a charged shot, do a short vent by tapping R and then fire 2 more charged shots. The Kannon takes 2.5 seconds to reload and 2.75 (2.5 for MC, Tooltip is wrong) to fire.

And kills the target instantly, which is much more valuable in most combat situations.

If you want snap shot, or lower reload in compensation, then by all means I encourage the Devs to go ahead and do that, strap a big shoota to the side or something, whatever. But it's current role as an instant ragdoll sphere of death is too strong for a game with a ticket system or such a heavy emphasis on entrenching and protecting each other for the sake of teamplay.

You can't rain anything on anyone with a reload as long as the Kannon's. There are also a limited number of elevated areas and on most fortress maps they don't give a good enough vantage point to be worth using for extended periods. The enemy can literally dodge roll to avoid taking damage.

So the game is to balanced around competitive and organised play? Then in that case it shouldn't be getting a nerf because it is so easily countered any clan that struggles to do so should probably stop playing.

I am not sure what you mean with the first point, but if you a defending on any fortress map there are loads of elevated places for a kannon to shoot from, also you can't dodge a kannon rocket because they move too fast and the projectile is so small/ doesn't exist and you can't dodge what you don't see coming.

You can't see it coming from miles away when you know its going to be from an elevated position? Sucks to be you I guess? My first point is simple, the Kannon takes so long to reload I'd hardly call it able to "rain" anything on anyone.

How come there can be 40 "nerf kannon" threads, but melta bomb threads get locked instantly?

Asking for a friend.