To preface this, the plasma gun is in a pretty good place right now, but there are a couple of interactions with veteran talents that don’t quite seem to perform as well as they say they should.
First of all, Survivalist only refunds the 1% of the reserve ammo of the gun, not the total ammo. Meaning that every proc kill nets you 1 ammo, or 1/3rd of a shot, and 2/3rds of a shot every 4 kills or so on a plasma gun with 125/125 ammo. Whereas if the talent worked as described, you would be getting 2 ammo on kill and 3 ammo (or 2/3rd and 1 shot) every other kill. This is incredibly inefficient even when compared to a bolter, which will give you 3 shots every 4 kills with the same passive.
The other talent that interacts poorly with plasma is “Always Prepared.” The 25% ammo capacity is, once again, only applied to the reserve ammo and not the total ammo. Meaning you get about 30 ammo or 10 uncharged shots where, if this was applied to the total, you would get 20. I believe this is the case with all guns, but it is more noticeable on plasma.
Mind you, I’m fine with a bit of a challenge and managing when to use it vs not, but I do feel like an ammo hog with this gun in particular which may impact the experience of those I’m playing with. When my squad has 2 psykers I’m always overjoyed that I won’t have to worry about it as much. I’m sure there’s a case for it not being an ammo efficient gun because of its high damage, but the way these two perks interact with it have got my OCD ticking.
Anyway, thanks for attending my Ted Talk. I’m really enjoying the content that has been put out lately. Keep up the good work, Fatshark.