I just got my first Plasma Gun at level 27 and tried it.
Im severly disappointed by it.
It looks nice, it sounds nice, it feels strong…but it isnt.
Everything it can do, my starter Lasgun can do better.
It is not reliable against Monsters at all because it is too slow and overheats too fast, which means you need to switch to Melee.
Using it against Specials is not worth it, because most of them are dead too fast anyway. Either because a Psyker popped the head, or because someone else simply shot them.
Using it at longer range is also not possible due to the charge, the projectile speed, and the projectile size. You can only pray that you hit the intended Target.
It doesnt even deal splash Damage, which would be kinda great to have and would give it a better use against regular Enemies.
The only Enemies it is good against are the fully armoured ones, and they are not common enough to justify dropping your only ranged Weapon. So it needs some love in my opinion. Currently i cant see a reason why i should choose it over any other Weapon, especially the high damage, high ammo Las Rifles, or even the Boltgun.
So basically the rest of the Team misses out on one ranged Fighter. And if they can carry the Plasma Gunner through the Mission, i bet they can deal with a few armoured Enemies too and dont have to wait for the Plasma Player to do the only thing this Weapon is good at.
Seriously?? I have been grinding nonstop for the plasma gun and its like this? The plasma gun should be way more powerful given how hard it is just to UNLOCK it
Yea, having heat and charge time is already a massive downside on force staves, but that heat vents quick and doesn’t hurt you. The plasma gun would have to be obscenely strong to be worth using.
I think the plasma gun could do with having more splash damge, the piercing damage is good though. But it definitely shouldn’t harm you for venting if you’re not gonna have that mechanic on the psyker.
Visually it should also do SOMETHING rather than NOTHING. Lasguns leave burn marks on the enemies, boltguns literally explodes their heads and dismember their bodies. I couldn’t have been more letdown by the visual effects of the plasma gun cause there aren’t any.
Both of that you can find on the Boltgun. With more Ammo too, no Overheat, and still slow but a lot faster Reload. It can Aim too for precise sniper hits.
I agree with the Venting. It shouldnt cause damage.
Overall i feel like the Gun should not use both mechanics, Ammo and Heat. It should use only Heat for reload.
Maybe instead of having the Heat-Venting as special, that could be moved to Reloading.
As Special, a Grenade-Like splash Projectile could be neat.
Normal Fire = Armor Piercing shot.
Charged Fire = Penetrating shot
Special Fire = Lobbed Plasma Grenade
The Heat-Venting makes less and less sense now.
When you reload the Weapon, you cool down to 0 without taking Damage.
Reloading takes roughly the same time as venting from near max.
If you additionally take the Reload-Feats, you reload a lot faster.
well, plasma guns shouldnt really deal a whole lot of splash… more like a little splash and burn through everything
unless you overcharge them… at which point the massive boom can happen at either end
if the plasma gun is this underwhelming, i hope it gets tweaked… my expectation was high damage single shots until it overheats for a while… unless you waste the whole heat cap on a single overcharge shot…
guess now i dont have to rush to unlock it…
yeah, thats the only thing it does. agaisnt anything else, it is inferior to any other weapon.
unless there is a mode where only heavies spawn, it has no real gameplay use
Mine needs two full charges to kill a crusher. After those two you need to reload. One might think that “sustained fire” would soften that problem, but it doesnt vent the gun.
So all you do is kill one crusher every 10 to 15 seconds. Thats just horrible.
“The bigger they are …” Boosts the damage to close to one charge on a crusher, but you lose out on the “Sustained Fire” convenience, or “Counterfire” that allows you to keep up Volley indefinitely. (A Plasma Rifle with the proper rolls might be able to oneshit a crusher, but that is kind of not important since its just not something one can hope to get a hold of.)
The Plasma Rifle right now is utter garbage. I don’t know why we are able to pull it out quickly. I don’t understand why it takes 40% heat for a full charge that doesnt even kill a crusher to the head. I don’t know why anyone would take this thing over an XII, or the Bolter.
Fatshark should at least give plasmagun targets blue goo that some of the psyker staffs leave on enemies. it already looks like searing blue plasma, why not reuse it for weapon that literally shoots searing blue plasma?
I tried it in a few Missions now, tried to build for reload speed to optimize my Overheat…
yeah…it just doesnt get better.
It cant clear hordes. Yes, it penetrates deep, kills multiple targets…but only in a straight line, similar to the Psykers Void Staff.
The difference is, that Plasma uses Heat and Ammo, is slow, and cant switch to a fast firemode like the Void Staff. So, the penetration is absolutely misplaced on this Weapon.
The only place where it shines at is killing Ogryns. Just not the one with the Shield. Not even Plasma can melt through it.
You can make it work with the 20% Reload Feat and the On-Elite-Kill one.
But as far as i know neither the Ogryn nor the Mauler is considered an Elite.
Not to mention that Elite can be killed with just a few Lasgun hits.
Yep, everything the Plasma can do, another Weapon can do better.
Hordekill? Bolter.
Punch-Through? Void Staff (not on Vet, but the Effect is kinda the same, it just does not overheat and does not need a long reload. And it has infinite Ammo)
Plasma gun could do with some nice damage buffs. What would also be cool is if the damage scaled with heat level, the hotter the gun the more damage it does. It would also add an element of gameplay around playing around high heat to take down harder targets to kill.
Would also be cool if the right mouse secondary attack charged up and did an aoe attack. Like a smaller version of how plasma cannons fire. Increases heat by a ton but also allows an aoe attack, which would massively help with plasma guns ability to help with groups of mobs.
