Plasma Gun no damage taken when cooling

I really really want to use the Plasma Gun, but theres is just too many cons in using it, It’s extremely rare for me to see someone using it, i could actually say its about less than 10 people, and i’m 345.7 hours into the game as of this moment. I think though reloading cools the plasma gun down completely the reload time take too long even with the reloading buffs, when you consider Heat build up is just too fast. I’d prefer Venting the plasma gun to cool but it takes damage and i need to vent it frequently. I believe more people would opt to use plasma guns if the damage when venting is removed. Please consider. I think doing a patch. and see how people respond to it would be worth the try. Thank you.

They’re pretty dependent on good mod rolls. They do alright burst damage to single targets even with whatever bs rolls, but when their charge rate and cooling mods are near max it’s another story. They can function as a solid DMR with lack of recoil and pin point accuracy. If you line up your shots to kill multiple enemies per trigger pull it’s even better.

Venting shouldn’t be needed very often, I only do it in tense situations where the team isn’t clearing the fight fast. Even when venting does come up, the HP loss isn’t too bad.

It’s a weapon that you need to know going in that you won’t be able to lay down on the trigger non-stop.

I have a really good plasma gun with near 500 rating and great mods, perks and blessings. what I mean is on Damnation and/or Hi-Intensity Special Conditions there just too many Elites and Specials spawning that’s your job to deal with. reloading takes too much time for cooling, and being already under fire so having the venting damage isn’t really appealing.

I like everything about it except the hp loss when venting.

I’ve used it every now and then, but the plasma gun right now feels like it counters the veteran’s whole purpose by having a lot of downtime from your gun, when your main ability is all about using your gun. I agree that using plasma you shouldn’t be laying down on the trigger non stop like its a recon lasgun, but i think its worth a try to remove hp loss part and see how it feels and if it appeals to more people. That’s all i’m saying.

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One thing that’s been mentioned in a lot of Plasma Gun threads (which I think is a fair point) is that Plasma Gun shouldn’t be the only ranged enemy eliminator on the team. If someone else has an MG XII, then yeah, why not, but one Plasma Gun alone can get overwhelmed on Damnation for sure.

I think out of the perk choices Camo Expert synergizes with the Plasma Guns ponderous optimal fire pattern, which also helps reduce the intensity of vent damage.

Yeah, Plasma in Damnation isn’t working because I would need to take out as many gunners and reapers as i can as fast as i can, so they don’t just beam down the frontliners to oblivion.

Camo Expert reduces vent damage taken? serious? or is it because aggro isn’t on you that you have more room and time to have the gun cooldown by itself in-turn not having the need to actively vent it yourself and take the damage?

That and if you’re getting shot at less if you DO have to take vent damage it won’t add up with as much incoming enemy fire, especially if you start by shooting the people aiming at you first when room clearing.

I love the gun but won’t use it out side of malice anymore.

Its a ton of fun especially with the instant reload feat but you will need to vent when your in long drawn out fights.

I take like 50 points of hp damage from it between med stations every time I use it since I enjoy the spam in malice.

When in heresy your team needs every med station you can find so burning all my hp goes from fun to griefing my team.

If I don’t burn all my health off in fights I can’t fight the even larger amount of special and gunner spawns that heresy pumps out.

If I don’t want to just meta the K2 in high difficulty I will use helbore bolter or braced.

I got a good one from the Emperor and used it a while. The thing hit insanely hard and cuts down huge groups, but overall I find the kantrael offerings are just more versatile. The XII hits hard and repeats fast, and the IV is almost full auto if you run a mouse button for that.

The plasma gun is good though. I’ve seen a few people who really like it, but it’s repeat is so slow and it’s mad ammo hungry. When I was after “every shot count” I used it because it had the least ammo in the game if you did all charged shots, and some AOE if you weren’t dead on. Got fairly decent, but the limit was 3 shots before exploding. (Or was on mine.)

That said, if you run the top option for your ult, the one that reloads, you can skip half a reload animation by reloading, (mainly to vent) then as soon as you hit zero, ult, and you’re reloaded and ready to shoot.

Would you be so kind and show me please? A run maybe, or just a clip?

I got a 476 Base Plasma Gun. I need three shots outside of Volley Fire for a single Rager. Two with Volley Fire. Thats two to four Ragers before a full vent is needed. Oh. The Plasma cant penetrate Ragers and some other elites either. You can partially vent and shoot another one after a moment, but repeating that eats health faster than a Ragers face massage.

Two shots for a Rager during Volley sound okay, but there is a nice chance that the second hit will not kill the Rager, because someone else took care of it, killing your Volley uptime alongside the Rager, which puts you at the three shots to kill a Rager situation.

When there are groups of eight to twelve of them running towards you with a bunch of other stuff in between there is no gun that is worse than the Plasma right now. Those groups are a staple of Damnation atm.

The only special that gets onshot by the PG is the sniper. Even a measly Flamer needs three to four blasts and there is never just a Flamer to take care of.

And ontop of all that, the PG absolutely sucks against huge shooter groups, which are absolutely everywhere. IF the PG would be able to deal with Elites and specials properly and more efficiently than the other guns available to Vet, that would be tolerable, but its just not the case.

The PG does not hit hard and requires another round of touching to be the tool it needs to be. Change the charge to not use extra heat, so the charge time itself is the cost(, right now the charge is always the wrong choice), or reduce/change the venting, so low heat venting actually does something.

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Well, I could, but I think from the rest of your post you’re both playing a lever higher and using it another way. I mostly used it on heresy and found I could play to it’s strengths pretty well.

I’ve gotten single hits of 1556 out of the thing in meat grinder, and shot for shot I don’t think there’s any other single shot in the game to match, but sustained fire it’ll be out competed. Ranged vs heavy armor targets like the mauler or the crusher it’s top end. I doubt that’s something you’ll have trouble replicating.

For trash and medium enemy groups, it gives quite effective linear AOE and personally, I love linear AOE and I’m pretty good at making use of it. When I was using it the most I was after “Make Every Shot Count” and would only shoot at targets with more targets behind them. A charged shot into a horde cuts a path a like a ogryn charge, but with more damage.

I wouldn’t even shoot at ragers unless they were idle because they move too much and a miss would waste a run. You’re not wrong about them being a major headache though, since they have ridiculous HP and are dang hard to put down.

If you are trying to maximize volley uptime, the plasma gun is not your friend. It’s charged repeat is too slow and even if you’re dead on you can only get three charged shots off before you explode.

When things got hot, the rotation was was “fire three charged, half reload to vent, hit ult to finish reload, fire three charged->Grenade/sword.” That’s not trying to maintain volley uptime.

I wasn’t even running counterfire with it, I was running sustained fire for the reload trick I mentioned above. The other great thing about the sustained fire feat is it includes a big toughness restore which can save your behind at the right moment, so much so it can be used in melee though you must be ready to hit Q to immediately return to melee after hitting your ult.

You might get ten or even more shots if you aren’t charging, and that will one shot most enemies, but so will the XII if you go for the head and it’s got a faster repeat. Even so, you could likely maintain uptime against mediums like gunners. Wasn’t something I tried to do.

When using the plasma gun vs light and mediums, where it shines is when you can get them all in a line because they are packed in, and/or enfilade. If you can maneuver to enfilade the enemy line you can put a lot of hurt on them with a single charged shot.

Now, overall, I prefer the Kant XII, but the plasma gun does have some things to offer if you play to it’s style.

EDIT Here’s what I mean on Linear AOE, Meatgrinder.

Honestly they need to remove the HP loss on vent. It’s unnecessary

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I think special action venting and full cooling should be reversed:
Hold “r” for a slow venting, no HP loss
Alternative action - HP loss, maybe like 15%, but fast vent to 0, so you trade your HP in extra situation when you need to shoot asap
It also means no ammo reloading needed for plasma gun, you got just one big clip

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Maybe lose toughness first? HP loss makes it unusable.

Plasma Gun is for a meleeing Veteran. Breezes through Heresy (I use Autopistol for Damnation and just got back to this game)

For various reasons I will not describe in the middle of the night, spec Duck and Dive and run and gun with the plasma gun; never manually reload the Plasma Gun

For rolls you must look for Charge Speed as close to 80% as possible. Priority is: Charge Speed > Heat Resist > Stopping Power (which also increases damage) > Ammo

I tap fire and run and gun, rarely if ever using the long braced charge. Charge Speed affects all firing. Paired with a Catachan Mark IV Sword