I’ve really been enjoying the changes to the Plasma Gun, however I’ve been seeing people saying and feel like the 3x damage to toughness isn’t being applied. I feel like this is good, and it shouldn’t be “fixed” for the Plasma Gun, or self damage should just be removed completely.
Compared to other great ranged weapons (Bolter, Kantrael XII, Heavy Stubber, Flamer etc) the Plasma Gun is the only weapon where you are punished for trying to use it consistently besides ammo consumption. I believe having to actively vent it to keep shooting is enough of a drawback on its own, and the self damage isn’t needed. Especially considering the abysmal passive cool down it has. A good compromise I think would be to remove self vent damage, but make uncharged shots at 100% power still blow you up.
HOWEVER, and this idea might be better for a second variant, I believe that if there is going to be self damage and a chance of being instantly downed, the Plasma Gun should be stupidly strong. Really showcase how volatile but powerful they really are by fully leaning into a kind of glass cannon high risk high reward type weapon. Personally I don’t feel the Magnacore 35 is strong enough to justify it, but either through balance changes or a second variant I feel such a playstyle could be a lot of fun.