Already seen multiple posts discussing plasma. Hope this thread can discuss about what actually went wrong with this highly anticipated 40K representative weapon.
The most agreed-upon issue in the current discussion of plasma is ammunition. Charged Shots are powerful but consume too much ammo. Although normal shoots only consume 3 rounds of ammunition, it is not ideal in terms of thermal efficiency and rate of fire.
Bolters are op right now, yes. But even not compared to the Bolter, the Plasma is not a well-balanced weapon.
The basic attributes of weapons are divided into ammo capacity, damage, range and accuracy, rate of fire, and handling(including reloading). Some weapons have penetration, which increases ammo efficiency, but can actually be classified as damage. The combination of these elements can define the specialties of the weapon. For example:
-The bolter sacrifices handling and ammo capacity for the accuracy and lethality like a Leman Russ tank. Meanwhile its rate of fire doesn’t give heretics any changce to breathe. It’s the perfect headhunting weapon, so it’s currently the most veteran weapon. And it gets high penetration and explosion.
-The recon laser has a very high rate of fire and handling, and a relatively-high range and accuracy at the cost of damage which combined to be low ammo efficiency. Making it both joyful and annoying to use.
But when it comes to Plasma, things change. Plasma has a heat capacity limit. And most - or all of the time, this heat capacity overrides the magazine capacity and becomes the true “number of times you can fire before reloading.”
And this resulted in:
- very low rate of fire
- very low actual magazine
- very low handling
- high single-shot damage
+high range and accuray
However, the high single-shot damage is quickly diluted by the slow rate of fire and slower reload time. And there’s a delay when firing. One-hit kills are ideal and fit with Plasma’s personality. But Darktide is a tight game. The current vacuum period of plasma is too long. In fact, plasma is currently unable to adapt to the intensity of IV and V. Dps can be split into time and damage. Plasma is more difficult to ensure continuous output due to heat and total ammunition in higher difficulties, and it is also more difficult to ensure damage due to difficulty. The heat limitation is so great that for revolvers and bolters the magazines limit their single-round bursts, while the plasma simply can’t get its job done.
Maybe fatshark needs to consider 1. Extend the time of the output window for the plasma, 2. Reduce the output window interval of the plasma.