Well, let’s say that this is my opinion.
I have played a lot revolver and after that it was lawbringer… then the 2 new shotguns have been released and I played a lot with them as a veteran. I precise that, cause playing these weapons with a veteran is really different than with a zealot…
Now, my fun at the moment is the helbore MKIII… but just before it was plasma. So actually I play a lot plasma / helbore.
I must say that I don’t suffer of ammo problems with the plasma. I rarely have problem with shotguns, but sometimes it can happen (especially in high int). Not with the plasma.
From my perspective, Shotguns, and revolver, are the 2 weapons that really need an increase of the ammos reserve. Plasma has actually an ammo reserve really sufficient.
Ammo in Darktide is plentiful enough that you can certainly play in a way that Plasma won’t have ammo issues.
That said the ammo recovery of the plasma is objectively (by the numbers) one of the worst in the game.
My main premise is that the three built in passives of the Vet have a near 0 affect on the weapon “designed” specifically for him.
Giving Plasma more ammo via Scavenger would be an easy way to improve the “this is for vet” feel without making the gun too strong.
That’s pretty interesting. This means currently plasma is around 0.6% instead of 1%.
I meant with ammo efficiency is the required output against ammo returns. It’s also the worst weapon for ammo recovery once you are low.
The worst thing about the ammo economy of the plasma is that as the number of elites/specials increase the number of pickups you need also increase, while other weapons are either neutral in this regard (meaning that an increase in elites doesn’t require more pickups) or gain from the increased enemy numbers.
This also becomes worse if you consider charged shots that burn ammo like crazy and the extremely punishing missed shots.
I love plasma even with the brutal ammo issue. I had around 100 games on it before they did the vent change to Toughness and the ignore body part modifier, I just feel bad for the team for vacuuming up 70%+ of the ammo pickups.
Correct, plasma is at just about .6% total, or 1% of just the reserves (total-mag), most other guns range between 1-1.3%~ once you account for (Total-Mag) with Boltgun being the only outlier I could find being 1.8%.
Relooking at the numbers, Scavenger is definitely 1% of (total - Mag) and it ALWAYS rounds up to the nearest 100. So if you have an ammo reserve of 101, or 199, you will get the same amount of ammo returned (2).
Plasma having 40% of its Total in the mag AND being at 189 put together means it just gets a horrible short stick.
So if you made scavenger 1% of the total, plasma would get 4 ammo, not 2. looking at a lot of weapons, this wouldn’t make any difference for most (at least not on Vet. without the 40% extra reserves things might look different so on gun psyker and zealot it may be more impactful?)
I did do some math mistakes in my excel (in my defense that was made at 3am), once that was corrected I found scavenger IS 1% of your ammo reserves (Total-Mag) not your total. and it always rounds up to the nearest 100, so 101 and 199 will be the same for Scavenger. Or in a practical case 112 and 189 (boltgun v Plasma)
I’m not changing my post again 
The choice to calculate based on reserve capacity seems like an odd choice (across the board). For most weapons, mag size is ~10% of capacity so they wouldn’t see a substantial net gain by factoring that into the calculation. Any of the weapons where mag size is a higher % of total capacity, they have quite low ammo capacity to begin with
Correct Total, vs Reserves makes incredibly little difference for most weapons on vet - Lasguns are a clear winner and would get 1 extra ammo going from 9 to 10. Most guns would hit the max amount of ammo returned at lower Ammo % stat but wouldn’t get additional ammo returned at max ammo.
The only gun it strongly affects is plasma where it would literally double the amount it gets in return 
going from 189 to 324 means going from 2 ammo returned to 4.
So again I think the (Total - Mag) function which affects everything ammo, is just an arbitrary “we hate plasma” thing. well more accurately “we didn’t consider how it would affect the single incredibly large mag weapon in the game, yay unintended consequences!”
Ok, I did several tests.
Scavenger make you recovering 1% of your total ammo reserve (result is rounded). The amount of ammo is not linked to the ammos remaining but is directly linked to the maximum ammo you can have.
It means also that the 20% bonus of the veteran has an impact of the amount of ammo you can recover after killing an elite.
So, as I said several posts before, the question is about the ammo reserve of a plasma gun. And on this, I will repeat that there are several weapons that have a worst reserve: revolver, shotguns and also infantry guns are the first that came to my mind.
Did you forget to divide the plasma reserve number by 3? Come on @Ralendil the plasma has the lowest ammo reserve of all weapons, lower than even the firebreath Kantreal Shotgun. Plasma 45 shots vs Kantreal 46 at max ammo stat.
Compared to shotguns the reserve seems even more abysmal due to not getting a full shot back on elite/special kill and the fact that shotgun has special ammo that’s great for further ammo preservation.
Since it seems the only reason you are on this topic is to talk about revolver and shotgun and how much you want more ammo for them here is my take:
Shotguns and revolvers both of them are totally fine in the ammo department.
- Kantreal (firebreath) shotgun is totally fine and doesn’t need any buffs it’s a really good weapon and doesn’t have ammo problems.
- Agripinna shotgun is one of the top ranged weapons on Zealot if you can aim. That thing is a mini plasma. It’s really strong and has no ammo problems.
- Lawbringer shotgun needs a slight buff to either its damage or the special ammo since it’s a bit weak. Ammo is fine.
- Revolver (which is a melee sidearm) shouldn’t be treated as “main damage weapon”. If it needs a buff talk about it, but increasing ammo capacity so you can spam more is just dumb.
Yeah after fixing my spreadsheet (as mentioned in a few previous posts) it is clear it is 1% of (total-mag) always rounded up. Which is why boltgun (112) gets 2 ammo, as does plasma (189) - I am just no longer able to edit the original post so as it is too old shrug
We have already done the shotgun/revolver comparison, not sure we need to rehash that.
I am not sure in what way any Infantry Autogun has a worse ammo reserve then plasma.
Graia Mk VIII Autogun is the worst Infantry Autogun for (Total-Mag) and it comes in at 39,897 damage at max stats, which is a 24%~ improvement to the plasma’s 32,193.
And again, these are literally the worst guns in the game when it comes to ammo efficiency, this is (imo) not a good baseline. Compare the plasma to a gun that is well used/liked:
Lasgun XII
Infantry Autogun I
Braced Autogun VIII
Shredder
Boltgun
Helbore I/II
Plasma reserves are no where near (i mean not even close) to any of these guns. And that is without factoring that these guns have a much better blessing pool for increasing damage.
Changing Scavenger to affect Total ammo instead of (total-mag) would do little for any other weapon but would make plasma feel more “designed” for Vet, and in an area that makes a great deal of sense - wouldn’t unbalance the Plasma.
That’s your opinion… I have mine
In fact, I don’t really want to discuss about revolver shotguns ammo. This was just a comparison. However, as I said, with shotgun I can run out of ammos when playing as a vet (on zealot I don’t care…) especially in high intensity.
In plasma, I never had a real problem. I guess we don’t have same gameplay.
I must say that plasma is linked with a power sword. And, as the PS is really efficient, I use it a lot especially on hordes as it is faster to kill them with the PS.
I shall remember you that you get ammos from scavenger even when someone else kill an elite… so the full return is not an argument. You are not alone.
It is 1% of total ammos…
Changing this value would impact lot of weapons.
So, the question is about ammo reserve.
I won’t discuss about revolver etc. this was not the purpose. This was just a comparison, cause I run out of ammos more often with a shotgun than with the plasma gun ( i have run out one time if I remember well, and that was clearly my fault).
Maybe this is linked to my gameplay…
Use special ammo more. If you keep spamming normal shots you will run out just like with Bolter. 
I don’t… cause my ammos cleave…
It is 1% of (Total - Mag size) so for Plasma max of 1%x189 (2), not the Total ammo of 1%x324 (4).
Due to the generous rounding up to the next 100 (like bolter rounding to 200 for Scavenger) means only a few weapons would be able to get an extra round.
The ones that would be impacted are normally ones with larger magazines - consequently also have huge ammo pools. Examples like lasguns going from 9 ammo to 10 per kill is a relatively small increase.
yes you’re right.
Then, your proposition is logical. I would agree on this.
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