Borne Velvalor
BLACK-DRAGON-SOCIETY
694
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Posted - 2013.10.14 22:24:00 -
[2] - Quote
The problems with the laser.
- It has a 19m optimal span last time I checked. Yes, 19m.
- Due to the reverse drop off that builds and then falls off a cliff from 100% damage to 10% damage, it's hard to keep enemies in that range. It never takes more than 9m to get out of range, one way or the other. If they were right in the middle of your range, they just need to run back 9 meters, which takes a second and a half, and you'll start dealing a tenth of the damage. Plus, it's hard to gauge to begin with.
- The gun shoots marshmallows until it heats up, which takes forever to match the DPS of an Assault or Scrambler Rifle. The standard assault will do 425 damage a second with no need to build up anything. The standard laser will do 283 damage a second before build up. Only when the multiplier reaches 150% do you finally match the DPS. This is made worse by the fact that Lasers do not get stronger every tier. The Duvolle does almost 470 damage compared to the Viziam's 283.
- I saw a chart on AR vs LR shield efficacy by range, although I can't find it. At beginning LR optimal range, the Duvolle did around 60% to shields and the Viziam did 120%. This makes the Viziam, before heat up, doing about 20% more damage than the Duvolle, which is solid. Once you hit armor, Duvolle hits 75% and the Viziam drops to 80%. At this point, the Duvolle will always out DPS the laser. You'll probably be dead before you can heat up to the point where you're equal. However, I'm not sure how relevant this information is now, since I think the data was old even when I saw it. The situation is probably similar enough today, though. Lasers can't do anything against armor tanks and armor is the cheapest and easiest health to get. Many newer players run armor.
- The Laser Rifle can overheat. Without an Amarr Assault, this is common enough to get the last few rounds to get a kill. Once it overheats, or even if you let it cool, you're vulnerable for a long period of time.
- Dodging and taking cover is far more effective against the LR than the AR. If you hide behind a rock as a LR, the AR can close in and your damage drops to 25%, while its jumps to optimal (95-110%). If an AR hides behind a rock for even a few seconds, the LR has to stop firing to prevent overheating and thus goes back to firing marshmallows. They cannot charge cover because this will nerf their damage to spit ball levels; they have lost control over placement, which is important.
- Placement is why many LR users seem dumb and stay in the open when firing instead of taking cover, if that's where they are when they see you; you're in their optimal range and if they even run for literally TWO SECONDS in either direction, they're back to shooting spit balls. If they run away, they deal a tenth the damage. If they run forward, you can run forward at the same time and now they are, once again, shooting spit balls, while your damage has also risen.
- Usage costs compared to the AR are very high when compared at Standard level. STD LR costs twice as much CPU and PG to use as a STD AR. It does even out at higher tiers, but it stops some people from using it in the beginning and they never go back.
- Aside from damage, the best skill for Lasers reduces heat build up. This is essential, yet it's only on the Amarr Assault Suit. Everyone else, including Amarr Logistics, gets only the cooldown speed boost.
At higher tiers where more players run complex shield extenders, the Laser does get better, since more of the total health is shields. An ELM costs less to fit than a Duvolle at that point as well. It's not an absolutely terrible weapon and it IS possible to do very well with it, it's just much harder and situational. Unless the enemies are weakened, you usually see a ton of assists rather than kills. You knockout their shielding and then get walled by armor.
The way I see it, the Laser is a good weapon when you're with a good team (or against terrible pubs). When you're on your own, the range issues become really apparent. When the enemies are occupied with your team, it's much harder for them to avoid the Laser so you can just pick them off. It's also one of the best weapons at dropping shields for your teammates. This is what I want for the Laser Rifle.
- Bring the laser's upper optimal range cap up to 95 from 85. This increases your effective range span by 50%, to around 30m. It's still not as high as the 40/50/60 meter optimal ranges of the Assault Rifles but it doesn't need to be. It adds a little bit of a buffer.
- Make Laser Proficiency reduce heat build up by 5% per level instead of the Amarr Assault and give the Amarr Assault the cooldown speed increase. Buff the cooldown speed increase to 7% per level in exchange so that the Amarr Assault is still a good choice for Lasers; 50% longer cooldown (65% at level 5 compared to 100%) for non-Amarr Assault is significant.
- Remove the sharp drop off at the end of the optimal range. This is not how a reverse drop off should work. The way it works now would be the equivalent of the Assault Rifle going to 10% damage within 15m. I do think it should drop off as slowly as it builds up, but it should fall linearly to 30% at 105m.
- Higher tier Lasers should gain 5% damage per tier like every other weapon.
- Efficacy should be +15%/-15% instead of +20%/-20%. The first one means you're doing 35% more damage to shields than armor. The current one means you're doing 50% more damage to shields than armor and very little to armor. This means it'll overall deal less damage since so many people shield tank, but make it more consistent.
- These changes would make the weapon much better. At this point, I'd suggest a slight damage nerf to compensate for its increased utility.
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Borne Velvalor
BLACK-DRAGON-SOCIETY
702
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Posted - 2013.10.15 20:48:00 -
[3] - Quote
Talos Alomar wrote:Tectonic Fusion wrote:
Actually, I do... he was standing still, but yet he still insta killed me at somewhere around 57-61 meters. Yes I was shooting him in the head, but he was a Gallente.
Are you sure it was just him that was shooting at you? sometimes in the heat of things you don't notice other sources of damage i.e. a sniper round that breaks your shields and takes down some armor.
I main Laser and yes, Assault Rifles can kill you before you can kill them easily. The problem is mainly that the Laser has to heat up and that the better Lasers don't do more damage. At STD level against STD equipment, the Laser is a well balanced weapon. At higher levels you die too quickly and kill too slowly because your DPS doesn't scale at all, unlike other weapons. The Burst and Tactical Assault Rifles easily deal the same or more damage within optimal Laser range and the normal Assault Rifle only needs to move forward while shooting or taking cover momentarily to make your DPS drop like a hot rock. |
Borne Velvalor
BLACK-DRAGON-SOCIETY
702
|
Posted - 2013.10.15 21:10:00 -
[4] - Quote
Michael Epic wrote:Mauren NOON wrote:If this was Facebook, I would like the **** out of this whole thread. This game has turned into AR 514..... It's AR or go home and I hate it. Sometimes I find my toxin to do more damage than my CRD-9 I don't think so....I get owned by laser rifles and MD's left and right and here lately people are crazy about the Imperial Scrambler Rifle. I get killed very little by AR's and when I do, its always Militia Assault Rifles.
I was "standard" stomping with a "proto" only squad (AKA in STD gear) and can say this is not my experience at all. I did well enough with several matches going 30+ total kills and assists with a handful of deaths, but later on when I started posting 1.0s around 50% of my deaths were to Duvolles and the occasional GEK. Most of the time I'm being shot at, it's with Assault Rifles. Here's my estimates from earlier today for my deaths.
50% Assault Rifle
10% Scrambler Rifle
10% Heavy Machine Gun
20% Sniper Rifles, Forges
5% Laser Rifle
5% Mass Driver/Other
The "other" is a handful of Mass Driver and Shotgun kills. I don't include grenades since everyone can use those in addition to their normal weapon. Most matches were mostly Assault Rifles. |