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Borne Velvalor
Endless Hatred
872
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Posted - 2013.11.02 23:17:00 -
[1] - Quote
A Viziam with 2 Complex Damage Modifiers and Proficiency 5 deals around 280 damage a second (it seems to fire at a little over 700 RPM).
A Duvolle with 2 Complex Damage Modifiers and Proficiency 5 deals 640 damage a second.
A Viziam overheats at 70 rounds or so, damaging the user and forcing them to stop firing until the weapon completely cools down. If it doesn't overheat, the user must manually stop firing.
A Viziam has damage build up, but this is not usually a strength. The damage build up is usually a con and a nice way to say that the gun needs to be charged before use. After damage build up (damage goes up by 0.6 every bullet), if we average the damage per second out until overheat, we reach the conclusion that the Viziam deals about the same damage as the Duvolle. However, all of the damage is lumped at the end of the stream. This presents several problems:
- You must hold the trigger until all rounds are fired, letting go at the last bullet without overheating to achieve this. If you overheat, you're screwed.
- If you charge it by firing against a wall, you better hope the target hasn't moved when you strafe back out.
- If an enemy goes into cover for even a second, you need to stop firing to conserve ammo and heat. There goes all your damage.
- You cannot burst fire the gun once you've reached the boiling point to try to cap your DPS. Damage is tied to shots fired in the same stream, not heat, so you're dealing minimum DPS at probably half speed. You're lucky if you're dealing 140 DPS when bursting.
Additionally, the Laser Rifle has an optimal span of 19m. Even a few meters beyond this does 10% damage and ten meters before drops you to half damage IIRC. The Assault Rifle has a 40m optimal span and can easily deal competitive damage out to as far as 50m. Anything that isn't an open field will have few sitelines the right length to consistently stay in optimal range with the Laser Rifle.
I main the Laser Rifle and I have to say that you need to really know at all times what general direction the enemy is heading in, what angles they can approach you from and where all the cover they can head to is from said approaches. If you don't, you'll constantly be killed at 50m by Duvolle wielding nutters and everything else. The only exception is when you're on the crest of a hill overlooking a battle on an open field or on a tall building.
An enemy will come out from around a corner and I'll need to wait 4 seconds before opening fire if its a proto, because otherwise the player can just turn around and run back around the corner before my Laser can build up and kill them. If they are within 5-10m of cover, I don't even waste ammo anymore unless they are immobile except for suppression.
Also, the Laser Rifle deals 50% more damage to shields than armor. This is useful against shield tanks, but makes it extremely difficult to kill anyone with a fair bit of armor. It also is evened out by the damage build up; you're dealing the least base damage when you have a positive modifier to shields and the most damage base damage when you have a negative modifier to armor. Against dual tanks, the efficacy does not even out and you end up dealing less damage per clip. For example, which is greater, 17 + 35 or 117 * 1.2 + 35 * 0.8? You gain a bit of damage on the first shot and lose a lot on the later one.
When I see another Laser Rifle user, I either run away 5m and start taking no damage or find a nice rock. Unlike an AR user that can just flank me, the LR must stay almost exactly 75m away, so, unless they feel like strafing for thirty seconds straight to target the other side of the rock, I'm OK. Usually they try to gain a height advantage, making them even more immobile.
The Laser Rifle is good when you're in a good squad and can rely on your friends to cover its weaknesses. It's not too hard to kill players that are already engaged in combat and it's range issues can be somewhat mitigated if your team can contain the red dots. At that point, it's target practice. However, it seems like the Rail Rifle will be better at this when it comes out. You lose 10m off the top of your range and gain 65m at the bottom. The DPS is on average higher, without a need to heat up. Unless the recoil is significant and the charge time has a bigger impact than previously thought (as if the Laser Rifle doesn't need to charge), the RR will almost completely supplant the tiny amount of players still using Laser Rifles.
Everyone else might be doing 600 DPS at 75m, while we're stuck doing less than 300 DPS, with a quarter of the optimal range span and having to deal with heat and damage build up. The weapons seem to be getting longer ranged with faster TTKs, and so the Laser Rifle's small niche will be completely absorbed if it does not receive a rebalance. |
Borne Velvalor
Endless Hatred
879
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Posted - 2013.11.03 04:28:00 -
[2] - Quote
Yes, the Laser really needs a range shift now that the Rail Rifle has taken up its range profile. CCP has said that the Rail Rifle is supposed to be longer ranged and the Laser Rifle is supposed to be medium ranged, though, so I don't think they'll increase the optimal range.
CCP wrote:Rail Rifles are hybrid GÇô railgun tech and are therefore the longest range weapons in the game, followed by laser weapons.
Since Rail Rifles don't have that funky reverse damage drop off, they could be more effective across all ranges. The only option I see is to increase the lower optimal range, make the drop off take longer at the end, buff the damage and lower the damage increase of the heat to 0.5 or 0.4 per shot. That way, it has greater utility, so that it's niche cannot be completely swallowed.
Many suits I've worn, many burdens I've borne, for the oaths I've sworn.
Panda.
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Borne Velvalor
Endless Hatred
883
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Posted - 2013.11.04 00:29:00 -
[3] - Quote
As others have said, using the Viziam is usually not a good idea. The average Laser Rifle user will find that the extra PG and CPU is better put to use upgrading modules, weapons or your sidearm/grenades. I'd rather have a standard Laser Rifle and advanced SMG than the reverse.
Many suits I've worn, many burdens I've borne, for the oaths I've sworn.
Panda.
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Borne Velvalor
Endless Hatred
885
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Posted - 2013.11.04 02:44:00 -
[4] - Quote
Dachande Anasazi wrote:The whole gimmick behidn the laser rifle was the further u shoot the more dmg it did..THe closer the enemy is the less dmg u do. SO WHY IN THE WORLD...does the laser rifle have the same range as an AR...it should have a LONGER one..
I am an AR user on this character but laser rifle user on my alt Asim Anasazi
Well, it technically has a longer optimal, even though the span is much shorter. TARs eat me alive, though, at the beginning of optimal. It's very easy to get 10m closer with a normal AR and tear a Laser Rifle a new hole.
Many suits I've worn, many burdens I've borne, for the oaths I've sworn.
Panda.
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