It's important to remember it's a light AV weapon. So in terms of light vehicles, think about damage to light and medium vehicles. You shouldn't be thinking about taking out an HAV with just one Light AV. That's what heavy weapons are here for.

No Ghaz post yet? There are bugs, but spend some time perfecting it. It's very potent in skilled hands.

Say what? Have you ever heard of the swarm launcher? The only heavy AV weapon there is in the game is th FG. AV weapons are meant to combat vehicles not a specific vehicle subset.

It's important to remember it's a light AV weapon. So in terms of light vehicles, think about damage to light and medium vehicles. You shouldn't be thinking about taking out an HAV with just one Light AV. That's what heavy weapons are here for.

How about a direct damage buff at close range and a splash damage buff at longer ranges, whereas each's damage effectiveness would increase or decrease accordingly to how far the projectile has traveled making it somewhat of a hybrid laser rifle/shotgun/md in terms of damage. This would make it more of a skill weapon requiring that you don't miss up close and have a keen sense of positioning if you're going for the mile kill. Plus it kinda justifies the plasma dispersion as it travels through space. Just my .0002 isk

No Ghaz post yet? There are bugs, but spend some time perfecting it. It's very potent in skilled hands.

Yes a buff splash could be significant but not a buff of the splash damage to prevent the weapon becomes op.

swarm launcher is obviously op. I'm not saying it shouldn't be effective but that it shouldn't be the first choice in dealing with HAVs .
as in Solo ability.

Plasma Cannons are the only anti-shield AV choice we currently have. They should be able to deal with Gunnlogis better than a Forge Gun.
Even if there was a Heavy anti-shield weapon, high Plasma Cannon DPS is completely justifiable. I think ~2500 direct damage would be reasonable. That's enough to down a Gunnlogi in 3 shots with a standard one. Any tanker that allows a Plasma Cannon to hit them 3 times (12 seconds) deserves the death.
This would allow Plasma Cannons to kill in 12 seconds compared yo the Swarms 18 seconds. The fact that they aren't fire-and-forget alone justifies a lower TTK. Combine that with massive projectile drop, long reloads, single fire capability, and low splash, 12 seconds to kill a tank sounds reasonable.

Plasma Cannons are the only anti-shield AV choice we currently have. They should be able to deal with Gunnlogis better than a Forge Gun.
Even if there was a Heavy anti-shield weapon, high Plasma Cannon DPS is completely justifiable. I think ~2500 direct damage would be reasonable. That's enough to down a Gunnlogi in 3 shots with a standard one. Any tanker that allows a Plasma Cannon to hit them 3 times (12 seconds) deserves the death.
This would allow Plasma Cannons to kill in 12 seconds compared yo the Swarms 18 seconds. The fact that they aren't fire-and-forget alone justifies a lower TTK. Combine that with massive projectile drop, long reloads, single fire capability, and low splash, 12 seconds to kill a tank sounds reasonable.

Your sig does not compute.

Considering also that a plasma cannon is fire-and-forget; in that it is not guided by the operator after launch, but dumb-fire, half of your post makes no sense.

If you are talking about the PC being AV, then splash damage is not even relevant.

Also, in response to those of you responding to me about Ghaz not yet posting in this thread, I never said he was an authority. But the 10 vids he has made and posted about the use of the PC has been more informative of it's capabilities and short-comings then this random theory crafting going on here.

2500 base damage?! Really?

I got my terms messed up, sorry. What I meant is that it is MANY times harder to use than a Swarm Launcher, and should do more damage than them, much more damage, actually.
Honestly, the Plasma Cannon could do 4000 direct damage and not be OP, that would give it a DPS of 606, still less than most Swarms do.
2500 is a good compromise I think...

Edit: I don't think Plasma Cannons are UP. My SIG is a response to them many supposed "fixes" that some people spew. It is a response to people wanting to dumb down the weapon. I want it's mechanics to remain as they are (aside from its bugs).

I second this. Don't touch the mechanics. The weapon should remain hard to be used - this way it rewards skill and time invested in getting good with it. We already have too many idiotically simple weapons in Dust (AR and Swarms come to mind).

Improving performance against vehicles seems reasonable.

Thank you. I needed someone to agree with me, I can't believe some people are against the Plasma Cannon outperforming Swarm Launchers.

Well I, for one, am not disagreeing on that particular point. What I am saying is that your idea that the should have a raw damage of 2500 at standard is just absurd, and I think that the numbers that I posted earlyer demonstrate that pretty well. Come on man, don't be ridiculous now.

I was actually thinking 2500 would be ADV damage. 2260 would be STD damage, and 2740 would be PRO. This would also solve the problem of there being no reason to use ADV or PRO Cannons.

I firmly believe an Allotek Plasma Cannon should be able to 2HK a well fitted Gunnlogi. STD and ADV Cannons should take 3. A well fitted Maddy should take 3 Allotek rounds, or 4 non-Allotek rounds.
I don't believe this is unbalanced in any way, considering 3 shots with a Plasma Cannon take at least 9.9 seconds (with rapid reload to V) to let off. This is not accounting for the time it takes to aim, the time it takes the round to reach the target, or the short ~0.25 second lockup that happens after firing. This puts the TTK to ~10.4 seconds at point blank range, where aiming doesn't take much time at all, and the rounds make contact almost immediately.

These are the optimal TTKs for the different HAVs at point blank range, using an Allotek Plasma Cannon, with Rapid Reload to level V

Gunnlogi: ~5.05 seconds
Madrugar: ~10.4 seconds

Using an ADV or STD Plasma Cannon, with Rapid Reload V:

Gunnlogi: ~10.4 seconds
Madrugar: ~15.35 seconds

(These next numbers are speculation, and they are my rough estimates, based on experience)
At ranges of 30-50m expect those numbers to increase by about 15%
At ranges of 60-100m expect those numbers to increase by about 40%
At ranges of 100-250m expect those numbers to increase by about 120%
This assumes all the rounds hit at these ranges, and unless you are a machine, you will never land every round at extreme ranges.

In closing, I believe 2500 direct damage is reasonable.

I firmly believe an Allotek Plasma Cannon should be able to 2HK a well fitted Gunnlogi. STD and ADV Cannons should take 3. A well fitted Maddy should take 3 Allotek rounds, or 4 non-Allotek rounds.
I don't believe this is unbalanced in any way, considering 3 shots with a Plasma Cannon take at least 9.9 seconds (with rapid reload to V) to let off. This is not accounting for the time it takes to aim, the time it takes the round to reach the target, or the short ~0.25 second lockup that happens after firing. This puts the TTK to ~10.4 seconds at point blank range, where aiming doesn't take much time at all, and the rounds make contact almost immediately.

These are the optimal TTKs for the different HAVs at point blank range, using an Allotek Plasma Cannon, with Rapid Reload to level V

Gunnlogi: ~5.05 seconds
Madrugar: ~10.4 seconds

Using an ADV or STD Plasma Cannon, with Rapid Reload V:

Gunnlogi: ~10.4 seconds
Madrugar: ~15.35 seconds

(These next numbers are speculation, and they are my rough estimates, based on experience)
At ranges of 30-50m expect those numbers to increase by about 15%
At ranges of 60-100m expect those numbers to increase by about 40%
At ranges of 100-250m expect those numbers to increase by about 120%
This assumes all the rounds hit at these ranges, and unless you are a machine, you will never land every round at extreme ranges.

In closing, I believe 2500 direct damage is reasonable.

Well, I don't think that infantry should be soloing tank and this seems to be what you are interested in. Tank have it hard enough as is. The last think we need is another over powered AV weapon. If there were adv and proto tank I may be more inclined to agree with you. But there isn't nor does it look like there will be any time soon. Like I said I like my numbers better.