That's a really solid idea, and I hope CCP is at least giving this thread a cursory glance.

Instead of having the Laser heat up to do more damage, have the target heat up to take more damage. Have it start with Light Laser damage and have the damage ramp up the longer you are on the target. Set it so Time to Kill on an Infantry is about the same as with the Light Laser Rifle, but after about 2 seconds it starts ramping up to anti vehicle damage levels.

This way you canGÇÖt pre-heat it and hit infantry with vehicle level damage, but it would still be effective against vehicles.

Have the heat on the target take a second to dissipate so if you slip off your target for a moment the damage ramp-up does not get set back to zero.

Higher damage against shields as with the Laser Rifle.

Still have the heat buildup and overheat feedback damage mechanic to limit how long you can fire it, making the Sentinel Bonus useful.

hmm doesn't really fit into the mid long range philosophy of the Amarr though

Oh, to true, and fair enough. Doesn't mean i still wouldn't like to see a weapon that kills pilots, but leaves the vehicle relatively unscathed ;)

So basically a war hammer 40k melta gun?

I'd like it to do 150 damage to yourself and in a 3m AoE when it overheats

Something like the arc projector on mass effect would be sweet. Well......before it recieves the Nerf bat.

This immediately makes me think the Arc Welder from Red Faction, and i really REALLY like the idea!

http://redfaction.wikia.com/wiki/Arc_Welder

Have the weapon be VERY effective against shields on both dropsuits and land based vehicles, but once it gets down to armor on said vehicles, it should do no physical damage, but instead start to fry the driver inside. Once dead, you can hack and then take the now pilot-less tank/LAV for yourself >:) Dropsuits being electrocuted should take damage similar to that of a laser rifle. Make it a medium-close to close range weapon. Of course, taking into account the Amarr heavy suit bonus, using the weapon too long would cause the batteries to "overload", electrocuting the user and causing feedback damage.

That's not even close, and defies the lore. No.

Also true. I was just spit-balling here, and having a little fun.

My eve lore knowledge is sadly lacking >.<

Message from Godin: uhh. Well, long story short, that ***** the amarrians call their empress found a cannon from the old days (before the gate collapsed), and she fitted it to her ship. The first time she fired it was on a Republic fleet, and it destroyed every las one of those ships. Basically, it shot a shot, and hit a ship, imploding the shields, basically killing everything inside the shields of the ship, and also destroying the ship. It also arced from one ship to the next, doing said shield impulsion (which is how the entire fleet got wrecked from that one shot). Although it wrecked her ship, and almost killed her in the process, she adored the tech, and had scientists build her a infantry version for the troops. Although it wasn't as insane as the Toran weapon she found, being able to arc indefinitely, it's still pretty strong. Also, I know for sure that It's a merc weapon, and is a heavy weapon due to Templar One, in which Vince grabbed it from a Heavy and started using it, making it naturally a heavy weapon.

tl;dr: It's a weapon that should hit a target, but then arc to the nearest enemy dealing damage to him/her. It should be highly effective towards shields (maybe even more so than the norm, like 130% instead of 120%), but have a hard time against armor (if shields are stronger, then armor should be weaker, so 70%).

Basically just a discussion on how you feel like the heavy laser weapon could/should function if/when implemented.

My take is that it should function like a large hip fire laser rifle. It should evaporate any infantry unlucky enough to get between it and the vehicle you are unloading on. However, it should have MASSIVE overheat damage to compensate.

Well the better laser tech is probably scrambler, so a quad barrel auto scrambler would be bad ass. Two side by side barrels with one mounted above and below. Hip fire would be ****, but ads would be a diamond shaped reticule. At 70m all four barrels could hit a medium frame hit box, and the damage would slightly less than normal Assault scrambler with same rate of fire. Each barrel would apply damage individually limiting damage past optimal, due to tracking difficulties. This may turn out to be OP, but seems to be a viable mid range heavy weapon, laser based but not lol laser based.