"I'd love to make the PLC a viable AV weapon without making it OP against infantry"

I've heard multiple DEVs state this and I want to know the reasoning behind the statement. Let me clarify why this statement doesn't make any sense:

-The plasma cannon deals two different types of damage, direct and splash.
-Direct damage is how much it deals on contact (primarily AV), while splash is how much it does within a small blast radius outwards from the point it hits
-Direct damage is enough to kill almost any suit except for the very heavily armored sentinels.
-Splash is almost never taken into account when it comes to dealing damage to vehicles.

So what does this mean?
It means that increasing direct damage won't have much effect at all against infantry, while increasing its effectiveness against vehicles. Even if the plasma cannon's direct damage was over 9000, it still would be exactly as effective as it is now against anything that isn't a vehicle. It would not be OP at all against infantry.
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CCP, is it really an issue for sentinels with tons of armor to not be able to be 1-shotted by a plasma cannon that you won't buff it to be a more effective AV weapon?

Obviously there are plenty of other bugs and issues with that weapon (probably more than any other weapon in the game), but please tell us why increasing direct damage (i.e. making it more viable for AV) would make the weapon OP against infantry.

Making it able to destroy a lav with out reloading would be a start.

I mostly agree. I do have to go through most of my ammo to pop a tank. The only caveat is that I think PLC currently does alright against vehicles, you just need a Nanohive or Supply Depot nearby.

I mostly agree. I do have to go through most of my ammo to pop a tank. The only caveat is that I think PLC currently does alright against vehicles, you just need a Nanohive or Supply Depot nearby.

IMO increasing the damage wouldn't do much unless the buffed damage to 3k or something

- limited range
- steep firing arc
- slow projectile speed
- long reload
- lock-up after firing
- charge to fire
- 1-round magazine
- low reserve ammo

Trying to figure out how much to buff it's damage by would be the same thing as figuring out what shade of lipstick the pig is going to wear.

+1. Right now the plasma cannon is literally the worst at everything. At PRO it does less DPS than a STD swarm launcher and has less alpha than a proto swarm launcher, with the lovely benefit of being a huge pain in the ass to hit with due to arc and an amazingly slow projectile.

"I'd love to make the PLC a viable AV weapon without making it OP against infantry"

I've heard multiple DEVs state this and I want to know the reasoning behind the statement. Let me clarify why this statement doesn't make any sense:
....

it doesnt matter if a PLC does 1100HP direct damage or 3000HP. In both cases when you get directly hit in a dropsuit you are dead.

Well, given the known cons what could be addressed?

-limited range

This is fine. Not exactly meant to be super long range anyways.

-steep firing arc/projectile speed/charge to fire/1-round magazine

I would classify these as characteristics of the weapon and not necessarily problems.

-long reload

Fix the reload skill

-lock-up after firing

Doesn't happen if you sprint-cancel it out. I switch to my SMG quickly to finish off people. Still, the animations and workings of the Plasma Cannon really do need to work properly. Too buggy.

-low reserve ammo

I have the ammo skill maxed out and I don't really find this to be an issue. I also rock nice hives so meh.

In my opinion until the bugs are fixed we can never know the true power of this weapon. In true CCP fashion, what will most likely happen is they will buff it and fix the bugs and then it will be OP. I could see the splash radius being increased if the splash damage went down and I could see the direct hits being stronger, but not until the bugs are fixed.

Actually, with 1100HP of direct damage, most heavies would survive. That's part of the problem.

What bugs are you referring to? It's my understanding that the post-firing lock-up is deliberate to try to prevent fast-swap tactics. From using the PLC for the past week, I haven't encountered any problems with it working from a technical standpoint- it just doesn't do enough damage to make it a remotely viable AV weapon.

IMO, due to its shotgun-like range requirement (on the AV weapon scale) and the extreme difficulty of hitting moving targets, it should have both the highest alpha and highest DPS of any AV weapon. The projectile is so slow that, from 50m, a situationally aware stationary nitro HAV can literally see the shot coming and have time to dodge it with a quick forward or backward boost.

For reference, a PRO SL puts out 517 base DPS with no rapid reload skill, proficiency, or damage mods.

To bring the PLC in line with the current PRO SL in terms of DPS, the PRO PLC should be doing at least ((.6*.75) + 3.5) * 517 = 2042 damage per shot.

I would argue that, due to the extreme range limitations and difficulty of landing shots in comparison to other light and heavy AV weapons, the PLC should be rewarded with an additional roughly 20% damage, brining the proto PLC's direct damage per shot up to 2400. Splash damage, of course, should remain unchanged, or even nerfed slightly to further focus the weapon on AV.

That is a lie. An absolute, absolute lie. At proto, the PLC does less than 300 DPS. It is not "alright", it is terrible.

The bug that I am referring to that I believe to be the main offender would be the bug that causes a lot of splash damage to not register on infantry.

See - I actually have quite a bit of luck using the PLC as AV. I run it in combination with remotes/proximities and av nades. I have blown up countless tanks, hell even dropships. But this is because I am not relying on the PLC to do the brunt of the damage really. it's just a shield killer for AV. You still need explosives or you have no chance against the armor.

I generally use the proto variant (cuz I'm a baller lol) but really, you are indeed correct, there is just not enough of a scale up in damage output from STD to PRO. I would like to see the 20% buff to the direct hits only to AV, which as someone else pointed out, should be do-able with the built in efficiencies.

Come to think of it, the missing variants could solve all this mess. The breach could be more AV and the Assault could be more infantry.. Hmmmmmm....

I would argue that, due to the extreme range limitations and difficulty of landing shots in comparison to other light and heavy AV weapons, the PLC should be rewarded with an additional roughly 20% damage, brining the proto PLC's direct damage per shot up to 2400. Splash damage, of course, should remain unchanged, or even nerfed slightly to further focus the weapon on AV.

Oh, I thought that bug was just a sharp splash damage falloff and me being bad. It's nice to know that maybe it's not just me.

I use the PLC in the same way for AV- 2-3 remotes, 1 PLC shot, 2 AV nades, detonate remotes -> dead tank, but of course that means that the PLC is really doing at most about 1/4 of the work. Like the other AV weapons, it should be able to potentially do 100% of the work with good positioning and aim.

One very important point- I'm not saying there should be a bigger gap, percentage wise, between the STD and PRO versions. Swarms clearly demonstrate why that sort of balancing is just awful- a 10% gap between STD and PRO is good, 50% is not. The PLC just needs a major raw direct damage buff at all tiers, or a huge anti-vehicle efficiency increase.

Variants would be a great solution, I would love to see variants.

"I'd love to make the PLC a viable AV weapon without making it OP against infantry"

I've heard multiple DEVs state this and I want to know the reasoning behind the statement. Let me clarify why this statement doesn't make any sense:

-The plasma cannon deals two different types of damage, direct and splash.
-Direct damage is how much it deals on contact (primarily AV), while splash is how much it does within a small blast radius outwards from the point it hits
-Direct damage is enough to kill almost any suit except for the very heavily armored sentinels.
-Splash is almost never taken into account when it comes to dealing damage to vehicles.

So what does this mean?
It means that increasing direct damage won't have much effect at all against infantry, while increasing its effectiveness against vehicles. Even if the plasma cannon's direct damage was over 9000, it still would be exactly as effective as it is now against anything that isn't a vehicle. It would not be OP at all against infantry.
_____________________________________________________

CCP, is it really an issue for sentinels with tons of armor to not be 1-shotted by a skilled plasma cannon user that you won't buff it to be a more effective AV weapon?

Obviously there are plenty of other bugs and issues with that weapon (probably more than any other weapon in the game), but please tell us why increasing direct damage (i.e. making it more viable for AV) would make the weapon OP against infantry.

What bugs are you referring to? It's my understanding that the post-firing lock-up is deliberate to try to prevent fast-swap tactics. From using the PLC for the past week, I haven't encountered any problems with it working from a technical standpoint- it just doesn't do enough damage to make it a remotely viable AV weapon.

IMO, due to its shotgun-like range requirement (on the AV weapon scale) and the extreme difficulty of hitting moving targets, it should have both the highest alpha and highest DPS of any AV weapon. The projectile is so slow that, from 50m, a situationally aware stationary nitro HAV can literally see the shot coming and have time to dodge it with a quick forward or backward boost.

For reference, a PRO SL puts out 517 base DPS with no rapid reload skill, proficiency, or damage mods.

To bring the PLC in line with the current PRO SL in terms of DPS, the PRO PLC should be doing at least ((.6*.75) + 3.5) * 517 = 2042 damage per shot.

I would argue that, due to the extreme range limitations and difficulty of landing shots in comparison to other light and heavy AV weapons, the PLC should be rewarded with an additional roughly 20% damage, brining the proto PLC's direct damage per shot up to 2400. Splash damage, of course, should remain unchanged, or even nerfed slightly to further focus the weapon on AV.

The plasma cannon is a high alpha weapon not high dps.

Well, it currently has neither. At proto, has less base alpha than a proto swarm and less dps than a basic swarm.

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I think part of the Plasma Cannon is weapon synergy. Now granted that synergy was born out of necessity but it's a defining characteristic of the weapon IMO. I enjoy blapping out shields with the PLC and then quickly switching to SMG/res/whatever to finish the job.

GOOD STUFF

Errr... at SMG distances, I would think an MD would be better for you at taking out shields. It has larger splash, and/or higher rate of fire, and no weaponswitch lag.

If PLCs did over 2000 for a direct hit... why would I even need an FG on a Heavy?

As much as I hate to agree with CCP, balancing the PLC is not as easy as it sounds.

Errr... at SMG distances, I would think an MD would be better for you at taking out shields. It has larger splash, and/or higher rate of fire, and no weaponswitch lag.

I would pair the MD with a flux and lead with the flux, then MD, then SMG if somehow the red dot still lives. When I say synergy I mean using both your weapons against their appropriate damage type in a devastating and quick manner.

edit: I looked up synergy to make sure I knew what it meant. I stand by my statement.

"Synergy is the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects"