TL;DR
Damage increase of the Plasma Cannon is too low. Skill vs Reward too low compared to swarms
Even after the damage buff the proto plasma cannon will have 32 less DPS than Basic unskilled swarms. ( PROTO PLC 377 VS syd swarms 409) HERE ARE THE NUMBERS Reconsider numbers to accommodate for how difficult it is to use the plasma cannon. Reward skilled players for using a difficult weapon vs an easy one.
HERE IS CURRENT PLC DATA
Min: STD
PLC damage = 1050
volley: 1050
PLC reload speed = 3.5 seconds
PLC animation lock = 1 second
charge time .6
seconds till next shot: 5.1
Max: PROTO rapid reload 5
PLC damage = 1155
volley = 1155
PLC reload speed = 3 seconds
animation lock = 1 second
minimum charge time = .45
seconds till next shot = 4.45
That's a total of 5.1 seconds unskilled and 4.45 seconds all level 5 in between shots... That's a maximum of 314 DPS average if and only if you do not miss any shots which is nearly impossible to do and can only be done on still targets.
CHANGED NUMBERS
Max: Proto PLC Rapid reload 5
PLC damage = 1386
volley = 1386
PLC reload speed 3 seconds
PLC animation lock = 1 second
minimum charge time = .45
Maximum DPS of 377 to vehicles... Still too little because this is
AN EXTREMELY SKILLED WEAPON
COMPARISON WITH SWARMS (EASY MODE AV)
STD Swarms DPS
missile damage: = 220
missiles: 4
volley = 880
lock on time = 1.4 seconds
clip size = 3
reload 4.5 seconds = 8.7
DPS = 409
As we can see the std swarms, which require no amount of player skill input to use an by this I mean getting good wit it, already arrive close to the DPS of the maximum paper DPS of the proto Plasma Cannon... reminder that the Plasma cannon has a lot more probability to miss a moving target than swarms.
But What about proto swarms?
Proto Swarms: Rapid reload 5
missile damage = 220
missile = 6
missile interval = 1 second
volley = 1320
clip size = 3
reload = 3.8 seconds
DPS = 538 damage per second
SKILL VS REWARD
The plasma Cannon is a weapon that has too little Skill vs reward. When compared to the Swarm launchers,
no one is going to want to go through the hassle of learning to use a weapon that will still be completely underpowered. Although the plasma cannon is difficult to use, many more people would use it if the time and skill needed to use it gave a noticeable advantage over an easier and powerful weapon.
CONCLUSION
The Plasma Cannon, even with the new numbers gets nowhere near acceptable AV levels. Couple this with it's Extremely HARD to use nature and you have a sub-par weapon that doesn't get used even if the match depended on it. I implore CCP to take a second look at the Plasma Cannon damage.The Plasma Cannon should have more DPS than the swarms simply based on the premis that it takes more skill to use a plasma cannon than to lock on and let go.