Perhaps it is not working as intended because it is not working as intended?

Proto AScR has the same stats as the advanced AScR.

Agree with this, honestly. I think we should change that up before we start delving into changing the mechanics of the weapon itself in any way. I think, as soon as people hear about an ASCR Proto Damage Buff, there would be an increase in it's use on release day and that might just change up the meta a little bit.

Current meta seems to be swaying in favor of the Minmatar Assault who has a nice slot balance, decent EHP, and good speed. That and it's bonus toward Projectile Weapons makes it a really nice combatant in PC. So, a buff to the damage of the Proto ASCR to differentiate it from the ADV version might go a long way to combating that early meta change and make things -REALLY- interesting, at least in PC.

Give it and the ScR a +15/-15 profile. Keep the LR at +20/-20.

This is two fold; not only does it align with the CR of -15/+15, but it also buffs the ASCR/SCR against armor. Now while people are sure to complain about the ScR getting more armor damage, this is a problem with the ScR itself, not a problem with the damage profile.

Laser weaponry wasn't meant to be the polar opposite of projectiles, but rather explosive, which is +20/-20. Again, let's focus on the core issues before decided to touch on damage profile, which will cause problems later on if we need to do anything else to the weapon.

Laser weaponry wasn't meant to be the polar opposite of projectiles, but rather explosive, which is +20/-20. Again, let's focus on the core issues before decided to touch on damage profile, which will cause problems later on if we need to do anything else to the weapon.

The damage profile is the core issue.

Right now vs shields the ASCR can give at good as it gets. But when it runs into armor the ADV ASCR and the Proto ASCR are are the worst rifles of all the rifles. Every ADV rifle vs its damage penalty (such as combat rifle vs shields) out performs the Proto ASCR.

Compare the current Proto ASCR vs Armor the other rifles do:

ADV Assault Rail + 6 more damage vs shields
PRO Assault Rail + 47.76 more damage vs shields
ADV Assault CBR +20.5 more damage vs Shields
PRO Assault CBR + 39.84 more damage vs shields
ADV Gek 38 + 60.8 more damage vs Armor
PRO Duvolle AR + 82.12 more damage vs Armor

A direct buff to armor via ROF or damage would make it very OP vs shields. Tweak the damage profile a bit and up the ROF by 4% and the Proto ASCR will do better than every ADV assault variant rifle penalty except the GEK (still the short rnge hybrid king) but it has range to make up for it.

The ASCR will fall right in line. Compared to the Proto ASCR vs Armor the other rifles now do


Pro Assault RR - 15.96 less damage than Pro ASCR vs shields
Proto Assault CBR - 0.75 less damage than Pro ASCR vs shields
Proto Duvolle AR +45 vs more damage than Pro ASCR vs armor

ADV Assault Rail - 32.9 less damage than Pro ASCR vs shields
ADV Assault CBR - 20.2 less damage than Pro ASCR vs shields
ADV Gek 38 AR +20. 1 more damage than Pro ASCR vs armor

Kay, seriously, the damage profile argument is really grasping at straws, especially when there's this much effort going into it. You're saying that because the damage profile is +20/-20 that the weapon is somehow flawed or impractical, yet we have an entire line-up of explosive weapons that have the exact opposite damage profile that no-one complains about. Mass Drivers, Flaylock Pistols, Grenades. More-over, the Laser Rifle, Scrambler Rifle, and Scrambler Pistol all do very well even despite this +20/-20 setup. The fact that it's being described as 'it has to be OP for it to be viable because #heat' is really... I can't even begin to wrap my head around it.

I'd sooner say just remove the heat factor all together than change the damage profile on just the one weapon to accommodate for the fact that there's this warped scape-goat around it.

Lasers don't have splash. Mass driver, flaylock and vrenades do. In addition, there is far less shield health for them to chew through than there is armor health that the AScR needs to chew through. As well, flux grenades remove all infantry ahields, regardless of fitting, rendering the argument moot.

Lore-wise, +15/-15 makes sense because short range crystals increase thermal damage alongside EM damage, mea ing its a little easier to chew through armor. Not as much as blasters, but enough for the profile to be adjusted. The LR is fitted with a long range EM only crystal, so the LR having a +20/-20 makes sense.

As far as my personal opinion, Galle the and Caldari are mirrors of each other (Gallente are +10/-10 and Caldari are -10/+10) so the scr should mirror the Minmatar. The Amarr should mirror the CR with +15/-15 and the LR mirrors the MD with +20/-20

Kay, seriously, the damage profile argument is really grasping at straws, especially when there's this much effort going into it. You're saying that because the damage profile is +20/-20 that the weapon is somehow flawed or impractical, yet we have an entire line-up of explosive weapons that have the exact opposite damage profile that no-one complains about. Mass Drivers, Flaylock Pistols, Grenades. More-over, the Laser Rifle, Scrambler Rifle, and Scrambler Pistol all do very well even despite this +20/-20 setup. The fact that it's being described as 'it has to be OP for it to be viable because #heat' is really... I can't even begin to wrap my head around it.

I'd sooner say just remove the heat factor all together than change the damage profile on just the one weapon to accommodate for the fact that there's this warped scape-goat around it.

I don't think so. The puzzle for the Devs is why is a weapon that put out as much damage as the other rifles so unpopular?
Its because mathematically its Damage penalty is far out of proportion to the other rifles of the same class. Put two mercs facing each other, with identical EHP and armor to shield ratio, the Proto ASCR will lose to every ADV rifle every single time, by quite a large margin.


Muzzle flash, heat and recoil was never an issue with the Geks or Duvolles, yet they were extremely unpopular as well when their damage application was seen as inferior. Heat doesn't really play a factor in in this.

Bring the damage penalty in line with the other rifles is the first step. It would still suck vs armor, but not as bad as before. Better a hotfix than endless animation tweaks, heat build up, heat cooldown, etc.

Or just give it splash damage. That seems like a logical alternative to justify a +20/-20 damage profile.

You do realize how silly it sounds for a laser to have splash damage, right?

You do realize how silly it was to consider that post for anything other than sarcasm O.o?