DUST Search - Laser, the dead horse, and CCP

mikegunnz wrote:

As Beers said, the laser has INSANE damage once heated up. Supposedly, it's more effective against shields, not necessarily all that effective against armor. Problem is, that by the time you've easily gone through an opponents shields, the heat build-up is enough to EASILY melt their armor too. Even with an armor-tanked Heavy, you just have to spend a few tenths of a second pre-heating the laser and it melts armor effortlessly. Again, as Beers stated, lasers almost instantaneously melt through 7-800 HP.

I agree though, the nerf hammer would probably completely ruin this gun. My only suggestion would be to not change the laser, but change armor's resistance level to lasers. They need DOUBLE the resistance they currently have to lasers.

This would still allow laser user to almost instantly drop an opponents shields, but would require an extra second or so to take down armor. This would "balance" not only the weapon, but balance the issue with shields and armor as well. (as we all know, there is practically no reason to be armor-tanked in this game, right now it's all about shields) Giving armor more resistance would make armor-tanking a little more desirable since it would be you sturdy against lasers.


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Fox Gaden DUST University Ivy League 165	Posted - 2013.02.12 20:40:00 - [1] - Quote I think the Laser Riffle is not seen as much because it is harder to learn to use it effectively than any other weapon. - If you carefully line up a shot like you would with a sniper riffle you will do only a small amount of damage initially. If your target is not paying attention or if AFK and stays still long enough you will get the kill, but usually your target will start to run, and then you are left trying to hit a moving target before you overheat. The best approach in theory is to start firing somewhere else and then swing your beam onto the target once you have heated up. However that is more easily said than done. Unless you have really good aim you are likely to overshoot your mark, slashing briefly across your target doing just enough damage to get your target running for cover. I had one guy conveniently run toward me and I swung my beam back and forth across him 5 times before he went down. I get the impression while using the Laser Riffle that in the hands of a very skilled player this weapon could be deadly. In my hands... not so much. - I have never run out of ammunition as much with any other weapon as I have with the Laser Riffle. Having a Nanohive is almost mandatory with that thing. - Firing at someone just out of range is very frustrating. You line up the perfect shot, get your beam right on them, and do no damage what-so-ever. - If someone gets close to you, you got to run like hell or switch to you SMG. The first few matches I did with a laser I spent a lot of time running. - If someone uses cover and only exposes themselves long enough to fire a bursts at a time they will force me to let my Laser cool off each time so that I can only do my much reduced cold damage on them while they do full damage on me. (At least I know how to fight lasers now.) The affect of Sharpshooter on minimum should be fixed, but otherwise I donGÇÖt think the laser riffle warrants either a buff nor a nerf. I still like my sniper riffle better, but running laser is an interesting challenge, and the chance of getting multiple kills if you find a group of reds huddled together is very appealing.
Fox Gaden DUST University Ivy League 165	Posted - 2013.02.13 13:27:00 - [2] - Quote mikegunnz wrote: As Beers said, the laser has INSANE damage once heated up. Supposedly, it's more effective against shields, not necessarily all that effective against armor. Problem is, that by the time you've easily gone through an opponents shields, the heat build-up is enough to EASILY melt their armor too. Even with an armor-tanked Heavy, you just have to spend a few tenths of a second pre-heating the laser and it melts armor effortlessly. Again, as Beers stated, lasers almost instantaneously melt through 7-800 HP. I agree though, the nerf hammer would probably completely ruin this gun. My only suggestion would be to not change the laser, but change armor's resistance level to lasers. They need DOUBLE the resistance they currently have to lasers. This would still allow laser user to almost instantly drop an opponents shields, but would require an extra second or so to take down armor. This would "balance" not only the weapon, but balance the issue with shields and armor as well. (as we all know, there is practically no reason to be armor-tanked in this game, right now it's all about shields) Giving armor more resistance would make armor-tanking a little more desirable since it would be you sturdy against lasers. I agree that if they decide that the Laser Riffle needs a nerf, they should do it by buffing Armour resistance to the Laser. However I think doubling the resistance Armour has to the Laser would have a much greater effect than you suspect. Better to increase Armour resistance by 50% first and see how that pans out. Also, if it is true that the Laser Riffle skill does not do anything, then perhaps the Laser should overhead more quickly if you have low skills, and get back to where it is now when you skill up. That would further reduce the number of casual users, and might reduce the complaining without ruining it for people who want to specialise in it.