1. concede...no recoil.
2. lasers do shoot where you aim but #1 already covered this... a weakness the laser has though is in a fight your advantage is to keep the beam on...making tracking an enemy a lot harder. Scouts are wicked annoying to zap down.
3. All guns gets this advantage?
4. this is its strength and weakness. I do 15-20 damage...we think with my first bullet. The AR does it's 30-36 something. As soon as I let cool down occur to adjust the shot I lose my "advantage". The last bullet in my clip does?200? we do not know but it is mean. But that is my heated up clip. I have to fire for a given amount of time to get there. AR is consistently given what you ask for damage wise. That is one reason I rather "depend" on the AR.
5. There is no laser that can really move and shoot and hit there target. (I sure can not and have not seen any) Watch any laser...we are only effective standing still. "That is why snipers love us...here am I free headshot!"

The stories of light sabering and killing players in one "swipe" I believe to be exaggerated or maybe someone got an assist or something. With the clip of 100 and heat build where it is I have swiped players with the hot lasers and it does little damage. More then a swipe...then I get deadly but it is not a magic wand.

A couple of facts to add doc

1 Laser has no recoil - AR does and also has build up recoil the longer you hold R1
2 Laser has 100% accuracy - AR has accuracy and bullet spread
3 Laser takes advantage of the broken damage mods (ccp always takes like 5 months to fix anything)
4 Lasers increase damage over time of holding R1 - AR has consistant damage (holding R1 just increases recoil)
5 Movement while firing a laser doesn't decrease its accuracy - Moving while using an AR decreases its accuracy and increaes bullet spread.

To add to the discussion

Laser has an optimal range with fall off on either side. It was never intended to be a close range weapon. Trying to say that its bad at close range so its already nerfed is lame. No on argues that snipers at close range are really hard to use so the damage/sway/ROF should be uber good.

Back to the damage mod issue. Lasers are like snipers as they are normally not in the direct line of fire. To be specific when on my laser alt I use an A series assualt with damage mods in highs and smg. I will use smg (notice i could give a **** that laser is weak up close) till i get to my spot and drop hives. Then switch to laser and melt face. Since I dont have to worry about moving around and engaging players in CQC I can always go gank fit suits. The amount of damage and accuracy a laser can do is devastating.

I have been on the other side of this last build. I was in fully buffed b series assualt suits with close to 760 ehp. I watch an imperfect alt with laser pick off 2 people and thought I could sneak out and take him down. I got a laser accross my head and was dead instantly. Whoops.

I would like the laser mechanics to be reworked especialy the lame skill bonuses. Is a laser OP? Yes it is to me.

the lazer is fine, where is the tac rifle?

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.

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.

Much like what the Sniper, Laser, Mass Driver, and Assault Rifle can do to the HMG, Scrambler, SMG, Shotgun, and Nova Knife. Well actually everything outranges the Nova Knife. LOL

If you want to be kind of dumb and oversimplify things, then sure, every weapon in the game is equal and CCP has achieved perfect balance except for the nova knife, el oh el.