Laser cannon?

[Furry Eskimo]

I'm sorry if this question has been asked many times already, I'm just looking for a quick answer..

Is the laser cannon bad, or do I not understand what it's good for?

I played HD1 and use the laser cannon constantly, because it was a great weapon. I have been trying to use it vin HD2 and have been finding that it is not working The way I expect it too. It can only fire for an extremely short period of time, and the sound cue for it overheating is easily drowned out. This implies to me that it's meant to be used only against large enemies, but it doesn't seem to kill them.. I try using it against medium enemies, and it still doesn't seem to kill them very quickly, not even as quickly as my regular primary weapon. What am I overlooking? I don't understand how such a seemingly powerful weapon, comes across as this weak.

[Onimaho]

It's good, not excellent. That is why you think it is bad.

Infinite ammo medium armor penetration. Don't expect it to melt chargers in the face or anything. The weapon does not have any stopping power, meaning you will get mauled because there is no stagger effect unless you blow off limbs.

Bots;
Shoot bots in the ♥♥♥♥ with it. If you are good at aiming go for the head.
Shoot orange crit points, melts them very quickly. Towers, tanks, hulks, whatever it kills them fast if you go for that crit point.

Bugs;
Shoot them in the legs or head.
Don't bother hitting anything that is heavy armored like charger or bile, unless the armor is stripped. Then it will again melt them rather quickly.

I like to use the grenade launcher or las cannon against those fatass puking bugs. Kills them quick.

[L1qu1dator]

Aim in the head.

[Lesurous]

Basically all of the Beam type weapons are currently underpowered (except Good Boy Rover), though with the buffs to the Laser Cannon it's closer to viable now. I.e. you can kill an automaton devastator tank in just a few seconds hitting their weakspot with the Laser Cannon (somewhere around 2.5 to 3 seconds it feels).


I think the thing these kinda weapons need is better armor destruction (not penetration), angled fire should keep the deflection, but make it so straight on lasers melt through even heavy armor.

[Mosey]

It's not bad, it's also not the best.

If you can aim, it's perfectly viable. Best use, in my opinion, is versus hunters and other chaff bugs that would otherwise deplete your ammo.

Best when paired with laser guard dog, in my opinion anyway. The paired beams melt anything up to chargers.

For bots, aim for the glowy bits.

[KuroneR]

It's my main weapon, I love it but it's not that good.

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Onimaho:

It's good, not excellent. That is why you think it is bad.

Infinite ammo medium armor penetration.

Infinite ammo*
*only if you do not shoot for more than 10 seconds and let it cool down for about 16 seconds**
**cooldown time affected by ambient temperature

The Laser Cannon is OK, but it's not more and not less than that. It could use more than 1 spare heatsink though. Same unfortunately cannot be said about the other beam weapons.

[Onimaho]

Originally posted by Lesurous:

Basically all of the Beam type weapons are currently underpowered (except Good Boy Rover), though with the buffs to the Laser Cannon it's closer to viable now. I.e. you can kill an automaton devastator tank in just a few seconds hitting their weakspot with the Laser Cannon (somewhere around 2.5 to 3 seconds it feels).


I think the thing these kinda weapons need is better armor destruction (not penetration), angled fire should keep the deflection, but make it so straight on lasers melt through even heavy armor.

This would indeed change the gameplay a ton for laser weapons and any future ones.

Originally posted by Wutever:

Originally posted by Onimaho:

It's good, not excellent. That is why you think it is bad.

Infinite ammo medium armor penetration.

Infinite ammo*
*only if you do not shoot for more than 10 seconds and let it cool down for about 16 seconds**
**cooldown time affected by ambient temperature

The Laser Cannon is OK, but it's not more and not less than that. It could use more than 1 spare heatsink though. Same unfortunately cannot be said about the other beam weapons.

Player management issue really, most of the time you can just burst fire it to gain a little more time. Then quick swap to primary for a short bit, then swap back. I don't spam the las cannon at basic mobs much, rather save it for the medium armored targets and crit points.

[Lucky Cat]

The Laser Cannon is comparable to the Machine Gun Support Weapon. The major benefit is obvious, no ammo to worry about (rarely at the very least) and its range that's rated to go up to 200m (Which is the hard limit of its reach in the game, you can test this yourself!).

Since the buff to it from the patch, it can deal damage towards Medium Armor reliably. It isn't Anti-Tank capable by any means but it is VERY effective taking down those with Medium Armor in general. Like most Las weapons, you are expected to be accurate at all times, otherwise it is far useless than you can imagine. The real use is, like all Las weapons, is to go for the limbs as they take far more damage and dismember. You can easily tell with Terminids as they'll die in seconds. Even Brood Commanders become a joke if you try it enough with the Laser Cannon.

If you're against a hurdle that is heavily armored, say a Hulk, aim for the faceplate, in 3-5 seconds, its done. Tanks? The vents on the back for a few seconds, done. Though it has no effective use against Chargers and Bile Titans but it does decent enough to tackle them but that's where you use your other Strategems to cover your shortcoming weaknesses for bringing the Laser Cannon. So, use things like Orbital Railcannons or Eagle Airstrike/500kg Bomb (Or anything that can reliably AT at least to your preference).

Additionally, if you run basically all Las weapons, even when it reaches its overheating point, you can switch to your Primary that is also a Las, use it to keep going and after about 10-15 of managing carefully between targets, the Laser Cannon will be ready again to fully discharge.

Some weapons aren't for everyone but I found these weapons in question far superior when used right and more importantly, in better hands of those who are capable of maintaining accuracy above all else. People can say the Breaker is great but only because they don't have to worry about a few pellets missing. Some will say the Stalwart's great yet its because it has 250 rounds to spend and not worry about missing a few per enemy. The Las arsenal has the benefit to reward you if you're accurate and bring the right strategems to cover its weakness that it can't do reliably. Its great for Medium Armored enemies but not Heavy Armor but can still tackle if they have some weakspots that are otherwise capable of exploiting which is, again, requires accuracy to do.

[KellyR]

It's my favorite Support Weapon (What the called in guns are actually called. Sidearm is your secondary). I run with Sickle or Scythe as my primary, Laser Cannon as my Support. Sickle/Scythe are good for horde clear, switch to Cannon for Warriors and Spewers.

If I have to deal with a charger I either call in a rocket turret or an orbital laser.

Yes, I run with a laser rifle, Laser Cannon, and Orbital Laser (And Laser Guard Dog). I am Laser Girl. I don't have a gun for stopping a Charger dead, but I also never need ammo. I only ever need to restock my stun grenades (I use them in concert with the rocket turret for Chargers).

[XelNigma]

It needs a better scope, all the beam weapons need better scopes.

Damage wise its anti-medium armor. It does nothing to heavy and the damage is too weak for light.

[KellyR]

Originally posted by XelNigma:

It needs a better scope, all the beam weapons need better scopes.

Damage wise its anti-medium armor. It does nothing to heavy and the damage is too weak for light.

To be fair... The scope on the Laser Cannon is OK, the fact that the gun itself blocks the entire right side of your view is... not good. And yeah, the Scythe desperately needs a scope with zoom options, which is a big reason why I normally run the Sickle instead. But also the Sickle is just better than the Scythe at killing the basic unarmored bugs (The Scythe is better against Warriors and Hive Guards though!)

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Onimaho:

Originally posted by Wutever:

Infinite ammo*
*only if you do not shoot for more than 10 seconds and let it cool down for about 16 seconds**
**cooldown time affected by ambient temperature

The Laser Cannon is OK, but it's not more and not less than that. It could use more than 1 spare heatsink though. Same unfortunately cannot be said about the other beam weapons.

Player management issue really, most of the time you can just burst fire it to gain a little more time. Then quick swap to primary for a short bit, then swap back. I don't spam the las cannon at basic mobs much, rather save it for the medium armored targets and crit points.

Still doesn't make it infinite though. 10 seconds when you're getting rushed by a whole bunch of Spewers or Devastators is not that much, especially compared to other support weapon options.

The only energy weapon that I would say has effectively infinite ammo is the Sickle. Similar fire time, 6 times the spare heatsinks, actually good DPS (compared to other primary energy weapons). Obviously doesn't pen medium, but that's not its role.

[Mosey]

Just a tip for beam weapons in general: use first person for them.

It's much easier to hold the beam on target.

3rd person just isn't that accurate beyond medium range.

[John Digger]

Let's say it's have a rather odd behavior
Laser cannon is anti medium armor weapon because it's a weapon without physical damage to actually kill you need to litwrally burn enemy face off it seem to work better bot than bug and it take about the same time to kill Hiveguard and hunter i mostly take it for utility though since it can destroy spore and flyer nest from long range and can destroy cannon turret if shoot from behind killing enemy with this thing can get frustrating

[John Digger]

Originally posted by Mosey:

Just a tip for beam weapons in general: use first person for them.

It's much easier to hold the beam on target.

3rd person just isn't that accurate beyond medium range.

Except beam cannon scope is pile of garbage that make no sense it just so many useless line on that thing i can barely see the target