Plas-39 accelerator desperately needs a buff

[Chuck]

This weapon has been completely forgotten about in light of the recent changes to warbonds weapons but this weapon needs to be revisited. It's bad. Real bad. I will go over why and then my idea for a solution, but in short, this weapon is probably the only, or at least one of the very few, F tier weapons, due to it failing as a sniper rifle, and failing as any other kind of weapon.

why its bad

You effectively only have 3 shots. Ammo capacity is 9 but because it's a 3 round burst, you really only get 3 shots. Not great reserves either, I think even with siege armor you only get 10 mags, so 30 shots. So already, pretty abysmal ammo economy.

The problem is it doesn't do what a sniper should. A sniper should be able to pick off high-value targets. Something this weapon struggles to do. Against medium enemies, like berserkers, devastators and illuminate alien dudes, you can't kill an enemy in a single burst consistently (for devastators I've been able to kill in a single burst by point blank headshotting them with the full burst while I was above them on a small cliff but these ideal conditions almost never happen in actual gameplay, and these ones may have already been damaged anyway). That means you must take 2 of your available 3 shots to kill a single medium enemy. You know what weapons can kill more than 1 medium enemy in a single mag? Nearly all of them!

The solution:

Up the damage where it can constantly 1 burst medium enemies. It could probably benefit from a faster reload at least and maybe better reserve ammo but the main issue is damage, you have to spend so much time and ammo to do so little that you actively detriment your team by taking this weapon, as your primary cannot contribute well towards crowd clearing or breaking heavier units. Even if it could burst down medium enemies in 1 burst it still wouldn't be a great weapon, as you can still only kill 3 mediums in a single mag before a lengthier-than-pleasant reload, but it would at least give it niche utility that it currently lacks.

I love the idea of this gun. A 3 round burst sniper rifle, what a unique and interesting idea, but it's far from the primary railgun I thought it would be when I first saw it, and it's far from being at least an OK weapon too.

[Phishfood]

For the only weapon the "Sniper" category it should sit somewhere between the counter-sniper and the AMR, but it falls short of even the diligence

[Logen Neuf-Doigts]

damage drop off is pretty bonkers too from what i've read and experienced , it share the same values as all plasma weapons wich means a 64% damage reduction at 100 meters if i remember correctly , wich wich is hilariously bad for a weapon that created the "sniper " category. the projectile should have a flatter trajectory too because compared to diligence and amr it's more of an indirect fire weapon

[Lost Latios]

I agree, the gun right now is garbage. Charge and burst fire? Fine. But it should actually kill something efficiently.

[Solitas]

Even the times you one shot mediums is pretty rare.

I know it's never gonna really contend, being a gimmick weapon and all. I'm fine with that aspect, it's a fun idea.
But man, it needs to lose the damage fall-off, or at last have it drastically reduced. Plus some more oomph and splash on hit.

They could fix it, the purifier is a great example of a plasma weapon that got a great makeover that rescued it from obscurity.

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Logen Neuf-Doigts:

damage drop off is pretty bonkers too from what i've read and experienced , it share the same values as all plasma weapons wich means a 64% damage reduction at 100 meters if i remember correctly , wich wich is hilariously bad for a weapon that created the "sniper " category. the projectile should have a flatter trajectory too because compared to diligence and amr it's more of an indirect fire weapon

It's fairly realistic, for better or worse. Plasma is terrible at being a projectile. A plasma sniper rifle is probably the dumbest thing you could come up with as a weapon designer.

[Malidictus]

I say get over the "tie-in" nature of the weapon and just give us a single-shot option in addition to the existing burstfire. Even if nothing else changes, that would still make the weapon substantially less ♥♥♥♥.

[Logen Neuf-Doigts]

Originally posted by Wutever:

Originally posted by Logen Neuf-Doigts:

damage drop off is pretty bonkers too from what i've read and experienced , it share the same values as all plasma weapons wich means a 64% damage reduction at 100 meters if i remember correctly , wich wich is hilariously bad for a weapon that created the "sniper " category. the projectile should have a flatter trajectory too because compared to diligence and amr it's more of an indirect fire weapon

It's fairly realistic, for better or worse. Plasma is terrible at being a projectile. A plasma sniper rifle is probably the dumbest thing you could come up with as a weapon designer.

ok nerd

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Malidictus:

I say get over the "tie-in" nature of the weapon and just give us a single-shot option in addition to the existing burstfire. Even if nothing else changes, that would still make the weapon substantially less ♥♥♥♥.

Single shot would make it much better. The DCS can handle chaff quite well while with the Plas-39 you NEED a secondary for chaff. The gun would still be mid at best, but at least it would be usable.

Originally posted by Logen Neuf-Doigts:

Originally posted by Wutever:

It's fairly realistic, for better or worse. Plasma is terrible at being a projectile. A plasma sniper rifle is probably the dumbest thing you could come up with as a weapon designer.

ok nerd

y u hafta be mad? is just a gam.

[Solitas]

Even if they insisted on keeping it burst fire it's not like they can't work with it.
Make it so each shot is like a fully charged purifier shot, scale back the damage drop off. There ya go, hard hitting limited use. Sure that's a lot of power in a burst, but one your ammo is finite and you still need to land all shots.

[Alar]

It hasnt been forgotten, they said its ass and it will stay that way

[Chuck]

Originally posted by Alar:

It hasnt been forgotten, they said its ass and it will stay that way

"They" as in arrowhead? And did they give a reason why it will stay that way?

[DrLamp]

gimmick weapon. it was never intended to be good

[Lucky Cat]

What's funny about for something considered a full blown Sniper RIfle, it has a horrific damage falloff. While the explosive side of it remains untouched but its direct damage is where it loses its momentum.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Chuck:

Originally posted by Alar:

It hasnt been forgotten, they said its ass and it will stay that way

"They" as in arrowhead? And did they give a reason why it will stay that way?

Pilestadt did, but he's gone now, so who knows? People make threads about how bad it is constantly, so hopefully the devs will do something about it some day.

[Ixhaton]

I used it twice and I'm still asking myself if it is a shotgun or not.