Plasma Blaster

[Anarch Cassius]

The Plasma Blaster is a very oddball weapon. Ostensibly it's the heavy weapons version of the Plasma Rifle. In practice it's crappy knock-off. I'm also not sure what's up with it firing plasma beams, is that a graphical artifact or is it beaming plasma down ionized paths or magnetic fields?

It's heavy, short-ranged and inaccurate. I'm not sure why the aliens were favoring them over the rifles unless it was to give me a sporting chance. The only good thing about it was the ball which was recently nerfed. It's more like a crappy shotgun than a heavy weapon. The only use for it seems to be for people who aren't any good with assault rifles and even then the plasma pistol is a tempting alternative, to say nothing of human weapons like the submachine gun.

Also does anything use heavy weapons any more? No weapon says so but my skill in it keeps rising for several characters implying it's being used. Is it Melee now or something applied to any type of weapon that happens to be large?

[H-Hour]

The plasma blaster is a Close weapon, most similar in usage to shotguns, and should generally always be used in Ball mode. When you access it (early in the game), your heavy-hitting close-range weapon (excluding Flamer because it is unique) goes from 120 normal_medium damage with the Riot Shotgun to 180 plasma_heavy damage. This is extraordinary power early in the game and will provide a strong punch throughout most of the game.

[Anarch Cassius]

Thinking of it as a shotgun helps, but it still feels a lot less accurate than human shotguns. Could be my bad luck. It does have a nice ability to punch through armor with its damage and damage type.

I think it was seeing this be the mainstay of alien forces until they brought out the needlers is what confused me. I typically have one or two of these at most and plenty of plasma rifles in a squad.

Still bringing the ball radius up to two (it's 1 now, was 3 if I recall) and/or increasing it's range or accuracy a tad might be good.

[Anarch Cassius]

What it is... a near miss with a shot gun tends to get some hits in. The plasma blaster needs to impact a target or cover object to disperse properly or it just goes out to maximum range and fizzles harmlessly.

This is a good difference but it means it might need to be stronger in other areas.

[H-Hour]

The Plasma Blaster is less accurate than the Riot Shotgun using Saboted Slugs. It is the same accuracy as Flechettes, but as you mention, Flechettes have 8 shots so you get a chance of hitting a little. But this is where play style will trump the raw numbers. If you are a careful swarmer, you'll be turning corners onto aliens with 2 teammates around to finish him off and you'll be happy playing the better odds of a lower-damage weapon that puts out more rounds (more chances to hit). If you're someone who often ends up facing down an enemy indoors with just 1 or 2 soldiers around, you need a 1-shot-1-kill weapon or your man is dead as soon as you press the end turn button. Not all weapons may fit your play style, but they still have their uses.

Still bringing the ball radius up to two (it's 1 now, was 3 if I recall) and/or increasing it's range or accuracy a tad might be good.

A larger splash radius is actually a problem for close-quarters combat, the role this weapon is intended for. You don't want a reaction shot to go off on an alien 2 grid squares away when the splash radius is 3.

If you're firing out to maximum range with the plasma blaster, you're probably wasting ammo.

[Anarch Cassius]

Right. Okay that actually sounds like very useful advice.

I remember a Sheevar turning the corner and being two away and blasting himself and one of my soldiers to bits. I figured it was part of their tactics, so I suppose this change benefits Phalanx overall.

[ShipIt]

From my experience I have to agree with OP here. The burst-mode using 16 TUs barely scratches an armoured Taman when you stand next to him, while the Plasma Rifle uses 12 TUs for a 3-round and pushes him out of his shoes immediately. Not to speak - even the Assault Rifle performs better.

[Triaxx2]

Agreed. I picked them up, thinking they were Heavy. Once I realized how useless they were at that, I dropped them for Plasma Rifles. Better mobility, better damage, and if I turn a corner into something I have the guaranteed kill of 8 shot full-auto mode.

[H-Hour]

From my experience I have to agree with OP here. The burst-mode using 16 TUs barely scratches an armoured Taman when you stand next to him, while the Plasma Rifle uses 12 TUs for a 3-round and pushes him out of his shoes immediately. Not to speak - even the Assault Rifle performs better.

If you're standing next to him use the BALL MODE (10 TUs)! This is not meant to compare to an assault weapon. It's a powerful one-shot weapon for close engagements. The other firemodes are fall-backs, something you should only use in desperate situations where you'll trade overwhelming firepower for a lucky weak hit or two at greater distance.

I can see now that when I bumped the alien-armour-vs-plasma I made the snap/burst firemodes of the blaster nearly irrelevant. I'll bump their damage a little. But the Blaster will never be as good in snap/burst modes as the Rifle because it wasn't designed for that.

[Telok]

That ball mode is not to be laughed at. I've had a habit of using civilians as soft cover on some occasions. Recently a Shevarr(sp?) dropped a plasma ball onto that "cover" and the splash did ~85 damage and four wound icons to a soldier.

Oddly in 2.4 once the aliens start carrying plasma rifles and blasters they stop carrying the plasma pistols. I think, I haven't noticed any being auto-sold like the blasters are.

[ShipIt]

Even 10 TUs means the alien always shoots first. But maybe I am just in love with the Plasma Rifle too much  .

[Sarin]

Ball mode is odd. It is fast and powerful, but with limited range and inaccurate. In my experience when used by aliens, it's more dangerous to them than anyone else as they get splashed way too often, I even had situations where aliens blasted themselves to bits with it. Other fire modes are just crap.

Overall, I prefer spending those TU to grab a nade from belt and throw it and use better primary weapon.

[Triaxx2]

It's a pretty terrible close weapon that's beaten so thoroughly by the Plasma PISTOL. With thirty-one TU, I can crouch and fire seven reasonably accurate shots, not a single one of which will trigger reaction fire.

[H-Hour]

It's a pretty terrible close weapon that's beaten so thoroughly by the Plasma PISTOL. With thirty-one TU, I can crouch and fire seven reasonably accurate shots, not a single one of which will trigger reaction fire.

Against an armoured Taman, you will do 105 damage if all seven shots hit the target. With the Plasma Blaster you would do 155 damage for 10 TU if you hit the target.

Your assertion that you can fire your pistol seven times with no reaction fire is either not true or a bug. Reaction fire is triggered by cumulative TU use in view of the target. The counter does not reset for each shot fired.

[Anarch Cassius]

Or just a lucky break. Sometimes the enemy has nearly full TU for reaction other times none at all depending on what they did.