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Post by contributor on Jul 30, 2015 8:37:42 GMT -5
So I've still got an old high level team going and decided I would get them into the P3 content. The captain is level 16. I had my soldiers specced out as close range bruisers and had unlocked the level 11 plasma rifle (AR 3 or something). I was really struggling with them though on the Detonation Site level until I went back to the trusty ol' Heavy Leviathan. Damage outputs went up significantly. In gear load-out I changed from the +12 damage +3% gear to the+4 damage, +10% Pen gear to go with the HL. I also retooled their talents so the knight when from level 5 overwatch to level 8. Those things would make some difference, but penetration would still be lower with the HL while extra damage would be higher. Anyways the HL was so much better that I think it deserves looking into. Maybe plasma damage is not registering correctly.
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Post by Kanly on Jul 30, 2015 9:08:28 GMT -5
Just curious - how do you feel about low level and mid range plasma rifles?
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Post by contributor on Jul 30, 2015 9:21:32 GMT -5
I haven't messed with them much lately. I haven't played this group in awhile so I don't exactly remember, but the change at the top was dramatic especially when you consider that I'm using 8 more gear points just to equip that thing. One thing I'm discovering though is that engaging an enemy early is better than engaging them late and for that reason I'm not sure I'm that big of a fan of the plasmas. They would have to be a lot better than the leviathans to make it worth it to me to shrink my defensive perimeter. One thing that I find very helpful is pushing my ring out as far as possible when I can. I put my knights out far when nobody is coming in. Once the xenos have gone through the zone once, I back my knight up, rinse and repeat. That way I can get the same xeno to go through the same knight's zone 2 or 3 times with a leviathan.
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Post by jknut on Jul 30, 2015 9:29:55 GMT -5
HL all the way for me.
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Post by fallen on Jul 30, 2015 10:16:03 GMT -5
contributor - sounds like your play style jives best with the longer ranged weaponry. That said, I will look at the balance of the high level plasmas.
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Post by contributor on Jul 30, 2015 10:17:46 GMT -5
That and the HLs still do more damage at close range than the AR 3 Plasma Rifle.
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Post by Cory Trese on Jul 30, 2015 10:20:41 GMT -5
That and the HLs still do more damage at close range than the AR 3 Plasma Rifle. That part I don't see in the numbers, at least. |
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Post by fallen on Jul 30, 2015 10:44:08 GMT -5
I can see how the size of the dice being rolled for a plasma rifle leads to more variable damage, but the AR3 packs +40 points of additional damage over the HL and is likely to penetrate 100% of the time.
As I look deeper at this, we may change the rules on how special damage is rolled to help improve all weaponry of these types.
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Post by contributor on Jul 31, 2015 8:08:32 GMT -5
Ok (looking a bit sheepish) I have to back-peddle a little here. I messed with my soldier's gear a bit when I was changing over from the plasmas and apparently, in the end, I equipped the Assault MK8 instead of the Heavy Leviathan. The Assault MK8 is a level 9 ballistic (regular) rifle, whose min damage is higher than the HL's max damage. So that would explain much better the difference I'm seeing. Still at lvl 9 it's still far more potent than the lvl 11 AR3 and has a longer range and better accuracy as well.
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Post by fallen on Jul 31, 2015 8:48:35 GMT -5
Ok, that would make some more sense. It was hard to imagine even with the dice-size issues, that the HL is out-doing the AR3.
On our list to check into now.
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