I've wracked my brain and I just can't seem to figure them out. Why do they exist?
If you start by comparing them to the other guardian weapons, they're the hardest to hit with, the highest energy draining, and deal Absolute damage. Which would be all well and good, except thargoids have no resistances.
This means that, rather than helping them, this actually hurts them; Shard Cannons and Gauss Cannons deal full damage to hull and bonus damage against shields, so they're always stronger than their stats say, while PAs deal exactly as much damage as they say they do. This makes them equivalent against hulls after the shields have gone down, and worse against the shields themselves.
You might think this would make them good at taking out the hull and hearts, but they deal the least heart damage of any of the weapons! Not to mention being nearly impossible to hit the hearts with them in the first place! Besides which, even the class 3's only have 95 armor piercing, so they deal the exact same dps as class 2 gauss cannons against basilisks on up!
So you've got a weapon that: Does equal or less damage. Is much harder to hit with. Generates as much or more heat. Draws as much or more power. Does less heart damage.
Why does this weapon exist?
The only - only! - reason I could EVER see for using this weapon is the ability to charge up the first shot and essentially expand the size of your capacitor. But because you can fully charge it in just two seconds, even that benefit is mostly irrelevant!
This is my proposal. Radically increase the potential charging time. Change it from two seconds to ten seconds. A fully charged shot would do, not 66.3 damage, but 331.5.
That's it. That way a player could take their time lining up their shot, knowing the energy and time isn't being wasted.
It still might not be outright as good as the other options, but at least it would do something useful!
If you start by comparing them to the other guardian weapons, they're the hardest to hit with, the highest energy draining, and deal Absolute damage. Which would be all well and good, except thargoids have no resistances.
This means that, rather than helping them, this actually hurts them; Shard Cannons and Gauss Cannons deal full damage to hull and bonus damage against shields, so they're always stronger than their stats say, while PAs deal exactly as much damage as they say they do. This makes them equivalent against hulls after the shields have gone down, and worse against the shields themselves.
You might think this would make them good at taking out the hull and hearts, but they deal the least heart damage of any of the weapons! Not to mention being nearly impossible to hit the hearts with them in the first place! Besides which, even the class 3's only have 95 armor piercing, so they deal the exact same dps as class 2 gauss cannons against basilisks on up!
So you've got a weapon that: Does equal or less damage. Is much harder to hit with. Generates as much or more heat. Draws as much or more power. Does less heart damage.
Why does this weapon exist?
The only - only! - reason I could EVER see for using this weapon is the ability to charge up the first shot and essentially expand the size of your capacitor. But because you can fully charge it in just two seconds, even that benefit is mostly irrelevant!
This is my proposal. Radically increase the potential charging time. Change it from two seconds to ten seconds. A fully charged shot would do, not 66.3 damage, but 331.5.
That's it. That way a player could take their time lining up their shot, knowing the energy and time isn't being wasted.
It still might not be outright as good as the other options, but at least it would do something useful!
