Pulse laser buffs in the latest patch

Ever since I started playing in late 2012, the pulse lasers have not been in a good spot. They're heavier, have less range and more heat than their normal counterparts, all for the additional one point of damage and less beam duration. So far, the MWO crowd has spoken and these weapons were left either for the "troll builds" akin to the 9 flamer Hunchies or disregarded completely. Seriously, how many of you see a mech boating pulses and don't think "Here's an easy target, two alphas and he's cooking!". The so called "normalization pass" in last summer didn't really help them, as they brought heat increases for the LPL and MPL for measly damage increases.

As gimped as it seemed, I used LPL in many of my builds to great effect. It wasn't particularly a bad weapon and as a brawler I found the damage/heat trade-off quite bearable. I avoided MPL's like a plague though, they were beyond saving.

Today, finally we got some buffs. Here you go, straight from the patch notes:

Weapon Tuning 

• Medium Pulse Lasers - Range increase from 180 to 200 Long Range and 360 to 400 Max Range 
• Large Pulse Lasers - Range increase from 300 to 350 Long Range and 600 to 700 Max Range, Heat decreased from 8.5 to 8.0.

So MPL's and LPL's get much needed range buffs while the LPL also gets a heat buff.  This makes LPL quite an all-rounder; 8 heat is definitely very good for what you get and you get to shoot until 700m, allowing you to return mid-long range fire even in a brawler mech.

I'm not sure about the MPL buff though. Additional 40 max range isn't much as the problem with this weapon is not the range, but the tonnage/heat compared to ML's. I think this won't affect the MPL usage much and an additional buff is needed in the future. It could be either reducing the heat to more bearable levels(say 4.5, compared to ML's 4) or a tonnage reduction(which is highly unlikely).

Anyways, today I will be dusting off my Pulseboat Protector which I will be posting next as an LPL buff special.

Wub away!

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About Rak

I'm an engineer who likes to write extremely long articles about games that border simulation and mainstream.