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- Power: 120
- Size: 3 high x 2 wide
- Weight: 18
- TUs:
- Auto: n/a
- Snap: 33% (accuracy 75%)
- Aimed: 60% (accuracy 110%)
Hmm, interesting stats for XComUtil version of the Heavy Laser. I like how this upgrade makes it a more viable weapon now, the extra accuracy and power make it a potentially useful sniper weapon.
It also makes sense that lasers would be at least as accurate as plasma weapons (if not more), since lasers move at the speed of light. If you were going for realism, they should perhaps be more accurate, but maybe less powerful -- maybe allowing a high volume of rapid, low damage, but highly accurate shots to simulate the amount of time a laser would need to burn a hole in a target. For game balance though, this seems like a good improvement.
It's also interesting that the Sniper Rifles in Apocalypse are laser based. It is a bit strange how much weaker they get even though technology has presumably advanced in the intervening years. --Captain Foo 18:23, 3 September 2008 (PDT)
Ideally the Heavy Laser would be less of a sniper and more of a long-range minigun. Accurate, low-damage, but voluminous fire. Venganza 12:27, 3 August 2009 (EDT)
Other discussion
I've been experimenting with the Heavy Laser in OpenXcom recently. I've since upgraded to Heavy Plasma and haven't really looked back, but I still think this is a much better weapon than its' reputation among players seems to suggest.
- It is a lifesaver before I get Heavy Plasma.
- It performs very well against Sectoids, given their low armour and the Cyberdisc's vulnerability to lasers.
- It does need to be fired in salvos to avoid missing sometimes. If I have three soldiers in cover who don't need to move, then I can get three snap shots each. I usually don't need more than two hits per target.
--Petrus4 (talk) 10:24, 2 November 2017 (UTC)
- Part of the problem is that many players have with it is the huge disparity in performance between the Heavy Laser and Heavy Plasma. The fact that you can jump right to the Heavy Plasma and not look back the moment you get one does not help either.
- What I find helps is to stop thinking of the Heavy Laser as the laser counterpart to the Heavy Plasma and to instead think of it as an upgraded Heavy Cannon. Or a laser modded Heavy Cannon. They are close matches to each other as far as speed and accuracy go. With that mindset in place, you'll find that if you are comfortable using the Heavy Cannons with AP rounds, then you'll have no trouble using the Heavy Laser. NKF (talk) 04:48, 3 November 2017 (UTC)
- The problem with the Heavy Laser has little to do with the Heavy Plasma and everything to do with the Laser Rifle. The problem is that by the time you get the Heavy Laser, you already have the Laser Rifle (since it's a prerequisite), and the better fire rate and accuracy on the Laser Rifle mean that its damage-per-turn is actually substantially higher than that of the Heavy Laser against almost any opponent (Laser Rifle 2 Auto + 1 Snap = 1.7 average hits with 50 FA, while the Heavy Laser has 3 Snap = 0.75 average hits; this outweighs the difference in damage even for moderately-armoured enemies like the Cyberdisc and Chryssalid).
- The one niche the Heavy Laser does have over the Laser Rifle is in that almost - Sectopods have so much armour that the Laser Rifle is unlikely to do any damage whatsoever, while the Heavy Laser has a much more respectable chance to penetrate. There are a couple of weapons which are even more effective - the Small Launcher and Blaster Launcher - but these are single-shot weapons and in the latter case may not be in your hands by June if you've been doing poorly.
- Of course, with third-party mods that improve its power, the Heavy Laser becomes a decent weapon, but in vanilla UFO it's quite underwhelming. Magic9mushroom (talk) 13:46, 27 June 2018 (CEST)
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