Plasma Launcher

The plasma grenades are affected by gravity and will travel in a ballistic arc toward the ground as they travel. Upon impact with any solid matter (such as rocks, dirt, the walls of the sky box, or other robots) the gernades detonate, dealing damage to any enemy robots within a certain radius. When the plasma bolts reach their maximum range they fizzle out mid-flight, and not deal damage.

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"A high explosive Plasma Grenade Launcher."

- In-game description

The Plasma Launcher is a type of weapons that fires explosive plasma shots that detonate on impact. They are, along with Lasers, among the most beginner friendly weapons, and higher level variants can be used later.

Overview
The plasma grenades are affected by gravity and will travel in a ballistic arc toward the ground as they travel. Upon impact with any solid matter (such as rocks, dirt, the walls of the sky box, or other robots) the grenades detonate, dealing damage to any enemy robots within a certain radius. When the plasma bolts reach their maximum range they fizzle out mid-flight, and not deal damage.

As Plasma Launchers become progressively higher in levels, so do their damage, gun size, mass, price, armor, and CPU cost.

Plasma Launchers are fired akin to Lasers, by holding LMB. Unlike lasers there is no tap-firing benefit as there is no reticle change or loss in accuracy. Instead, Plasma is recommended to be fired in volleys, discharging as many bolts as possible to create an alpha-strike attack while taking advantage of a large area of effect.

When a Plasma Launcher fires, it generates significant recoil. Low mass robots are particularly sensitive to recoil effects and can be uncontrollable for several seconds after a plasma volley. Although wheels, thrusters and hover blades can compensate for recoil, the best method of mitigating its effect is to make a massive robot. It is possible to limp a crippled robot short distances when it has no remaining movements with the recoil from plasma launchers. This recoil effect can help if a robot has crashed or tipped over and has lost the ability to reverse out to jiggle them free, a very useful trick if an aircraft has lost its reverse thrusters and is jammed into terrain.

Pros

 * Great damage at far/medium range
 * Projectile arc allows for slight indirect fire over obstacles
 * AOE (Area of Effect) damage allows for slightly missed shots to damage targets
 * Great for crowd control with AOE damage radius
 * Great for airborne flyers
 * Alpha-strike supports ambush tactics
 * Accuracy unaffected when moving or when hold-firing

Cons

 * Long-range combat requires impressive ballistic intuition
 * Slower projectile travel time needs to be judged carefully
 * For aircraft, height needs to be calculated
 * Fast bots dodge it easily and hovers can hover over the AOE of a plasma
 * Poor against airborne targets due to slow speed and easy evasion on the target's behalf
 * Plasmas, especially larger variants like the Goliathan, consume a greater amount of energy per shot than most weapons

Splash Damage
To simulate real splash damage, when a plasma shot is fired, any bots or blocks found within its 25 meter radius will have damage randomly imparted over the area. Note that this mechanic is different from Plasma's old mechanic pre 2016, which relied on resistivity and barrier protection.

Placement
Due to plasma's alpha strike/high damage output and parabolic trajectory, placement of your plasma launchers is especially paramount. Note that these general tips for these mounts can also be used for most other guns (lasers, rails, ions, etc.)

Top Mount

Mounting plasma launchers on your bot's top is good for mid to long range exchanges, but require the robot to be short or remain close to the ground to strike nearby targets. However, targets that are close or in contact to your bot may be able to miss plasma shots due to its trajectory being blocked by your bot. Furthermore, top guns are completely unable to fire on targets below the robot, which makes them unsuitable for air-to-ground combat.

Bottom Mount
Mounting plasmas on the bottom of your bot is good for mid to close range exchanges, but requires a robot to have a height advantage to strike at targets at long range. This height advantage can be achieved by using high terrain features, hovering high above the ground, or by being airborne. Belly guns are unable to fire on targets above a robot and are ineffective as anti-air weapons, unless a robot is above the target or the guns are maneuvered to face the target. As a result, bottom mounts are suitable for copters, drones, planes, etc.

Side/Front Mount

Mounting plasmas on your bot's sides/fronts combines the benefits of both bottom/front mounts; as long as the bot is directly facing its target, plasmas can fire well in close, mid, and far range exchanges. However, due to the focus on directly facing your guns + bot towards the target, side/front mounts are best used in strafing hovers, mechs, sprinters, or hovers. Without strafing or the ability to easily align your bot's front and gun's aim together, side/front mounts can become cumbersome and hard to manage.

For most bots, the suggested use is a combination of all types of mounts. However, you should always change the placement and mounting of your guns depending on your bot's build and play style.

How to Use:
Basics:

Highly mobile plasma robots such as plasma hovers and speeders are very good for ambush tactics, even without the support of their teammates. Combined with high speed and turning rate can make them unexpectedly agile in close quarters, and very effective at swarming or harassment tactics. Plasmas can be devastating against non-electroplated bots, shredding them apart.

Well armored flying bots that use plasma are usually able to take a few shots at the enemy reactor in Battle Arena even while under heavy fire when the shield is down.

Plasma Launchers also become especially deadly when coupled with high damage boost, making lower CPU and agile bots good candidates for plasma usage.

VS:

Tanks

Unlike lasers or accuracy guns, plasmas cannot effectively degun or take out critical parts of bots. However, plasma bots can still face tanks well by taking large chunks out of the bot. More agile plasma bots can also effectively bombard slower, bulky tanks while easily dodging and evading shots.

Flyers

In general, plasmas do poorly against flying bots due to their projectile time and parabolic trajectory, coupled with flyers' agility.

Glass Cannons/Support

Plasmas shine in taking out glass cannons, weak hovers, and support units. Sprinter legs, due to their size and low HP, are great magnets for plasma damage.

Laser Bots

Plasma bots run the disadvantage of being unable to disarm lasers and other parts, but still can face laser bots evenly.

Railgun Bots

Plasmas can possibly take out most railguns as a flyer or bomber from larger distances, or rush in at close distances and alpha-strike them.

Nano Bots (Healers)

Most healers being smaller support units, plasmas manage to do quite well against them. Plasmas are also an easy way to finish off the fast moving and difficult to aim remains of a bot.

How to Counter:
Due to plasma's slow projectile speed and parabolic trajectory, it becomes much easier to dodge and face plasma from larger distances.

Due to plasma's large AOE effect, it's important to remember that when hiding behind other bots, shields, or smaller obstacles, it's still very possible to take damage if a plasma shot lands even on/near the obstacle. As a result, usual hiding in combat in close/mid range may not work as well against plasma bots as it does against other non AOE guns.

When assaulting plasma robots it is recommended to aim for the connection points connecting the plasmas to the hull. If the connectors are not exposed, aim for the guns itself. In most cases, you would want to stay somewhat away from the plasma bots.

When in close and medium range with a plasma robot, keep moving, and move quickly. The relatively slow traverse time of a bot and slow projectile speed means that rapid movement may exceed the ability of a plasma launcher to track a target. Though this strategy may not prevent a robot from being hit, it can reduce the damage taken.

Note that moving quickly means nothing if you don't change your trajectory and speed once in a while. As long as your movements are evasive and unpredictable, plasma shots will have a much harder time landing critical hits on your bot.

Trivia

 * Plasma cannons were added March 11th, 2014.
 * Prior to the patch DotM3 the area effect damage from plasma volleys do not stack on a single cube, striking a target with multiple bolts only dealt more damage if each bolt hit a different block on the robot. This was largely unknown to players.
 * The Plasma Launcher is referred in the code as KUBE_Plasma_cannon
 * On the Custom Games Mk1.5 update, the projectiles were made bigger, to be as big as the Goliathon's blast radius.
 * Plasma Launchers lost their simultaneous volley feature in the Maximum Loadout Update on the 2nd March 2016, and was buffed as alpha strikes by plasma was reduced.


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