Hey whatsup everybody. I’ve got some information comparing all four starting Rifles being paired with a Plasma Pistol secondary. Now that the embargo’s over, I figured I’d share lol.
Since the Plasma Pistol’s charge shot’s tracking has been severely nerfed, the Pistol’s strength may now lie in it’s normal, uncharged shots. This information therefore compares the Rifles’ abilities to take advantage of uncharged Plasma Pistol shots.
The following information for each Rifle lists a number of Plasma Pistol shots landed on a full shield Spartan, plus the minimum number of Rifle Shots to finish the kill with a headshot.
Examples:
2 PP + 2 BR means that 2 Plasma Pistol shots will leave a full health Spartan two-shot to a BR.
3 PP + 1 BR means that 3 Plasma Pistol shots will leave a full health Spartan one-shot to a BR.
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Test Results:
Battle Rifle:
1 PP + 4 BR
2 PP + 2 BR
3 PP + 1 BR
DMR:
1 PP + 4 DMR*
2 PP + 2 DMR
3 PP + 2 DMR
4 PP + 1 DMR
Carbine:
1 PP + 6 Car
2 PP + 4 Car
3 PP + 2 Car
4 PP + 1 Car
Light Rifle:**
1 PP + 3 LR
2 PP + 2 LR
3 PP + 1 LR
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Notes:
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1 PP + 4 DMR may be incorrect; it may be 1 PP + 3 DMR. Confirmation is needed.*
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Scoped Light Rifle shots were not tested. Confirmation is needed.**
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From this data, it seems that that out of the four Rifles, the Light Rifle has the most synergy with the Plasma Pistol. 3 shots from the Plasma Pistol leave a spartan one-shot to a LR or BR, but not to a Carbine or DMR. However, a single Plasma Pistol shot leaves a Spartan 4-shot to a BR, but only 3-shot to a LR. This is a curious phenomenon, because the BR actually does more damage per bullet than the LR.
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Use of the Dexterity perk will improve kill times for all of these stats across the board, since a weapon switch animation is required to execute these combinations.
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Get used to YY-ing when you spawn, because there is a slower weapon switch animation the very first time you switch to the Plasma Pistol each life.
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It is worth noting that if these weapons had bleedthrough, the Carbine would be 3 PP + 1 Car, and the DMR would be 3 PP + 1 DMR.
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While 3 Plasma Pistol shots still leaves a Spartan 2-shot to a Carbine, the Carbine’s fast rate of fire makes the Carbine more effective with the Plasma Pistol than the stats may lead you to believe.
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While the DMR has the fastest non-scoped kill time of the four Rifles, it has the weakest synergy with the Plasma Pistol according to these stats.
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It should be understood that the Plasma Pistol has bloom. Spamming the Plasma Pistol to achieve these shot combinations diminishes in effectiveness with range because the Plasma Pistol has bloom.
> You may want to include that 1 pp shot (uncharged) counts as 2% of your battery, instead of the usual one.
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Hopefully everybody can find these stats of use. I am personally a huge fan of Plasma weapons, so I look forward to using the Plasma Pistol + Light Rifle + Dexterity combo in matchmaking.