My Thoughts on the Laser Weapons

What the title says. I'm going to be talking about the laser weapons. Specifically, the Dagger, the Scythe, the Sickle, and the Double-Edged Sickle.

Dagger (Secondary)

My first impression of this weapon was to put it in the decidedly "not good" category. When it initially launched, it dealt half the damage of the Scythe (which was already crap at that time) heated up much faster, and had fewer spare reloads.

After a few rounds of buffs, however, the weapon now deals a respectable 250 damage per second and can light enemies on fire. This is essentially a sniper version of the Crisper pistol, being able to bring the flame effect to enemies at long range. It also doesn't consume much ammunition (though I've never seen that be an issue for secondaries really), so you can sort of use it as a primary weapon if your actual primary is something specialized like the Eruptor.

Overall I rate the Dagger pistol 7/10. It does what it's supposed to fairly well, and is a reliable backup weapon.

Scythe

Similar idea to the Dagger. Initially this weapon was absolute crap, only really good against the smallest and slowest of bugs and bots. Once again, after a round of buffs, this weapon deals a more impressive 350 damage per second and can light enemies on fire.

The fact that this weapon doesn't have medium armor penetration really doesn't bother me at all, because the enemies that you're going to use it against don't have medium armor. In fact, most enemies that do have medium armor also have a weak point that's easy to hit with this weapon (Devastators), because it's a laser-accurate rifle. Since they've added a better scope, it's actually possible to use this as a quasi-marksman rifle, while outputting decent DPS against hordes of Voteless and melting right through Overseer armor.

The only faction I'd hesitate to use it against is the bugs, because it's weak to being rushed down.

I give the Scythe 7/10, overall it fulfills its role as a "larger Dagger", being able to cut through rows of Voteless or snipe Devastator heads easily.

Sickle

In my opinion, this is the ultimate laser weapon in the game. It takes a bit longer to start firing, but with a fast fire rate of 750 RPM and very low recoil, it's essentially an LMG in your primary slot. It does have relatively weak damage per shot (55 versus something like the Liberator which has 70), but that's made up for by its fire rate.

The weapon's only real downside is that its spread is all over the place. I think it ramps up more as you fire more, after a while the lasers just go wherever they please instead of wherever you're aiming. This isn't too bad for close range or even medium range, but this weapon is the antithesis of accuracy. It's a volume-of-fire weapon, not a precision weapon.

Overall I give the Sickle a 9/10. It's a joy to use in any mission, against any faction -- although I'd be careful around those bugs, because the jumpy fuckers might catch you off guard.

Double-Edged Sickle

This is arguably just "The Sickle, But Better". Essentially, instead of the weapon overheating, the player overheats. This is bad for a few reasons, but the main one is that being perpetually at low health is dangerous in all situations.

Especially if you wear very light armor (50 AR), all it takes is a single Scavenger getting the jump on you to turn you into a wasted reinforcement. The Vitality Enhancement booster and the Inflammable armor passives can mitigate the self-damage to a great extent, but judging by all the screaming I've been hearing in lobbies, most people are using this weapon all the way up to burning themselves.

The benefit of this primary is that you gain AP3 while overheated, but there's plenty of other AP3 weapons already (like the LibPen, the Slugger, the Reprimand, the Scorcher, the Purifier, and the Adjudicator). The DES doesn't even have the ability to go full LMG like the Sickle does, because overheating for too long (while it does grant AP4) makes you burst into flames and die very quickly.

In my experience, unless you have a buddy with the stim pistol (or you're a masochist), this weapon is more of a detriment than a benefit. It also has a slightly slower fire rate than the Sickle at 700 RPM, which is yet another downside to an already mid weapon.

I rate it 5/10. It certainly does what it's supposed to, but there are weapons that does what it can do better or just as well, without hurting the user.