Well, Burn and Splash on a laser weapon. Who’d
have thought? I’ll be honest, it’s certainly not what I would expect from a
laser based weapon and I’m certainly wondering why you would bother.
Let’s look at the numbers. It’s a limited run
weapon worth 42 Niodes, 550 Bioptics and 1776 Ferrite. Minimum level is 44, so
comparable weapons are going to be the Duboce (lvl44) and the Flavian Spear
(lvl45). At 75 damage, the Cookoff outstrips both. It probably should as it is
a touch more expensive than both of the others. It’s also worth mentioning
that the Scion Beam, the highest level crystal laser (lvl98) can’t match the
damage output of the Cookoff.
One downside is that the Cookoff is a fraction
slower than the comparable lasers. Probably this is accounted for by the manual
fuse lighting mentioned in the description but it certainly isn’t a selling
point.
Which brings us to the special features. I don’t
know about everyone else, but to me lasers are all about damage multipliers and
crit-kill. The Duboce has the first, the Flavian has the latter. The Cookoff
gets 12% burn and 4% splash. It’s almost like it wants to be a sawn off
Hephaistos and just ends up failing.
I’m honestly struggling to think of a use for
this weapon. First impression is that I’m not impressed, and second impression
isn’t much better. The problem is that the systems to really make use of this
weapon are going to be found on a fire mech rather than a laser one, which
relegates the Ammo Cookoff to a rather expensive backup weapon in case your
fire mech finds itself pitted against an opponent with heavy fire shielding. To
be brutally honest, I’d rather wait a level, save a few niodes and get the Flavian
Spear.
Submitted by David McCallum
#701548