The Lanka Shouldn't Be A Reskinned Bow

[Psychosist]

Before I begin this is going to be a long post. Yes, it's about a single weapon. Yes, no one uses it. But the reason for the latter is because it's simply obsolete. I wish to change that. If you're really lazy there's a psuedo-TLDR at the bottom of this post. I've already made a topic on this matter before (that I now cannot find with Search) so I thought I'd remake it.

 

Why the Lanka Sucks

I'm going to be making a lot of comparisons to the bows in this post. DE currently wants the Lanka to act like a bow, when it could be so much more. What does the Lanka share with bows?

 

• must charge before able to deal full damage

• can be spam-shot like a bow, but requires a slight charge of 25%

• high status of base 20%, inherent of Dread and Paris Prime

• projectiles have flight-speed

• possesses inherent punch-through

• uses Sniper ammo

 

These properties of the Lanka make it very identical in function to a bow. Unfortunately, the Lanka's stats pale in comparison to the two most popular bows: Dread and Paris Prime.

 

Modded Lanka Crit: x3.3 | 50%

250 base damage x 3.3 = 825 damage on a crit

Crits 50% of the time

 

Modded Dread Crit: x4.4 | 125%

200 base damage x 4.4 = 880 damage on a crit

Crits 100% of the time and has a 25% chance to deal a red crit

 

The stats displayed here indicate the Lanka will do 94% of the Dread's damage half the time (crit), and the other half of the time will do only 28% of the Dread's damage (no crit). We haven't even accounted for the Dread's red crits yet, but you get the point.

 

Lanka is functionally identical to a bow and deals only a third of the damage half the time.

 

Then there's the issue of charging time. Lanka has a base 1.5s charge and the Dread has a base 1.0 charge. The Dread fires 50% faster than the Lanka, deals much more consistent damage, deals higher damage, and has potential to do red crits.

 

It should be noted that the Lanka is a MASTERY 7 weapon requiring hefty 5 Fieldron, 20 Gallium, and a Forma just to craft. And once crafted, it comes with zero polarities, making it a pain in the neck to level and polish. And guess what? Once you finally get those five or six Forma in, it's still not as good as a Dread/ParisP, which come with two polarities.

 

What Can We Do For the Lanka?

The easiest solution would be to buff the Lanka statistically. You know, base damage, crit chance, crit damage, charge time, flight speed, etc. But that's the easy way out, and the Lanka will still be nothing more than a reskinned bow, no matter how effective the buff.

 

A better solution would be to change the mechanics of the Lanka to create its own niche, where it won't have to compete with bows. Of course, some statistical buffs would be needed here and there, but mechanical tweaks are just as important.

 

MECHANICS

• Auto-Charge: The Lanka will charge itself between shots. This quality of life change will make the Lanka feel a bit more like a Sniper, and steer it away from the functionality of a bow. It's still a charge weapon, but has the convenience of an auto-charge, because you know, high tech Corpus weapon, right?

 

• Hitscan on Full Charge: When fully charged, the Lanka's projectiles are hitscan and (preferably) leave a vapor/bullet trail for cool factor guidance of shots.

 

• Linearly Scaling Flight Time: To counteract the hitscan buff, premature shots will still have flight time varying directly with charge amount. A half charge may fire at 100 m/s velocity, and a 25% charge may fire at only 50 m/s velocity, for example.

 

• X-Ray Scoping: Scoping-in with the Lanka now highlights enemies through walls like the Codex. This synergizes with its innate punch-through.

 

STATS

• Crit chance raised to 40% from 20%. This guarantees a max of 100% crit chance with a fully ranked Point Strike, but does not allow the capability of red crits unless you run Critical Delay (which isn't really needed anyway). Bows still have the viability of red crits. Lanka doesn't need that. It only needs consistent crits and damage.

 

• Crit damage multiplier raised from x1.5 to x2.0. The Lanka now deals consistent 1100 base damage with a max crit build, while bows do consistent 880 but can do red crits to make up for their lower damage.

 

• Charge time lowered from 1.5s to 1.25s. This buffs Lanka's DPS from 733 Crit DPS (1100 dmg / 1.5 secs-per-charge) up to 880 DPS (1100 dmg / 1.25 secs-per-charge). Guess what else has 880 DPS? That's right, the Dread (880 dmg / 1.0 secs-per-charge). Now they're on even ground regarding DPS. I understand that TTK/DPH matters more on slow weapons than DPS, but it's not as if DPS is entirely irrelevant when facing very tough single targets (when you reach the point where you cannot one shot anymore).

 

With the aforementioned rebalance, we may have to increase its Mastery requirement to Rank 8, or just tweak the Crafting Cost to 7 Fieldron instead of 5.

 

RESULTS OF THE REBALANCE (also a tl;dr to some degree)

• Fun fact: if our current Lanka critted 100% of the time, which it doesn't, by the way, its Crit DPS would only be 550 DPS (825 dmg / 1.5s per charge). Bows currently crit 100% of the time and do 880 Crit DPS! [size=2]And this doesn't even account for bow's red crits.[/size]

• Lanka's new Crit DPS is now 880 Damage Per Second, to tie with the Dread and Paris Prime.

• Lanka deals consistent 1100 per shot, no more, no less. Dread/ParisP deal 880 per shot, but make up for it with faster charge times and capability of red crits.

• Lanka's charge time is slightly buffed by 0.25s

• Lanka has a useful auto-charge and you no longer have to run around constantly smashing your LMB.

• Lanka is now hitscan on a full charge, but counteracts this by having linearly scaling flight speed based on charge percentage.

• Lanka can see enemies through walls much like the Codex. Any scannable enemy (not objects or Tenno) will be highlighted when you scope.

 

 

 

♥ Please make this long forgotten master's weapon into something awesome again, DE ♥

Edited August 12, 2014 by Psychosist

[SnaleKing]

I would take my Lanka out of storage for this. I love just about everything suggested here, and the x-ray and auto-charge alone would give it a really cool niche.

Edited July 3, 2014 by SnaleKing

[StarScribe]

Some love for the lanka... :P DE should consider taking at least some of these ideas into consideration for their mentioned rework/buff for sniper rifles that is suppose to arrive at some point.

[-RL-Lucifer]

Dude.....you seriously just made a railgun of my choice...that auto charge tho.....YES PLEASE

[Psychosist]

Some love for the lanka... :P DE should consider taking at least some of these ideas into consideration for their mentioned rework/buff for sniper rifles that is suppose to arrive at some point.

Thanks! I've mostly compiled Quality of Life changes I've seen mentioned in other topics, but as far as statistical buffs go I can say that I've taken the time to crunch some of the numbers myself!

 

The Lanka is a high Mastery weapon, to be used by only the most worthy of Tenno. And yet, no one uses it. I'm hoping DE could take a look at this and lift this poor gun from the dust of powercreep.

[Habataki]

Love many ideas you made there, OP. Hope DE would take some glance in this.

[Liacu]

I approve of these changes. Seems strange to have to manually charge the Lanka when it's a hi-tech gun and also seems strange for it not to be hit-scan since you expect it to be like the Rail Moas just from looking at it. I'm also surprised DE hasn't introduced the ability to see through walls in some form. Seems like the perfect mod to add especially for snipers and was crazy fun to utilize in Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Liacu

[Divinehero]

yea i'd dust my lanka off for this

[NikolaiLev]

Yes please.  Charge triggers, especially slow ones, are quite obnoxious.  Even just adding an auto-charge functionality would make it more fun to use.

 

Just, please, don't buff it.  It doesn't need to be any more powerful than it is.

Edited July 3, 2014 by NikolaiLev

[Aktriaz]

Not that I'm opposed to any buffs for Lanka, but I've been able to strike 67k headshot crits... and I'm not even done upgrading Heavy Caliber yet. Just saying. Though Lanka should be better than most bows, seeing how it uses Forma, Fieldron, and a ton of Gallium. (Lanka is my favorite and most used weapon)

[Paradoxbomb]

Personally, I would love to see the Lanka given an innate 100% chance to electrocute enemies, as a pure electric AoE build on the Lanka is really fun, but comes at the cost of not being able to equip other elements at the risk of getting a combined element or reducing your chance to proc a shock AoE. With an innate chance to chain lightning to nearby enemies it would turn the Lanka from a mediocre pseudo-bow into a badass Launcher/Sniper hybrid (still balanced by the need to aim of course).

 

Although combined with an increased critical stats/hitscan that you suggested, I suppose it would become a bit OP, so it'd probably have to be one or the other.

[Celle-Reveris]

+1, not sure about the autocharging, loving everything else though

[Hixlysss]

+1. Love the auto charge idea. 

[ArchangelCJ]

I would take my Lanka out of storage for this. I love just about everything suggested here, and the x-ray and auto-charge alone would give it a really cool niche.

 ^this^

 

trying to make it on par with the bows is a little unfair. this is a weapon that the corpus still use. we cant expect the Dera to perform like the Soma now can we.

[Psychosist]

Just, please, don't buff it.  It doesn't need to be any more powerful than it is.

 

If you've seen any of the math in the OP, you'd find the Lanka only does a third of the Dread's damage half the time. We can either buff the Lanka to match the bows and make it worthy of an endgame weapon, or we can nerf the bows and cause a $%#!storm on the forums. I'd rather go with the buff.

Not that I'm opposed to any buffs for Lanka, but I've been able to strike 67k headshot crits... and I'm not even done upgrading Heavy Caliber yet. Just saying.

Thanks for the input. I happen to hit only 26k crits at most on Mercury Grineer, and I've never been able to pull off those awesome numbers everyone claims they get. On higher level planets I can only seem to do 18k at best. Those numbers are great and all, but the important thing here is consistency. More damage numbers are appreciated but it's the rest that counts, as you said.

 

 

 ^this^

 

trying to make it on par with the bows is a little unfair. this is a weapon that the corpus still use. we cant expect the Dera to perform like the Soma now can we.

 

Corpus Crewmen Deras are different than Tenno Deras. AFAIK Crewmen Deras only deal 7 damage but the Tenno versions do 20 something, I think. Similarly, DE can push this buff to only affect Tenno-wielded Lankas but leave the Sniper Crewmen Lanka the way they currently are. Besides, Crewmen don't use crit mods or scoping :P

Edited July 3, 2014 by Psychosist

[TennoSimons]

Wow. This is a very well thought out post. You certainly have my +1.

[Zhoyzu]

i use the lanka.... i love my lanka....... your hate has no place here right now. not with the PWE shroud mystifying everything

[Psychosist]

i use the lanka.... i love my lanka....... your hate has no place here right now. not with the PWE shroud mystifying everything

?

Is this directed at me? I love my Lanka, but hate how all the other weapons make fun of it. It's a wannabe-bow, and that's not what it should be. It needs to be unique, and be something great. It's got potential, but the cruel gods known as developers will not acknowledge this.

[nekrojiji]

I would take my Lanka out of storage for this. I love just about everything suggested here, and the x-ray and auto-charge alone would give it a really cool niche.

Yes .... but... as it is Dojo Tech .... these improvements would make it the best sniper...... and DE can't have that!

 

How long have you played this game!? Haven't you understood, yet, that clan teck shouldn't compete with, easier to obtain, market tech!?

 

I would build my Lanka again if it would be like this.

At least don't make it hits-scan, but make that fancy scope give us the distance to and speed of our target.

[Arunafeltz]

I'd build a Lanka if this were the case.

[ODDragon]

Yes .... but... as it is Dojo Tech .... these improvements would make it the best sniper...... and DE can't have that!

 

How long have you played this game!? Haven't you understood, yet, that clan teck shouldn't compete with, easier to obtain, market tech!?

 

If that would be true the Dual Ichors wouldn't be one of the best melee weapons out there. There are other weapons around as well according to the wiki, such as the Marelok, the Phage, the Jat Kittag and the Serro?(I'm honestly not sure about these two melee weapons since I don't have them, but I've heard pretty good things about them.)

 

The changes you propose OP are pretty sound, but I can't really comment on how much they would change the performance of the weapon. I think it was mentioned before that snipers are in scope for a buff, which most likely has the Lanka included too. An auto-charge mechanic would be a nice feature distinguishing it from the other snipers, that is for sure.

[WhisperByte]

+1

You would think that a MR7 Bow performed better than lower MR bows but nope, "we want tier system but we aren't gonna balance the tiers because screw consistency"

 

Also that x-ray and punch through would make me say "You have been erased" with an austrian accent after every kill lol

Edited July 3, 2014 by WhisperByte

[Methanoid]

the lanka really is the village idiot of sniper rifles, i held on to mine for a while, tried all sorts of configs, but its just a bow, that performs worse than a bow and has no key stand out feature to make up for its terrible mechanics.

 

deleted it yesterday. :(

[Nira]

I like a lot, if not all the suggestions you put forward Psychosist. X-ray scope and hitscan on charged shots would be things I'd love to see, but I think a crit and/or damage buff is pretty badly needed to put it on-par with other sniper/bow type weapons. After that it would still have the hefty build requirements, not to mention a lack of innate polarities (Dread comes with two "V", Paris Prime with  a "V" and "-"), to offset it.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Dualice

[__Kanade__]

Psychosist, on 02 Jul 2014 - 8:57 PM, said:Psychosist, on 02 Jul 2014 - 8:57 PM, said:

 

♥ Please make this long forgotten master's weapon into something awesome again, DE ♥

Is this the Lanka or the Snipetron? Moi ish confuzeld.

Edited July 3, 2014 by __Kanade__