Plasma Caster

Plasma Caster
How much plasma can a Plasma Caster cast if a plasma caster could cast plasma?
Manufacturers:	Bandit, Dahl, ​Hyperion, ​Maliwan ​and Tediore
Type:	Submachine Gun
Rarity:	E-tech
Element:	Shock, Incendiary, Corrosive, or Slag
Game:	Borderlands 2
Special Part(s): Bandit: GD_Weap_SMG.A_Weapons. SMG_Bandit_5_Alien GD_Weap_SMG.Barrel. SMG_Barrel_Alien_Bandit Dahl: GD_Weap_SMG.A_Weapons. SMG_Dahl_5_Alien GD_Weap_SMG.Barrel. SMG_Barrel_Alien Hyperion: GD_Weap_SMG.A_Weapons. SMG_Hyperion_5_Alien GD_Weap_SMG.Barrel. SMG_Barrel_Alien Maliwan: GD_Weap_SMG.A_Weapons. SMG_Maliwan_5_Alien GD_Weap_SMG.Barrel. SMG_Barrel_Alien Tediore: GD_Weap_SMG.A_Weapons. SMG_Tediore_5_Alien GD_Weap_SMG.Barrel. SMG_Barrel_Alien Universal Usage: GD_Weap_SMG.Name.Title. Title_PlasmaCaster

Plasma Caster is the title of a group of E-tech submachine guns made by multiple manufacturers. The Plasma Caster is obtained randomly from any suitable loot source.

Usage & Description

Plasma Casters fire relatively slow-moving balls of energy. All brands of Plasma Casters have in common increased damage, higher magazine sizes, and elemental effect chance when compared with a standard SMG of the same brand. Like all E-tech Weapons, Plasma Casters have unique effects compared to their standard counterpart at the cost of 2 ammunition per shot. In general, Plasma Casters are best fired in controlled bursts at short to medium range, although are generally accurate enough (with the exception of Bandit versions) to be used at long range if needed.

Plasma Casters' usage and effects differ from brand to brand:

• Maliwan Plasma Casters have the highest elemental damage and elemental effect chance between all the brands of Plasma Casters. The projectiles have a small splash effect when they hit any surface which causes the weapon to do additional damage than stated on the item card and may trigger elemental effects on very close enemies. It can cause significant damage when used on appropriate targets (ie: corrosive on armored enemies).
• Hyperion Plasma Casters deal the highest amount of projectile damage of all Plasma Casters (although Maliwan Plasma Casters still do higher overall damage because of the splash effect not stated on the weapon card), have larger magazines, and fire projectiles in a straight trajectory.
• Tediore Plasma Casters can be powerful when reload-thrown, because of the larger magazine sizes when compared with standard SMGs. This can cause huge damage when combined with COMs, relics, and skills that boost magazine size. Beyond these considerations, Tediore Plasma Casters do not exhibit additional effects.
• Dahl Plasma Casters have high direct damage only surpassed by Hyperion but the damage per second is inhibited by the manufacturer-universal burst fire effect while aimed. On the other hand, they compensate for the high recoil of this kind of SMG.
• Bandit Plasma Casters have the lowest direct and elemental damage between all manufacturers and behave in a significantly different manner than all others. These weapons fire "drunk" projectiles that have an unpredictable path and will always bounce off walls. They are only useable at point-blank range, smaller than the width of a Player-vs-Player duel.

Trivia

• "Plasma Caster" is the official name of the "shoulder cannon" used by the Predator.
• "Plasma Caster" the name used for the P94 Plasma Rifle in Fallout: New Vegas, it is a large plasma based energy weapon that has been featured in most of games from the Fallout series.