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Getting a lot of recommendations against putting Burst Cannons on my Crisis suits, but not a whole lot of explanation behind it. As a new Tau player, I see an anti-infantry weapon that gives me 3 shots and lets me get out of assault range with JSJ. Looking at the Plasma Rifle, I see one extra shot at 24", since getting within 12" to rapid fire means I'm definitely gonna get charged next turn.

I'm not saying that the BC is definitively "better" than the PR, but it seems to me like it could have useful applications. Enlightenment, please!

You're not playing with a unit, you're playing with an army. You army needs to be able to take on everything, and XV8's are usually used to fill the niche of killing:

Monstrous creatures
Light armoured vehicles (examples: rhinos, trukks, DE raiders).
MEQs
Terminators and and other 2+ save stuff

The thing about all this is burst cannons can't do these things very well. Fortunately, the popular plasma/missle combo is able to do any of these things, creating a balanced list. You have other things in your army to take care of hordes, heavy armoured vehicles and such. Those things aren't as good as crisis suits at doing what I stated above (either due to inability or inefficiency). Granted, the light armour thing is more the missle pods than the plasma, but S6 can still pen AV11 whereas S5 cannot, giving you a slightly higher chance at taking it out.

The higher strength and low AP of the plasma rifle are what matters.

I recommend you to look up the site advanced tau tactica, and especially this here thread: http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?p=35042#p35042

Some good points about the Burstcannon in 5th are made, and you have grasped some of them already. Longer effective range and quantity over quality of shots are some examples. I know I will be playing some of my crisis suits in the Firestorm config for sure.

Sure, sometimes the generalist Fireknife is better, but at least read the article and see what you think. There are also a load of other very useful articles on the boards there, so take a look around!

I think I plugged my article on the topic recently, but here it is again:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Tau_Crisis_Suit_Loadouts

Basically I hate the idea of Burst Cannons on Crisis Suits because you can get S5 AP5 EVERYwhere in the Tau army. Hell, I think the Tau have an S5 AP5 toilet in their Devilfish. What it comes down to is that there are other tools that are either exclusive to the Crisis Suits (Flamers, Missile Pods) or are only available on a few other platforms (Fusion Blasters, Plasma Rifles), and in the case of the Plasma Rifles, those are only available on Broadsides (the Piranha is a good Fusion Blaster platform, if a bit pricey).

What this means to me is that for every Burst Cannon you put on a Crisis Suit, that's one less of these other niche weapons that you can't take. It's a horrible opportunity cost. That's my argument in a nutshell.

The thing is that, if you factor in the cost, you pay a lot more points for the plasma rifle, for about the same results as the burst cannon. Hell, the burstcannon is even better at killing MEqs if they are in cover, compared to the plasma rifle. There are som intresting maths in the thread I posted earlier.

Not only that, but you also get enough shots to threaten large squads of light infantry (especially if you run the Firestorm config with an additional missile pod), which you do not get with the plasma AND you operate from a safer distance.

Of course, plasma has its uses, I'm not saying the BC owns the Plasma rifle hands down, only that the burst cannon is often overlooked when it comes to battlesuit weapons, though it can still be a good buy (and a cheap one ).

When it comes to MCs, denying FNP etc. the plasma is way ahead, I'm just arguing that the Firestorm is a valid config in these days with cover save abundance.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

Of course, plasma has its uses, I'm not saying the BC owns the Plasma rifle hands down, only that the burst cannon is often overlooked when it comes to battlesuit weapons, though it can still be a good buy (and a cheap one ).

Burst cannons are often overlooked because the Tau army is flooded with S5 AP5 shots. No need to have Crisis Suits with Brustcannos when they are the only ones with access to Plasma and Missiles.

Plasma and Markerlights = win

I've thought about running with fusion, but again the Tau have other options for that High Str/Low AP weapon (HH/Broadsides).

If there was a way to take 2 Plasma Rifles (not the twin linked version) I would do it.

With the new bug codex out, I would say to go with the plasma rifle and missile pod combo because it gives you 3 things.

4 shots from 1 model.
High enough strength to wound T6.
Ap low enough to deny someone an armor save.

Last time I checked a Carnifex walking through cover is one going slow but purposeful and thus never reaches you to be a problem.