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whoever made the edit, thank-you. The chart is correct although I had the title wrong on the one column, my bad.

It's an interesting argument. But, you're missing my most valued aspect of the Scatter Laser: A lower standard of deviation in damage.

With more shots, you get, statistically, less swingyness. I prefer damage to be somewhat regular and predictable. I'd rather be 90% sure of killing 2 guys, then having a good chance at killing anywhere from 0-4.

Also, I believe your point analysis of the Starcannon is off. It cost 35 points in 3rd, but it came with 2 guardians, meaning the gun part cost 19 points. Now, you have to pay 25 points for just the gun, no guardians. That's a 6 point increase!

WOAH. Have to take a look at this..... (the points issue, which sounds awfully sound to me)

Aside from the points issue honestly I personally can't stand Scatter Lasers against MEQ I think they are "useless". Basically line of Eldar, line of MEQ, one or two turns of firing oh look the marines are still there. As opposed to say the Heavy 3 Starcannon of yore.

Scatter Laser is definately useful for picking off 6+/ 5+ save guys especially if you have 5+ of them in your army.

As far as statistical swinginess is concerned what I would do is say three Guardian squads with Starcannons, two Vypers with EML gives you 8 shots say pretty good chance at least 3 hit or even at least 2 hit, wounding on 2+. Maybe you even happen to have Doom. And hey maybe you got five or six hits. You could back this up with Dark Reapers in which case you would be compliementing their anti-MEQ fire although Reapers are not as good against FNP.

To be honest with you I personally take Brightlances in my Guardian squads, since a little bit of extra anti-tank is just SO VALUABLE in the first couple of turns. The only place I really put them is on Wave Serpents.

Back on topic, "swinginess" is exactly why I like the Starcannons. It is just SO GOOD it is worth taking. Meanwhile if I put Scatterlasers in my Guardian squads I ask/ asked myself, "why did I even bother?"

Agreed. Basically it all comes down to Starcannon vs Scatter Laser:

vs MeQ: Starcannon is better
vs FnP: Starcannon is better
vs Horde: Scatter Laser is better
vs Light Armor: Scatter Laser is better
vs Heavy Armor: both are worthless