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I have a devestator squad that I am not sure if I want to put plasma cannons or missile launchers on. I have lascannons, melta, and grav covered in the rest of the army. Part of me wants to do plasma just for painting purposes, but I have never used a PC devestator squad before. Currently they have missiles and I have had luck with them. Also will be running Salamanders chapter tactics.

Plasma Cannons are pretty terrible in general( and especially on non-relentless models)

I say go with missiles. Don't bother with flak though.

both have different targets with the missile launcher being more versitile. I prefer missles as I hate scatter.

S8 AP3 vs S7 AP2 small blast. The plasma blast is better than a frag blast, and you trade one less strength for +1 to the vehicle damage table and better AP.
The plasma cannon is in fact more versatile, unless you really want to use snap shots or pay extra points for something a lot of other things in your codex do much better.

I dissagree, PC on paper look good but in reality they never seem to do lots of dmg. Scattering on 2 d6 means your getting 1 direct hit and 2 total misses (4 inch scatter vs a 3in marker). With a solid ML shot you get 2 hit 1 miss. ST8 ap3 deals with a great many things, from light to medium vehicle and a great many T4 guys (like nids, IG, SM, Eldar).

I take only 3 weeps in a squad just btw.

Neither.

^ thanks for the productive opinion

Small blasts suck. Against opponents that adequately spread out it usually only gets 1 hit and maybe 2 with a lucky scatter. But also its small size makes it easier to scatter off targets that aren't 30+ models.

But the missile launcher isn't exactly better. Frag has the same problem as previously stated of course while not having good stats either. The Krak though, while more likely to hit, suffers from being ap3 meaning is mediocre against vehicles and is easy to get cover saves that its easy to negate its effectiveness.

I'd probably go MM, considering you're running Salamanders. Make sure to run Vulcan though.

missiles just tend to perform better for tank hunting and MC killing, maybe thats just my luck but i have horrible experiences where my plasma-toting marine absolutely must kill that termie or mega-nob squad, and then the Plasma Cannon blows up, killing him and dooming the rest of the squad by proxy

do not however think frag is useful, it isn't.

Also ^ he is right in saying multi melta is better for Salads

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll leave them with missiles. Oh, and just using salamander tactics not chapter or Vulcan because it doesn't fit fluff. Should have clarified

 thecapn226 wrote:
^ thanks for the productive opinion

I'd seriously never use either weapon on a devastator marine.

I personally like Plasma Cannons. I've had good luck with them. If I took missile launchers, I'd only ever fire krak and at that point I'd just take lascannons.

If it's between Missiles and Plasma, probably go with Missiles. They're the cheapest option and you can use them to deal with a wider range of opponents. The only reason I dislike Plasma Devs is that they overheat so bloody much!

However, fundamentally, neither are very good compared to the other options. Multi-meltas are what you really want for taking down vehicles, and grav is what you really want for taking down everything. I know you got grav covered elsewhere, but unfortuantely it's just so effective that even at its worst (shooting at squads of Orks, or flyers/super-heavies), it's still better than a Missile Launcher.

Hope you find that helpful!

If your regular opponents have a penchant for deep-striking elite units into your back field then a squad full of plasma cannons can make them think twice.

I had great fun when my friend jumped a squad of sanguinary guard onto an objective within range of my obliterators. Out of 3 plasma cannon shots, I think two were on target, and I wiped out the lot of them.

Thats why a fragnought visits the plasma cannon unit first. What did that guy think was going to happen?

Of the two I’d run missiles.

Frag missiles are useless. I regret every one I toss downrange. And I get tempted, so keep doing it (like an idiot) I see a night tight cluster of soft targets, and give it a shot. And maybe kill one. Would have been better off just using the krack. And if you are just taking it for the krack missile, splurge and upgrade to the LC. Which does everything a krack missile does, but better.

I’ve just had bad experiences with plasma cannons. I do take them out from time to time, because I like the concept of them. And the looks. But they always disappoint. When not killing themselves, they scatter off target. And the odds of getting multiple targets under a small blast are not the best. Even if you do get a cluster, you are probably going to scatter enough to just clip one anyway. So if we are only going to (maybe) hit one target anyway, why not LC?

At this point you can probably guess what I give my devs most of the time.

How often do you see 2+ armor saves in large enough groups, clustered closely enough, to justify a small blast? You don’t. They are either MCs, or small units. You might occasionally see MEQs in tighter clusters, but in my experience not often enough to justify bringing out the fickle scatter die, rather then just dropping 4 krack missiles into them and getting the easy kills.

Crispy78 wrote:
If your regular opponents have a penchant for deep-striking elite units into your back field then a squad full of plasma cannons can make them think twice.

I had great fun when my friend jumped a squad of sanguinary guard onto an objective within range of my obliterators. Out of 3 plasma cannon shots, I think two were on target, and I wiped out the lot of them.

You just won't let me forget that...

I find that plasma devastators are interesting (they are amazing with psychic support), but devastators in the current meta are a very hard sell. Drop units will kill them easily. Additionally, you will need to buy extra bodies for ablative wounds if you actually put good weapons in the squad.