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So I run Tau but in the past have run marines and often found myself in the position of trying to decide between the 2.
I mostly choose melta on marines and fusion on suits.

Which do you go with?

I melta as much as I can. It hits hard, it penetrates great, and it doesn't blow up in your face the way plasma does.

Plasma kills infantry great but gets hot, Melta kills vehicles and infantry, does not get hot and is instant death for most marine equivalents. So no feel no pain.

I prefer the range of plasma.

Plasma has better range, usually range isn't an issue for me so that's why I prefer Melta.

Meta, not like the random plasma gunners who fall foul of own weapon.

They do different jobs. Is your meta more MC of vehicle-heavy? If the second, more AV 12- or 12+?
Plasma for MCs/AV 12-, Melta for AV12+
Mine has a good mix of both, so I need to take both. Melta is stronger, but one failed shot and you cry

Plasma can deal with MC's a lot better if you're in rapid fire range than Melta but if you think that people are going to bring AV12+ as stated before you need to get some Melta's. I prefer Plasma to be honest and gets hot rarely ever comes into play.

Tau plasma does not get hot, and never steered me wrong. However Tau melta has great range. I have now been running teams with both weapons

True, but maybe bias as first ever time I used a plasma marine it got hot and I failed the roll.....

Talk about luck....

jhe90 wrote:
True, but maybe bias as first ever time I used a plasma marine it got hot and I failed the roll.....

Talk about luck....

I have had the opisite luck with mine. I was deep into 5th Edition before I ever lost a model to "Gets Hot" and I have been playing cince 1989.
Now I tend to loose 1-3 models a game using a 2k Marine list with 33 Plasma Weapons. The carnage they inflict tends to outway the loss of a model here and there.

I said melta, but only because they are cheaper to run (at least in my codex). If I had the spare points, then I think I'd plasma all day every day.

Having cut my teeth on Mark I Plasma in my 2nd Ed Chaos army, plasma blowing up my troops never bothered me, and I have a lot of it. However, my local area is getting filled with many vehicles, some of which are quite tough nuts, so I've been steadily using more melta to try and compensate.

As a Wolves player, I do a bit of both, since they do different things. Plasma are better at taking out infantry with the extra shot, but Melta can deal with vehicles, which is especially important now that vehicles only explode on a 7+.

If I had to pick one or the other, I'd say Melta, personally. Aside from losing a shot and an extra 12" of range (though it doesn't have Gets Hot, either), it does everything that Plasma does, except a little bit better.

 Anpu42 wrote:

jhe90 wrote:
True, but maybe bias as first ever time I used a plasma marine it got hot and I failed the roll.....

Talk about luck....

I have had the opisite luck with mine. I was deep into 5th Edition before I ever lost a model to "Gets Hot" and I have been playing cince 1989.
Now I tend to loose 1-3 models a game using a 2k Marine list with 33 Plasma Weapons. The carnage they inflict tends to outway the loss of a model here and there.

Your lucky, first shot they fired, there goes the plasma flask.
That's not too bad, only max 10% to accidental death.

Good for tougher units, just definite case of target priority :-)

I alwys get disappointed that Melta Always wins these threads for three reasons:
1] Most people thing it is better to have one shot they Pens AV 12-13 than two shots that Glance are not as good.
2] Lack AV14 Penatration.
Both of them are valid points, but a few thing alot of people seem to miss.
>There are not alot of Land Raiders/Monoliths out there and if you belong to the right Meta you know uses them.
>Most AV13/AV14 Armors have AV10/AV11 side and rear armor.
>Most 2+ models only have 1 Wound, ID is not that necessary most of the time.
>Al lot of Vehicles die to loss of Hull Points not Explosions [at least that has been my experience]

3] Most People are afraid of "Gets Hot". I understand the dislike of exploding your own models.
>Most of the time the model does not fire the weapon and then melt away from a poor roll.
>It is easy to avoid with Divination and/or Feel No Pain.
>Usually they make there points back before something goes wrong.


I do Champoin the Plasma Class of Weapons, not in exclusion of Melta, but as a companion piece.