The Devastator and Gemini Laser were buffed in 1.12 release;
Here’s what happened:
- Gemini Laser: Damage/projectile increased from 72% of Loadout Attack to 90%, which is a 25% increase in Weapon-specific Base Damage
- Devastator: Damage increased from 250% of Loadout Attack to 280%, and firing speed increased from 0.6 shots/s to 0.65; together this gives a 21.33% increase
You can see this in the context of other guns here.
My verdict:
- Instead of increasing the damage of the Gemini Laser, they should’ve increased the speed - because the more powerful the shots are, the less benefit you get from Gear (details). It used to be that gear gave a decent boost to the Gemini, but now the impact is much less. Even for the Devastator instead of a big damage increase and a modest speed increase, a big speed increase and a modest damage increase would’ve been better.
- If you don’t have the weapons, the improvements are not good enough to bust gems trying to unlock them - although they make the guns more more playable, they still have too many shortcomings:
- Gemini Laser:
- The link doesn’t proc Jackbot’s Jackpots, Arctor’s Freeze, Toxic’s Venom, Mortis’ Plague Cloud, Fursus’ Iceplosion nor Frostina’s Snowball - which handicaps it if you play with those heroes
- The link also doesn’t proc headshot, elemental damage (ice, zap, poison, fire), shrapnel and focus shots, which makes those perks less attractive
- Homing shots makes the laser link disappear (although on Discord a dev said the link is retained if you have piercing)
- Devastator
- Bouncy walls doesn’t generate a trail
- The projectiles travel too fast for homing shots to work (so you can’t converge shots using spread (preferably 2) + homing)
- Gemini Laser:
- Of course the Link and the Trail do make for interesting game play, but the problem is that unlocking these weapons will dilute your loot pool and make it harder to level up everything else in your inventory - and they don’t offer enough advantage over the F2P Plasma Cannon to be worth that slow-down across the board
- If you already have them unlocked, I would still suspect you are better off playing with the Plasma Cannon (especially as a weapon dungeon for it is in the works, making it easier to level up) until you switch to the AutoGun or get the Looper; but if you do decide to go with one of these guns, you should make gear upgrades a very low priority because they won’t add much to your dps. You can try it out for your loadout at the Damage Simulator. But at least you don’t have to worry about whether you are carrying the right type of gear to match the level you are playing