Items Heat Ray rework

I like that the Heat Ray was changed in 1.4.0.1 to no longer pierce, as it overlapped badly with the Shadowbeam Staff. However, even with its massively improved base damage output against single targets (from 206.25 DPS to 540 DPS), it feels kinda lackluster in its behavior compared to other weapons at the same point in progression. As such, I have a few suggestions that are intended to lean into its identity as a gun that shoots a searing ray of heat:
  • Add a stacking DoT status effect (similar to the Daybreak) that deals additional DPS against high-health targets
  • Add a stacking armor-reduction status effect (similar to Betsy's Curse and Ichor) that increases effective DPS against heavily-armored targets
  • Add a damaging AoE (similar to the Daybreak and Dark Harvest) that deals increasing damage (up to 50% of the direct damage) against enemies close to your primary target
  • Change the nature of the attack from a pulsing beam to a steady beam (similar to the fully-charged attacks from the Charged Blaster Cannon and Last Prism)
I have a fleshed-out concept for how this could work, but I'll have to add it later. Gotta get ready for work lol
 
How about it fires a sustained beam that inflicts a stacking debuff that causes the enemy to take ever increasing damage from the beam? Maybe causing the enemy to glow orange with the glow getting stronger with more stacks to represent the enemy heating up. And when not firing the debuff quickly loses stacks to represent the enemy cooling down. Is there any weapon with this kind of behaviour in the game?
 
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