You know what would be super cool? If the Phase Lance kept its short-range, burst, beam profile, but it got a shotgun effect. So basically, instead of firing one beam, the PL would fire three (or more?) beams in some sort of pattern (random or defined) and the more beams that land, the more damage!
Of course if each beam did the PL's current damage of 1 250 that would be waaay too much of a buff with 300% DPS, but if we reduced it so all the beams added to 1 250 then that would basically be a flat nerf (not all beams hit all the time). So an example using three beams would be, each beam would do <1 250 damage but >420 damage.
And a good way to choose the amount of damage is by how wide the spread on the beams are. If the spread is really narrow, it is more likely that all the beams will hit, so the beams added together shouldn't do too much more damage than the current PL, but if the spread is really wide (so getting the most out of the weapon requires knife-fighting range) then the individual beams should do a lot of damage, since most won't hit anyway. And some other balance suggestions in this thread could work with it too, like maybe the DPS is the same but the weapon charges more beams over time to fire in a shotgun blast (adding charges to another weapon might be too much?), or the weapon has higher range (1000 su?) but the beams have a wide spread resulting in DPS based on distance!
Or even something as simple as a slow turn rate, so whereas the current PL does 100% damage against a frigate because of pinpoint accuracy and one beam, the Shotgun PL could have a higher DPS but maybe only 75% of that DPS lands consistently on anything but the largest targets or swarms of fighters. And a slower turn radius would give Advanced Optics a higher trade-off since the weapon would move agonizingly slowly but have better range to land all its beams (not to mention a more fighter/frigate-oriented ship with a Shotgun PL would coincide really well with the Advanced Turret Gyros S-mod bonus).
This would give the weapon an interesting profile, since it would be somewhat better at anti-fighter (more beams = possibly hitting more fighters), it would do more burst damage if all beams landed (more likely against large ships), but it would also maintain its consistency against frigates without really doing that much more damage.
Oh, and it would look awesome
Or alternatively, give the PL's beam the ability to curve, making it waaay better in hardpoints! Sounds like a programming nightmare, but that would be cool. Maybe justified in-universe as a warp in how light reflects/refracts while phased, and the PL's beam enters that realm?
The degree to which it could curve would be up for some debate. If the curve is weak, it just gives the Phase Lance more flexibility in hardpoints (since its turn rate is great but useless in all but turrets). If the curve is really strong, maybe the PL could arc shots around a ship's narrow shield, which would solidify its anti-armour role while bypassing its weakness against shields in some niche cases. And while dangerous against frigates, if the weapon's OP cost or damage output were readjusted, I think it could be justified as a non-Omega weapon.
Not to mention, it would also look awesome
