Originally Posted by
Shurrikhan
I'd rather go the other way, and make Heat more significant, but in a way that seems absent of clear-cut "punishment". Think of the design as something like a minigame, where Heat fades continuously but is meant to be pushed as high as possible before unloading oGCD burst. Let that functionality be a trait that absorbs the present Gauss Barrel.
Therein you could just have Hot Shot follow its namesake. Make it give a large chunk of Heat. No more, no less. But, in such a case, Heat would equate to damage in some manner, be it through just a %Damage multiplier or maybe Attack Speed or whatnot as well, so Hot Shot would still fulfill its buffing function, but as an opener, pre-burst, and frequent situational, rather than as a maintenance buff.
The prospects from Napalm Grenade are making me drool a bit, though, especially in attachement to Reassemble. What if we were to take the slots left empty by Gauss Barrel--and, say, Barrel Stabilizer--and use those on augmentative skills? Once one is chosen, Reassemble could swap those augmentatives over to an active ability/consumable. Or, heck, have Reassemble swap out your some number of keys that wouldn't usually be used in sequence with it into possible weapon augmentations. Lots of MCHy things we can do with all that...