Talk:Lex Prime/@comment-27124914-20160701151035/@comment-17703786-20160719043215

The rationale for punch-through on a single-shot low-RoF weapon is to make each shot count: in a game where most enemies are encountered in hordes, a single-shot weapon can only hit and damage/kill one enemy at a time, whereas a rapid-fire weapon can simply use volume of fire to do the same (this is one of the reasons people feel Sniper Rifles aren't very good in this game). Adding punch-through to a single-shot weapon allows it to hit multiple enemies at once with the one shot it can fire, improving its utility and overall effectiveness against groups.

It's precisely because they can only fire one shot slowly that makes slow-firing weapons like the Lex good candidates for punch-through, so as to maximize their single-shot power against multiple enemies instead of wasting it all on a single target.