Counter argumentative wall of text.
The Light Flak can empty its clip in less than 2.5 seconds (regardless of ammo type) to do 672 damage per clip (normal rounds), reloads within 4s, like the minelauncher and thus quicker than any other gun in the game, so you are quickly able to shoot at broken armor again in case you timed it wrong.
Use a buff hammer and burst or heatsink on it and you can kill 3 out of 7 ships in one clip, while two more can be finished by a Hades or even a Gatling. Galleon and Goldfish the only one that can survive, but are dead after the next clip. The Goldfish and Squid can repair their armor quickly, yes, but then again, the Flak empties its clip very quickly and reloads very quickly too.
Its spread can be felt, but it can still very reliably hit a targets hull at its max range. At max range the shot is easier to be dodged so if you are up against a competent pilot that has decent balloon/engine health, you will have troubles, yes, but the same goes for a lot of other guns, so predict the enemy pilot's movement. #GunnerSkill
The Light Flak is better than the Artemis and Banshee when it comes to killing, because it gets the kill much quicker. The moment you start creating fire stacks with the Banshee or disabling with an Artemis you will run into the issue of not being able to get the kill, because most of your clip is gone or you are reloading and when you are done, the enemy armor is rebuild.
Fun Fact: Instead of creating fires and disabling guns, the Flak does create a lot of smoke. I only had to face a double light Flak once and I couldn't see the enemy in front me, as a pilot.
Remove the arming time of the Light Flak and you get a better Mortar, not able to get the kill in one clip against
all the ships, but getting the kill in two clips against all the ships, while it can profit more from the Gatligns 450m range.
And this is a quote from how the Light Flak's balance changed, because I want to compare the current Light Flak to the old one:
- Light Flak: Spread 1 degree (from 4), Arming Time 0.85s (from 0, arming range 300m), Range 1000m (from 790m), Scope Power 2x (from 1.5), 6 Ammo Clip Size (from 4), 2 Bullets/s (from 2.32 b/s), 45 Explosive Direct / 30 Explosive AoE (from 96/30)
It's rate of fire was then increased to ~2.8 b/s, direct explosive damage is now 50 and its arming time is 150m, later its reload time was decreased to 4s from 5s. And it also got more zoom and was decreased in gun rotation speed, but is still one of the fastest to rotate guns.
So compared to what you said about the old flak
From what I've heard of the old Light Flak let me compare what the suggested Light Flak would be like
Old Light Flak
-Easy to shoot and land hits, no arming, Longer mid-range and short range due to no arming, decent damage
It did have decent damage per shot, but it was never easier to land hits, especially with even more degrees of spread and it did have less maximum range than today. Damage per clip, unbuffed and normal rounds was 705.6 and emptied its clip in 2 seconds, compared to the current one, which empties its clip in 1.75s, with normal rounds.
DPS is not all that important for explosive guns, but if you want to know: Current ~117 vs old ~109 (both normal rounds)
The current Light Flak is perfectly fine as it is, while I personally believe the old one was worse when compared to the current one.
Instead of making the Light Flak more like the Heavy Flak, why not use the Heavy Flak to begin with? The Light Carronade is also not that similar to the Heavy Carronade anymore. It can destroys balloons in two clips, while the Heavy C. can destroy balloons in one clip. Light Flak can kill every ship in two clips, Heavy Flak can destroy every ship in one clip (well, it is guaranteed if charged rounds and buffed).
And when talking about arming time: It really isn't that hard to stay 150m away from the enemy or 120m when using heatsink, come on now.