Might i suggest the use of a 'fusion' category, which is essentially a variably powerful laser/plasma hybrid (blue obviously)
Instead of reloading, you turn a crank (fallout gauss rifle style) a couple times, and the more you turn the crank, the higher your energy level goes. So you can either turn the crank like two times and end up with energy level 20, or ten times and end up with energy level 200. Then, each shot from then on will take like, 10% of the total energy power to fire, and the higher your total energy level, the higher the damage of the shot.
Essentially you have the option to have a quick reload that yields low-damage firepower, or the option to take a long reload that yields high-damage firepower.
Inspired by Metro 2033's pneumatic weapons
(I could make an attempt to code/model the line of weapons, as i'm very good at matching other people's model styles.)