I do not pretend to know how the Laser effect damage is calculated but the Lazer Bot is currently feeling quite underpowered especially for the increased cost compared to the Blaster Bot. I ran some test with relatively the same size Biter nest and the same number of bots of each. The Lazer Bots were significantly slower at clearing the nest, and lost more units (probably because of the increased time spent clearing).

I noticed some stats that seem interesting, but again probably don't know how the laser damage effect works vs a projectile like the Blaster Bot.

the Lazer bot shoots at 0.5/s and does 2x12 damage. If I am guessing correctly, then the DPS is 12/s. The Blaster bot on the other hand shoots at 1.33/s and does 8 damage which totals 10.64/s. All good so far.

After some upgrade research though (+80% to be exact) The numbers look like this:

Blaster Bot: Damage = 8 + 6.4
Lazer Bot: Damage = 2x12 + 9.6

Does that mean 2 x 12 + 9.6 = 33.6? Or does that mean 2x(12+9.6) = 43.2?

The reason I ask is because if you do the same math as before to calculate the DPS for the Lazer bot is either 21.6/s or 16.8/s. The DPS for the Blaster Bot is 19.152/s which honestly even if the Lazer Bot DPS was 21.6/s doesn't seem like a big boost compared to the Blaster Bot. Not sure if its worth the extra cost of Red circuits.

If you care for some suggestions, I would say that the Lazer Bots need some DPS increases, and more specifically need a fire rate boost. I mention this because then it would align with how other Laser firing entities in the game behave, such as laser turrets and distractor bots (they have fire rates of at least 2/s or 3/s).

That is all!