For both guns (only hard light for me cuz Xbox), the following forces an element swap:
-reviving
-scanning
-starting patrol/ep/adventure
-and certainly more
Furthermore, death or starting any new activity defaults the element back to void.
It gets increasingly annoying to have to deal with this. Especially if you most frequently use arc like me. If this could be fixed and an option to set a default element was added alongside the swap mechanic (like hard light used to have), that would be excellent.
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Death and fast travel are legitimate complaints. Otherwise, switch your weapon before holding reload to interact with some other portion of the game.