Rapid fire is my favourite at the moment: you get almost all of the damage increase of an overcharged mod with less distributor draw. The thermal load remains the same so it can run a little smoky with hot weapons. The jitter, particularly at grade 5, is mostly a non issue.
What grade 5 materials are you struggling to find? I might be able to help you out.
What grade 5 materials are you struggling to find? I might be able to help you out.
I have a total of 6 medium Pulses, three with Rapid fire with Thermal Shock, and three Overcharged with Phasing Sequence (yes, that was a lot of re-leveling).
On an A-rated Python (G5 overcharged Power plant and G4 Charge enhanced Distributor), you can fire the rapid pulses almost indefinitely, at least until you start to smoke.
I've done the 3 Rapid vs 3 Overcharged, and I think Rapid is the way to go. Overcharged drains the capacitors pretty quick and takes a little longer to refill. The jitter of the rapid fire (even on grade 5) is negligible at most. Especially if you're within 1.5-2km.
I'm actually running a combo of 2 rapid and 1 overcharge right now, and it seems to be the sweet spot.
Eagles and Couriers (in CZ) go down in about 10 seconds. You can wipe out a Python in about 15 (pulses on shields and then two overcharged MCs on the power plant, [disclaimer]).
I may re-roll the three thermal shocks and make them phasing sequence too, just to see if there's any discernible difference. I think overcharged with thermal shock may be a bit of a double-crutch. Faster drain on distributor and heat.
On an A-rated Python (G5 overcharged Power plant and G4 Charge enhanced Distributor), you can fire the rapid pulses almost indefinitely, at least until you start to smoke.
I've done the 3 Rapid vs 3 Overcharged, and I think Rapid is the way to go. Overcharged drains the capacitors pretty quick and takes a little longer to refill. The jitter of the rapid fire (even on grade 5) is negligible at most. Especially if you're within 1.5-2km.
I'm actually running a combo of 2 rapid and 1 overcharge right now, and it seems to be the sweet spot.
Eagles and Couriers (in CZ) go down in about 10 seconds. You can wipe out a Python in about 15 (pulses on shields and then two overcharged MCs on the power plant, [disclaimer]).
I may re-roll the three thermal shocks and make them phasing sequence too, just to see if there's any discernible difference. I think overcharged with thermal shock may be a bit of a double-crutch. Faster drain on distributor and heat.
scramble as a probability for modul malfunctioning per hit, so it would have made sense to out that effect on your ROF modded lasers. ROF bursts even better ;-)
Burst grade 5 should be coming out with the next 2.2 update, so that should get rid of the jitter completely.
Personally, I think it's rather fun playing with the various engineers' stuff and their "side effects".
I'm stock-piling the required materials for another go with them. I may just make various combinations (with new lasers) and see how it goes. G5 Burst should be fairly significant. Fingers crossed.
(I just wish they'd get Exquisite Focus Crystals back in the game for the G5 distro).
I'm stock-piling the required materials for another go with them. I may just make various combinations (with new lasers) and see how it goes. G5 Burst should be fairly significant. Fingers crossed.
(I just wish they'd get Exquisite Focus Crystals back in the game for the G5 distro).
This!
Better wait until beta ended (started) and some final (for the moment) decisions were made. Don't waste time and mats on upgrades you don't like in a couple weeks
From what Mark Allen wrote in that infamous post... Rapid Fire is going away completely, to be replaced by... ???
I would definitely hold off doing any major weapons upgrades right now until we know where all this is going to land. I am already fully expecting to be VERY ticked off by how much time I will have likely wasted getting what I have right now, when they remove all of it and replace it with a joke.
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I tend to do upgrades like that myself. I ship in a half dozen weapons I want to upgrade and then play around with different upgrade types, and/or use the multiple module advantage to keep good rolls by swapping in a fresh module vs overwriting a potentially top 5 for that session.
One thing that is sorely lacking with all of this, and especially this BINGE upgrade approach, is the ability to NAME the module with a custom name. Once you end up with a half down 3C beam lasers or something all upgraded using the same mod, its impossible to tell them apart without looking at the specs of each one. Obviously, at a glance they all look identical.
That is the only downside to upgrading a bunch of the same thing at the same time.
Yeah Rapid fire is having armour piercing taken away
BUT, in terms of DPS & Heat generation it will be Overcharged>Rapid-fire>Efficient
Still, I enjoy my gunship with 4 Medium & 1 Large Gimbled Rapid Fire Pulse with Phasing Sequence (G5) along with 1 Small Efficient Multicannon w/ Corrosive (G5) and 1 Small Turretted High Cap Cannon with Dispersal Field (G2).
Heat becomes a problem when the large is firing AND boosting with G5 dirty drives, but it's managable (don't have heatsinks or chaff).
BUT, in terms of DPS & Heat generation it will be Overcharged>Rapid-fire>Efficient
Still, I enjoy my gunship with 4 Medium & 1 Large Gimbled Rapid Fire Pulse with Phasing Sequence (G5) along with 1 Small Efficient Multicannon w/ Corrosive (G5) and 1 Small Turretted High Cap Cannon with Dispersal Field (G2).
Heat becomes a problem when the large is firing AND boosting with G5 dirty drives, but it's managable (don't have heatsinks or chaff).
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i would have to go back through his original post and read it again. That comment definitely jumped off the page for me and I read it over multiple times to make sure he was saying what it sounded like he was saying. If memory serves and I will have to paraphrase here....
When he was going over the Pulse laser mod changes and started talking about Overcharged upgrades, he said that the rapid fire aspects were going to be removed anyway, (I believe his exact words were "going away anyway") as if this was an obvious result of something else? But he made no mention of what that something else was. All I got was "Rapid Fire Going Away Anyway".
I was like...HUH? Does he mean removed from the Overcharged effects? Or is Rapid Fire no longer a thing?
Anyway... That post has been edited multiple times since it was first posted and I read the original unedited version, so perhaps he removed that comment? Or altered it?
I will go back and re-read it and see if I can find the sentence I was referring to.
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As I mentioned above... I read his original unedited version and he used the words Rapid Fire and "going away anyway" in the same sentence. As I said above... Now I am compelled to go back and re-read his original post to see if I can find that section. I will know pretty quickly if what I am referring to has been removed in subsequent edits. Based on your guys reaction to my reference to it, it sounds like this is going to be the case.
Stay tuned... I'll post back here in a bit.
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Okay....What I read originally is definitely no longer in the document, but I have found a few references that ring true to what I originally read, but are not as "BLUNT" ?
I am copying in the sections and highlighting the text I am referring to using BOLD and BLUE.
Overcharged (Weapon):
This Blueprint is just too powerful overall, and used ubiquitously. We’d like to rein it in overall (while still leaving it king of raw DPS), especially when combined with projectile weapons that are not affected by the active power draw:
Damage Modifier slightly increased (to 35%-45% from 30-35% at G5).
Fire rate modifier removed (was 8%-20%), primarily to differentiate from rapid fire.
Added clip size reduction modifier (-15% to -25% at the top end, though as the fire rate modifier has been removed you get more damage per bullet and don’t fire for much less time).
EDIT: Sorry, Rapid fire was missed from this post entirely! And there was an error in the source document I was assembling this post in anyway, Updating to include changes to rapid fire:
Rapid Fire (Weapon):
Rapid fire was a defacto recipe for energy weapons that wanted a DPS increase, but gives a little bit too much of a boost to energy efficiency and wasn’t attractive to projectile weapons. These changes also bring it in line DPS wise with Overcharged, with some differences to account for their respective alternate effects. Either should now be a valid choice depending on player preference
Active power reduction reduced at the top end (now -25% to -35% rather than -30% to -50%).
Armour piercing modifier removed (unusually out of character).
Reload speed improvement added (-50% to -65% reload time at G5).
Lower end of the range for the rate of fire change has been brought up, making the results more consistent and higher overall. Now -35% to -40% firing interval at G5 (was -25% to -40%). this equates to ~ 54-67% rate of fire increase up from 33-67%).
Damage reduction increased to correct total DPS, damage per hit now -13% to -15% at G5 (from 0% to -2%).
I am copying in the sections and highlighting the text I am referring to using BOLD and BLUE.
Overcharged (Weapon):
This Blueprint is just too powerful overall, and used ubiquitously. We’d like to rein it in overall (while still leaving it king of raw DPS), especially when combined with projectile weapons that are not affected by the active power draw:
Damage Modifier slightly increased (to 35%-45% from 30-35% at G5).
Fire rate modifier removed (was 8%-20%), primarily to differentiate from rapid fire.
Added clip size reduction modifier (-15% to -25% at the top end, though as the fire rate modifier has been removed you get more damage per bullet and don’t fire for much less time).
EDIT: Sorry, Rapid fire was missed from this post entirely! And there was an error in the source document I was assembling this post in anyway, Updating to include changes to rapid fire:
Rapid Fire (Weapon):
Rapid fire was a defacto recipe for energy weapons that wanted a DPS increase, but gives a little bit too much of a boost to energy efficiency and wasn’t attractive to projectile weapons. These changes also bring it in line DPS wise with Overcharged, with some differences to account for their respective alternate effects. Either should now be a valid choice depending on player preference
Active power reduction reduced at the top end (now -25% to -35% rather than -30% to -50%).
Armour piercing modifier removed (unusually out of character).
Reload speed improvement added (-50% to -65% reload time at G5).
Lower end of the range for the rate of fire change has been brought up, making the results more consistent and higher overall. Now -35% to -40% firing interval at G5 (was -25% to -40%). this equates to ~ 54-67% rate of fire increase up from 33-67%).
Damage reduction increased to correct total DPS, damage per hit now -13% to -15% at G5 (from 0% to -2%).
This ^^^
And for rapid fire there will be more distributor draw. It is currently -30 to -50% reduction per roll, it will be nerfed to -25 to -35%. The 'armour piercing' secondary effect *is* being removed though. Which makes me a sad bovine.
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Yup Inara is accurate g4 rapidfire/overcharged pulses are better than any g4 moded burst laser. But this is going to change soon in the upcoming beta after the changes the burst lasers will be the most efficient damage per energy weapons. You can read all about that here.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/309693-2-2-Update-Combat-Balance-Adjustments-UPDATED