Beams and MCs - which should be C2?

[AhSoul]

Trying to find the best fit for my Viper and I like the mix of beam lasers and multicannons. But which should I buy as C2 to put on the medium hardpoints?

Currently I've got C1 beams for shield stripping and then C2 MCs to do the damage on the hull. But perhaps the other way round is better?

I'm also wondering about rail guns but not sure I can support the power needs for those....

 

[ChaseBears]

Multicannons. C2 beams are fun, but ultimately NPCs hulls and subsystems are a lot more annoying to bring down than shields.

Use fixed C1 beams for slightly better performance and more entertaining gameplay.

If I go C2 beams, I like to do a loadout like C2 beams/C1 missiles. Kill most things with beams, use missiles when you need the punch.

 

[Jorlin]

you can always go for the compromise and mix (C2/C1 one each)

just test it, noone can tell you what YOU will feel comfortable with.

 

[AhSoul]

Makes sense. Wondered about swapping one of the beams for a rail gun to do more damage?

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you can always go for the compromise and mix (C2/C1 one each)

hmm never thought about mixing them. That might be quite cool actually as I'd have a gimballed cannon above and below.

 

[Kramster]

I go for Beams on C1 and MC's on C2 for the reason given above, the hull is the hardest to get down

 

[Ydiss]

I mix it for balance but I get the idea of going for MCs due to hull being more difficult to take down. My reasoning against that is that I often don't want to use MCs, to save costs. So balanced works better for me.

 

[Jorlin]

three different kinds mostly don't go well because of the two trigger limit.

if you want to try rails, go for two C2.
rails are not everybodys darling... i'm not good with them.
but like i said: you must find "your" setup by testing. even when something does more damage in theory...it doesn't mean that it will work for you.

 

[Jet6R6]

I fit 2x Beams in the C1 and cannons for the 2 when hunting elite Anacondas. It's not as costly as missiles and does the job. If I'm bounty hunting I swap the cannons out for MCs.

 

[DraigUK]

I use class 2 beams to get shields down as fast as possible.
After that all hits are on the powerplant, if I want to kill it, and 4 guns hitting it takes it down fast, be that 4 MC or 4 anything else.

Still not sure why people are saying hulls are toughest to take down etc as they shouldn't be aiming for the hull and getting it to 0%
If you are going to kill something kill it by hitting the powerplant so it dies as fast as possible, what hull it has then is irrelevant.

 

[JonathanVB]

! like to use 1 C2 Beam and 3 multicannons - takes some time to get the shields down, but then your target just disintegrates.

 

[Ydiss]

I use class 2 beams to get shields down as fast as possible.
After that all hits are on the powerplant, if I want to kill it, and 4 guns hitting it takes it down fast, be that 4 MC or 4 anything else.

Still not sure why people are saying hulls are toughest to take down etc as they shouldn't be aiming for the hull and getting it to 0%
If you are going to kill something kill it by hitting the powerplant so it dies as fast as possible, what hull it has then is irrelevant.

Is this true for any target? The smaller the ship, the less you actually hit the power plant and just hit the hull.

I might try this but I'm not sure it's optimal for mid-mid-sized targets.

 

[Macgyver]

Multicannons. C2 beams are fun, but ultimately NPCs hulls and subsystems are a lot more annoying to bring down than shields.

Use fixed C1 beams for slightly better performance and more entertaining gameplay.

If I go C2 beams, I like to do a loadout like C2 beams/C1 missiles. Kill most things with beams, use missiles when you need the punch.

Where do you buy the C1's? I've never seen them in stations yet.

 

[ChaseBears]

Class 1 seeker and dumbfire launchers are widely available

Rating means nothing for weapons btw so if theres ever any doubt about what "C1" or "C2" means in a weapon context, it means class 1 or class 2.

 

[bambam_ofc]

you can always go for the compromise and mix (C2/C1 one each)

Mixing works well when you use gimballed like me (spare me the lecture):

Class 1+Class 2 Gimballed Beams, (Primary Fire)
Class 1+Class 2 Gimballed Multi-Cannons . (Secondary Fire)

Splitting the beams and cannons between the C1/C2 hardpoints gives a significantly wider gimbal arc of fire for each. It's counter-intuitive that my beams both fire from the left, and the cannons both from the right (rather than the lasers forming a neat triangle when they fire) but it works.

I lead in with the Beams and add in the Cannons a few seconds in, seems to work pretty well.

Beams are reputed to be a power hog but they are instant-on/off so you can be picky when you aim.

Where do you buy the C1's? I've never seen them in stations yet.

C1 means 'Class 1', not the damage rating.

 

[Yodafone]

Trying to find the best fit for my Viper and I like the mix of beam lasers and multicannons. But which should I buy as C2 to put on the medium hardpoints?

Currently I've got C1 beams for shield stripping and then C2 MCs to do the damage on the hull. But perhaps the other way round is better?

I'm also wondering about rail guns but not sure I can support the power needs for those....

You've got the right idea already fitting a combination of thermal & kinetic.

On most ships I have found the best split is having C2 & C1 of each thermal/kinetic on each side of the ship, so especially when using fixed, the tiny gimbal effect you get with fixed weapons is close enough so all your shots hit (as opposed to the same type of weapon split far apart on each side of the ship, where the small gimbal effect from fixed isn't enough to make contact with all your shots, sometimes when too close you're firing blanks half the time, the small gimbal effect cannot compensate enough)

As far as power requirements, it's hard to know exactly your setup, but remember if you go over your power plant's KW, you can set priorites on your modules, so having less critical functions like Cargo Hatch, Scanners etc, even Life Support set on lower priority, will all deactivate automatically once hardpoints are deployed. Can make all the difference when your power plant can't cope.

Lancer

 

[DisturbedGravity]

! like to use 1 C2 Beam and 3 multicannons - takes some time to get the shields down, but then your target just disintegrates.

Same here. As soon as the shield goes down, I want to kill the target as fast as possible.

 

[crushdepth]

Much prefer C2 beams and C1 multicannons. Shields regenerate, and in any case C2 beams are no slouch on the hull either.

C2 beams will let you take down the shields of anything less than an asp on the first pass and you can start ripping them up with the cannons straight away.

 

[Cirrus]

Interesting thread. I currently run 2 x c2 rail guns and 2 x c1 gimbal mc. The rail guns pack a punch on both shield and hull but are ammo limited and take some getting used to. I wanted to try some fixed c2 beams but can't seem to find them (only seen gimbled which I don't want). anyone know where I can find some around eranin, founders world or lave?

 

[fergal]

Trying to find the best fit for my Viper and I like the mix of beam lasers and multicannons. But which should I buy as C2 to put on the medium hardpoints?

Currently I've got C1 beams for shield stripping and then C2 MCs to do the damage on the hull. But perhaps the other way round is better?

I'm also wondering about rail guns but not sure I can support the power needs for those....

If you gimball the multicannons the top position is much better, which is size 1.

If you fight players you will want c2 beams. Helps you strip the shields before most players can pop their shield cells.

c2 beams can cause power problems if you can't afford an A3 power plant, personally I don't mind 2 c1 beams and 2 c1 multicannons. Saves you 4T of mass.

 

[Ceekay]

Four class 1 fixed pulse, they're cheap and because of lower power requirements you can get off a lot of "rounds" before the wep capacitor needs to recharge, as I see it the more "rounds" fired at the target the higher the hit probability, especially against small agile targets.