Newcomer / Intro burst laser compared with pulse laser

kingchub

kingchub
hi so im looking at edshipyard.com's dps calculation in the top right of the screen when i equip burst lasers and then pulse lasers on my vulture.

for burst the calculation is -
DPS: 4(3*1); Dmg T; Pen A

for pulse the calculation is -
DPS: 4(3*3); Dmg T; Pen A

forgive me if im wrong but from looking at these two, it looks as if pulse lasers are more powerful than burst. Can anyone please explain?
 
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the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Well, it's three shots in the burst, so you'll find that the damage per second is the same. Each pulse has the hit potential of one burst.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
The sound of the pulse lasers is annoying? Aesthetic concerns? (The mount for the burst does look better than the pulses.)

Actually, the burst lasers' damage is more concentrated - they do more damage per burst, but roughly the same damage per second. In that regard, if you only have half a second on target, the bursts are better. If you have repeated bursts on target, it will perform similarly to the pulses but with more heat and higher power draw.

Additionally, the pulse lasers have superior penetration - that is to say that they do more damage to subsystems than bursts. There's a post on Reddit that compares pulses to bolt action rifles while bursts are more like semi-auto fire. Pulses are therefore better for knocking out a cargo hatch, for example, without destroying the rest of the ship.
 

iofhua

I
They don't have the same DPS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C7hofFggOw

Against SHIELDS ONLY burst and beams do better than pulse, and will strip shields away faster. However these use capacitor faster and recharging your cap will negatively impact your DPS. Which is why if you are only using lasers on your ship then pulse lasers have the shortest total kill time - against both shields and hull. I also like this video because it does a real world test against real ships - the gimballed pulse laser gets a faster kill time than the fixed pulse laser. This will be true unless you are some kind of freakish twitch sniper that can doggedly keep your enemies in your crosshairs all the time. I'm not so I use gimballed for all my weapons.

* Also, keep in mind this test was done with a sidewinder, which has the worst power distributor. A ship like the Vulture, which has only 2 weapon mounts and a good power distributor, might be able to keep 2 burst or 2 beam cap-stable. I don't have one yet and haven't tested it.

Short version: as a general rule if you are using a laser for shields and a kinetic weapon for hull - use burst or beam for your laser. If you are using lasers only, go for pulse since they have longer sustained fire between recharges.
 
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Seren

Seren
Thanks for the info, iofhua. I was wondering more or less the same as OP.

I've been using a Vulture with two 3E gimballed burst lasers. Having read that fixed pulses are better I decided to google one last time before getting rid of my bursts, and found this thread. It seems that information I got is true, 'cause a tanky Vulture like mine suffers from power shortages, so I've often found myself with a rapidly draining capacitor in prolonged fights. Taking fixed lasers is very doable on a Vulture because it's very agile.
 

Armoured

A
yup. gimballed is kinda noobish. fixed for life. 1 C3 beam and 1 C3 pulse. Perfect balance of dps, burst dps, and power efficiency.
 
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