Engineers Efficient beams, or long range pulses?

Vincyre

V
Hey there, folks...just trying to decide on a little something something. I'm working on a combat loadout for my anaconda, and I'm wondering if I should stick with my efficient beam lasers, or long range pulse lasers? I like the damage that the beams I've got can put out, but the range of the pulses comes in handy when I'm trying to engage, or if something fast manages to get out of my normal range...and I just can't decide.

I'm currently running two c3 rapid fire MC's, one with corrosive, two c2 rapid fire MC's, and the rest are beams with efficient mods. If I go with long range pulse lasers, I'm thinking about switching out the c3 laser with another c3 rapid fire multi, and the c2 MC's with two c2 long range pulse lasers.

Any input would be great!
 

Gunnet

G
I'm a big fan of long range on ships which often can't control engagement range. I run a C4 long range beam on my Cutter and wouldn't consider going back to something which only does full damage out to several hundred metres.
 

Vincyre

V
I guess I should've specified that this is a PvE loadout, not PvP! But I'd not considered long range on the C4 beam, what with the power draw the thing has.
 

goemon

goemon
depends on your piloting style... somewhere on these forums buried there is an excellent thread on focussed, overcharged and longrange pulses.

something along ~ if you like to fire >1,9 km away go longrange, below that focussed, and if you can keep it really close and personal <0,750 km go efficient/overcharged/rapid fire.

as i don't pull the trigger >1,5 km, and can't keep close on medium/large ships, i always go focussed pulse/bursts (if i don't use beams, because they look nice and sound better, in which case i normally go longrange).

see, that you get at least one pulse with an emissive special - it greatly improves tracking of gimbals and turrets.

also, check into bursts.
 

Gunnet

G
I was talking about PvE too. As far as I know beams are completely out of favour as PvP weapons, although you wouldn't want to quote me on that.

With a modded 7A PD and four pips to weapons I can sustain fire on the beam indefinitely, and even fire my rails several times without running out of juice. Two pips to shields is fine when the enemy is either too far away to return fire or suffering from major falloff. At closer range with two pips to weapons I tend to fire the beam less than my other weapons, but it's still perfectly viable for burst DPS.

If you decided to go down the same route you would have even less power issues thanks to the Conda's class 8 distributor.
 

biohazard15

B
Recently in 2.3 beta, I've tested a Corvette with two C4 MCs (one incendiary, one corrosive - both been with me since I've crafted them in 2.1.05) and five long range burst turrets. This particular Corvette used one C3 rapid pulse and C2 and C1 focused burst turrets in 2.2.03 live.

IMMEDIATELY after the test I went back to live and crafted myself five long-range burst turrets.

Note that I do not use emissive specials, and I advise against it - +100% thermal load is kinda bad for lasers.
 

biohazard15

B
After a really quick test with two C1 turreted emissive pulses: useless for PVE. Absolutely no effect - just like it was back in Beta 2.2. Maybe there is some NPCs that can be affected by this thing, but I haven't met these.
 

ErichZann

ErichZann
I would say for pve efficient beams are a really good choice, since npcs rarely run away and often stay close to you during a fight.
 

rucky

rucky
nobody mentioned focused pulses? +100% range (that is falloff at 1000m) and +50% armor piercing to hit above their size...
One of my Vettes has 5 on them, very energy efficient, always 4/1/1 possible, not an alpha-strike ship but for CZ farming best you can do.
 

goemon

goemon
rucky said:
nobody mentioned focused pulses? +100% range (that is falloff at 1000m) and +50% armor piercing to hit above their size...
One of my Vettes has 5 on them, very energy efficient, always 4/1/1 possible, not an alpha-strike ship but for CZ farming best you can do.
Click to expand...

i did :)
 

GammaZ

G
Also, long range+Thermal Vent beams. Not too many of them so the capacitor is not drained too fast, but they are awesome.
 
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XW_Ziggy

XW_Ziggy
I ran a long range C4 gimballed beam alongside the C4 multicannon for a bit and the distributor draw was crippling.
Efficient wasn't so bad, but at 1.8Km it was already down to half damage (for full WEP draw) which made it undesirable given how much damage I could be getting from the incendiary MC that it replaced.

I currently run long-range pulses on the mediums and large, and I have C1 beam turrets with efficient on the small nose-mounted hardpoints for picking off eagles, SLFs and things that are too close to keep in front of me all the time.
 

L.S Algir

L.S Algir
On fixed or gimballed weapons at close or medium range I would go focused with burst.

On turreted weapons long range seems to be the king choice: bonus , even a mod 1 negates all fall off and going on higher grade mods are not always wise as even if you can fire at long distances , your turrets won't be able to be that accurate..

On my cutter and python , C2 turreted beams with long range are nasty.

At least , it's what I do..
 
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GammaZ

G
L.S Algir,
One interesting thing is, fixed weapons have "micro gimballing", which becomes more effective at longer range and allows to consistently hit sidewinder or even fighter like ~5km away using fixed/long range beam. It is almost impossible at close range, but easy when target is far away.
Been experimenting with single large fixed/long range beam on corvette and it is very effective. To the point when even without reversing if i start shooting at anaconda from 5-6km away by the time it enters its weapon range it already has almost no shield...
 

ErichZann

ErichZann
GammaZ said:
Been experimenting with single large fixed/long range beam on corvette and it is very effective. To the point when even without reversing if i start shooting at anaconda from 5-6km away by the time it enters its weapon range it already has almost no shield...
Click to expand...

Yep thats what I have on that hardpoint as well, quite useful.
 
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