Favorite Laser Type and why?

[Reina Kaede]

Thought I'd do one of these because I'm curious on what people use.

What's your favorite laser type? There are currently three; Beam, Burst, and Pulse.
Which of the three do you prefer? Do you use multiple ones at once? Do you prefer ammunition-based weapons? If so, which ones?

Also there are three different weapon mounts, Fixed, Gimbal, and Turret. Which do you prefer for your laser weapons, or in general?

In case you didn't already know, there are also special variants of the Beam, Burst, and Pulse lasers you can get via PowerPlay! They are the Retributor Beam Laser, Cytoscrambler Burst Laser, and the Pulse Disruptor Pulse Laser. There's also a Mining Laser with offensive capabilities called the Mining Lance, also from PowerPlay. Did you know about these? Do you already own any of these? What do you think of them? Do any of the PowerPlay weapons appeal to you?

Personally I like Beam Lasers, I find them to do a good amount of damage at a steady rate, and I can fire them a while before overheating. Though I may try other ones sometime.

 

[Stealth Gamer92]

Depend's on hardpoint size so small Beam, medium Burst, large Pulse. Large would be Beam's again but Vulture can't handle 2 effectively with anything less than A-class Power Distibutor plus won't allow me to upgrade the thruster's. Once I have the rest of the ship built up I may try to get thm to work though.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Fixed c3 beams for me all the way. No other light weapon is stronger. After their shields go down your opponent melts quickly. I personally don't like waiting to reload or having to RTB to get ammo in the thick of a fight.

I use railguns and plasma for arming my traders. Bit of a surprise when pirates are 500m off your bow.
o7 CMDRS

 

[Morbad]

I like beam lasers because there are no opportunities wasted because of cycle time. The beam fires the nearly instant you pull the trigger, and stops the nearly instant you release. This makes them easiest to aim of all weapons, and raw damage output cannot be beat.

Pulse lasers are a close second because of how efficient they are while maintaining a relatively quick cycle time.

I'm not very fond of burst lasers. Not as efficient as pulse, not as damaging as beams, and with a cycle rate slow enough to make missed shots punishing.

My favorite mount type depends on use. I generally prefer fixed beams; in addition to being easiest to aim they also fairly heavily penalized in damage by other mountings. For pulse lasers, fixed on agile ships, or gimbaled otherwise. Pulse lasers aren't hurt by a gimbaled mount anywhere near as much as the other lasers so gimbals pulse are very nearly the best of both worlds; you can just deselect your target and still have 80-90% of your damage. For burst lasers I almost always go with gimbals or turrets despite them losing a fair bit of damage this way; the cycle times for medium and large fixed pulse are terrible.

 

[Dragun2]

I prefer the beam lasers for the most part but they eat power up fast, when you get to the large hardpoints ones running 2 of them will really eat your capacitors up. I recomend pulse lasers to those who wanna shoot all day without eating up power.

 

[GG7]

BEAMS for me too! I played around with all the various weapons the first week we had the game, and I kept coming back to those every time. For all the same reasons you guys have already outlined.

Being the age I am now, my reaction times are no longer what they once were when I was in my 20s and 30s, so I have to use the Gimbaled versions, cause I just can't do enough with the fixed. I can't keep the damned things on the target long enough to do anything to their shields.

Getting old sucks! Especially when you have been playing video games religiously for nearly your entire adult life! Being a gamer unfortunately informs you of your ever degrading reaction times, far sooner than most other activities you can do that involve the same skills.

 

[CMDR QuantumElement]

Beam Lasers and/or Burst Lasers. Beams seem to really drain shields, same with Bursts, but bursts feel like they melt the hull pretty well.

 

[Lakehouse]

Beams all the way running an asp at the moment have 4 small gimbaled beams and 2 gimbaled multi cannons on the medium hardpionts use the beams for Cobras and smaller and cannons for bigger targets or just need to take something out quickly

 

[DoctorHotWings]

I like all the laser types equally.

I have used gimbaled the most. Fixed tend to play well with certain ships over others because of the hardpoint locations. I've only used turrets a few times and I didn't like them.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

I use two medium turreted beam lasers, they are godly and infinite shooting without overcharging

 

[Guywired]

Gimbaled Beams here too.

Cause I like the feeling of being a surgeon with a scalpel.

 

[CMDR Alonso]

Gimbaled Beams here too.

Cause I like the feeling of being a surgeon with a scalpel.

My scalpel is automatic

 

[Guywired]

My scalpel is automatic

heh, took me a min to pick up what you're putting down.

I'm seriously going to have to give ANYTHING turreted a try someday.

 

[Snasty]

I've not tried turrets yet, using gimbaled pulses mainly, but the lazy in me wants to give them a try.

 

[FunGas]

Beams are my favourite, but I don't use them because of the incredible heat they generate.
I go with a mixture of burst (primarily) and pulse.

Not only do these two types take less power and generate less heat, the combination gives you a fairly consistent damage output, like beams...

[edit] oh, and turreted, 'coz they can shoot backwards

 

[Guywired]

People using turrets, tell me, do you need to have that selected as the current firegroup in order for them to fire? Or can you be using scanners, and looking at other sub-systems stuff while they handle the dirty work?

Also, how's the firing arc compared to gimbaled?

 

[Tempestfox3]

Depends on the ship. On my vulture and viper I used pulse due to the complete lack of any available power for burst or beam. On my cobra and diamondback I used beam as they had the power to spare for it

 

[FunGas]

People using turrets, tell me, do you need to have that selected as the current firegroup in order for them to fire? Or can you be using scanners, and looking at other sub-systems stuff while they handle the dirty work?

I think it depends how they feel, sometimes you can switch groups and they stop, sometimes they carry on. But yes, you can do other things and they continue to shoot.
There are three firing modes for turrets, which you set in menu 4, under "Functions". I recommend you use the "Target Only" mode. "Fire at Will" has always got me into trouble in the past (poor Will).

Also, how's the firing arc compared to gimbaled?

Better, they do shoot behind to some degree, depending what ship and where they're mounted.

 

[Tempestfox3]

http://oi60.tinypic.com/2h6ao48.jpg
I think it depends how they feel, sometimes you can switch groups and they stop, sometimes they carry on. But yes, you can do other things and they continue to shoot.
There are three firing modes for turrets, which you set in menu 4, under "Functions". I recommend you use the "Target Only" mode. "Fire at Will" has always got me into trouble in the past (poor Will).


Better, they do shoot behind to some degree, depending what ship and where they're mounted.

When ever I put guns on my Anaconda the game just crashes every 5 mins

 

[Snasty]

oh, and turreted, 'coz they can shoot backwards

My assumption was the turrets were only really for haulers or other large lumbering craft specifically because they could shoot backwards?