fixed burst lasers - worth it now?

[VR andysonofbob]

As per the title.

I am learning to fly FA off using fixed. Because I suck and cant keep my retical on the target, I notice I fire my pulse lasers in bursts as oposed to holding down the fire button.

Has the 2.2.03 made fixed burst worth while now?

Thanks!

 

[Frenotx]

Medium and small, yes. Large? Questionable. Huge? Don't think so. The problem is that the "burst" gets much longer / slower as the size goes up, making the weapons increasingly awkward and negating a lot of their advantage (lower time on target required). The huge one's burst is so slow that it just feels like a pulse laser that fires on its own for a bit after you let off the trigger. The would be far more attractive if FDev took notice of this thread: Request to Differentiate Burst Lasers.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

Sweet! That's awesome.

I forgot to mention I enjoy flying small ships. For my FDL it might be an idea to have 4 med burst with the huge pulse then.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Pretty much as been said.. you either get pewpewpew from little bursts, Pew Pew Pew from mediums. P e w P e w P e w from large ones or P - E - W - P - E - W - P - E - W from huge ones.

 

[Morbad]

They were pretty solid before 2.2.03 and are really good now.

Medium and small, yes. Large? Questionable. Huge? Don't think so. The problem is that the "burst" gets much longer / slower as the size goes up, making the weapons increasingly awkward and negating a lot of their advantage (lower time on target required). The huge one's burst is so slow that it just feels like a pulse laser that fires on its own for a bit after you let off the trigger. The would be far more attractive if FDev took notice of this thread: Request to Differentiate Burst Lasers.

Large is fine...really never had issues using them, even way back when.

I hate huge ones though, the cycle time just becomes so large that it's like trying to use crappy version of a railgun.

 

[timbero]

Medium and small, yes. Large? Questionable. Huge? Don't think so. The problem is that the "burst" gets much longer / slower as the size goes up, making the weapons increasingly awkward and negating a lot of their advantage (lower time on target required). The huge one's burst is so slow that it just feels like a pulse laser that fires on its own for a bit after you let off the trigger. The would be far more attractive if FDev took notice of this thread: Request to Differentiate Burst Lasers.

^ what he said.

 

[ErichZann]

Sweet! That's awesome.

I forgot to mention I enjoy flying small ships. For my FDL it might be an idea to have 4 med burst with the huge pulse then.

well 4 medium bursts sounds fine, but I would rather combine that with a huge multi then.

 

[jgm]

If you don't have a lot of time on target you might prefer beams to begin with. You have higher DPS than bursts, and the higher heat generation/energy draw shouldn't matter so much if you aren't on target that much.

As you increase your time on target you could drop to bursts for better DPE or engineer your beams for better efficiency. You might also consider going for a mixed thermal/kinetic loadout.

 

[Frenotx]

If you don't have a lot of time on target you might prefer beams to begin with. You have higher DPS than bursts, and the higher heat generation/energy draw shouldn't matter so much if you aren't on target that much.

As you increase your time on target you could drop to bursts for better DPE or engineer your beams for better efficiency. You might also consider going for a mixed thermal/kinetic loadout.

In the short time frame that bursts are firing, I believe their DPS is higher, so it's just a matter of the type of attack windows you get vs. the size burst laser.

 

[jgm]

In the short time frame that bursts are firing, I believe their DPS is higher, so it's just a matter of the type of attack windows you get vs. the size burst laser.

True, if you're only on target for the time of the burst then burst will have superior damage. So as your time on target goes from 0 to infinity best weapon for damage goes burst -> beam -> burst?

I wonder where the breakpoints are for going in and out of beam, and if it's really worthwhile?

 

[Quineloe]

from what I remember, bursts do more hull damage per energy than the other two laser types, so they're a solid choice.

 

[Frenotx]

True, if you're only on target for the time of the burst then burst will have superior damage. So as your time on target goes from 0 to infinity best weapon for damage goes burst -> beam -> burst?

I wonder where the breakpoints are for going in and out of beam, and if it's really worthwhile?

[0 seconds -> duration of burst] Burst laser
[Slightly longer than duration of burst -> WEP capacitor runs out] Beam laser
[Longer than that (thus limited by WEP recharge)] Burst

 

[Truesilver]

from what I remember, bursts do more hull damage per energy than the other two laser types, so they're a solid choice.

Off-topic, but @Quineloe, when I first started reading these forums two years ago, you were one of the regular contributors I most remember. Good to see you're back and thanks for your past contributions.

On-topic, we now have access to pretty much all of Frontier's in-game weapon data, which I collate/extrapolate in this thread...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/246086-Official-FDev-Damage-Stats-for-Every-Weapon

...from that, as taken from Outfitting, we can see that bursts and pulses share Armour Piercing Value of 65, slightly higher than beams at 60.

I must admit that I, too, both read and personally 'felt' that bursts were better against hull than the other lasers, although it's difficult now to see a reason for that in the numbers.

Finally, I would like to join the chorus of revulsion at the c4 burst. In principle I like two of them on my PvE Corvette but in practice the firing cycle is just too horrible.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

well 4 medium bursts sounds fine, but I would rather combine that with a huge multi then.

Make the multi a G5 overcharged gimbal with corrosive and you have a debuff on your target for the medium pulses.
If you can't afford G5 overcharged (lower ranks have too much jitter) switch to increased ammo capacity and make sure you get corrosive.

You absolutely MUST run a gimbal with the multis when you're using fixed lasers because fixed multi's need to lead their target and the lasers are hitscan and don't need to lead. You can't aim at both simultaneously without the gimbal but you can always deselect your target to make the gimbal fire like a fixed if your target pops a chaff and is moving directly away from or towards you.

Finally, I would like to join the chorus of revulsion at the c4 burst. In principle I like two of them on my PvE Corvette but in practice the firing cycle is just too horrible.

And yes, I've just removed and sold my pair of C4 fixed burst and I'm typing this whilst I wait for my C4 fixed pulse to travel to me from storage. They C4 pulses were revolting and unusable so I'm going to test C4 efficient beams against C4 overcharged pulses and decide which ones I prefer.