After playing around with different weapon systems, I have come to the conclusion that I like G5 Long Range Fixed Lasers more than any other weapon. I started out with gimballed lasers, then tried most other weapons, and now am back to good old lasers, but with fixed G5 long range mod. Lasers aren't the current meta and can be heat/distributor heavy for their listed DPS, and countered by strong shield/hull resistance. I would like to see them get a buff in damage to make them more viable against the true meta builds, but I still enjoy using them.
Long range lasers have no damage dropoff and instant hitscan attacks are great, as is the infinite ammo, making them perfect for thrashing things while bounty hunting or at a CZ. The lack of jitter while fixed and their micro-gimballing actually makes them MORE accurate at long ranges, as opposed to weapons like plasma, multicannons, frags or even gimballed lasers, which suffer at longer range against fast ships. It is true that not all the hardpoints will hit at once in some ships (unlike gimballed), but with the heavy distributor draw you won't use them all anyway; and many ships have a group of hardpoints that converge really well - the Cutter for example works really well with the 5 central hardpoints using G5 longrange fixed pulse lasers - I also use a rail on each wing for special cases (feedback for the shielded foes packing a lot of SCBs, and super penetrator for module killing) because the cutter's wing hardpoints don't converge anyway and I only use them in specific cases.
Aside from annihilating everything with great speed and fury in PVE, surprisingly I've found G5 long range fixed lasers fairly viable for some of the casual PVP I engage in as well. My 5-laser cutter (2 wing rails), 2-laser courier (1 reverb mine) and 2-laser vulture have all been performing rather well recently in PVP as my aim has improved - you quickly can nail fighters in seconds at 5+km with them (I ensure all my lasers have at least 5.5km range). They can be good at module sniping (and having a keybound module target helps a ton - you can "see" your target easier at long range with them for the micro-gimbal, whether or not you actually want to snipe that module doesn't matter). Chaff, target lock breaker and dispersal won't bother you one bit with fixed longrange lasers - they will actually amuse you and cause you to chuckle. Longrange lasers REALLY make your opponent pay for getting out of range and trying to joust with you, as they are brutally pelted for their efforts; and when your opponent tries to get close again you can blast them with impunity for prolonged periods - I particularly like this strategy when using my Cutter because of its tremendous drift and fast thrusters. Another benefit of lasers is that you aren't "time limited" due to their lack of ammo needs - you can kill things at the community goal RES or CZ for an hour ,and then when someone steps up to challenge you to some PVP, you are ready to go at any point, no re-arming needed! In more maneuverable ships like a Vulture I've found they work well at close range too - peppering at long range and then when your opponent gets close it's 4 pips to engines and boost boost BOOST like crazy around them, while hitting them with the lasers - no need to aim ahead or time shots like plasma, and with instant hitscan damage, keeping the pressure on is a piece of cake.
I enjoy using other weapons as well - overcharged multicannons on my python, mixing in rails with my lasers on my cutter (and python), reverb mines to go along with my lasers in my courier, and so on; and I do have some nicely rolled efficient plasma accelerators available for use (not that I'm any good with plasma but they are an option haha!). Overall, after experimenting with many weapons, I have to say that longrange lasers are still my favorite.
Most important, I find them fun.
Long range lasers have no damage dropoff and instant hitscan attacks are great, as is the infinite ammo, making them perfect for thrashing things while bounty hunting or at a CZ. The lack of jitter while fixed and their micro-gimballing actually makes them MORE accurate at long ranges, as opposed to weapons like plasma, multicannons, frags or even gimballed lasers, which suffer at longer range against fast ships. It is true that not all the hardpoints will hit at once in some ships (unlike gimballed), but with the heavy distributor draw you won't use them all anyway; and many ships have a group of hardpoints that converge really well - the Cutter for example works really well with the 5 central hardpoints using G5 longrange fixed pulse lasers - I also use a rail on each wing for special cases (feedback for the shielded foes packing a lot of SCBs, and super penetrator for module killing) because the cutter's wing hardpoints don't converge anyway and I only use them in specific cases.
Aside from annihilating everything with great speed and fury in PVE, surprisingly I've found G5 long range fixed lasers fairly viable for some of the casual PVP I engage in as well. My 5-laser cutter (2 wing rails), 2-laser courier (1 reverb mine) and 2-laser vulture have all been performing rather well recently in PVP as my aim has improved - you quickly can nail fighters in seconds at 5+km with them (I ensure all my lasers have at least 5.5km range). They can be good at module sniping (and having a keybound module target helps a ton - you can "see" your target easier at long range with them for the micro-gimbal, whether or not you actually want to snipe that module doesn't matter). Chaff, target lock breaker and dispersal won't bother you one bit with fixed longrange lasers - they will actually amuse you and cause you to chuckle. Longrange lasers REALLY make your opponent pay for getting out of range and trying to joust with you, as they are brutally pelted for their efforts; and when your opponent tries to get close again you can blast them with impunity for prolonged periods - I particularly like this strategy when using my Cutter because of its tremendous drift and fast thrusters. Another benefit of lasers is that you aren't "time limited" due to their lack of ammo needs - you can kill things at the community goal RES or CZ for an hour ,and then when someone steps up to challenge you to some PVP, you are ready to go at any point, no re-arming needed! In more maneuverable ships like a Vulture I've found they work well at close range too - peppering at long range and then when your opponent gets close it's 4 pips to engines and boost boost BOOST like crazy around them, while hitting them with the lasers - no need to aim ahead or time shots like plasma, and with instant hitscan damage, keeping the pressure on is a piece of cake.
I enjoy using other weapons as well - overcharged multicannons on my python, mixing in rails with my lasers on my cutter (and python), reverb mines to go along with my lasers in my courier, and so on; and I do have some nicely rolled efficient plasma accelerators available for use (not that I'm any good with plasma but they are an option haha!). Overall, after experimenting with many weapons, I have to say that longrange lasers are still my favorite.
Most important, I find them fun.
