Engineers Long range weapon on cutter? Grade 5 beams coming?

[Roasted1982]

I recently got a cutter, started flying it, took it to some CZs and started noticing something; most of the combat occur at range. This is because of the flight characteristics of the ship. It's boost is VERY strong and the ship drifts like mad so you tend to overshoot targets or only end up at really close range for a few seconds at a time. As a result. Multis, which work great on my python and FDL are pretty bad on this ship. The range on multis is good but because of the projectile speed you end up missing waaaay too much at range against small targets. I'm thinking of switching my multis (2 large and two medium...pretty much whiole top) to beams or possibly two burst and two beams and the mod that would make the most sense is long range. My question is, how is the long range mod on lasers? And also are grade 5 beam mods coming in the next patch? And I should wait? I hear efficient beams are coming and that might be the next option. Or should I go with grade 4 long range now? The other option would be going two large beams only and fit the medium hardpoints with missiles (probably with drag munition) and/or torps. I'm running plasma on bottom. Which I know is a weird choice but I like it so far. Theyre only needed against large ships. This is mostly For PvE but I want to be able to defend myself in PVP also and partially going for "fun" and not just pure efficiency.

Any opinions would be appeciafed.

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

G5 long range beams are in beta. I've tried them on a Cutter (G5 long range beams and bursts, drag munition pack hounds on the nacelles) but they weren't great due to high cap use, damage reduction and falloff. However Sandro announced the latter two will be removed entirely, so they may end up quite strong.

Personally I'll wait with an upgrade on live because I'm not sure if the changes pass beta.

 

[TERMINATRIXXX]

I used the a large fixed beam laser, gimballed multicannons and missle racks for nacelles (if you dont have packhounds), made some good results but yea, it flies like a bus. For close range i use the F63 and let the Crew fly this thing.
The effective combat range is between 2500-3000 meters.

 

[Roasted1982]

Thanks guys. I'll mod the missiles first and wait for the beta changes to go into live before doing beams or just do one roll at grade 4 without effecfs to save myself levelling up again later. I don't have packhounds but maybe it might be worth unlocking them.

 

[Roasted1982]

I tried quad efficient burst grade 4 and they're not bad. The problem with large beams is the power usage. My cutter is mulitpurpose and I am able to get away with grade 1 overcharged pp in my build without SCBs but I modded out two long range beams grade 3 just to try and don't have the power to run them in my current setup. I tend to favour efficient weapon because of the decreased power and distributor draw. Are grace 5 burst coming too? Or just beams? Also. Not sure what effects to use on energy weapons. I'm pretty excited for efficient 5 beams. I'm going to try two grade 5 fixed efficient beams on my FDL when the next patch Drops. Also want to try lightweight beam on my courier but again. Power might be a problem as I run low emission grade 3 for heat and clean drives and I'm very power limited.