Pulse, Burst, or Beam?
- Thread starter mossfoot
- Start date
Depends on what you want.
Most damage over a short time == Beam
Most damage over extended time and best energy to damage quota Pulse
Highest accuracy ( esp useful when targeting sub systems ) Pulse
The burst is in between ...
Unless you have good enough power distribution to run the beams almost constantly, in which case over extended time beam wins as well.
Pulse = highest DPE
Beam = highest DPS (while energy remains)
More info: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=140240
Doesn't have class 2 bursts yet, but everything else should be there.
Beam = highest DPS (while energy remains)
More info: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=140240
Doesn't have class 2 bursts yet, but everything else should be there.
If u go on YouTube, Kornelius Briedus shows comparisons over the aspects of E : D including the thermal weapons.
People prefer the pulse laser because it has a lower heat rate as well as a slower power consumption. The downsides are that it has a slower but effective fire rate that reduces DPM.
The beam laser is the exact opposite of this. It can fire a continuous beam that shoots at the target while eating your power and increases heat. This is preferred on smaller ships fighting against larger ones as a long beam can take out a ring of shields from an anaconda if he/she is not careful.
The burst laser fires 3 rapid shots of pulse lasers. due to that, it can be considered as the midline of the laser weapons.
People prefer the pulse laser because it has a lower heat rate as well as a slower power consumption. The downsides are that it has a slower but effective fire rate that reduces DPM.
The beam laser is the exact opposite of this. It can fire a continuous beam that shoots at the target while eating your power and increases heat. This is preferred on smaller ships fighting against larger ones as a long beam can take out a ring of shields from an anaconda if he/she is not careful.
The burst laser fires 3 rapid shots of pulse lasers. due to that, it can be considered as the midline of the laser weapons.
Beamz for knocking down shields. Kinetics or plasma afterwards.
From my experience, it primarily involves your distributor. A weaker distributor class can get really cranky about beam lasers since it not only drains quickly, but when it does drain you can get stuck with overheating in some fighters (Vulture happens with dual c3 beams, FDL happens with dual c2 beams and c2 pulse). On a Python, Beam lasers are the best class 2 thermal option since the distributor can handle it for at least a minute or two before even noticing that they're firing. Also, beam lasers are consistently better for shields while Pulse and Burst are consistently better for hull I've noticed. Most Vulture folk go with Pulse lasers since they not only allow you to use both A5 shield and Thrusters, the damage difference isn't that big.
The short version - Wait for a Python to be relying on Beams. The post above give better explanation methinks.
The short version - Wait for a Python to be relying on Beams. The post above give better explanation methinks.
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Pulses enable you to stack more shielding because they have such minimal power draw.
You see a lot of heavily shield boosted ships running pulses in PvP.
I personally much prefer bursts and beams for PvE and rails for PvP.
You see a lot of heavily shield boosted ships running pulses in PvP.
I personally much prefer bursts and beams for PvE and rails for PvP.
Versus tiny/small ships beams usually are best. Versus large ships where you need to sustain fire pulse/burst is better. It depends also on how many you'll use: on my diamondback explorer I use a beam on the large hardpoint. As it is just one beam I can fire it for a very long time.
TheLoneTrucker
Banned
I use 4 C3 beam turrets on my conda. With an A8 PP and PD i can keep 2 turrets firing forever. With the new wonderful turret changes in 1.3 i can bring a target in the center of a firing arc and have all 4 C3 beam turrets fire on the target for a nice alpha strike but it does eat through the weapon capacitor and make a lot of heat.
I also use 2 C2 gimballed pulse and 2 C1 turret pulse but they're really just gravy. 2 C3 beam turrets will kill anything Imp clipper and smaller quickly since i can keep them running constantly.
I also use 2 C2 gimballed pulse and 2 C1 turret pulse but they're really just gravy. 2 C3 beam turrets will kill anything Imp clipper and smaller quickly since i can keep them running constantly.
I won't give you fancy figures and all, but choosing beam over pulse is a matter of power/capacitor management.
Now if your ship can handle continuous 2x or 3x beam laser firing, go for it! But I doubt such ship exists. That's why players go for pulse: not as powerful as beam, but at least you can pretty much fire constantly, or almost.
Very few people use anything but pulse. I started another thread about this in the retrofitting forum a while ago.
I use a python with all beams, one pass to strip the sheild on anything smaller than a python. Can even burn through smaller sheilds while scb are being used.