Pulse Lasers - Are They Superior?

[yale3d]

Gimbal typically don't have the long-distance option, right? It's been a while since I've used anything BUT gimbal beams, so I may be wrong but I thought they had a shorter range than fixed.

I think they take getting used to, and then they can be very powerful in the right hands. Get in close, use them in medium bursts letting the heat subside, and make sure by the time the shields come down you have a component targeted. I use 4gB on my Vipe, and I approve of their use whole-heartedly. NPCs aren't challenging, regardless of ship type or rank. PvP is almost a different game, with people using fotw weapons until the devs realize there is some bug that leaves them without hit boxes or whatever, then everyone changes again. It's a dance I don't enjoy, so for now I'm speaking strictly of PvE.

Ah, yes, damaging components is a really nice side of beams, i smoked up some dangerous dude surprisingly quick after i finally managed to tear down their shield and targetted the power plant. that was one of the few positive experiences...
but i start to realize the errors of my ways

 

[Phoonster]

Beam lasers are only good in small doses, they heat up too quick if you have more than 2 c1s. On my asp I had 2 c2 fixed lasers and could only fire for 2/3 seconds before they would overheat and that was with a 4A power distributor!!!

Their damage to heat output is terrible, burst laser or pulse laser are usually a better use of wpn energy to damage inflicted.

The power dist doesn't stop over heating, your power plant handles that.

As to beams instead of pulse/burst. Beams are fast damage at the expensive of over heating/draining. You can not expect to press and hold a continuous firing. They are made for short controlled bursts. If you want that hold and fire feeling, go pulse/burst. Their design allows for that play style. For ship configurations, gimbaled lasers are a waste since the bullet reaches the target at the speed of light. As for the choice of using them in medium or small weapon slots, placing the most overheating weapon in the best slot the ship can use isn't very bright. The medium slots on a cobra or Asp should be using with low heat MCs or missiles. When used in a cobra or asp, Class 2 Gimbaled MCs will out damage fixed class 2 beams over time because of over heating.

The best answer is to use a variety of configurations. Sales and buy back of weapons are the same. So try them all. My cobra runs with 1 class 2 fixed beam and rest MCs. My Asp has 2 Class 2 fixed rails and rest MC. Do whatever kills right, not so much the fastest/efficient.

 

[Conestoga]

How does burst lasers fit into this? Haven't really tried them...

Burst lasers hit mildly harder and have mildly more thermal load than an equivalent class pulse laser. The "burst" mechanism is inherently better at, well, burst damage than a pulse since even one short trigger pull causes havoc. The real trade-off is they require almost as much power as a beam laser.

I use the occasional burst laser on otherwise pulse-based builds when I have a little extra capacitor drain available, but not enough to support a beam.

Don't expect a world of difference, though.

 

[robbyp]

Hmm, I must try this. Haven't really ventured towards cannons as I usually prefer the higher projectile velocity. Is it fixed?

Yep, fixed, and only for close combat with a Anaconda/Python etc. I found MC were talking too long.

Of course you can use dumbfires instead of the cannon, but they cost a lot more, reducing profit!

 

[Morbad]

You can't power four beams efficiently anyway on a cobra

Sure you can.

Beam lasers are only good in small doses, they heat up too quick if you have more than 2 c1s. On my asp I had 2 c2 fixed lasers and could only fire for 2/3 seconds before they would overheat and that was with a 4A power distributor!!!

Their damage to heat output is terrible, burst laser or pulse laser are usually a better use of wpn energy to damage inflicted.

I run four fixed beam lasers on my Viper, and I find it perfectly acceptable as long as I maintain good trigger discipline.

Ah, yes, damaging components is a really nice side of beams, i smoked up some dangerous dude surprisingly quick after i finally managed to tear down their shield and targetted the power plant. that was one of the few positive experiences...
but i start to realize the errors of my ways

Beam lasers actually have the worst armor penetration of all lasers and thus the least portion of their damage makes it to subsystems.

 

[Bangfish]

Don't forget that fixed beams (or any fixed weapon for that matter) also have some auto adjustments albeit small.

 

[Conestoga]

Sure you can

Are you blowing heat sinks on those? I gave up on it. On the other hand, I hate those small hardpoints, so I gave up on everything with that ship sometime during beta.

 

[Morbad]

Are you blowing heat sinks on those? I gave up on it. On the other hand, I hate those small hardpoints, so I gave up on everything with that ship sometime during beta.

No heatsinks needed.

I do agree the Cobra hardpoint locations are not conducive to all fixed weapons, but the ship has the same distributor and more available power than the Viper which I happily run four fixed beam lasers on.

 

[ComradeFresco]

On an eagle what are peoples thoughts on fixed beam versus pulse gimballed? Also do you factor in your flight controls?

For example i'd be more eager to use f0ixed-beams once i get a hotas but with a mouse i'm scared to stop using gimballed? (Or am i just lame? Any mouse using fixed beamers?

 

[Sayne]

How does burst lasers fit into this? Haven't really tried them...

I prefer gimballed burst to pulse on the Cobra's wing hardpoints. Their field of fire on the wings is pretty crappy (especially in a turning fight) so I find that burst dish out more damage given on those wing hardpoints they have less time on target than, say, on a Viper's Class 1 hardpoints.

It took noticing longer to take down an assassination mission Anaconda's shields when I tried out pulse lasers last week. I'm sticking with gimballed burst.

 

[Monk]

On an eagle what are peoples thoughts on fixed beam versus pulse gimballed? Also do you factor in your flight controls?

For example i'd be more eager to use f0ixed-beams once i get a hotas but with a mouse i'm scared to stop using gimballed? (Or am i just lame? Any mouse using fixed beamers?

Fixed beam works pretty well on the Eagle. I have it on the top hard point and have 2 gimbal MCs on the bottom. The Eagle is great for fixed weps b/c you can get in very close being so agile, allowing you to snipe components with it. Also, it works well at range as many ships can outpace the Eagle, so you will find yourself making some long distance shots that you really can only land with a fixed mount.

 

[Harotak]

Beams are best when paired with projectile or missile weapons; they have the highest DPS of all lasers, but are less energy efficient. If you want to use an all laser setup, pulse are the most efficient and will allow you to sustain more DPS than burst or beam once your capacitor is drained.

The power dist doesn't stop over heating, your power plant handles that.

The power plant is what handles cooling, but weapons don't really "overheat", they run out of power from the distributor. If your ship itself is overheating, a better reactor will help, but if your weapons stop firing due to what the game calls "thermal overload", that is because your weapons capacitor is empty. A better power distributor gives you a larger weapons capacitor that recharges faster.

 

[CMDR John Casey]

I just put a beam on my Eagle, top mount, gimballed, instead of a burst one. I use it to strip off shields while maneuvering to finish them off with guns. I feel that it has a shorter range than the burst and it is less precise when aiming to single parts of the ships.
However, it is faster in taking off shields. I'm still thinking whether I keep it or not...

 

[Pienias]

Mouse+keyboard works fine if you change yaw with roll axis.

 

[crushdepth]

Burst lasers are worth a look, I prefer them to pulse and lets you unload more damage in a fly by. Switch into multicannons when the power gets low and keep up the fire.

 

[Rich Bramwell]

Horses for courses here chap's. The energy weapons do a better job overall of shield stripping, but are less damaging to the ships hull. Burst puts more in a small spot in a small time and the beams do 20 percent more damage for the price of roughly four times the thermal load of a burst. If you look at the damage per second of a burst, especially the C3 burst lasers then they are nearly as powerful as the gimballed C3 beams I have too but they are 280000 each and the gimballed beams are 2.45 million each.
So the extra 20 percent is costing over 2 million more it seems, I do well with 2 of the D2 gimballed medium beams and 3 of the heavy green military looking C3 gimballed beams, yes I can only fire all 5 for roughly 3 or 4 second bursts, then a recharge, two 4 second bursts would totally deplete my weapons capacitor but I seem to do well enough and only use one heat sink launcher occasionally.

 

[Murphy's Ghost]

I use 2 of the best pulse lasers you can get up top, and dual seekers below.

With all A3/A4 modules and proper piloting, I can strip all shields and destroy any NPC Viper, Eagle or Sidey on the first pass, and often most Cobras. Ammo is essentially free and the trigger stays down the entire time.

The seekers are just for when I hear "surge detected"... they eat 2x seekers for trying to run. And I'm happy to pay the price. Soooo happy.

I've tried beams, burst, and mixing in MC's. Wasn't too satisfied due to the Cobra's mount placements.