Pulse VS Burst Lasers

[nosleepdemon]

I've been mucking about with my Fer-de-lance build, and am trying out something with four fixed C2 lasers and a C4 plasma accelerator that I am hoping will have more staying power than a more ammunition reliant setup. However, I cannot decide between the right mix of burst and pulse lasers because I'm having trouble unearthing their energy to damage ratios. The advantage of burst lasers it seems is that they are good for converting your capacitor's energy reserve to damage quickly, but possibly at a penalty to efficiency. This would mean that they are excellent at hitting a target you may not have in your sights for long, since as long as you hit, you will expend your capacitor fast and not be sitting with a full charge and nothing to spend it on. Of course, I could just be flat out wrong. Here's >the build< I'm looking at, the energy required for the bursts would be made available by downgrading sensor and kill warrant scanner class, although irritatingly it appears that 4 bursts is a no-go.

And pasted for convenience:

Spoiler

[Fer-de-Lance]
H: 4A/F Plasma Accelerator
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
M: 2E/F Pulse Laser
U: 0I Chaff Launcher
U: 0I Heat Sink Launcher
U: 0D Kill Warrant Scanner
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster
U: 0A Shield Booster

BH: 1I Lightweight Alloy
RB: 6A Power Plant
TM: 5A Thrusters
FH: 4A Frame Shift Drive
EC: 4D Life Support
PC: 6A Power Distributor
SS: 4B Sensors
FS: 3C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 8)

5: 5A Shield Cell Bank
4: 4A Prismatic Shield Generator
4: 4A Fuel Scoop
2: 2A Frame Shift Drive Interdictor
1: 1C Fuel Tank (Capacity: 2)

 

[Chainguns]

Yes extensive experiments pre 2.0 showed that Bursts and Beams were higher damage at the expense of power, capacitor and heat. It was not linear so the best bang per buck was with pulse. A C3 Beam was 30.3 damage at 5.6 MJ cost, a C3 Pulse was 25.6 damage at a cost of 2.8 MJ. Not sure if these figures got a silent tweak in Horizons.

Pre AI chaff, it made little sense to look beyond pulses, but now it's moot - you want to melt as much as you can in between being chaffed and let the capacitor recover while being spoofed.

 

[nosleepdemon]

Yes extensive experiments pre 2.0 showed that Bursts and Beams were higher damage at the expense of power, capacitor and heat. It was not linear so the best bang per buck was with pulse. A C3 Beam was 30.3 damage at 5.6 MJ cost, a C3 Pulse was 25.6 damage at a cost of 2.8 MJ. Not sure if these figures got a silent tweak in Horizons.

Pre AI chaff, it made little sense to look beyond pulses, but now it's moot - you want to melt as much as you can in between being chaffed and let the capacitor recover while being spoofed.

Thanks for the heads up!

 

[SGT TickleFight]

It all depends on your ship and flying style.

For the FDL, my favorite loadout was beams since you can keep the target in your sights for long periods of time. Of course, 4 medium beams is not practical from both a heat management and power standpoint. I liked 2 beams, 2 frags, and the PA. If you want to fit prismatics, repkaces the frags with multis.

Of the 2 you mention, 4 pulse does better on the FDL - you will be spending time waiting for capacitor charge with the burst.

I love burst, but usually as fixed weapons as the capacitor can charge as I line up my next shot.

 

[nosleepdemon]

It all depends on your ship and flying style.

For the FDL, my favorite loadout was beams since you can keep the target in your sights for long periods of time. Of course, 4 medium beams is not practical from both a heat management and power standpoint. I liked 2 beams, 2 frags, and the PA. If you want to fit prismatics, repkaces the frags with multis.

Of the 2 you mention, 4 pulse does better on the FDL - you will be spending time waiting for capacitor charge with the burst.

I love burst, but usually as fixed weapons as the capacitor can charge as I line up my next shot.

Fixed is the aiming style I'm going for since I'm of the opinion that the forced loss in accuracy of gimballed burst lasers, combined with their poorer damage per MJ ratio vs pulse lasers, would make them simply too wasteful to use.

 

[Frenotx]

I'd suggest 2 pulses, and two bursts. Set one weapon group with the four lasers on on trigger, and the plasma on the other, and another group with just the pulses on one trigger, and the plasma on the other. Slam away with all four lasers until your cap starts to run low, then switch to just the more efficient pulses while you recharge.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I'd suggest 2 pulses, and two bursts. Set one weapon group with the four lasers on on trigger, and the plasma on the other, and another group with just the pulses on one trigger, and the plasma on the other. Slam away with all four lasers until your cap starts to run low, then switch to just the more efficient pulses while you recharge.

That sounds perfect, good idea!

 

[Brimstone]

It's been my experience that burst lasers have more punch against hull than beams or pulses, though pulse lasers do have the advantage of lower energy consumption thus potentially doing more damage over time. Something I've done for a while with my Clipper is having a fixed beam, and a gimballed burst, it's worked well and has become my primary 'undermining load out' and ship. Maybe you could try 1 fixed beam, and 1 fixed burst in the two center-most medium hard points, then multi cannons on the outer-most medium spots? I can't really give much advice on FDL load outs, because I just can't justify the ship's jump range for myself.

 

[mossfoot]

It's been my experience that burst lasers have more punch against hull than beams or pulses, though pulse lasers do have the advantage of lower energy consumption thus potentially doing more damage over time. Something I've done for a while with my Clipper is having a fixed beam, and a gimballed burst, it's worked well and has become my primary 'undermining load out' and ship.

Yeah, that's my clipper loadout too. Also handy at hitting nimble targets. Tap the trigger instead of holding it down and the gimbled burst fires off all three shots, but the beam doesn't waste too much energy on its wasted shot. Very nice setup.

 

[Brimstone]

Yeah, that's my clipper loadout too. Also handy at hitting nimble targets. Tap the trigger instead of holding it down and the gimbled burst fires off all three shots, but the beam doesn't waste too much energy on its wasted shot. Very nice setup.

That's exactly my philosophy

 

[Insane4un]

The things you should know is: Pulse are the best for Shields damage, Burst are the best for hull damage, and Beam are the best in term of comfortable and much more damage in sec (DPS) but much lower damage in all compare to Pulse and Burst.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I've gone with the dual burst dual pulse setup on either side of the ship, if I find myself with energy to spare maybe I'll swap a beam in there somewhere or just git gudder with the PA.

 

[Bacalao]

I'd suggest 2 pulses, and two bursts. Set one weapon group with the four lasers on on trigger, and the plasma on the other, and another group with just the pulses on one trigger, and the plasma on the other. Slam away with all four lasers until your cap starts to run low, then switch to just the more efficient pulses while you recharge.

Can't recommend this enough, I've been mixing a lot of laser types on my ships lately and pulse/burst combos have become one of my favorites (I don't really like beams).

 

[nosleepdemon]

The things you should know is: Pulse are the best for Shields damage, Burst are the best for hull damage, and Beam are the best in term of comfortable and much more damage in sec (DPS) but much lower damage in all compare to Pulse and Burst.

I'm not sure what you mean by that last bit - "...but much lower damage in all compared to pulse and burst.", are you saying beams offer the least efficiency in terms of energy cost to damage ratio?

 

[Insane4un]

I'm not sure what you mean by that last bit - "...but much lower damage in all compared to pulse and burst.", are you saying beams offer the least efficiency in terms of energy cost to damage ratio?

Yes, that is what i mean. This is not my native lang) So yea.

 

[Brimstone]

I'm not sure what you mean by that last bit - "...but much lower damage in all compared to pulse and burst.", are you saying beams offer the least efficiency in terms of energy cost to damage ratio?

Yes beams are the least efficient in terms of energy cost, because they use more energy/sec compared to a pulse or burst. So you could shoot pulses for a much longer period of time, and end up doing more damage in general because of the increased firing time.

 

[Flea King]

Yes beams are the least efficient in terms of energy cost, because they use more energy/sec compared to a pulse or burst. So you could shoot pulses for a much longer period of time, and end up doing more damage in general because of the increased firing time.

I realise this is off-topic but anyhoo. If the targets dead then the additional firing time is a moot point. With beams, assuming the ship can run them for extended bursts (my FAS has them going for about 20 seconds at time) shields can be burnt down quicker, reducing the opportunity for shield cell chugging. It's also unlikely we'll have a decent target in our sights for extended periods of time (assuming we're facing a half-decent human pilot) which gives beams time to recharge as well as demonstrating the importance of doing as much damage as possible in the limited window of attack.clarify

 

[nosleepdemon]

I realise this is off-topic but anyhoo. If the targets dead then the additional firing time is a moot point. With beams, assuming the ship can run them for extended bursts (my FAS has them going for about 20 seconds at time) shields can be burnt down quicker, reducing the opportunity for shield cell chugging. It's also unlikely we'll have a decent target in our sights for extended periods of time (assuming we're facing a half-decent human pilot) which gives beams time to recharge as well as demonstrating the importance of doing as much damage as possible in the limited window of attack.clarify

My issue with beams is that I find it hard to keep them on target, I tried a two burst two pulse setup just now in a combat zone and I found them more forgiving in terms of aiming. Slightly overshooting something with a burst laser is fine as long as you shoot as the reticle lines up. With that said, the amount of hull damage 4 lasers and a PAC can put out is rather pathetic, I was chasing Vipers around forever and the MK-IV's were even more aggravating. Buggers must have had reflective armour, and hitting them with a PAC is rather difficult. I'm once again wishing that the FDL could somehow mount a 5th medium hardpoint, so I could stick a multi cannon on it.

 

[Galafrey]

I've tried a few loadouts and really love 2x medium beams, 2x medium cannons and a huge cannon. The beams can fire almost non stop, and this loadout wrecks all types of ships in pve. Condas, pythons, gunships have no chance and smaller ships just go pop.

 

[Flea King]

My issue with beams is that I find it hard to keep them on target, I tried a two burst two pulse setup just now in a combat zone and I found them more forgiving in terms of aiming.

Ah yes, good call. Beams do require us to be on target and stay on target. On the plus side, it is a skill that can get better and as it does, rewards us with better results. Ship type also plays its part, as does controller setup. I've had my fellow wingmates asking if I was running gimbals when I've been running fixed beams before, so with practice we can certainly stick and burn targets!