Understanding weapons: burst vs beam vs pulse?

[Danarchist]

I have been staring at the different beam weapons on the shipyard and cannot figure out how they really differ other than power draw and rate of fire. Can someone explain what the differences is between the 3 types of lazerz? I am hoping to outfit a vulture tonight with dual lasers and cannot figure out what would be the best kind to use if I do not plan to have kinetic weapons.

Thank you for any replies!

 

[Vincent Starson]

Beams: Higher Alpha / Burst. Drains energy fast and focuses damage in short period of time. Pew while triggered.
Pulse: Average Damage. Can sustain for long duration of fire. One pew per trigger.
Burst: I don't use burst but it's kind of like Pulse, only 3 pews per trigger.

Edit: I should add, I use pulses because they are pretty decent. If they had bursts in my size then I'd try them out too. Beams are great and all but I don't like how much power they use, I use more of a defensive build and need pips for Sys.

 

[Conestoga]

Pulse lasers are more capacitor and heat efficient than the other two, but do lower DPS. They have the special advantage of lower power draw in outfitting. "Good for sustained fire or when you need to save power draw."

Burst lasers are slightly less capacitor and heat efficient than pulse, and do slightly more DPS. They have the special advantage of "burst" style fire that works a little better when you only have fleeting moments of opportunity. "Good for when your capacitor could stand a little more drain, and you have the outfitting draw to spare."

Beam lasers are the least capacitor and heat efficient by a large margin, and do the highest DPS by a large margin. They have the special advantage of... well... doing the highest DPS by a large margin. In theory, they have the disadvantage of poor armor penetration, but their raw damage overcomes that. "Good for blowing stuff up when you know how to manage your capacitor & heat, and have the spare room in outfitting."

Additional commentary: Once upon a time, I simply took my otherwise fully outfitted candidate ship and tested various loadouts, usually starting with beams and then moving down one by one, until I found the max hurt I could put out while still maintaining a stream for a minimum of 15 seconds. When I found the most power I could field for 15 seconds, I dropped my power plant to the minimum needed for that outfit.

That's not such a good plan anymore.

Now, you want extra power for Shield Boosters. The more the better. That seriously tips the balance in favor of the pulse laser, and the burst seems like it's not worth the tradeoff. Beams, of course, are still yummy.

 

[Matt]

Big guide here! http://lavewiki.com/weapons

 

[magillag]

Big guide here! http://lavewiki.com/weapons

WOW!

I've spent HOURS perusing the forums and generally looking for this type of info!
the other wiki could learn from lavewiki.com!!

Have a +1 Rep on me

 

[RG-870]

Within the same class the lasers have the following characteristics:

Pulse Laser
- lowest damage per shot
- highest rate of fire
- lowest heat and energy usage

Burst Laser
- medium damage per burst
- slower rate of fire than pulse laser
- medium heat and energy usage
The burst laser is like a pulse laser that fires a burst of 3 shots at once, followed by a short cooldown

Beam Laser
- fires a constant laser beam as long as you hold the trigger
- highest damage per second
- highest heat and energy usage
- less effective against hull than pulse / burst

If you can manage the heat and energy cost a beam laser will deliver damage very fast. But that comes at the cost of a lot of heat and energy required. The beam laser also appears to miss at ranges where pulse / burst lasers still hit. On top of that a beam laser has a higher risk of hitting neutral / allied ships which move between you and your target (especially when using turrets which fire at will) turning them against you.
If you want to hit hard and fast up to medium range, I'd recommend beam lasers. If you can manage to keep your target within your sights for a long time and want to deliver sustained damage over a longer period of time, go for pulse or burst lasers.

 

[Poseidal]

Crosspost from https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=124856&p=1924179&viewfull=1#post1924179

My thoughts on the different lasers:

Dual bursts for fixed mounts means you don't need to keep the nose 100% on target all the time, just for each time you burst (and if you wait a bit longer to line up, you get more of a payload than the other two).

Pulse has best damage / energy and can keep going.

Beams high energy drain means that having more than one is wasteful after the capacitor drains, which becomes a bigger deal against larger targets.

If pairing up, I would probably go for Pulse lasers with something as agile as the Vulture, as they are pretty economical and pulse apparently loses less against the hull than the other laser types.

With beams, I would run one on its own and use a secondary weapon. If it were class 2 or 1s, I would use a Multicannon, but with class 3 you're pretty much stuck with just a Cannon.

For dual weapons, In effect, Beams end up as a 'bully' weapon to kill smaller ships before the capacitor is up, but against anything tanky enough to take an entire capacitor, Pulse lasers have advantages that putting 4 pips means continuous fire doing more damage over the longer period, or you can do more with the pips for shields and engines.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

Need to mention the pulse also have higher armour penetration too. They're better vs hull than the others for the energy spent.

 

[Sim Maker]

OK...lets get serious......which ones LOOK the coolest, when firing.......
.
I am after some fixed, rapid fire laser shots with some time of flight to target, like classic Star Wars lasers in rapid fire.........and I dont care if they have the hitting power of smoke rings........

 

[Carmaki]

Pulse lasers do the least damage per shot, but they aren't power hungry so you can sustain them for quite a while. Also, they don't generate a ton of heat, so you can fire for quite a while without worrying too much. These are good all around lasers, in my opinion.

Burst lasers do a fair bit more damage per burst than pulses, but they drain more power and produce more heat. Really good for dealing with more maneuverable vessels like Vipers, Cobras, Sidewinders, ect. ect. since you can pour out your damage in quick burst.

Beam lasers fire a constant stream of damage, no breaks, nothing. They devour power nerds devour free pizza at a sci-fi convention, and they produce a lot of heat. They produce an amazing amount of damage, but you have to be very accurate for them to be effective... Not to mention, if an NPC flies in front of you, it's bad news bears, because you now have a bounty. In my opinion, these make for good shield strippers, especially against larger ships. If you can master them, they are dangerous little pieces of kit.

 

[ziphnor]

Do anyone how much extra damage the beam actually does? They are all rated at 2 dmg/s, but i guess it might be rounded to an integer value (so pulse could be 1.5, burst 2 and beam 2.49 etc). So at best beam is ~66% better than pulse wrt to dmg/s, but it would be nice to know the actual number. I rarely use beam, as i like to fly eagle/viper and similar ships that can usually stay on target for a rather long time where its annoying to have to pause firing.