Engineers What's the best upgrade for pulse lasers?

[Nerwan]

I was just about to put overcharged weapon on my pulse lasers when I realized that the penalty to DPE was so high in order to get a benefit to DPS that it's a completely pointless upgrade. I may as well simply buy a beam laser instead to get a similar effect.. So what is a good upgrade? I'm tempted just to do a massive number of sturdy mount level 1 upgrades and go for the special effect instead because none of the real upgrades look that tempting. The only one that looks any good is long range weapon.. that would be particularly good if it not only pushes out the maximum range but also pushes out the high damage range a bit..

EDIT: Overcharged weapon upgrade

As a bit of background this is how the OC 3 upgrade plays out relative to other types of laser (It turns your pulse laser into a slightly more damaging, slightly less efficient burst laser):

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Values-Test-Results-(Stage-1-%96-Shield-DPS)

C3 Fixed Pulse DPS = 21.62, DPE = 7.56

Level 3 mean Overcharged DPS improvement = 126.5%, Mean drain increase = 152.5%

New DPE of modded weapon = (126.5/152.5) * 7.56 = 6.27
New DPS of modded weapon = 21.62 * 1.265 = 27.34

For reference a standard C3 Fixed beam DPS is 30.33, DPE = 5.37

So the overcharged weapon is still a bit more efficient than a beam.... but it's not exactly amazing.. Also, that's the mean, if you roll the highest DPS on your level 3 upgrade you get something very close indeed to a beam laser...

And what about a C3F Burst laser? DPS=24.97, DPE = 7.09 New conclusion, don't bother downgrading your pulse laser with OC 3, just buy a burst laser which has almost the same damage but is quite a bit more efficient.

 

[capt_sparks]

A long range pulse laser with a very high firing rate is a deadly combo for effects like thermal shock, unless dps has a correlation to the heat damage dealt.

 

[DragoonKnight]

I was just about to put overcharged weapon on my pulse lasers when I realized that the penalty to DPE was so high in order to get a benefit to DPS that it's a completely pointless upgrade. I may as well simply buy a beam laser instead to get a similar effect.. So what is a good upgrade? I'm tempted just to do a massive number of sturdy mount level 1 upgrades and go for the special effect instead because none of the real upgrades look that tempting. The only one that looks any good is long range weapon.. that would be particularly good if it not only pushes out the maximum range but also pushes out the high damage range a bit..

Long range weapon may be worth it if you regularly find yourself shooting enemies 1 km away or more.
I think you are wrong about overcharged weapon for pulse lasers. Grade 3 will give you 15-38% more damage at the cost of 35-70% more distributor draw. It seems like a lot, but going to beams from pulses will give you 30% more damage at the cost of something like 500% more distributor draw. Overcharged basically turns your pulses into beams without the crazy distributor draw (though it is still increased). I think it may be worth it.

 

[h347h]

There isn't really a best one. Overcharged works well with jousting play style high charge power distributors.

I am using efficient ones with a good grade 4 high charge power distributor and I can burn down 2 Elite Anacondas with out losing cap once. The loss in DPS is far and above made up for by DPM.

 

[Starender]

Either low numbers of pulses with overcharged, or high number of pulses with efficient, i don't see anything else worth.

 

[DragoonKnight]

Either low numbers of pulses with overcharged, or high number of pulses with efficient, i don't see anything else worth.

Since there is a limit to how many pulses you can equip, overcharged makes more sense on a large ship where the damage output may be more bursty with a period of time to recharge your capacitor.
On a Vulture or FAS with dirty drives efficient may be the way to go since you may be able to park yourself behind the enemy ship.

 

[GammaZ]

IIRC overcharged also adds jitter even for grade 5 upgrade, which makes it hard to hit small targets or subsystems, not worth it IMO.
Also values shown in outfitting for beams seem very, very wrong. IIRC C3F beam has ~+100% distributor draw and ~50% more DPS compared to C3F pulse, at least it was this way some time ago when it was tested and i do not remember beams being changed that much...

From what i've seen in beta for pulses it is either range if you need it (and it also scales max damage range, there were dev comments in beta forum about it) or heavy duty/lightweight mount just to get specials.
Bursts on the other hand... overcharged increases their DPE, DPS and does not have jitter for grade 5 upgrade...

 

[RoLnD79]

I went with 2 large overcharged pulse lasers, and 2 medium efficient pulse lasers on my upper hardpoints of my python. I find it's a nice balance. I use a charge enhanced power distributor, so my eng/sys/wep all recharge at +22.4% rate, plus I got a good roll on my weapons capacity, it only has a -3% capacity. My distributor keeps up just fine, and recharges so fast I never even worry about most ships. If it's a big ship that doesn't leave my crosshairs, when my pulse lasers draw my distributor down, I switch to my large efficient MC, I can fire that non stop and my weapons still refill at a great rate.

 

[Mephane]

Overcharged grade 5. But FD either forgot implementing it, reserved it for an engineer yet to be added, or decided to screw over fans of laser guns* for some reason.

*Burst lasers lack grade 5 and 4, beam lasers lack 5, 4 and 3!

 

[ErichZann]

Also values shown in outfitting for beams seem very, very wrong. IIRC C3F beam has ~+100% distributor draw and ~50% more DPS compared to C3F pulse, at least it was this way some time ago when it was tested and i do not remember beams being changed that much...

I think the beam shows energy per second, while for the pulse it is per shot, so there you have to multiply it with the rate of fire.

 

[Starender]

I'm planning to use overcharged pulses very soon so i have a question: is the jitter a problem at rank 5 when we want to use them against modules ?

 

[Insane4un]

I'm planning to use overcharged pulses very soon so i have a question: is the jitter a problem at rank 5 when we want to use them against modules ?

From my expirience OC pulse on 3 grade is a very effective way to kill hull and ship obviously. But it is absolutly useless against modules. 100% useless. 5 grade don't have jitter. But we don't have 5 grade in game yet. Don't be scary of jitter. It is not that bad actually. If you know how to use a weapon ofc.

 

[Starender]

From my expirience OC pulse on 3 grade is a very effective way to kill hull and ship obviously. But it is absolutly useless against modules. 100% useless. 5 grade don't have jitter. But we don't have 5 grade in game yet. Don't be scary of jitter. It is not that bad actually. If you know how to use a weapon ofc.

Even with a grade 4 you still can't aim modules effectively ? :x

 

[kPack]

i also like the focused with armor piercing 60 is very nice . but i gonna test it vs overcharaged

 

[Insane4un]

Even with a grade 4 you still can't aim modules effectively ? :x

Well.. if you fly vulture you can. But if you fly on idk.. corvette - than no. YOu have to be very close to damage modules with OC 4 grade.

 

[RoLnD79]

Well.. if you fly vulture you can. But if you fly on idk.. corvette - than no. YOu have to be very close to damage modules with OC 4 grade.

i guess it all depends if you're doing a lot of PvP or not. If your using a corvette for PvE, there's really no reason to bother targeting modules. I rarely ever target modules in my python in PvE, and when I do it's not because I have to, it's for fun. When I'm in my cobra I target modules on the larger ships and more potent ships, because it doesn't have the firepower.

 

[GammaZ]

i guess it all depends if you're doing a lot of PvP or not. If your using a corvette for PvE, there's really no reason to bother targeting modules. I rarely ever target modules in my python in PvE, and when I do it's not because I have to, it's for fun. When I'm in my cobra I target modules on the larger ships and more potent ships, because it doesn't have the firepower.

It is still way, way faster to kill powerplant on large ships like anaconda/cutter/corvette/python/FGS than to kill hull, even in a large ship. Especially if it is high-ranked or CZ ship, which seem to be filled by HRP-s to the brim. Even with lousy targeting by fixed beams CZ cutter powerplant dies at ~70% of its hull.

 

[RoLnD79]

It is still way, way faster to kill powerplant on large ships like anaconda/cutter/corvette/python/FGS than to kill hull, even in a large ship. Especially if it is high-ranked or CZ ship, which seem to be filled by HRP-s to the brim. Even with lousy targeting by fixed beams CZ cutter powerplant dies at ~70% of its hull.

Oh definitely, those CZ ships are pretty stacked.(btw candecama is a great place to get combat ship drops, I found its almost all asp explorers, which can be tough, but there's not a lot of anacondas/pythons/corvettes running around that can mess you up quick if you get ganged up on).

I guess what I meant was , the jitter is less of an issue on large ships with a lot of firepower, than on something smaller that relies on targeting modules for taking down bigger ships. With these shield booster and HRP/armor mods now, it's almost hard to get destroyed by anything, unless your really being careless, my shields hardly ever drop anymore, and when they do the modded hrps/armor stand up tall.

 

[h347h]

Oh definitely, those CZ ships are pretty stacked.(btw candecama is a great place to get combat ship drops, I found its almost all asp explorers, which can be tough, but there's not a lot of anacondas/pythons/corvettes running around that can mess you up quick if you get ganged up on).

I guess what I meant was , the jitter is less of an issue on large ships with a lot of firepower, than on something smaller that relies on targeting modules for taking down bigger ships. With these shield booster and HRP/armor mods now, it's almost hard to get destroyed by anything, unless your really being careless, my shields hardly ever drop anymore, and when they do the modded hrps/armor stand up tall.

The effort for shield boosters and HRP are well worth it.

 

[RoLnD79]

The effort for shield boosters and HRP are well worth it.

Im never going to use my cutter as a combat ship, but I have 1650 shields now, and that's just with a 6A shield generator thats unmodded for trading. I don't even have any level 5 shield boosters on that yet, three 4's and a few 3's and a 2 I think. I'm in the process of modding my PowerPlant on it now, so I can mod all shield boosters to 5 and still run any setup. It keeps me from having to buy the 8a shield generator, and I can easily set it up to carry 720T without selling the 8a etc.

Yes the shield boosters and HRP mods are definitely worth it.