Plasma beam or death ray?

[Pope Innocent the 69th]

I was shocked to see that regular old plasma beam has a much higher dps than the death ray, with higher armor pen to boot. Of course, the death ray fires much faster so it could potentially overkill targets less.

So which one is better?

[frdnwsm]

The plasma beam seems clearly superior.

Both have the same range, and both have minimal range-related damage fall off. The DR is slightly smaller physically; we can fit 5 DR in the space used by 4 PB. The DR has a moderately faster CD (10 vs 16) but this is overshadowed by the PB edge in procs (5 vs 3). The procs are the real edge for the PB armed ship.

If your opponent has strong but non-hardened shields, you may also want to consider Gauss Cannon as an alternative. No procs, but heavy damage, and if the enemy is coming in with ClassX shields, that SP ability starts to look sweet.

(Not recommended vs Meklars, since those guys usually have hard shields on their ships).