pulse, burst, or beam lasers?

[Someasianguy]

beam seems to do more damage, but burst and pulse lasers last a lot longer. Is there a way to get better thermal efficiency? I have the best power plant and power distributor I can get for my ship.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

If I remember right, the last balancing made bursts to be the most energy-efficient weapons damage-wise. Beams will deliver more damage at a short period of time, but are too power hungry.

Use efficient weapon engineering to make them more thermal efficient. You can also use a thermal vent special effect on beams, to keep them not too hot, as long as you hit the target.

[JP_Russell]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

If I remember right, the last balancing made bursts to be the most energy-efficient weapons damage-wise.

Very slightly. It's like less than a 2% difference, I think. But in practice, I feel like gimballed bursts miss more and they end up being less efficient. I'd probably use bursts over pulse if I were going fixed, though, and I don't know enough about accuracy on turret tracking to speak on how they compare there.

[CMDR Emotions]

Use beams to take out the sheilds, burts and pulse have different energey consumption and armor penitration.

[TiberiuS]

Originally posted by CMDR Emotions:

Use beams to take out the sheilds, burts and pulse have different energey consumption and armor penitration.

Only VERY slightly. Medium lasers all have the same armor penetration (35). Unless it has been changed recently.

Pulse - least heat.
Burst - best Energy vs. Damage; little more heat
Beam - best DPS, high energy consumption, most heat.

[Heartbreak One]

Just to add to what everyone else has said:

I find beams the least accurate when gimballed, and you need time on target to do considerable damage. Bursts are the opposite, deal their damage quick and are great for smaller targets, whereas pulse are kind of the jack of all trades. They don't excel anywhere, but don't have any range they do ♥♥♥♥♥ at either.

[Nfected]

Originally posted by TiberiuS:

Originally posted by CMDR Emotions:

Use beams to take out the sheilds, burts and pulse have different energey consumption and armor penitration.

Only VERY slightly. Medium lasers all have the same armor penetration (35). Unless it has been changed recently.

Pulse - least heat.
Burst - best Energy vs. Damage; little more heat
Beam - best DPS, high energy consumption, most heat.

Beams are always just a smidge less armor pen than bursts or pulses

Focused pulses are great for hull, efficient beams are good against shields
Bursts? In between

Unless it's a huge beam - then you're vaporizing hulls with 60 Pen

[Sir Harlz]

Depends on your set up. I tend to use a single beam on the largest hard point/points of my ship. For sheilds, than everything else is balastic for the hull.

[Agony_Aunt]

I tend to prefer beam over anything else. You can do with one beam, and for roughly the same power and capacitor consumption as you can do with 2 pulses. So by going 1 beam instead of 2 pulses you free up a hardpoint slot for something else.

However, its not like a global rule of mine, and i do use pulses or bursts on some builds.

[FalterXV TTV]

I think the real question of beam / pulse / burst, comes down to when you start to engineer them all.
In terms of stock damages - a beam will out Damage a burst or pulse, any day of the weak - the same time on target, does allow it to strike at the same level of damages, BUT from shorter ranges - falloff on a Beam is 600 meters - as is all laser weaponry

In terms of damage Per megajoule of energy, then- burst becomes king - if you have the power to support a burst, it will usually pull ahead in joules of energy spent, BUT! at the cost of more heat per shot, you'll need a more efficient craft, to output the same damage beams will be doing, with a burst / plus ammo setup - heat dissipation is the key.

But, the bigger way burst pulls ahead - is in the engineer EFFECT department - burst lasers excell at applying the effects of Scrable Spectrum, and Phasing Sequence - so if you end up modding with lasers in mind, bursts will allow you to apply the effects on a laser, much better than a pulse will of the same class.
(25% chance per strike, means a burst gets 25% X3 - per shot delivered)

In terms of the jitter, to correct you @Heartbreak One - a burst Will dance like a pulse will - but no, the consequent burst, will strike in the same place, unless the ship is moving - then the burst will be striking along the path of the ship - the jitter of the gun only has a play on where the burst strikes if the laser has the kinetic impact modification - (space shotgun burst laser mode engage!)
Otherwise, no, on a standstill target, the burst will hit in the same place, every time.

AP, is the same for both Pulse and Burst at 35 for medium sizes - less damage PER individual shot, with less damage STILL for the full burst, but for less energy per second, with less heat total-but more heat buildup

It is like the case between an Imperial Hammer - and a Railgun - same rules there as well - if that makes any form of sense.

[Ildryn]

Originally posted by Belial8915:

- falloff on a Beam is 600 meters - as is all laser weaponry

Didn't read past this part.
Pulse and Burst have a 500m fallofff.
If you can't get simple numbers right the rest of the short story becomes redundant.

[Flyboy]

Pulses are best for gimballed mounts. Beams are best for fixed mounts. Bursts are kind of inbetween.

[Nfected]

Originally posted by HashE:

Pulses are best for gimballed mounts. Beams are best for fixed mounts. Bursts are kind of inbetween.

Pulses are also better for mods that increase power or distributor draw - like focused or long range

[Knight Siegfried]

For my Vulture, I tend to use a tier 3 beam laser and a tier 3 gimballed multicannon. Both shreds away shields and hull on most ships I encounter while bounty hunting