Plasma Accelerator engineering

[IronCloud]

Hello commanders, just finished engineering my rail guns and now i wanna make a build with plasma on my krait 2. What engineering do you recommend on them? What about efficient, long range or focused? Also what experimental effects?
I will use 2 medium plasma and 1 large plasma with 2 overcharged mc, mostly for pve but want to be capable of Pvp too.

[Jack left town]

You can either go overcharged/short range with a weapons focused PD or efficient if using a fast charge PD like most people. PVP wise everyone used to run plasma slug experimental for free premium ammo but that has been fixed.

[Agony_Aunt]

Oh, i'm a big fan of the PA Krait. Was running one until a few months ago when i switched to frags. PAs are good, but an all frag build just deletes enemies and you don't have to worry about heat or WEP cap (you do have to worry about ammo though).

I highly recommend efficient if you don't want to babysit your heat or have to put too many pips into WEP.

However, if you don't mind getting a bit toasty and running 4 pips in WEP (thereby losing speed/agility and shield strength/recharge) go crazy.

Personally i don't recommend long ranged. Sure, it increases shot speed and damage at a distance, but if engaging from a distance, especially against smaller ships, you're likely to miss anyway. PAs are for getting up close and personal with.

As Jack left town said, short range is a decent choice if you fly well enhough to keep distances close or go overcharged to keep a bit of range.

Apart from those and efficient, the rest aren't that useful for PAs. PAs have good penetration anyway so focused and sturdy are not required. Lightweight is just a weaksauce version of efficient, more for use on ships where you still want combat capabilities while squeezing every bit of speed out of your sihp.

[IronCloud]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Oh, i'm a big fan of the PA Krait. Was running one until a few months ago when i switched to frags. PAs are good, but an all frag build just deletes enemies and you don't have to worry about heat or WEP cap (you do have to worry about ammo though).

I highly recommend efficient if you don't want to babysit your heat or have to put too many pips into WEP.

However, if you don't mind getting a bit toasty and running 4 pips in WEP (thereby losing speed/agility and shield strength/recharge) go crazy.

Personally i don't recommend long ranged. Sure, it increases shot speed and damage at a distance, but if engaging from a distance, especially against smaller ships, you're likely to miss anyway. PAs are for getting up close and personal with.

As Jack left town said, short range is a decent choice if you fly well enhough to keep distances close or go overcharged to keep a bit of range.

Apart from those and efficient, the rest aren't that useful for PAs. PAs have good penetration anyway so focused and sturdy are not required. Lightweight is just a weaksauce version of efficient, more for use on ships where you still want combat capabilities while squeezing every bit of speed out of your sihp.

Tnx, i think i will go efficient, sounds as the best option. And for experimentals?

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by IronCloud:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Oh, i'm a big fan of the PA Krait. Was running one until a few months ago when i switched to frags. PAs are good, but an all frag build just deletes enemies and you don't have to worry about heat or WEP cap (you do have to worry about ammo though).

I highly recommend efficient if you don't want to babysit your heat or have to put too many pips into WEP.

However, if you don't mind getting a bit toasty and running 4 pips in WEP (thereby losing speed/agility and shield strength/recharge) go crazy.

Personally i don't recommend long ranged. Sure, it increases shot speed and damage at a distance, but if engaging from a distance, especially against smaller ships, you're likely to miss anyway. PAs are for getting up close and personal with.

As Jack left town said, short range is a decent choice if you fly well enhough to keep distances close or go overcharged to keep a bit of range.

Apart from those and efficient, the rest aren't that useful for PAs. PAs have good penetration anyway so focused and sturdy are not required. Lightweight is just a weaksauce version of efficient, more for use on ships where you still want combat capabilities while squeezing every bit of speed out of your sihp.

Tnx, i think i will go efficient, sounds as the best option. And for experimentals? a mix of Dispersal Field, Target Lock Breaker and Dazzle Shell or all with Phasing Sequence or Oversised?

I generally throw in the utility ones, yes. Although target lock breaker is useless against NPCs, they just relock instantly.

Phasing sequence.... i wouldn't. Not unless you are going all in. And PAs do good damage against shields, by the time you've landed a few you'll be through the shields anyway. Phasing sequence is more of a fun thing to use for PvP where you go up against a ganker with munchkin levels of shielding and they go into full blown panic mode when they see their hull dropping while shields are up. ;)

Oversized isn't bad for a few extra percent of damage. Since PAs throw out a lot of damage its worth getting.

[Jack left town]

Phasing is the next best thing for PVP since plasma slug nerf/fix. For PVE bone stock PAs get the job done admirably tbh.

[JL::Jose-Juan Kenobi]

I have tried Focused on my Vette, and works well, I really like the increased shot speed and once the shield is down, the hull goes down very quickly.
I'm still learning with fixed weapons, and Focused seems to help me aim better, I don't have to lead the target as much.

BUT, have to agree I "miss" the extra damage you could get from say Efficient. If I were to put PAs on a Krait or even more nimble ships like the Chieftain, I would try efficient, I should be able to stay on target better than with the Vette.

Also keep in mind if you have more than one PA, to use the same engineering, the difference on shot speed and range makes them a mess haha (learn from my experience with the Chief equipping one Focused one Efficient)

As for experimentals, hard to say, I like Multiservos for slightly faster reload. Target lock breaker seems to be common (more so in PVP I guess)

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Oh, i'm a big fan of the PA Krait. Was running one until a few months ago when i switched to frags. PAs are good, but an all frag build just deletes enemies and you don't have to worry about heat or WEP cap (you do have to worry about ammo though).

I highly recommend efficient if you don't want to babysit your heat or have to put too many pips into WEP.

However, if you don't mind getting a bit toasty and running 4 pips in WEP (thereby losing speed/agility and shield strength/recharge) go crazy.

Personally i don't recommend long ranged. Sure, it increases shot speed and damage at a distance, but if engaging from a distance, especially against smaller ships, you're likely to miss anyway. PAs are for getting up close and personal with.

As Jack left town said, short range is a decent choice if you fly well enhough to keep distances close or go overcharged to keep a bit of range.

Apart from those and efficient, the rest aren't that useful for PAs. PAs have good penetration anyway so focused and sturdy are not required. Lightweight is just a weaksauce version of efficient, more for use on ships where you still want combat capabilities while squeezing every bit of speed out of your sihp.

I run a triple APA short range blaster Krait MK 2, with some TV Beams. My Krait otherwise runs quite cool (because of Krait's oversized Power Plant, I was able to Low emissions it to G5 and just have enough power for 3APA)

But obviously, firing these at maximum ROF for more than maybe a 9 shot burst (3 from each) will turn the thing into a microwave fast.

[Vevvev]

I know Efficient is the way to go if you plan to field a lot of them, but the issue is the shot speed of them. If you are using a singular PA on a large ship like a Cutter or Anaconda the Long Range engineering can be a good idea since it basically doubles the shot speed making it easier to land.

For experimental effects I guess it depends on what you wanna do. I'm no master of the plasma accelerator, but if you want to seriously distract and/or tick someone off in PVP make one PA target lock breaker. It'll cancel missile lock ons, erase the subsystem targeting, and cancel the lock on gimballs and turrets not set to fire at will. Sadly NPCs are perfect so the target lock breaker only removes the missile locks on you from them.