Plasma accelerators or rail gun? Which is better?

[76561198055083273]

?

[Flanker]

Plasma accelerator

More damge, more ammo, the ammo greatly swings it for me.

Hit an anaconda in the power plant with 3 shots from the 3m PA and its dead in the water.

I just bought a federal corvette and I'm going to add 2 huge ones, when I get the 27.4m I need - Been using one on my FAS to great effect since I bought it.

[PanicButton]

I like plasma accelerator more. Depends on your skill/preference. Railgun has a charge time, but the projectile is very fast, so it's good for sniping. The plasma accelerator fires instantly, but the projectile is slow. Better for close range brawling.

The railgun has less ammo, but a little higher damage and (correct me if I'm wrong) it's better to shoot out subsystems.

Go with the railgun if you have the skill to land every shot. I'm playing with a gamepad, so I stay away from most fixed weapons....plasma accelerator being an exception.

[norbiq]

There's a discussion on reddit on the exact same topic. It may give you some useful info: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/42jn0i/railguns_vs_plasma_accelerators/

[Agony_Aunt]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από norbiq:

There's a discussion on reddit on the exact same topic. It may give you some useful info: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/42jn0i/railguns_vs_plasma_accelerators/

Maybe that is OP? ;)

I think i saw a similar discussion today on Facebook as well.

[76561198055083273]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Agony_Aunt:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από norbiq:

There's a discussion on reddit on the exact same topic. It may give you some useful info: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/42jn0i/railguns_vs_plasma_accelerators/

Maybe that is OP? ;)

I think i saw a similar discussion today on Facebook as well.

not me

[norbiq]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Agony_Aunt:

Maybe that is OP? ;)

It did cross my mind ;)

[The Rifleman™]

Rail Guns have the best penetration values and there for do more module damage on a critical hit than a Particle Accelerator, but Particle Accelerators are able to take out shields faster, they are both nuke weapons and have different purposes. I noticed that PA's while able to take out modules the same, aren't exactly as reliable at it, like Rails. However PA's can take out shields quite quickly and can be used to soften up a target for finishing. Then there are cannons, frag cannons, and multi-cannons that sit in the middle where they are the best combination of anti-armor/anti-hull, lasers are anti-armor/anti-shield, and explosives are anti-hull. All of these are dependent heavily on variables ofcourse such as the enemy craft armor composition and I don't know if the craft themselves would have an effect, but some craft do have damage reductions like the FDL for example.