Beams/Pulses/Bolts as defense turrets.

[BLKCandy]

Which are better in your opinion?

I generally stick with the pulse turrets for defense purpose.

It won over beams due to range. 1km range on beams turrets means it doesn't get as much chance to shoot. And its instant accuracy at 1km range is not that appealing. Pulses and bolts and accurate enough at that range.

It won over bolts due to down time. Bolts have much higher DPS. It deal powerful burst damage in its burst, but then it went into a short cooldown, plus it get overheat much quicker compared to pulse. The cooldown between bursts and overheating means that it should be aimed and timed well to be most effective. Turrets doesn't do that and just shoot on sight. So, bolt turrets often missed its firing window.

Pulses are lacking as primary. It shoot weak pulses in quick short bursts. But their shots are fastest making it more accurate against small target. It has very tiny break between bursts. And, it can keep shooting for much longer than bolts. These combined means while they might be weaker, they are more reliable. They are accurate, don't get their rate of fire tanked due to over heating, and don't miss good firing window in long burst cooldown.

So, I go for the pulses in capital ship's defense turrets to counter some stray fighters and corvettes. Bolts in corvette as generalist turrets (since they can fight light and mediums with their primary weapons.). And don't really use beam anywhere.

[Neccarus]

I have been using beam turrets for my defense though you have made a valid point for the other 2 variants as well. I just have the Nemesis Vanguard which obviously has no issue hunting down fighters so I will probably try bolt or pulse.turrets instead.

[Alith-Ahnar]

Pulse is the only M/L all purpose weapon as it has the best mix of tracking and bullet speed to engage any target size at the cost of damage per minute.

There might be cases made for other weapon types if you think in specific use cases but that's the point of pulse you don't have to think in specific use cases they are always a valid option.

[Neccarus]

Ya I upgraded my main weapons to swap beams with pulses. Hate the cooldown on beams

[BLKCandy]

Take one or two beams on primary weapons can be useful though. I like them. Beams end the fight against light fighter very quickly and you really only need one to kill those fighters. Beam on primary also don't have the ugly range problem of the turret version. I only lose some DPS, but I don't have to chase fighter so much anymore.

[Alith-Ahnar]

Originally posted by BLKCandy:

Take one or two beams on primary weapons can be useful though. I like them. Beams end the fight against light fighter very quickly and you really only need one to kill those fighters. Beam on primary also don't have the ugly range problem of the turret version. I only lose some DPS, but I don't have to chase fighter so much anymore.

The primary drawback of beams is twofold first is the short range compared to pulse for example and the other is that the advertised damage output is not burst but a dot so you won't get the full damage per minute if you can't stay on target.

[BLKCandy]

I believe the M beam on primary didn't have the range penalty. (M beam turret do have severe range penalty.) Staying on target is not much of a problem with beam.

And for anti-fighter purpose, it doesn't take much to kill a fighter. I just drop one bolt primary to take a beam primary. It only take a few passes with that one beam even if I couldn't land a single bolt on the enemy. (much shorter if some bolts hit of course.) I can take the drop in DPS compare to pure bolt build if that would limit the time my Nemesis wingmen has to chase those pesky N and M.

[Alith-Ahnar]

Originally posted by BLKCandy:

I believe the M beam on primary didn't have the range penalty. (M beam turret do have severe range penalty.) Staying on target is not much of a problem with beam.

And for anti-fighter purpose, it doesn't take much to kill a fighter. I just drop one bolt primary to take a beam primary. It only take a few passes with that one beam even if I couldn't land a single bolt on the enemy. (much shorter if some bolts hit of course.)

Take your time and test beams vs. pulse or bolt on NPC controlled ships and you should see rather fast that the Ai is at it's limits if you force beams on it other then maybe L beams on a destroyer but even then the 1km range penalty a L Beam has can be the difference between a kill and a fighter get out of range.

If it is a player operated weapon bolt is better in almost all situations then beam and pulse if it is Ai operated pulse will be a more reliable weapon then bolt or beam.

My statement is a blanket assumption fighting against a all different kind of targets not just fighters not just capitals but the whole range i would love it to be different but hey that is what it is now as of today.

As soon as you start to limit the use case then it can shift yes beams are great vs Argon ships they are relative easy to hit and as soon as the shields are gone they blow up because of the thin hull something that is not the case with for example Teladi or Paranid the first might be easy to hit but has good armor and strong shields the second is faster and still has good armor but rather poor shields so a burst weapon is better fighting those.

[Yeizinho]

On a capital ship beams have worked for me in missile defense. On a Nemesis not so much, trying to figure out an alternative atm. Since It does make killing small ships easier. I mostly just use the Nemesis when boarding/destroying hardpoints. Vs drones it's god sent. But I really would preffer more burst dmg. Should mention that my Nemesis does 800+ m/s so getting close for the range thing to not matter is probably key point.

[BLKCandy]

I honestly didn't look at AI that closely. I just found one beam four bolts on Nemesis works for me. The beam helps me take on fighters and drones and scouts quickly. Bolts for the punch when I need it.

I'd assumed AI has even worse aim than the unfocused me. So I strapped 1 beam, 2 pulses, 2 bolts, 2 pulses turrents on them. A beam for drones an fighters. Pulses as generalist. And bolts for bigger targets.

The idea was that anything that pulses cannot hit reliably can be kill quickly by a single beam, and anything that 2 pulses, 2 pulse turrets, and a beam cannot kill quickly should be large enough for bolts to hit.

As for missile defense beam, I had thought of that but there aren't that many missiles so I don't really use them.

[Gwizzz]

Center beam on Nemesis, with 2 pulse and either 2 bolts or 2 ions depending on if you want that ship to be a fighter/corvette killer (Xenon Ps) or a cap ship killer. The Ions will heat up fast but they are useful in stripping destroyer shields. As long as you have other weapons firing on the shields you can let the ions cool off a bit. I've even used them in overheat mode although it does take longer to drain shields due to the reduced fire rate. Once explosion shock waves are implemented firing on a destroyer at close range is gonna get dicey.

The center beam is also very useful for nailing fast fighters and precisely shooting locks off of lock boxes. I use pulse turrets on the Nemesis as it only has two turret slots, but I do add rear beam turrets to frigates and destroyers.

[Alith-Ahnar]

Originally posted by BLKCandy:

I honestly didn't look at AI that closely. I just found one beam four bolts on Nemesis works for me. The beam helps me take on fighters and drones and scouts quickly. Bolts for the punch when I need it.

I'd assumed AI has even worse aim than the unfocused me. So I strapped 1 beam, 2 pulses, 2 bolts, 2 pulses turrents on them. A beam for drones an fighters. Pulses as generalist. And bolts for bigger targets.

The idea was that anything that pulses cannot hit reliably can be kill quickly by a single beam, and anything that 2 pulses, 2 pulse turrets, and a beam cannot kill quickly should be large enough for bolts to hit.

As for missile defense beam, I had thought of that but there aren't that many missiles so I don't really use them.

Mixing front mounted weapons on a always under player control ship is a great option.

As soon as it is Ai controlled Ships not so much it is preferable to have several ships instead with a specific loadout each instead.

A rather simple still effective strategy would be to have a wing of Pegasus with ion blaster send those in first to strip shields and be a distraction and then follow up with a kill squad that uses bolt or pulse for example to do hull damage at a target that is incapable to boost away.

In my experience it is more of a benefit to go the combined arms route then the one man swiss army knife route.