Best in-zone anti-fighter weapon type for L and M turrets?

[Vash]

In 4.0 what is currently the best anti-S and M fighter option for L and M turrets?
i'm using beam on my M ship, but it looks like its a mistake as they can barely kill anything.

[Gregorovitch]

Flak. Beams are very accurate and good against missiles but lack punch.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Flak. Beams are very accurate and good against missiles but lack punch.

Terran beam seem to work pretty well in my opinion still lack punch but given how much turret they have fighters are usually deleted

[Sol]

discussion on weapons can get a bit complicated after COH when discussion Terran stuff because of the segregated economy, as a player we might want all our ships with Argon Flak but if you invested first into Terran logistics and shipbuilding then your lacking the parts for ARG turrets <,<

TER Beam and Pulse both seem to be adequete or good in some roles, missing a form of Plasma feels more like a bigger issue and TER Bolts feel bad to me, well, bolt turrets in general.

TER pulse actualy has better projective velocity so their accuracy will be better than CoP races on their pulse turrets, and TER Beam turrets seem to be superior allaround except in turn speed.

for other races ship Flak is pretty good at against fighters and missiles, on a Raptor with its sheer turrent count going all in on M Beams produces results due to sheer numbers, beams get better the more of them you can mount,

Plasma is for stations and other L/XL ships.

[Vash]

Originally posted by Sol:

discussion on weapons can get a bit complicated after COH when discussion Terran stuff because of the segregated economy,

TER pulse actualy has better projective velocity so their accuracy will be better than CoP races on their pulse turrets, and TER Beam turrets seem to be superior allaround except in turn speed.

for other races ship Flak is pretty good at against fighters and missiles, on a Raptor with its sheer turrent count going all in on M Beams produces results due to sheer numbers, beams get better the more of them you can mount.

Thank you for providing both CoH and non CoH options. I don't have that DLC yet, so it's nice to have options for both groups.

[Valhalla Awaits]

Pretty much the universal answer most will give you is "flak turrets" this is because the game has poor balance and the stats lie. The flak turrets fires a cluster of 4 projectiles, and EACH of those does the full listed damage, making them hilariously overpowered. Same goes for plasma, decent stats till you realize that it's firing two projectiles each time, meaning it's doing double the damage you think it is.

[Vash]

Originally posted by Valhalla Awaits:

Pretty much the universal answer most will give you is "flak turrets".

Wow, that's a rather nice hidden function. I've switched to flak.

[Dracon]

For Terrans, it's Bolt though.

[=X-men=]

M pulse ARG or TER, flak ARG, beam very good ARG or TER only L.
One of best combination of 3-4L beam and M flak ARG or SPL.

[blackphoenixx]

Best IS anti-fighter weapon for M turrets is tracking turrets with light smart missiles, though they lack the punch to deal effectively with M class ships and are a lot worse OOS.
You could try a mixed loadout of missiles but i have no idea how good the AI is at selecting the right one for the task.
And there's the ammo supply issue of course.

Otherwise flak, as the others have already said, though it tends to miss a lot against the faster fighters.
A frigate with flak turrets modded with Slasher mods for as much reload speed as possible does a killer job cutting through M class ships though.

All the other turrets either miss almost every shot (bolt, dumbfire), have tiny range (shard) or do little damage (pulse, beam).

None of the L turrets are good at dealing with fighters (well except tracking turrets but they're just M turrets with more ammo), though L pulse turrets will sometimes manage to snipe one or two before they get too close and stop moving in a straight line.

None of the turrets deal with S & M class ships anywhere near as effectively as interceptors with shard batteries though, so if it's at all feasible i'd go with that option and use the turret slots for plasma to deal with capitals and stations.

[GamingWithSilvertail]

Originally posted by Gregorovitch:

Flak. Beams are very accurate and good against missiles but lack punch.

in large b attles flak cause allies to be hit so its not that good.

[Zloth]

What about defensive drones and laser turrets? I had an escort mission once where the freighter chucked out a couple of Mk2 laser turrets when some fighters showed up and those not only cut down the fighters, they distracted them from the freighter, too.

[blackphoenixx]

Originally posted by Zloth:

What about defensive drones and laser turrets? I had an escort mission once where the freighter chucked out a couple of Mk2 laser turrets when some fighters showed up and those not only cut down the fighters, they distracted them from the freighter, too.

Defense drones do work, but they're better for escape than combat. A freighter being attacked with drones set to defend will usually launch 1-2 drones which'll distract the enemies long enough to get away.

Saved a few of my L traders from a xenon deathball including a K in Hatikvah's Choice a few times. They'd jump in from Silent Witness right into the xenon, get their shields torn down and maybe lose a few % hull and then the whole deathball focused on the defense drones and the trader got away (Selene and Helios).

The problem of course being that the ships it'd be most useful on - M miners and traders - can't use defense drones. L class ships don't really need them against khaak and want mining/cargo drones to do their jobs with.

For actual combat ships the problem is mostly launch time, at least for M class ships.
Any time you give a move command the ship redocks all drones first, which can take up to 5 minutes with an Osprey so it's only good far static defense.
1-4 drones are worth taking on every frigate though, depending on your needs and patience.

As for laser turrets AI doesn't use those unless you order them to, or at least least mine don't despite me giving every trader and miner one to test it out.