Anyone using MK 2 Ion Blasters?

[ZeroAffex]

I just bought myself a new daily drive (Katana) and decked it out with 2 Mk2 Ion Blasters/2 MK 2 Beam Emitters and 2 Argon Flak Turrets.

My thought was Ion's would drop the shields as according to Encyclopedia data, they're the hardest hitting towards shields even out performing Plasma's but are faster/more accurate. Beam's don't do much damage but against non-shielded enemies along with flak, I thought the combo would pair nice.

Thoughts?

I remember when I first played X4 in 2019, word was then to avoid Ions. But that was a while and thought I'd give it a crack. I am just not sure the best to pair with them. Beams are great for accuracy but poor damage. I wanted something to shred hulls but with some decent accuracy and came up with those over say a Shard Battery or Bolt Repeater.

Curious to hear what others like to use for weapon combo's. I wish the Katana had another 1-2 more weapon slots because I'd love to add a missile launcher too just for capitals but oh well. This will be my new main ship for a spell, wanted a change from my Moreya and just want a good 'overall' setup, not being too specialized in anything but still deadly against everything if that makes sense.

Thanks for your time gentle pilots. Have a wonderful rest of your week!

[cybersol]

I'm partial to 1 ion and the rest thermals on my Kuraokami. Similar weapon speeds and the thermals can kill surface elements through shields while still being useful on fighters. On Terran ships like your Katana proton barrages are weapons worth considering as well.

[ZeroAffex]

Originally posted by cybersol:

I'm partial to 1 ion and the rest thermals on my Kuraokami. Similar weapon speeds and the thermals can kill surface elements through shields while still being useful on fighters. On Terran ships like your Katana proton barrages are weapons worth considering as well.

Yeah I almost snagged a couple proton barrages when I was building it in Segaris before I sent it off to Argon's docks for armaments but decided to hold off. I did go ahead and changed out the beams for shard batteries instead since they do more hull damage but am still playing around with finding my perfect combo. Might go back and try 3 beams and 1 Ion like you suggested, never thought to do that. I am kind of a stickler for symmetry, need to remind myself that looks don't matter much if you die! ha

Appreciate the tips though. I guess I am relieved to hear there are others out there that are willing to use Ion's in 2023. Like I said, when I first started X4, the mantra then was to stay very far away from them. Just hard to resist for the damage they do to shields, least on paper, looks too good ha I'll do some field testing tomorrow. I really should get to bed, this game has officially kept me up wayyy past my bedtime for the thousandth time.

I digress. Night everyone. See ya tomorrow am sure. Farewell!

[uni790]

The only reason to ever use beams is if you can't hit your targets with a better weapon, bring the terran pulses, or protons you'll do much better for it, I wouldn't use the ion myself either, just 4 protons, shreads just about anything medium or small, can deal with large transports by killing their generators(can take a while on your own admittedly)

But yea, beam's damage it pitiful, you're always better off with something else, unless you need the hitscan weapon to actually hit things(like the AI does lol)

[Kajar]

The only beam worth considering is the M Mk2 as it actually does some respectable damage with some 1200 per shot. Put four of them on a ship and you can oneshot all small xenon ships.

Katana, as well as Falx, i tend to fit with 2x Proton Barrage and 2x Heavy Swarm missiles.

Ion Blasters are really, really good at removing shields. But thats about it. Does nothing against hull and for the cost of a single Mk2 i can get another 3 whole fighters.
So i tend to rather buy a few fighters with the Burst Ray and remove the shield generators, turrets, engines, instead. Much more useful imo.

[Bob]

If you want an Ion Blaster, I would say 1 is enough and 2 is overkill. They melt shields. Somewhat good to destroy L or XL Shields or Equipment, but weak to generally destroy shields aside from M ships. S ships are easy to destroy anyway.

I prefer Tau or Shard. Tau has comparable Burst DMG with the Ion Blaster. Burst Shotgun is better suited for my short and frontal encounters. A fast ship seems to be suited for hit-and-run tactic.

[Daddy Shark]

For the Katana going proton barrage will perform in almost any situation. They're really good at everything.

[ZeroAffex]

Decided to go with 4X Proton Barrage after some trial and error against some Khk's/Xenon M's today. I LOVE it! This baby packs some heat now. Only thing that would make the Katana the best imho is if it had 1-2 more M mounts. That or be able to trade out 1 of my turret bays for an S dock so I can lug around my Moreya or some other very agile fighter for times when I could use the extra maneuverability against stuff like destroyers.

Thanks for all the tips and advice here everyone! Meant a lot and am feeling good about this now. I think Ion's are great and not nearly as bad as I was led to believe way back but are pretty situational and can only see them working out well for ships that have lots of extra mounts. Like if I had 1 more extra slot, I wouldn't mind throwing on the Ion Blaster but for maximizing those 4 front mounts, think Protons are the way to go like was suggested here. Have a great rest of your week gentle pilots! Take care

PS: Wish i could list 'topic answered' for more than 1 person because several were perfect. I can't but thanks again for all the good responses!