Which lasers and rockets to go for?

[varietasplus]

Is there anyone already having enough experience to make a guide on the lasers and the secondary weapons?

I do not really know which laser to go for or how well the different secondary weapons work.

Thank you.

[Helig]

Is there anyone already having enough experience to make a guide on the lasers and the secondary weapons?

I do not really know which laser to go for or how well the different secondary weapons work.

Thank you.

Totally depends on the ship you're using. For Scouts, light and burst laser are a good choice. Cluster missiles (short range, very short lock time, decent damage with double salvo upgrade), or rocket pods (for jousting) for secondary weapons.

 

For Strike fighters, heavy/light, or heavy/ion, plus concussion or cluster missiles for type 1, type 2 - probably light lasers for primary and torpedoes+concussion/cluster missiles secondary.

 

For Gunships, Burst-fire laser (best close-range self-defense weapon, because it doesn't require tracking), Ion rail (godly with full upgrades)+Slug rail (finisher/1-shot weapon).

 

For ships that aren't missile boats (type 2 strikers), consider getting a crew member with an accuracy bonus, and mind the ammo bonus if you rely heavily on missiles/rockets.

 

Also, there are guides for different ship types - and they include weapon specs. Use the Search, Luke!

Edited January 5, 2014 by Helig

[Slivovidze]

It all depends on the ship you fly. For example, while I roll with Light laser on my NovaDive, I can't really imagine using it on a fighter, or even the other scout. I can still give you overview though:

 

Lasers:

Rapid-fire laser: very fast rate of fire, very low weapon power consumption. Spray and pray weapon, if you ask me. 4km range is somehow normal. Low accuracy if you shoot someone far from the center of screen, or far away from you. Has pretty wide cone of fire (but keep the tracking penalty in mind).

 

Light laser: a lot lower rate of fire compared with the RF, but shoots both lasers simultaneously, giving it bigger damage per hit. Base damage is also very good, but it has very big power consumption. Same range as RF laser. A bit narrower firing cone, and it has higher tracking penalty than RF.

 

Laser cannon: very slow rate of fire, mediocre power consumption. DPS seems low, but damage per shot it the highest. You want to hit every shot with this laser, the RoF is too small to waste shots by missing. It has the narrowest cone of fire, and the biggest tracking penalty, meaning that you don't want to shoot people who are just at the edge of your targetting circle. It also has 5km range. Question is if you can take advantage of that.

 

Quad laser: can't really speak from my experiences here. It seems similar to the Laser cannon, but it packs bigger punch, and way bigger power consumption. You can see the stats yourself and I can't add personal notes.

 

Burst laser: short range only. This can vaporize ships very fast if you use it well. Once you get above 1k range though, it's usefulness is very, very limited. It's RoF seems slow, but that's because there is a delay between bursts. That means that you want to successfully hit each burst to maximize damage. It has wide cone of fire and low tracking penalty, so it is well suited for close range turning battles.

 

Ion cannon: good against shields, beyond useless for everything else. If you fly a Star Guard/Rycer, you may use this cannon in dogfights to lower enemy shields and then finish them off with your other weapon, but I don't see it used much. Using it feels similar to the Quad.

 

Heavy laser: this is a beast if upgraded and used well. Upgrades can give it both shield and armor piercing. It has huge range, big damage per shot, but pretty low RoF. Also, narrow cone of fire and big tracking accuracy loss. You want to line your target carefully before unleashing your fire. I haven't used this much so I can't say much more.

 

Rockets:

Cluster missiles: short range, short lock on time, small damage, pretty big quantity carried. It is pretty easy to lock these missiles on enemy and since they are used on short range, they will successfully hit quite often, but their damage is not big enough by itself, they need help from your lasers.

 

Ion missiles: not good at the moment. Too short range and too long lock on time, good damage only against shields. From the 5k range, you could destroy your enemy's shields with your blaster fire maybe faster than this missile locks on (3s).

 

Proton torpedo: 10k range, 4s lock on time, big damage, ignores shields. If you can lock this on someone who can't use escape maneuver, they are dead meat. However the lock on time is too long and the locking cone is too narrow to easily lock them on anything closer than like 7k.

 

Concussion missile: big hull damage, but low shield damage. 7k lock on range, 3s lock on time, reasonable lock on cone. If you manage to lock them on a target with low shields and can't use escape maneuver, they will probably die.

 

Rocket pods: 6k range, no locking on. You aim them the same as you aim your laser, they have lower RoF but the same travel speed, so if you hit your lasers you will hit your rocket pods. You carry a decent quantity of them so you can fire away. They however have rather big tracking penalty so best used to shoot targets that are nearly directly in the middle of screen.

 

Sabotage probe: this is kinda different thingy. If you lock probe on someone, they will have most of pilot actions disabled for quite a long time. Can't turn, can't accelerate or brake, basically they can watch and pray that no one shoots them and they don't float into a solid object. Deals very little hull damage, but makes target very easy to kill with lasers.

 

Thermite torpedo: 7k range, 4s lock on time, narrow firing cone, low shield damage, high hull damage, chance to pierce shields. Only available for Nova and Blackbolt, and I honestly think that if you fly one of these you don't want to use Thermite torpedo.

 

 

I think that covers it. Mostly my experiences mixed with raw stats. Hope it helps a bit.

[varietasplus]

Both responds helped a lot, thank you.