WEAPONS: An Overview - #00037
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Lasers' total range may be 3 km, they are losing a lot of damage potential on distances above 500m (burst and pulse) or 600m (beam laser). In hard numbers, you can expect lasers to lose about 40% of damage potential on distances of about 1500m and 60% or more on 2000m. With this being said, do not fire a laser above 1500m of distance, especially the more power hungry ones like beam laser. You are wasting energy for a light show.
There are three types of lasers, with the pulse and the burst laser being quite similar and the beam laser as a 'special' type.
The pulse laser is the weapon of choice for most people, especially in smaller ships that carry kinetic weapons as well.
Its advantages are its efficiency (longer fire duration until your 'WEP' energy bucket is depleted, so more damage before reloading it) and its minimal heat generation.
It is the weakest of the three and its module damage capability (breach damage) is the worst. It is basically the most efficient 'steady flow' shield killer.
Use it if you got other kinetic weapons on board and you need a short range weapon that is efficient against shields. Do not use on slow ships with low agility which have trouble creating 'time on target' situations. This weapon lives from 'hugging the enemy' and 'aiming constantly'.
The burst laser is an even better alrounder than the pulse laser.
It generates a bit more heat and it is a bit stronger. In addition it is even more efficient than the pulse laser considering some sizes and variants.
The burst laser is harder to use when using a fixed aim due to its burst model, it's more a 'single click per shot' weapon then the pulse laser which can be used 'button pressed' when going 'fixed'.
It has a bit more breach damage potential and it's the weapon of choice if you're using a fast and agile ship that hasn't got room for additional kinetic weapons or if you go for a prolonged 'harvesting' session in resource or military conflict zones.
Use it as a 'one for all' weapon in agile ships with a reduced number of weapon hardpoints or ammo constraints regarding your mission.
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