Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

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kstanb
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Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by kstanb » Sun, 3. Mar 19, 20:03

I want to start a new game with early focus on piracy/ ship capture, mostly focused on S and M prey, at least early on until I get rich
I plan to buy a 6 weapon Pulsar Vanguard, what would be a good weapon setup?

My idea
- 4 Bolt Repeater
- 1 Ion blaster
- 1 Plasma cannon

rationale: bolt is great for all-purpose damage 4 will break hulls really quickly, ion needed to capture ships, plasma for bigger prey, more effective than missile launcher
as per my limited experience, I don't like missiles, too many duds, useless against agile targets, consumable ammo

thoughts?

Horux
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Horux » Sun, 3. Mar 19, 20:10

If your pray is only S/M then:

My idea
- 5 Pulse Beams
- 1 Ion Blaster

Puls Beam have a better hit chance.
I capture any S/M ship in my Theseus. with only two Pulse Beams. The shields get really fast down with help of the Ion Blaster and the rest is the Pulse Beams. Last start I captured a Nemesis with my Perseus, so only one Pulse and one Ion.

It is so easy to capture ships that the weapons choice is almost the same, only one Ion is recommended.

Edit: just spelling.
Last edited by Horux on Sun, 3. Mar 19, 21:38, edited 1 time in total.

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths » Sun, 3. Mar 19, 20:32

For the Pulsar I typically run with:-
  • 4 x Bolt/Beam (on the pods/wings)
  • 2 x Missile/Torpedo Launchers (either side of the cockpit)
Alot depends on your goals though, if you want to get ships to bail on you - a pair of Mk 2 Ions either side of the cockpit might not be a bad idea.

Would not bother trying to mix Plasmas and Ions - I would use one or the other.
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams

Olfrygt
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Olfrygt » Mon, 4. Mar 19, 10:13

kstanb wrote:
Sun, 3. Mar 19, 20:03
I want to start a new game with early focus on piracy/ ship capture, mostly focused on S and M prey, at least early on until I get rich
I plan to buy a 6 weapon Pulsar Vanguard, what would be a good weapon setup?

My idea
- 4 Bolt Repeater
- 1 Ion blaster
- 1 Plasma cannon

rationale: bolt is great for all-purpose damage 4 will break hulls really quickly, ion needed to capture ships, plasma for bigger prey, more effective than missile launcher
as per my limited experience, I don't like missiles, too many duds, useless against agile targets, consumable ammo

thoughts?
Plasma S/M main weapon is a nogo in it`s current state of balance. It has the lowest dps out of all weapons while also having struggle to hit anything smaller/faster then a capship/station.

Puls or Bot Repeater are fine but i recomment puls. Hits better and the dps is pretty much the same.

1 Ion + 5 Puls/Bots should be pretty good.

Chris0132
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Chris0132 » Mon, 4. Mar 19, 11:53

I would agree that plasma guns are not worth using unless you make all your guns plasma, they overheat very quickly so their only value is really in doing massive front loaded damage. If you can't kill the target before the gun overheats, you would be better using something else.

The ion blaster is a good choice for very efficient shield busting, but otherwise any of the other weapons will perform better against larger targets.

kstanb
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by kstanb » Mon, 4. Mar 19, 20:38

OK gotcha, so no Plasma it is

I will test
4 beams + 1 ion
then for weapon #6 is there any scenario where missile launchers would be advisable?
I really disliked missiles in my early experience, but maybe I was not using them correctly? would heavy missiles for big ships or EMP to stop them from going travel speed justify getting a missile launchers?
going 5 beam seems overkill

Horux
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Horux » Mon, 4. Mar 19, 22:28

Torpedo luncher to get the last shot, if you fight a Xenon cap ship. ^^

Chris0132
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Chris0132 » Tue, 5. Mar 19, 04:25

I haven't found missiles very good. Heavy torpedoes can pack a punch, but they're expensive. Dumbfire cluster missiles also seem to have high damage and are cheaper but they again seem like something that would be better if you put lots of them on a ship and fired them all at once at big targets.

Weapon balance generally just isn't super good, the basic pulse laser is probably the best choice in almost all circumstances because it's fast, accurate, good range, and has the most consistent damage output.

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths » Tue, 5. Mar 19, 08:49

Chris0132 wrote:
Tue, 5. Mar 19, 04:25
I haven't found missiles very good. Heavy torpedoes can pack a punch, but they're expensive. Dumbfire cluster missiles also seem to have high damage and are cheaper but they again seem like something that would be better if you put lots of them on a ship and fired them all at once at big targets.

Weapon balance generally just isn't super good, the basic pulse laser is probably the best choice in almost all circumstances because it's fast, accurate, good range, and has the most consistent damage output.
I tend to use Light Smart Missiles more often than not when using any missiles at all. I do use other missiles but rarely.

Dumb-fire missiles are all well and good but I would rather use direct energy weapons for most of the use cases that they would be useful. Torpedoes have a blast radius which means they should be used with care and possibly have limited utility in the wider combat context.

Once you have an S/M Ship Maintenance (or Fabrication?) Bay (joined with an appropriate station) and missile plans the cost of all missiles becomes almost inconsequential.
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams

kstanb
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by kstanb » Wed, 6. Mar 19, 05:22

Thanks a lot, after some tests with pulse beam, a weapon I had always ignored, I ended up restarting as Paranid warrior. A 2-beamed Perseus is a lot more useful than I thought, and very fast, so I am postponing the Pulsar purchase for a bit

RodentofDoom
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Re: Good weapons setup for Pulsar Vanguard?

Post by RodentofDoom » Sat, 23. Mar 19, 17:19

I found

6x Blot
&
6x Pulse
&
4x Bolts
2x Plasma

to be quite effective
I don't like beams on small ships .. turrets feel like a better use for them to me.

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