[TC] Ion Disruptor vs. Pulsed Beam Emitter?

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FireEverything
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Ion Disruptor vs. Pulsed Beam Emitter?

Post by FireEverything » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 08:16

I've seen some guides and databases, and have tried to find out which i should get for my future nova for capping/fighting. The ID deals more shield dmg, but has a lot lower speed. Which one is better for capping, and which one is better for basic combat? If possible, is any one of them pretty good at doing both? thank you! :wink:
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Kryten
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Post by Kryten » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 08:26

PBMs are the one to go for, they take down shields fast and do very little hull damage which is the key to capping, Ion Ds are area effect so you could hit friendly ships which will not take to kindly to the action. As far as I know they don't do hull damage so you will never cap anything using them on their own.

If capping m3s or smaller ships I would allways go with PBMs, they're just the best there is especially if you want m5s. Ion Ds would work well with a small weapon that does hull damage but you'l allways be limited to attacking targets that are not near friendlies.....
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Post by Catra » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 08:28

2x ION D is one of the best weapons for capping both fighters(by slowly doing hull damage, thus raising the chance of a bail) and big ships(by removing any anti marine equipment) a full bank is pretty decent at everyday combat too..

the PBE cant be mounted on the nova :P

the PBG(plasma burst generator) can and thats not very good for capping, but definately is awesome for fighting :)
or
the PRG(phased repeater gun) is very good against all fighter targets, has a high rate of fire and fires in bursts, so it can hit almost anything. not all that good for capping.

@ kryten,
whats a PBM? @_@

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Kryten
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Post by Kryten » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 08:38

the PBE cant be mounted on the nova
Doh, didn't even see that, restricting yourself to a nova? :lol:
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FireEverything
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Post by FireEverything » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 08:59

well, im kind of new to X3, and i figured the Nova was a really good ship to familiarize myself. But, i read on the database that a nova raider can indeed equip those weapons. anyway, i got mixed answers between the 2, both very convincing. ill wait and see if anyone else has any feedback.
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Post by Catra » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:04

which database are you referring to? cause according to this one, the nova raider cannot use the PBE. (not to mention the ingame encyclopedia saying it cant :P )

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Post by FireEverything » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:08

wow! i have no idea where i got that the nova could use the emitter. (i was using that database haha). well, i guess the ion is the choice to go for me. But to clarify, any ship that has an option of the ID or the emitter, i should pick the emitter, right?
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Post by Catra » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:15

well, your not gonna run into that option as
only Argon / boron ships can use the ionD, while only split and paranid ships can use the PBE(as in, paranid and split(barring the split TP)cannot use the IOND, while the argon and boron cannot use the PBE)

FireEverything
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Post by FireEverything » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:17

well, that makes things really easy and clear! thank you! very good info to know =)
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Post by OniGanon » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:18

PBEs are better than IDs, yeah. IDs are only really good for frying the systems of ships to make boarding easier. Not sure they really help any with capping fighters.


And there are some Argon and Boron vessels that can use PBE, but that's only on the heavier classes of ships where you wouldn't want to use a <1km range weapon anyway.

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Post by Goodfeller » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 09:41

Don't like the TC version of Ion D. I took them out on a test drive when I first bought the game and immediately chucked them. They just weren't up to scratch anymore. The X2 version was far far superior IMO. In X2 you could strip the shields off a small swarm of M3s in less than a minute. Not so with TC. In X2 I used to cap pirates by the shipload with just one Iguana equiped with 2 Ion Ds and 2 pacs. I tried that in TC (using a Nova, I think) against another couple of M3s. I lasted less than a minute.

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Post by OniGanon » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 11:07

The PBE actually strips shields quite close to X2 IonD speed.

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Reimu Hakurei
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Post by Reimu Hakurei » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 17:50

ID will strip shields and do very, very little harm to the hull, can harm multiple targets to make up for its lack of shield damage compared to the PBE, may hit friendlies however.
PBE will strip shields much faster and will also wreck hulls with sustained fire, but is a very precise armament.

It's a matter of whether you're flying a Foundation Guild or Profit Guild ship, really; they both appear to fulfill the same role, just work somewhat differently, when used on small ships at least. On capital ships the ID is good in combination with flak (at least on the Brigantine and Akuma where you have 8 up/down slots), and again the ID is the only viable tool for spacefly hunting.

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Post by AgamemnonArgon » Thu, 18. Feb 10, 19:08

If possible, carry more weapons options by increasing the cargo
have the PRG, PBE , and Ion's with EBC and MD as useful reserves.
Expensive but useful.
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Post by SIXVI06 » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 05:14

I suddenly have this awesome idea for capping EVERY enemy fighter in a sector.

Have an argon or boron ship (M6 or higher) FULLY outfitted with ID's - turrets, main guns, EVERYTHING!!! (360 degrees of ID cannot go wrong)

Send it into a swarm of enemy fighters, tell it to attack everything.

I reckon you'd net several fighters like that. I'm gonna try it :P
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FireEverything
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Post by FireEverything » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 07:35

SIXVI06 wrote:I suddenly have this awesome idea for capping EVERY enemy fighter in a sector.

Have an argon or boron ship (M6 or higher) FULLY outfitted with ID's - turrets, main guns, EVERYTHING!!! (360 degrees of ID cannot go wrong)

Send it into a swarm of enemy fighters, tell it to attack everything.

I reckon you'd net several fighters like that. I'm gonna try it :P
Haha, sounds fun! if you have the time, report to us how it went!
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Post by Goodfeller » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 09:17

SIXVI06 wrote:I suddenly have this awesome idea for capping EVERY enemy fighter in a sector.

Have an argon or boron ship (M6 or higher) FULLY outfitted with ID's - turrets, main guns, EVERYTHING!!! (360 degrees of ID cannot go wrong)

Send it into a swarm of enemy fighters, tell it to attack everything.

I reckon you'd net several fighters like that. I'm gonna try it :P
Not sure if you get swatted before you run out of power or run out of power before you get swatted.

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Post by KillerSteel » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 09:24

Sounds like bloody chaos xD, HEY, here's an idea!

I'll name it out in steps, as such:

1. Script to "Hero of Sol"
2. Get 3 Osakas by scripting moneh
3. Outfit them ALL with IDs
4. Move them to a massive Argon military system, say Argon Prime.
5. Script your way to "Enemy of the Federation"
6. Set your status of Argon to "Foe", set Osaka targeting systems to "Attack Everything"
7. Watch the fireworks and collect the PROFIT as the Tedali would say :D.

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Post by RyuKazuha » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 09:25

Goodfeller wrote:
SIXVI06 wrote:I suddenly have this awesome idea for capping EVERY enemy fighter in a sector.

Have an argon or boron ship (M6 or higher) FULLY outfitted with ID's - turrets, main guns, EVERYTHING!!! (360 degrees of ID cannot go wrong)

Send it into a swarm of enemy fighters, tell it to attack everything.

I reckon you'd net several fighters like that. I'm gonna try it :P
Not sure if you get swatted before you run out of power or run out of power before you get swatted.
Technically he'll run out of power the moment he's swatted. So the difference is minor.

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Post by Lightning4 » Fri, 19. Feb 10, 11:15

I tried that tactic against Kha'ak fighters. 8 Ion Ds constantly firing from a Cerberus looks and sounds cool as hell, even though it's basically the noisiest, slowest way to kill someone in the X-Universe.
Unfortunately, continuous fire against even Kha'ak fighters (which take like three minutes to kill) resulted in no bails. :(

I should try it against pirate fighters, but I've been having terrible luck getting those to bail lately too. Granted, half of them are vaporized by flak.

So unfortunately, I don't think Ion Ds work quite as well as you'd think for fighter capping.

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