23 replies to this topic

[Booran]

These questions must have been answered before, but I feel with recent weapon balancing and upcoming "aggressive changes" I thought I could do with an update:

Thing is, I like the pulse lasers. They look cool, sounds terrifying and feel more like a bad boy beam weapon than regular lasers.
I want them to work in my mechs, but I suspect they're sadly not for me if I want to run an effective build.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but pulse should be on lights with limited hardpoints for slight advantage in poking people in the back? And sometimes on assaults when a build gives extra tonnes to cram something in.
How do they stack up in current weapon balance/meta game? I know I've seen some love for the LPL recently, don't know if they're still any good though..

[Edgaro Gilardeno]

I'm not a pro mechwarrior or anything, but I find that medium and higher pulse lasers can be devastating if you know how to use them.

And not get blown up.

I have been killed by small mechs with pulse lasers before.

Edited by Edgaro Gilardeno, 25 July 2013 - 06:19 AM.

[Gaan Cathal]

Booran, on 25 July 2013 - 06:06 AM, said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but pulse should be on lights with limited hardpoints for slight advantage in poking people in the back? And sometimes on assaults when a build gives extra tonnes to cram something in.
How do they stack up in current weapon balance/meta game? I know I've seen some love for the LPL recently, don't know if they're still any good though..

Pulses are good on lights thanks to their short beam time, giving you the ability to be accurately hitting one compartment with the majority of your volley while running along like a loon trying to keep ahead of the one-shot alphas. They can also be good on heavier mechs with limited energy hardpoints (a ton each to upgrade the two arm MLs in certain Atlai to MPLs isn't such a big sacrifice on a 100 tonner).

SPL: A decent alternative to the ML if you're fast, less alpha, slightly less dps, an incredibly short beam time and runs cooler. Only use if you're fast, generally. A good replacement (sometimes combined with arm MLs) for the MLs on a Swayback. 6SPL Jenner is good, not much else other than those two has the hardpoints and speed to make it worth it.

MPL: Good on lights, some heavies. Pretty much see the 'general MPL' stuff above. Quad-MPL can make a RVN-4X actually work (runs cool without a missile launcher, can run a 6-pack if you're good with heat management). Also works on the 4-energy Jenners. Mate of mine does well with a 3MPL SDR-5D, wolfpacks well. Punchy when boated but really the extra ton over MLs isn't worth it that often, generally not worth the upgrade except for niche instances where the beamtime makes a big difference.

LPL: Was good until they decided to make it hotter than the PPC that has ~equal damage, twice the range and no beam duration. Currently not worth it, either use LL and save tons or PPC and get a better damage profile and heat. ¹

In defence of the LPL, does still go WUB-WUB like a dubstep gun. If Pulse Lasers do nothing else, they do sound awesome.


¹ Don't really use LL either currently, boating penalties make the heat difference between it and PPCs so minimal you should replace 3+ LL with 2*ERPPC almost every time given the massive advantages of the latter weapon.

Edited by Gaan Cathal, 25 July 2013 - 06:23 AM.

[jper4]

small pulse lasers are the harasser's friend and heat is slightly less than using MLs for the same weight but with the advanatge of all the damage going where you're shooting instead of starting at the right arm and ending up at the left by the time the laser stream finishes cause the bad guys are doing uncooporatetive things like shooting back.

[SchwarzerPeter]

Indeed the Pulse Lasers are very useful if you want to hit specific areas extra accurate. So if you have limited energy hardpoints and the tonnage left try it out.

The limited range is a mayor drawback though, so you should be really fast or have a long range backup weapon.

The ML is still the most round up laser imo, 1 ton, 1 slot and a decent range. 270m is way more practical than the 90m small ones.

But i suggest you try it out, they are also great for light hunting

[Gaan Cathal]

SchwarzerPeter, on 25 July 2013 - 06:29 AM, said:

But i suggest you try it out, they are also great for light hunting

No-no...use the LBX-10 for light-hunting. Honest. It's awesome against us. Would I lie to you?

[Booran]

There are all great tips, thank you guys

I DO run an LBX for light hunting, and it works quite well but I suck at one-on-one so it would hardly matter what gun I'd use..

I remember back in closed beta I used MPLs on my DRG-5N to good effect, felt bit more punchy, and as people have said more accurate when you're zooming past.

[Escef]

I would mount a medium laser before a SPL. Just far too short an effective range.

MPLs are okay if you expect to be in knife-fighting range a lot.

LPLs have seriously short range for a weapon of their size, but it makes up for it by having the highest damage of any beam weapon currently available. 2 LPLs and a Gauss will core a fresh cockpit, and they aren't friendly to any other location, either.

[Lord of All]

My Atlas runs 2LBX,3Srm6 and 2Mpl and believe me you don't want me in your face!

[Goose]

The point of pulse lasers it to hose down fast targets more easily.

See: My understanding is all the lasers are "pulses," in that they all have 10 strobes, divided across they beam duration, and each strobe does 1/10th the weapons damage. 'Cause capital-P pulses have shorter durations, and have higher listed damage, their - uh, damage per second is higher.

It's more likely you'll get two strobes onto a single armor location with a capital-P pulse then with a "normal" laser, when shooting at fast-movers.

Understand: Even with the hardpoint system in construction urging players to mount more damaging guns, like pulses, capital-P Lasers are harder to mount and support, being heavier and requiring additional heatsinks. And the higher damage per second isn't that important if you are shooting at slower targets, or you are so good a shot you can hold normal lasers on target despite it's movement (and there are plenty of guys like that).

But there you have it: If you believe yourself to be hunting Atli, you mount normal mediums on your Cicada; If you think you're looking for Ravens …

Edited by Goose, 25 July 2013 - 02:09 PM.

[Ph30nix]

pulse lasers are great in the right situations, LPL were kind of screwed (im sorry but when it comes to energy weapons NOTHING should generate more heat then a PPC NOTHING!!! even the ER LL should have at most equal heat to a PPC)

but i have run a hunchie with 9 SPL and it can absolutely WRECK anything. you can get off a good ammount of salvos before over heating and in a very rapid ammount of time.

[Angel of Annihilation]

Booran, on 25 July 2013 - 06:06 AM, said:

These questions must have been answered before, but I feel with recent weapon balancing and upcoming "aggressive changes" I thought I could do with an update:

Thing is, I like the pulse lasers. They look cool, sounds terrifying and feel more like a bad boy beam weapon than regular lasers.
I want them to work in my mechs, but I suspect they're sadly not for me if I want to run an effective build.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but pulse should be on lights with limited hardpoints for slight advantage in poking people in the back? And sometimes on assaults when a build gives extra tonnes to cram something in.
How do they stack up in current weapon balance/meta game? I know I've seen some love for the LPL recently, don't know if they're still any good though..

Love medium pulse lasers if I have the tonnage for it. Large Pulse Lasers though don't have enough going for them to make them useful.

The bennefit of the Pulse laser is the shorter duration of the beam. Medium Pulse Lasers are very short duration making it very easy to keep the pulse concentrated. They work very well if your mounting them on a fast mech like a Spider or Jenner and/or firing at the same fast mechs.

The issue is weight. They are twice as heavy as a standard medium laser for only a slight buff to damage. In 90% of the cases, your better off going for a standard medium laser and then using the weight savings for another heat sink.

[Felio]

Viktor Drake, on 25 July 2013 - 01:03 PM, said:

The issue is weight. They are twice as heavy as a standard medium laser for only a slight buff to damage. In 90% of the cases, your better off going for a standard medium laser and then using the weight savings for another heat sink.

I'm dealing with this with my Spider-5D right now.

I can have either:

3 medium lasers
AMS + ammo
8/8 jump jets

or:

3 medium pulse lasers
5/8 jump jets

[Booran]

I guess for now I'll wait with the Pulses, at least until I can get hold of a faster mech with good backup weaponry..

[MaxStr]

Pulse Lasers have been on my wishlist for becoming competative for a while now along with SRMs. I don't want to get into the lengthy reasons why but if you are fitting a MPL instead of a ML you are hurting yourself in many ways and you WILL do less damage and be less effective except for select light mechs. I've been hoping that since they 'balanced' the heat across the pulse lasers that there would be some buffs incoming but nothing in sight so far.

Considering how long it took for the SRM buff and the fact that its even being called 'temporary' as if there isn't somehow universal consensus that they needed a buff has me deeply concerned for any weapon that doesn't have PPC in the name. Based on current trends I wouldn't be surprised if pulse lasers get heat penalties next patch making them even less useful.

[Durahl]

Yesterday I rebuilt my barely touched CN9-AL into something more like a Light Hunter using a LPL for that purpose allowing me to focus pinpoint damage with the right arm and two SRM6+Artemis for when the Opportunity calls against heavier Mechs.

The lack of light Mechs in the few matches I played yesterday didn't produce the test bed I wanted but the hurt I dished out against other Classes was formidable allowing me to leave one match with 700+ DMG.

[Sug]

Reduce the cooldown to 2.50 for all pulse lasers and give them all a duration of 0.50.

Fixed.

[Ph30nix]

Sug, on 26 July 2013 - 12:49 AM, said:

Reduce the cooldown to 2.50 for all pulse lasers and give them all a duration of 0.50.

Fixed.

small pulse lasers are already under that.

small lasers need a range buff and so do the pulse ones i think.

[TELEFORCE]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, give the pulse lasers a 0.5 second beam duration. I don't think 0.75 seconds is short enough for them to be worthwhile over beam lasers.

[Sug]

Made these almost a year ago. Blue was current values as of last year, pink shows my changes. It's outdated but the principle still applies. Basically I just standardized the damage and dps. Pulse lasers are now high hps, high dps, effective short range weapons.