8 replies to this topic

[The Wine Gnat]

For the life of me I can't find out what the benefits are for using a pulse laser compared to a regular laser. Does anyone know the pros and cons?

Thanks.

[Sean von Steinike]

Pulse laser does the damage quicker so it's easier to hit one spot, particularly when shooting at a fast moving mech or while piloting a fast moving mech. Comes at a cost of increased weight/heat/price.

Edited by Sean von Steinike, 07 November 2012 - 01:36 AM.

[potatoparrot]

WE SHALL RESORT TO THE MATHEMATICS!!

Small Laser: 3 Damage, 2 Heat, 3s Recharge
Medium Laser: 5 Damage, 4 Heat, 4s Recharge

Small Pulse: 3 Damage, 3 Heat, 2.75s Recharge
Medium Pulse: 6 Damage, 5 Heat, 3.75s Recharge

A Small Laser, over 10 seconds, deals 10 Damage and generates 6.67 Heat. This requires 7 Heat Sinks to dissipate completely, giving it a Damage per 10s per Effective Ton (henceforth, AWESOME VALUE) of 1.40
A Small Pulse, over 10 seconds, deals 10.91 Damage and generates 10.91 Heat. This requires 11 Heat Sinks to dissipate, giving it an AWESOME VALUE of 0.92.
Hot damn, that's no good! The only advantage is a decreased duration, allowing for tighter damage grouping, but 60% more heat for around 10% more damage? Pass! It's even half a ton heavier!

A Medium Laser, over 10 seconds, deals 12.50 Damage and generates 10 Heat. This requires 10 Heat Sinks to dissipate, AWESOME VALUE of 1.14.
A Medium Pulse, over 10 seconds, deals 16.00 Damage and generates 13.33 Heat. This requires 13 Heat Sinks (let's round it down since you probably aren't just holding down LMB, you're lining up each shot right?) to dissipate, AWESOME VALUE 1.04.
Well, 28% more damage for 33% more heat? That seems reasonable. A lower firing time also makes it easier to hit with - Unfortunately, it's 2 tons. Hmm. Not really worth it unless you've got more tonnage than you know what to do with! The shorter range also makes them horribly ineffective for anything not in fisticuffs range! At least the Med Pulse is better than the Small Pulse though, jeeze!

As for Large... Who uses Large? Don't be silly. That's silly. Nobody uses Large.
Hopefully nobody will notice I don't have up-to-date values for the Large Lasers and can't consult my spreadsheet for numbers...

[Martini Henrie]

That would be me then. LPLs work well on my Dragon in my preferred role. Ta

[potatoparrot]

Martini Henrie, on 07 November 2012 - 02:05 AM, said:

That would be me then. LPLs work well on my Dragon in my preferred role. Ta

Well... Then... You're silly.

>.>

<.<

[El Death Smurf]

Standard lasers stream out the damage, so to do full damage the laser must be held on target for the whole duration (wich is longer than that of the pulse version)

Pulse lasers do their damage in a shorter period of time and in bursts. (i belive 3 or 4... i'd have to check) so damage is more focused. The range is shorter, The heat is higher, and The wepon is heavier.
if you have the weight and the heatsinks, pulse lasers might be your better choice.

i enjoy mixing and matching the mediums. 2 mediums and 2 medium pulse lasers go very well together with 20 heatsinks IMO.

[Spar]

Forget the math and weight, forget the range and damage, none of those things matter. The only thing that folk should be concerned about is that Pulse sound waaaay cooler than the puny pew pew laser.

[Onyx Rain]

Well all Pulse lasers, and small lasers run hotter now.

Small pulse... were almost always a bad choice. 2x the weight of smalls, 1 more heat, .09 more dps, same refresh time. Only good thing was the .5 vs .75 beam duration, and the very very slight dps increase...but that wasn't worth more heat and 2x weight IMO.

Medium...were pretty ok, now they are hotter = Probably not very great now

Large pulse... Were finally getting viable with the 10 dmg, 9 heat, shorter beam duration. Screwed now.

Small lasers... About perfect as they were...I don't run them in my current builds but I'm guess 50% heat increase isn't great for those who do. The one saving grace is light/medium mechs that run small lasers overall probably benefit from the 1.4 dhs the most....so in builds that would actually use them they might still be ok...might.

Thank Buddha they didn't touch the mediums and larges. ER large/ppc/erppc needed some love though....and large were finally worth having so I expect they'll re-nerf those soon...Then fix them by making them crazy OP after that, LOL.

Overall, the "fix"...broke stuff more then it was already.

Edited by Onyx Rain, 07 November 2012 - 02:45 AM.

[Hansh0tfirst]

Spar, on 07 November 2012 - 02:33 AM, said:

Forget the math and weight, forget the range and damage, none of those things matter. The only thing that folk should be concerned about is that Pulse sound waaaay cooler than the puny pew pew laser.

This ^^^

thummtoomthummtoomthummp!