Ships & Modules

Seriously though, pulse are better.

Nah, just kidding. You're right It's all personal preference. I swear by pulse as my arguments have shown but it really just depends on your play style. If you're flying a Paladin you're already in one of the 4 best mission running ships in the game so it's hard to go wrong regardless of what you do.

ill reply to the post with numbers :

1 range , i didnt went for tachyons cos i wanted to shoot targets at 160km . I went for them because i kill stuff in 45,50 - 80 km Range . (and on this distance tachyons win)
I dont salvage , i dont loot , LP per mission are worth way more then salvage .
2 Tracking is bad , but be it beam or pulses i kill stuff way before they get under 20 km (even with Pulse, so its not a issue for me)
3
a. You dont need to snipe , you can brawl everything in l4 in close range , but i find dmg aplication is way better from far , be it a BS or a frigate , an example : you may be muhhamed Ali or Tyson but why you need to punch someone when you can use a pistol ))
b. i dont need them to shoot from 160 , but from 50 to 80 with MF .
c. i dont salvage , i blitz missions for reward and lp . (as for mjd : i mjd out kill and mjd in , if need while im away i can adjust my distance with mwd to be exactly 100km from acceleration gate while killing frigates with full dps aplication)
d. i do the same with tachyons , dont see any difference here , target frigates and one shoot em . while theyre far away .

to put it in another way :
Conflag-pulse >>> Tachyon-MF>>>Scorch-Pulse (dmg wise)
<40 km 45<--->100 45<--->100


So conflag wins dmg wise , but rats usually spawn in a different range group , so usually its tachyons vs Scorch not conflag .
As you personally said you kill stuff , most of it , before it gets close to you . So conflag dps is wasted .

Also about tracking i consider beam tracking at 70km is better then pulse in close range . So considering all variables i found tachyons perform better .

By no means one of those is bad , its just matter of taste i guess .

You guys have a lot of good points regarding beams.


Just curious...What kind of dps are you getting at various beam ranges?

On my setup with 3 Imperial Navy Heat Sinks, I'm getting 1007 dps with gleam

993 dps with Multi with an optimal of 45 (58 with 2 TC's running.)

910 dps with Gamma with an optimal of 56 (73 with TC's)

827 dps with Xray with an optimal of 68 (88 with TC's)

Don't really need to use anything longer range than that but I have Standard in cargo just in case.


Comparing this to pulse dps off the top of my head...

Conflag is about 1200 dps out to 30km

Multi is about 1000 and is good to about 45km.

I think I was getting at least 750 with scorch, and I'd be using that for anything past the 45km mark. Yeah, I go through a lot of scorch crystals but I don't mind because they're much cheaper than INMF. I still find that lots of things get in close really fast, and that's obviously where conflag shines.

If you're not salvaging then I can see why you'd go with beams.

I run 3 TC's 4 navy HS no rigs (normally have a tracking rig and either range or more tracking)

I get (first range number is no range scripts 2nd number is all range scripts modify on the fly depending on the npc range)
28-36km gleam with 973dps
57-73km for INMF with 959dps
71-91km for gamma with 879dps


my pulse fit is the same as my beam one numbers without rigs

27-35 conflag 1111 dps
27-35 INMF 996 dps
34-43 IN gamma 913 dps
41-52 IN xray 830 dps
76-97 scorch 794 dps

i find I shoot things at the 40-70km range most of the time and thus use beams


note: No implants at all in those numbers. Bastion on in all of them.


edit: all thouse numbers are just optimal fall off adds some but you are using insta change ammo just change it instead of shooting falloff

...

Lol. I have all relevant gunnery skills to 5 except for large laser specialization, which currently sits at 4.

We are talking about T2 Tachs with Imperial Navy Multifreq loaded, right?

why are you flying without TC's and bastion?

edit: you where looking at without bastion

Guess i'm extra tired this morning or perhaps just ********...

Okay, so just to get this straight...

Paladin
3 faction HS in the lows
2 tracking computers in the mids
4 T2 tachs and a bastion in the highs

All relevant large gunnery skills to 5 except for Large turret specialization which is at 4.

WITH NOTHING RUNNING (No bastion, no TC's): Optimal with INMF is at 45km.

WITH EVERYTHING RUNNING (Bastion, TC's with range scripts): Optimal with INMF is 69km.

So what I said in my first post about range is still true.

Perhaps you were thinking that the optimal of 45km was with everything running.

Sorry for the confusion.

Yes I'm back pedalling, as people do to correct mistakes

Your point?

It is nice that the cool-down lines up so well with the Bastion's cycle time. It is especially useful on some Blood Raider's missions, since they do seem to like spawning out at ranges perfect for "Bastion bouncing" (someone said it in chat one day and I thought it sounded kind of catchy, can't really remember who though). I don't use it often, but I do carry one with an MDU.

And, you're right. It is a pretty awesome back-up in-case dps gets hot and **** starts rolling down the hill. A nice final little "F-you" and middle finger for the rare moments when rats actually put a Marauder's tank to the test, no? I almost feel sorry for the poor buggers, at least until I remember that it's what puts food on the table and isk in my pocket, so "NO MERCY!"