I know this will be like asking everybody what is their favorite flavor of ice cream, but being a new player I'm trying to get a grasp on which weapons work and which don't.
The question being answered, as others have pointed out, doesn't really help with your issue. I've always felt that one of the best examples of ship that shows a beginner how the game works is the default hammerhead.
Thats-
2x Railguns
2x Harpoons
2x Motars/Assault Chain Guns
+ whatever.
You ideally drift in, letting your railguns soften up their shields, and then when they're near max turn on the feeders and start blasting away with your motars, maybe supported by harpoons. Just messing around with this basic loadout really helped give me a feel for the roles you need to fill on a ship (or group of ships), and thus where the various weapons fit into it all.
So that said, most of my favorite weaopns are ones that are just "fun" to me. Ideally because they encourage a unique playstyle (something of a lack of that in vanilla) or just feel good to rip a ship apart with.
Some noteables-
Light Machine Guns - while an awful way to use them, i love loading a ton of these on something like a mora and just hovering next to a destroyer/frigate chewing them to death slowly
AntiMatter/Mining blasters - Sneaking a shot past shields is such a good feeling, especially when you get better at piloting and it's not just abusing a phase ship (ditto for the torps/rockets)
Devastator - really really really big LMGs. I'll admit i was sad when i made a dominator with two of these, stripped my opponent of their armor, fired, and didn't instantly erase them, but it's still fun (and just as unwise as my less than stellar LMG useage)
Ion pulsars - like the rest of these just satisfying to land. It's in an odd spot because its what i mentally categorize as a "combo" weapon, in that it lets your other ships/weapons rip into them, but it also needs some setup to really work right.
and the absolute best of the best:
The Piranha Bomber.
I adore setting up some capital ship to be disabled just long enough to let a swarm(3 wings minimum) of these descend into their slow, obvious, graceful bombing run and watching as bombs float serenely towards their fully stacked shields and armor before evaporating them. They're great station poppers in the early game, and so so fun in the late game. The khopesh fills a similar role in a "i'd like to win without having to try so damn hard" manner, but god are piranha's fun, and I really hope we see more unique weapons some day (as even mods still have variations on the theme of most of the vanilla ones, i'm surprised there aren't more weapons that care about the ships momentum)
Speaking of mods though at least one weapon that's stuck with me is the shadowyards heavy energy double laser. The name escapes me but watching the two beams rake across a hull as they cross each other is just so so satisfying.