Re: Small slots
Depends on the weapons the small slots can use. Railgun and needler are great, but needs a similarly long-ranged HE or big damage energy weapon to complement it, and there are not any such small non-kinetic weapons of matching range (missiles do not count because they have low ammo). LAG is decent. Energy weapons are either too short-ranged (bolts) or hard-countered by shields (beams) if not backed up by other weapons.
Currently, speed and shot range are among the most important combat stats (for those who want to solo fleets with smaller ships), and medium and large ballistics are the best at shot range.
Yeah, one of the chief impediments to using small weapons is the difficulty pairing them longer-range (generally kinetic) options with good finishing weapons. There's definitely a hole in weapon options for mid-long range HE... but I'm kinda torn as to if that hole should be filled. At least when playing with mods on that fill in most holes, that is one I still have to keep in mind and work with.
MY three fits, for anyone curious, are x2 Railgun x3 IR Pulse Laser x1 Reaper
Alastor (should really try upgrading to Light Needlers, but I love this setup), x2 Dual Light AC x2 Light Assault Gun x1 Shredder MG x2 Sabot Rack
Lasher, and x4 Shard Gun
Phalanx. The Phalanx was a real surprise for me, but the slight anti-armor ability of the Shard Gun let's it work its way through even "heavy" frigate armor, and after that it does tons of damage to hull. With it's efficient kinetic damage, it can tear shields down and afford the flux to keep them down until the target is just plain dead. Augmented Engines are a must.