I do not use Thumper because either I need the mounts for (mostly) anti-shield and (some) anti-armor, or Thumper does not have enough range. It is more like my ships have been cut down by Thumper when used by the enemy, usually when I test Vanguard or other small ships against SIM Enforcers, pirate ships, and the like.
HBL, as it is, is too much of a trap: it takes a valuable Medium Energy, isn’t a great PD option for 11 OP, and doesn’t do appreciable damage to anything else. Maybe the best fix is reduce the cost of BPD and HBD to 5 and 8, respectively, so you don’t expect too much from them.
While I would love the OP reduction, I do not see that happening when even weaker (LR) PD Lasers cost 4 or 5 OP as they are. Burst PD is much better than those two. Also, burst PD does not need IPDAI to track like small ballistic PD do. Then again, I use IPDAI much on several ships either to make Vulcans track reliably enough or to exploit the elite Point Defense skill and turn small weapons into long-range assault weapons (with PD being a welcome bonus).
Heavy Burst Laser is okay as an assault weapon on the likes of Medusa, where enemies happily flux themselves out with more inefficient weapons, then Medusa wears them down with Railguns and burst laser spam. Unfortunately, that does not work on Ordos, where defense and slow kills is not an option.
As a PD option, it is the only PD option for medium-sized energy (aside from Omega's Rift Beam). There ought to be a PD option.
The impression I'm getting here is that it would be easier for devs to create a new useful high tech ship with built-in HBL as an extra than to make HBL worth taking on its own.
I use HBL primarily on midline ships. Occasionally on high-tech. If I used Venture, I probably want to use HBL for PD and HVD/Mauler in ballistics. I do not want to try to beat down enemies with a mining/heavy blaster given their inefficiency.
