Energy PD tends to be optimized against single missiles - big turn rates and weak capacitors.
Do
not compare any E weapons with B - it only ends in sadness.
SmallFull of nearly unusable glorified laser pointers.
GoodPD Laser: PD. What did you expect from that name? It does PD things so mildly adequately i wouldn't be surprised if Alex uses it as baseline PD.
Burst PD: PD. Removes a limited number of things from existence fast, then drops off. People usually say to pair it with normal PDL, which isn't inaccurate. I would suggest pairing it with vulcans, on all of zero vanilla ships that can accept such an OP combination of PD.
IR Pulse Laser: HPD, DPS. Not a laser. That being said, it's a kind of alright pulse gun.
AMB: AP, DPS, BPD. I've *** on AP in small slots before, but AMB does enough damage to count as a good torpedo. Reloads really slowly, but it has a ton of ammo by small torpedo standards.
Ironically, it's also the second best DPS small energy gun despite being burst. Tells you everything about energy weapons, doesn't it?
BadLRPD: PD. Trades DPS for range. Considering PDL already kind of sucks when enemy fighters and missiles don't line up nicely one by one, and AI is smart enough to burst to overwhelm PD, it just doesn't do anything existing guns, or the taclaser meme, don't do.
Tactical Laser: PD. Speaking of memes. Same DPS as PDL, but half the flux efficiency, terrible soft stats and no other niche. At least with the turn rate hullmod it's kind of decent. That being said, its ridiculously low speed "laser" beam seriously limits its effectiveness with range extensions. Use LRPD with any, at least it's actually (nearly) hitscan.
Like, seriously, what is it even actually supposed to do? Boil off paint off destroyers for easier repainting?
Ion Cannon: ST, HPD. Does LRPD damage at PD range. Damage arcs are AoE, so it stuns better than it says, though.
UglyMining Laser: PD, JAV. Mining laser is just sad. High tech ships just don't have space to waste OP on 1/3rd of a PDL for only half the cost. In .96 there might be ships that have more small E slots than common sense, at 1 OP, but not at 2.
MediumGoodIon Pulser: SR, ST, HPD, DPS. Does a bunch of things at once, or at least until it runs out of batteries. Three ion cannons duct-taped together, supercharged and doing double damage. It's even flux efficient.
Protip: Expanded magazines.
Pulse Laser: SP, HPD, DPS. Worse than every other ME gun at their niche, but very basic and reliable and has very good soft stats.
Heavy Blaster: AP, DPS, HPD. Does good damage at a decent range really fast. You really pay for it in flux, though. Ridiculously OP-expensive.
Phase Lance: AP. Specialized knife-range energy beam doing torpedo damage. That being said, DPS isn't stellar, and it's a beam, so it bounces off shields like a ***.
Ion Beam: ST, HPD. Rapidly removes ships from the equation just via stunlocking. Doesn't do more damage than IC, and bounces uselessly off shields on its own, so don't forget to pair it with an actual gun.
BadGraviton Beam: SP, PD. Due to soft flux being a thing, beams are terrible at shield popping. Naturally, GB is an anti-shield beam with barely more DPS than PDL. That being said, it's very flux efficient, so if you have extra medium slots and don't want to put literally anything else into it, or even an AMB, it does PD job, like, alright. Just don't let it see armored fighters.
Mining Blaster: AP, HPD. What, you expected me to put it into Ugly tier like everyone else? Heavy Blaster is better at doing extreme DPS, and PLance is better at burst, but ML has the distinction of doing both for very cheap and it's easy to find. If you don't have a Heavy Blaster, this is a good substitute. If you do, just put it on. Technically does better against armor, but only in extreme scenarios.
UglyHeavy BPDL: PD. BPDL on a slower mount for more OP and worse flux efficiency. At least it has 5 charges and Alex will buff it to 6 next patch,
r-right?LargeEnergy weapons are backwards from Ballistic: the bigger the slot, the better weapons get.
GoodPaladin PD: PD, HPD. Lies about its DPS - actually does 300 sustain and 1k burst against hull. Also has better swivel speed than HBPDL, of all things.
Note that i just called a (pinpoint, half energy) dual flak in a large energy slot a "good gun".
Plasma Gun: SR, DPS, HPD. Good DPS, good soft stats. Essentially, three Heavy Blasters duct taped together, except unexpectedly the duct tape was copper-plated so it has great flux efficiency, by E standards.
Autopulse Laser: SP, HPD. Another not-a-laser. Very flux efficient. True to its description, bursts things down, then runs out. At close range it essentially works as an anti-shield tach lance.
Tach Lance: AP, ST, HPD. Tach-yon! If you want to delete something from existence, this is your gun. Don't let it see any shields it doesn't go through, though.
Why is it in HPD, despite having terrible soft stats and not being any good at HPD in AI hands? Because if you can keep its sights on a frigate, it deletes it from existence right through the shield.
Six-six-six million ways to die, choose-High Intensity Laser: AP, DPS. Good flux efficiency, but terrible turn speed. Better than tach lance at AP, but not as fun.
All Large Energy are good if you know how to cook them. Or, well, comparable.