I do wish that the Executor had more viable weapon combinations. As it is, it's just "use HILs" or "go out of your way to be a contrarian and use APLs, but get an all-around worse ship".
I think this would require different mounts, or different layouts. When you have the combination of L energy with M ballistics, it makes too much sense to use ballistics for shield-breaking and using L energy for anti-armor. As a thought experiment
- If Executor had L ballistics, and M energies, it would just be a much worse ship because of the support nature of most M energies
- Executor doesn't have the flux to use Plasma Cannons (the main weakness of the ship)
- Paladins really need turrets to be attractive... Executor has hardpoints
- APL is a flux-manageable anti-shield weapon. I guess you could use APLs+Maulers+Hurricanes, but HIL+HVD+Squall just seems like a better combo.
- Don't know what Gigacannon does
I think APLs would make a lot more sense if Executor wasn't a midline ship and didn't have the abundant M ballistics. If those were all M energies, we'd almost be forced into APL builds.