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[Xanderzoo]

Am I the only person who thinks the Heavy Burst Laser is underpowered? It costs almost the same amount of OP as a Dual Flak Cannon, and significantly more than a normal Flak Cannon, and is not as good as either. High tech ships don't need point defence as badly as low tech ships, so I can understand why the Heavy Burst Laser is only somewhat effective. However, I think that it shouldn't use as many OP as it does, considering its strength compared to Flak Cannons. I don't think the Heavy Burst Laser needs to more effective, but I think that its OPs should be reduced.

[orost]

It's not as effective as PD as flak, but it's more effective as a general-purpose weapon, having some decent range and armor-piercing (for a beam at least). I think it's okay. I don't use it often, but it's more due to the fact that medium energy slots are at a premium and one that can be given up for a "utility" weapon is a rarity.

[TheHengeProphet]

The Heavy Burst Laser does 120 damage per burst, if I have my numbers right.  This is considerably less than the 150x2 from the Dual Flak Cannon.  The DFC also turns faster than the HBL.

BUT, at no point have I ever thought "Would I rather thave a DFC here of the HBL?  No.
Will I now?  Yes...

The HBL's damage is not significant enough for me to choose it over pretty much any other medium energy slot.

Now, what I'm wondering is if the HBL is worth the 4 OP it costs more than the Burst PD laser.

The Burst PD does 105 damage per burst; has a 1:1 damage:flux ratio; contains 2 bursts and regenerates bursts at 0.5 per second; has a turn rate of 100; and a range of 500.
The HBL does 120 damage per burst; has a 2:3 damage:flux ratio; contains 3 bursts and regenerates bursts at 0.5 per second; has a turn rate of 40; and a range of 600.

So, I now that I've seen the numbers, I don't figure it IS worth the 4 extra OP, especially since I'd need to spend more OP on Advanced Turret Gyros to give it a turn speed worth a PD.

[Dark.Revenant]

It punches through armor easily, making it good at striking down armored fighters and high-HP missiles like the reaper.  360 damage all at once is pretty good, especially since it becomes 480 with extended mags.

[orost]

Flak does Fragmentation damage, so you need to divide all damage values by 4 if you're comparing with Energy, unless you're specifically talking about targets protected by neither shields nor armor.

[TheHengeProphet]

I was evaluating in its role as PD against things like fighters and missiles, which is where fragmentation damage shines.

You have to take it out of its PD role to have its burst damage mean anything, at which point I don't feel its sustainable DPS is worth using over something like a pulse laser.
It is a beam, so it only applies soft flux to shields, and can't maintain the DPS that the Phase lance can to keep that soft flux meaning anything; however, it does eek in a usefulness over the graviton beam, due to actually being able to damage armour, despite its short range.

However, I still don't think it's worth the 4 OP it costs over the standard Burst PD.

[Silver Silence]

The small Burst Laser hits almost as hard, regenerates as fast, turns faster and carries only one less charge. You get practically the same effect in the small one as the medium one and if you want to go to large slots, I think there are always better things to mount over the Guardian.

[Megas]

You use (heavy) burst PD when your ship can use energy PD but cannot use ballistic PD.  Burst PD is useful for killing anything up to frigate size.

Guardian PD is powerful enough to be an assault weapon if it has charges to spare and the target is unshielded.  Guardian PD is useful PD if if you have no other heavy weapon choice.  For example, Odyssey configuration of Guardian PDs and IR Pulse Lasers is viable, if not ideal, and useful if your other ships have claimed your other heavy weapons.

P.S. I do think burst PD is a bit overpriced even with the recent OP reduction.  I only use burst PD on ships with few mounts, such as Apogee or Buffalo.  For everything else, I prefer PD or Tactical Lasers.  They perform about as well for less OP.

[Silver Silence]

I find Burst PD works better, but I play with a ton of mods with a lot of faster moving missiles. PD or LRPD is... okay for clearing a couple stray annihilators or a salamander. But I find that even with several of the things focusing on single missiles, it takes them too long. A couple PD or LRPD overlapping can't even handle a volley of annihilators let alone the endless rocketry of the medium slot annihilator.

[Wyvern]

I'll just drop this thought in here: energy PD was hurt a lot by the removal of bonus damage from flux.  None of them got a corresponding damage increase.  Previously, the more you actually needed your energy PD, the more potent they were; a point defense array that required multiple shots to take down a salamander at zero flux would wipe out incoming torpedos when you were running near max.  1000 range on tactical lasers kinda seals the deal; previously, the big advantage to the HBL was its longer range - it could shoot down sabots before they burst, for example.  Now?  Tactical lasers everywhere.  Between the two, dedicated energy point defenses are kinda obsolete.

[Thaago]

Even with the extended range, I actually despise using tactical lasers as point defense: I think its a complete waste of the weapon and they perform poorly in the role.

If you are in a crowded ship environment, they may fail to fire at all because of their extreme range and friendly fire. They have poor tracking compared to the pd lasers, so they waste a LOT of time when switching targets. Finally, if they are firing on missiles then they aren't firing on enemy ships! You can't turn off the IPDAI, or only designate a few weapons to use it.

No thanks.

[Xanderzoo]

Tactical lasers are my favorite small turret PD. However, they are only viable with Advanced Turret Gyros--that way they are fast enough to switch targets quickly.

And now I realize that I have the most recent post in every forum section except Bug Reports... That might not be a good thing.  

[Schwartz]

Even with Gyros and IPDAI, Tactical Lasers don't perform perfectly as PD. They seem to turn on and off and switch targets a lot when things get messy.

Burst PD is fine. Heavy Burst needs a damage and rotation buff.

[Linnis]

Also they tend to miss half if not most of their damage because the turret cannot keep up with the target, often missiles and small fighters.

[Megas]

Tactical lasers are great for long-range PD, provided you do not have a lock on a target.  A lock seems to confuse the lasers for some reason.  Tactical lasers are mediocre for tracking fast turning Salamanders once they get close.  Because of long range and passthrough, tactical lasers can fry several missiles long distance away before they become a threat.  You do not use Tactical Laser as short-range, immediate response PD.  The idea is use tactical laser as multi-purpose weapon and rely on shield to absorb missiles that get past your lasers.

PD Laser is faster and more flux efficient than Tactical Laser, making it better for close-range defense.  Not as good anti-missile as burst PD, but useful if you will be swarmed for more than a few seconds.

LR PD Laser is mediocre, but useful enough if you do not have better (e.g., Easy bounty hunter start).

Burst PD lasers are great for stopping a few missiles, but they quickly become nearly as mediocre as LR PD Lasers once they spend all charges.  Burst PD is what you use when you need stopping power in an instant, not for continuous defense.

I find Burst PD works better, but I play with a ton of mods with a lot of faster moving missiles. PD or LRPD is... okay for clearing a couple stray annihilators or a salamander. But I find that even with several of the things focusing on single missiles, it takes them too long. A couple PD or LRPD overlapping can't even handle a volley of annihilators let alone the endless rocketry of the medium slot annihilator.

None of the standard light energy PD can handle missile swarms (and probably by design).  Burst PD does not have enough charges to blast more than a few missiles or fighters, and the rest lack stopping power.

I often prefer Tactical laser or PD Laser because they are cheaper and more common than burst PD (which is somewhat rare) and do more DPS over time, making them useful for general-purpose.

I'll just drop this thought in here: energy PD was hurt a lot by the removal of bonus damage from flux.

As compensation, they got lower OP cost and (except for Burst PD) more range.  Mining Laser got a large enough range increase that it is no longer worse than useless, PD Laser is usable without Advanced Optics, and Tactical Laser is very good overall.  That said, LR PD Laser is really mediocre, almost an overpriced version of the Mining Laser; and Burst PD was not improved enough for its cost.  Burst PD needs at least three charges for its high cost, and possibly reduce cost by one more OP.