Also, I tested out beam:cannon against Isanths and it was very lackluster. It seems like the fire rate increase doesn't matter because you're losing a ton of damage.
Same impression. Beam-cannon is currently so without appeal as to be not worth fielding. I think that both fire rate and damage need improvement. Any impression on Beam-missile? I like the weapon mode, but feel that it is also somewhat weak (not as bad as Bc though).
It's possible that both simply pale in comparison to the still rather OP Beam-beam weapon. They nerfed it a bit by making it clumsy, but so far I'm still feeling like I'd rather risk the shot with a mega-beam because even if I miss twice, if I hit that third shot it will be worth substantially more than if I had poured Bc or Bm onto my target the entire time I was missing with a Bb - even a small Bb annihilates shields and shatters hulls.
[doublepost=1528271351,1528268627][/doublepost]Just re-tested - there were several updates.
I'm actually leaning towards a straight beam with no slave being the all-round best out of the beam family right now. And I think they might have upped the beam-missile damage a touch, or it's just looking better in context with the most recent changes to the others. Beam-cannon damage isn't terrible either, but I think it may still need a fire rate increase, while a small debuff to the Beam-beam fire rate could bring it pretty close to balance (in combination with its clumsiness).
And I like what they've done to the missile reload timer(s). Going to test the damage on the other weapon families for the current build... this stuff is shifting substantially day to day. It's hard to keep up with.
The new HUD icons are pretty sweet, BTW.
[doublepost=1528272979][/doublepost]Missiles... are definitely weak compared to beams now. In general. Either they need a little damage bump, or beams need a little damage nerf. The pure missile without slave even seems a touch weak as a base at the moment.
Missile-cannon seems a mess - poor damage, and it
forces you to waste multiple, very precious missile charges for a relatively weak shotgun spread that is as non-random as the old missile slave used to make cannon and beams. The spread is too wide, so you only hit with a couple of them and they are so damage reduced that it feels very weak for something that eats up so much of your missile capacity. They seem to have a degree of lock-on, but it doesn't seem enough to compensate. Anyone getting any love from these?
Missile-missile has a 5-second arming timer, which really reduces its chances of delivery - particularly facing point defense, but even just against any moving target it's very, very difficult to hit. I guess that makes it a decent weapon against very large ships (if slow) and stations only, so maybe it's shaping into a very niche specialty weapon.
Missile-beam seems solid, but might benefit from a small buff to missile base damage.
Oh, and I'm getting permanent hang-missiles from the Missile-cannon spread sometimes. Glowing comets just sit there forever...
[doublepost=1528274317][/doublepost]Cannon - basic cannon is ok, but useless because Cannon-missile is so OP. The reload time for Cm is so short, that you can fire it exactly as frequently as you can fire the plain cannon because you have to pause between cannon shots either way to compensate for recoil. Since you can only
effectively fire both at the same rate, and Cannon-missile actually seems to draw very little power it would be stupid to use the weaker of the two as far as I can tell.
Cannon-beam damage is fine, but the reload is super slow making it a distant second to Cannon-missile.
Cannon-cannon seems ok, actually. Minimal or no recoil, so the weak damage plus high fire rate work out as I would expect, but still completey overshadowed by Cannon-missile. I think that Cm needs a longer reload time and maybe even then a slight damage nerf.
