Best Weapon Combos

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OC2142
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby OC2142 » Wed Jul 30, 2014 9:44 am

I still stand by my Glaive Beam + Flak II. The difference in charge time means that by the time the Flak has just hit the shields, the Glaive Beam is just about ready to fire. Shatter the shields, then slice them up!
A tier 3 Cloak with high tier engines should keep you safe for an additional 15 seconds if necessary.
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stylesrj
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby stylesrj » Fri Aug 01, 2014 12:19 pm

Ion 3 + Glaive Beam/Burst Lasers

The Ion 3 makes sure those shields stay down while you deliver the pain train. Also quicker than the Vulcan and easier to get going again if disrupted.

I haven't had a good run with the Ion 3 though. Mostly because the bad guys drop BS bombs on my important systems.
Ryu
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Ryu » Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:41 am

I haven't given it a try yet, but 2x flak 2 guns and either a mark two burst laser or a combination of 2 single power weapons, like one of the teleporting bombs would be a very lethal weapon setup. This would send a minimum of 14 projectiles at your opponent, though it would a bit slow. It would allow you to simutaneously be a strong attacker and advance you boarding parties effectiveness if you so choose.
mpassarella
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby mpassarella » Mon Aug 25, 2014 1:18 pm

Best Weapon Combo

4 x Burst Lasers II any day...
You can tear down any shield, get past those pesky anti-missile drones and cripple any system/sub-system.
Couple that with the following augmentations: "Weapon Pre-Igniter" and "Stealthy Weapons", put on your best "cloak" and there you have it: the ultimate stealthy firepower.

They will never see you coming! :D
Ryu
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Ryu » Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:21 am

I was checking out the different weapons and noticed the advanced flak gun. It only takes 1 power and does 3 shots with a 8 sec pause between shots. if you had 4 of these things, you would be firing 12 shots, equivalent to 4 burst laser mark two, but with shots firing 4 second faster and at half the power.
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stylesrj
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby stylesrj » Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:41 am

Unfortunately the Advanced Flak Gun is only on the Lanius B and is not available in stores.

I would say 4 Flak guns on a ship would be just as good or even better than 4 Burst Lasers II (not to mention easier to find and cheaper) but Flak takes a bit of time to travel to the target after firing.
Ryu
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Ryu » Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:57 pm

Two flak 2's fire about 2 more shots than four burst laser mark 2's for less power, which can be used to power boarding friendly weapons or a couple of beam weapons(depending on the type of beam of course) but the downside to this is that they would take about twice as long to fire each salvo. But if you have cloaking, that extra time shouldn't be too painful. But to get four mark 2 burst lasers is pretty rare, so the flak thing would be a better idea as it allows a lot of flexibility.
Ryu
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Ryu » Wed Aug 27, 2014 11:19 pm

I checked the wiki, and it said that they can be bought, but no one has yet to find any, also the flak projectile speed really doesn't make much of a difference during battle and the sheer quantity of them should overwhelm any defense drone that tried. I do agree that Flak 2's are much better than burst laser mark 3's since the flak fires two more shots and takes 1 less power at the expense of 4 seconds between shots.

Flak 1's probably have a better possibility to actually hit due to their smaller targeting circle, but fire 4 fewer shots per volley for only one less power, but fire at over twice the fate of the Flak 2's. Just checked the math, for every 210 seconds four flak 1's will fire 252 shots while two Flak 2's will fire 140 shots. This faster rate of fire depends on you having four weapons available of course since three Flak 1's fire 189 shots, two will fire 126, and one will fire 63. But regardless of that, you would have to sacrifice versatility with your boarders to achieve a much higher destructive rate.
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stylesrj
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby stylesrj » Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:38 am

Four Flak 1's would probably be the best. I once did a Lanius B run with 1 Advanced Flak and 3 Flak 1's though. I didn't actually call it this but I wish I could have renamed my ship to Flakruiser considering how much I had...

You know how many Burst Laser II's I encountered in stores in that run? Zero! Stores were selling flak just as much as I was dishing out!
I'm starting to think the 4 Burst Laser II run is a myth made to inspire FTL players. Not even by delaying the fleet by a million years and visiting every beacon you possibly can and taking weapons rewards if possible can I ever get 4 Burst Laser II's.

Two Glaive Beams is a sure thing though :D
Ryu
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Re: Best Weapon Combos

Postby Ryu » Thu Aug 28, 2014 4:52 pm

When you look at the number of shots that would get through shields to hit the hull, the flak 2's start to look a little better. For example say you fire four flak 1's and the enemy has 4 shields and all the shots hit. You get 8 shots hitting their hull per salvo, whereas flak 2's would have 10 shots get through, plus whatever else you happen to be using with them. Also, when you are using a boarding type of ship, having a fast highly destructive weapon setup is counterproductive, except where you get automated ships, which are pretty rare.
Also I have as of yet to run into 2 glaive beams in any one game, so those seem pretty rare to me, though flak guns are fairly common weapon type to run into.