Additions/Disclaimers: +Premiere absolutely cooked the audio for this one, and I tried to salvage it as best as I could but there may be a few cases where it skips/repeats +The math I did for the Kinetic Blaster is fake news. Its actual flux efficiency against armor/hull is 1 damage per 3 flux which isn't as bad as I made it out to be.
I must admit the explanations of each weapon were on point here, everything you said made sense and is correct. Although I have a feeling you sometimes don't take into account on what ship could x weapon be used. For example you rightfully mentioned how Plasma Cannon can't work on most ships due to flux costs, so how could an Ion Beam be S tier when it's only fitting on midline ships, and even then IR Autolance is better in 90% of the fights. High tech ships would just use Ion Pulser since the damage and efficiency for their operating range is vastly superior. That said I don't think it's a bad weapon, but it's a weapon that brings nothing to the table except EMP for a hefty OP and flux cost, where there's a plethora of other EMP weapons which also melt ships in addition. If Ion Beam is S, it doesn't follow how Tacyhon got A tier. Thermal Pulse Cannon is funny because usually nobody ranks the weapon as it's not modular, and another reason is that its stats are straight up broken. If any other ship in the game could use these, it would be a no brainer. 0.6 efficient shots which also deal nice damage per shot and are bursty is just insane. Frankly it would be above S tier if we compared it to the rest of the list. AM Blaster doesn't belong with PD and LRPD lasers, and even if they were lower, it's too good for B tier considering how many ships need it for burst. For 9 OP you get 20 unblockable torpedo shots with a flux cost. IR and regular Pulse lasers are tough to sell since now we actually have decent anti-shield weapons for high tech. Kinetic Blaster put PL into the grave. And the only ship worth using IR PLs is Scarab. Oh yeah forgot to mention, I don't think you said how Mining Blaster and IR Autolance have an AI that saves shots when the target has shield up, only firing when at max charges. This imo makes both weapons strictly better for AI usage than most others. You put every PD energy weapon in the same tier, there's quite a few details about each one but the big thing here is that you just can't rank the small Burst PD and the big one in the same tier since getting an empty medium slot that will not be used for assault is extremely hard. On the other side every single ship has plenty of small mounts to spare. And that 6 OP single weapon outperforms both two PD lasers and both two LR PD lasers for a lower cost. IR Autolance and Kinetic Blaster in C tier is a crime, both are on the verge of being game breaking. Kinetic Blaster is a anti-shield Heavy Blaster which for high tech ships is huge. 1.5 efficiency base doesn't mean much when vs shields that 0.75 and there is nothing even close like that for high tech except Sabots. IR Autolance is just an insta pick for every midline ship that has enough kinetics. Someone soloed a Remnant fleet in an Eagle with those. But I agree with Ion Cannon and Mining Laser, the former is obsoleted by there being much better EMP options, with a less hefty OP price. And the latter is just too niche, you're probably better off spending that extra OP in flux stats. Mining Laser gets good when you have like 5-6 with IPDAI and the PD skill, which is asking a lot when a single Burst PD laser does that job. Fully agree that Gigacannon needs more DPS, losing a large slot to a 200 DPS weapon which even misses sometimes is crazy. I recently tried a Prometheus MkII with a Gigacannon and Mjolnir, and while that does ok it's nowhere near as good as some standard builds. Overall what I got from this is that you should really try the Kinetic Blaster and IR Autolance a bit more. You mentioned Furies and Auroras in the video, both become scarier with a Kinetic Blaster. Fury with Kinetic Blaster, Phase Lance and 2 AM Blasters deletes anything. And the Aurora build you showed in the video would be amazing if you swapped the Ion Beam with Kinetic Blaster. IR Autolance is a bit harder to gauge its effectiveness but it's amazing on Falcon, Eagle, Executor, Pegasus and potentially Paragon if you're going for a disco ball build.
Why should that matter for a tier list based on performance? Needlers and Sabot Pods are also annoying hard to get (even harder than farming Diktat fleets) yet they didn't get a mention in their video.
ion cannon is not obsolete at all. it's efficient and does the job well. what destroyer has the flux to run 5 ion pulses? many destroyers can run 5 ion cannons. so they sit in different niches. it kind of performs like an arbalest. sustained, moderate strike damage. try slapping a mix of ion cannons and ir pulses on the front of a scarab and watch it melt and incapacitate things. you are right about autolances, and the ion beam. he's in love with the ion and graviton beam for some reason.
@@throeawae2130 it is likely cause he fits his ships like the AI does, max vents to 0 capacitors or 50% capacitors. That cripples the sustain and burst dps of energy ships. A phase frigate cannot even fire 2 antimatter strikes without max capacitors. So usually the author's ships likely get outfluxed at range, and then he has no flux to use his "burst high plasma dps" weapons. That's why he likes the "pressure" builds, and he thinks they are dps. Because he can actually do damage with them at max vents, as it won't flux his tank out.
I feel like there is a clear divide between blasters and beams in energy category. With high cost and low range blasters working well on agile high tech ships, while less demanding, long range beams providing support to midline.
I actually really like the Ion cannon, but that's because I like to have a phase ship as my flag ship. Which is basically the exact niche it is for. It really lets you punish those capital ships with lots of forward facing firepower and shields as knocking out the engines and making them lose the ability to choose where they're facing is very often a death sentence for them. And it also helps keeps smaller ships from being able to shoot back at me while I'm tearing them apart. Which is important for phase ships as chip damage can really stack up on them in larger flights.
I've noticed that damaged ships will sometimes retreat. Practically speaking, that's better than a kill because the AI has to wait for the ship to leave before it can deploy another one. Also, getting EMP damage on remnant ships seems to be one of the more reliable counters because right out of the gate they have WAY more firepower and mobility. If they lose control of their weapons though, they're just a floating brick for a few seconds.
I really love seeing starsector content. Starsector isn't so much underrated but just unkown. The weapon and ship balance and diversity are pretty spectacular. I was always a fan of turning falcons and eagles into jumbo destroyers with safety override. Speed combined with more/larger weapon slots is great for charging down slippery cruisers.
These videos are great for people getting started/getting back into the game. Thanks for making them. Is there any chance you would make videos regarding ship builds/fleet composition (early mid and late game)?
Key Notes: A - Area; Anti Fighter/Missile G - General S - Suppresion ST - Strike AS - Anti Shield AA - Anti Armor PD - Point Defense; Anti Fighter/Missile Range is more important on weaker ships Soft Flux - Can be dissipated by ships without dropping shields Hard Flux - Requires shields to be dropped in order for ships to dissipate it Energy S - Ion Beam (Medium; S) A - Graviton Beam (Medium; S), Ion Pulsar (Medium; S), Thermal Pulse Cannon (Large; G), Tachyon Lance (Large; S), High Intensity Laser (Large; AA), B - Tactical Laser (Small; G), IR Pulse Laser (Small; G), Anti Matter Blaster (Small; ST), PD Laser (Small; PD), Long Range PD Laser (Small; PD), Burst PD Laser (Small; PD), Heavy PD Laser (Medium; PD), Pulse Laser (Medium; G), Phase Lance (Medium; G), Heavy Blaster (Medium; G), Mining Blaster (Medium; G), Auto Pulse Laser (Large; G), Paladin PD System (Large; PD), Plasma Cannon (Large; G) C - Ion Cannon (Small; S), Mining Laser (Small; PD), Auto Lance (Medium; G), Kinetic Blaster (Medium; AS) D - Giga Cannon (Large; ST)
Great video! It was packed with valuable information about the weapon systems. As a viewer, I think it would really enhance the content if you included brief clips of all the weapons in action, not just a select few. Seeing them perform in-game would make it easier to follow along, especially since it's hard to remember every weapon by specs alone. Also I'd love to see you tackle this type of video for some of the most popular mods out there. I'm sure it would be just as insightful!
@@kittenconsumer9960 Independent sell both, Hegemony has centurions and Persean League has monitors. There also is a high-tech omen sold by Tri-Tachyon, but it specializes on pd duty and not tanking.
I like running the Paladin on the Executor. To be specific, you basically turn the Executor into a support ship for the faster fleet. Because the Paladin is a point defense weapon, it is a beam that can shoot over ally ships. So you can run a large amount of smaller ships, place them in front of the Executor, and let it support them from the back with Squalls and Paladin shots. Is this the best build? Certainly not, but it looks really cool.
I've found that, if you can spare the slots, tac lasers on the front make great PD. They can effectivly shut down long range missiles and strikecraft, just make sure you have a shorter range net for the few things that can get through
Just a few minutes in and already getting quality explanations for things that aren't super evident to new players like concepts of Soft/Hard Flux. Have been partially floating around aimlessly with weapons despite researching builds for my ships on the wiki/reddit/forums and the like, as well as using (outdated) weapon tier lists, but this video has helped me gain a better understanding of the pros/cons of each weapon as well as their role. Hopefully we can get Character Skill Tier list video at some point as well, since the other ones are out of date (.95) and the skill tree got some buffs and nerfs, and its not easy for newer players to know what is worthwhile. Might be helpful to have up the In-Game description of each skill from the character skill tree (sorta like how you had up the weapon information on the left side), since the Skill tier video I saw had the person seemingly go by memory which led to more than 1 mistake and forgetting secondary/tertiary effects of some skills. edit- Props for @16:25 giving guidance on Ion Pulsar that Expanded Magazines is a "must have" with it. It's not readily apparent in game that there is strong synergy with them, but after perusing the wiki on it I see that they do work together. Was uncertain if I would S-Mod it into some future ships using Ion Pulsar like Medusa/Hyperion, but after the rare shoutout from you on a Hullmod synergy, it probably is a safe bet as a staple partner. Same with @18:10 "you will forsure want expanded magazines with this weapon since it will increase your ammunition count significantly" regarding AutoPulse Laser. From the wiki "A full-auto, full-capacity burst from the Autopulse Laser actually fires 38 projectiles (57 projectiles with Expanded Magazines hullmod installed and 65 projectiles with Expanded Magazines hullmod s-modded).". Its really helpful to give suggestions on hullmods/s-mods that go well with certain weapons/builds, so appreciate it and hope to see more!
Well, this is a wery accurate list ,buuut only one personal citic I have the ion pulser , I think is an S tier . When I use it its slaps with an a fair price
This tier list is far less heretical than the missile list, or perhaps i am merely not as emotionally invested. You seem to overvalue pressure weapons and undervalue strike damage. And it seems that you favor cruiser+ size ships since you appreciate the ion damage from the beam, but discount the ion cannon. Where I disagree; -you did the autolance dirty. It's an energy weapon with fragmentation damage. That's finishing damage. A hit-scan weapon that just waits for shields and armor to be down, and the weapon itself is incredibly flux cheap. And like you said, it melts fighters. Energy weapon kinetic damage is special, as is fragmentation. -You overvalue the ion and graviton beam. They fall off hard against high tech targets or aggressive brawlers that can close the gap quickly. Perhaps you haven't been overrun by filthy luddites yet, but their hordes of s.o. ships will laugh at your weak beams. -Ion cannon is great on small ships, and is wonderful when mixed with ir pulses. a scarab with 4 ir and 2 ion cannons will melt and incapacitate many ships. -placing autopulse with tac laser and LR PD laser and mining blaster is WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG and i won't explain why. -putting paladin in b tier when you haven't used it is silly. it is okay, but it constantly runs out of charges.
graviton and ion builds are great on eagles and falcons, but they have little use against killing multiple capitals and or cruisers/stations. A supporting falcon firing a graviton and an ion is great, but so is swarming a capital with entropy frigates and torpedoes. The difference is that entropy 50% absolutely stacks over time, vs the ion beam and graviton combo, simply is good at pushing away smaller ships and killing fighters. Mid game vs late game mentality.
Ion Cannons are easily A or at least B tier. Combine them with other hard flux weapons and they suppress the enemy to keep their shield up or have their stuff knocked out. Combining IR Pulses with Ions is pretty decent. Lion Guard ships boost the range too.
The gigacannon is a bit like plasma cannon: good in player hands, but ineffective for a fleet. It's even in the lore that this arguably good weapon is a waste because it can't be used to its full potential.
Oh boi the the phase lance. I use it on my wolf frigates. 1Med phase lance 1 Pd laser 2Sabots racks (3 ammo ones) Built in Stabilised Shields Built in Flux Distribution Harden shields Harden subsystems Scatter amplifier for the hard flux on the beam ECCM package for my sabots The shield flux upkeep and weapon flux are just even with the flux dissipation it’s great. Shields are also taking 0.56 damage so for frigate it’s tanky against sabots and enemy wolfs with lasers. The phase lance cool-down don’t matter cause wolf teleports around disengaging so it’s runs off the cool-down naturally. In groups it’s real nasty to overload and overwhelming frigates and hitting vulnerable ships in the back for such cheap cost. I now exclusively run wolfs as my frigates XD. So cost effective. I run 5 of them and they go sniping annoying ships as a…wolf pack… I love it.
My beloved AMBie is only in B tier?!? My player-piloted, quad-AMB Afflictor is so much fun to fly and absolutely wrecks entire fleets. I have to force myself to not use it every single playthrough. 🤣 Also I'm not sure there's a better late game frigate option than a full squad of Omens with one AMB and a Reaper with Missile Autoloader. I've gained a new appreciation for the IR Autolance when testing them out on the Executor. That ship has such a huge flux dissipation problem that the IR Autolance works perfectly to keep flux usage down until it really needs it. I use 2x HILs and 4x IR Autolances to just melt everything that drops shields (and 2x Grav Beams + Squall to force that to happen). Mixing and matching the 1000 range energy weapons to make pretty light shows is really quite fun! I agree about the Mining Blaster! I ignored it for so long because I lumped it in with the completely worthless Mining Laser (that is D tier to me...not even worth the 1 OP 😂), but the blaster is really a solid option for a hit-and-run harasser like a Wolf. Although I disagree on some points, I love stuff like this and the discussion it generates. Fun video!
Phase Lance -> A tier, burst is best Heavy Blaster -> C/D tier, to inefficient Kinetic Blaster -> D tier, to inefficient Mining Blaster -> D tier, no one ever uses it
You know that phase battleships can equip the gigacannon and then reduce the firing rate to like 2-3 seconds right? That means this is the antimatter "strike" weapon at the large mount level. I would put both weapons into the S and A tiers, simply because of the way phase ships use them.
A tier for tachyon lance? Bruh, do you even play the game? I put 4 of those on my paragons and I can obliterate literally any fleet in the game without issue, and I mean EVERY fleet. The ion beam weapons are mostly useless, especially against more powerful enemies that will rush forward, at that point, raw dps with a lot of reactive aggression is what wins the day every single time. It should be S tier. So should the tactical lasers for being amazingly good at taking out smaller frigates without much of an issue. This is very useful when you run a mostly battleship/cruiser style fleet with very few small ships. The PD lasers are so darn good as well, they should be A tier, incredible useful against all small enemies and targetable projectiles. The auto pulse cannon should also be A tier, put 4 of those on one of those Remnant Battleships.... Bruh, they just melt every enemy down in mere seconds, same if you put them on faster ships in general, it's an excellent blitzkrieg style weapon that if used properly will absolutely decimate entire fleets.
I always hate the Ion Beam, because it is not piercing if you dont inflict hard flux, so it has no synergy with other beam setups, on paragon where you also have kinetic mount it can kinda work, but especialy if you combo it with tactical lasers and gravitons alone it only wastes Flux and achives nothing, especialy becouse even though gravition is very flux efficient, its overall dmg is very low, so even with 5 graviton beams on 1 traget for the max shield dmg increas most capitals can still just passive went you. So you need to either have a fleet of diffrent ship types, (wich i dont like because of roleplay reasons and skilling flexibilety, if i use a diffent ship my skillpoints shoud not go down the drain) or you need 2 of your ships to overload 1 of the enemy. All in all i think gravitons use is only as light support, slowing enemy ships, and even slowing phase ships while they are phased. While Ion Beam is a flexible tec choise that i put on if i have to fight a invicus. IF it woud work with higher soft flux level's as well it woud be at least a bit better in my arrogant opinion. xD But i dont wanna only criticize the rest of the Vidoe is pretty good. :)
ion beam graviton was great... for like early mid game domination with kiting eagles and falcons. Once I went up against capitals, phase ships, and stations, gonna need a lot more... alpha STRIKE and torpedoes and entropy debuffs.
Additions/Disclaimers:
+Premiere absolutely cooked the audio for this one, and I tried to salvage it as best as I could but there may be a few cases where it skips/repeats
+The math I did for the Kinetic Blaster is fake news. Its actual flux efficiency against armor/hull is 1 damage per 3 flux which isn't as bad as I made it out to be.
I guess we are going to have a separate video on coronal hypershunt guard's weapons?
Giggacannon haters never tried putting it on the [SUPER REDACTED]
Phillip Andrada said its the most powerful weapon so it must be
For what it’s worth, the Paladin has the honor of being the only pd system that can consistently shoot down rift torpedoes.
I must admit the explanations of each weapon were on point here, everything you said made sense and is correct. Although I have a feeling you sometimes don't take into account on what ship could x weapon be used.
For example you rightfully mentioned how Plasma Cannon can't work on most ships due to flux costs, so how could an Ion Beam be S tier when it's only fitting on midline ships, and even then IR Autolance is better in 90% of the fights. High tech ships would just use Ion Pulser since the damage and efficiency for their operating range is vastly superior. That said I don't think it's a bad weapon, but it's a weapon that brings nothing to the table except EMP for a hefty OP and flux cost, where there's a plethora of other EMP weapons which also melt ships in addition. If Ion Beam is S, it doesn't follow how Tacyhon got A tier.
Thermal Pulse Cannon is funny because usually nobody ranks the weapon as it's not modular, and another reason is that its stats are straight up broken. If any other ship in the game could use these, it would be a no brainer. 0.6 efficient shots which also deal nice damage per shot and are bursty is just insane. Frankly it would be above S tier if we compared it to the rest of the list.
AM Blaster doesn't belong with PD and LRPD lasers, and even if they were lower, it's too good for B tier considering how many ships need it for burst. For 9 OP you get 20 unblockable torpedo shots with a flux cost. IR and regular Pulse lasers are tough to sell since now we actually have decent anti-shield weapons for high tech. Kinetic Blaster put PL into the grave. And the only ship worth using IR PLs is Scarab.
Oh yeah forgot to mention, I don't think you said how Mining Blaster and IR Autolance have an AI that saves shots when the target has shield up, only firing when at max charges. This imo makes both weapons strictly better for AI usage than most others.
You put every PD energy weapon in the same tier, there's quite a few details about each one but the big thing here is that you just can't rank the small Burst PD and the big one in the same tier since getting an empty medium slot that will not be used for assault is extremely hard. On the other side every single ship has plenty of small mounts to spare. And that 6 OP single weapon outperforms both two PD lasers and both two LR PD lasers for a lower cost.
IR Autolance and Kinetic Blaster in C tier is a crime, both are on the verge of being game breaking. Kinetic Blaster is a anti-shield Heavy Blaster which for high tech ships is huge. 1.5 efficiency base doesn't mean much when vs shields that 0.75 and there is nothing even close like that for high tech except Sabots. IR Autolance is just an insta pick for every midline ship that has enough kinetics. Someone soloed a Remnant fleet in an Eagle with those.
But I agree with Ion Cannon and Mining Laser, the former is obsoleted by there being much better EMP options, with a less hefty OP price. And the latter is just too niche, you're probably better off spending that extra OP in flux stats. Mining Laser gets good when you have like 5-6 with IPDAI and the PD skill, which is asking a lot when a single Burst PD laser does that job.
Fully agree that Gigacannon needs more DPS, losing a large slot to a 200 DPS weapon which even misses sometimes is crazy. I recently tried a Prometheus MkII with a Gigacannon and Mjolnir, and while that does ok it's nowhere near as good as some standard builds.
Overall what I got from this is that you should really try the Kinetic Blaster and IR Autolance a bit more. You mentioned Furies and Auroras in the video, both become scarier with a Kinetic Blaster. Fury with Kinetic Blaster, Phase Lance and 2 AM Blasters deletes anything. And the Aurora build you showed in the video would be amazing if you swapped the Ion Beam with Kinetic Blaster. IR Autolance is a bit harder to gauge its effectiveness but it's amazing on Falcon, Eagle, Executor, Pegasus and potentially Paragon if you're going for a disco ball build.
As dude said in the video, you don't get to play with Kinetic Blasters a lot, unless you interact with Diktat.
Why should that matter for a tier list based on performance? Needlers and Sabot Pods are also annoying hard to get (even harder than farming Diktat fleets) yet they didn't get a mention in their video.
ion cannon is not obsolete at all. it's efficient and does the job well. what destroyer has the flux to run 5 ion pulses?
many destroyers can run 5 ion cannons. so they sit in different niches.
it kind of performs like an arbalest. sustained, moderate strike damage.
try slapping a mix of ion cannons and ir pulses on the front of a scarab and watch it melt and incapacitate things.
you are right about autolances, and the ion beam. he's in love with the ion and graviton beam for some reason.
@@throeawae2130 ion cannons also double as anti fighter defense, since one of them will disable an unshielded fighter.
@@throeawae2130 it is likely cause he fits his ships like the AI does, max vents to 0 capacitors or 50% capacitors. That cripples the sustain and burst dps of energy ships. A phase frigate cannot even fire 2 antimatter strikes without max capacitors. So usually the author's ships likely get outfluxed at range, and then he has no flux to use his "burst high plasma dps" weapons. That's why he likes the "pressure" builds, and he thinks they are dps. Because he can actually do damage with them at max vents, as it won't flux his tank out.
With each tier list you are getting closer to ranking every ship in the game.
Great video! Now visuals are just perfect :) Easy to read and looks nice
I think I can honestly agree with everything you've said here. One thing I would add is that IR lasers and AutoPulse both do hard flux damage.
I feel like there is a clear divide between blasters and beams in energy category. With high cost and low range blasters working well on agile high tech ships, while less demanding, long range beams providing support to midline.
And then Pulse Laser being shit for both.
I actually really like the Ion cannon, but that's because I like to have a phase ship as my flag ship. Which is basically the exact niche it is for. It really lets you punish those capital ships with lots of forward facing firepower and shields as knocking out the engines and making them lose the ability to choose where they're facing is very often a death sentence for them. And it also helps keeps smaller ships from being able to shoot back at me while I'm tearing them apart. Which is important for phase ships as chip damage can really stack up on them in larger flights.
I've noticed that damaged ships will sometimes retreat. Practically speaking, that's better than a kill because the AI has to wait for the ship to leave before it can deploy another one.
Also, getting EMP damage on remnant ships seems to be one of the more reliable counters because right out of the gate they have WAY more firepower and mobility. If they lose control of their weapons though, they're just a floating brick for a few seconds.
ion cannons are great. they are good to mix with ir pulse lasers on ships that like those. a scarab with a mix of those will tear it up.
Regarding kinetic blaster. You also can obtain several of those if you follow the Sindrian Diktat quest line
I really love seeing starsector content. Starsector isn't so much underrated but just unkown. The weapon and ship balance and diversity are pretty spectacular.
I was always a fan of turning falcons and eagles into jumbo destroyers with safety override. Speed combined with more/larger weapon slots is great for charging down slippery cruisers.
I was waiting for this, good videos brother
These videos are great for people getting started/getting back into the game. Thanks for making them. Is there any chance you would make videos regarding ship builds/fleet composition (early mid and late game)?
Good work. I will say it's the less accurate of the 3 but explanation is golden.
Ion Beam my beloved
Still does not answer the most important question: How do hamsters breathe in space?
Key Notes:
A - Area; Anti Fighter/Missile
G - General
S - Suppresion
ST - Strike
AS - Anti Shield
AA - Anti Armor
PD - Point Defense; Anti Fighter/Missile
Range is more important on weaker ships
Soft Flux - Can be dissipated by ships without dropping shields
Hard Flux - Requires shields to be dropped in order for ships to dissipate it
Energy
S - Ion Beam (Medium; S)
A - Graviton Beam (Medium; S), Ion Pulsar (Medium; S), Thermal Pulse Cannon (Large; G), Tachyon Lance (Large; S), High Intensity Laser (Large; AA),
B - Tactical Laser (Small; G), IR Pulse Laser (Small; G), Anti Matter Blaster (Small; ST), PD Laser (Small; PD), Long Range PD Laser (Small; PD), Burst PD Laser (Small; PD), Heavy PD Laser (Medium; PD), Pulse Laser (Medium; G), Phase Lance (Medium; G), Heavy Blaster (Medium; G), Mining Blaster (Medium; G), Auto Pulse Laser (Large; G), Paladin PD System (Large; PD), Plasma Cannon (Large; G)
C - Ion Cannon (Small; S), Mining Laser (Small; PD), Auto Lance (Medium; G), Kinetic Blaster (Medium; AS)
D - Giga Cannon (Large; ST)
at a glance those are some hot takes, but you do you friend
Great video! It was packed with valuable information about the weapon systems. As a viewer, I think it would really enhance the content if you included brief clips of all the weapons in action, not just a select few. Seeing them perform in-game would make it easier to follow along, especially since it's hard to remember every weapon by specs alone. Also I'd love to see you tackle this type of video for some of the most popular mods out there. I'm sure it would be just as insightful!
Big fan of the series pls keep making perhaps move into ship builds I need some smaller ships build that are very tanky
Try centurions or monitors, dedicated defensive frigates.
@@Propietario283 what stations can I find these at?
@@kittenconsumer9960 Independent sell both, Hegemony has centurions and Persean League has monitors. There also is a high-tech omen sold by Tri-Tachyon, but it specializes on pd duty and not tanking.
@@Propietario283 funny you mention I’ve used omens a lot for pd I like them with antimatter and either ion or pd laser
I like running the Paladin on the Executor. To be specific, you basically turn the Executor into a support ship for the faster fleet. Because the Paladin is a point defense weapon, it is a beam that can shoot over ally ships. So you can run a large amount of smaller ships, place them in front of the Executor, and let it support them from the back with Squalls and Paladin shots.
Is this the best build? Certainly not, but it looks really cool.
Rule of cool trumps everything. Sounds like a fun build I'll try it out.
I've found that, if you can spare the slots, tac lasers on the front make great PD. They can effectivly shut down long range missiles and strikecraft, just make sure you have a shorter range net for the few things that can get through
Just a few minutes in and already getting quality explanations for things that aren't super evident to new players like concepts of Soft/Hard Flux. Have been partially floating around aimlessly with weapons despite researching builds for my ships on the wiki/reddit/forums and the like, as well as using (outdated) weapon tier lists, but this video has helped me gain a better understanding of the pros/cons of each weapon as well as their role.
Hopefully we can get Character Skill Tier list video at some point as well, since the other ones are out of date (.95) and the skill tree got some buffs and nerfs, and its not easy for newer players to know what is worthwhile. Might be helpful to have up the In-Game description of each skill from the character skill tree (sorta like how you had up the weapon information on the left side), since the Skill tier video I saw had the person seemingly go by memory which led to more than 1 mistake and forgetting secondary/tertiary effects of some skills.
edit- Props for @16:25 giving guidance on Ion Pulsar that Expanded Magazines is a "must have" with it. It's not readily apparent in game that there is strong synergy with them, but after perusing the wiki on it I see that they do work together. Was uncertain if I would S-Mod it into some future ships using Ion Pulsar like Medusa/Hyperion, but after the rare shoutout from you on a Hullmod synergy, it probably is a safe bet as a staple partner. Same with @18:10 "you will forsure want expanded magazines with this weapon since it will increase your ammunition count significantly" regarding AutoPulse Laser. From the wiki "A full-auto, full-capacity burst from the Autopulse Laser actually fires 38 projectiles (57 projectiles with Expanded Magazines hullmod installed and 65 projectiles with Expanded Magazines hullmod s-modded).".
Its really helpful to give suggestions on hullmods/s-mods that go well with certain weapons/builds, so appreciate it and hope to see more!
Finally energy weapons!!
Well, this is a wery accurate list ,buuut only one personal citic I have the ion pulser , I think is an S tier . When I use it its slaps with an a fair price
12:00 you ever tried putting three phase lances on a so'd Hyperion with the high scatter amplification mod?
Or 2 phase lances on a Medusa
psh. 2 phase lances and the omega phase lance on a fury.
This tier list is far less heretical than the missile list, or perhaps i am merely not as emotionally invested.
You seem to overvalue pressure weapons and undervalue strike damage. And it seems that you favor cruiser+ size ships since you appreciate the ion damage from the beam, but discount the ion cannon.
Where I disagree;
-you did the autolance dirty. It's an energy weapon with fragmentation damage. That's finishing damage. A hit-scan weapon that just waits for shields and armor to be down, and the weapon itself is incredibly flux cheap. And like you said, it melts fighters. Energy weapon kinetic damage is special, as is fragmentation.
-You overvalue the ion and graviton beam. They fall off hard against high tech targets or aggressive brawlers that can close the gap quickly. Perhaps you haven't been overrun by filthy luddites yet, but their hordes of s.o. ships will laugh at your weak beams.
-Ion cannon is great on small ships, and is wonderful when mixed with ir pulses. a scarab with 4 ir and 2 ion cannons will melt and incapacitate many ships.
-placing autopulse with tac laser and LR PD laser and mining blaster is WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG and i won't explain why.
-putting paladin in b tier when you haven't used it is silly. it is okay, but it constantly runs out of charges.
graviton and ion builds are great on eagles and falcons, but they have little use against killing multiple capitals and or cruisers/stations. A supporting falcon firing a graviton and an ion is great, but so is swarming a capital with entropy frigates and torpedoes. The difference is that entropy 50% absolutely stacks over time, vs the ion beam and graviton combo, simply is good at pushing away smaller ships and killing fighters. Mid game vs late game mentality.
I love me some kinetic blasters!
Ion Cannons are easily A or at least B tier. Combine them with other hard flux weapons and they suppress the enemy to keep their shield up or have their stuff knocked out.
Combining IR Pulses with Ions is pretty decent. Lion Guard ships boost the range too.
The gigacannon is a bit like plasma cannon: good in player hands, but ineffective for a fleet. It's even in the lore that this arguably good weapon is a waste because it can't be used to its full potential.
Oh boi the the phase lance. I use it on my wolf frigates.
1Med phase lance
1 Pd laser
2Sabots racks (3 ammo ones)
Built in Stabilised Shields
Built in Flux Distribution
Harden shields
Harden subsystems
Scatter amplifier for the hard flux on the beam
ECCM package for my sabots
The shield flux upkeep and weapon flux are just even with the flux dissipation it’s great. Shields are also taking 0.56 damage so for frigate it’s tanky against sabots and enemy wolfs with lasers.
The phase lance cool-down don’t matter cause wolf teleports around disengaging so it’s runs off the cool-down naturally. In groups it’s real nasty to overload and overwhelming frigates and hitting vulnerable ships in the back for such cheap cost.
I now exclusively run wolfs as my frigates XD. So cost effective. I run 5 of them and they go sniping annoying ships as a…wolf pack… I love it.
My beloved AMBie is only in B tier?!? My player-piloted, quad-AMB Afflictor is so much fun to fly and absolutely wrecks entire fleets. I have to force myself to not use it every single playthrough. 🤣 Also I'm not sure there's a better late game frigate option than a full squad of Omens with one AMB and a Reaper with Missile Autoloader.
I've gained a new appreciation for the IR Autolance when testing them out on the Executor. That ship has such a huge flux dissipation problem that the IR Autolance works perfectly to keep flux usage down until it really needs it. I use 2x HILs and 4x IR Autolances to just melt everything that drops shields (and 2x Grav Beams + Squall to force that to happen). Mixing and matching the 1000 range energy weapons to make pretty light shows is really quite fun!
I agree about the Mining Blaster! I ignored it for so long because I lumped it in with the completely worthless Mining Laser (that is D tier to me...not even worth the 1 OP 😂), but the blaster is really a solid option for a hit-and-run harasser like a Wolf.
Although I disagree on some points, I love stuff like this and the discussion it generates. Fun video!
Reaper with autoloader on the Omen?! That's brilliant. I'm gonna have to try that.
Tachyon lance is so awesome
Phase Lance is **A** tier at LEAST. Possibly even **S** tier for certain types of fleets. One of the most fun weapons in Starsector.
The EMP pulser does zap through shields, it sure doesn't feel too efficient at it compared to striking the actual ship.
Phase Lance -> A tier, burst is best
Heavy Blaster -> C/D tier, to inefficient
Kinetic Blaster -> D tier, to inefficient
Mining Blaster -> D tier, no one ever uses it
mining blaster is great. it strips armor and has charges. shields go down, mining blaster goes to work
You know that phase battleships can equip the gigacannon and then reduce the firing rate to like 2-3 seconds right? That means this is the antimatter "strike" weapon at the large mount level. I would put both weapons into the S and A tiers, simply because of the way phase ships use them.
A tier for tachyon lance? Bruh, do you even play the game? I put 4 of those on my paragons and I can obliterate literally any fleet in the game without issue, and I mean EVERY fleet.
The ion beam weapons are mostly useless, especially against more powerful enemies that will rush forward, at that point, raw dps with a lot of reactive aggression is what wins the day every single time.
It should be S tier.
So should the tactical lasers for being amazingly good at taking out smaller frigates without much of an issue. This is very useful when you run a mostly battleship/cruiser style fleet with very few small ships.
The PD lasers are so darn good as well, they should be A tier, incredible useful against all small enemies and targetable projectiles.
The auto pulse cannon should also be A tier, put 4 of those on one of those Remnant Battleships.... Bruh, they just melt every enemy down in mere seconds, same if you put them on faster ships in general, it's an excellent blitzkrieg style weapon that if used properly will absolutely decimate entire fleets.
what about doing a tier list for ships?
I always hate the Ion Beam, because it is not piercing if you dont inflict hard flux, so it has no synergy with other beam setups, on paragon where you also have kinetic mount it can kinda work, but especialy if you combo it with tactical lasers and gravitons alone it only wastes Flux and achives nothing, especialy becouse even though gravition is very flux efficient, its overall dmg is very low, so even with 5 graviton beams on 1 traget for the max shield dmg increas most capitals can still just passive went you. So you need to either have a fleet of diffrent ship types, (wich i dont like because of roleplay reasons and skilling flexibilety, if i use a diffent ship my skillpoints shoud not go down the drain) or you need 2 of your ships to overload 1 of the enemy. All in all i think gravitons use is only as light support, slowing enemy ships, and even slowing phase ships while they are phased. While Ion Beam is a flexible tec choise that i put on if i have to fight a invicus. IF it woud work with higher soft flux level's as well it woud be at least a bit better in my arrogant opinion. xD But i dont wanna only criticize the rest of the Vidoe is pretty good. :)
ion beam graviton was great... for like early mid game domination with kiting eagles and falcons. Once I went up against capitals, phase ships, and stations, gonna need a lot more... alpha STRIKE and torpedoes and entropy debuffs.
One ion beam destroyer is good enough, just to keep ships from actively venting all the time whe nI am kiting out of range.
ARE YOU BESMIRCHING ANDRADA'S GENIUS?
Mining blaster in c tier 💀💀
Give some respect to the goat weapon of starsector bro
Love me some tac lasers, great for keeping senemy flux high without overfluxing your ship