Burst Laser Mk3

[GoldenShadowGS]

You know whats OP? when you are in the first beacon in sector 3. Playing as the Mantis Ship A fighting a Zoltan shielded ship with a missile launcher and a Mk3 Burst Laser. What kind of crap is this? Theres no way to win against that this early in the game. I spent all of my money on boarding. Had a pretty good crew going. 4 Mantis and 2 Engies.
Small bomb, laser, fire bomb, only had 1 weapon power slot though. Level 3 teleport, level 1 shield, drone system with defense drone. I was all set against early game enemies. Anything I couldn't board I was going to run from. Well Here comes this jerk with a 5 shot laser and cripples me in the first volley. Lost the weapons, drones and shields in the first volley. Only 2 points in engines, I was trying to either escape of shoot the basic laser slowly to wittle down the zoltan shield so I could board. There was no time. The 5 laser volleys are way to overpowered this early in the game. Even if I put my money into shields. 2 shields is still no match for 5 lasers. Or 60 scrap for a 2nd weapon bar is stupid too, especially when the 3rd one is 25 or 35.

Why is an enemy using Burst 3 so early. It was impossible to win. I was dead before my FTL was even charged.

[UltraMantis]

Why didnt you recharge your FTL? You know what the game can be like. If you spend scrap on engines and reactor the worst thing that can happen is that you lack firepower against a few ships and have to flee. But you will earn some eventually and upgrade your offense.

Meanwhile you are safe(r) from evil encounters. Besides any Zoltan encounter is gonna suck when paying The Gila Monster and especially the Basilisk. Run!

Oh and OT, the Burst MkIII sucks more than any other weapon. Too much time and power that can be denied by even modest evasion. To get two hits maybe on a decently mobile enemy is not worth the price at all. I only used it when i had nothing else and you can get some use out of anything if you are forced, by it's definetly not my fav weapon (except when selling it).

[peke]

BL3 is also only laser weapon without fire or breach chance. Not that the other ones have big chances either, but fire enough shots and you'll eventually light something up or poke a hole somewhere.

[UberFubarius]

In the case of the Burst Laser 3, there's two things going on here. First is that the BL2 is a ridiculously good weapon, and it's expected that the BL3 should be better (after all, 3 is bigger than 2!). Secondly though is that the BL3's increased offensive output comes with some major caveats (4 power requirement and a huge charge time). It's a rare game where, if you had a choice and weren't intentionally trying to make the game harder on yourself, you wouldn't rather take something other than the BL3. That's what makes it unbalanced.

Actually I would take BL2 rather than BL3 for quite a few cases, for the exact reason you stated (4 power requirement and huge charge time).
With BL2, I got enough power to spare to power other weapon (+1 power to power an ion 2, for example). Furthermore, against weaker opponent, I don't have to wait for my weapon to charge for that long before I can disable/cripple their weapons first (or shield, or helm).

Now, if I have a weapon pre-ignitor and weapon slot to spare, I would stock a BL3 or a Glaive. Use them as my opening salvo and maybe switch to a different weapon depending on situation.

[Magnianhk]

I don't run with a BL Mk3 unless I have a Mk1 or 2 to accompany it. The charge time makes it out of the question to run solo, and it's too inefficient to run two of them.

I think the BL Mk2 is probably one of the best weapons in the game, if we're talking energy per damage output, and it is also a starting weapon for a couple ships. The thing about lasers is that they are always good, and having two or three of them means you are going to do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. Missiles do great damage but can get shot down, plus they use ammo; unless you have a Pegasus against the last boss (thinking phase 3) you are not getting past that defense drone. Ion weapons require other weapons to combo with them. Sure, the Ion Burst Mk2 charges quickly and you can tank shields with it, but you still need something to back it up, like a beam weapon to do damage to multiple systems, AND Ion weapons require timing your combos. Lasers can get shot down too, like missiles, but the fact that they fire so many shots is what makes them good.

The best defense is a good offense, as they say, and having a Burst Laser Mk1, 2, 2or3, coupled with say, fire bombs, pretty much gets the job done every time. Every volley you will be doing damage. The Mk3 just doesn't charge fast enough to assure late-game shield pen. It's a supplementary weapon, and you usually run with it only if you are going with a laser strategy.

[Galdred]

The only time I was satisfied with the Burst 3 was when running the stealth B, as its CD is still shorter than the glaive, it allows you to strip shields until the last sector to one shot or 2 shot most enemy ships. I find it more reliable than an ion bomb to strip shield, and it doesn't prevent the cloak from running.

The reason I used the MK3 was because I didn't find any other suitable laser weapon, but even then, I'd rather have glaive + Mk3 + any bomb (in case the weapon room takes damage) than glaive + 2*mk2

[Kenshkrix]

The only time I was satisfied with the Burst 3 was when running the stealth B, as its CD is still shorter than the glaive, it allows you to strip shields until the last sector to one shot or 2 shot most enemy ships. I find it more reliable than an ion bomb to strip shield, and it doesn't prevent the cloak from running.

The reason I used the MK3 was because I didn't find any other suitable laser weapon, but even then, I'd rather have glaive + Mk3 + any bomb (in case the weapon room takes damage) than glaive + 2*mk2

Glaive and Mk3 both take 4 energy, you can't have a bomb equipped at the same time. I'd much rather have Glaive+2 Mk2 personally, because you get more shots, chance of fire, and still have a gun if you take damage.

[Galdred]

You cannot use the bomb at the same time indeed, but it is only there to have something to supplement the glaive if the weapon room takes damage (it can sustain 3 damages before going offline).

Anyway, I've just thought of another advantage of dual mk2 : they take a little less time to shoot, so you don't have to wait as long after going out of cloaking to fire the glaive, so you're right, even in this situation 2 mk2 are better.

[UltraMantis]

BL3 is also only laser weapon without fire or breach chance. Not that the other ones have big chances either, but fire enough shots and you'll eventually light something up or poke a hole somewhere.

And hear that delightfull woosh of a hull breach. hehehe

[StarWarsOZ]

BL3 is also only laser weapon without fire or breach chance. Not that the other ones have big chances either, but fire enough shots and you'll eventually light something up or poke a hole somewhere.

And hear that delightfull woosh of a hull breach. hehehe

I think u enjoy suffocating people to much, from your name I thought u would enjoy cutting people in half more.
But hey, each to his own, i prefer to just BURN EVERYTHING

But hull breaches are such a pain to deal with, shame u can't get the slug repair gel in shops.