Originally by: Patch86

---

To sum up- Blasters do more damage (.5x) and use (1.8, woop) less cap, but pulses have double the range?

And what other advantages do lasers have? One biggy- no ammo. Now apart from the obvious advantage of, thusly, never running out of ammo, and having more room free to hold other things, such as Cap Charges (try cramming in all those cap charges ASWELL as a 3000 stack of ammo), they have a bigger advantage- they can fight at all ranges. Take Mr. Blaster pilot- he carries about 3000 of each ammo type he wishes to use (about 300m3, or a little under half of a Megathron cargo hold). Assuming he also wants to carry something else, like Cap Charges, thats his entire hold full. This means that, before the battle has ever been thought up, he has to pick his ammo type (his range / damage ratio). Mr. Mega Pulse pilot has 8 turrets- he needs to fit these with Large Crystals. He decides to pack all 8 types of basic ammunition (64m3, or about 1 11th of his total cargo hold), ensuring that, whatever the battle, he can pick the best range for it. In order for him to switch range from a 30km fight to a 15km, he simply has to click that button and wait the time it takes to load his guns. This is good.

And don't forget, EM is a shield tankers worst nightmare. True armour tankers can eat it for breakfast, but it makes a decent anti-caldari platform, and minmatars have enough shield tankers to cause them headaches too.

So lasers don't wtfpwn Blasters in damage- they're not meant to. Blasters have to deal with crippling range (particularly with the smaller sizes) in order to keep that damage. So up laser damage to match- are you going to lower the range too, to balance it? And then switch the EM bonus for a kinetic one?

Alternatively you could just use blasters..........

---