Lasers

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Amarr battleship firing lasers

Lasers are a turret group favored by the Amarrian race, and consequently are used by the Amattar Faction and to a lesser extent the Khanid Faction, though the latter prefer missiles. Several pirate factions are know to use lasers including: Sanshas Nation and The Blood Raider Convenant.

Lasers are Energy Weapons and are devided into two categories: Short range Pulse lasers, and longer range Beam lasers. All laser weapons use Frequency Crystals to alter range and damage. Unlike the ammunition types of other weapons standard Tech I Frequency Crystals never expire and can be used indefinitely. The more advanced Faction Crystals and Tech II Pulse and Beam Crystals eventually break down.

Tactical Information

Lasers are considered mid range weaponry and have ranges to reflect this. Beam Lasers have a shorter range than their sniping Rail Gun counterparts but do, as a whole, more damage. Tachyon Beams Lasers are considered brutally devastating sniper weapons. Like all tactical choices in Eve Online there are advantages and disadvantages to using Lasers:-

Pros

1) Tech 1 crystal fitted lasers never run out of ammo and are therefore ideal for deep space bounty hunting and raiding, far away from supply lines.

2) Even though tech 2 and faction crystals suffer from degradation from use, these crystals still outlast the ammo of other weaponry.

3) Lasers can swap their ammunition crystals fast, effectively bypassing the 10 second timer that plagues other weapon types. This allows for laser users to quickly range on opponents.

Cons

1) Laser damage is set to EM and Thermal damage types and is therefore predictable.

2) Lasers essentially use a ships capacitor as ammo, this means lasers will tend to drain a ships capacitor faster unless preventative measures are taken. This is somewhat negated by the fact that Amarr combat ships have a bonus to energy weapon capacitor usage and naturally large capacitor storage. For this reason it is extremely unwise to fit lasers on any ship other than amarrian ones.

3) Due to high capacitor usage Laser boats are more vulnerable to being energy neutralized and have difficulty running a micro warp drive without the skills to back it up.