This is not a recommendation for a specific weapon but a general look at the various types of energy weapons currently in the game. For each type, I've assigned a category in which they excel; most are self-evident while others may be debatable.

Charged Cannon: Burst damage
Flechette Cannon: Spread
Gauss Cannon: Targeting
Ion Blaster: Mass
Neutron Blaster: Damage per second
Phase Blaster: (Damage per Energy?)
Plasma Cannon: (Range?)
Positron Blaster: Velocity

Thinking ahead, it might be worthwhile to design new weapons with these characteristics in mind while normalizing other weapon stats so that each type of weapon offers a real choice at the high-end. Currently, the only weapon type which could do with some love are the Phase Blaster (emphasizing energy efficiency) and the Plasma Cannon (emphasizing range) but new weapons are being proposed all the time so I thought this was worth mentioning now.

Anyway, this is just a quick idea I had so I'm throwing it out for comments. Also, I skipped the large port energy weapons since there are fewer of them and each already pretty clearly has its own niche.

EDIT: Changed the list to just weapon type instead of best-weapon-of-that-type to avoid confusion.

IIRC HX have highest DPE of small weapons.
For Gauss you could add damage per hit. Of course rails are even better there, but limited by ammo.

Yes, the HX does have the best D/E but it also has the longest range of all the listed weapons (I'm pretty sure) so I assigned it range which left D/E for Phase Blasters. Ignoring the MegaPosi, Phase Blasters like the Orion XX and the Sparrow have the next best D/E rating so it still works out if you consider the HX's D/E rating as anomalous (which it is when compared to other Plasma Cannons).

The categories are more for future development than an attempt to change current weapons so a Plasma Cannon MkIV (or whatever) would be designed around it having good range and the next generation of Phase Blaster would emphasize D/E.

The HX has the best DPE of any weapon, actually, just edging ahead of the MegaPosi. Of course, its limited shot speed and fire rate tend to be major drawbacks. [EDIT: Beaten to it]

Each type of weapon has a certain niche, although many fill two. Both Ravens and Sparrows fill the "low mass" category, for instance, but Ravens go for DPS while Sparrows are designed for energy-efficiency. Both Gauss and Positrons have good auto-aim, but Gauss goes more heavily into burst-damage while the the Posi acts more like a beefy neutron blaster (especially the AAP variant).

At the end of the day, its "Low Mass, Low Energy, High Damage, High Shot-Speed, Good Targeting: Pick any two."

Ummm, it has best DPE, how do you figure that that isn't what it's good at?
You wrote 'category in which they excel', btw.
If you want S port high DPE weapon you take HX, that's just how it is.
Tho yes if you extrapolate next variant of phase blaster then it'd likely end up with good DPE as well.

And what do you mean by range?
Effective range is related to velocity really (and maybe in a way to low repeat rate?).
So if any of those can be said to be good at it it's posis/neuts (and of course rails).
Defintely not phase blasters.

Gauss has better auto aim then Posis.

At any rate i think such categorisation is bit limited and somewhat forced.

maq: "... more for future development... " Think in terms of weapon *type* and not individual weapons.

And for whatever reason, the HX hits from 800m plus while all other energy weapons have a range <500m. I suspect range *is* partially dependent on velocity but the HX is anomalous in this regard as well.

The basic idea is that since each type of weapon is based on a different technology (flechette, ion, gauss, etc.) they would each have a particular performance advantage. Entirely possible for individual weapons to be good at multiple things, though.

I mean *effective* range. You won't hit anyone from 800m in combat.

As for the differnt advantage, that's not so bad but giving each weapon just one characteristic doesn't describe it entirely.
For example Neuts and Posis have comparable velocities.
If i was to categorize them i'd say they are both medium weight and difference is in that neuts have lower damage/higher repeat rate, posis the other way around.

HX works well against cap ships mostly because of its range.

The idea is to give weapons a little more differentiation and personality in order to provide players with a more varied choice of weapons to suit individual playing styles or roles.

Not to say that there isn't a de facto difference in performance between weapons now; just trying to provide a conceptual framework for the differences.

Really?
The reason I know for using it against capships is high DPE which is useful against shields.

I think the main utility of the neutron blaster is its high rate of fire, combined with relatively low energy use. The damage could be reduced and it would still see as much use in PVP.

High rate of fire is useless. Would you rather have a gun that fires 10 times a second for 1,000 damage, or once every second for 10,000 damage? The utility of the Neutron blaster is that it's fast, highly damaging, terribly efficient, and light.

Flechettes don't have spread; they just fire randomly. It would be lovely if they did have spread, but they are merely inconsistent ion blasters.

High rate of fire useless? heh.
Then why do people use chainfire?
Personally i prefer more damage and lower ROF, is why i use Gauss.
But energy spam is quite effective, as it's harder do dodge then single shot.
Neutron isn't that energy efficient (but not bad either), it does have very high DPS tho, that and high ROF is why it's so effective.

People use chain fire because it sounds cool; it's a novelty. Have you ever created a chain fire plugin? The *only* way to do so is to implement a "wait" command. This means that when you press your trigger, part of your guns are not shooting. Some defined amount of your weapons are doing absolutely nothing. Not firing guns do no damage. Chain firing gives you less DPS. Not chain firing gives you more DPS. A quad rail hornet deals 10,000 damage inside 1 second. A quad neutron hornet deals 21,600 damage inside 1 second. A quad rail hornet deals 10,000 damage inside 0.1 second. A quad neutron hornet deals 2,400 damage inside 0.1 second.

Now tell me maq, which situation is more likely to happen in combat; 1) You are shooting an enemy, and manage to get your crosshairs on them for just an small instant of a second. 2) You are shooting an enemy, and manage to get your crosshairs on them for an entire second, nailing each and every shot without fail.

Are you beginning to understand why, preserving DPS, it is better to have your shots condensed in a tight ball, as opposed to having them forcefully strong out in a long line?

Neutron IIs are the 4th most energy efficient weapon in the game.

No it doesn't reduce DPS.
It's not a novelty either.
What it does is make your weapons not fire at the same time but alternately, which makes it so that instead of two weapons firing at once it's as if you had one weapon firing twice as often.
DPS stays the same.
The benefit is more continous stream of fire, which can be harder to evade.

Now, as for high refire rate versus high damage per shot.
You may get your enemy in your sight for a fraction of a second, and if you hit, great, but if you miss that's that.
Now spread that among many shots, around your target, sure most will miss but by possibly pure chance some will hit.
Also he'll have to keep dodging all the time, instead of only when you shoot.
Spray 'n pray >.>

And as i said, i use gauss, i personally prefer less shots, higher damage. But i understand that either can work.

Both approaches have their benefit.

This is like, 6th grade math dude... get out your graphing paper if you don't believe me.

'Dude', you are wrong.

Consider firing two weapons at once.
It's same as if you were firing one weapon that did twice the damage, yes?
Now chainfire them, one fires, after time equal to half the refire rate you fire second gun, the first gun fires when it would otherwise etc.
So now it's as if instead of two guns you had one but with twice as high refire rate.

In both cases DPS is the same.

Delay is only at the *beginning* when you delay starting firing of one weapon. After that, no wait.

The utility of a high rate of fire is to increase the probability of a hit when an opponent is dodging effectively. It can be useful to chainfire for this reason even when using a pair of weapons with different fire rates - reducing the DPS, but increasing the probability of a hit.

Am I the only one who noticed that rockets and missiles are not included? Or do people not use those anymore.

I use them moldy.

And for last time, chainfire does not alter DPS.

It would almost be easier to list the really bad weapons, than to try to list all the good ones. Since I am not an expert on all weapons, I will try to limit myself to a few comments.

I find that the Plasma HX is one of the most underestimated weapons in the game. It certainly does not fill every niche, but it fills niches that few other weapons can compete with.

The HX Damage per energy (D/E or DPE) is in a category by itself in small port weapons, being about %20 more power efficient than any other small port weapon. It is the only weapon that will convert 300 energy to 20k+ damage. Moth hunters should know the significance of this statement. This kind of efficiency lends itself well to newbs leveling combat on collectors, where the limiting factor is all to often not how much damage can your weapon do, but how much energy can you feed to your weapons.

Someone in this thread claimed that you will not hit anyone at 800m+ with an HX. This is not true. I have hit runners at close to 1k range with HX. It forces a runner to choose between holding turbo or dodging. Forcing a runner to tab off turbo repeatedly can be a big deal in the right circumstances.

I learned from Echa how to bust a queen's shields using a hx/megaposi rag. This is the only all energy ship I know of that can accomplish this. It also has the advantage that the HX can reach beyond the blast radius of the queen, letting you deal that killing shot without suffering the queen's explosion.

Many weapons have a niche, and the point is knowing what those niches are.