Black Prophecy Energy Weapons Review

Black Prophecy Energy Weapons Review by Booyaah

So to start off my main fighter is a mid 20s mech user and I decided it would be fun to roll a Genide and try out all those flashy looking energy weapons. Got him up to 12 in one night, played him for another day all while going through several different weapon configurations playing with the mechanics, range, etc to see what I liked. My main point is that I was sadly disappointed with the mid/long range energy weapon selection.

So let’s start with the good:

Plasma Flamethrower
Ahh yes, this weapon smashes faces. Great consistent damage and doesn’t even really require targeting. It would be nice if it had a little more range but pretty well designed for a short range weapon. This is probably energy’s only saving grace in my book.

Now the bad and the ugly:

Particle Beam
Tried this weapon out pretty quickly, love the mechanics, good range, speed and damage. But aww 3.6 mass for a single one? I was getting out turned by basically every NPC and couldn’t figure out a way to even stay under 17 mass even with lvl 1 wings and no shield. Probably the one energy weapon I really still have high hopes for and still consider using despite the bulk.

Plasma Gun
Okay so this weapon has mediocre/okay damage and range I guess. The projectile speed is a little bit slow for my taste but overall nothing too bad. Now a look at the mass, 2.2 for a light weapon? Even with two of these you are pushing more weight than the guy using one pbeam with an inferior weapon in my opinion.

Fusion Gun
On paper this looked exactly like the type of mid range weapon I was looking for. Nice range, damage, and nice weight coming it from 1.2-1.8 mass for a heavy weapon. Plus having the ability to charge up a super destructive type shot, great I thought!

I get into combat with one of these things on and I notice it’s a little hard to aim. Then the deal breaker, the projectile speed seems too slow as in even if you exactly shoot exactly in the cross hairs, by the time the projectile hits, if the enemy changes their direction at all this thing will completely miss. On top of that, I’m guessing the listed damage is for a fully charged shot because it did not seem to be doing the type of damage that was advertised with non charged shots. Shucks another dud.

Pulse Laser
Okay I don’t think the mechanics of this weapon are too bad. It feels like a slightly longer version of a chain gun. But is it just me or did the person who designed this weapon put the decimal in the wrong place for the damage. The damage just seems so shoddy when everything else with the weapon range and weight seems right. Everyone I talked to seem to share my general feelings about it’s damage output.

Lightning Gun
I honestly didn’t try this one out but…no hull damage at all? I guess the day they lower shields to 1 mass this might be one of the best weapons in the game but as of right now I don’t see any point in using one.

Rail Gun
Energy’s version of the sniper gun. Didn’t try this out either but I did give sniper guns a decent try on my mech user. I’m assuming there’s no scope and it overheats quickly. These are more of a fundamental problem with the way these weapons were designed, not to mention they aren’t the lightest things in the world either.

Just to be clear I’m not flaming anyone who uses energy weapons but they overall just seem kind of inferior to mech weapons and don’t give you the amount of flexibility you can get out of mechs (such as mixing scatters/chain/magnum/vulcans/etc) for the amount of weight they have. I would imagine doing pvp as an energy user without going crazy on flamethrowers would be a pain as well. I probably don’t have near enough experience with them yet, but for now I guess I’m glad I chose to be a mech noob first.

Alright, I’m done..flame away