If having the max engine rating isn't your top priority, I prefer this build. It has energy range quirks, which is always good for Pulse Lasers, it does more damage than the regular MLas plus a shorter laser duration. But the optimal weapon range is slightly shorter than regular Medium Lasers. Good heat too. Higher Sustained DPS, and Max DPS than the other "lasers of the same variety" builds, EXCEPT 5x SPLas has more Sustained DPS, yet still less Max DPS. Although, The alpha of 5x SPLas is 50% less damage (but having a shorter cooldown of 0.75 seconds, which isn't enough to convince me), so you have to connect more shots, meaning you must be exposed longer to do the same damage. I like to use Pulse lasers on the WLF-1 (for the laser range), and think regular medium lasers are more suited to the -1A (for the laser duration quirks) which can also hold a 6th laser, giving both variants an alpha of 30 damage, with a more rounded comparison of range and laser duration. As I'm typing this, it's becoming very clear to me that I'm a fan of finding a balance... If you want firepower over speed, this is the way to go. Even with the XL 280 this still goes 139.3 KPH (with speed tweak after the skills nerf... grr), which is fast enough for me
Max Engine is really what makes this variant special though, maybe a compromise between the efficiency of SPL and the damage of MPL? or if you want all MPL: now with a little extra umph and less cooling:
Those are all some pretty good looking builds! I agree, it does feels kind of wasteful to not use max engine on this variant, but in all honesty, the real reason I use this build is because I just don't own an XL315 yet haha. I would get one but its just a lot of C-Bills for only one variant. I'd get one if I had more load-outs to use it with. All things considered, I'm still confident that this can still perform quite effectively
Fair enough, I have the C-Bill problem as well You can always replace the XL320 which is being used in some builds with the XL315 and put some leftover tonnage in an extra heatsink, extra ammo, whatever. I think some cicada's will also be able to use it though the XL340 is more common.