(November 6th, 2014, 12:49)T-hawk Wrote: Ion weapons are a trap. They feel all complicated and skill-testing so you feel clever in making them work. But there is no upside ceiling there, no reward for playing the skill properly. Anything ions can do, burst lasers can do just as well and more reliably and much faster.
Thank you for posting this! I've had the same feeling ever since I started playing FTL, only I kept reading all those posts in the FTL forums about how ion weapons were so awesome, including a bunch of people claiming that Engi A was one of the best two or three ships in the game. I've been doubting myself for the longest time, thinking that I was missing something here about the ion weapons. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one thinking that lots of lasers are generally the best way to go.
I also think that the Kestrel A is one of the better ships in the game, largely because of the Burst II Laser. The default starting ship tends to get overlooked because people are tired of using it by the time they have everything unlocked. Tier lists like this one that grant all of the highest spots to boarding and ion ships have never made much sense to me. I just roll my eyes at anyone who sees the Kestrel B as the 10th best ship in the game, or has Lanius B as the 17th best ship (WTF!?)