It's not that I underestimate beams, it's that we both think they're good and so I didn't fixate on them much (in particular halberd is an easy top 5 weapon for me, maybe top 3). I like most beams in general, though glaive brings back bad memories of stealth B.
There's actually trick you might not know about beams, which makes halberd even more disgusting. https://www.reddit.com/r/ftlgame/comment...ky_swipes/
That said, I like to have enough targeted system damage to break RFS missiles. Most 1 damage beams make that awkward, but with halberd you only need to hit 1 more damage in phase 1 and 2. Halberd also makes me willing to hack shields over evasion, because you can then halberd beam piloting or engines (preferably piloting) towards weapons before dumping your entire remaining volley on weapons vs a target with damaged/no evasion.
Other beams are good but less so, because they either charge slowly or don't do as much targeted system damage as I'd like. Pike for example needs the linked trick to do more than 1 damage to enemy weapon systems; with a different weapon I'm more likely to completely shut down opposing offense earlier, even if the ship dies later as a result. For most encounters I'll take that trade, especially because other than minibeam most beams typically slow down volley slightly too.
I use them more than ion-heavy builds. Ships that start with a beam tend to end the game with that same beam, and I only rarely sell them (most typically a late glaive drop when I've already got a game-winning build that's faster).
The real "gimmick" is missiles. So many liabilities. They didn't even have the decency to give Rock A explosive replicator
.
There's actually trick you might not know about beams, which makes halberd even more disgusting. https://www.reddit.com/r/ftlgame/comment...ky_swipes/
That said, I like to have enough targeted system damage to break RFS missiles. Most 1 damage beams make that awkward, but with halberd you only need to hit 1 more damage in phase 1 and 2. Halberd also makes me willing to hack shields over evasion, because you can then halberd beam piloting or engines (preferably piloting) towards weapons before dumping your entire remaining volley on weapons vs a target with damaged/no evasion.
Other beams are good but less so, because they either charge slowly or don't do as much targeted system damage as I'd like. Pike for example needs the linked trick to do more than 1 damage to enemy weapon systems; with a different weapon I'm more likely to completely shut down opposing offense earlier, even if the ship dies later as a result. For most encounters I'll take that trade, especially because other than minibeam most beams typically slow down volley slightly too.
I use them more than ion-heavy builds. Ships that start with a beam tend to end the game with that same beam, and I only rarely sell them (most typically a late glaive drop when I've already got a game-winning build that's faster).
The real "gimmick" is missiles. So many liabilities. They didn't even have the decency to give Rock A explosive replicator
.