Special-Effect Weapons

[jzpops]

TOS:WS has quite a few new weapons I call, for lack of a better phrase, "special effect" weapons: neutron beams, vibra-claws, black ray guns, napalm missiles, and the like.

Among these (and many others) what do you consider to be the most effective ones?

I tend to eschew special effects for brute smashing power, although I'm considering vibra-claws and napalm missiles for future jocks and titans.

And particular likes/dislikes?

PS While I don't use them, I hate to see neutron beams when I don't have shields!

[LarkinVB]

I really like the EM pulser. Its small, light and can have nice effects like engine shutdown or move skill checks. Last battle I was facing an enemy with shield6. Since EMP have less penalties against shields I did score a nice hit on the shield generator, taking it down to allow my large laser and plasma to score too. Of course lots of EMP hits have little or no effect at all. Its a gamblers weapon.

[Rebel Yell]

I also love the EM-P. The BRG is awesome, too. You have to love free knockdowns with excellent damage to boot.

I do not like the Light Meson Gun, thusfar. While the weapon stat page lists that they have a 40% chance to cause an internal, my cannon jock has horrible luck with causing anything other than the occasional popgun damage they do.

[LarkinVB]

I do not like the Light Meson Gun, thusfar. While the weapon stat page lists that they have a 40% chance to cause an internal, my cannon jock has horrible luck with causing anything other than the occasional popgun damage they do.

Don't forget that it does 2 points external + 2 points internal damage ! Combined with some nice critical hits it can be very effective. Again its a gamblers weapon. My favorite assault now has

1 x AC12
1 x Gauss
1 x Plasma
1 x Large laser
1 x Light meson
1 x EMP

Its a VERY effective design as it can lay smoke, light woods and do decent damage at medium to short range. Spiced up with special effects from the meson and the EMP it can take on nearly any opposition. There are titans with more firepower but it also features decent armor and Shield6 + DCS5. My hero can handle it well too .

[Coyote27]

Mesons can be very very nasty if you have lots of 'em. I've been on the wrong end of them too many times to believe otherwise. They work great for trying to bring down a big titan with many little ones, since you don't have to carve past 50 to 70 points of armor to do any damage.

I also like neutron blasters in twos and threes. Whee!