Weapons
General Considerations
In PvE two major damage types are relevant, Kinetic and Thermal.
Thermal Damage is good against stock shields (aka. the majority of PvE enemies), as these have a weakness to this damage. Thermal Damage is also good against stock hull.
Kinetic Damage is bad against stock shields, as these have good resistances against this damage type. Kinetic Damage performs exceptionally good against stock hull.
=> A mix of the two is great to have, but if only one damage type is chosen thermal is preferable.
If mixing thermal and kinetic weaponry, the kinetic should be put on the larger hardpoints for better armor piercing, and the thermal should be on the smaller hardpoints.
A balance has to be found between DPS output and ammo dependency. High DPS weapons usually don't have much ammo.
The weapon loadout should be designed with the distributor in mind. As a rule of thumb, anything that cannot be sustained on 4 pips to WEP is too heavy for the distributor and will put you at a disadvantage in high pressure situations.
Weapon Mounting
For all weapons, the preferred mounting type is Fixed. Upgrading from a Gimballed weapon to a fixed one comes at a bonus of ~20% to ~50% more damage output, a reduction of ~7% distributor draw and additional ~40% to ~80% total damage per ammo pool, among other minor stat differences. Exact numbers vary across weapon sizes and types. Further, fixed weaponry is immune to chaff and has a micro gimbal effect which snaps to target modules within ~1°.
Fixed mounting can sometimes be unviable, this could be lack of pilot skill (that being said, only way to learn fixed is to use it), bad hardpoint convergence, or mixing weapons of different shot speeds.
Turrets should be avoided. They have bad damage output and slow tracking (so slow that in reality they often end up with less ToT than a gimballed counterpart, assuming any piloting at all is done). All ships in the game handle well enough to subsequently perform better with gimballed and/or fixed.
Identifying Hardpoint Groups
When fitting fixed weaponry with the goal of firing multiple weapons at once, hardpoint convergence becomes very important. Use EDSA to identify such groups. Also keep the above considerations in mind.
Shared Mechanics
Falloff Start: Beyond this range, the actual damage dealt is interpolated between the maximum damage at the falloff start, to zero damage at the weapon's maximum range
Piercing: When striking an enemy hull (shields are unaffected), the actual damage dealt can be reduced by the correlation of the weapons piercing vs. the hull's hardness. If the piercing is smaller than the hull hardness, the damage is reduced by the ratio of the piercing/hardness. Full damage is dealt otherwise.
Magazines: All ammo-fed weapons draw from a magazine (between 1 and 100 rounds). Magazines cannot be reloaded or discarded manually. Magazines are replenished from an ammo pool.
Laser (Pulse, Burst, Beam)
100% Thermal
General
Lasers in general have low damage per unit of distributor energy consumed (Damage Per Energy). The best of the three types here is the Pulse, closely followed by the Burst. This is important, because this means that the pilot will usually get more use out of a pulse or burst than a beam in most configurations, unless running only few or a single laser on a very capable power distributor, as beams have very high distributor draw. Pulse and Burst have a damage falloff start at 500m, Beam at 600m. This is exceptionally short, and forms one of the major drawbacks of laser weaponry, because lasers depend on high ToT.
Ammo Pool
Lasers consume no ammo.
Engineering Modifications
Long Range (Increases maximum range and removes damage falloff completely)
Efficient (Removes thermal and distributor problems)
Engineering Experimentals
Oversized (Increases Damage)
Emissive (Scales with damage, does not stack. Prohibits loss of target lock if target heat drops, and increases gimbal tracking arc)
Phasing (The 10% of default damage lost is applied through shields directly to the hull, in the form of absolute damage)
Thermal Vent (one vent beam - not paired with efficient - is an effective way to stay cool when firing a shield cell bank, if you are hitting an enemy at the same time.
Multicannon
100% Kinetic
General
Mullticannons offer great damage output at very little distributor draw. Furthermore, their projectiles have a high shot speed and a favorable falloff start at 2000m. They depend on high ToT to be effective. Notable is that the large Multicannon has a long spin-up time, making it the worst size in the lineup.
Ammo Pool
Multicannons have a great total damage per ammo pool. Growing bigger in size they become increasingly more ammo efficient.
Engineering Modifications
Overcharged (Most favorable combination of damage output increase and ammo pool increase)
Engineering Experimentals
Incendiary (Converts 90% of the damage dealt to thermal, converting Multicannons into extremely effective weapons against NPC shielding while still being effective against hull)
Corrosive (Does not stack and comes with an ammo pool reduction, so should be either applied to the most ammo efficient weapon mounted, or combined with a High Capacity mod on the smallest Multicannon mounted. It buffs the piercing value of all projectiles hitting a ship subsequently to a hit from that weapon by 20 points, and damage by a further 25%. It is very, very strong)
Auto Loader (Slowly pulls bullets from pool into magazine)
Oversized (Increases Damage)
Emissive (Does not scale, does not stack. prohibits loss of target lock if target heat drops. Preferred on pulse laser, if available)
Cannon
100% Kinetic
General
Cannons offer great damage output at very little distributor draw. However, their projectiles have low shot speeds, and their shot speed is not the same across all sizes. They have effectively no damage dropoff. As a high alpha, low RoF weapon they do not depend on ToT to be effective.
For this weapon type the gimballed variant is especially bad and should be avoided.
Ammo Pool
Cannons have unfavorable total damage per ammo pool. For a given size, a fixed Cannon will have a similar total damage as a gimballed Multicannon.
Engineering Modifications
Overcharged (Most favorable combination of damage output increase and ammo pool increase)
Short Range (Amplifies damage and heat, but reduces range)
Engineering Experimentals
Oversized (Increases Damage)
Dispersal Field (Does not stack and does not scale. Similar to deploying chaff)
Fragment Cannon
100% Kinetic
General
Fragment Cannons offer extreme damage output at very little distributor draw. Further the nature of their shotgun-like spread means that they are only effective at extremely close ranges (~200m and closer, depending on the target size). Due to having a long reload, small magazine and high rate of fire they can not be seen as a ToT dependent weapon. A huge variant of these does not exist.
Ammo Pool
In theory they have very great total damage per ammo pool. However it is very easy to waste shots and they can go through their ammo pool very quickly, which may make it appear otherwise.
Engineering Modifications
Overcharged (Most favorable combination of damage output increase and ammo pool increase)
High Capacity (Slightly higher total damage and slightly higher sustained DPS (full ToT), but significantly longer burst duration)
Engineering Experimentals
Incendiary (Converts 90% of the damage dealt to thermal, converting Fragment Cannons into extremely effective weapons against NPC shielding)
Corrosive (Does not stack and does not scale. Comes with an ammo pool reduction, so should be either applied to the most ammo efficient weapon mounted, or combined with a High Capacity mod on the smallest weapon mounted. It buffs the piercing value of all projectiles hitting a ship subsequently to a hit from that weapon by 20 points, and damage by a further 25%)
Drag Munitions (Slows down target)
Screening Shell (Cuts the reload, +85% sustained ROF)
Railgun
67% Thermal, 33% Kinetic
General
Railguns offer extreme damage output at high distributor draw and heat generation. Their damage falloff starts at 1000m, but since they are a high alpha, low RoF hitscan weapon that is fairly easy to manage. Only exists in small and medium size (however installing on larger hardpoints is very much viable). All sizes have a Piercing value of 100.
Ammo Pool
The total damage per ammo pool is subpar to other weapons of similar size.
Engineering Modifications
Long Range (Increases maximum range and removes damage falloff completely)
Short Range (Amplifies damage and heat, but reduces range)
Engineering Experimentals
Feedback Cascade (Hitting an enemies shield while a shield cell is in spin up reduces MJ restored of that shield cell)
Super Penetrator (Allows damaging multiple modules at once, increases consistency of targeted module damage)
Plasma Slug (Reloads from fuel instead of a damage pool. For railguns this takes 0.022t of fuel per reload, regardless of weapon size and stats. Imperial Hammers require 0.066t per reload!)
Plasma Accelerator
60% Absolute, 20% Thermal, 20% Kinetic
General
Plasma Accelerators offer high damage at high distributor draw and heat generation. They also have very low projectile speed, but a good range and damage falloff start (2000m). They are the only weapon dealing absolute damage, meaning they are not subject to resistance calculations (other than pips). They come in sizes medium and up, and all have a Piercing value of 100.
Ammo Pool
The total ammo pool damage is very good, beating that of multicannons when compared without engineering.
Engineering Modifications
Efficient (Removes thermal and distributor limitations)
Overcharged (Amplifies damage, heat and distributor draw)
Short Range (Amplifies damage and heat, but reduces range)
Engineering Experimentals
Oversized (Increases Damage)
Plasma Slug (Reloads from fuel instead of a damage pool. For plasma accelerators this takes 0.11t of fuel per reload, regardless of weapon size and stats. Advanced Plasma Accelerators require 0.44t that per reload!)
Dispersal Field (Does not stack and does not scale. Similar to deploying chaff)
Phasing (The 10% of default damage lost is applied through shields directly to the hull, in form of absolute damage)
Good Weapon Combinations
Unengineered
Smaller Fixed Pulse/Burst + Larger Gimballed Multicannon
Smaller Fixed Pulse/Burst + Larger Gimballed Fragment Cannon
Smaller Fixed Pulse/Burst + Larger Fixed Cannon
Railgun(s) + Gimballed/Fixed Multicannon (Heat Problematic!)
Railgun(s) + Gimballed Fragment Cannon (and Pacifier) (Heat Problematic!)
Railgun(s) + Fixed Cannon (Heat Problematic!)
Plasma Accelerator(s) + Gimballed/Fixed Multicannon (Heat Problematic!)
Plasma Accelerator(s) + Gimballed Fragment Cannon (and Pacifier) (Heat Problematic!)
Plasma Accelerator(s) + Fixed Cannon (Heat Problematic!)
Any thermal or absolute damage weapon alone (Heat/Distributor Problematic!)
Engineered
Any of the above, with the recommended mods
Just Multicannons all but one with the Incendiary experimental, and one with Corrosive
Long/Short Range Plasma Slug Railguns + Efficient Plasma Slug Plasma Accelerators (May require additional Fuel Tanks!)
A mix of Short and Long range Plasma Slug Railguns (Former for damage, latter for use at range)
Other Weapons
Guardian and Anti Xeno Weaponry: Ineffective against human ships
Shock Cannons: Very fun, but can’t be engineered and very small ammo pool
Mines, Torps: Useless in PvE
Seekers/Dumbfires: With the exception of the powerplay-locked Packhound missiles, useless