Thermal Vent Beam Lasers Tested and Fully Explained

In this in depth analysis we look at the thermal vent experimental effect for beam lasers. We test with each of the six blueprints, Short Range Blaster, Overcharged, Lightweight, Long Range, Sturdy and Efficient to show which blueprints are a better match for venting heat, using with silent running and when used in combat. Thermal Vent is an experimental effect that transfers the heat from your ship into your target, so long as you are striking the target. This is best used in conjunction with high heat weapons or builds with modules such as shield cell banks and may eliminate the need for heat sinks.
TL;DR - Efficient paired with thermal vent is the lest effective at venting heat as the amount of heat generated by the weapon determining the power of the thermal venting effect.
Special thanks to CMDR xxCementxx for allowing me to blast at him repeatedly to producing the testing for this video.
Krait Mark II Three Ways (build guide)
• Ship Builds: Krait Mar...
Hardpoint Blueprints: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprints/
Efficient: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/170/
Lightweight: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/99/
Long Range: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/84/
Overcharged: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/171/
Short Range Blaster: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/85/
Sturdy: inara.cz/galaxy-blueprint/86/
Beam Laser on the Elite Wiki
elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wi...
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Artist: Miguel Johnson
Album: Revelation
Track: Hunted
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[@PetesCreativeRecycling]

Several of us were telling D2EA not to run Efficient with Thermal Vent on his stream yesterday. Thanks for backing us up! :D

[@Exigeous]

Yep, this has been known in the PvP community for a very very long time. I was arguing with a novice pilot about it a few days ago and thought I'd finally put some data to it and end this pointless debate once and for all. It really makes very little sense to use efficient with thermal vent, period.

[@keyloh9386]

@@Exigeous Really? I use it on my Conda with two beams on the underside in the class 4 and 3 slots with efficient and thermal vent to keep me cool from my two class 3 overcharged autoloader multis, two class 2 long range super penetrator rails, and lastly my high cap seeker missile pods in the class 1 slots.

[@coolhwhip49]

​@@keyloh9386It depends on how you're using it. It can work if you're using a very beam-heavy loadout as your primary source of DPS and you're really good at keeping your target in dry humping distance since beams see damage falloff at really short ranges. However, most people use TV beams as a utility weapon to cool their ship, which is what you're saying you're doing with them. In this case Efficient + TV is not a good option because Efficient is by far the worst modification for a TV beam as it has the slowest cooling rate of them all. The proof is all right here in this video. If you're trying to cool your ship, you'd be much better off using a different modification on your laser. Personally, I prefer long range because it also extends the damage falloff range from 500m to 6km, which makes them much more reliable for dealing damage while simultaneously cooling my ship.

[@lukedudley5030]

@@coolhwhip49 I use it to off set shield cell bank heat with efficient huge lasers on Corvette....it works very well when using it this way :-)

[@coolhwhip49]

@Luke Dudley If you're using it for cooling your ship, Efficient is actually the worst option. The only reason it works "well" is because pretty much any beam with TV can offset that heat gain. It's actually not working “very well” compared to the other options. It's just working well enough. That being said, if you’re only doing regular PvE I wouldn’t bother changing it. Sure, it could be better, but IMO it’s too much hassle considering what you have works.

[@FlyLeah]

I like how during the testing phase 2:11 the beams kinda matched the music rythm

[@lunokhod3937]

its just too satisfying to watch the canopy freeze over as you fire 4 vent lasers at an enemy

[@mcarpen89]

Multiple efficient thermal vents make an excellent primary weapon. They can fire for a very long time without running out of cap charge and the heat dissipation effect stacks so you get a nice balance of damage and cooling. My Krait has 3 vent beams and 2 rails.

[@Exigeous]

NOTE About STACKING thermal vent: As I'm getting this comment/question a lot - YES, the effect stacks when you run more than 1 thermal vent beam, absolutely. So yes, this can help efficient to vent your heat to 0% - however in most all cases you are better off using something other than efficient if you're primarily using the effect to vent heat from a hot weapon build. If you're only using it to vent heat from something like cell banks that can be effective, but if you're using it to run hot weapons literally any other blueprint is a better choice with Lightweight offering a very similar distributor decrease while venting heat much better.

[@TheXenogaDynamic]

Since stacking increases the amount vented would it be possible to stack enough to actually reduce silent running heat gain?

[@Maktumekal_Ilzrei]

How does weapon class effect the venting? Does a huge weapon vent faster than a tiny one?

[@armenpetrosyan6000]

I use 2 large beams with vent it does not drop under %2

[@N5ON207]

Bit old, but just wanted to add since my build is an odd case. I run Overcharged Incendiary Multis (plus one corrosive), and my build actually cools better with efficient thermal vents vs overcharged, because the heat generated is also based on how much charge the capacitor has left (more heat when low). Keeping the capacitor full seems to be more beneficial to keeping cool than having the beams venting more, at least for some builds. So it's not a cut and dry "efficient is always the worst option for thermal vent", as their are scenarios where it makes the difference between whether capacitor drain is greater than its recharge rate.

[@macmusica]

I was extremely surprised when I used 3 Thermal Vented Beams (2 Overcharged, 1 Long range) in my Conda. You missed a vital point that these all STACK and I get my to 0% in 3secs!!! You missed another vital point that once you are below 24% Heat you go OFF RADAR thus can not be GIMBAL LOCKED!!! (not so proven against NPC as FD are bloody crap) You should NOT need SILENT RUNNING OBVIOUSLY!!! i.e. NON OF THIS SHIT MATTERS ONCE YOU JUST NEED TO KEEP YOU SHIP FROM OVERHEATING - THAT'S ALL o7

[@MichaelThomas-be7gq]

Great point, this is what I do on my PvP Conda build.

[@Bitgedon]

This is why AX fighting always recommends a beam laser, stay off the goid radar while pushing heat into their ship

[@68Snaps]

I use Thermal Vent Beam lasers in all my builds. (will switch from efficient to short range/overcharged for sure). It simply replaces heatsinks and allows easy use of plasmas, railguns, and even shock cannons in small ships such as my vulture. It's invaluable just for that. I also have a Krait with 2 medium vent beams and 3 large frags (rapide fire + screening shell) that takes down condas in 10 seconds. It's a devastating combo.

[@krieger2713]

Thanks! Great timing. I was about to engineer a thermal vent beam to cool my AX Krait's Gauss Cannons.

[@zombi303]

Excellent - this gave me exactly the info I needed rather guessing my way through my new build. Good job.

[@lunokhod3937]

I run 4 efficent thermal vent beams on my fer-de-lance and i can easily get down to 0% after a few seconds of concentrated fire. The effect stacks really well even with efficient beams. This way I can slip off radar at medium range all while having a near infinite fire duration due to the efficent beams.

[@brianlam5847]

Use lightweight for the distro draw decrease, or overcharged if you good

[@jonasreimerson1040]

Bigups respect for your work in testing things in Elite!

[@mikedimimd]

Best ED vids on KZbin

[@MichaelThomas-be7gq]

For PvE in my Conda, I'm using a Class 4 Gimballed Beam with G5 Efficient with Thermal Vent. Alongside, two Overcharged C2 Turreted Bursts. I run it for power management, I only need two pips on WEP with a G5 Fast Recharge Distributor and they can fire for over a minute. It's all about the DPS to take down shields before I hit with 3 x C3 + 2 x C1 G5 Overcharged Turreted MCs (with 1 x Corrosive Effect). With G5 Dirty-drive Thrusters, I'm often back on them very quickly. It's very rare I run hot and I can pop a bank if needed either with a Heatsink, or not in an emergency (and take very minimal heat damage). For PvP, I'd switch to 3 x Beam (1xC4, 2xC2) with Long Range and Thermal Vent as the cooling effect stacks and they find it very difficult to get lock (sub 20% heat). Usually, I've got their shield down before I boost in to fire the Multi's. I need to manage pips but I can bring everything to bear until the Multi's are going the damage under 1Km.

[@MrCaptainRoscoe]

Honest to God, your content is that good Frontier need to employ you

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, what makes you think I'd be willing to work for them?!? I do appreciate the sentiment though :D

[@Bitgedon]

Oh boy, I watched this right in the middle of while I was engineering my 2 class 4 beam lasers with short range, I did it for mainly the damage but now I m thinking of also putting thermal vent on them

[@cmdrsoundo5240]

Thanks for another great video. Love this stuff. Clear concise info. I use long range thermal vent beams on my cutter with four guass canons against goids. Works well....if i manage to survive. Not mastered this fight yet.

[@Exigeous]

Great idea and you're most welcome.

[@euanscott1659]

Just put a thermal vent on an ax build yesterday. Really helpful content as always

[@Exigeous]

That's a great use of one - I highly recommend using fixed as it's rather easy to hit with given it's hit scan and is a great way to start to "git gud" :D

[@euanscott1659]

Just started using gauss cannons and not that great with fixed weapons yet so I use a turreted laser so I can set and forget it. Still wondering if there is any variation in heat dissipation between fixed, gimballed and turreted, and I use alot of your videos to git Gud ;P

[@Exigeous]

NO no no - say it with me, "turreted is never the answer" :D - okay, now for real there are a few places where turreted works well, and you're close in that applying an experimental effect is one of those but with beams it's not that great. Realize that turrets track really slowly and as such are going to be missing your target a lot more than you think - and when you miss you're going to be increasing your heat, not dissipating it. So going with a gimballed and worst or fixed and best would likely be a much stronger build. As it's hit scan it's a great weapon to start working with as it's really easy to land the shots - especially on a "big-as-a-barn" Thargoid Interceptor. Also remember turrets do 30% less damage than gimballed (and heat dissipation) and gimballed is 30% less damage than fixed - so that's a HUGE loss you're taking for very very little gain. Unless you're Jerry and can't use fixed/gimballed (the disabled pilot that flies with his voice) or you're one of the 3 guys that actually uses multicrew leave the turrets at home ;-)

[@euanscott1659]

"Turreted is never the answer" looks like I'm taking a trip to the dweller from the witch head nebula cheers again for the help

[@Exigeous]

There you go!!! And yeah, if you haven't yet gotten to Broo Tarquin Dweller does do some decent laser mods doesn't he?

[@MultiAgMan]

Awesome tutorial thanks!

[@mirandela777]

I use efficient on my huge 2 of my Vette, and serve the purpose perfect, not just because they allow non-stop fire with 4 pips against those pesky little Cobras ( you melt them pretty fast, tough) but most because the low power they use allow my Monstrous Power Plant to work at 99% without bothering to mix the module priority, and, most important, I can shoot non-stop my 3 rails without ever overheating IF the target is in the beam range. I found this mix ( 2 huge efficient/vented Beam) with 3 medium rails and the pair of MG with Corrosive to be, by far, best mix for Vette in PvE. Burst and Pulse can be better in time, but nothing beat the Beam in damage / short time, in a 5 sec continuous burst Beam put on target more damage than any other...

[@Mad_Alyx]

I like to pair Long range g1 with thermal vent. Not having any damage drop off is a huge advantage, I only use the thermal vent as a passive was to extend engagement time.

[@chrisoliver3642]

A tutorial idea: how hull mass affects thrusters and shields. There's alotta numbers there and I have no idea what they mean.

[@sfs2040]

So what you're saying is you need help with the... mass effect? ...I'll show myself out.

[@reinbeers5322]

Shields have an optimized mass at which the shield has 100% strength. If that ship becomes heavier, the shield becomes less effective; if it becomes lighter, it gets stronger.

[@romariogee]

Ok...so does it slows down distributor depletion? As some people think that distributor powers weapons cooling systems. And by keeping ship cold you extend the firing time

[@Lunarplasma]

Have you tried running the TV experiment with Efficient 3? I was using a Class 4 beam with efficient 3 and TV yesterday, and I was surprised when my temperature dropped below 20%. I only actually realised it because I heard that "icing" noise.

[@Johnjohnson-zg4ek]

I have the materials to make an FDL with 2 medium oc incendiary multis with 2 medium thermal vent beams. The huge will be a multicannon. Would the 2 beams be enough to vent the heat from the multis? Armored thermal spread powerplant. I can fit a armored monstered 5A if i keep the biweave which is currently low draw on my Vulture. What are your thoughts on this set up for the FDL?

[@Sylusssss]

A huge long range tv beam on a fdl or mamba for AX combat is amazing for keeping up sustained fire of gauss and allowing you to tank the interceptor's main weapon by reducing it's accuracy by keeping cool

[@Ant3rn]

Btw, it works well on ax conda, where you cannot relay on speed and maneuverability, but have a lot more spare turrets. “Be cool”.

[@chris57035]

So on my FAS, I use 3 fixed beam lasers on the bottom and a PA up on the roof, all efficient, with Vent on the beams. Firing all 3 beams, even including occasional PA shots, will turn the ship into an ice brick pretty quickly, and with Efficient, basically never have to worry about running out of distributor power. However, I mostly fight up-close and personal anyhow, since on an FAS you basically need to bear hug them to avoid taking too much shield damage from jousting, so I was thinking of switching them to Short Range Thermal Vent on the beams. Of course, the problem is that Short Range has a significant increase distributor draw over Efficient, even when using a Charge Enhanced, Super Conduit distributor. It would certainly do more damage, but I think I might end up blasting too quickly through the distributor. What I'm curious about, though, is if having that many vent beams might be enough heat dissipation to overcome the increase distributor draw and allow me to sustain fire for longer? Edit: PVE combat only.

[@Remer714]

Helpful! Let's see how it does in real combat.

[@raykopozo6915]

This gives me the idea to try to use thermal vents on my anti xeno fdl which runs 4 gauss and two flak, which helps when doing more than one thargoid. Thanks, I'll give it a shot

[@Exigeous]

Oh, that's a GREAT ship and reason to use it on - I'd suggest either lightweight for the distro drop or long range for the, well range - but as the gauss is short range you're likely best with lightweight, though it's loss of integrity could be a problem.

[@coolhwhip49]

@@Exigeous Long range is always the go-to for AX. The idea of using a TV beam in AX is to cool yourself to stealth temperatures before you fall within the 3km range of the main cannon. This allows you to initiate an orbit without popping a heat sink too early or to do a quick pass without having to waste a heat sink to avoid damage. TV beams cannot handle the thermal load of gauss cannons. In AX the rule is simply "Never fire gauss without a heat sink active" as a heat sink is the only thing that can dissipate heat quick enough to keep you under the stealth threshold/keep you from cooking yourself.

[@Jadriam]

Super thankful you ran these experiments! Clears up a lot of confusion to be sure. I have gotten odd results running 4 efficient thermal vent-beams [2 small and 2 med] on my Corvette - I get to 1% easily through sustained fire. Does the increased size and number of beams cause the stronger thermal venting?

[@Exigeous]

Yes, in short if you run enough of them the draw on your distro will be higher - in essence creating more heat so it *can* work it's just not anywhere near as effective as using any of the other blueprints, literally any of them if you are looking for the venting of heat specifically. So I'd look at Lightweight instead as it has a similar distro decrease.

[@Jadriam]

@@Exigeous Old, OLD engineering mistake i made back when i did the holiday grind to get the Vette. Thanks again for clearing up the whole thermal vent mystery! I'll work on rebuilding it next time i get to mat grinding.

[@Exigeous]

Sounds good my friend, glad it was helpful.

[@Tooterbooter]

So for the purposes of cooling and not dps, the heat dissipation effect is determined by the heat generation of the blueprint… So does this mean there is do change in heat dissipation between fixed, gimbaled, and turreted?

[@VespoLiveGaming]

I actually use efficient beams + thermal vent on a stealth build for bounty hunting. The ship barely builds up any heat and dumps it all when I start shooting... I get hit more while charging fsd if I try to run than if I stay in the fight because I'm very hard to get a target lock on... I don't want to generate heat in the first place, and be able to get rid of what heat I do have

[@DevilbyMoonlight]

very interesting results.. I wonder if different ships and weapon classes makes a difference? I got a pve corvette running 2 c4 efficient beams with thermal vent and the rest hi cap multi]'s and the beams regularly frost up the canopy in a furball - dps isnt the highest but it lasts a long time farming using just the beams

[@armenpetrosyan6000]

So amount of heat vented depend on weapon dps ? it is not good to use it for tier 1 beams then ?

[@sirmaverickrock]

I was running efficient with no experimental effects and could run my beam lasers for about 10 seconds before they'd hit thermal overload. I added thermal vent to them and I can only shoot for approx 2 seconds before they overheat. I'm piloting a vette, with all beam lasers. All laser sizes are maxed in their slots. All gimballed except for the 2 #1 slots which I have as auto turret. I'm running all A grade internals. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Edit: I need to add that my 2 class 4 are running long range, the rest are efficient. My distributer is always set to 2-0-4 when in combat.

[@ceritusorbis]

Good to know about Thermal Vent in stealth builds. Really interesting to see it so ineffective there. I do wonder what effects (if any) engineered Power Distributors have on Venting.

[@Nc-en9ce]

I think heat venting is a static number, you can try shielded to decrease powerdraw from PD, but that only save very few amount of heat generate.....and I think multiple thermal vent beams could work on stealth build.

[@cmdrravenwulff5272]

As always, outstanding video o7

[@squirrellordsgaming2772]

Good to know, I just put together an Alliance Challenger with four lazers(two beam, two pulse) and three pack-hounds. I called it "Scorch" because it overheats quickly. I'll definitely put this effect on both beam lazes on overcharged, while having the two pulse lazers rapid fire with scramble spectrum.

[@fortimbraz6851]

just fyi scramble spectrum does not stack.

[@MikeGolf993]

Gotta test my Krait Mk2 with a couple of medium beam lassers: Long range-oversized (for extra little punch on longer distances) and the other one Oversized-Thermal vent (for extra punch on shorther distances and the cooling effect)... Combined with x3 large multicannons. I think this could be a nice balance of heat dissipation and damage in both long and short distances.

[@Expunge6667]

I run 2 class 4 thermal vent beams, and my heat drops to 24% and doesn't usually go lower. I am experimenting on other ship builds myself, and I think I may have something figured out. I will keep at it because I don't have all the materials quite yet

[@OldChannelNoSee]

I run a Vette with dual Efficient Gimbled Size 4 Beam Lasers. I use the Thermal Vent to keep my heat from going above 100% when I'm popping a Shield Cell.

[@Exigeous]

Yep, and you'd do much much better to run lightweight instead, as you'll see in the video mixing efficient and thermal vent is the least effective way to use thermal vent.

[@OldChannelNoSee]

@@Exigeous It's not just for venting heat of course. I'm using them for stripping shields. Lightweight does nothing for me. I can fire the lasers permanently with 4 pips to weapons. It's only when I turn on the MCs that I am not stable with my distributor.

[@jimmaurer8361]

Is your PD engineered weapon focused? Thats like Frank's hot sauce, I put that s**t on everything

[@OldChannelNoSee]

@@jimmaurer8361 Charge Enhanced with Clustered Cells I believe.

[@Exigeous]

Well sure, if you're running 4 pips to weapons which generally is a really, really bad habit to get into, unless you're being really active about changing them around. Realize that lightweight gives the same distro decrease that efficient does while venting heat far more effectively. So hopefully you're being active with your pips and not just leaving them set- and if you are that you're leaving them at 4/0/2 as remember 4 pips in systems makes them 2.6 times stronger than no-pips (can't recall the total buff over 2 pips). Many less experienced pilots will just sit a something like 2/0/4 which may work for a while on a stacked Vette but if you get into any real or serious combat (a pirate activity beacon or especially PvP) you'll see why that's a really bad idea and that you need to be really active with your pips. I have a video covering this if you're new to this and aren't changing them constantly, when I'm in a fight I'm changing my pips every few seconds.

[@ThePapino134]

i have 2 medium short range beams with thermal vent on my byarlant custom(krait) its just to vent the heat from the rapid fire large pulse on top and being able to keep firing them forever

[@Super__Goliath]

I'm experimenting with running 3 small long range vents on a crusader with 2 medium and 1 large multicannon. Does the effect stack pretty nicely with multiple vents? I'm going to finish the mats grind tomorrow night to be able to actually apply the experimental on all 3, so I haven't can't test for myself yet

[@jesterM60]

Ok... but no explained one thing. Beam laser have falloff start 600. Does it important only for dmg or even for venting potential?

[@planexshifter]

Top notch vids

[@AkashZaman277]

O7 CMDR. I run LR TV beams on my Vette. 2M gimbal 1L fixed. The fixed one I miss sometimes but they work just fine. Though I'm not yet a pro and only started ED a month ago, I still see pve with LR TV beams a piece of cake. When used properly even when my 2 Huge and 2 small MCs are active, I see lots of constant canopy freezes.

[@Exigeous]

Agreed that's a great blueprint to go with them for sure and the amount of heat it vents is huge, especially compared with efficient.

[@bubbabenali]

And I thought, it's intentional to cap out at a certain point, so I slaped 4c2 efficient vent beams on my Cutter. So, if I wanted to use 3 large beams on my Krait MK2 with 2 Impereial Hammers should I go with Lightweight?

[@Ant3rn]

On my g5krait2, it has 3 short range rails and 2 large long range thermal vent beams. It’s more than enough to be under 24heat between rail shots most of the time. The only kinda drawback: it requires constant pip management between 4-1-1, 2-4-0 and 2-0-4 to be effective.

[@aaronperkins2880]

I use one thermal vent beam on my iCourier shield tank. No need for heat sinks when I fire off my SCBs.

[@psychicEgg]

Great video CMDR! Just wondering, is there an extra heat penalty when you miss the target? I remember something like that in the description, but not sure if it’s true, or if the penalty is very large?

[@Exigeous]

Yes, it's not huge but there absolutely is.

[@holl-we4ir]

No there is not. They removed that penalty. If you are missing your target, your weapon will generate the same amount of heat as if you had no special effect at all.

[@Exigeous]

Uh, not in the testing I did yesterday. You don't massively overheat like you used to but I gained heat for sure.

[@CreeperDude-cm1wv]

@@Exigeous but don't they generate heat normally

[@BamHurgr]

@@CreeperDude-cm1wv they do, but i think he means additionally..

[@ryanpavlica3345]

Couple questions. Does the fall off of the beam laser affect the exp mod? In other words can you TV from 1.5-2km away with SRB even though the beam isn’t doing any damage. Secondly, if the more heat you generate the faster it vents. Could dump more heat faster if you run SRB with no pips to weapons?

[@Exigeous]

1. Fall-off: No, if you're landing the shot you get the effect 2. Yes. Again the more heat the weapon generates the stronger the effect.

[@ryanpavlica3345]

EDTutorials by Exigeous beautiful thanks.

[@Exigeous]

Anytime my friend.

[@joshuaramsey5212]

Your video explains a lot but one other thing I would like to know is multiple thermovent lasers does that help dissipate more thermal venting or does it not stack

[@joshuaramsey5212]

Also would like to know what other engineering experimental that do stack

[@jamesngotts]

Can you stack it and get a result? Like two or more beams with it?

[@corbinmiller7627]

This is perfect for using the gauss cannon in xeno hunting

[@darrellpowell6042]

Nice video for all players. I do think that FD can and must create more engineering for the game, as some things are crap and some things are missing from the game, EG corrosive resistant paint jobs and corrosive resistant hull upgrading for the whole ship and modules.

[@manrightchea]

Thermal Vent is one of the most useful experimental effects. Other than Regeneration Sequence when you are playing a support role for your group, otherwise it's not worth the DPS hit..Oversized can work on a specific combat build, though even in that case I think Thermal Vent is still more useful just for larger shield cell banks. Outside of specialty builds where some of the other experimentals might be useful, Thermal Vent is the predominant choice. I wish I could find motivation to keep playing Elite right now because it always looks fun when someone else plays it, I can never understand that.. maybe you can do a video on how you stay motivated?

[@Exigeous]

Well one way is my channel - another way is I enjoy PvP even though I don't get to do it as often as I like. The challenge it provides and the endless possibilities of engineering (and working toward that) give me lots of stuff to do. My player group is also pretty active in BGS, we're in about a dozen systems now and are continuing to expand pretty rapidly - so all that does me pretty good. At 6700+ hours I still have plenty I enjoy doing and look forward to.

[@akeenmailbox5497]

Have you possibly considered the effect of silent running with different Power Plants? The passive heat generated on overcharged will make Thermal Vent have a difficult time. My PvE Chieftain uses an Armored Power Plant and 2x Large Efficient Vents. It's a difference of averaging 50% heat while Overcharged and 25% Armored. Armored and 2 Efficient beams can hit 0% in around 7 seconds in close range. The Heat difference allows me to fire a ton of Pack Hounds (High Cap Drag), if necessary, without burning myself.

[@Exigeous]

Oh sure, I didn't mean to really cover silent running as part of this, was just being complete and showing what happened when you fired thermal vent while running silent - as it isn't the effective way to run a silent build. Thrusters and PP have the biggest effect on heat for silent running (save for obviously the weapon choices with all lasers adding a ton of heat)

[@GTXSC]

Great comparison, unfortunately the individual tests are done between 476 to 676 m and since damage falloff starts at 600, you can't really compare the results.

[@MrMaurice5]

I run with the efficient thermal vent combo on my FDL. I personally love it. For damage output they are fantastic but that is what I was going for. By no means is this going blow your ship up if you use the combo.

[@Exigeous]

I'd encourage you to give Lightweight a try instead - you get a similar distro drop AND much stronger thermal venting. If you're not specifically after thermal vent then fine, but if you are literally any other blueprint is better.

[@MrMaurice5]

EDTutorials by Exigeous So the distro drop is roughly the same? Now that is interesting. The distro drop was reason I went for efficient in the first place. I had never considered going lightweight and wouldn’t have remotely thought that the distro drop would be comparable to efficient in this way. I will most certainly give this a try.

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, it's kinda the hidden side effect of lightweight - many of the blueprints have interesting side effects, like for example Sturdy gives you a 40% thermal decrease on the weapon (making them less effective for use with thermal vent due to that). I run lightweight on a number of builds for this reason.

[@Ultimeh]

@@Exigeous not worth it imo with the damage increase of efficient, 2 efficient beam with thermal vent is effective

[@sam93931]

i have mix feeling about thermal vent.. while on paper being able to remove heatsink and use thermal vent for shield banks sounds good, in PvP it doesn't work well from my experience..You basically have to start the bank when you're aligned with the target which is also the moment where your target is also aligned with you. meaning you,re vulnerable to his feedback cascade.

[@Exigeous]

Oh for sure that's not an effective way to use it during PvP - that said it also does work VERY well to vent heat for a hot weapon, like short range blaster rails, or even long range where you can fire more often, or other hot weapon loadouts. So while you will still want a sink for banking being able to run much hotter weapon loadouts is a great benefit (the FDL I'm flying in the video is a lightweight thermal vent as I'm running 4 long range rails) - I lose that fight as I took of my cell banks so I could jump to meet Cement to get some b-roll video and thought it would be funny to use a death instead of a win. But yeah, it isn't great for banking but can be great for hot weapons.

[@therottiepack]

does this actually vent into the target or does it just vent into space 07

[@brightlordoct2833]

Will second beam with thermal spread increase heat dissipation more? Is it worth it?

[@Exigeous]

Yes and no - yes, it will add as much dissipation as it adds in heat - but generally isn't necessary as there is likely always something else that would be better served rather than a second beam. Testing with the Krait in the video 1 beam and 4 rails dropped shields 30-40% faster than 2 beams and 3 rails.

[@onewinged20]

I've managed to cool a FdL to about 2% heat or less with an efficient huge beam (I suppose by virtue of huge still putting out a lot of heat even with efficient). Right now my only big heat generator is shield cell banks, so it works great. I've been thinking of swapping it for something else to cool faster so that I can try switching my other hardpoints to rails or plasma accelerators, but the damage output of keeping that beam on target while my distributor just keeps on going nearly forever is very satisfying, and I'd hate for my beam to take the dps hit of switching to lightweight. ... so I keep putting it off and just stick with what I have, rather than risk spending materials on tears and regrets.

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, well if you're running a shield tank where you're never going to lose them then you don't really have to worry about the integrity hit, if so you're right - and huge *can* work, it's just by far the least effective.

[@lucifermorningstar4503]

Can u make pve biuld to take out mpc' s very quickly and the best ship to use

[@nunodias3331]

can you test that on a corvette with 2 huge 4a beams

[@talixe6576]

Long Range Thermal Vent beams are great for AX Combat, but they are clearly more of an utility weapon to cool your ship rather than really damage the interceptors. Do you know it the cooling effect still works when you are out of range with your beams?

[@Exigeous]

Yep, they are great for cooling on AX builds and no, you only get the cooling effect when you are striking the target. So if you are out of range and just firing you'll GAIN heat not lose it. You don't have to do damage, in the case of an Interceptor, you just have to hit it.

[@Zavadius]

is it possible to show a beam laser turret build for pve fun with those thermal vents?? ty

[@mertunel4720]

Does fire distance effetcts that cooling times? Can u try same test from 2km range ?

[@Exigeous]

It does not - I confirmed this last night, so long as you are striking the target you get the effect, range doesn't matter (I tested this with a long range AND overcharged, and OC gets full vent at 2.95K away.)

[@tobiasstamenkovic9628]

@@Exigeous Thats good to know. At the very least its a compelling argument to go OC over Long Range for most builds.

[@fawtyseven5516]

I wonder if they have a module in this game that can manipulate the shields to help with cooling instead of just silent running it. Let's say this module removes one bar from the 3 bars of shields and another class of that module removes two bars even if you have them engineered so it can cool down the weapons more and still give you some "shield" protection. .

[@rytramprophet843]

do you have to hit someone for it to vent thermal or can you simply fire the laser at nothing to vent

[@Exigeous]

You must strike your target, if you miss you get no venting effect and a bit of additional heat is generated depending on the blueprint you're using.

[@Battlenude]

great stuff. You sir have my Sub. I use Mamba. One Huge Fixed Beam with Oversize, and Thermal Vent. Together with Two small Rails With Oversized and high capacity. For the two Large hardpoint, i can switch, MC or Shock Canons. Large Canons pair best with small rails on fire groups, but not optimal.. Pairing rails with anything is a bitch! Use overcharge and High capacity/Corrosive mods.. Anything with Anti-Hull Really. Now the trick to this is Moded PowerPlant and WEAPON FOCUSED DISTRIBUTOR! 3-4 pips to weapons drain their shields on one to three passes depending on ships. I've tried Beams on Large and Canon on Huge but it did not work as good. i don't know why..

[@pravusprime]

My Krait Mk II has 2 longrange Thermal Vent lasers, and I play a long range combat game, since I can strike at about 4 times the distance then the other guy, so I can have any combination of their shields are gone by the time they're in traditional ranges, I'm zero degrees and virtually untargetable (and several KM away), or just in a weak shape while I'm in great shape. Add in corrosive shell for the hull beating weapons and a good SLF and it's not much of a fair fight.

[@mikedimimd]

Also, if you run multiple thermal vent beams it will cool during silent running. However, using any persistent fire weapons make silent running useless, because there is a 3-5 sec cool down every time the trigger is depressed, until silent running begins to work and hide your heat signature from the enemy. Burst weapons, PP heat efficiency, efficient hard point loadout and heat sinks are the only viable way to silent run. Sorry, kinda related/unrelated

[@Exigeous]

Yep, exactly - and I only included the bit about silent running in case someone thought it would work, didn't mean this to be a discussion around how to make SR work (again not that you're wrong, I getcha)

[@fortimbraz6851]

What weapon detailing color is that?? I’ve looked and I don’t see it in game.

[@talixe6576]

The railguns are blue by default, and many experimental effects grant a new colour to weapons. Thermal vent makes the beam red.

[@psychkick666]

I want to have four Short range beams with Thermal vent. would i keep my heat low?

[@cmdrnervousenergy5133]

bro, you would go freeza :D

[@psychkick666]

@@cmdrnervousenergy5133 I tried it, i get zero heat while firing, but i cant shoot for long since beams take so much power. only 7 secs of firing non stop then i got to wait

[@cmdrnervousenergy5133]

@@psychkick666 then use burst or pulse lasers

[@DeepestOfNutts]

How do you make your lasers all different colors?

[@brandonsmith6770]

Different engineered effects

[@dmaxcustom]

? I am one of those rare commanders that use combat ships with G1 low heat power plants. And you can freeze your ship with an efficient beam and thermal vent. Dunno, if this means anything but no reason to change my build.

[@BANGOTRON]

How does running multiple lasers affect heat dissipation?

[@MrAlbinocreeper]

If they are running thermal vent then more cooler

[@BANGOTRON]

@@MrAlbinocreeper well to be specific I no sometimes in games having more than one of something doesnt offer a benefit or it has diminishing returns or it straight double I was wonder what it did in ED

[@Exigeous]

Yes, as said this does stack.

[@BANGOTRON]

@@Exigeous oh ok thx I thought I was paying attention to listen for it guess I wasn't like I thought

[@sgetchius81]

Hey, can you make a video explaining what the numbers mean on edshipyard and/or coriolis.io? (like all the resistance % numbers) That would really help me perfect my builds and help people who are interest in getting involved in the PvP community.

[@Exigeous]

If you mean in terms of shield and hull when it comes to resistances and how damage is calculated yes, that's been on my list for a long time and will come soon. If you mean something else clarify?

[@sgetchius81]

EDTutorials by Exigeous What exactly shield and hull resistance is, how shield resistance relates to megajoules, what it means when a resistance number is negative, what absolute damage is.

[@TheKurmon]

That was a close one, I just wanted to engineer efficient with thermal vent Now I'm going overcharged.

[@Exigeous]

You may also consider Lightweight - if you were going to use efficient for the distro decrease Lightweight offers a very similar drop but vents heat much more strongly.

[@TheKurmon]

@@Exigeous I wanted to run Efficient for the overall improvement without any drawbacks, but since I can't stay on target for a long time in my PvE Corvette against more agile ships anyway, I thought maximizing damage with Overcharged would be the best choice now that I don't have to worry about overheating at all. Even with the added 35% power draw the distributor should not run dry that quickly but I think I'll give the whole plan another thought now.

[@Exigeous]

Well it depends on what your other weapons are as on 2 huges that 35% additional draw is a lot more than you think, unless you're running low draw weapons - like say frags - on the rest of the weapons. It does have the big class 8 distro but you may find that your overall draw vs. fire rate means that you'd do better with lightweight. If you check the video you'll see that Overcharged was one of the least overall effective in terms of damage-per-energy due to that. This is why it's pretty rare to see OC on huge beams on the Vette, personally I think you'd be far better suited by 2 huge multicannons with a large OC thermal vent beam, 2 medium rails and perhaps 2 small seekers (to agro targets at range). Either way curious to hear what you think once you set it up.

[@TheKurmon]

I'm running 2 huge multicannons, 1 large beam, 2 medium lasers and 2 small multicannons (one with corrosive and the other one to play around with) Switching out the one small multicannon for a seeker missile might be a good idea, though. I did run 2 huge beams before that and even without OC the power consumption was massive.

[@Ultimeh]

if you can manage close encounter, i suggest short range since unlike overcharge its doesnt increase distro draw, but themal instead, which you wotn care because of thermal vent

[@banm291]

IS "the more heat that ALL lasers on ship produce is best (even if not all have termal vent)" OR "the more heat ,only produced by termal vent laser, is best"

[@shalev3368]

What about conduit?

[@Don_Gyakon]

Since I added a thermal vented beam I can fire guardian plasma chargers like machine guns, not that effective but totally impressive

[@psyantologist]

Neat experiments! One point though, it screws up your measurement of the short range version when you are further away than 600m. 1km out, you lose a lot of damage/heat vent effect which might make it way less useful to keep your rails humming than in the previous test at almost optimal range.

[@FakeJeep]

On my krait Mk2 and Python I run 2x efficient thermal vented beams, and 3x overcharged thermal multicanons. This allows me to maintain fire almost indefinitely while pelting the other ship with constant heat from both the beams and canons... on npcs this is hilarious as they start to shutdown or stop firing for several seconds at a time.

[@Exigeous]

Sure, but as you'll see with the tests you'll get much better thermal vent running literally any other blueprint, if that's your primary use of them. If you only need a little venting sure, but if you were venting something really hot, like rail guns you'd be better served with lightweight as you get a similar distro decrease with much stronger thermal venting.

[@FakeJeep]

@@Exigeous ya I could never get used to rails, so that playstyle isn't for me. Maybe when I get a hotas I might try again.

[@Exigeous]

Really? What about them are you having trouble with? Given they are hit-scan all you need to get used to is the charge up time. Try this, subtarget anything on your target, literally select anything. This will help with the micro-gimbaling and give you a better place to aim. Then all you have to do is learn the delay timer when you fire, sometimes I'll hold off at the last second if I think I'm going to miss. I'd encourage you to give them another go as especially with thermal vent they are exceedingly powerful. I run a set of 4 short range blasters on my Krait Mark II with a single thermal vent fixed beam to vent off the heat and it's similar damage output to 7 medium rail guns. As you'd expect the damage it does is huge and even small NPCs are fairly easy to hit.

[@camy252camy3]

@@Exigeous do rails work well enough without having to target modules? In the heat of combat I just don't have the time to find and target the specific modules.

[@snakeoo7ca]

I still dont understand why you wouldn't use efficient + thermal vent if efficient has the most damage output

[@penguingamer9882]

I am going to put full overcharged beams on a Corvette. Might update this comment if I see promising results

[@pukalo]

Using at least 1 long range TV beam is a meta strategy for AX combat

[@Exigeous]

Abso-fucking-lutely it is :D

[@bernardhargreaves9009]

and they do NOTHING to the shield.. lol

[@harlisviikmae6240]

It is a single beam, and corvette has roughly 4k shields(with 6 boosters like I run it)

[@warrenbenson4579]

What about the size of the lasers ?

[@Exigeous]

As I said I used a single large.

[@warrenbenson4579]

EDTutorials by Exigeous my apologies for being veig I ment would the size of Laser change the dispersion rate of the heat

[@Exigeous]

@@warrenbenson4579 In short yes - as the more heat generated by the laser the stronger the vent effect, as that was the point of the video.

[@warrenbenson4579]

@@Exigeous thank you

[@TheLiquidAtom]

class 4 efficient beam with vents on FDL can vent to 1% heat

[@Exigeous]

Can, yes - the best way to do it, no. Do a test compared to literally any other blueprint and you'll see, like the video shows, it's by far the least effective way to vent heat. If that's your goal and your concerned about distro draw (like the FDL I'm flying in the video) go with Lightweight as you get the distro decrease but it still generates heat and therefore a much stronger thermal vent effect (that is much more rapid which is the other key). In short if your primary goal is to vent heat literally any other blueprint will work better.

[@FumetsuHyu]

@@Exigeous If damage was your primary goal and not venting heat would that make effiecient more viable? And would gimballed vs fixed have you choose a different blueprint?

[@Exigeous]

Yeah, in that case efficient does a ton of damage on a per-energy basis. As for gimballed vs. fixed I'm always going to go with and suggest fixed, especially on the FDL which is super maneuverable. There is roughly a 30% damage buff for fixed and given they are hit-scan lasers they are really easy to land shots with and do huge amounts of damage.

[@DrorSapir]

Lol I'm here trying to find optical engineering info. I feel like I'm in the wrong place...

[@rainxer9561]

Hehe Cement... DAS CONK CREET BAYBEEEEE!

[@Knightwolf1875]

I run heat vent on nearly all my ships.

[@Exigeous]

Same here - I'm a BIG fan of short range blaster rails and PAs and using thermal vent along with them allows for much stronger builds without needing to worry about the heat. Early on I made the mistake of using thermal vent with efficient and have been wanting to make this video showing why it works so poorly together for a very long time.

[@jimmaurer8361]

@@Exigeous what about 2 huge beams on a vette? If both are efficient with thermal vent?

[@sam93931]

@@jimmaurer8361 better take something like long range or overcharged.. or if you go efficient, don't take thermal vent. The more your beam is overheating, the strongest the perk of thermal vent becomes (as shown in the video). Never use efficient with thermal vent, it defeats the whole purpose, this was the main point of the video..

[@Exigeous]

Not a fan of that build at all - again if you're using Vent for the purpose of removing heat then go with Lightweight where you get a similar distro drop AND much stronger venting. IMHO 2 huge beams makes little sense given the energy requirements and I'm not at all a fan of Corvette builds like that. I'd also opt for huge Pulse Lasers instead as they have a better damage-to-energy profile or even 2 huge multicannons. Again IMHO beams get WAY overused on the Vette so I'd chose just about anything else. I'll be putting out a Vette build video pretty soon to "be sure to smash that subscribe button and turn on the bell!!" (sorry, just had to!)

[@Exigeous]

Wouldn't say the "main point" but it certainly was what encouraged me to make the video - regardless your spot on with your advice IMHO.

[@maniac6655]

welp ... Mamba ... i got a new set of Boomsticks for you :D

[@PetesCreativeRecycling]

A long range Mamba is an amazing ship! The only viable reverski flyer in PVP.

[@Exigeous]

Oh please, please don't fly reverski builds - IMHO that's almost as bad as running seekers and packhounds in PvP and is extremely easy to counter - you just don't chase it. It's also super low skill and won't help you become a better pilot. If you're using it against NPCs fine I suppose but please don't run something like that in PvP ;-)

[@maniac6655]

@@PetesCreativeRecycling LMAO ... yeah it works but im not that guy :D currently she got Dirty Drives with 4 Frag Canons and 1 Huge PA :D

[@maniac6655]

@@Exigeous You wont like me Eagle i guess :D

[@BaldWolf]

Can you use beams for mining, an if so how? Cheers

[@SvenSchumacher]

I have this on the KraitMKII in use with 3 class 3 beam lasers. I use the efficient weapons with the Thermal-Vent-Effect. The ship is agile and fast and I can shoot almost without a break. So I can eliminate almost every NPC without ammunition problems. Additionally two class 2 beam lasers with the function to recharge the shields of a fellow fighter. In your test one aspect is still missing. If you combine several such weapons with this effect you can actually get rid of much more heat in a short time. Then you can also work in silent running for a while. What's definitely annoying is that you always need 4 PIPs on your weapons with such an equipment and so you only have two for something else. So you have to constantly distribute PIPs back and forth so that the shields don't become a problem and you can also boost the drive. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[@Exigeous]

Yes, you'll get more dissipation from 2 beams, I couldn't cover every possible combination, as you likely know I like to keep my videos as concise as possible and this was already really long for me :D As you'll see in the video there is almost always a better choice than using efficient as they don't generate enough heat to get an effective vent from them. Does it work, yeah, but does it work nearly as well as other blueprints, no not at all. You'd be better served by using say Lightweight as you also get a distro drop, so you can fire for a long time but as that doesn't lower your heat output (the blueprint) you'll get a much stronger thermal vent out of it. You also don't have to keep 4 pips to weapons for it to be effective, you just need to land the shot which is why fixed it a great choice. I used 4 pips in the tests just to make them go quicker as I didn't want the video to be any longer than it already was.

[@SvenSchumacher]

I meant something different about the 4 PIPs: With 5 beam lasers all firing at once, you need a lot of energy even with high-efficiency weapons. This is of course the disadvantage of energy weapons. I simply like weapons that do not need ammunition. Then I have to pay the price.

[@Exigeous]

Oh, I gotcha now - so yeah, using that many beam lasers is a bad idea, if you're going for an all energy build something like Pulse lasers are far more effective on a per-energy basis, certainly over beams given their high draw. You can also look at efficient plasma accelerators with plasma slug or even rail guns, again with plasma slug. They both are higher skill but when used against NPCs work very well and are a great weapon to start to "git gud" with ;-)

[@denmark5136]

So you put a target at 1 km away and telling that efficient is the best at dps?.. while short range gives you 75% dps grow... Why not to put the target at 5 km and state that long range is the best?..

[@Exigeous]

Because that wouldn't have anything to do with vent effect and that's the point of the video.

[@xhag1x]

Some tell me beams suck but I know better

[@planexshifter]

Wait- putting MORE power in a system should put MORE heat into said system....

[@scottcavill4807]

With ONE beam... it's not an effective strategy. Invisible Phantom PvE ftw

[@ethandowdy2892]

FIRST! XD

[@ethandowdy2892]

4 hours later, 23%

[@Exigeous]

There's always one of you guys isn't there :D

[@ethandowdy2892]

@@Exigeous no idea what your talking about...

[@gman37]

You missed the mark bigtime on this one. I won't tell you what you missed but there is much more testing needed.