Plasma Accelerator

Overview

Damage Type	Weapon Type
60% Absolute, 20% Thermal, 20% Kinetic	Projectile

Good	Not Good
High burst damage against shields, hull, and modules.	High heat, high distributor draw
60% of the damage is “absolute” which bypasses resistances.	Ammo is a bit low
CMDRs who are skilled at aiming projectiles will do well with this, especially against modules.	CMDRs who have trouble with aiming projectiles. A miss is 0 DPS.
Armor penetration is 100, so you always do full damage against hulls.	The projectile is somewhat slow at baseline, which makes aiming harder.

Size Notes

All sizes of PA have the same projectile speed for better massing of fire.

Huge PAs use a ton of energy and generate a ton of heat, but they hit like a ton of bricks.

Different PA sizes have different rate of fire.

Powerplay

Advanced Plasma Accelerator

Large, trades lower per-shot damage for faster fire rate.

More potential damage over time, but only if you can hit consistently.

Spreads heat gain and distributor draw out over time, can be easier to manage.

They aren’t bad, but trading high burst for rate of fire is worse for module killing due to the need for multiple breach chance rolls to do the same potential damage.

Engineering

Efficient	Solves the “high heat, high distributor draw” problem and adds some damage besides. Win Win.
Focused	Increases projectile speed for easier aiming/hitting and adds some range. The increase to AP is useless because stock PAs have 100 AP already.
Lightweight	If you need high burst damage on a mass sensitive ship.
Long Range	Increases projectile speed for easier aiming/hitting and adds a lot of range. The increase to power usage can be difficult to fit in some ships.
Overcharged	The extra damage is nice, but in this case the increased heat and distributor draw can be crippling.
Rapid Fire	Reload time drops a lot and you can fire projectiles faster, but there’s no bonus damage.
Short Range	The “photon torpedo” of PAs. High damage and very high heat. The 1.8 km range limit is very doable for most ships.
Sturdy	No.

Experimental Effects

Dazzle Shell	Reduces your target’s sensor acuity…but it’s not clear if this works on NPCs
Dispersal Field	Works like the chaff effect when you hit. A strong active defense.
Double Braced	Use module reinforcements instead.
Flow Control	Frees up a tiny bit of energy, but there are better ways to do that.
Multi-Servos	There are better ways to do more damage with PAs
Oversized	If you don’t care about other experimentals, a bit more damage doesn’t hurt.
Phasing Sequence	Does 10% of your damage as absolute damage to the hull when you strike shields. Works well on a high damage weapon like a PA.
Plasma Slug	You lose 10% damage, but you draw ammo from your fuel supply. Depending on the ship (and its fuel tank) this can extend your fighting time significantly.
Stripped Down	Frees up a tiny bit of mass, but there are better ways to do that.
Target Lock Breaker	Makes you no longer the active target of the ship you hit…for a fraction of a second, since NPCs can instantly retarget.
Thermal Conduit	Does up to 30% more damage once your heat gets to 180%…but module damage from high heat is not resistible and adds up quickly.  More useful in single encounters and PvP