Laser rifle Beam splitter mod got fixed in the last patch. Now it works properly. But the problem is, tribeam laser is now vastly inferior to a laser rifle.

I think it has the same problem the laser rifle did before the patch. I tested it ten to fifteen times vs several enemies. A fully modded laser rifle greatly outperformed Tri beam laser, except it used 1MF per shot, and has greater weapon health. I think the problem lies with criticals. Whenever i scored a critical, the laser rifle did huge amount of damage, but tribeam laser didnt. My character has 25% critical chance. With x1.5 of laser and tri beam, it increases ofc. I think the critical hits of tri beam laser need to be fixed in the next patch.

I see the tri-beam as a laser shot gun. In door at ranges of 1ft-15ft it deals some serious damage. The farther away things are, the less of a chance it has to hit with all 3 beam, so I never use it as a ranged weapon.

The beam splitter on the laser rifle still hits with both beams at long range, because it is a ranged weapon.

To me the tri-beam is not a ranged weapon, but a CQC weapon.
All 3 beams must connect to get its full effect, and that does not happen at mid range.

II The Rook II you are right. i think of the laser rifle as a hunting rifle with a 24 round magazine. remember that damage and damage per second have huge differences in killing things.

Please play with both post patch and then comment. I used both at every range. Laser rifle outgunned tri beam at all ranges with criticals.

Additionally the beam splitter STILL isn't working right, its only suppose to make two beams instead of 3. Which would make it critical less often but be better against DT when you don't. But to get that fully modded laser rifle you need to get those mods.
I also think your firing the tri-beam from to long a range, each beam on the tri-beam deals 22dmg, each has a chance to critical for 22dmg. It essentially fires 3 laser rifles at once, its damage is tripple that of an unmodded laser rifle. The laser rifle's beam splitter adds 30% to the damage and the focus adds an additional 3. The fully modded laser rifle, fires 3 beams for around 32dmg total, around 11dmg each. (more if you have laser commander obviously, lord of death and other perks).

I love my Tri-beam, so yes do buff it !

EDIT: And remember people, the Tri-beam uses 3 microfusion cell per shot, which drains ammo and makes the rifle deteriorate faster
While the modded laser rifle only uses 1 shot and degrades much slower

I don't know man, both svck bad. Even with 75 energy weapon skillzzz, I never kill anything due to that dt thing. Now I just use the plasma caster/holorifle.

What the laser rifle beam splitter is *supposed* to do is turn a single beam rifle into a two-beam rifle, each beam doing 65% of the basic damage for a combined 130% of basic damage. Which means it would be more powerful and a more efficient use of ammunition on unarmored enemies, but weaker on armored enemies. Whereas the tri-beam laser rifle is 3 full bore 100% damage beams.

Where this falls down somewhat is that the standard laser rifle has the Focused Optics mod, while the tri-beam rifle does not (Why?), and the standard rifle is vastly more durable and accurate.

At present the only thing the tri-beam laser rifle has going for it is damage-per-action-point.

You could also try it without the beam splitter, so the DT is applied meerly once, with the focus optics the laser rifle is quite an efficent killer. And a much better range weapon then the plasma caster. (which is a hair shy of melee wth its inaccuracy coupled with its small ammo clip)
And of course many foes don't have much DT so speak of so the higher critical rate easily over comes any losses. Getting a 50% critical rate with the tri-beam or laser rifle isn't to difficult, and if there firing 3 beams at a time that chance is rolled 3 times, couple with better criticals.

I'm not a fan of the plasma caster, its not accurate enough for my tastes, and with OWB I might as well use the LAER.

Hm you could be right. I just never took the time to mod it because prior to the patch it still never killed anything. The only thing I used it for was to kill big horners. The plasma caster has a faster firing rate (especially with that mod) and get critical kills very quickly. Only downside is that it degrades as fast as the LAER. Oh well, that's why I go to the Y-17's to get some repair stuff.

Best way to test both weapons is to go to the goodsprings cemetry, head down the slope to east, and fight those giant radscorpians.

You will find a fully modded laser rifle able to kill those scorpions much faster than tri-beam. As i said in OP, my critical chance is 25%. So i think its the criticals doing the damage.

For tri-beam laser im afraid the criticals arent working properly. Each laser doesnt do a critical damage when u do a critical, OR if each laser has a seperate chance of hitting a critical, then im getting far fewer criticals.

Yea, neither one of these wepons is worth using IMO. There's at least 10 others I use before I'd get to the Laser Rifle.

I agree with the general consensus. while I haven't regularly use either gun I do feel the Laser Rifle out performs it's close range counterpart, the fact that it's not modable doesn't help maters. Honestly I'd add weapon mods for the gun to even or tip the field in the Tri-Beam Laser Rifle's direction, After all since it's more or less restricted to close range and eats ammo it could do with being more powerful then it's long range cousin. Focus Optics, Beam Splitters (creating 6 beams per shot), and reinforced components (+50% durability) would be my choices.

I'd go a step further and make this and the multiplas rifle considered shotguns as far as shotgun related perks are concerned and make the Tri Beam-laser Rifle able to be repaired with the standard Laser Rifle (and by extension the same with the multiplas and standard plasma rifle).

I don't think "shotgun" style energy weapons would have the physical impact necessary for shotgun perks.


Few foes have more then 10DT and they are easily blown away by a laser rifle or a tri-beam. Though the greater accuracy of the laser rifle is what makes it win out. A fully modded laser rifle minus the beam splitter is basically an energy version of the marksman carbine, widely considered a good gun.
And once you have the perks such as better criticals, laser commander, finesse etc, killing even giant radscorpions is done quite quckly, by a laser rifle with focus optics.

I play on Normal, but I find a Laser Rifle+++ is a very good starter weapon. It does the trick for so many levels! I love scoring crits with it!