Unpopular opinion: disruptors are STILL bad, here's why

[Toby-wan_Strife]

Yup, you read that right. I still hate disruptors. With the release of the combat rework some time back, disruptors went from the noob's best friend, to the "best" weapon in the game. What if I told you that this is still the case. In my opinion and according to my playstyle, disruptors are STILL one of the worst weapons you can use, here's how.

1. They have such low range. ​

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Disruptors have such little range for what you get. Disruptors are meant for brawler ships that get close and directly hit the enemy hull. But if the enemy were to run swarmer missiles, tachyon lances, and triple afterburners, disruptors get hard countered. Also, shield and armor hardeners are another great counter to disruptors as they can mitigate some of the damage to the hull, however armor hardeners require living metal which is near impossible to get in most cases whereas shield hardeners only require zro which is comparatively easy to get. Also, shield and armor hardeners take up your precious A slots, which could be better spent on triple afterburners allowing you to kite effectively and not get hit in the first place. ​

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2. They trigger a lot of enemy disengagement​

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Another major critique I have for disruptors is the amount of enemy disengagement they cause. They don't kill a ship, but instead make it go into emergency FTL and allow it to fight another day. This is bad because you aren't killing the enemy, you're just giving them a chance to escape. It's even worse if the enemy takes no retreat, which negates this "benefit" and causes them to suffer very little casualties whilst your ships suffer a lot of casualties. This also triggers very little war exhaustion as you're only generating attrition, not making the enemy's pops upset at their war effort or whatever else war exhaustion is supposed to represent. ​

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3. The AI loves it (and starbase autodesigners)​

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The reason why the AI loves disruptors so much is frankly beyond me. Looking at the wiki, a lot of AI personalities seem to prefer energy weapons. And disruptors are an energy weapon. As a result, They end up mixing normal energy weapons with disruptors, even when this is just about the WORST thing you can do in Stellaris. Yet another reason why the AI in Stellaris is bad at it's own game, but that's a topic for another time. For now though, I think a good solution to this would be to make bypass weapons their own class. This would make it so that some AI personalities run bypass weapons with other bypass weapons (disruptors, strike craft, PD, missiles, torpedoes, etc) ​

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For some reason the starbase autodesigner also really loves disruptors too, mixing them with other weapons and making just about the worst lineup ever. For this reason I don't even research disruptors in the first place. It's just a waste of physics research that makes your starbases inherently worse. Now, I am not a Paradox developer nor do I have knowledge in Stellaris code, but my theory is that starbases are designing themselves based on what your empire's personality would be were it run by an AI and not a human and is using the best weapons you have at your disposal. Again, this is just a theory, but it explains why naked starbases are just so bad.​

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4. They're very "all or nothing"​

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Lastly, disruptors are very "all or nothing" when it comes to ship designs. Disruptors only combine well with other disruptors and not much else. They have such short range that swarmer missiles, missiles, and strike craft can't be used effectively with them. As such, it's either you go all out with short range disruptor ships, or don't use them at all. Yes, there is cloud lightning and arc emitters for battleships, but cloud lightning has a small chance to deal minimal damage and requires you to kill a void cloud, which can be hard to find unless you come across VLUUR or the Great Wound system. Also, arc emitters can only be used on battleships which just suck now with frigates and torpedo cruisers. ​

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So what can be done instead? Well, as said previously, just use swarmer missiles or other long range weapons. Not only do they counter full disruptor fleets, but they're also quite effective at taking out crises such as Cetana and the Unbidden from long ranges. Combining plasmas with kinetic artillery works well too, but don't use those with bypass weapons. That's at least my strategy. I might not like disruptors, but I am still an avid combat meta enjoyer. ​

 

[DarkHelmet110985]

I wouldn't call your opinion unpopular, just a minority take that may become a majority with some thoughtful reflection. The only thing I put Disruptors on are my Corvettes. This is due to their 90% Evasion and simply because they have to get in close to deal any damage given the range of small weapons. I could put Missiles on em but I figure the 90% Evasion should be enough to get them in close and they're cheap enough that I don't mind it. The rest of my fleet though doesn't get them. My Destroyers often play a picket role, yielding PD/Flak coverage with some Laser + Nano Missile Launcher support. Cruisers are typically a Torpedo + Missile loadout(Nano-Missile if I can afford it) with triple afterburner to give them as much speed and evasion as I can in a Torpedo role. I then roll Battleship Carriers(with some PD/Flak) and Missile Battleships(again with some PD) because Missile Tracking is sufficiently strong enough to overcome most Evasion(and if not, Fighters will deal with them). Missile Battleships will also have some Alpha strike coverage with Lances but otherwise yeah, no Disruptors save for a niche use case. My fleet gets hard countered by PD but the AI generally doesn't do enough and certainly not on both Missiles and Fighters to save their skins since my Fighters are typically Ancient Miner Drones(which bypass Armor once Shields are down). My outfit crushes Scourge and if I roll Zroni, I pretty much own anything that enters my Systems because Shields don't exist and given I'm mostly Energy + Explosive, Armor doesn't last long either if I run into Hardening.

 

[Ishyro]

I just use carriers all the game. It can do some strange things when fighting multiple fleets in different sides if a system, but that's really exploitable by a human only, and I don't play multiplayer.

It can trigger a lot of disengagement, but I don't take any lose in the mean time.