Since apparently the edit trick only works on topic posts, I need to make a new one:
The Cataphract has been slowly evolving from “less guns, more armor” to “less endurance/maneuverability, more armor”, going from being an anti-glass cannon, to “A Medium Combatant that shows why Light Combatants exist.”
The original point defense guns used to be 2/3 of the DPS, and on Matiasan’s suggestion, the range was extended from the 500 range of the original gun shared with the Scout II, to 650, still short of even the other short range weapons, but usable without ramming.
With the shift from “firepower weak” to “cruiserness-weak”, the Cataphract could use another beam. A standard Horizon low-powered beam gave a reasonable “all beams” DPS while extending the zone where the Cataphract can engage at all. But the horizon’s beam cycle was already used for the long range beam, so I changed up the long range beam to be a stronger punch on a longer cooldown, keeping the same DPS, while matching the Damage Per Cycle to Lancer. (which isnt lancer’s strong suit)