[Snail]

Lampreys are fun for annoying people in multi missions. Everyone had Kaysers or Maxims and couldn't do ****.

[sigtau]

Kinetic and shieldbreakers.

Kinetic weapons are great against turrets in my experience, and shield breakers against the Seraphim bombers = win.

[Bob-san]

Sometimes Maxim, but usually I carry a bank of Kayser's and a bank of Subach's. On a ship like the Myr, it's usually a powerful weapon on the first bank (2p) and my gen-purpose on the second (4p). Same on the Ares, though reversed. It seems that the AI reacts too well to shield-breakers. By the time I whittled down their shields enough to do real damage, I don't have enough time to kill them. On the other hand, with quad-fired or oct-fired Prometheus or even Subach, it's only a few hits until the shields and the hull are both down or out. Plus, my favorite trick is, when the PromS is available, is to start firing and then swap the second cannon in, for 30% faster firing.

Not many shield quadrants will survive 8 PromS bolts at a time.

[Thaeris]

I suppose I interpreted "kinetic" as the Flail Rifle, though I'll usually take a bank of Maxims for ripping hulls subsystems/turrets apart. "Kinetic" usually is tied to a tactical weapon like the Flail/Morning Star, which are limited in usefulness at best.

In FS1, especially ST:R with the Port, I'll always take a shield damaging weapon like the S-Breaker/Banshee whenever possible to overcome the shortcomings I've felt the FS1 weapons had. In FS2, I usually never make use of tactical weapons unless they're required.

[Aardwolf]

This really should be a multiple-options poll -- Specific weapons with checkboxes, rather than categories with radio buttons.

I rarely use kinetic/leech/anti-shield, mainly because the kinetic weapons are too specialized, and the the other ones fire too slow.

[Dragon]

It's possible to chose any combination of categories though.

[Sushi]

Agreed that Maxim is the only one remotely useful.

Good for plucking off capship turrets, good for shooting down incoming bombs from long range. Camera shake is annoying, but can be dealt with.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

There's always the option of shooting the Maxim while in chase view.

I find it tempting to use the Morning Star as a bomb-interception weapon, but in missions that have the Morning Star, there is always the Subach, which uses up less energy and does useful shield and hull damage in addition to being reliable and precise.

[Wanderer]

Morning star is not so good.. but flail was awesome.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Like I said, there's always the Subach.

[Aardwolf]

So I just realized, Maxim isn't even on the poll...

[Iranon]

In Freespace 1 I used specialised weapons quite a bit: the Avenger was fantastic and the only standard weapon I ever wanted, but did considerably better against hulls than shields. Throwing in a Flail sacrificed hardly any firepower against fighters and allowed one to push them all over the place. In Silent Threat, the S-Breaker was another nice complement if you wanted firepower instead of cute tricks.
The special weapons were quite useful against fighters because the regular anti-shield weapon was a piece of junk. 4 Avengers + 2 S-Breakers outperformed 6 Banshees against hulls and shields, at a third of the energy cost; a shame that only the Hercules offered this because it's a really nice balance.

In Freespace 2 the regular weaponry became a lot betterl at the high end (Avengers are more powerful than Subachs and compare well against Mekhus).  At the same time, the specialised equipment generally became worse: less damage with greatly increased energy demands. I mostly threw these in on fighters with 6 guns that couldn't carry Maxims or didn't need them in a particular misson, beause firing from both banks doesn't actually increase the damage per second.
Morning Stars still have some uses... preventing an enemy from shooting back during a head-on approach (the range comes in handy) and distracting bombers mostly.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

So I just realized, Maxim isn't even on the poll...

It isn't exactly a specialised weapon, since it can wear shields down over time.

[Mars]

S-breaker Prometheus combo kills Shivan bombers faster than damn near anything else.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I should have tried that when I was doing the Shivan gauntlet in FSPort multi last year.

[NGTM-1R]

It isn't exactly a specialised weapon, since it can wear shields down over time.

Yeah, but it's not much fun doing it.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

No, it takes too long and too much energy. In order for Maxims to wear down shields quickly, you need to mount it on at least four gun points, and all your shots must hit.

It can be a good scare tactic in multiplayer, though.

[ChronoReverse]

Morningstar is pretty much the only one.  If only the shield breaker really was as good as its name sounded.  I might as well just pack a Prometheus S.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

If the S-Breaker did 1000 shield damage per shot, perhaps.

[Hades]

If the S-Breaker did 1000 shield damage per shot, perhaps.

That would deplete every fighter or bomber's shields in one hit. Totally not unfair.