Accuracy / Spread for beam weapons

[Nhaga]

I have a question regarding the way accuracy / spread functions for beam weapons.

According to the wiki page of for instance the Embolist, mods such as Magnum Force which have reduce accuracy increases the spread. I would like to know if it means that the beam itself gets larger, or if it gets inconsistent which would result in a beam of the same width that just slightly "moves around" while firing (giving the impression of a larger beam).

Hopefully this wording makes sense..

[YazMatazO]

4 minutes ago, Nhaga said:

I have a question regarding the way accuracy / spread functions for beam weapons.

According to the wiki page of for instance the Embolist, mods such as Magnum Force which have reduce accuracy increases the spread. I would like to know if it means that the beam itself gets larger, or if it gets inconsistent which would result in a beam of the same width that just slightly "moves around" while firing (giving the impression of a larger beam).

Hopefully this wording makes sense..

It makes the beam wobble around. More visible with pinpoint weapons like the Flux Rifle. There are mods that increase the 'blast radius' that would function as increased spread with shotguns but without pellets. It's only for weapons like the Ignis. Not sure about the Embolist, though. 

[Nhaga]

3 minutes ago, YazMatazO said:

It makes the beam wobble around. More visible with pinpoint weapons like the Flux Rifle. There are mods that increase the 'blast radius' that would function as increased spread with shotguns but without pellets. It's only for weapons like the Ignis. Not sure about the Embolist, though. 

Ah well, unfortunate for what I had in mind but thanks very much for the answer.

[taiiat]

as a general rule, you can think of Continuous Weapons as all being like a Laser Pointer. some have area effects around those laser pointers, but they have a central main 'beam' that everything follows. so if it gets less accurate that central beam starts doing funky stuff. usually that isn't that big a problem though, you'll still hit things pretty consistently.
and the amount that something gets less Accurate, isn't consistent or having defined rules. it's something manually tuned for every Weapon.

[Nhaga]

14 minutes ago, taiiat said:

usually that isn't that big a problem though, you'll still hit things pretty consistently.

Oh that was not my concern at all, I was actually looking at ways to hit as many ennemies as possible at the same time via beam weapons; but according to what you guys explained to me, I would just end up with the same beam / cone that would just be wobbling around rather than a larger one as I was hoping for.

Still, thanks for the clarification.

[taiiat]

43 minutes ago, Nhaga said:

I would just end up with the same beam / cone that would just be wobbling around rather than a larger one as I was hoping for.

i mean, that is like hitting a wider area? while not exactly the same it would share a lot of similarities with it.

[Nhaga]

1 minute ago, taiiat said:

i mean, that is like hitting a wider area? while not exactly the same it would share a lot of similarities with it.

If I understood correctly, you are right but only in the context of aiming at a single direction without any adjustments - in that case, yes more ennemies would get hit, but not at the same time. The only ennemies that would get hit are the ones that would respectively match the beam direction for every random auto-adjustments if that makes sense.

I'm pretty sure that the wobbling wouldn't be faster than manually adjusting your aim, especially when the goal is to hit as many ennemies as possible. For this context, swiping your mouse everywhere seems like it would get a better result, except if I missed something (I don't have much in terms of beam weapons right now so the experiments I can conduct are limited).