This isnt at all about damage, or range, or anything, i wouldnt say i have nearly enough experience to say whether they need buffed or nerfed, however there are a few things that i find REALLY annoying, and iirc were better implemented in game 1.
For starters, i dislike how none of the stances, nor the runic stance range upgrade affect the pulsar, meaning you end up with star cannons having greater range than the pulsars so kinda pointless, reload stance also does not seem to affect pulsars AT ALL, which is partially why i find Druchari so much stronger in that regard, their lock on stance covers everything.
Secondly, PLEASE how the cooldown of the pulsar, its a long cooldown for a weapon and given the hit and run nature of corsairs not knowing exactly when its about to be ready means its a constant guessing game. Game 1 had pulsars as an actual ability, like torpedoes that had to be activated so you knew the exact moment it was about to be ready and when you had to turn around to fire whilst kiting.
Thirdly, while i do like that i dont have to activate the pulsars manually all the time, i much preferred the control i had with them in game 1, i am sick to death of turning my voidstalker battleship around with my target focus number 1 on an enemy flagship only to have the pulsars all fire at a half dead escort jsut because it was the first thing that came into the firing arc.
What i would like is essentially what game 1 had, with the addition that the ability can be set to auto fire if you have multiple ships with pulsars, but then you at least have the option of turning off the auto fire and manually activating the weapon when you have the right target in the firing arc as well as being able to see the cooldown.
On top of that while i did say i dont have enough experience to suggest whether the damage needs increased, i do feel they need to have the same range as the star cannons while in runic stance with the upgrade, and it definitly "feels" like the damage is lacking, DPS wise they are super low and yet they dont seem to have a particularly high crit chance to justify them over just taking heavy star cannon torpedo builds, which is currently the meta it seems