Hi, I use missiles on some of my ships, mostly Heavy Assault Missiles.
I already have:
heavy assault missiles V
heavy assault missiles spec IV
missile bombardment IV
missile projection IV
target navigation precision IV
guided missile precision IV
missile launcher operation V
rapid launch IV
warhead upgrades IV
I also use tech 2 modules and ammo, but I’d like to be as effective as I can, without using faction ammo and modules (I can’t afford them right now).
My question is: better to buy Zainou Snapshot Heavy Assault Missiles AM-705 (damage multiplier bonus 5%) or Zainou Deadeye Rapid Launch RL-1005 (rate of fire bonus -5%).
In a word I don’t understand if it’s better to raise DPS or volley, assuming that Snapshot only raise HP (which I’m not sure about).
Both. AM-705 is a slot 7 implant and RL-1005 is slot 10 - they dont compete with each other. If you are limited by budget - then RL will give higher paper DPS but you will consume missiles a little bit faster compared to AM. If that extra 5% damage per salvo will enable you to kill some targets 1 cycle faster - then AM is better.
If you really want to up your effective missile damage - get your missile support skills to 5. Start with Guided missile precision and Target navigation prediction to apply your damage better. Then Rapid launch and warhead upgrades, then projection and bombardment skills.
Of course I know that training skills to V and buying both implants would be better but I can’t spend ISK for both right now and I have to train other skills first.
So I’d like to understand which one is more effective: is better to raise DPS or HP?
For example: if you have some type of common enemy that after 5 cycles is left at very low structure and you are confident that extra 5% damage per cycle would’ve finished it off, then that 5% implant will save you 1 cycle worth of time and missiles that you would have wasted on that extra shot to finish it off otherwise.
You can easily figure this out yourself using Pyfa. In my case, a Heavy Assult Missile Launcher II has the following stats with all bonuses applied:
This is a mix of hull, module, rig, implant and skill bonuses - your numbers will vary, but Pyfa will let you test with different implants. Because Eve has a 1 second server tick I believe you need to round up. If true, a 5% improvement in cycle time would buy me nothing. A 5% bonus to damage would buy me an extra 25 dps which would apply well to medium and large opponents but, if I’m expecting a lot of smaller opponents, I could be better off with the GP-805 which will reduce the explosion radius and apply more damage to small hulls. Or maybe I should consider several +3 implants instead of 1 +5. Lots of options and the “best” will always be situational!
As stated just above, PYFA lets you make simulated characters with various skill levels and lets you plug in any implants and boosters so you can see exactly how your fit will end up and better plan your skill training.
The ingame fitting tool is OK, in fact it has much easier to understand graphical representations of things such as capacitor efficiency, HP/s for tanks, etc. If you are using it don’t forget to use tooltips for things such as tracking, range, etc.
