Missile vs hybrid turret ships quesiton

New Citizens Q&A
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Been gone a long long while. When I left I had been playing with gallente ships and my toon has around 3.5mil sp, so nothing big. This time back I started a caldari toon because missiles sounded fun, and they are. Also having a passive shield tank ship appealed to me also. I plan on running WH and missions mostly.

So with the current state of things, is there any reason I should be flying missiles over hybrid turrets or visa versa? With my current plan of doing wh’s and missions, what are the pro’s and cons of using caldari/shields over gallente/armor or visa versa?

Thanks for any input and suggestions. I’m really just stuck between choosing which toon to focus on.

Thanks.

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Personally I like hybrid turrets more than missiles. I think it’s just because of the in-game sound they make. When I have to listen to the shwoooosh! of outgoing missile salvos for to long I get annoyed.

On a more practical side…
Missile boats have the clear advantage of being able to choose what type of damage you are dealing.
Hybrids just deal kinetic and thermal damage. But usually missions should be very doable with that.
Another thing is that you have to stay in optimal when using turrets. Missiles don’t care about optimal as long as they are in reach of the enemy. No NPC will get “under” your guns.

How you tank is often determined by the ship you fly. In PvE situations I can not see a Caldari ship being armor tanked but surely someone does.
If armor or shield is “better” depends somewhat on the rats you are fighting because of the standard resistances both have or have not.
But having a passive shield tank while firing (auto-targeting) missiles is probably a very chilled way to run missions. For me personally it would be not enough micro management. I like keeping all my drones alive while keeping perfect orbit and such things.

Hm, personally I would choose Caldari - just because of the nicer looking ships.
Just look at that Moa hull… :heart_eyes:

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And maybe because of the lore. Lore wise I would prefer everything over Gallente. If you really can’t decide between turrets and launchers takinge the one with the lore you like more might be a way to go?

At the end every option is viable. It’s just your personal preference that decides.
Well, I fear I just made your dilemma worse. If so, sorry about that. ^^

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yeah, I might have to read into the lore. When I play, I love everything about the Gallente that you mentioned. I love the sounds and the Hyperion’s aesthetics just make me gush. However, the micromanaging of everything i.e. drones, ships getting “under my guns”, getting in range, etc is just a little nuisancy at times. I love the ease of the play style of the Caldari missile ships. I’m not a fan of their looks to be honest however the Drake is a nice looking ship. Don’t ask me why I think that because it makes no sense lol.

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You do realize that missiles have their own little annoyances too right?

-Max flight time (though not usually an issue unless you are shooting interceptors)

-Explosion velocity vs signature radius can really screw up your damage with missiles. Shooting a frigate with heavy missiles, for example, is painfully slow unless you have a really nice target painter and certain skills

-Missiles take several seconds to apply their damage once fired whereas turrets apply damage instantly.

Not trying to discourage you from missiles, they are a ton of fun. But you do need to understand they aren’t easy mode.

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Shields vs. armor is a choice that often depends on the ship (if the ship has many mid slots, then it’s intended for shields, if it has many low slots, it’s intended for armor). Typically, Caldari ships are intended for shields, and there are also a few Minmatar ships that have many mid slots, and a couple Gallente ships that have 4/4/4 or 3/3/3 slot layouts that allow the versatility to use either shields or armor.

In general, shields are somewhat instant gratification (the shield booster repairs your shields as soon as you push the button, unlike armor repairers where you have to wait the couple seconds until the END of the repairer’s cycle). Shields increase your ship’s (radar) size slightly, making you take slightly more damage from missiles. And active shield tanks require a robust capacitor recharge rate.

As far as missiles vs. rails, missiles are preferred for PVE because you can load the missile type that will do most damage to the NPC, AND because the NPC’s don’t run away while your missile takes forever to get to its target. Guns are preferred for PVP because they hit instantly; enemy doesn’t have time to warp away, at least on the first shot (which is often all it takes).

So, to answer your question, if you’re planning on doing PVE, then missiles are the way to go. Make sure you train enough electronics to be able to use a Target Painter module for missiles. The Caldari missile ships are very popular for PVE / missions.

The Gallente drone ships are equally popular, if you’re wondering, for the following reasons:

  • drones can be loaded to do the damage that best hits the NPC targets (like missiles)
  • the ships are versatile to allow many kinds of fittings, including one where the guns are removed in favor of LARGE armor plates or shield extenders

The mission agents used to have preferences, long ago, to give you missions related to their Empire (Caldari agents would give Guristas missions for example), but a few years ago CCP revamped the missions to be randomized. So now you see any of the pirates, plus (neutral) mercenaries, criminals, drones, etc., where it doesn’t really matter which agent you do missions for (as far as mission selection).

In wormhole space, the PVP hunters will immediately peg you as a shields-and-missiles ship if you fly the Caldari Kestrel or Caracal. On the other hand, if you fly the Gallente Tristan or Vexor, they’ll figure out “drones” but won’t be so sure what defenses and PVP capabilities you may have, so you get a slight advantage.

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Greatly appreciate this write up Memphis. I like what you said about pvp’ers not knowing what kind of defenses you will be running. I do plan on pvping more and more as I learn my ships.

I also never knew about the Explosion velocity vs signature radius. I have actually started having my suspicions that something was up when it seemed my missile damage wasn’t consistent versus different hulls i.e. frigs, cruisers, etc. That makes sense though.

Everything has me leaning Gallente tbh. One thing I think I’ll definitely do is buy the “train two pilots at a time” thing for 30days, and keep playing them both till something tips me one direction or another.

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this game is very situational. Context matters a lot.

Hybrids can only do Kinetic and Therm damage so with empire rats, depending on which pirate race you are shooting at, damage type can make a huge difference. Sleeper rats in wormholes are omni tanked and do omni damage. So that does not matter in wormholes.

As far as tank goes the Gallente ships tend to be armor tanked but there are some good passive shield fits for some of the Gallente ships. Tank type matters in high sec again due to NPC faction as EM damage is difficult to shield tank and Explosive damage is difficult to armor tank.

Some wormholes have special attributes which affect some of your ship stats. This can play a part in which ship you would want to fly.

With most things in this game nothing is true as a rule. Most decisions require specific context to make good decisions.

It is extermely rare that you can ask someone a question like " missiles or guns " or " shield or armor " and get a good answer. Even with very specific context much of this game comes down to personal preference and piloting styles.

However we can give input as to our preferences and why we choose them and sometimes this can help.

I myself prefer guns, however that is mostly just because I enjoy shooting them more than I do missiles and not because of any functional advantage. To me ship piloting does seem to matter more with guns which adds to the fun factor for me. I do also like the sounds and the idea of shooting guns more than missiles.

As far as tank type I choose my ship based on NPC resistances. I have not been in wormholes in many years but when I did fly in them I let the bonuses determine which ship I flew and if the particular hole had none I based it on what other’s were flying to fit within the fleet.

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And that is one thing that I’ve always loved about Eve and learned early on. When you ask a question, you will get a generalized answer with just enough meat to it to make you figure out the rest. Another thing I’ve learned about Eve players is that they are generally analytical by nature so no matter the answer i’m given, I will analyze it to death lol.

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Dual train and have both :slight_smile:

–Gadget likes self replicating cake

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This. Always good to have multiple options. But unless you are injecting it takes a fair bit of time to train up 2 weapon skills.

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really appreciate all the replies. I’ll definitely train the two skills. After messing around a bit more tonight, I think I’ll stick to the gallente toon for now, then start training for missile ships after. both are fun, but i just need to make a decision. Otherwise it will drive me nuts.

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I recommend missiles cuz they always do damage when they hit there is no missing mechanic with missiles only if you’re out of range or the ship is too fast but if you’re planning to do PVE missiles will never miss the target and missiles are perfect for kiting players in PvP

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It sounds like the OP has two different characters, one Gallente and one Caldari. So it really wouldn’t in this case.

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