Missile weapon upgrades question

[Aela_Seoli]

Hey o7

Lets say i have 5 low slots on a missile boat.

Do i split them as:
3 BCU + 2 missile guidance enhancers

or

4 BCU + 1 missile guidance enhancer ?

For lights its a no brainer with 4 BCUs, but what about BC/T3C heavy missiles ?

[Arcanith_Lionheart]

I am no pro when it comes to missiles (even though I use them on my mission alt RIP), but if I fit that many I think I’d put guidance after the 4th one due to penalties, the more you got of the same the less effective the next same module will be

So i guess shoving guidance there would be better than penalised damage, since the guidance modules increase missile speed, explosion velocity and reduce explosion radius, which may not alter the damage value on a simulator but it will surely help

My Raven at the moment has 3 ballistics and one guidance. I prefer to use the last slot for something of utility, like a cap flux coil since I am active tank

Target Painter helps to make the targets…

… Help me, I love that meme

[Kitty_Bear]

if your shooting medium missiles at a small target
a 2nd guidance system will give more benefit than a 4th damage mod

when the target drops a size category you lose 80/90% of your effective dps which the guidance system helps to mitigate

[Donnachadh]

Statistically speaking the 4th of any module is essentially a wasted slot. Many players me included will run them because of personal preference or because lazy and we have not bothered to look into other options, or because there is nothing else that we need or that works for us.

Here are the stacking penalties and an example of how they work.
1st mod: 100.0% effectiveness
2nd mod: 80% effectiveness
3rd mod: 57% effectiveness
4th mod: 28% effectiveness
5th mod: 10% effectiveness
6th mod: 3% effectiveness

Since you are asking about a 4th BCS we will use that as our example. The 4th mod adds just 28% of the base value of the mod. Looking at the T2 BCS you get 10.5% increase in rate of fire and a 10% increase in damage as the 4th module you get 28% of those or a 2.94% increase to rate of fire and a 2.8% increase to damage. You can run the math for both, or simply try both and see which works best for you.

[Chainsaw_Plankton]

I’d say it depends on the rest of your fit, the 4th damage mod is roughly a 5% dps increase, for most pve ships I’d say that’s worth it. more dps is almost always better than anything else you can fit. However depending on the content you are running and the weapon system you are using you might want the extra range/application that a guidance enhancer can provide. Also it depends on your fit, are you using mid slots for guidance computers, or rigs for rigor/flare rigs? Also target painters are on a different stack so they can be very useful. Webs are also strong, but their ranges are somewhat short I typically don’t use them for pve.

It also depends on what activity you are doing, I think mostly about missions, and anoms for pve. for level 4s I would probably prioritize dps as there are mainly larger targets. With heavy class missiles application will be fine for most targets without doing much, just might want some precision/faction ammo for elite frigs and spider drones.

if you are blitzing lower level missions might want a bit more application, but honestly it’s probably going to be overkill either way. Then if you are fighting sleepers you will probably want to do something different, I can’t say either way there.

[Akuma_Tsukai]

3 BCU 2 DDA.If you need more then 1 TP on any missile boat - you"re doing it wrong (or using fury/rage).

[Andrew_Indy]

You could always use a DPS graph in Pfya to check.

These are just rough numbers for NPC Drone/Frig/Cruiser/BC/BS for illustration purposes only. 1 Launcher with faction ammo.

Conclusions to draw.

TPs are great.
For Lights - 4X BCU and if you have a 5th slot a DDA
For Heavies - GE if you are shooting cruiser and below or BCU if BC and larger.
For Cruise - GE unless you are shooting a lot of BS, 1 DDA if you need to skill frigs.

With Fury Ammo the numbers favour the TP/GE more than BCUs. You also get back some range.

3 BCU 2 DDA.If you need more then 1 TP on any missile boat - you"re doing it wrong (or using fury/rage).

2 DDAs seems a bit over kill for a non drone ship.

[elitatwo]

That’s why Gallente and Amarr ships have so many low slots - you fit up to 8 magstabs and heatsinks in them. Put a shield extender on and you are good to go.

So many damage.