I have been having some fun with projectile weapons but don’t know much about them. Primarily I have been a missile or drone boat user.
So, I am using a rupture and currently am using the 720mm Prototype Siege Cannon but it is slow and only holds 20 charges at a time. I am looking for something with decent range but might fire faster and hold more charges/rounds at a time. I understand the DPS will go down.
I could use help with the fit as well I am sure.
[Rupture, Zlim Naskingar’s Rupture]
Small Armor Repairer I
Damage Control I
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Inertial Stabilizers II
5MN Y-T8 Compact Microwarpdrive
Medium Shield Extender I
Optical Compact Tracking Computer
Medium Shield Extender I
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
Drone Link Augmentor I
Medium Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Warrior I x6
Tracking Speed Script x1
Carbonized Lead M x4692
Scan Resolution Script x1
I was using a 50mn Microwarp Drive but I needed to add an extra shield and did not have the cpu to handle both.
Use a 10mn afterburner instead of the 5mn micro warp. It uses far less capacitor and will stop your signature radius from skyrocketing. If you’re looking for range tech ii autocannons can fire out pretty far with barrage ammo however you’re limited to that damage type. If this is strictly pve for missions or whatever then I suggest you don’t finnick too much with the cruiser and try to get into a battleship as soon as you can. The Mahariel is a monster at level 4s with insane range tracking mobility and damage coupled with warp speed to get between missions faster. Of course that’s more of a later game ship and any of the normal battleships will still be a huge upgrade from a cruiser.
Hmm. Shield buffer, small armour repairer, undersized MWD, long ranged ammo. Yuck!
What’s the ship for? L2 missions?
At low skills I’d go with some generic active shield setup. This almost certainly will fit, and if you change out the hardeners should waltz through any L2 or equivalent. Rigs and ammo are up to you, short / mid range ammo gives optimal to opt+falloff at 15-40 / 30-55 km respectively.
[Rupture, PvE low sp]
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Counterbalanced Compact Gyrostabilizer
Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System
Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System
Fourier Compact Tracking Enhancer
10MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Large C5-L Emergency Shield Overload I
Limited ‘Anointed’ EM Ward Field
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon, Depleted Uranium M
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon, EMP M
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
720mm Prototype Siege Cannon
Drone Link Augmentor I
Rupture is a great Minmatar Cruiser. With a good tank and damage application, it can be a beast at brawling up close with NPC’s.
Rupture
High Slots
1x Rapid Light Missile Launcher II -w- Inferno Fury Light Missile (Can use Inferno Auto-Targeting Light Missiles when needed)
4x 425mm Autocannon II -w- Republic Fleet Phased Plasma M (Barrage M for long range snipe on small hull class ships, Hail M for close range brawl on large hull class ships)
Medium Slots
1x 10MN Afterburner II
1x Adaptive Invulnerability Field II
1x Large Shield Extender II
1x Tracking Computer II -w- Optimal Range Script (Switch to Tracking Speed Script when needed)
Low Slots
1x Damage Control II
1x Power Diagnostic System
3x Gyrostabilizer II
Rig Slots
1x Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
1x Medium Core Defense Field Purger II
1x Medium Projectile Metastasis Adjuster II
Drone Bay
1x Hammerhead II (Medium Scout Drone)
4x Hobgoblin II (Light Scout Drone)
Basically warp in at range with Invul Field and Tracking Computer active with Optimal Range Script and take out Ewar Frigates and Destroyers using missile and Barrage ammo. Then switch to RF Phased Plasma using Tracking Speed Script and go head to head on medium hull class ships. For large hull class ships move in close and switch to Hail with Tracking Speed Script active, concentrate guns, missile and Drones all on same target. If Ewar Frigates spawn and get in close, use missile and Drones to take them out. Always keep Afterburner active and ship moving when brawling up close.
It depends heavily on what you want to use them for. PVP or PVE? Ganking, Alpha fleet or sustained DPS? Abyss? Exploration? Missions?
Generally for PVE you will want to look at Auto cannons instead of Artillery. There might be one situation where you’d want Arty (Scarlet) for example but ACs far out dps and out track Arty. This is especially important when fighting frigates.
Also keep in mind Minmatar are the only ships that really use projectiles, much like Amarr is the only ships that use lasers. Minmatar ships tend to be shield tanked although a decent number is or can be armor tanked. The shield tanked ones are best for PvE since you can stack damage and tracking modules on them. Minmatar ships tend to also be faster than other ships, this helps a lot with getting ACs in range.
Now some Minmatar ships are more suited for Arty, the Rupture actually being one of them as they have more PG than normal to help fit them and generally have ship traits suited for arty.
Another difference between Arty and ACs is that Arty has a lot of optimal range as well as falloff meaning it’s easier for something to get in under your guns. This does also means ship traits improving optimal is a good sign as a Arty focused ship. ACs tend to have almost no optimal, though not quite as bad as blasters it’s pretty close. ACs have huge falloffs helping a lot with tracking and allowing much further reach than you might think initially and ships with falloff traits should mostly fit ACs
When looking at guns sizes within the same mounting size (small/meidum/large) you have a decent bit of flexibility. For example your 720mm Howitzers has very high alpha and range but very poor tracking. Going down one size to 650mm arty sees a sizable downgrade in alpha, almost half, but a much faster rof and better tracking with only a slight (10%) decrease in dps and a small decrease in range. If you want to go with Arty look at fitting the smaller ones to help with tracking and faster cycle time and easier fitting.
ACs have similar, but much less pronounced differences when going down a size, however the gains in tracking can sometimes make it well worth it to go down from 425mms to 220mms but generally you want to stick with the largest ACs you can fit in most situations.
For Ammo you will generally not be using T2 Arty ammo as much, if at all, just the short range faction ammo (phased plasma, EMP and Fusion). For ACs you’ll often use Hail in PvE or the appropriate short range faction ammo. Sometimes barrage will be used in battleships when facing enemies that like to orbit at 40-50km.
Autocannons are close range burst. While artillery are long range snipers. The type of bullet u use may change ur damage type, multiplyer, falloff, ect. As for the attack speed u gota rely on rigs or consider using autocannons.
(Sorry for cancer writing)
the problem with projectiles in level 3s is none of the minmatar cruisers have tank bonuses
i tried a standard stabber for low sec level 3 with an armour tank using sub-30m fit because lowsec
but i found the armour buffer on it was too low and i could lose 75% of my armour before my repper could even finish a cycle
and i died in damsel mission using acs
so i switched to a sub-30m moa and found it way better for level 3s
it had way more tank and way more dps and better range because of rails
i would say a moa can run level 3s as good as any bc tbh
you can get 300+ dps and good range with t1 rails which is plenty for l3
and maybe 150-200 dps omni tank which is plenty for l3 aswell
i didnt struggle with tracking or anything like i didnt even need to bother launching drones for frigs or anything i just killed the frigs before they got too close
plus its faster and cheaper than bcs so i would recommend moa as a go to entry level ship for l3 missions over bcs tbh
Thank you for the replies. I am currently doing L2 missions while waiting for training to start the battle cruisers and up. I am alpha so training is long and I am limited in what I can train and use. I should have included more information in my initial post. My goal is level 4 missions in the nearish future.
So, I am using the Rupture for level 2 missions and enjoying the projectiles so I am thinking of continuing with them as I go higher in ships. In the past, I have used drones and missiles but never got into projectiles before taking a very extended break. I am thinking of skipping battle cruisers and going into the Tempest when I can. I can swap to the Hurricane in about 24 hours but since it is expensive and a battleship is expensive, I may just wait for the battleship. Thoughts?
Am I okay with the projectiles or am I spinning my wheels with them and would do way better with missiles? I really don’t want to drone boat as that is so boring. Send drones out, wait for them to finish. I feel more like I am fighting with missiles or projectiles. Hook a new (old) bro up with thoughts and opinions! Thank you!!
Hi.
For the alpha (dps) and tanking, i use moa t1 cruisers. You can configure as you wish invul (Em,Therm,…) for better resist. I think you can use meta 4 modules and faction ammo without “Omega” states.
fly safe
i think for an alpha pilot i would be wary of going minmatar and projectiles
the only mid range ship with tanking bonuses is the cyclone which uses missiles
typhoon is great but also uses missiles
maelstrom though would be my go to lvl4 mission runner if i was a minmatar alpha
because it gets the tanking bonus and despite what people say
a tank bonus is always great for a alpha minmatar player
typhoon is a really sweet ship too but im not sure how good it is with t1 launchers
i generally disregard missiles for alpha characters because t1 missiles and alpha skills tend to be a bit crap
because you dont get the precision or explosion velocity you need with an alpha account
i feel missiles have the highest sp cap because if you dont have missile precision 5 then youre kinda screwed with all missile types imo
tbh i used to fly machariel for level 4 but since the nerf it feels like a total goofbag
i rolled back to using a loki instead
Alternatively hop into a Gnosis. You don’t need much skills to fly it and can fit it however you like and you should be able to do L2s extremely easy and L3s as well.
Thing about projectile weapons is that they require a ton of powergrid, so unless you have perfect lvl 5 skills I wouldn’t use them because they will limit your ship fits. You will need to use a rig or powergrid module or both. Nice thing about them is that unlike hybrids and lasers they don’t use any capacitor.
But, I would focus on 1 weapon system at a time, if you spread yourself too thin and have extra long training times it will not work out well, you will be waiting forever to become fully effective. IMHO missles are better then artillery or autocannons for PvE. There are some situations where projectile weapons will be better, but those are not on average. On average missles are the best, most rounded, + projectiles do not have an equivalent of auto missles which is important if you get dampened or ECMed a lot.
