I know there are many factors that contribute to the power of a torpedo, and an entire formula for computing the damage.
However, in relative comparative terms, what kind of ships can a single full 3 shot Alpha strike of torpedo’s destroy outright? (presuming a stationary or nearly stationary target)
A cruiser? Battlecruiser? Battleship? Carrier? etc.
Thanks.
If you mean from one stealth bomber… pretty much nothing will die to the first volley. A hound with a t2 damage rig and 3 t2 BCS only gets an alpha strike of 6858 with max skills with rage torpedoes. So maybe you could kill a frigate if it sat still and turned on its MWD.
I know a single strike will definitely kill T1 frigs. I know players it’s happened to. But that hardly seems worthy of a torpedo alpha strike. (There’s that guy, don’t remember his name, who will send you a “receipt” for “torpedo delivery” after he kills you! Pretty sure it’s an alpha strike he uses.)
Rather disappointing what you say. Torpedoes from stealth bombers always seemed portrayed as the pinnacle of missile attacks in the game.
Wingspan
I mean my golem’s alpha is about 10k ish Some fit’s i have go around to 11-12k? It’s a thing with missiles vs hybrids. Missiles will always hit for 10k alpha where as hybirds can vary wildly.
Torpedos are battleship sized weapons and apply poorly on smaller targets.
You have different torpedos, but if you’re going for maximum damage you either choose Rage torpedos (big damage, big slow explosion) or Faction torpedos (less damage, smaller faster explosion). For small targets like destroyers and cruisers you want to use the faction torpedos, while for bigger targets like battleships (and capitals, structures) you want the rage torpedos. Battlecruisers are somewhere on the edge between the two: if you have a couple of mods and rigs to increase application (or paints and webs on the target) you probably want to use Rage.
In my experience from when I did a couple of Havens in a polarised bomber with good application: battlecruisers died in two hits. Battleships in 4-5. Cruisers required swapping to faction torpedos and die in about 3-4. And frigates either die really fast when you manage to shoot them while they’re not moving yet, or they’re the toughest targets around.
None of them will die to an ‘alpha strike’ unless you have a critical amount of torpedo ships on your side.
A T1 frigate should be too small and too quick to die to a single torpedo strike, unless you have turned your MWD on and are sitting at 0 velocity. Keep moving!
If you’ve got sufficient application through skills and modules you’d be surprised. I haven’t outright killed a frigate in one volley but I’ve certainly got a few to low structure.
Groups are where stealth bombers thrive nowdays anyway, because there’s such a low density of the kind of things solo bombers are good for targeting.
Also given the rate of fire of torpedoes, you can often get at least 2 volleys off, and I’ve seen carriers (pure ratting fits) die in 2 volleys from a fleet of bombers tumbling out of a black ops bridge.
The inevitable useful link here: Missile mechanics - EVE University Wiki
Yes, you will with a Torpedo be less effective against small fast targets unless you can help the cause: Faction Torpedoes, target painters (make the target bigger) and webifiers (make the target slower).
As always the answer with Eve is “It depends on what you want, what you need and what the opponent is up to”.
A stationary frigate with mwd running, or target painted, sure… but if it’s moving the torpedos won’t scratch it. I’ve had 4 stealth bombers decloak on my AB astero once, and I killed them all without breaking shields…
The Raven Navy Issue said, “perhaps”…
You can in theory still take out some frigates and destroyers if they are poorly fitted and not moving or slowly. But like others pilots wrote, it’s quite circumstantial, and I’d consider battlecruisers/transports/industrials the lower end of a target list. Your skill as an sb pilot is in changing the circumstances - or better, the parameters in that famous formula to your advantage - e.g., web the target down, paint it, use the correct rigs and mods to increase application and/or launcher cycle time, and use a good crash booster (reduces explosion radius).
Quite a few years ago I wrote some guidelines for my corp, Although the details may have slightly changed over the years, the overall picture should still be the same and give you an idea on what targets you could go for with a torp fitted sb.
The figure below shows the changes in damage application (the full damage application formula before resists) for generic hull types. Yeah, they don’t call it spreadsheets in space for nothing 
I didn’t mean to focus the discussion on frigs and destroyers. Only mentioned it as I know someone who was killed by Wingspan w/torpedoes while in a T1 frig.
More directly put: How likely will a single alpha strike of 3 torpedoes kill a stationary cruiser, battlecruiser, or battleship outright?
I’d say it would be exceptional, for any hull type, even assuming you’re fully maxed out on all relevant skills, perfectly fitted, ship bonus applied to damage type etc.
You can check for yourself, with your current raw volley damage in the fitting window, and compare that with the graph I posted, and then make a guesstimate on your target’s hitpoints and resists.
As an sb pilot you should always count on not killing on the first volley, if you fly solo. Even Chance Ravinne didn’t kill with the first volley in his wingspan videos, at least not the ones I’ve seen.
very unlikely and im not even sure why it’s your goal.
could you imagine how broken things would be if a single SB was able to just casually 1shot cruisers?
I never had luck insta-blapping someone with an SB.
If it’s a playstyle you want to pursue, I’d recommend training for an arty Loki. You can blap small ships very easily. And since artillery travels instantaneously, they can’t even respond before they get hit.
Groups of them and a buddy with a cov cyno also let you Blau blap bigger targets.
One way would be to have the correct bomber with full skill torpedo damage bonuses, rigs and Ballistic computer running Precision script to increase damage app, and having an resistance hole in the right spot in shield and similarly low resistance in that same resistance.
Similarly if you can get you Explosive radius down and velocity up you can apply better damage on smaller targets or faster targets.
After all missiles always hit unless target is outside of Missile range, after that it’s damage application based on how well the explosion hits the target. Missile maths
I’d really like to see a large fleet with a group of torpedo Ravens that do something cool. Oh and end up on the winning side. Trying to use the microjump drive with some Ravens to go from 110 to 100 on some Prophecies might be cool, but I somehow suspect that’s not a valid tactic unless you were dropping on some PVE ships. And large fleets in the null with hundreds of ships on each side probably mean both sides are using bubbles to restrict warping, so instead of “warp to guy 110 from target” it might be “warp to edge of bubble and hope you don’t need to slowboat.” I don’t know how large battles work, even though I’ve seen some on YouTube.
While not in battleships, I often fly in fleets with a large group of ships launching torpedos at our enemies. Bombers are fun. 
If you don’t know how large battles in null work, why not join one of the null alliances and find out for yourself? I quite like the fleet fights, as long as it doesn’t get big enough to hit tidi.
I like where I am, but I do have some level of curiosity.
