I have been trying the Tengu with Republic Fleet HAM in Pyfa. Looks pretty solid, do you recommend T2 or RF HAM?
I did find this old topic: Faction Heavy assault launchers - #5 by Marcus_Gideon
Polarized.
If you can fit the T2 launcher, donât bother with faction launchers. In case you feel your damage is insufficient, use faction ballistic controls rather then faction launchers. Weâre usually not damage constrained on t3c though. In fact, many fits use Rapid Lights as application often is more important then raw damage, and RLM has better application then either Heavy or Heavy Assault Missiles, while also using up less fitting capacity.
1 Like
Faction weapons are a nice alternative if you donât have the fitting space, fitting levels or the specialization skills to use T2.
If you can fit T2 without issues, use T2.
Polarized weapons as mentioned above are another option. Theyâre easier to fit than T2 weapons as well and have a much higher rate of fire. However polarized weapons set your resistances to 0, which is a pretty heavy drawback and not nearly always a good choice.
2 Likes
The only thing I would suggest is to look at the application. If you run a polarized fit you generally need to bling to make up for that - which offers up a very tempting gank target without any resists.
Since Faction launchers can now field T2 ammunition thereâs almost no reason to run polarized fits unless itâs something really specific (such as a polarized Garmur fit for Team Burner missions).
2 Likes
There are some reasons to fit faction weapons:
- reduced fitting requirements
- more charges (on missile launchers, so a bit less reloading, more relevant on ârapidâ launchers)
- activation cost (e.g. faction lasers use considerably less capacitor than T2)
- less skill requirements
T2 is generally the more cost-effective choice and should reach higher raw DPS potential as you get the 2% rate-of-fire bonus per skill level specialization skill. Which afaik doesnât apply to faction weapons. Thatâs an extra 10% RoF on paper at level V.
Iâd generally recommend using the compare tool and checking the box âonly show different attributesâ to see the differences at a glance.
Up to you to pick what you value more.
Edit: The specialization skill doesnât give extra DPS as I assumed. Itâs a Rat Of Fire bonus:
4 Likes
It can sometimes depend. For example, on a Typhoon fit:
⢠Faction cruise launcher w/Faction ammunition - 71.4 base DPS
⢠T2 cruise launcher w/Faction ammunition - 69.4 base DPS
⢠Faction cruise launcher w/Fury ammunition - 86.9 base DPS
⢠T2 cruise launcher w/Fury ammunition - 84.5 base DPS
This is before modules, implants, etc. - but assumes V specialization. More often than not Faction will be slightly higher and offer better fitting ; T2 will be far cheaper (but require more training time).
1 Like
You made me look it up.
Itâs not a flat damage bonus as I initially thought - thatâs for turrets.
For missile launchers, itâs a 2% bonus per skill level on Rate Of Fire.
Factoring in the increase of mÂł (which defines how many missiles a launcher can hold) and faster cycle time of faction launchers, it makes sense that faction launchers can achieve a similar number of DPS, even without the RoF-bonus that applies to T2 launchers. The base stats are just good enough to be competitive.
(This screenshot is taken on my character which has cruise missile spec at IV)
2 Likes
Gotcha, so it is the extra storage capacity on faction like republic fleet HAM that really makes a difference for a longer fight. I must admit that I do dislike the long reload on regular HAM,
Application is what really matters indeed so I am in the middle between HAM and RLML
garmur with 2 launchers :
- missile launcher operation is Ă0.9
- rapid launch is Ă0.85
- spec is Ă0.9
faction:
11.2Ă0.85 Ă0.9 = 8.56 s/launch (okay)
294/8.56=34.3 DPS (okay)
T2:
12.8Ă0.85 Ă0.9 Ă0.9 = 8.82 s/launch (okay)
294/8.81 = 33.36 DPS (okay)
So it looks likes the faction launcher already factors in the rof bonus of spec. 11.2/0.9=12.44<12.8 so the base value of the faction is already better than the specced value of the T2.
1 Like
And since Iâm an idiot I compared CN to T2, and LM instead of HAM.
so here is the HAM
T2 has 6.4Ă0.9 = 5.76 s/launch specced so itâs between the calari/khanid ones and the matar/sansha ones.
The capacity is however very important for rapid as the reload is very heavy.
So matar loses the DPS but gains on the CPU fitting, which is what missiles ships usually have an issue with. Thatâs why the khanid is so expensive, has it has the best DPS, CPU (but same PG as the T2, which you may not care about)
1 Like