I always thought laser’s where king of dps at range, people only really use the vindicator’s becuase of those amazing web’s, the macherial itself is an amazing ship, also large auto’s are really good but medium and small are no where near as good as large auto’s. I think medium auto’s go to like 28km in fall off while scorch goes to 40 something.
I wasn’t saying otherwise - I have no opinion on that. I was merely saying, I thought the autocannon was king of DPS in FALLOFF range. If lasers are king, they are king probably at optimal range, and probably something like medium optimal range at that.
Maybe the problem is small and medium then? Why the discrepancy? Why would a small or medium version of a weapon suck, while the large one is okay? Maybe the devs just screwed something up and it needs a rebalance?
I have no personal opinion on any of this. I can just tell you that people who’ve played the game more than 10 years and who were sitting in Vargurs running incursions - they used autocannons. And they told me to fit autocannons on my Machariel, which I did. But as you pointed out, these were large weapons, so…
1 Like
For incursion my guess would be that they are capless but unlike missiles they can hit frigates.
For large versus other guns, it comes to the intrication of warp mechanics and how to prevent it. It leads to the game having basicaly 3 ranges : scram/web range, long point range, and beyond. Frigates divide scram range between very close range and border of scram range, there is bonused point range too in some cases, and the beyond is split between before 100km and beyond 100km, the range at which you can warp ; but the main three are as I said. Large weapons can all shoot fine in point range, although lasers tend to lack tracking in there, and they differentiate in the lower beyond. Medium weapons are good up to point range, and blasters in scram range. Competition is tough in point range because there are also the medium long range weapons that start to apply their damage here, but tracking is an issue. Drones have heavy drawbacks, and missiles have the problem of damage application outside of web range.
Grapplers may have changed things a bit since then, but not for cruisers.
And there came the hatred for AC : they are best for scram to point range, and the neutralizer is a short range weapon, but blasters rules there ; in point range there are so many things though, and you can’t use your neutralizer. If you want to specialize, to do one thing very well, AC are not good. Yet AC + neutra offer plenty of possibilities, and especialy frigate defense. But people will argue that pulse laser and good piloting are better, or rapid light misiles, or that drones are enough. Yet any frigate pilot knows better than to approach a minmatar cruiser.
1 Like
AC are in a pretty good stance currently. I have some fits which have more dps than most available Hybrid Turret or Laser fits. Most AC fits just requires completely different navigation playstyle - approaching and kiting at once. HT requires a Web and burst in place at a static target, while Lasers requires just an optimal controlling orbit.
3 Likes
The projectile turret advantages/disadvantages are all well known. Specific to range vs brawl (arty vs AC) it’s pretty simple.
AC offers higher sustained dps, within the profile of projectile turrets. Arty of course has ■■■■ dps but one hell of an alpha.
If you’re having tracking issues with your ACs, fit a web or paint. Or consider that a boat with no tracking bonuses was better suited to being used with arty. The existing tracking exists as a balance, to a weapon system with no other disadvantages.
AC has better range than blasters (but lower damage)
AC uses no cap, but unlike missiles has instant application
AC has selectable damage, unlike pulse lasers (dat scorch tho… yummeh)
AC can’t be defeated by a single smartbomb, unlike drones.
Can we just get that lost Caldari / Minmatar faction you know all shields and straight arty would solve all of the above mentioned issues. 
1 Like
So the vagabond is a arty ship and the muninn is a auto ship xD? Maybe the muninn should get the fall off instead of optimal then and the vaga get optimal instead of fall off.
Also:
Gila drone’s laugh at all smart bomb’s as their ehp is greater than the mother ship, also optimal range rigs put it outside of smart bomb range :].
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.