Weaponry Overview

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Original text by [Qechua]

Introduction

It doesn't matter how much you tank, and how much ewar you throw on a target, at the end of the day, the target needs to be harmed, and eventually destroyed. Your ship has several ways of 'doing some harm' to the enemy, the most obvious of which will be explained below:

Gunnery

The most obvious choice when it comes to making big holes in ships, guns (Energy, Projectile and Hybrid) each use 1 high slot and 1 turret hardpoint.

Energy Weapons

General

Energy weapons (Pulse Lasers and Beam Lasers) are the simplest of guns to use, but also in some ways, the most difficult. Taking energy from the capacitor and firing it through a crystal, energy weapons can very quickly reduce your capacitor to 0, crippling your ship, giving your opponent a shiny paperweight to shoot at. As a result, capacitor management is essential when using energy weapons.

Energy weapons are commonly found on Amarr ships.

Advantages

  • Quick to change ammo
  • Most crystals last forever (Tech 2, Faction and XL crystals do not, all others do)
  • Good tracking
  • Good optimal range

Disadvantages

  • Restricted damage types (EM and Thermal)
  • High capacitor usage
  • Poor falloff
  • Pulses and Beams have similar range brackets

Tech 2 Ammo

As with all guns, there are 4 kinds of Tech 2 ammo for energy weapons. 2 for Beam lasers, and 2 for Pulse lasers. Pulse lasers have Conflagration (short range, excellent damage, increases capacitor use, decreases tracking) and Scorch (long range, good damage, decreases tracking). Beam lasers have Aurora (long range, average damage, decreases tracking) and Gleam (short range, good damage, decreases tracking, decreases shields, increases signature).

Generally Conflagration and Aurora are ignored in favour of Faction ammo.

Projectile Weapons

General

Projectile weapons (Autocannons and Artillery) are a weapon type favored by many, due to the fact they do not use any capacitor to fire. However, projectile weapons do fairly poor damage when equipped to ships other than Minmatar.

Projectile weapons are found on all ships, but are most suited to Minmatar ships.

Advantages

  • (Limited) choice of damage type
  • No capacitor used to fire
  • Flexible range due to falloff
  • Low fitting requirements (for autocannons)
  • Good damage per shot (for artillery)

Disadvantages

  • Low damage over time
  • Poor tracking at optimal range
  • Low optimal range

Tech 2 Ammo

Autocannons use Barrage (long range, good damage, decreases tracking) and Hail (short range, excellent damage, decreases tracking, decreases capacitor). Artillery use Quake (short range, excellent damage, decreases tracking, decreases velocity, increases capacitor recharge time) and Tremor (long range, average damage, decreases tracking).

Hail is considered nearly useless compared to Barrage and faction ammo, but both Quake and Tremor are used by artillery ships (either for good range or obscene damage per shot)

Hybrid Weapons

General

Hybrid weapons (Blasters and Railguns) are a combination of energy weapons and projectiles, in that they use both ammunition and capacitor energy to fire. Hybrid weapons are at the extremes of the weapon charts, with Blasters doing the most damage of any weapon, and Railguns having the longest range.

Hybrid weapons are most commonly found on Caldari and Gallente ships.

Advantages

  • Excellent damage (for Blasters)
  • Excellent range (for Railguns)
  • Average to good tracking

Disadvantages

  • Uses capacitor and ammunition
  • Very limited range (Blasters)
  • Restricted damage types (Kinetic and Thermal)

Tech 2 Ammo

Blasters use Null (long range, good damage, decreases tracking) and Void (short range, excellent damage, decreases tracking). Railguns use Javelin (short range, good damage, decreases tracking, decreases velocity) and Spike (long range, average damage, decreases tracking)

Spike is the only T2 hybrid ammo which is used widely, with faction ammo filling the role of the others.

Missiles

General

Missiles differ from guns in several areas, giving them a different set of advantages and disadvantages. Missiles are fired from launchers (which require 1 high slot and 1 launcher hardpoint), and are split into long range, low damage missiles (Standard, Heavy, Cruise) and shorter range, higher damage missiles (Rocket, Heavy Assault, Torpedo).

Missiles are most commonly found on Caldari ships.

Advantages

  • Damage type can be chosen
  • Long range
  • No need to account for tracking
  • High damage per shot

Disadvantages

  • Missiles take time to reach the target
  • Low damage over time (except torpedoes)
  • Missiles can be shot down
  • Missiles can be outrun

Tech 2 Ammo

Rockets, Heavy Assault Missiles and Torpedoes all share the same missile variants; Javelin (long range, low damage, high speed, decreases velocity, increased explosion velocity, decreased explosion radius) and Rage (high damage, low speed, decreases ship capacitor, reduced explosion velocity, increased explosion radius). Standard, Heavy and Cruise Missiles also share variants, namely Fury (low range, high damage, decreases ship capacitor) and Precision (low range, low damage, decreases velocity, increased explosion velocity, decreased explosion radius)

Generally, faction missiles are used over Tech 2 missiles. The notable exceptions are Light Precision missiles and Rage Torpedoes.

Drones

General

Drones are little craft controlled by a pilot and supplement the ship in some way, be it additional firepower, remote repair of others or electronic warfare. Drones really begin to become a factor to cruisers and above (as well as some tech 2 frigates), especially on the Arbitrator and Vexor.

Drones are stored in the drone bay of a ship. They are found on all ships, but most commonly on Gallente ships.

Advantages

  • Flexible
  • Virtually immune to electronic warfare
  • Limited ability to act independently

Disadvantages

  • Can be destroyed
  • Can get left behind in a rapid withdrawl
  • Can be forgotten by the pilot

Drone Types

Combat drones

Basic drones. They fly out, they do damage to the target. Of all the drone types, the Thermal ones (Hobgoblin, Hammerhead, Ogre) do the most damage, the Explosive ones (Warrior, Valkyrie, Berserker) are the fastest and the Kinetic ones (Hornet, Vespa, Wasp) have the best hitpoints.

Logistics drones

Much like a remote repairer, logistics drones repair the shield or armour (drone dependant) of the target. They cannot, however, repair themselves (although they can repair each other), and they cannot repair the ship which launched them.

Energy Neutralizer drones

Like a mini neut, these drones suck the targets capacitor into thin air. Individually, they are not particularly powerful, but in groups of 5 they are equivalent to a Neutralizer of their size (small for light drones, medium for medium drones, large for heavy drones).

Electronic Warfare drones

Available in varying sizes, EWar drones replicate the effects of the Electronic Warfare carried by ships (ECM, Sensor Dampeners, Tracking Disruptors, Target Painters and Stasis Webifiers). While most are not particularly useful due to stacking penalties, ECM drones (particularly the Vespa EC-600) are an excellent way of getting out of a bad situation.

Mining drones

In for completeness. That, and you never know where you will end up on an Agony class!

Fighters

Not strictly drones, but yet not completely dis-similar from them, fighters are one man craft deployed by Carriers and Motherships. They are used like drones, except they have additional abilities. Firstly, they can be delegated to people in the same system (and gang) as the carrier pilot, allowing a pilot to use them (even if the craft cannot normally deploy drones). Secondly, they can follow a target around a system, meaning that your victim needs to leave the system in order to escape.

Other weapons

Smartbombs

In Basic, you were taught the dangers of smartbombs, but in truth they are not that powerful. Smalls and mediums simply don't do enough damage and larges still have a big range limitation. Having said that, they are useful for anti-drone duty on dedicated ships, and, with timing, can take down a missile.

Battleships with 8 high slots are generally used for smartbombing battleships.

Bumping

Forgot to pack a point? Bumping is the 'art' of simply ramming as much mass as possible, as fast as possible into a target to change its course and speed. A useful tactic in several instances, it is mainly used to move people away from a station or gate in order to destroy or disable them.

Nosferatu/Energy Neutralizers

Nosferatu (Nos) and Energy Neutralizers (Neut) are capacitor warfare weapons, draining away the targets capacitor in different ways. Neutralizers are easy, they use some of your capacitor to take away some of the targets capacitor on a 1-to-1 ratio (improved by skills and equipment). Heavy neuts are incredibly dangerous to interceptors, with 1 of them capable of destroying the entire capacitor (thus rendering the interceptor somewhat impotent).

Nosferatu are more complex. They take a small amount of the targets capacitor and adds it to yours, as long as your capacitor percentage is lower than the targets. It is therefore beneficial, if you mount multiple Nosferatu, to split onto different targets to maximise capacitor income.

Nosferatu and Neutralizers require 1 high slot. They are found on a large amount of ships, but are especially dangerous on the Sentinel and Curse

Weapon choice

When it comes to selecting weapons for your shiny new ship, it can be a lot more complex than most people think. Yes, some craft are pretty simple, such as pure combat ships, which simply reduce it to 'Long range or Short Range'. However, some ships require more thought. The Vexor, for instance, has ship bonusses to medium hybrids and drones, yet is commonly fitted with small blasters and drones so as to include a 1600mm plate as a tank. In addition, electronic warfare ships may mount different weapons (or no weapons at all). The Celestis I've recently used, while having a bonus to medium hybrids, has heavy launchers as its weapons, again to make way for the 1600mm plate.

It's all about thinking what you want the ship to achieve. An Armageddon set up to do maximum damage to the enemy would be best suited with 7 Dual Heavy Pulse lasers, a Nosferatu and 5 Heavy Drones. An Abaddon set up as a bait ship, however, may ignore the large energy bonus to mount 8 large autocannons (for the no cap use), and concentrate on a big tank. An Arazu which is going hunting for Guristas or Serpentis ratters wants to maximise EM and Explosive damage, while maintaining range (using its sensor dampeners as the tank), so may mount medium beam lasers and Explosive drones. A Blackbird excels at long range jamming, so mounting assault launchers loaded with precision light missiles (to scare away interceptors) will probably be better than heavy launchers and a compromised tank. A Thorax out hunting solo will almost certainly mount medium blasters, but may go for ECM drones over combat drones, so as to make a getaway if needed.

You can also fit to common perceptions. The Deimos is widely considered an all out blaster boat, so going for a speed tank, medium railguns and a pair of web drones will completely throw the opponent off from the start, giving you a huge advantage and still makes good use of the ship bonusses. Thinking even slightly outside the 'cookie cutter' setups can grant you a huge advantage at the start of an engagement, be it solo or gang, and with good piloting, you can hold that advantage all the way through.