Guide - Ammo (Projectile Wepons)

Tia Kingtiger

in spaaaaace!
few words concerning ammo.

I will talk about Tech 1 projectile ammo only as that is what I have been using. I do not use other ammo types (except for missiles) as my racial bonuses would not apply, therefore I don't know much about the damage types of the other races ammo.

I'll come to missiles after.

I have always mentioned using rat specific ammo when NPC'ing, so its about time to elaborate. First lets look at the ammo types themselves and the damage types the deal out. Since the different sizes have different stats I will deal with Medium to keep things simple:

Carbonised Lead = 6 explosive and 6 kinetic
Depleted Uranium = 6 explosive, 6 kinetic and 4 thermal
EMP = 10 EM, 8 explosive and 4 kinetic
Fusion = 16 explosive and 4 kinetic
Nuclear = 10 explosive and 4 kinetic
Phased Plasma = 16 thermal and 4 kinetic
Proton = 8 kinetic and 6 EM
Titanium Sabot = 12 kinetic and 6 explosive


OK, all these ammo types have one other stat you need to be aware of and that is a range modifier. Although it is important and you need to be aware of what it is when you fit it, it is my opinion that it is not as important as the damage type.

When NPC'ing you can easily adjust your range to suit what is required by the ammo. What you want to do is kill as many NPC's as possible in the shortest amount of time as possible so that you can earn more isk per hour. For that you need damage.

There really is only one thing to watch out for. Its best explained with an example:

NPC's have different types of resists just like Player ships, but they have a racial tendancy just like Players as well. I currently fight Gurista's which have a racial weakness to kinetic and thermal. Mostly kinetic and a bit of thermal to be more precise. So lets look at those ammo types and find the most kinetic damage.

Titanium Sabot does 12 kinetic, so lets load up and go! Hold your horses just a minute though, lets not be too hasty there. Phased Plasma does 16 thermal and 4 kinetic. Thats both damage types covered for Gurista's doing a total of 20 points of damage, whereas Titanium Sabot has 12 points of damage only due to the 6 explosive being essentially wasted. But the Gurista's biggest weakness is kinetic so surely that does not matter? Back to Titanium Sabot surely?

Well, lets load up Quickfit and find out shall we? Pick any setup you like, pick a Gurista Battleship to give us a challenge and load Titanium Sabot. Check the DPS figure, change to Phased Plasma and reconfigure. What do you know, the DPS has increased with Phased Plasma.

There you go, so what effect has this had on my ammo choices throughout the game? Well I have come to the conclusion via both Quickfit and some 'strange' experiances in game that for the Minmatar there are only really 3 Tech 1 ammo types worth using:

Phased Plasma
EMP
Fusion


The rest as far as I have ever been able to tell, are pretty much a waste of time. I have found my game much easier since coming to this conclusion. I have only 3 types of ammo I need to choose from depending on which rats I have fought. There are however rats I have not fought against, so do not take my word for it if you find yourself moving to a new area of space. While you are in Matari space however, you won't go far wrong with Fusion.

Hope that saves you some time.



Now missiles

Missiles are easy. Multiply the flight time by the speed for maximum range. Now fire. Don't worry about transversal velocity or tracking etc.
That missile is going to hit unless they are in a ship which can outrun it.

Sounds too easy? Well OK, there is something you do need to know.

Missiles do less damage on smaller vessels than they are intended for. This was introduced to stop battleships instpopping Frigates with Torpedoes and the like. Not quite sure why Frigate pilots were not outrunning Torpedoes back then but hey, the decision was made.

So the key to choosing missiles is this:

Keep the explosion radius of the missile lower than the signature radius of the Frigate and you should inflict the maximum damage of that missile.

So rockets against Frigates please Gentlemen.

Thats about all there is to missiles. If you are on the receiving end of them, either use Defenders (personally I found them a waste of time), outrun them or tank them.


Copied from SGS forums, Credit to Buccaneer Pete
www.st-george-squadron.co.uk/forums
 

Aciiid

Full Member
Um you mentioned ratial bonuses. What race are you ?

I'm caldari I know I get a missile bonus, but not other bonuses, if you could post a link to this bonus page I would be grateful..

I tend to use light missiles vs frigates as I find they do a lot more damage than rockets. I've also just upgraded to a heavy missile launcher and I find I can take out level 3+ frigates in 2-3 shots, which light missiles would have taken 6+. They are a lot worse vs smaller ships though.

:newb:
 

Tia Kingtiger

in spaaaaace!
Minmatar Ships usually give bonuses for projectile weapons, but the basics ideas stranlate to Hybrid weapons as well.

Light missiles do more damage and have longer range, but the rate of fire is around 10seconds. Rockets have a rof or around 3 seconds. You'd need to check but I think rockets do more damage per second than light missiles.

With a frigate it's all about getting in close and fast which makes you very hard to hit. In that situation rockets would make more sense as you don't need the range. However I used to have a rifter with 2 missile launchers and two autocannons, I would use my speed to stay out of range of the enemy and use my missile launchers to hit them, with the autocannons only as a backup. But the enemies I'm fighting now have missile launchers and railguns, so my range advantage is lost.

Currently I get in to 1000meters and fly very fast, most weapons can't hit me and I only have to worry about missiles, which I tank.
 

Chick

Cartwheel RIGHT
tryign to figure out what to do with my cruisers guns. Should soon be able to fit heavy missiles to it, once the skills for a proper low power armor tank are in place (hull upgrades IV - snore!)

But... any ideas what teh effect of Webbing ahs on a ship's sig radius? I've done a bit of tackiling with Shalam, and once you have a frigate webbed, those heavy missiles really seem to hurt it. Since i'm running a webber anyway to help the Autocannons hit stuff, is it really worth downgrading to rockets, and lose the long-range punchiness of Heavys for taking out fleeting cruisers? i think not.

Thoughts ?
 

Chick

Cartwheel RIGHT
Um, not sig. um, what's the thingy. Ah, transversal velovity, that's it. Stop em, and then hand out teh hurt :)

re: MWD's.. they make your sig ratehr large, but, give so much speed, youa re impossible to hit on approach if you keep up the aforementioned trnsversal whatsit, then knock it off when you get close, scram / web target and wait for your support to pop the ship.

Or at least, i believe that is the theory :p
 
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