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Blasters or Auto cannons
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mace windoo
Federal Defense Union
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2011-10-03 12:15:10 UTC
i currently use Auto cannons but i see alot of people flying with blasters now? only started playing again this week, did hey get a buff? this is for pvp btwPirate
vorneus
Hub2
#2 - 2011-10-03 12:35:42 UTC
mace windoo wrote:
i currently use Auto cannons but i see alot of people flying with blasters now? only started playing again this week, did hey get a buff? this is for pvp btwPirate


Pretty vague question.

Generally more people fly with AC's than blasters, and no they did not get a buff, projectiles did.

The following questions will help me (and others) give you a better answer:


  • What ship are you fitting to or wanting to fly? Small, medium or large guns?
  • What are the best skilled for?
  • What kind of play style do you like?
  • Are you solo, small gang, etc?


There are more questions, but those are the basics.

-Ed

This one time, I like, totally did some stuff.
Mousserande
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#3 - 2011-10-03 12:36:27 UTC
They have not gotten any buffs. Blaster are regarded as good on frigates though,and I suspect thats where you have seen them? Basicly autocannons are kinda better in every way.
Dradius Calvantia
Lip Shords
#4 - 2011-10-04 09:20:22 UTC
Blasters would be great if chance to hit was tied to just tracking and target signature, and not max range like it currently is. They were meant to have the highest damage at the expense of range. This would be fine, except that because the range is reduced, the chance to hit is reduced as well (along with the chance to get a critical or wrecking hit) which means they do less DPS in nearly every situation.

For frig vs frig, blasters are crap (With a few exceptions of ships which have been balanced around this.) However the one situation where blasters work well on frigates is in packs vs larger targets where you basically can not miss. I freaking love my cop car in frig fleets for this reason.

Just remember when looking at ship stats, that even if the tracking and DPS out put look slightly better on blaster boats at close range, they fail to live up to those numbers in real combat situations.
Satav
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2011-10-04 15:18:03 UTC
Unless blasters got some divine bonus to their range and falloff from the Pope. Use Autocannons.
Mekhana
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#6 - 2011-10-04 15:38:33 UTC
Autocannons are a safer bet.

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Gizznitt Malikite
Agony Unleashed
Agony Empire
#7 - 2011-10-04 17:50:42 UTC

Blaster's vs autocannons:

Typically, autocannons have a little better tracking, over twice the falloff, don't use cap, and have very low fitting requirements.
Typically, blasters have better optimal range, and a higher damage output.

In terms of tactics, the huge falloff bonus on autocannons allows a ship to apply its damage much more quickly than a blasterboat. This coupled with the easy fitting requirements makes autocannons typically a better choice than blasters.

The exceptions to this revolve around ship bonuses and tactics. Ships that have a bonus to blasters tracking and damage often improves blaster stats enough to make it worthwhile to use. Additionally, if your tactics allow you to start fights within blaster range, then blasters can be quite good.

Ships like the taranis really exemplify how solid a blasterboat can be. There are only a few frigate hulls that can consistently kill a well-flown taranis. However, ships like the brutix and megathron provide excellent examples of the awesome firepower blaster's dish out, while epitomizing the blaster's range deficiency.
Versuvius Marii
Browncoats of Persephone
Ironworks Coalition
#8 - 2011-10-04 20:05:32 UTC
I see what you did there, OP.

The Gaming MoD - retro to modern, console to MMO, I blog about it if it's a game and I'm interested in it. Yes, I play games other than Eve and I don't care if you think I'm wrong.
Fenmor Hayden
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#9 - 2011-10-06 19:38:00 UTC
Gizznitt Malikite wrote:

Blaster's vs autocannons:

Typically, autocannons have a little better tracking, over twice the falloff, don't use cap, and have very low fitting requirements.
Typically, blasters have better optimal range, and a higher damage output.

In terms of tactics, the huge falloff bonus on autocannons allows a ship to apply its damage much more quickly than a blasterboat. This coupled with the easy fitting requirements makes autocannons typically a better choice than blasters.

The exceptions to this revolve around ship bonuses and tactics. Ships that have a bonus to blasters tracking and damage often improves blaster stats enough to make it worthwhile to use. Additionally, if your tactics allow you to start fights within blaster range, then blasters can be quite good.

Ships like the taranis really exemplify how solid a blasterboat can be. There are only a few frigate hulls that can consistently kill a well-flown taranis. However, ships like the brutix and megathron provide excellent examples of the awesome firepower blaster's dish out, while epitomizing the blaster's range deficiency.



food for tought, out of curiosity: blasterfit cormmorants? no track / dmg bonus, but optimal and falloff bonuses instead. the ideia was to maximise the already long range of railguns, but blasters being hybrids also benefit, and sounds like they "could" go toe to toe with projectile weapons?

I'm a nub wich has been wondering about this subject. :)
Fenmor Hayden
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#10 - 2011-10-08 08:39:57 UTC
...bump»?
Gypsio III
State War Academy
Caldari State
#11 - 2011-10-08 20:01:19 UTC
Autocannons are better than blasters at being blasters.
Fenmor Hayden
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#12 - 2011-10-09 00:04:23 UTC
Gypsio III wrote:
Autocannons are better than blasters at being blasters.


ok, I see what you mean.
Julius Foederatus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2011-10-10 17:44:11 UTC
Except there's a buff scheduled for the winter expansion, so if you're a gambling man you might want to go hybrids. Of course there's a risk CCP could balls it up but hey, it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't a risk :).
Goose99
#14 - 2011-10-10 21:01:55 UTC
Julius Foederatus wrote:
Except there's a buff scheduled for the winter expansion, so if you're a gambling man you might want to go hybrids. Of course there's a risk CCP could balls it up but hey, it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't a risk :).


They will decrease cpu usage by 25%.Cool
Fenmor Hayden
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#15 - 2011-10-10 22:57:04 UTC
Goose99 wrote:
Julius Foederatus wrote:
Except there's a buff scheduled for the winter expansion, so if you're a gambling man you might want to go hybrids. Of course there's a risk CCP could balls it up but hey, it wouldn't be fun if there wasn't a risk :).


They will decrease cpu usage by 25%.Cool



that actualy would able me to fit neutron blasters tech 2 on a decent cormy fit, instead of electron's or 125mm rails.


hawt.

Will put gunnery and hybrid skills on my plan list :D
Gizznitt Malikite
Agony Unleashed
Agony Empire
#16 - 2011-10-10 23:26:47 UTC
Fenmor Hayden wrote:


food for tought, out of curiosity: blasterfit cormmorants? no track / dmg bonus, but optimal and falloff bonuses instead. the ideia was to maximise the already long range of railguns, but blasters being hybrids also benefit, and sounds like they "could" go toe to toe with projectile weapons?

I'm a nub wich has been wondering about this subject. :)


There was a time where I used blaster fit cormorants to solo with. They worked alright... although nothing to brag about.

As for the long range railgun cormorants, they work great in a squad. A group of 10 can easily dismantle most gatecamps by sniping light ships from 100 km's off. The only drawback is they are very light on alpha.
Fenmor Hayden
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#17 - 2011-10-11 07:40:44 UTC
Gizznitt Malikite wrote:
Fenmor Hayden wrote:


food for tought, out of curiosity: blasterfit cormmorants? no track / dmg bonus, but optimal and falloff bonuses instead. the ideia was to maximise the already long range of railguns, but blasters being hybrids also benefit, and sounds like they "could" go toe to toe with projectile weapons?

I'm a nub wich has been wondering about this subject. :)


There was a time where I used blaster fit cormorants to solo with. They worked alright... although nothing to brag about.

As for the long range railgun cormorants, they work great in a squad. A group of 10 can easily dismantle most gatecamps by sniping light ships from 100 km's off. The only drawback is they are very light on alpha.



and sig radius big anought to take full dmg from an alpha cane...
Lyris Nairn
Perkone
Caldari State
#18 - 2011-10-12 08:06:16 UTC
Blasters are exceedingly good at blowing up Hulks and Mackinaws when fit to a Brutix.

Sky Captain of Your Heart

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Gypsio III
State War Academy
Caldari State
#19 - 2011-10-14 14:16:09 UTC
Fenmor Hayden wrote:
Gypsio III wrote:
Autocannons are better than blasters at being blasters.


ok, I see what you mean.


To explain this, I don't really mean the weapon systems alone. ACs do have considerably less raw damage than blasters, although this is counterbalanced by damage type selection, no cap use, similar tracking and being much easier to fit.

The point is that we don't fly weapons, we fly ships with weapons fitted on them. To be useful, a blasterboat must have the speed to get to its target, but AC-boats are much faster and more agile than blasterboats, and generally have slot layouts that allow them to maximise mobility and damage. Hence you can fit up a shield AC boat and be much faster than, more agile than and have similar applied damage to an armoured blaster boat, which is why it's not unreasonable to say that a shield AC-boat is better than a blasterboat at being a blasterboat. Autocannons are too easy to fit, track too well and do too much damage close up.

You can poke holes in this logic, mentioning things like shield blasterboats, EHP and tackle, but there's more than a grain of truth there tbh.