Ships & Modules

Hi

The standard advice is to use cruise missiles on a Raven or Navy Raven, and torpedoes on a Golem, but why? The only reason I can see is that the Golem gets a target painter bonus which isn't (really) useful if you use cruise missiles, and some range bonuses that aren't needed much with cruise missiles since they already have a nice range (especially with the range bonus from support skillz).

So why is a cruise Golem silly? And how silly is it, on a scale from 0 to 10?

(I'm asking because the idea of salvaging-and-looting-on-the-go might appeal to me, and a Navy Raven can't do that.)

I haven't flown one, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but it seems like the Golem's bonuses are somewhat wasted with cruises. Torps naturally do more damage to similarly sized targets and their two major weaknesses (range and hitting smaller targets) are mostly patched up by the Golem.

This explains to me that the Navy Raven is gankier than the Golem, and I have expressed an interest in being ganky in another thread some time ago (I sold my Nighthawk because it was unganky, even with my mad skillz), but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with Cruise Golem vs Torpedo Golem.

Cruise Golem is inferior to cruise CNR in both paper and applied dps, making it inferior, period.

Torp Golem is superior to cruise CNR in paper dps, while inferior in applied dps, making it superior on paper.

It's not as if CNR isn't viable with torps. They both have the same 10% per lvl missile velocity bonus, total 50%. CNR lacks 7.5% TP bonus, which isn't as significant as you may think, because it's linked to Marauder lvl, not BS lvl, and people rarely train Marauder 5. It's questionable if it's worth 1 and a third launcher worth of dps.

the point is defender missiles of NPC ships. you actually did a damage of 6 cruise missiles after one defender missile shot down one cruise missile. if you encountered 2 defender missiles ,your damage was equal to 4 cruise missiles.

@ goose99
-what Gavin DeVries said.

Additionally I don't base my math on the level everybody else stops skilling to

Please help me as I struggle here to understand why a Torp Golem has more range.

I have Marauders to 5 and use sometimes my Golem as a Cruise boat but do fancy to have a Torp boat but as many know the range is at about 32k im most cases.

With the Skill Bonus of 10% Cruise/Torp Velocity (Which is also on other Raven's), 5% Explosion Velocity (Doesn't help Range)

The Marauder Skill bonus I don't see how that helps in range as Painters make it easer to hit not longer range.

Then the Role Bonus 100% Damage and 100% Bonus to range and velocity of tractor beams.

Am I firing the Torp out of the wrong module and should maybe have more Tractor beams to fire them from there? (Joke!)

Someone help this thick pilot!

It's not that the Cruise Golem is bad, in and of itself, it's that it's worse than the alternatives.

If you want to go for cruises, specifically, then the CNR beats it hands down by having better damage projection.
If you want to go for a Golem, specifically, then it has four bonuses that only get to stretch their legs fully if you use them in combination with torps.

The thing about torps is that they have the potential to do a hellalot more damage than cruises but they need a lot of help to realise that potential. The Golem provides all the help they need. Moreover, while the same help most certainly is applied to cruises as well, they don't need it and/or don't benefit from it as much.

Cruises don't need the velocity bonus — Torps do, and are massively improved by it.
Cruises don't really need the expvel bonus — Torps do, and are massively improved by it.
Cruises are certainly helped by TPs, but less reliably so at the ranges cruises operate at — Torps are massively improved by them and operate within the TPs' optimal range.

…and both are helped equally by the damage bonus.

It's this kind of “bonus opportunity cost” that makes the Golem so partial to torps: because, as opposed to cruises, they are massively helped by each and every bonus, and are therefore able to achieve their true damage potential. It would be a waste to simply stick with cruises, especially since a different ship (that you already can use to its full potential if you can fly the Golem) provides better performance with those cruise missiles.

This also allows the Golem to reap some other benefits from torps, such as being far less susceptible to defender missiles, being able to use T2 torps (for MOAR DAMAGE!1one… or more range) without suffering from the penalties they usually impose, and having most enemies die within handy tractor-beam range so you can get some use of that bonus as well…

the bonus on a golem cries out for t2 torpedos , combined with t2 rigs and the right implants a javelin torpedo can project damage up to 60 k away , combine this with multiple targetpainters and you can pop most rat battleships in 4 shots some even less,and with range easy up to 35 or 40 depends if they are closing or trying to runaway from you but you do even more damage
you do need to move your ship from time to time but that is minor

A torpedo golem with TP s does more dps point ,
there are cases where cruisemissiles are indeed handy and golem still stays a good ship but it shines with torpedoes and TPs

golem with cruise silliness 5/10

BTW i find that on most missions i do indeed salvage that going back and getting your noctis is actually fasterand easier than chasing down every wreck with your golem