Ships & Modules

I am completely new to missile launchers. The most I've ever used them was on a Kestrel to do some missions.
But I really want to get more into them, as my future goal in EvE is a stealth bomber, I love how they look and I love playing glass cannons in most games!

But, of course, I need practice with the missiles to begin with and I am thinking of doing some missions to see how much range and damage I can pull against different targets. But I'd really like to narrow down my options a bit, as trying EVERYTHING would require an awfully long wait time in a station training the skills!

I have already narrowed down the three systems that could possibly work on a Caracal - the testing ship of my choice:
1. Rapid LMLs - I probably have the most experience with Light Missiles, but playing with them in EFT doesn't seem to provide good DPS, and their only advantage is easy fitting.
2. HAMs - my corpies say that these have very lame range and you need to keep moving to get in range and begin hitting things. They do seem to provide nice DPS though.
3. HMLs - I really like the idea of very long range missile platforms, but I heard that these got nerfed a fair bit, so they aren't nearly as awesome any more.

The big question I have here is which of these is best at dealing with Frigate - Cruiser sized ships? I have no idea how the explosion velocity/size affects the damage projection, and all I know is that Light Missiles are great at killing frigates and seem to kill destroyers just as easily.


Remember, I am just trying to learn here, so no need for profanities, I know that I am a n00b :D.



For now... >:D

I'll stop you here. One this that's drastically different between missiles and guns is that angular velocity doesn't matter at all. If the target is in range and can't run out of missile range in time, the missile will hit 100% of the time. This means that if a frigate is close to the Battleship and the battleship fires a torpedo, the torpedo will ALWAYS hit. However, missiles have two extra stats that define how much damage they'll do: explosion radius and explosion velocity. Basically, the larger the radius of explosion and the slower the explosion velocity, the less damage they'll apply to small targets. This means that a torpedo with its extreme explosion radius will only apply full damage to battleships, whereas it will apply a small fraction of it to a frigate.

If you compare rockets/light missiles to heavy/heavy assault ones, you'll notice they have a much smaller explosion radius and much faster explosion velocity. This means they're exceptionally strong against small targets (drones and frigates), while lacking the sheer firepower of the heavier missiles. In turn, the heavier missiles hit harder on larger targets (cruisers, for instance), but lack the explosion radius and velocity to hit frigates or drones with full power.

If we apply that to our cruiser: a rapid missile launcher Caracal will be an anti-frigate hunter, that will have less potential dps, but will deal it much more consistently, while the heavy missile or the heavy assault missile Caracal will be an anti-cruiser platform, ment to hit the targets of its own size at the expense of being weaker against frigates or drones.

This:

though with the propper skills (which you'll need anyway if you want to become a crack SB pilot) you can hurt any frigate that isn't able to outrun you with HAM's for deacent damage.

TP's and webs are your friends.

SB's are awful for missions. If your plan is to do other funky things with your SB then that's fine. But just in case your future plans involve doing missions in a SB, you might want to change them, ASAP!

Thanks for all the responses! I think I'll try out the LMLs first and then train up HAMs, I love blasters and these seem to be the missile equivalent :D.

And no, I will NOT use an SB in missions, I am not THAT new :D