Ships & Modules

How much do people take into account the damage type of a turret when deciding on turrets or ships to use?

For example, if I decide on hybrid turrets, I'm locked into Kinetic/Thermal damage. That's fine for ratting in Caldari space, not so great for Incursions. Projectile turrets can do a range of damage types but then you're locked into Minmatar ships.

So is damage type important enough to consider when thinking about what kind of ships to pilot or how to arm them?

Any (relevant!) thoughts or comments on the subject are most welcome. Thanks!

Good question.

Obviously doing the right damage type massively increases the amount of isk/hour you're going to earn, but there are two important factors you should consider. (Im assuming this is for pve btw).

First, are you running high sec missions where you're likely to come up against a few different npc types or are you in null sec where you're pretty much fighting rats with the same weakness/strengths every day? If its the former then you're better off choosing an offense that allows you to easily change ammo types. If its the latter, go for whichever offense your npc opponents are weakest against.

The second important point is longevity. It takes a long time to train up a specific type of guns/missiles/drones to a really decent level. If you're not sure which part of the eve universe you're going to be in three monthes down the road you may find it a huge waste of time training too heavily into a specific damage type.

As an example, I started out in sansha 0.0, and spent my first 6 monthes training into lasers. Just as I was getting quite competent with lasers I had to up and move to Angel 0.0 where my 5mil of laser gunnery skills were almost entirely useless for PVE. Plan ahead before comitting to a lengthy skill plan.