Ships & Modules

Currently on my 3rd week playing the game, flying a Catalyst and an Algos for L2 missions while trying to build and skill up for my Cruiser.

I noticed that alot of players (my assumption only) use Faction Charges (for rails and blasters?) and its the same with the build tips/advises that i see here in the forums and EFTs, mostly Fed/Cal Navy Charges. Maybe because they can be easily fit and doesn't require much skill training?

Now, my question is, why is it that I haven't seen or read anything that suggests the use of Advanced Charges (Spike and Javelin)? They are cheaper than Faction Charges (faction = ~700/piece opposed to advanced = ~400/piece) and shell out more damage. Yes, maybe you'll need 3-5 days additional to skill up to use them but aside from that is there anything im not seeing?

I know for a fact that ammo has a direct connection to overall DPS and range etc so... uhm... yeah... your thoughts about that would be a great help.

Thanks!

Advanced charges also do either more thermal than kinetic damage (for Javelin/Null), or equal amounts of both (Spike/Void). And their base Shield/Armour damage ratio is different.

I wouldn't use faction Large unless you're DPS is already good. Not using faction ammo on a bonused hull (like a kronos where 4 guns = 8 applied guns), is just being cheap. If you're running 4s at a fairly high DPS we'll say 800+ it should not cut significantly into your profits.

If you're starting out, I wouldn't bother with faction ammo. It might help your SP/HR a bit (or hurt it) but in general only really worth it in PVP situations where that small damage boost can pull out a victory.

With high end PVE (uh, lvl4s, incursions, wormholes) where the isk/hr is pretty good - you can make more money by dishing out more damage because the payout is so much higher you won't notice the additional cost.

The base shield / armor damage values is a calculated figure based on the standard unbonused, no resist module fitted resistances of shields and armor - which NPC ships generally don't have.

They aren't attributes that are used in the damage calculations.

Bah whatever sue me. The main point still stands. In general T2 ammo works at the two extremes, short and long range. So non t2 can be good for those ranges in between.

Lets have a look what each ammo do:

javelin: increased tracking , very severe range penalty, higher thermal damage. Great for ships who gets really close but lacks range for hitting ship orbiting further away.

navy antimatter: range penalty, higher kinetic damage. This ammo has no tracking bonus, but can hut quite further than javelin while having only marginally lower dps. Usually is usable for both close and distant rats. Not having to switch ammo is huge advantage.

spike: long range bonus, severe tracking penalty, has same thermal and kinetic damage. This ammo is usable only for ships that are really far away. In missions you rarely encounter those. And lower dps means longer time per mission and lower ISKs/hr. This ammo is mostly used for sniping in PvP.


For blasters the situation is bit different:

void: very short range and reduced fallof, reduced tracking speed, higher thermal damage. The reduced fallof and reduced tracking means you need o get very close to your target (2-5km) and at the same time has the target moving very slowly. That translates to being usable only against targets of same or larger size.

navy antimatter: Same as above. But since it has no tracking penalty and fallof penalty the attack envelope is bit bigger and you can track even smaller targets quite well. Generally good all around ammo for PvP

null: increased range and fallof, decreased tracking, same thermal and kinetic damage. This ammo increase the range of blasters a bit. But since blasters are really short range weapons even with null you cant hit far orbiting rats. It has usage for PvP to hit kiting ships as it usually can hit within point range.

Generally using T2 ammo means ammo swapping. Using faction or even normal ammo allows you to go with just single ammunition.