Ships & Modules

The thing which may have slipped your attention is the falloff bonus given to Kronos in that balanding round.

I like the Kronos but it doesn't work for every mission. For Damsel, Stop the Thief, Serpentis Blockade, it is good. OTOH Dread Pirate Scarlet would need a MJD to position as the final room ships tend to stay out of optimal and some of the other rooms depending on the NPC type.

Anyway OP, just to clarify about blasters, with Marauders 5 and Large Blaster Spec IV you should be looking at around 1300 dps with Null at ~50km and 1800 dps with Void at ~20km, with Bastion on.

Bing Bing - I think this explains it. Thank you. *hugs and snuggles*

I'll have to give this a whirl then.

@ Arthur

I did some testing and such with it last night. Javelin Ammo has come down considerably in price and is now more than viable as a cost effect DPS enhancer, and it bumps up tracking by quite a bit ta boot.

I tried both Blaster and Rails last night running missions. I was still getting faster clear times with rails and Javelin than I was with Blasters and Null. Switching over to Void for close range blaps and burning in with a MWD / MJD combo was not time effective for me and my clear times were slower for the same missions (could be user use).

I utilized a three mag stab, two tracking computer fit - With 5% implants pushes Rails pushed 900+ DPS and inches up higher depending on implants. Blasters were around the 1100 mark. Bling fit and it will go well over 1000 DPS mark (No drones in this calculation) 450mm Rails or Neutrons Tech II, both at spec IV.

Javelin Rails with two tracking computers and Muraders V out DPS's a Blaster Null Kronos at 25km. You can check the EFT dps graph to confirm numbers. Standard Antimater Rails out DPS's the Javelin Rails at 60km. Tracking on the blaster NULL fit was a whopping 6.2, Javelen was 3.2-ish, and standard was around 2.8.

What I found, that by starting engagements wherever I see the rats, utilizing standard antimatter for anything over 60km, and switching to Javelin if they come in closer, no rats got in closer than 34km. And this was for missions like, Angel Extraviganza, Mordues, vengeance, the blockade, downing the slaver 1 of 2 and buzzkill.

From what I saw the ability to apply more damage without needing to move, and instantly switch targets keep mission times low, as overall DPS was consistently higher.

The ability to continually push and sustain 800+ DPS on all targets instantly without having to chase or wait for stuff to get in range was safer and faster than the instant blapping of getting under 30 km on every rat I wanted to instablap. Shooting them further out burns more time and ammo (which I did, dps is dps), as well as chasing them all over the place (which gives up the use of your bastion module for most of the mission pocket).

Rails seem the logical choice, especially with how well Javelin performed.

Well, I had to download Pyfa to confirm my own EFT numbers and *my* numbers disagree with yours quite substancially, probably because you used a slightly gimped blaster fitting - ie only 3 mag stabs.

Please compare your DPS at range against this one:

[Kronos, blaster pimp fit null]
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Shadow Serpentis Magnetic Field Stabilizer
Magnetic Field Stabilizer II
Tracking Enhancer II
Core B-Type Large Armor Repairer
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II

Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Tracking Computer II, Optimal Range Script
Domination 500MN Microwarpdrive
Heavy Capacitor Booster II, Cap Booster 800

Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Neutron Blaster Cannon II, Null L
Bastion Module I
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]

Large Hyperspatial Velocity Optimizer II
Large Hybrid Burst Aerator II

Warden II x2
Hobgoblin II x5
Salvage Drone I x5
Hobgoblin II x5
Cap Booster 800 x15

I also usually used level 5 implants for large hybrid turret damage, ROF and falloff if that is of any relevance. I also ran exact same fitting with rails and see no real point in fitting less than 4 mag stabs.

I'll dive into these numbers when I get home. We are taking falloff losses into account. I may have misspoke when I said null, but I may mean void. Even then, the rail kronos out DPS the blaster kronos in all scenarios where mag stabs are equal - at 35K or more. 25K may have been the void marker.

Spot positioning is something I may have to experiment with, but that still means you are dependent upon positioning, full pocket agro, and waiting for rats to come within 45km to deal decent damage as you blap the closer targets. It's the removal of the need to position that speeds up mission times. In either case, the raw DPS from guns in ideal conditions, is a difference of somewhere around 150-200 DPS when comparing Javelin to Null, but its the fighting in falloff where the Blaster fit starts loosing out quickly.

I'll give it another round.

Are you really running a 4th mag stab? even then the damage and falloff equilizers at range will be the same difference, the change will be that both numbers go up approximately the same amount, especially at 5x stacking penalties (Rigs, + 4 Mag stabs). That heavy into stacking penalties and you might find something different to speed up mission times (Like an nano, or low slot scan booster)

But I'll take another look.

Yes I know you can. Though even then if the aggressed spawn is very far it takes time for them to get to you. But even this is not a problem. To me the problem is many spawns appearing in different places, like in the Blockade or in Going Berserk. Yes it is possible to chase them all around the grid. I just found that the extra performance gain is not worth all the fuss.

I consider only full clears. I don't blitz missions.

You need antimatter for cases which call for extra tracking or for the midrange between Null and Void (and Void is very situational due to range and tracking penalty).

I don't know how much currently Faction AM costs. 1k ISK? That makes 5 mil for a 5k batch. Which will suffice for at least 10 missions which on average should net you 100 mil ISK. Even if Faction AM was total waste of ISK that would mean you made 95 instead of 100 in that evening. My claim is that when you shoot Faction AM, in the same time you should be able to do maybe 11 missions, worth maybe 110 mil. This is the cost recouping I have been talking about.

*Noted*

Using your fit with only the gun and ammo swaps. Added in the two 5% damage mod and the 5% falloff bonus implants, since we are doing optimal theory crafting.

1) That's a pretty huge discrepancy between pyfa and EFT. - I confirmed your numbers on PYFA. I assume the latest version of EFT has not been properly updated in quite some time then, or it's calculations are off?

The Void VS NULL overtake happens at 23km
The Null VS Javelin overtake happens at 42km
The Null VS Antimatter overtake happens at 53km
Antimatter VS Javelin Overtake happens at 64km - with DPS hovering around 800 at 95km or so.

For the Rail Fit - Antimatter overtakes the Javelin at 63-ish km, still pushes 800 DPS out to 90Km (This is where the efficiency comes in)

The Null Fit does 14% more damage in the primary engagement bubble (out to 45km) compared to a Javelin fit. If rats are on you within VOID range, DPS is up 39%, but it can be argued that you didn't shoot things out fast enough inside the original engagement bubble (Unless you MJD'ed to zero).

This engagement bubble has to be reached with MJD and slowboating. So efficiency wise it comes down to optimal positioning to allow that 14% improvement to have an impact. During a 20 minute period, compared to a javelin fit - under optimal conditions you will save two minutes and thirty seconds. Gate transversal requires slow boating / MJD'ing, or both. An AB or MWD fit Kronos can simply burn the gate while shooting.

So my to question to reach an answer is this: how much time do you spend during that twenty minutes MJD'ing / MWD'ing in burning into range and then back onto position and to gates? If you are shooting rats outside of 42km, then you are a significant disadvantage (lower DPS) than a rail fit.

A note on the tank:

2) I am personally balking at the two slot tank on the ship. I take it this is for only blitzing Thermal / kinetic missions? Rather than full clears? On a worried note - The explosive hole leaves you a viable target for gankers - as 4 navy mag stabs makes the ship a loot piñata. It's a good fit, but makes me nervous, and makes the ship less Omni capable for all missions.

Guys, if you can afford the Marauder - the least of your concerns should be the cost of proper ammunition... Chainsaw is right - the extra DPS easily pays for itself over time.

The only thing that sucks with rails is that they do very poorly against anything (including frigates) under 25km and basically cannot hit anything under 10km unless you switch out to tracking speed. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Kronos. I'm sure there's and ideal fit - I just haven't happened upon it yet...