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FW Solo - Which missiles?
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Borodin
Doomheim
#1 - 2016-01-29 20:04:02 UTC
As this is my first post, allow me to take this opportunity to say hello to everyone o/

I'm an old player returning from a long break with a new toon. I never really tried PVP the last time I played but I decided to fight the good fight and join Calmil (Hehe) and had an awesome time in LS yesterday yoloing myself into plexes to see what I could kill. I learned a lot and have lots more to learn, but I was hoping you fine folks could help me answer a question that I haven't been able to find a decent answer to on le google...Maybe my google skills are just bad.

I'm very interested in learning how to solo, and I think that my best shot at that is to fly kitey fits. Maybe that's just my personal bias speaking, but from what I saw yesterday getting blobbed seems like an inevitability unless you have the speed and agility to take fights on your own terms. The fit i've been using is:

[Condor, Kite]

Arbalest Compact Light Missile Launcher
Arbalest Compact Light Missile Launcher
Arbalest Compact Light Missile Launcher

Baker Series Compact Tracking Disruptor
Baker Series Compact Tracking Disruptor
5mn Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Warp Disruptor II

Ballistic Control System II
Nanofiber Internal Structure II

Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Polycarbon Engine Housing I
Small Bay Loading Accelerator I

Range and Tracking scripts in cargo
500 Thermal and Kinetic Cal Navy Light Missiles

With my pitiful skills:

3.8 km/sec
1k ehp
60 dps

My question is what missiles should I be bringing with me? When I fit up 20 of these ships and hauled them down to my staging system, I brought an equal number of each damage type of missile with me. Yesterday I was able to determine that Thermal and Kinetic seem to work best for the ships I was shooting (Gallente and Amarr,) but how does one know exactly what their resist hole is?

Is there a widely accepted formula that I can commit to memory or does it vary from ship to ship and simply take practice to learn?
Oreb Wing
Last Rites.
#2 - 2016-01-29 21:41:23 UTC
It's nearly always guesswork as to what a resist hole might be. Go with your gut when you come across an armor ship, shoot it with explosive. EM against a shield ship. Yet, there are many factors that come into play, such as the bonuses of your ship. That even though an armor ship MIGHT have an explosive hole if it is not rigged or plugged with a specific hardener (not likely in frigates) you might also offset the dmg by the effective bonuses your ship received to specific damage types. For instance, if you fly a hookie, you have a pretty awesome Kintetic bonus that might even apply more damage to a higher resist than if you were to switch over to the hole with an unbonused nova missile. Still, missiles are weird and they may confuse you, as you have four types and the Rage/Javelin or Precision/Fury. You'll get ahang of it eventually, with plenty of opportunities later to kick yourself over what ammo type you think you should have used for what.

I also doubt you need 2 TD's, but you never know! Many AB rail comet's out there these days.

good luck and fly well
Borodin
Doomheim
#3 - 2016-01-29 23:35:47 UTC
Well, I seem to have answered my own question through subsequent research...

Obviously the base resist holes for T1 ships are as follows:

EM for Shield tanks
Explosive for Armor tanks

Sometimes those resists are plugged. If a shield ship plugs their lowest resist (EM) then Thermal will then become the next lowest resist. If an armor ship plugs it's lowest resist (Exp) then Kinetic becomes it's next lowest resist.

However, apparently frigs often don't plug their resist hole which means that their base resist holes are still EM for shields, and Explosive for Armor.

What I wasn't aware of at the time of writing the OP was that the Condor has a Kinetic damage bonus. :Derp:

So, after EFT'ing and comparing some of the fits of the ships I killed yesterday, (most of them were actually hull tanked, meaning all resists are uniform,) i've come to the following conclusion:

(If I believe that the resist holes have been plugged)

Shoot Thermal for Shields
Shoot Kinetic for Armor

(If I believe that the resist holes are not plugged)

Shoot EM for Shields
Shoot Kinetic for Armor (Applied damage is still higher with kinetic than it is from shooting a lower damage type into a lower resist.)

(If I suspect hull tank)

Shoot Kinetic because it's resists are uniform and I have a Kinetic damage bonus.


So based on the resist profiles of other T1 Frigates and Dessies, I should be carrying about 2 reloads of:

EM
Thermal
Kinetic

And if in doubt, use Thermal for shield ships and Kinetic for Armor ships.

I'm not even going to try to wrap my head around T2/T3 resists at this point, but if I am wrong about anything I just said I hope that someone will point it out.

Thanks again o7
Desiderya
Blue Canary
Watch This
#4 - 2016-01-30 03:04:09 UTC
The formula is: You get a significant kinetic damage bonus ( up to 50% ). Don't bother switching around unless you're fighting t2 resists. Odds are folks are closing their vulnerabilities anyways.

Ruthlessness is the kindness of the wise.
Fourteen Maken
Karma and Causality
#5 - 2016-01-30 08:36:03 UTC
Most shield frigs plug their em hole with rigs, armor frigs/destroyers don't due to speed penalty on armor resist rigs.

Explosive or Thermal usually best, only bother with Kinetic if you have kinetic damage bonus.
Oreb Wing
Last Rites.
#6 - 2016-01-31 20:42:27 UTC
The best way to remember t2 resist profiles is that they usually have a very high resist to their opposing factions best dmg type.

Amarr has very high explosive and em
Minmatar high em/therm
Gallenteans kin/therm with high kinetic
Caldari same I think, with high thermal. Have to double check. Easy to remember.
Borodin
Doomheim
#7 - 2016-02-01 06:36:37 UTC
Desiderya wrote:
The formula is: You get a significant kinetic damage bonus ( up to 50% ). Don't bother switching around unless you're fighting t2 resists. Odds are folks are closing their vulnerabilities anyways.


Of course, this makes lots of sense and makes things much simpler. And less expensive.

For the last night or two i've been carrying nothing but Kinetic and I seem to be doing better.