Armour penetration - what is this?

[Bleeters]

As the thread title asks. I had assumed armour penetration refered to any passive damage reduction your hull had. Is this correct?

[Brimmer]

Armour penetration allows you to pierce the hull easily. Edited December 12, 2013 by Brimmer

[Nemarus]

Stock ships usually have 0-10% damage reduction, but they can build it up to 35%.

 

Turrets on the other hand have over 55% damage reduction, so AP helps immensely on those.

[Bleeters]

Stock ships usually have 0-10% damage reduction, but they can build it up to 35%.

 

Turrets on the other hand have over 55% damage reduction, so AP helps immensely on those.

So it's a counter stat for passive damage reduction?

Edited December 12, 2013 by Bleeters

[Armonddd]

That's correct. Of note, ships tend to not have an enormous amount of armor - scouts start with 0% armor, while other ships start with 5%. The maximum possible armor that I know of is 34% damage reduction by picking up Deflection Armor (+20%) and choosing the right crew member (+9%) on a non-scout (scouts obviously cap at 29%). However, not all ships can pick up Deflection Armor, and some will have better choices anyway.

 

It's interesting to note that turrets have something like 75% damage reduction from armor. A set of fully upgraded burst lasers with 100% armor penetration and increased hull damage can guaranteed two-shot a turret with either two laser bursts or a laser burst and a rocket pod/cluster missile, and can one-shot a turret with a crit from a laser burst.

 

Is it worth it to spec your ship to ignore armor? I don't think so, unless you're using heavy laser cannons (which get both Ignore Armor and Shield Piercing - a very nice combo indeed). In my experience, most enemies that I fight and don't quickly kill will return with their shields up. Shield piercing is a much more reliable way to damage the enemy in these instances, and these are the enemies that are preventing me from capping points. Of course, there's something to be said for a Rycer that cycles between Ion Cannons and Rapid-Fire or Quad Laser Cannons with Increased Critical Hit Chance and Increased Hull Damage, but that's a fairly skill-intensive build.