Choices at the end of the cannon trees for HLC & QLC, mounted on a Star Guard.

[homeloard]

So I was wondering which of the choices on the end of these two cannon trees make the most sense for my Star Guard. On the HLC you can have hull piercing at +18% or blast damage to shields at +18% and on the QLC you can have again hull damage at +16% and Shield Damage at +18%.

 

Is this one of those things where you should kill off shields with the HLC and switch to the QLC and finish with hull damage? This thought requires real skill with the Star Guard that I do not have. I guess overall my choice would be to go with the shield destruction buff's and just keep shooting.

 

Then there is the question about the term Hull Piercing as opposed to hull damage? Same thing?

 

And now that I have you thinking I really am stupid what about the phrase in the Concussion Missile last buff choice where it says avoids 100% of enemy armor.

[Delta_V]

On the heavy lasers, the last tier is a choice of *shield* piercing, not hull piercing, or increased damage to shields. Personally, I'd recommend the shield piercing upgrade, since doing guaranteed damage to the enemy's hull is always a good thing.

 

I don't know if I'd recommend using Heavies and Quads together, since they have a little too much overlap. If you want to use Heavies, I'd recommend using Rapid Fires for better performance at close range. If you want to use Quads, I'd recommend Ion Cannons to destroy shields (which would also make the extra hull damage on Quads the superior choice).

[dailus]

You can switch back and forth between the abilities that offer a choice at the end of the tree so why not try out each and see what works best for you?

 

-Dailus

[Armonddd]

On the heavy lasers, the last tier is a choice of *shield* piercing, not hull piercing, or increased damage to shields. Personally, I'd recommend the shield piercing upgrade, since doing guaranteed damage to the enemy's hull is always a good thing.

 

I don't know if I'd recommend using Heavies and Quads together, since they have a little too much overlap. If you want to use Heavies, I'd recommend using Rapid Fires for better performance at close range. If you want to use Quads, I'd recommend Ion Cannons to destroy shields (which would also make the extra hull damage on Quads the superior choice).

 

This guy knows what he's talking about.

 

Bear in mind that heavies and quads are harder to hit with at close range, and rapid fires have much shorter range than the others.

 

I personally don't like quads in their current incarnation - too much cost for not enough benefit compared to heavies. I'm also not a huge fan of ion cannons, because unless you're really good at switching off of them when the other guy's out of shields, you're likely to waste a lot of shots. Their utility also stops kicking in when you really want it to (because you have to either switch over or start doing awful damage).

 

It's worth noting that ignoring armor means massive damage to turrets, who have no shields and exactly 1000 hull. Heavies two-shot a turret at close range, but I'm not sure about quads (suspect it's about the same).

 

For a while, I ran concussion missiles (range and ignore armor), heavy lasers (shield piercing and ignore armor), rapid fire lasers (crit and shield damage), and a copilot with bypass. Concussion missiles do something on the order of 350 damage to hull when they hit, which is about a third the hull of a scout and about a fourth the hull of other ships. Several heavy laser shots would finish the guy off, regardless of his shields. Bypass makes a kill much easier (you only need three or so laser shots and a concussion missile), and is crucial for quickly eliminating priority targets.

 

Of course, the best way to do things is to try them all out over the course of a few matches each.

[Cashal]

On the heavy lasers, the last tier is a choice of *shield* piercing, not hull piercing, or increased damage to shields. Personally, I'd recommend the shield piercing upgrade, since doing guaranteed damage to the enemy's hull is always a good thing.

 

I don't know if I'd recommend using Heavies and Quads together, since they have a little too much overlap. If you want to use Heavies, I'd recommend using Rapid Fires for better performance at close range. If you want to use Quads, I'd recommend Ion Cannons to destroy shields (which would also make the extra hull damage on Quads the superior choice).

 

While this is better for fighting enemy star fighters. . . You can near one-shot a turret when you have ignore armor on. Shield piercing better for enemies . . Ignore armor better for Sat capture.

 

Edit: My mistake . . Quad and Heavy laser discussion, not Burst.

Edited January 6, 2014 by Cashal

[homeloard]

Thank you all for the replies, no L2p, trolling or you are stupid. Just really good info.

[Svarthrafn]

Go armor piercing and shield piercing on your heavies. This let's you two shot turrets, and lets you obliterate scouts at 6k. Plus with an accuracy crew member, and the the reduced evasion cooldown, you can hit scouts even when they pop distortion field (albeit infrequently).