F-T2 Quell - What is this good for?

[varietasplus]

Is there anything F-T2 is best at in practise?

Is it any advantage to have two types of missiles if there is only one type of laser?

 

What is the point in proton torpedo when it is quite easy to get away from it both during lock-on and after torpedo is fired? Only an unexperienced player would take damage from proton torpedo.

So, what is this ship good for?

[tunewalker]

Is there anything F-T2 is best at in practise?

Is it any advantage to have two types of missiles if there is only one type of laser?

 

What is the point in proton torpedo when it is quite easy to get away from it both during lock-on and after torpedo is fired? Only an unexperienced player would take damage from proton torpedo.

So, what is this ship good for?

 

killing bombers, they have no means to dodge a missile lock.

[Helig]

It's an excellent missile boat. Use either clusters+torps, or clusters+concussives for different ranges.

 

I personally prefer Rycer/Starguard because I like Ion cannons+upgraded clusters way more.

[Sharee]

killing bombers, they have no means to dodge a missile lock.

 

Interesting observation. I didn't realize that.

[mr_sim]

Yeah the default loadout on the Quell is dumb.

 

That ship was made for Cluster missiles. I use it as a control point defender, with it being especially effective at B on mesa and C for asteroids though I'm imp and we never have C.

 

Best thing I've been doing lately is head to head, protorp then cluster missile(with double tick) and they hit at the same time.

[reclipsed]

killing bombers, they have no means to dodge a missile lock.

 

nb4 bombers get CHAFF ability

[BrianDavion]

you can fire off a torp and then immediatly switch to concussion missiles and fire one off. it's not perfect but for a mid ranged fighter it can work nicely

[Lendul]

Is there anything F-T2 is best at in practise?

Is it any advantage to have two types of missiles if there is only one type of laser?

 

What is the point in proton torpedo when it is quite easy to get away from it both during lock-on and after torpedo is fired? Only an unexperienced player would take damage from proton torpedo.

So, what is this ship good for?

They make excellent Gunship hunters. Concussion missiles with the slow and double clusters = a lot of burst damage. Edited January 12, 2014 by Lendul

[Kain_Turinbar]

you can fire off a torp and then immediatly switch to concussion missiles and fire one off. it's not perfect but for a mid ranged fighter it can work nicely

 

I use the Republic version (Pike) and I love this combo.

 

I also have heavy lasers maxed and once I get Concussion and Protons to Lv 5 (they are at 4 now) my 3 weapons will do a lot of ignoring armor/shields.

 

Heavy Lasers: ignore 100% armor and extra shield damage

Concussion Missiles: Shield Piercing and ignore 100 % armor

Proton Torpedoes: By default ignore 100% shields and armor

 

As well as once the patch hits max range with concussions will be 7700 and will remain 11500 for Proton Torpedoes.

 

Hopefully I can get these last two upgrades before the patch hits so I can see if all the qqing about bombers is justified.

[Philmors]

They make excellent Gunship hunters. Concussion missiles with the slow and double clusters = a lot of burst damage.

 

Nah, go with Proton Torpedoes first and then go with Concussion or Cluster missiles. You'll either prevent the gunship from firing on you on your approach or you'll do a lot of damage to his hull.

[Zharik]

you can fire off a torp and then immediatly switch to concussion missiles and fire one off. it's not perfect but for a mid ranged fighter it can work nicely

 

You're backwards. Lead with the concussion missile... either they use their missile lock break engine ability on the concussion missile or they get a massive reduction to their engines for 15 seconds. If they avoid the concussion, then torp em.

 

Couple this with a copilot that kills their engine reserves for a nasty surprise.

 

-Gerrik

[Lendul]

Nah, go with Proton Torpedoes first and then go with Concussion or Cluster missiles. You'll either prevent the gunship from firing on you on your approach or you'll do a lot of damage to his hull.

 

Rule # 1 of being a good Gunship hunter: Never attack a Gunship head on.

[mr_sim]

Rule # 1 of being a good Gunship hunter: Never attack a Gunship head on.

 

Not true though obviously not getting shot at all is better.

 

Going head to head with a GS with Heavy lasers can be quite effective, though I do it more in my Rycer as Heavy laser seems a bad investment on the quell, also I use my directional shields when attacking.

[Sadishist]

Best thing about the Quell is ion missiles. No other ships have that.

[Armonddd]

Best thing about the Quell is ion missiles. No other ships have that.

 

Ion missiles are worth using now?

[xyrmagus]

Ion missiles are worth using now?

 

I had a whole thread on this a few days ago where the unanimous reaction was "no". They hit hard, but are too easy to avoid and too hard to lock, plus concussions have innate piercing, better debuffs, and longer range. Most people run cluster with proton OR concussion.

 

The one thing I can't understand in this thread is all the people touting Concussion + Proton + Heavy lasers. This leaves you horribly gimped for close-in fights, especially around satellites where a 2.6s lockon is just not going to do much. Clusters, fully upgraded with the 30% bonus damage final tier, hit for over 800. For half the lockon time and half the reload but ~75% of the damage, there is no reason to NOT have these at all times for dogfighting.

[-Shadowfist-]

I had a whole thread on this a few days ago where the unanimous reaction was "no". They hit hard, but are too easy to avoid and too hard to lock, plus concussions have innate piercing, better debuffs, and longer range. Most people run cluster with proton OR concussion.

 

The one thing I can't understand in this thread is all the people touting Concussion + Proton + Heavy lasers. This leaves you horribly gimped for close-in fights, especially around satellites where a 2.6s lockon is just not going to do much. Clusters, fully upgraded with the 30% bonus damage final tier, hit for over 800. For half the lockon time and half the reload but ~75% of the damage, there is no reason to NOT have these at all times for dogfighting.

 

I'll start by clarifying that I think the Quell is a complete joke, honestly.

 

That said, I use conc/protons with a "tank"/engine build for the ship itself. When people get close range, I simply barrel/burst away, turn real fast, and even against scouts can usually get a conc lock before they catch back up, all the while slamming them with heavies on their way in.

 

I have to run the +ammo companion and extended magazines because I don't usually die at all and run out of missiles far too often.

 

I use this as a gimmick ship though, in matches that I don't have to worry about being amazingly competitive in. If there's half way decent players in the match against us, I wouldn't be on a strike fighter anyways, and certainly not a quell.

 

So to answer the OP's question, "What is this good for?", I'd say nothing competitive, just goofing around and missile boating.

Edited January 13, 2014 by -Shadowfist-

[Kain_Turinbar]

I'll start by clarifying that I think the Quell is a complete joke, honestly.

 

That said, I use conc/protons with a "tank"/engine build for the ship itself. When people get close range, I simply barrel/burst away, turn real fast, and even against scouts can usually get a conc lock before they catch back up, all the while slamming them with heavies on their way in.

 

I have to run the +ammo companion and extended magazines because I don't usually die at all and run out of missiles far too often.

 

I use this as a gimmick ship though, in matches that I don't have to worry about being amazingly competitive in. If there's half way decent players in the match against us, I wouldn't be on a strike fighter anyways, and certainly not a quell.

 

So to answer the OP's question, "What is this good for?", I'd say nothing competitive, just goofing around and missile boating.

 

You just summed up my Pike play style but I also add that I have power to shields on most of the time as well and just switch to engines if chasing/evading.

[xyrmagus]

I'll start by clarifying that I think the Quell is a complete joke, honestly.

 

This kind of sums up my frustrations at the moment. I went into starfighter ~4 weeks ago with my buddy. We don't play THAT much (maybe 3-10 games a day), but it's easy enough to get points for your ships. When we had enough to buy new ships, he went for the Flashfire, I went for the Pike (Repub equivalent of Quell). We each focused on those ships, so here I am with an almost fully upgraded Pike, still feeling frustrated. I read the description, and I understand the "Jack of all Trades" ideal, but I feel that was missed by a solid amount. Sure, I get plenty of kills and I'm usually top 1-2 on my team for damage and medals, but every time I hop on my stock Flashfire I feel more powerful.

 

My FULLY upgraded pike with turning radius at every possible choice has a slower pitch speed than a completely stock, non-upgraded Flashfire. I can understand being maybe 5% behind after both upgrade that way, but that's just wrong. Gunships have barrel roll so they can run away decently easily (especially given their range, certainly enough to get back to the safety of their base ship). The thing is, not only is the strike fighter not the best at anything, it's not GOOD at anything. Scouts are better at dogfighting (burst lasers not on the SF?!? what??!), gunships are sturdier and just as mobile when all is said and done, both are tankier because of how potent their base and cooldown evasion is with distortion shield (why again does a big *** gunship get evasion? and a SECOND button that breaks missile lock?) . Ultimately, there's no defining characteristic of a strike fighter, and that's a problem. Maybe if Pikes got an ability which prevented missile evasion once a minute, or a flat out reduction in lock on time, it wouldn't be so bad. But have you actually tried hitting a competent player with a proton torpedo? The reload is so long, along with the lockon, that they have an evasion for EVERY one you fire. The double projectile speed should be baseline, and the talent should remain, to make it that much harder to evade. Ion missiles are the single most worthless Ion weapon in the game, with no redeeming quality over the other missile choices.

 

So recently, I decided to start saving points. Because I wasn't a sub in november (but I was in Dec) I'll get access to the gunships tomorrow. Because my buddy plays a scout, I'll prob stick with a Quarrel and just do the ion railgun cheese that everyone else does, since according to the PTS that's not being nerfed.

Edited January 13, 2014 by xyrmagus

[-Shadowfist-]

Because I wasn't a sub in november (but I was in Dec) I'll get access to the gunships tomorrow.

 

I hope you're right about that, but I've been posting asking people for sources on this. I can't find anywhere from bioware that states you're getting a gunship tomorrow. I'm somewhat concerned people are making an awful lot of assumptions.

 

Edit: Nevermind. I found the dev post confirming Gunships. Just not bombers and all that.

Edited January 13, 2014 by -Shadowfist-

[Sadishist]

I had a whole thread on this a few days ago where the unanimous reaction was "no". They hit hard, but are too easy to avoid and too hard to lock, plus concussions have innate piercing, better debuffs, and longer range. Most people run cluster with proton OR concussion.

 

The one thing I can't understand in this thread is all the people touting Concussion + Proton + Heavy lasers. This leaves you horribly gimped for close-in fights, especially around satellites where a 2.6s lockon is just not going to do much. Clusters, fully upgraded with the 30% bonus damage final tier, hit for over 800. For half the lockon time and half the reload but ~75% of the damage, there is no reason to NOT have these at all times for dogfighting.

 

It's called SPECIALIZATION. If you try to be a little good at everything, you won't be extremely good at one single thing.

 

And how are ions hard to lock? They're just like cluster missiles, low lock-on time and high targetting angle. Perfect for close range and then immediately follow up with quad laser or concussion (not proton since proton goes through shields anyways)

Edited January 13, 2014 by Sadishist

[xyrmagus]

It's called SPECIALIZATION. If you try to be a little good at everything, you won't be extremely good at one single thing.

 

And how are ions hard to lock? They're just like cluster missiles, low lock-on time and high targetting angle. Perfect for close range and then immediately follow up with quad laser or concussion (not proton since proton goes through shields anyways)

 

I agree at a point-blank range dogfight, say around a satellite (but typically you'd want to use clusters for those anyway since they are MUCH easier to hit). 5k Range means it's VERY easy to just boost away. 7k for concussion gives you a lot more breathing room and chance to boost in reaction to stay behind.

 

EDIT: And in regards to specialization, a gunship or scout can do any "specialized" role of a strike fighter infinitely better. The whole point of strike fighters is being well-rounded (even the description calls them a jack of all trades, master of none).

Edited January 13, 2014 by xyrmagus

[Nemarus]

It's called SPECIALIZATION. If you try to be a little good at everything, you won't be extremely good at one single thing.

 

And how are ions hard to lock? They're just like cluster missiles, low lock-on time and high targetting angle. Perfect for close range and then immediately follow up with quad laser or concussion (not proton since proton goes through shields anyways)

 

Ion lock time is the same as Concussion lock time. 3.0 seconds base, 2.7 upgraded. But their range is short, like Cluster Missiles (which can lock on in 1.5/1.3).

 

That's the problem. If Ion Missiles were 7k range like Concussion Missiles, then they'd offer a viable alternative. But as it stands, completing a 2.7 second lock at under 5k range is pretty difficult.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Nemarus

[Armonddd]

It's called SPECIALIZATION. If you try to be a little good at everything, you won't be extremely good at one single thing.

 

The problem is, as of today, there's nothing that the Quell is even a little good at, compared to literally every other ship in the game.

 

And how are ions hard to lock? They're just like cluster missiles, low lock-on time and high targetting angle. Perfect for close range and then immediately follow up with quad laser or concussion (not proton since proton goes through shields anyways)

 

Twice the lock on time, 83% the targeting arc (which means less than 70% the targeting area, because geometry), and something close to four times the reload time put the ion missile at a huge disadvantage.

 

On the other hand, if you somehow manage to hit with them (and against a skilled opponent, that's nearly impossible), it gets 22% more damage against shields... except not only is hull damage more important, but upgraded clusters get +35% damage while ions only get +10% crit chance. Even if we completely ignore how unreliable a 10% crit chance is and take the averages (which is dumb), ions only get +3.5% damage, and that's only against shields. Their hull damage is pitiful, and clusters get shield piercing.

 

Against a target with full shields, ion missiles will apply somewhat piddly debuffs while clusters will do the all-important hull damage. Against a target with less than 800ish points of shields remaining, the ion missile will still apply those somewhat piddly debuffs and do a lot less damage, while the clusters will potentially get that kill.

 

And again, it's significantly harder to hit things with ion than with clusters. At least four times the effort (because a linear increase in lock on time plus a linear decrease in targeting area results in exponentially more difficulty getting the lock) should not result in similar rewards.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Armonddd

[Sadishist]

Well you have to factor in the utility aspects of ion upgraded. It can slow down enemy ships a whopping 40% for a whopping 12 seconds. If they try to run away after that, they're perfect bait for concussion missile. If they stay, finish with lasers.