Ludvosh Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I have a Quell in my list of ships. I thought ok I have an EMP missile option to clear out those (lack of a better term) Damn blessed annoying drones and mines now introduced into Starfighter. My thinking was ok, I've got a ship with somewhat decent shields, fair laser power, and missiles. Boy I was WRONG! I'm looking at it from the point how can a "Ranged" craft be effective in clearing mines and drones be a help to their team with a EMP missile effective range of 7500m? Now, before my Flamming begins: How does one clear a mine/drone field without having to get danger close? I'm finding out a myself cannot do it, without loosing his craft. I've tried several different ways, strafe, hit and run, etc, and a majority of the time I'm going down in flames. One would think that the Dev's allowing for a team effort in clearing such annoyances would allow for 10,000m as with the proton torp. Then a gradual reward for finishing the line. Bottom line for this player I'm finding it lacking in an effective role at the moment as a support/clearing fighter. Any insight would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yndras Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 I have a Quell in my list of ships. I thought ok I have an EMP missile option to clear out those (lack of a better term) Damn blessed annoying drones and mines now introduced into Starfighter. My thinking was ok, I've got a ship with somewhat decent shields, fair laser power, and missiles. Boy I was WRONG! I'm looking at it from the point how can a "Ranged" craft be effective in clearing mines and drones be a help to their team with a EMP missile effective range of 7500m? Now, before my Flamming begins: How does one clear a mine/drone field without having to get danger close? I'm finding out a myself cannot do it, without loosing his craft. I've tried several different ways, strafe, hit and run, etc, and a majority of the time I'm going down in flames. One would think that the Dev's allowing for a team effort in clearing such annoyances would allow for 10,000m as with the proton torp. Then a gradual reward for finishing the line. Bottom line for this player I'm finding it lacking in an effective role at the moment as a support/clearing fighter. Any insight would be appreciated. Lud, Your forgetting that a Railgun that shoots from 15km, has a 3sec charge time and does 1600 damage with 20% sheild peircing vs a torpedo with a 10km range, and 4 second lock on time doing 830 damage with a 11sec cooldown is balanced. Id rather the missile tbh. Railguns on all types should be removed. Particularly ion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEATHICIDE Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 OP, I am feeling the same way since I swapped my concussions for EMPs. The EMPs seem to pack a minor sting rather than an explosion, and I do feel that boosting the range to that equal of a railgun drone should have been the way they went about things from the get go. I have just been telling myself to wait until I have them mastered before becoming too critical, but as it stands, I second your suggestion to buff the EMP missile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerfaut Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The EMP missile on the Pike appears to be bugged. According to the tooltip, it should do 362 hull damage to the primary target (the one you lock the missile onto), but it always does 180 damage instead. I have been paying very close attention to make sure the number wasn't from secondary targets but actually from my primary target. This happens 100% of the time. In fact, I have never actually seen any damage numbers on secondary targets but that may be because there just weren't any secondary targets within the radius of the blast. What is the radius supposed to be anyway? I couldn't find this info in the tooltip. Giving up cluster or concussion missiles to get the EMP (I use EMP/Proton on my Pike) means a big sacrifice in terms of effectiveness against any ship other than a bomber. I would be fine with this if the EMP missile actually did the 362 hull damage it's supposed to be doing, as alternating proton torpedoes and EMP missiles would be an effective way to fight any ship that actually lets me lock-on to them. But with just 180 damage per hit, it is extremely underwhelming, and the Pike/Quell feels a bit lackluster as a result. I also think that the lock-on time for the EMP missile should be slightly reduced, as I often get killed while having to fly straight for 3 seconds to lock it on a target when I'm trying to clear a minefield. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lendul Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The EMP range should be fine to take out everything other than a raildrone and even then you should only take one hit which will only take down one shield arc. I think you are confusing being effective with taking zero damage. But you are right once the EMP gets fully upgraded if changes from good utility to deadly synergy with protons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCaliban Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 My thinking was ok, I've got a ship with somewhat decent shields, fair laser power, and missiles. Boy I was WRONG! I'm looking at it from the point how can a "Ranged" craft be effective in clearing mines and drones be a help to their team with a EMP missile effective range of 7500m? Other than the railgun drone, what has a larger range than 7,500m? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stealthrider Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 Try using EMP field to take out mines/drones. No, wait, don't, 'cause it's suicide and you'll be lucky to destroy an already-damaged mine. And then if you survive you'll have to wait 45 seconds before you can do it again, meanwhile you're probably in range of the fresh set of mines the bomber just dropped on his 15sec cooldown. Only reliable way to take out mines/drones is Ion Railgun. Which blows **** up while ignoring LOS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davionix Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 (edited) 1-) EMP damage is dealt directly to hull but affected by armor reduction effects. 2-)EMP disables system abilities for its debuff duration. i.e. No regular mines,drones,targeting telemetry,blaster overcharge, booster overcharge, sensor beacon and emp field can be used by targets affected by the debuff. Bombers can still drop seeker or seismic mines because they are slotted as secondary weapons. 3-) Final tier upgrade EMP gives you the choice of disabling engine abilities of target during debuff, similar to one of the choices of the sabotage probe. Disabled engine = almost guaranteed hit from your secondary missile. Edited February 12, 2014 by Davionix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lendul Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 1-) EMP damage is dealt directly to hull but affected by armor reduction effects. EMP has 100% armor piercing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itkovian Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Quell/Pike is an EXCELLENT starfighter, and an absolutely deadly machine, including against bombers. Just... don't use EMP. It's not worth it. Load up Protorps and Clusters, and you'll be fine. Bombers made protorps far more useful, as they cannot evade missiles (and are generally slow targets as well), and of course they can take out drones/mines from outside their range. But really, you don't even need that. Strike fighters are resilient enough to take a few hits: go in and start blasting with your lasers and cluster missiles. So long as you're not getting too close to mines you WILL take the drones before getting too damage, then disengage to heal up and come back to dispense with the bomber. Having done it several times myself, trust me, it can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luckyluzi Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 yes pike/quell are fine, i usual doing 110-130 Dps per round on mine, just practice midrange combat with heavys+concussion or protos and you will have no problems with bombers or any other ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sidenti Posted February 12, 2014 Share Posted February 12, 2014 The Quell/Pike is an EXCELLENT starfighter, and an absolutely deadly machine, including against bombers. Just... don't use EMP. It's not worth it. Load up Protorps and Clusters, and you'll be fine. Bombers made protorps far more useful, as they cannot evade missiles (and are generally slow targets as well), and of course they can take out drones/mines from outside their range. But really, you don't even need that. Strike fighters are resilient enough to take a few hits: go in and start blasting with your lasers and cluster missiles. So long as you're not getting too close to mines you WILL take the drones before getting too damage, then disengage to heal up and come back to dispense with the bomber. Having done it several times myself, trust me, it can be done. Seconded. Actually, one of my favorite tricks in a Pike is to charge headlong into the minefield, clearing the mines for the Scouts that follow and retreating to heal a touch in the ensuing chaos. It's immensely satisfying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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