Ask me anything / Training

[RickDagles]

NovaDive with EMP field (engine disable) + sab probe is actually very strong against the increasingly popular feedback shield T1 Gunship.

[Greezt]

NovaDive with EMP field (engine disable) + sab probe is actually very strong against the increasingly popular feedback shield T1 Gunship.

 

Engine disable? I'd get shield disable, but why engine when you get on sab probes? Anyway, that build's good only against one single target, and when the target's dead you're useless until you reset cooldowns. I've tried

[DakhathKilrathi]

Engine disable? I'd get shield disable, but why engine when you get on sab probes? Anyway, that build's good only against one single target, and when the target's dead you're useless until you reset cooldowns. I've tried

 

That would be the problem with EMP builds in general, yes.

 

For what he's describing, though, you want engine disable because a Feedback gunship has only one missile break. But against a Quarrel/Mangler, you don't need EMP to get them to blow that missile break, and barrel roll has a long cooldown. It's not really a practical build even then, just a fun one.

[RickDagles]

Yea it's not a viable build. But it works against feedback shield gunships. It's kinda like how charged plating pike works against quad/pod or quad/cluster battlescout. You wouldn't want to pick it against a good team, but you can have a lot of fun with it.

[Greezt]

After using shield to engine converter, does the shield take 6 seconds to start regenerating, or does it start immediately? And does the second upgrade give you the same amount of engine power for 10% less shield power (20% engine power for 18% shield power)?

[Greezt]

I've been going through some old posts, and now I'm confused about tracking penalty. Is the penalty reduced for how much my reticle is deviating from my target's tracking circle, or for how much my reticle is deviating from the middle of my firing arc?

[Drakkolich]

After using shield to engine converter, does the shield take 6 seconds to start regenerating, or does it start immediately? And does the second upgrade give you the same amount of engine power for 10% less shield power (20% engine power for 18% shield power)?

 

Using Shield to Engine does indeed trigger your shield regeneration delay, so you have to wait the 6 seconds for your shields to even begin regenerating. The second upgrade should work exactly as you stated, however without exact shield/engine numbers it's very difficult to test so we can't be positive. I can say that, that's how it feels like it's working when I play Shield to Engine.

 

I've been going through some old posts, and now I'm confused about tracking penalty. Is the penalty reduced for how much my reticle is deviating from my target's tracking circle, or for how much my reticle is deviating from the middle of my firing arc?

 

Tracking penalty is how much your reticle is deviating from the middle of your firing arc. The penalty itself tells you how much accuracy you lose for every single degree.

 

For example a Gunship loses 5% accuracy for every degree the target it's shooting at is off center. So if you are 10 degrees off center, you're shooting with a -50% accuracy penalty.

[Greezt]

Tracking penalty is how much your reticle is deviating from the middle of your firing arc. The penalty itself tells you how much accuracy you lose for every single degree.

 

For example a Gunship loses 5% accuracy for every degree the target it's shooting at is off center. So if you are 10 degrees off center, you're shooting with a -50% accuracy penalty.

 

So basically I want every target to be in the center of my firing arc. What happens when my reticle isn't perfectly centered on my target? Or is there no penalty for that?

[nyghtrunner]

So basically I want every target to be in the center of my firing arc. What happens when my reticle isn't perfectly centered on my target? Or is there no penalty for that?

That's not precisely true. In Drak's GS example, then it is true, because you're shooting at the actual ship, not a lead reticle. If you're firing blasters, you want your target's lead reticle to be dead center (or as close as can be managed). IE - It won't help if your target is dead center, but their lead reticle is nearly outside of your circle, at say the northwest portion of the circle's outer ring.

 

As near as I have been able to tell, there's no penalty for not having your reticle perfectly centered on your target's reticle. You effectively want your reticle to overlap with the target's lead reticle (or your reticle to overlap with the target when using rail guns), but I don't think it gives you a bonus for matching the reticles perfectly. So long as there's overlap, then it's rolling the hit dice. I know of no good way to actually test this, however, so I'm definitely going off of observation here.

[Drakkolich]

So basically I want every target to be in the center of my firing arc. What happens when my reticle isn't perfectly centered on my target? Or is there no penalty for that?

 

Sorry should have been more specific.

 

You want the reticle you are shooting at to be dead center of your firing arc for you to suffer 0 tracking penalty.

 

When you hover your mouse cursor over the firing reticle it actually changes shape, it's subtle but there. Once it changes you're good to fire from that point you registered a manual hit and the system checks to see if your accuracy minus their evasion hits.

[nyghtrunner]

When you hover your mouse cursor over the firing reticle it actually changes shape, it's subtle but there. Once it changes you're good to fire from that point you registered a manual hit and the system checks to see if your accuracy minus their evasion hits.

I'd forgotten about that, but you're right. There absolutely is a visual cue, and it is quite subtle.

[Greezt]

Huh. I've been flying this whole time making sure that my reticle was dead center on my target's lead reticle, and never taking notice of my firing arc...

[Drakkolich]

Huh. I've been flying this whole time making sure that my reticle was dead center on my target's lead reticle, and never taking notice of my firing arc...

 

You're accuracy is about to jump then! With most weapons keeping track of firing arc is a huge bonus in accuracy.

 

Your Burst laser cannon accuracy probably won't change very much because that thing can hit targets wherever it wants.

 

However with things like Railguns and Heavy laser cannons you're going to notice way more shots are doing damage if you start centering targets more. (Note your accuracy on the scoreboard at the end of the match is all the manual hits so that number won't change, you'll just see more shots doing damage)

[NeverEvar]

I think i should make a note here:

 

The size of the middle of targeting reticle relies also on the the screen resolution. So basicly it`s easier to use BLC with actual targeting effort, with higher resolution

 

Same goes for GS, from my experience (and i consider myself a quite accurate GS) the difference between lowest and highest resolution traverse in to 20% difference.

 

Which doesn't mean that you can't be accurate in lower resolutions.

[Greezt]

Your Burst laser cannon accuracy probably won't change very much because that thing can hit targets wherever it wants.

 

And Burst laser cannon is the one gun I can't pass the 40% accuracy on... But the DPS will be a nice improvement.

 

Any tips on BLC?

[Ryuku-sama]

And Burst laser cannon is the one gun I can't pass the 40% accuracy on... But the DPS will be a nice improvement.

 

Any tips on BLC?

 

Point and click. BLC are most effective when you fire a single shot instead of holding it down and firing a stream of shots. Same couldbe said for HLC. Both are at their best when firing a single shot.

[nyghtrunner]

Point and click. BLC are most effective when you fire a single shot instead of holding it down and firing a stream of shots. Same couldbe said for HLC. Both are at their best when firing a single shot.

This. It took me a while to finally get the hang of BLCs, but the accuracy soared when I started to think of firing them as pretty much the same thing as taking a snap shot. Now, when I'm shooting BLCs, my mouse goes "click, click, click" rather than "click and hold.... out of energy..." I only hold when I have a good line, and I'm in a joust and am just trying to eek out that last shot as fast as possible.

[Greezt]

Thanks guys, I'll try it out and see if I can make it work.

[Donlan_Yllvei]

Anyone have any tips on building/flying the Sledgehammer?

 

I've seen it used to great effect by some of my guildies, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It's a quirkey ship, really strange - but I think I might love it.

 

I'm using clusters, interdiction drones, heavies, charged plating, and power dive, with nullify copilot ability. Elara Dorn i think. Cant remember which minor components I've got - on a different toon rn. I just mastered the interdiction drones, and took extra slowing power + extra drone. nothing else is mastered yet on it

 

I had one game where I scored 15 kills, 17 assists, and 88k damage. But that was a fluke. Usually, I score maybe 5 or fewer kills, and around 25k damage.

 

Anyway, does anyone else enjoy flying it? Any tips on tactics? Thanks!

[Greezt]

Anyone have any tips on building/flying the Sledgehammer?

 

I've seen it used to great effect by some of my guildies, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It's a quirkey ship, really strange - but I think I might love it.

 

I'm using clusters, interdiction drones, heavies, charged plating, and power dive, with nullify copilot ability. Elara Dorn i think. Cant remember which minor components I've got - on a different toon rn. I just mastered the interdiction drones, and took extra slowing power + extra drone. nothing else is mastered yet on it

 

I had one game where I scored 15 kills, 17 assists, and 88k damage. But that was a fluke. Usually, I score maybe 5 or fewer kills, and around 25k damage.

 

Anyway, does anyone else enjoy flying it? Any tips on tactics? Thanks!

 

Wait for the experts, but I think that charged plating without armor is not worth it. I took directionals, but overcharged shields are better than Charged plating too. You just can't stack the damage reduction without the armor component, and 20% bleedthrough hurts a lot with only 19% reduction.

[Ryuku-sama]

Anyone have any tips on building/flying the Sledgehammer?

 

I've seen it used to great effect by some of my guildies, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

It's a quirkey ship, really strange - but I think I might love it.

 

I'm using clusters, interdiction drones, heavies, charged plating, and power dive, with nullify copilot ability. Elara Dorn i think. Cant remember which minor components I've got - on a different toon rn. I just mastered the interdiction drones, and took extra slowing power + extra drone. nothing else is mastered yet on it

 

I had one game where I scored 15 kills, 17 assists, and 88k damage. But that was a fluke. Usually, I score maybe 5 or fewer kills, and around 25k damage.

 

Anyway, does anyone else enjoy flying it? Any tips on tactics? Thanks!

 

 

No. Charged Plating when under 90% DR is *******r than a Pike with Ion, EMP, LLC and EtW... Don't do it. Never.

 

For the Sledge, go with Directionnal and Power Die... Overcharged is decent but if you wanna run it you need EtS... And if you plan on running without a missile breaker, use a true bomber like the Legion or the Razorwire. Use Suppression. it's the best defensive copilot if you're skilled enough to use it well...

[OKonst]

I'm running Drakolich's Build on the Sledgehammer and LOVING it

 

Of course it's a ship mostly for uncompetitive games to give new players something to actually practise shooting at without roflstomping them, but if driven to it's limits you can also evade good scout pilots for quite some time.

 

Currently sitting on a K/D-Ratio of 13.50 on that ship and averaging around 37.8k dmg per match.

Edited November 4, 2015 by OKonst

[Archonitek]

I guess this is the wrong place to say this, but shouldn't utility components give you an incentive to choose them? Seems like tensor and repair probes are the only useable ones.

 

In a world where we have constant developer involvement, patching the game either via their own ideas or player input, then yes, we should have reached a stage where all components are viable in serious matches.

 

However...

[Greezt]

Drakko, you fly your quarrel with the regeneration reduction on ion. I've been flying with the snare, but I'd like to know if I should switch. Snares seem kinda useless against other gunships, but wouldn't the other choice leave me vulnerable to scouts?

[Danalon]

Regeneration reduction also works against scouts and they will have a harder time chasing you. If you hit a Scout that was low on engine energy it also "disables" the Scout's boost which makes it easier to hit.

 

From my experience, if a Scout surprises me, then it's irrelevant what upgrade I have, because I have to run away and didn't hit the Scout with a railgun before. If a Scout doesn't surprise me, i.e. trying to attack while inside my firing arc, I have the chance to rail him once before the dogfight/chase starts. It almost doesn't matter which railgun I use then. All railguns can do enough damage to possibly scare the scout away. Ionrail's slow makes it a little easier to gain distance on the scout and it's regeneration reuction makes it harder for the Scout to chase you, because he'll be low on engines for a while.

 

Anyway, the advantage you get from using regeneration reduction against other targets (especially Gunships) clearly outweighs everything the slow can offer.

Edited November 8, 2015 by Danalon