A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - The Type 3 Bomber

[RickDagles]

Lately I've been spending a lot of time flying the Sledgehammer/Decimus. This thing can really be a dangerous ship in both TDM and Domination. While overall not quite as OP as T1/T2 Scout and T1/T3 Gunship, it can certainly hold its own. It may not surive as long as a T3 Strike, but it certainly has more firepower.

 

The way I set it up -- it feels the way a Strike Fighter was meant to feel, albeit a bit slower. It has the same turning rate as a default Strike. It has tons of firepower far and close range. It can both avoid and absorb plenty of hits. With Powerdive, its mobility is actually not as huge of a weakness as you might expect. It still has terrible passive mobility but you can dart around quickly every 10 seconds and be a really annoying turtle to kill.

 

Additionally, this ship is actually very good at "bomber busting" -- which is what the ship tooltip actually states is its purpose. The HLC is great at quickly clearing turrets, mines, and drones at a safe range. Then once you get close to the bomber you can really slow him down by dropping an interdiction drone. This makes it actually viable to land HLC shots (which are terrific even against charged plating deflection armor builds). And your 2000 armor hull can survive plenty of his mine drops.

 

 

Much thanks to the Stasiepedia for providing the framework and thought process for this build:

 

B-5 DECIMUS // SLEDGEHAMMER

 

:: COMPONENTS

 

Primary Weapon: Heavy Laser Cannon (T4 Ignore Armor, T5 Shield Piercing)

Paired with Wingman and range capacitors, this gives you a super accurate medium-long range weapon that can be used to "snipe" shots by centering the target and tapping the button. The ignore enemy armor upgrade allows you to clear a node from turrets/drones extremely quickly and easily. Shield piercing lets you play clean-up to finish off enemies that have low hull with full shields.

 

Secondary Weapon: Cluster Missiles (T4 Increased Range, T5 Double Volley)

This is your medium-short range option since slow ship turning rate and high tracking penalty of the HLC makes them less useful when enemies are up close.

 

Engine: Power Dive (T3 Increased Turning Rate)

With practice you can use this move to travel huge distances, even with 0 engine power available. This effectively lets you get behind a wall and out of line of sight (LoS). This makes it very difficult for Gunships to kill you. You will laugh when a Gunship nails you with a full Ion Railgun because you can usually get out of his 15000m range as well as LoS. And if a Scout is chasing you, drop an Interdiction Drone (more on that later) and spam cluster missiles. This Engine really offers a massive boost to the ship's mobility and removes the "sitting duck" weakness associated with bombers. If you want to kill this T3 bomber then be prepared for a long annoying chase. The increased turning rate combined with the turning capacitors (more on that later) effectively gives this ship the same turning as a default Strike.

 

Systems: Interdiction Drone (T4 Increased Interdiction Effect, T5 Additional Active Drone)

As stated earlier, this can be very effective in combination with crafty use of powerdive. When getting focused by a Scout, find a good nook to hide behind, and drop the drone. Spam a bunch of cluster missiles and you will likely kill him or at least put a nice dent in him.

 

The drone can also be used offensively. Let's say you're trying to cap a satellite and you're cycling through enemies with the tab button. A gunship is 14000m away. Do you hide? You would have to as a T1 or T2 bomber. But what I like to do with the T3 bomber is to powerdive toward the gunship, get in 3000m range, drop the drone and pound him with HLC and clusters. The beauty here is that you can survive a lot of hits point blank and/or hits from supporting teamates.

 

Shields: Overcharged Shield (T3 Right Side)

This shield brings your base up to 2700 shield and 2000 armor for a total of 4700 hit points. And with the T3 upgrade you can instantly regenerate 450 shield (thanks Verain), so effectively this ship has 5150 hit points. That means 4 slug railguns, 7 close up BLC shots, 6 double volley cluster missiles. Obviously crits will change these values but the point is that it's not easy to take down.

 

Thruster: Turning Thrusters

The 10% boost here combined with the 10% boost on Power Dive gives this bomber the same turning as a default Strikefighter. This is extremely useful in keeping the enemy in your sites for cluster missiles. It is also somewhat important for centering your HLC shots.

 

Reactor: Large Reactor

More shields to protect yourself with. Most kills are done through high damage in a short period.

 

Capacitor: Range Capacitor

PowerDive makes the active mobility very good. However, this bomber's passive mobility is still very very slow. So the more range you have, the better. A lot of times you will find yourself almost stationary while lining up and "sniping" targets with HLC in the 6000-6900m range.

 

Magazine: Regeneration Extender OR Munitions

I think this selection is personal preference. If you find yourself using more HLC than clusters, then select the Regen Extender. If you find yourself running out of clusters a lot, pick Munitions. I personally pick Regen Extender because I can usually resupply cluster missiles from a friendly drone.

 

:: CREW

 

Copilot: Salana Rok / Akaavi Spar (Wingman)

Gives you a higher chance of hitting enemies that are off-center (heavy lasers have a huge tracking penalty) and targets with evasion. Hitting Wingman will get you more kills on high-evasion targets (like gunships and scouts) at a medium to long range.

 

Offensive: Jaesa Willsaam / Qyzen Fess (2 degrees to firing arc, 6% accuracy)

Most of the other offensive crew choices are very lackluster and do not contribute anything to bomber damage. Accuracy and firing arc help your heavy lasers and cluster missiles out.

 

Defensive: Xalek / M1-4X (10% shield power pool, 9% damage reduction)

More hitpoints.

 

Tactical: Salana Rok / Akaavi Spar (sensor focus range & communication / communication & dampening)

Increased sensor focus range for finding enemies across the battlefield and communication range for a better view of the battlefield. Primarily chosen for the active ability, Wingman. Unfortunately, the Republic only has two options for Wingman, neither of which are all that great.

 

Engineering: Blizz / C2-N2 (10% engine power pool, 13% engine efficiency) or Yuun / 2V-R8 (13% weapon power efficiency, 13% engine efficiency)

Personal preference. I use Yuun/2V-R8 for more HLC shots.

 

Overall I find this ship is a lot more fun to play than the T3 Strike. And this build is very effective in both Domination and TDM -- whereas with the T3 Strike you are better off building the ship specifically for one of the two match types.

Edited November 2, 2014 by RickDagles

[ALaggyGrunt]

You never want to run this against coordinated premades. The interdiction sentry will have a lifetime of about 5 seconds if it's lucky.

[RickDagles]

I fail to see how that is relevant? In both the examples I used of drone placement they were used specifically to briefly slow down an enemy and impair his turning. I'm not using the drone for area denial etc.

 

In other words, I am basically using it the way Interdiction Drive was intended.

Edited November 2, 2014 by RickDagles

[Verain]

I think comparing it to a type 3 strike was really out of nowhere. I mean, a Clarion offers amazing support, and has long range long lockon weaponry, then you build this as a dogfighter with a powerful drone cooldown.

 

 

I'm actually looking at this and wanting to try it, but I tell you I hate that overcharged, and I think you must be daring to go without regen. I've been playing my Sledgehammer a bit recently, and I dislike how TIRED it is all the time, even with regen thrusters- but I've never tried it with the drone. In fact, the drone is probably superior versus good pilots, because it is a more powerful button than the mine (even if the mine is available often).

 

Ranged cap is something I've used, and for similar reasons, but I'm generally convinced that frequency would be superior- if your target is at 6500m, just like, that's not really YOUR target, it's one you can poke a bit and maybe get a kb on. I dunno, I really don't. Again, this bomber has a hard time getting enemies to its ideal ranges, so I just am not sure.

 

 

I think it's wild that you can play this huff-puff ship without regen thrusters. I will try it, though.

 

 

 

Overcharged shield active:

Increased shield max by 270, gain 300 back instantly.

With tier 3 right upgrade:

Increased shield max by 405, gain 450 back instantly.

(these numbers do not increase with crew members, reactor choice, or any other thing- they are always that exactly on every ship that has them)

[Verain]

You never want to run this against coordinated premades. The interdiction sentry will have a lifetime of about 5 seconds if it's lucky.

 

Ok, but what if YOU are in a premade as well? Then it might help because they can't just insta swap to it, especially if you use it as a deterrent, or as part of making a safe haven for a friendly gunship.

 

I'll be blunt: I've never taken a type 3 bomber to a serious game. I think that it could have merit with good team play, but it just seems like you are forced out of a hole to be useful, but you don't have the power to really rock outside of that hole.

 

But I don't think OP was even talking about "play this as part of a big team game".

[Verain]

Hey, by the way: If you are just going to copy-paste huge sections of the stasiepedia ( http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=729222 ), you should actually post it in there. In general that's the best place for nice interesting ship builds, and we have a lot of theorycraft in that thread already.

 

By putting it in your own thread, you seem to be implying it's your own work, when in fact vast swaths are copy-pasta of TrinityLyre. Ex, your crew section is mostly stasiepasta, including:

 

"I am always a fan of a larger renewable source of defense, and stacking damage reduction here allows me to survive mine attacks and any other weaponry lacking armor penetration. This stacks well with the 10% base damage reduction you get as a bomber. A Legion/Warcarrier can stack evasion to a decent degree, but this bomber is incapable of that. However, you could also go with 10% shield power pool and 5% evasion here. The choice is yours!"

[MeisterBabylon]

I think it boils down to play style. I run a similar build on my B-wing, except with HLC, concussion missiles and mines, directionals and the aim to kill bombers and their mines in a hardened position which still having enough teeth left to fight scouts. And that POWER DIVE!! Agile minelayer gimme gimme!

 

I will almost never bring my B-wing out in a TDM, but Domination is where it comes out to play depending on whether I need more offense on a sat with some capability to hold it against slower craft and yet have no long corridors to fire from which a railgun would be better suited instead of mines (those maps are when I bring out the Condor).

[RickDagles]

Hey, by the way: If you are just going to copy-paste huge sections of the stasiepedia ( http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=729222 ), you should actually post it in there. In general that's the best place for nice interesting ship builds, and we have a lot of theorycraft in that thread already.

 

By putting it in your own thread, you seem to be implying it's your own work, when in fact vast swaths are copy-pasta of TrinityLyre. Ex, your crew section is mostly stasiepasta, including:

 

"I am always a fan of a larger renewable source of defense, and stacking damage reduction here allows me to survive mine attacks and any other weaponry lacking armor penetration. This stacks well with the 10% base damage reduction you get as a bomber. A Legion/Warcarrier can stack evasion to a decent degree, but this bomber is incapable of that. However, you could also go with 10% shield power pool and 5% evasion here. The choice is yours!"

 

Yea you are right. The only reason I was even able to come up with this build was because of reading Stasie's guide and other stuff on the forums. Putting it in Stasie's format was kinda my way of giving him/her the credit.

 

I think comparing it to a type 3 strike was really out of nowhere. I mean, a Clarion offers amazing support, and has long range long lockon weaponry, then you build this as a dogfighter with a powerful drone cooldown.

 

Yea I probably should have explained that better. The way I fly my Clarion/Imperium is pretty similar. Do some damage with Quads and then retreat with powerdive and turtle up with repair drones. So basically with this bomber build you are trading repair probes in for interdiction drone and clusters (those are the major changes at least). I know that's a pretty selfish use of repair drones, but I admit I'm not a very good Clarion/Imperium pilot

Edited November 2, 2014 by RickDagles

[MaximilianPower]

Interesting...I've been flying a lot of T3 bomber myself, largely because I'm an achievement whore, all I have left are bomber cheevs (and repair medals) and the T3 is the only bomber I can stomach flying. I guess that's largely due to its strike-like handling. But this is a build I've never considered, from a few angles. I like the idea and I'll give it a try this week. Thanks for posting.

[Nemarus]

I've had surprising success with two different builds of T3 Bomber. Both share Interdiction Drove, Directional Shields, and Power Dive, but have different weapons and styles.

 

The "Ranger"

 

The first, which I'd call the Ranger, is built around mid-range engagement. It uses HLC's and Concussion Missiles to do sustained DPS from 5000+ meters out. It has Regeneration Thrusters to give it roaming mobility. It's quite fun to play in Deathmatch against weak to moderate opponents. And like a Strike, it has a hard time killing Scouts because of Distortion Field. But unlike a Strike, the Ranger Decimus can at least throw out an Interdiction Drone to frustrate any pursuing Scouts. Usually, it's enough to dissuade Scouts from attacking it in earnest, giving it time to retreat back to its optimum shooting distance. And, unlike the T1 and T2 Strikes, Power Dive gives the Decimus good battlefield mobility, a frequent missile break, and defense against Ion Railgun.

 

I'd recommend this build to anyone who wants to use Concussion Missiles and/or the mid-range style, but feels too frustrated in a Strike. It can shine quite brightly in TDM, though it requires lesser foes or lots of Damage Overcharge. In Domination, it's just not useful enough under a satellite to be competitive.

 

 

The "Spider"

 

A much more powerful, and much more surprising build was an experiment that I really didn't expect to work as well as it does. The "Spider" T3 Bomber is all about short-range bulldog combat. It has LLC's, Cluster Missiles, and Turning Thrusters. Unlike the Ranger, which holds its Interdiction Drone in reserve for defense, the Spider uses its Drone for attack.

 

I basically Power Dive to literally dive into a furball of Scouts and Strikes, drop my Interdiction Drone (which immediately puts the speed and turning debuff on 3 nearby ships), then use that window of superior mobility to melt faces with LLC's and double-volley Cluster Missiles (of which the Spider has a huge capacity, since it's a Bomber). It sounds like a farce, I know. But time and again, this build proves itself, both in Domination and TDM.

 

I think the secret is that LLC's are balanced around the assumption that it will be hard to keep them on target for any sustained window of time. Even if a Scout with LLC's can turn sharply enough to keep someone in line of sight, its radius is going to be so jittery that it's hard to keep the reticle on the target-lead while both you and the target are turning.

 

But the Spider feels different. Its turning speed is slower and easier to control. And Interdiction Drone slows the target down enough that the Spider can turn sharply enough to keep it centered. This combines to make LLC's feel surprisingly user friendly and trivial to use on this ship--it almost feels like an entirely different weapon than LLC's on Scouts. As a result, you can keep the target bathed in LLC, while also spamming them with Clusters (which you never run out of), while your Interdiction Drone shoots them as well. This build is very, very impressive against Scouts of all kinds.

 

And as far as survivability goes, you've got 2000 hull, Directional Shields (with Large Reactor), and most importantly Power Dive. Even if your Interdiction Drone gets blown up after 5 seconds, clever use of Power Dive and Directional Shields can keep you alive for a long time, so long as you use terrain or a satellite for cover. Remember that Power Dive gives you not only a missile break, but makes you almost impossible to shoot for 3 out of every 10 seconds.

 

This is not an extraordinary score, but it is a routine one for what I normally pull in this build. And it is incredibly fun.

Edited November 2, 2014 by Nemarus

[RickDagles]

I like that Spider build Shayd. That's actually what my build is like before I make the upgrade to HLC. I think the HLC are a must because this ship is so passively slow that it needs a long range weapon. It's just too difficult to keep enemies in range of your LLCs unless they are caught in interdiction (which is only once a minute). Although I will admit it might be a bit more FUN using the LLCs. Edited November 3, 2014 by RickDagles