DUST Search - HAV: Railgun vs. Missile Launchers vs. Blasters

Red Vodka wrote:

0 Try Harder wrote:

Red Vodka wrote:

:O

I think I got the Calamari -.-

I wish you could undo skill points and reallocate them in this game.

In that case I suggest you either make a new account and character to skill gallente, or stop skilling calamari and go galente.

It's only two-ish weeks into open beta, and if you plan to use your account for years to come, it will be worth it. I have one of each race that I am skilling into each type. This is because CCP changes things, and having multiple options will allow me to be more effective on the battlefield.

I see many of the EVE people saying: no points are useless because you'll use them eventually, don't bother specializing in only one thing because it will be nerfed, and eventually your character will be able to fill multiple roles. I guess if you want to wait years that's how you should roll, but I like to be as effective as I can be at all times.

I thought it was funny, but recently I heard people talking about a "personality test" for character creation. My first thought was that it would be a good idea because certain weapons and armor will eventually get racial bonuses. Maybe a scout type should go gallente, heavy armar, and shield tank/assault go calamari. I lol'd when they said, "so if you're religious maybe you should go amar". I didn't know people payed attention to that kind of stuff, I thought they just went for whatever race would give them an advantage in whatever field they want to go in ._. Anyways, if you are the kind of player who uses race to your advantage, and like me stared at the character creation screen trying to figure out what those advantages were (*lol, and which ones were alien instead of human... we are in space in the future, right? Where are the aliens!*) go make a new character. If you're the other way, it probably doesn't matter.

Can you explain why I should make a new character? From what I know, you can get all the skills in the game, so wouldn't it be better to just save up the skill points and get the other tank?


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Tac Com Sand Mercenary Corps Inc. 41	Posted - 2013.01.26 20:26:00 - [1] - Quote Scheneighnay McBob wrote: I personally don't have one myself; guess it depends on your preferred engagement range Blaster- close range fights Missile- medium Railgun- long range fights This is probably closest to the truth. Blasters with thier short range often get outclassed in tank fights because the fight will often start farther then blasters would like. But up close blasters have a higher DPS then railguns so all things equal and the two tanks were close, the blaster would win. Also the multiple shots of the blaster, lower recoil, instant-hit shots, and better tracking make it better at facing infantry. As an upgrade, there is the stabilized blaster which increases it's range which does help offset it's disadvantage quite a bit which helps put more damage on target when they are that extra bit away from you (does use more fitting resources). The Scattered increases the damage but lowers tracking, it ends up being a great turret once you adjust to the new tracking speed. All that said, railguns have a significant range advantage and once you learn how to lead your shots you can be quite scary to face. Thier slow tracking speeds means you need either significant distance or planning to hit targets. It's often very tricky to hit infantry due to it's slow rate of fire and bullet flight time. On the other hand it's a synch to destroy installations and it's a great weapon to face other HAVs and even LAVs if you learn to lead your shots. The small blast radius does help against infantry but I often find I either hit them directly or don't hit them at all so I often don't get too much splash damage. For upgrades, you can get the Regulated railgun which helps increase tracking speed by a very fair margin. I've come to love this turret for railguns since in closer range fights I am more capable of defending myself. It does use more fitting resources though so you will have to find a way to fit it but I think it's worth it if you don't find yourself at the redline all the time. Missiles are just plain tricky to use, but if I was to put a strength for them, it would most likely be infantry sweeper with all the blast damage. If you learn to beable to put most of your missiles on target against HAVs or LAVs they can put out a significant amount of damage. But I've found that I've often prefered blasters for the ranges I often find myself fighting with missiles. So in short, that quote should make chosing a lot easier.
Tac Com Sand Mercenary Corps Inc. 41	Posted - 2013.01.26 21:08:00 - [2] - Quote Red Vodka wrote: Hmm, thanks a lot. I think I'll go for blasters then. Anyone also have opinions on secondary turrets? From what I understand after riding in a tank two times, is that there's the driver's main cannon, then there's a turret on the top that can go 360, and then the front turret that can only look where the front of the tank's facing. I'm thinking that maybe the 360 turret should be a blaster so it can take on infantry, and them maybe have either railgun or missiles on the front turret, to supplement any HAV vs. HAV battles. What do you guys think? Are the secondary turrets any use in HAV vs. HAV fights? Also, man, I feel like I'm never going to get a tank with the skill point cap =/ Secondary turrets are a differant issue all together.... And it usually comes down to personal preferance. The first point I'll make is small missile turrets have been nerfed to oblivion and as such any time the tank is moving even a mm it's accuracy goes buck wild. You would not beable to hit the broad side of a barn with it. As such I often would not recomend missiles as secondaries. As for blasters and railguns... Even railguns don't have that great a range. The ranges that railgun-main tanks fight at small railguns don't even come close for range. But thier concentrated damage and more mid-range ability does help suppliment vehiclular fights, expecially LAVs. Blasters again are more damaging but thier short range is even more present on small turrets. It's almost as if they were meant to only hit stuff just sitting around your tank and no farther XD But for what to choose, again it comes down to personal preferance. I do agree with having the blaster on top due to being a good infantry deterrant and I've placed a railgun on front to help deal with LAVs and larger objects. Also I do have a blaster tank fit with all blasters as extra infantry protection when moving through areas with lots of cover. I might even try a stab blaster with twin small railguns for a mid range brawler. But seconary turrets are more important when running with people you fight with regularly. In our corp, I typically have a gunner or two on mic in my tank and we'll be calling shots for each other and working as a team. When dealing with blueberries I wouldn't care what my turrets are. As a note, you might have noticed a pattern that missiles currently arn't as good as they could be. They used to hold top spot but nerfs have hit them hard. They hopefully will come back but for now if you want a turret skill to work on, get Hybrids. Hybrid turret skills are for both railguns and blasters. So as long as you skill up for that you'll get access to both.
Tac Com Sand Mercenary Corps Inc. 41	Posted - 2013.01.26 22:40:00 - [3] - Quote 0 Try Harder wrote: I pretty much agree with Tac Com. Just want to add that after missile nerfs, they are useless. In their current state, you should NEVER use a large missile turret on your HAV. Make sure you level armor HAV (Gallente) and not shield (Calamari). They give a bonus to blasters, and can absorb more damage. All small turrets are terrible. I wish CCP would let me remove them. Thank you for the support. Just to expand on your point about the HAV choice aswell, armour tanking is significantly stronger then shield tanking up close aswell due to the differances between how shield boosters vs armour reppers plus shield hardeners/armour hardeners. For the serious tanker, the Surya can be an absolute beast of a brawler. Below is a post of mine about shields vs armour, the bottom half is about vehicles for referance. https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=496006#post496006
Tac Com Sand Mercenary Corps Inc. 41	Posted - 2013.01.27 19:41:00 - [4] - Quote Red Vodka wrote: 0 Try Harder wrote: Red Vodka wrote: :O I think I got the Calamari -.- I wish you could undo skill points and reallocate them in this game. In that case I suggest you either make a new account and character to skill gallente, or stop skilling calamari and go galente. It's only two-ish weeks into open beta, and if you plan to use your account for years to come, it will be worth it. I have one of each race that I am skilling into each type. This is because CCP changes things, and having multiple options will allow me to be more effective on the battlefield. I see many of the EVE people saying: no points are useless because you'll use them eventually, don't bother specializing in only one thing because it will be nerfed, and eventually your character will be able to fill multiple roles. I guess if you want to wait years that's how you should roll, but I like to be as effective as I can be at all times. I thought it was funny, but recently I heard people talking about a "personality test" for character creation. My first thought was that it would be a good idea because certain weapons and armor will eventually get racial bonuses. Maybe a scout type should go gallente, heavy armar, and shield tank/assault go calamari. I lol'd when they said, "so if you're religious maybe you should go amar". I didn't know people payed attention to that kind of stuff, I thought they just went for whatever race would give them an advantage in whatever field they want to go in ._. Anyways, if you are the kind of player who uses race to your advantage, and like me stared at the character creation screen trying to figure out what those advantages were (lol, and which ones were alien instead of human... we are in space in the future, right? Where are the aliens!) go make a new character. If you're the other way, it probably doesn't matter. Can you explain why I should make a new character? From what I know, you can get all the skills in the game, so wouldn't it be better to just save up the skill points and get the other tank? This is exactly how it works in EVE. Your racial choice has no bearing on what you are capable of skilling into. It simply provides backround and lore and a set of starting skills, but after playing for a time those starting skills are not important as you'll likely get them anyways. Like Try Harder said too, EVE players and thus in Dust it will also hold true, no skill is useless as it will eventually be used. I'm not sure if it is true but sometimes I think CCP shakes up the stats in EVE just to keep things from getting stale. As of right now, armour tanking holds an advantage when it comes to heavy armour but shield tanking holds the advantage for dropsuits and lighter vehicles. But expect that to shift in the years to come. Even now I still use a shield buffer tank for my rail sniper tank due to it's high effective HP and abillity to regenerate itself. But for brawlers I use armour. But to really clarify, your race has no bearing on anything in game. It's only racial skills that matter. A Caldari character is free to train Gallente HAV skills as they see fit.