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Combat: Railguns or Artillery

I have a chance at the moment to go either to artillery or railguns. I used rails in my frigates and then in a destroyer, but because of a bad set up, I used artillery to finish off the set up. I have graduated to a cruiser and use artillery only (Tech 1 at present), but I get regularly sneered at by more experienced players for not using rails. I know that Artillery have slower reloading and magazine size, but they have better range and damage multiplier. Is there a definite winner or are they much of a muchness. I need to know so that I can work towards Tech II guns - rails or artillery.

My apologies for the lack of detail in my question. I am a Gallente pilot who is flying a Thorax Cruiser at the moment and after a lot of training I will be flying a Myrmidon Battlecruiser. I know that railguns have an advantage in Gallente - My question is: Has anyone done a comparison between skilled up Tech 2 Railguns and Artillery (not autocannons). There are some wonderful multipliers with artillery (and rails), and I wondered whether to go back to rails for the Advanced Trainining and Specialization.

Thanks to all who answered.

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canhasgank
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What ships are you flying? That is the most important factor in answering your question…

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2 answers

  • 4

darinas [ Moderator ]

Matt's note takes the position that you are Matari and have confused rails with autocannons. I am going to assume you are Gallente and are using artillery on your gallente ships.

The show info screen of your ship will detail clearly what bonuses you get for the skills you have in flying the ship. On a gallente ship these will usually be hybrid bonuses (hybrid = railgun or blaster) and on minmatar ships the bonuses will be for projectile weapons (projectile weapons = autocannons or artillery). Always fit your ship for the bonuses it gives you. If the ship's bonus is:

  • 5% damage, rate of fire or tracking speed per level for hybrid guns, then you need to fit a hybrid gun.
  • 5% extra optimal range for hybrid guns, then you would fit railguns and fight at long(ish) range.
  • 5% extra falloff range for hybrid guns, then you would fit blasters and fight at short(ish) range.
  • 5% damage, rate of fire or tracking speed per level for projectile guns, then you need to fit a projectile gun.
  • 5% extra optimal range for projectile guns, then you would fit artillery and fight at long(ish) range.
  • 5% extra falloff range for projectile guns, then you would fit autocannons and fight at short(ish) range.

If the ship doesn't have a bonus for a gun then you can fit whatever you like. Projectile weapons do not use capacitor, so it is good to fit those with capacitor-heavy fittings, and hybrids (supposedly) do more damage, so it is a good idea to fit those on a ship fitted for gank. But only if the ship doesn't have a bonus for any kind of weapons!

Then again, if you like the idea of firing a volkswagon-beetle-sized projectile from your Exeqoror cruiser, do not listen to ANYONE who tells you it is wrong! If you don't want to lose more often than you win, then listen to those people.

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matt_12
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Darina has made some very subsynced points, there are odd occasions where perculiar fits just work, but they are very few and far between… For instance the most notable one I can think of is fitting a Battleship MWD to a Vagabond….. you laugh but that is one fast ship, but that and a point and it’s maxed out so very specialised and expensive ship right there for a very specific purpose. But if you know what you are doing or you feel like experimenting as Darina says don’t let anyone stop you. In fact if you give it ago and work out a nice fit I’d love you to teach me :D

darinas
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Really? A BS-sized MWD on a Vaga? I gotta try that!

count scary
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A fit like this I imagine: [Vagabond, BS MWD] Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit Damage Control II

100MN MicroWarpdrive II Medium Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 800 Invulnerability Field II Warp Scrambler II 5x 425mm AutoCannon II, Hail M Drone Link Augmentor I

2x Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Hobgoblin II x5

6058 m/s with the MWD on, 8900m/s overheated…..yep, almost 10km per second overheated…….leave the MWD on for one cycle, and you will be out of point range……lol

count scary
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A Fit like this I imagine: [Vagabond, BS MWD] —4x Dark Blood Reactor Control Unit —Damage Control II

—100MN MicroWarpdrive II —Medium Capacitor Booster II, Navy Cap Booster 800 —Invulnerability Field II —Warp Scrambler II

—5x425mm AutoCannon II, Hail M —Drone Link Augmentor I

—Medium Ancillary Current Router I —Medium Ancillary Current Router I

Hobgoblin II x5

darinas
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With my stats that gives a vaga with 5600 m/s and an align time of 29 seconds. Somehow I thought it would be faster.

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  • 3

matt_12 [ Editor ]

I take it you are matari and that you mean auto cannons rather than Gallente Rail guns?!

This depends on what you do, if you are looking at mainly PVE or being a sniping specialist, ie going for Sniping HACS or Tempest, you are best off with the Alpha and Range of Arty.

If however you are mainly PVP and are looking to go for main fleet ships such as Battlecruisers/Battleships and general close range ships such as Dictors, Hictors, Inty's etc you are much better off with Tech 2 AutoCannons which pump out more DPS.

Also, if you want range you can get respectable range in fall off with Barrage.

If you do both PVE and PVP I would still lean towards AutoCannons and then do large & medium T2 Arty afterwards...

You shouldn't lose PVE ships very often if at all, so you can afford to invest in Scout versions of the arty which are nearly as efficient as T2 just without the ability to use T2 ammo.

Minmatar have both a blessing or a curse, we have so much flexibility on ship layout and using the right tool for the job is important.

Problem is that means 2 times as much training! You will eventually be able to get both, but if you are still struggling to decide, consider this.....

Medium guns go on Battlecruisers and Cruisers and smalls on Destroyers and Frigates.

Large guns only go on battleships!

If you are happy not rushing to battleships and would rather consolidate your skills with the smaller ships, getting T2 arty mediums and T2 autocannons in smalls and mediums will serve you really well...

The Hurricane is an excellent passive shield tanking 650mm artillary platform as well as a potent PVP platform when armour tanked and fitted with 180mm or 220mm autocannons.

Rifter is excellent with 150mm gattlings, and cruiser wise the rupture is a miniture nightmare!

this will offer you the most flexibility then when you are ready to graduate to HACS you won't need new Arty skills, and if you are looking to go battleships then you can again asses sniping fit of the tempest or the autocannon and torp fits of the typhoon.

Ahh don't completley neglect missiles, you will use them later in your career!

One last thing, mixing Arty and Auto cannons in fits is a big NO NO, you make yourself Jack of all trades and master of none, given same skills and same ship as your opponent you will loose at close range to an autocannon fit because you won't have the DPS for a knife fight and you will loose at long range because you won't have the Alpha for a sniping contest. If you run out of grid or cpu, better taking the calibre down a notch (ie from 720mm's to 650mm's) rather than mixing weapon types.

Trying to use same calibre guns is also a good idea as they will then have same optimal and fall off/ damage potential.

Only time mixing weapon types is acceptable is missiles and turrets on matari ships, and then I would always have a primary and secondary and try to keep ranges similar.... ie close range for Autocannons and long range for Arty.

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