Cytoscramblers

[nosleepdemon]

Holy smoking shield rings, Batman! These things are great! I picked up a set of two and eight more as backups this evening. After briefly testing the cap draw on my DBS, I opted to go the oversized short range blaster route. The extra heat is inconsequential given the heat efficiency of that ship, and the other experimental effects are a net loss on damage in my opinion.

So I took my new guns on a couple of assassination missions, and they are monsters. Each does nearly 50dps to shields and at 4 pips to guns the capacitor keeps up for ages. I smoked the shields on two NPC Corvettes and ate through their banks both times. This sort of damage on a class one weapon is silly! Needless to say my heatsinks and Imperial Hammers are thankful for their new burst laser friends, as I no longer have to chew through ammo from both to take down shields while trying not to cook. The Hammers come out for sub-system sniping now, it's a beautiful combination.

 

[Julio Montega]

Yep they are powerful if used right, most people however find the jitter and the range reduction the ultimate turn down
and thus not employ them.
Good to see some "not part of most people".

 

[Screemonster]

Cytoscramblers are the perfect example in this game of a weapon that's extremeply powerful in the right hands, on the right ship, but near useless in the hands of someone that doesn't know how to use it, so most players overlook them because you can't just point at the opponent from 2k out and hold the trigger down, you actually have to fly to get the most out of them.

I run them on my DBS too, though I went with efficient/phasing.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Cytoscramblers are an example of weapons that reward skill and experimentation- they are truly the Kinder Eggs of the laser world.

If you do shop, shop responsibly though and pay that Powers Discord group a visit. Harma has fantastic rum rares and superb meaty burgers....

 

[Screemonster]

Cytoscramblers are an example of weapons that reward skill and experimentation- they are truly the Kinder Eggs of the laser world.

If you do shop, shop responsibly though and pay that Powers Discord group a visit. Harma has fantastic rum rares and superb meaty burgers....

Hell, I do my module shopping by undermining the nearest anarchy control system that isn't mine.

Which reminds me, someone flipped Caberani away from anarchy recently.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Hell, I do my module shopping by undermining the nearest anarchy control system that isn't mine.

Which reminds me, someone flipped Caberani away from anarchy recently.

Quick tip: gov types make no difference when undermining as the Powerplay bounty system is independent of C + P. So, even in an anarchy you'll still rack up bounties killing enemy ships.

 

[Screemonster]

Quick tip: gov types make no difference when undermining as the Powerplay bounty system is independent of C + P. So, even in an anarchy you'll still rack up bounties killing enemy ships.

It's not so much the bounties that bother me - or does killing powerplay ships not summon local authorities either?

 

[Rubbernuke]

It's not so much the bounties that bother me - or does killing powerplay ships not summon local authorities either?

Not normally. But killing PP ships will give you a bounty with that power, and the next time they scan you they will attack without warning. Not that it matters, PP NPCs are like being attacked by kittens made of smoke.

 

[Screemonster]

Not normally. But killing PP ships will give you a bounty with that power, and the next time they scan you they will attack without warning. Not that it matters, PP NPCs are like being attacked by kittens made of smoke.

Nice. The power bounties I didn't particularly care about, but if I can just do my thing and not worry about regular bounties and notoriety then that's great.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I forget where I undermined, but it wasn't limited to one power. I do find myself gravitating toward Eddie's systems though, something about his stupid face is just so punchable.

 

[Rick6549]

Now put phasing on them and do hull damage too

 

[Rubbernuke]

Now put phasing on them and do hull damage too

Phasing + SRB on cytos is funny- cytos are tuned to kill shields, but this combo works if the shields remain up. Its nice though. Close in you can mess up big ships.

 

[nosleepdemon]

Now put phasing on them and do hull damage too

I prefer to melt the shields and get straight to plinking at modules. I tried phasing before on huge burst lasers and it only ever did about 10% hull damage, which wasn't great especially since I've always preferred to disable ships with shots to the powerplant.

 

[Screemonster]

For PvE, pairing them with enzymes is hilarious. I dunno how annoying the effect is for players though.

 

[Julio Montega]

What 'bout the pulse disruptors though?
Does applying phasing to them trigger malfunctions?

 

[Rubbernuke]

What 'bout the pulse disruptors though?
Does applying phasing to them trigger malfunctions?

Not unless the shields are down. Phasing allows 10% ish flat non modified damage through only.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Absolute damage.

Cheers! I forgets the lingo sir.

 

[nosleepdemon]

For PvE, pairing them with enzymes is hilarious. I dunno how annoying the effect is for players though.

Could you elaborate? How do the two interact?

 

[Rick6549]

Could you elaborate? How do the two interact?

Enzyme missles melt hull until it gets burnt off or repaired but the shields have to be down. cytos take down shields super fast

 

[Screemonster]

Could you elaborate? How do the two interact?

The corrosive effect on enzymes doesn't penetrate shields but leaves a fun damage-over-time effect that lets you smack 'em and forget for a while as it takes ages to wear off. A lot of people dump on enzymes since regular dumbfires do damage immediately instead of doing it slowly over time, making them a bit of a niche weapon.

That said though - I've not seen much in the way of research on the damage types. People complaining "ugh regular dumbfires do more damage" might be finding this true against NPCs with negative resistances against explosive damage. If the DoT effect is caustic damage rather than explosive, then suddenly against engineered hulls and reactive armour they're a lot more potent in the way that PAs are.