I did not make that claim. My references were actual builds I've seen players use.
UnrealJay's packhounds will be a set of 4, iirc high capacity with overload for DPS because the damage type stacks instead of converting as described, and premiums to make up the shortfall of missiles.
Now double it in Odyssey.
This is what a missile build means.
Well that makes a lot more sense anyway, and is similar to how I typically engineer mine. Thank you for clarifying.
That overload bug should definitely be fixed. Using it as an example of why missiles are overpowered doesn't sail, however; it's just showing that they're bugged and some players like to use exploits, but that doesn't say anything about how they're
supposed to be.
Now, even with that build, you're still looking at a mere 264 missiles. That's 120 seconds of firing, and about 11k total damage, 66% of which is explosive(assuming what you said about it being added rather than converted is true). That means that a prismatic FDL would only need to double bank about
once and the attacking player would run out of ammo before even breaking their shields, even IF 100% of missiles make contact. Premiums, of course, push this over the breaking point, but again, you're relying on 100% of your missiles making contact and synthesis to achieve what other builds can do by default.
A point defense turret would only need to take out a mere 10% of incoming missiles to be more effective than a shield booster in this scenario, and I think we both know a properly-oriented PDT is going to take out far more than that. In reality you're looking at taking out more like 50% of incoming missiles, and gradually growing exponentially closer to 100% depending on how well the player flies and the density of the missiles.
In other words, the build in question, in the current horizons build, is absolutely not a threat to shield tanks, even to a ship 100% built without missile defenses. This means that for most players, it's not worth sacrificing anything to become particularly more resistant to missiles, and missiles might as well not exist.
But that changes in Odyssey. Now we're at the point where damage is actually a serious threat, one that players
must account for or they'll probably die. You can't survive on dodging and banks anymore.
But with even a few PDTs, you can more than adequately deal with a significant portion of incoming missiles, but at the cost of lower shield totals.
In other words, the higher damage of missiles has actually made them relevant for once, and weakened the shield meta for the first time as well. Both good things.
As far as hull tanks are concerned, I've never said that hull tanks are good. In fact, I've said the exact opposite. But a hull tank with 2-4 point defense at least has a chance of shooting down all the missiles coming after him, not to mention being able to use Silent Running to break target lock and slow down the rate of incoming missiles.
That still doesn't make them good, but that wasn't what was under debate; all I've ever said is that a ship with more point defense is going to shoot down more missiles than a ship with less point defense, the opposite of which is what was claimed earlier in the thread.
