Cannons vs. Multi-Cannons

[Baggy MacDouche]

I've seen a lot of people having load-outs with multi-cannons rather than cannons. Are they really that much better? I look at the side-by-side, ~same class/grade stats like damage/DPS and I get the impression that cannons look better.

I currently have a Cobra fitted with 2xC2D-Cannons(gimbal) and 2x1E-Beam Lasers(gimbal). My 4B Power Plant and 3A Power Distributor allow me to continuously fire my lasers for a good long time with 4 weapon pips. They eat through most shields pretty quick. Targeting the Power Plant or FSD, beams and 2xCannon shots at medium/close range seems pretty effective. But now I'm wondering if I could be doing better with Multi-Cannons.

I haven't really begun to tackle Dangerous/Elite Anacondas or Type-9s yet though. Eagles pop like zits. Cobras, Vipers, Asps, Pythons are all pretty cake. I've got chaff, point defense, 2xShield Cell Banks, B4 Shield Gen, but only Reinforced Alloy hull for defense.

I've only recently started outfitting for strictly bounty hunting, so I'm learning as I go. But hearing all this talk about multi-cannons, I'm thinking about making the switch. First, I gotta find a station that sells good ones. What about the beams? Should I be equipping something better there as well? I want to start tackling the bigger ships too.

Thanks!

 

[Midnight_Sun323]

I'll spam their shields with multi-cannons until they drop. Then close in with the cannons. They seems to do considerable damage to the bare hull. Ammo prices aren't nearly as high as they used to be, so I dropped the lasers.

 

[Katkon]

I like cannons. I find them more fun to use - the gimbaled variety. I suspect that MCs are more efficient against most ships, but I just like the look and feel of cannons. Note that even with gimbaled cannons many of my cannon rounds miss their target, hence the efficiency comment.

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I'll spam their shields with multi-cannons until they drop. Then close in with the cannons. They seems to do considerable damage to the bare hull. Ammo prices aren't nearly as high as they used to be, so I dropped the lasers.

MCs are pretty inefficient against shields. However, perhaps you make up for said inefficiency when you eventually get through to the hull?

 

[Baggy MacDouche]

I just wanted to report back because I was having a huge difficulty with hunter-killer missions, taking on elite anacondas. Even with two shield cell banks, I was getting my butt handed to me because it was taking so long to burn through its shields and start working on its hull. After awhile it would just start turning on a dime and trying to ram me and nothing I seemed to do would allow me to out maneuver it. I could have been doing some stuff wrong, but after watching several videos of people taking them out with multi-cannon loadouts, and not running into the same issues I was, I decided to go that route.

I loaded up 4xgimballed multi-cannons and just in case, a class 4 shield cell bank for a total of 10 cells. Found my target again and started out as I had done in the past, getting setup behind him and targeting the power plant. Went to work and as my multi-cannons chewed away, doing just fine against his shields, I found little trouble staying out of his beams. I ended up using 2-3 cells and a couple chaffs for good measure, but the fight was over before I could believe it. It was just like all the videos I had watched.

I just had to sit back and laugh a bit because it was night and day. I also laughed because of all the credits I recouped by selling off my cannons and beam lasers. It seriously feels like some kind of cheat or exploit that these much cheaper weapons should so markedly outperform much more expensive ones. Part of it are the shield cells I suppose as well. I hate to say this but I can smell the nerf bat swinging from a mile away on this one. I'd be surprised if not. In the meantime, I'll try and enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[Riepah]

Yep, Multi-Cannons are amazing. Make most other weapons look like garbage - garbage that is, curiously, much more expensive.

 

[CMDR Solarisjock]

wait till you try C2 beams and dumbfires, nothing quite like a single pass smashing an Anaconda for ~60% hull. once shields are down.

 

[RedWizzard]

wait till you try C2 beams and dumbfires, nothing quite like a single pass smashing an Anaconda for ~60% hull. once shields are down.

My preferred Asp layout is medium beams and small dumbfires. It's ridiculous. Cobras last about 5 seconds.

 

[shrinkshooter]

Cannons were incredibly overpowered back in beta. They nerfed them once, but went a bit too far; they're more expensive both as weapons and their ammunition, and for the fire rate and reload speed do laughable amounts of damage. The MCs are, in all respects from my point of view, exactly where they need to be.

 

[kamenjar]

I prefer cannons (gimballed) over multicannons because of extra ammo endurance and low ammo cost, at least on my asp and python. They are VERY nice against anaconda's power plants as I can usually have a loaded shot when I have an opportunity to slam it.

I use them combined with lasers, of course. If you wanna do just cannons or multis, I'd say multi.

 

[Rhym]

Cannons are just inferior in every way except heat management, you should never use them (except for flavor if you'd like). Multicannons are just better than everything else currently. You can carry more total damage in MC-ammo than any of the other projectile weapons, and they still have high enough velocity for hitting small ships and the highest dps after dumbfire rockets. Dumbfire rockets are in a class of their own when it comes to dealing massive damage in a short time though, but are prohibitably expensive to fire and not suited for fighting small ships.

 

[ZephyrDark]

Cannons are much better at single pass damage as well as targeting high health modules. I'd suggest getting the gimballed variants and getting in the face of your target. Multicannons may have better range due to higher velocity rounds, but cannons do much more damage. Multicannons are also better are chewing away at shields just because of ROF and the fact that you have a ton of rounds to spend.

Really they both have pros and cons for different situations.

 

[Rhym]

Cannons are much better at single pass damage as well as targeting high health modules. I'd suggest getting the gimballed variants and getting in the face of your target. Multicannons may have better range due to higher velocity rounds, but cannons do much more damage. Multicannons are also better are chewing away at shields just because of ROF and the fact that you have a ton of rounds to spend.

Really they both have pros and cons for different situations.

The only time cannons do more damage than multicannons is in the extremely specific scenario where you only point at the target every time your cannons are reloaded. If you can keep the target in your sights multicannons just deal vastly more damage than cannons. And its not exactly hard to keep gimballed multicannons on target. Cannons are just exceptionally bad and probably the worst weapons in the game.

Have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02jPpec4SMc#t=799

In it an Anaconda is killed with various weapons (using an ASP, so 4 small hardpoints, 2 medium, all fixed).

Time to kill (inc shields):
21s Dumbfire Missiles
41s Fragment Cannons
46s Multicannons
60s Railguns
108s Cannons

In addition to just having vastly more dps, multicannons also have:

Pro:
Much better projectile speed.
Accuracy.
Cheaper.
1/4x ammo costs.
More ammo (total damage) available per restock.

Neg:
Produce more heat.
Theoretically shorter range, but the slow cannons rounds won't hit anything at long ranges anyway.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

The huge cannon you can fit on the Anaconda is fun. It's massive and makes me giggle every time I fire it.

 

[Borgmeister]

I'm running 3x beam laser and 1x cannon on my Cobra (gimballed beams on the ventral and the cannon and a gimballed beam on the dorsal). Seems to work well, although I plan to do some testing of other platforms (the shotgun-line weapon for example). I find the ammunition reasonable compared to rail runs. It seems to work well for alphastrike against targets running with shields down, and the beams seem to do terrific damage against smaller targets which the cannon struggles to hit.