More than one player has told me recently that using chaff on my vette is useless. However, whenever I fight a big ship (vette/conda) that deploys chaff it seems to throw my targeting way off enough to be annoying. But why are my friends telling me its no good? These guys use gimbals as well. What is your preference? Your opinion counts more if you're a big ship pilot.
Chaff on Big Ships
- Thread starter Krash
- Start date
I fly a T-10 from time to time (is that big enough?).
It's hard to know what's going on behind you, but I use chaff to discourage enemy fire. It seems to work.
It's hard to know what's going on behind you, but I use chaff to discourage enemy fire. It seems to work.
I can see their point.
If a ship pops chaff I usually just un-target it but wih big ships I often don't even bother 'cos my weapons still hit the ship... somewhere.
About the best use of chaff in a big ship might be to prevent module-sniping.
It's pretty easy, with gimbals, to select the thrusters or PP of a target and disable it.
If you pop chaff, an opponent might still be hitting you but at least it's unlikely they'll be able to hit specific modules with gimbals.
If a ship pops chaff I usually just un-target it but wih big ships I often don't even bother 'cos my weapons still hit the ship... somewhere.
About the best use of chaff in a big ship might be to prevent module-sniping.
It's pretty easy, with gimbals, to select the thrusters or PP of a target and disable it.
If you pop chaff, an opponent might still be hitting you but at least it's unlikely they'll be able to hit specific modules with gimbals.
PAs and rails are fixed. Laser users can detarget you. Gimbal kinetics can get close and hit your huge shield bubble. Torpedoes don’t care. Rams don’t care.
Then there’s opportunity cost. What do you lose by running chaff? Perhaps another heavy duty booster would be better.
The only thing I can really imagine them for is frustrating subsystem targeting. But if your shields are down, that’s probably the least of your worries.
Of course I’m not a big ship pilot but I do shoot them.
Then there’s opportunity cost. What do you lose by running chaff? Perhaps another heavy duty booster would be better.
The only thing I can really imagine them for is frustrating subsystem targeting. But if your shields are down, that’s probably the least of your worries.
Of course I’m not a big ship pilot but I do shoot them.
Larger profile and inability to dictate engagement distance does make chaff less effective. Most ships can just close to a distance where they are sure to hit with no target selected, or where your ship fills most of their wobbling arc of fire.
Can help protect subsystems from gimbal users, but this usually isn't relevant enough to make me want to use a slot on chaff.
Can help protect subsystems from gimbal users, but this usually isn't relevant enough to make me want to use a slot on chaff.
It's a matter of priorities for me. A heatsink is more helpful but a chaff launcher has more ammo. I no longer double chaff on any ship but they help reduce ToT from a distance if my opponent uses gimbals or turrets. I usually use long range fixed weapons so if they don't I have a cheap advantage.
Much less useful than it used to be but if I can spare a slot I'll fit one to a big ship.
Much less useful than it used to be but if I can spare a slot I'll fit one to a big ship.
It's probably something that could/should become more of a consideration, even for PvE players, as a result of the new CZs.
It's not especially "critical" or anything.
It's just that, having broken a target's shields, you still have to sit there for a minute or so, firing on something like an Elite Annie or 'vette before it pops.
That being the case, a player has time to think about what else they can do and a lot more people are likely to realise they can gain an advantage by module-sniping.
I don't have the power budget to use anything else but another heat sink launcher.
Chaff useless against fixed weapons, but it is useful on all ships but is heavily dependant on enemy range. At close quarters gimbals/turrets will hit a big ships no matter what.
Beyond 800 meters not so much. Very useful if you get up against a 3 ship. Also vital to prevent module sniping with gimbals.It ends up being a balance, between how much damage your shields can soak up, and how much damage you can avoid in the first place by using chaff.
Beyond 800 meters not so much. Very useful if you get up against a 3 ship. Also vital to prevent module sniping with gimbals.It ends up being a balance, between how much damage your shields can soak up, and how much damage you can avoid in the first place by using chaff.
I fly a cutter sometimes. Depends on the goals I have for the session and who the potential enemies may be. I found chaff to be a waste of a utility slot on a big ship and here's why:
A. Ship is so big and not agile vs. medium ships that the enemy can maintain any distance they want including getting close in to fire at will so their gimballs will hit my big hull anyway.
B. If the pilot in A above is not good enough to manage the fighting distance he/she usually sucks so bad I don't need chaff to gain another advantage anyway. So he hits me a few times? I have 7000+ MJ of shields, I'll be ok.
C. Adding a second set of heatsinks instead of chaff lets me fire doublebank SCBs and still cool down to fire back with no hotbanking near the end of a fight due to running out of heatsinks to fire. In a fight against you whiteknights I am usually facing fixed weps anyway so why bother chaffing.
I run chaff on my FDLs and other medium ships though as they do have some level of protection and don't need double heatsinks really. Those 8A, 7A and 6A SCBs are super hot when you double bank! 4A's in an FDL not so much.
A. Ship is so big and not agile vs. medium ships that the enemy can maintain any distance they want including getting close in to fire at will so their gimballs will hit my big hull anyway.
B. If the pilot in A above is not good enough to manage the fighting distance he/she usually sucks so bad I don't need chaff to gain another advantage anyway. So he hits me a few times? I have 7000+ MJ of shields, I'll be ok.
C. Adding a second set of heatsinks instead of chaff lets me fire doublebank SCBs and still cool down to fire back with no hotbanking near the end of a fight due to running out of heatsinks to fire. In a fight against you whiteknights I am usually facing fixed weps anyway so why bother chaffing.
I run chaff on my FDLs and other medium ships though as they do have some level of protection and don't need double heatsinks really. Those 8A, 7A and 6A SCBs are super hot when you double bank! 4A's in an FDL not so much.
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I don't usually find chaff on a big ship worth it, as many have said.
But dispersal field on a cannon or PA? That's another story, especially in PVE.
But dispersal field on a cannon or PA? That's another story, especially in PVE.
I like dispersal on PA. It was my last friendly duel (vs Shippymcshipface) I had 3 PAs: 2 with TLB and 1 with dispersal. He commented about my chaff and afterwards I realized he may have been talking about the dispersal effect.
I've found chaff to be extremely useful on big ships like my Corvette, Anaconda, and Cutter. This is all PVE, of course. As long as the attacker is behind/in front of you, it really messes them up. Even from the side, it will often make them miss. If they are currently viewing your top or bottom, well it's hard to miss that at close range. It's all a matter of distance plus your current profile to the target.
Sure, chaff is even more effective on smaller ships. That makes sense. And yes, chaff doesn't help much on large ships when your at point blank range. That is all common sense.
I've never understood why people always said it was completely useless on the big ships. My experience showed otherwise as I can watch the number of hits on my shields drop significantly while my chaff is active.
The Thermal Vent on my to C4 Beam Lasers dropping my heat to 0% also helps. Many is the time I've seen NPCs stop firing at me at that point because they apparently have lost their lock.
I fly a T-10, and I don't bother with chaff. My reasoning is that it seems pointless since I can't fly fast enough to put sufficient distance between me and target so that my juicy meaty bits aren't filling up their entire canopy.
I'm not saying it's completely useless, but I just feel that I get more out of an extra skill booster than I do from a chaff launcher.
I'm not saying it's completely useless, but I just feel that I get more out of an extra skill booster than I do from a chaff launcher.
I agree, chaff is of limited use on vettes, cutters, anacondas and t10s and also don't bother with it. While it does throw you off at 3km out, at 1.5km and under you'll still be hitting 70% of your ordnance, which is enough to justify opening fire, and almost any ship can close that distance on you in an instant.