Do you really need the headshot damage modification?

[Morbad]

I never really bothered with NV as I play in a dark environment with a properly calibrated display and can generally identify targets within the useful range of any weapon in almost any outdoor lighting conditions. Indoors is another matter, but on the balance, I think I'd rather have something else in the slot.

 

[Frop]

I never really bothered with NV as I play in a dark environment with a properly calibrated display and can generally identify targets within the useful range of any weapon in almost any outdoor lighting conditions. Indoors is another matter, but on the balance, I think I'd rather have something else in the slot.

Well yeah, but you're basically cheating with your 60+ FPS anyway.

 

[Elpapo]

Thanks for an excellent writeup!


Yeah I can see the logic, the on-foot weapon mods work differently than ship weapon mods (e.g. with ships, long range on lasers gives you a huge boost in effective range, and greatly speeds up projectiles, but considering the short max range on the laser rifle and its relatively minor falloff, the on-foot version of this mod seems much less valuable).

Exacly. Falloff is very small, and it seems its not even more than 20% less of dmg, at 150m, wich is max range where lasers reach. For on-foot weapons, it only affects fall-off dmg, and it should be viewed as diffrently than comparing to ship LR mechanics.

I'm wary of the Stability mod after putting it on my G5 Tormentor and seeing exactly zero difference in ADS mode. Since we can't remove/replace mods, one has to be absolutely certain that a mod is working properly before putting it on a G5 weapon.

On plasma weapons, apart of oppresor, stabilty dont make much diffrence and have litte sense to have on those (they have too slow ROF), but on laser and kinetics (apart only from L-6, too small ROF to have it work), it does make huge diffrence. Again, its more about having full auto on distant targets, where npcs or players are size of few pixels. It keeps those bursts or full auto on them, without having correct aim all the time. And you wanna score headshots too from that distances.

Does scope improve long-range accuracy for the Aphelion in any way, or is it always pixel-perfect?

Yes, it makes litte better zoom, wich helps to aim.

Aphelion seems like have 99% accuracy, almost pinpoint. With HSD, its my favorite "sniper" in game, wich is simply effective tool, and its cant be avoided. Other players tend to move erratically, fly over place, move a lot. This weapon simply dont care about all of this, so that why I love it so much.

I love stowed reloading for CZ, have it on all three weapons in my PVE CZ setup (dual L-6 + Torm). With the Dominator's double main weapons, stowed is almost a given.

Yes, its OP with certain dual bulids and very good with classic kinetic/laser combos. I even think that reload should be happeing bit more later than after 5 sec, cuz its certainly one of most OP mods to use.

Why use HSD on the laser in a laser-kinetic combo, IIRC the headshot bonus does not appy against shielded targets?

Aphelion destorys shields so quickly at all ranges, regadless if with Falloff or not, and you want have your laser be also decent againt un-shielded targets too.

Normally, lasers have 1x modifer, but with headshot dmg, it goes up to 1.5x... it may not sound like much, but thats extra 50% dmg from headshots, and actually makes reason to aim at head too.

Again, compared to longer range, a aphelion with HSD will do more dmg, on target at 150m(if you hit head), than same weapon that without that mod, but longer range instead.

Vs shielded targets, diffrence from falloff is having one more shot to shields only. Thats why I rather take HSD all time over long range... long range allows having only one less shot to shield to kill it, but it wont make diffrence to health. HSD in other hand, may need extra shot, to kill shields, but it a lot more better to use also after shields are down.



G5 HSD aphelion, is capable to kill High CZ enforcer (g5 dominator with dmg reduction) with its single mag with 38 shots, provided that most of those hit heads even at full range. Vs players, they can heal 2 times, so players should be counted as 3x times more health than npcs enforcers, due of they can and often will use medpacks during fire exchanges. Thats where "Twin" laser setup shines, as so what if they heal 2 times, if they dont take cover in time, lasers will wear them to death.

At this point I have one G5 Aphelion with HSD, was thinking about crafting an AR-50, but your post made me ponder the dual Aphelion setup; the hitscan is very inviting, but the huge laser resistance of G5 Doms is putting me off: a kinetic weapon would be doing almost 4x the damage of a laser against the armor. The AR-50 has the same original DPS output as the Aphelion (25), and twice as much headshot bonus (2x unmodded, 3x modded), which amounts to almost 8x more damage on headshots. Does hitscan really compensate for such a huge DPS difference?

Yes, kinetics is good, but at 70-80m+ distances, you can avoid lot of it, if you know how to move and not standing at one place. But lasers, cant be avoided like that, only hard cover will do. Despite having lot less dmg to armour, if they are in open field, no cover, they will keep losing thier health, and you can outtank those for most of every time. Thats why is this much effective. Of course, kinetics are better at closer range, where avoiding cant be as easy.

My exact Dominator build! Great for PVE CZs, amazing endurance and flexibility.

Yes, it was my first and longest used one. Its very good both PVP and PVE. But it visible diffrence vs "armoured" and it might not give enough time to heal.

Personally I found the damage reduction mod to make very little sense for PVE, since the only times you're in real danger of being knocked out is when due to a mistake in positioning you're surrounded and focused by a group of enemies. -10% incoming damage doesn't make a difference there (while jump could save your butt by breaking LOS quickly). However, PVP is in a different ballpark, so would you say it's really a big benefit to have dmg reduction rather than jump for PVP scenarios?

This 10% dont seem much, but it helps to have neccecary time to use medpack during fire exchange. Again, at PVP, compared to npcs, other players have like up to 2 extra life bars, due that they can heal (or more if they are close to health green crate). But its not unlimited, and AR-50, C-44 and P-15 bursts from upclose, with HSD at head, might kill them faster before they manage to heal themselfs. Also, its way more better for in-door situations too, where you cant really rely on evading, but rather rely on raw durability.

Absolutely agree, NV is great for stealth (also btw the shield can give you away...), and it gives much longer visual range to identify targets than flashlight.

Yep, it should be fitted as standard on all suits. I dont see point to make another suit just for daylight, and other mods aint seem tempting to me or being good enough to use instead... But daylight only, a Dominator G5 with Dmg reduction, Jump assist, Extra ammo, Extra battery... sounds nice, but I found too often being on night side, to have it reliably use such bulid all times, but once I done with other weps, I might create 3nd cz bulid like that, just for daylight or if would cheat by messing with brightness settings, lol. But I prefer having proper setting like that, if its dark, then it should be dark.

If I understand correctly, Extra battery not only makes your energy reserves last longer, but they are also replenished faster (since the speed of recharging to 100% remains the same, however for Extra battery 100% is actually 150%, so it's 1.5x faster).

It wont work like this.. Recharge rate is fixed for all suits, regadless of suit type and battery capacity. Having higher capacity battery, means that at recharge, you will need stay a bit longer time, but that is certainly worth it... as stock dominator with its puny 10mw battery, lasts like only few mins with shields on.

At PVE is another matter, but during PVP where is more than single enemy cmdr on other team... having making more trips just to recover battery, cuz its stock sized, leaves "ya wide open", and certianly not everyone knows all times and everywhere, where to look for batteries on CZ, as if they would prefectly memorized each layout... I guess only such cmdr would find having extra battery not needed, but there is anyone like that? lol. The one who knows it all. Chuck norris probly.

Anyway, thanks again for a very informative post

Your welcome. I glad I was able to share some of my knowledge.