Guardian Gauss Cannon vs Shard Cannon

DemiserofD

D
The current AX meta has one answer; Gauss, Gauss, Gauss. The most popular build tool, Coriolis.io, seems to confirm this, with it having huge armor piercing and good damage to boot.

But I was looking at the stats today and noticed something odd; specifically to do with Guardian Gauss Cannons. The site states that it does 38.5 damage per shot, with a fire rate of 1.2, giving it a DPS of 46.4 and a sustained DPS of 38.5.

However, this didn't gel with my testing, and I realized that the site was failing to account for the reload time in the sustained DPS. It has a clip size of one, meaning it needs to reload after every shot. The sustained DPS should more accurately be 21.

This naturally raises the question; is the Gauss Cannon really the best possible choice?

I'll compare it to the Shard Cannon against two different things; the Cyclops, and the Hydra.

First, the Cyclops.

The Cyclops has an armor hardness of 100, meaning the Gauss Cannon does full damage, while the Shard Cannon only does 45% of its full damage.

So, there are two ways you can look at this; in terms of sustained dps, or in terms of burst dps. In terms of sustained DPS, yes, the Gauss Cannon wins out. The shard cannon will end up dealing a sustained DPS of 13.5, well below the 21 dps of the Gauss Cannon. However, this fails to account for the fact that Thargoid fights often take place in brief bursts of activity moderated by long periods of inactivity.

If you instead compare the burst DPS of the two, the shard cannon instead does 27 DPS, well above that of the Gauss Cannon.

But what about against the Hydra?

Here, the Gauss's armor piercing isn't enough to overcome its hardness, coming in at 230. This gives the Gauss Cannon a dps of 12, compared to the Shard Cannon at a measly 6. But again, the burst damage comes through, giving it the slightly superior DPS of 14.5!

But there's one more thing. See, Gauss Cannons only go up to class 2. By contrast, Shard Cannons go to class three. And in addition to dealing more damage, class 3 shard cannons also have 33% higher armor piercing!

Compared to the class 2 gauss, the class 3 shard deals 11 sustained DPS, and all the way up to 27 burst DPS, more than double that of Gauss Cannons!

Basically, I'm just saying to not discount the Shard Cannon entirely. It's got at least the potential to beat out the Gauss Cannon, even against the highest levels of armor hardness.
 

Drelthar

Drelthar
DemiserofD said:
The current AX meta has one answer; Gauss, Gauss, Gauss. The most popular build tool, Coriolis.io, seems to confirm this, with it having huge armor piercing and good damage to boot.

But I was looking at the stats today and noticed something odd; specifically to do with Guardian Gauss Cannons. The site states that it does 38.5 damage per shot, with a fire rate of 1.2, giving it a DPS of 46.4 and a sustained DPS of 38.5.

However, this didn't gel with my testing, and I realized that the site was failing to account for the reload time in the sustained DPS. It has a clip size of one, meaning it needs to reload after every shot. The sustained DPS should more accurately be 21.

This naturally raises the question; is the Gauss Cannon really the best possible choice?

I'll compare it to the Shard Cannon against two different things; the Cyclops, and the Hydra.

First, the Cyclops.

The Cyclops has an armor hardness of 100, meaning the Gauss Cannon does full damage, while the Shard Cannon only does 45% of its full damage.

So, there are two ways you can look at this; in terms of sustained dps, or in terms of burst dps. In terms of sustained DPS, yes, the Gauss Cannon wins out. The shard cannon will end up dealing a sustained DPS of 13.5, well below the 21 dps of the Gauss Cannon. However, this fails to account for the fact that Thargoid fights often take place in brief bursts of activity moderated by long periods of inactivity.

If you instead compare the burst DPS of the two, the shard cannon instead does 27 DPS, well above that of the Gauss Cannon.

But what about against the Hydra?

Here, the Gauss's armor piercing isn't enough to overcome its hardness, coming in at 230. This gives the Gauss Cannon a dps of 12, compared to the Shard Cannon at a measly 6. But again, the burst damage comes through, giving it the slightly superior DPS of 14.5!

But there's one more thing. See, Gauss Cannons only go up to class 2. By contrast, Shard Cannons go to class three. And in addition to dealing more damage, class 3 shard cannons also have 33% higher armor piercing!

Compared to the class 2 gauss, the class 3 shard deals 11 sustained DPS, and all the way up to 27 burst DPS, more than double that of Gauss Cannons!

Basically, I'm just saying to not discount the Shard Cannon entirely. It's got at least the potential to beat out the Gauss Cannon, even against the highest levels of armor hardness.
Click to expand...

I'm sure what you're saying is right, but... Well, the AXI are pretty experienced, and they use gauss pretty much exclusively.

I think part of it is the accuracy and/at range for taking out hearts.

Good luck getting all of those shards into the hearts from outside of lightning attack range...
 

Guyperson

Guyperson
The way interceptors operate, DPS is almost secondary (with the notable exception of the Cyclops instagib). The long range, pinpoint accurate hitscan weapon wins out for the same reason the Type-10 is less effective compared to smaller, faster ships. Everything about how interceptors are designed punishes a lack of effective range and mobility.
 

Sensei Jacksama

Sensei Jacksama
Well I've never fought a hydra but I can solo a cyclops fairly consistently so I have some AX experience under my belt. In my old build I used two guardian plasma accelerators and two gauss cannons. When I use the PAs I can usually blast a cyclops with 2 or 3 volleys before it will exert it's heart however when I've attempted to fight a basilisk it's far different. The number of times I had to hit it was unreal. It was shot after shot after shot and it wouldn't exert it. So the armor hardness is a huge factor. Plus the DPS of each interceptor class increases significantly. The shard cannon you would have to get in close to use it. Plus you will have to actually shoot it many times to be able exert the heart. The distance plus the amount of time you're going to have to tank the interceptors shots is probably why they don't use them.
 

[VR] Orodruin

[VR] Orodruin
Sensei Jacksama said:
Well I've never fought a hydra but I can solo a cyclops fairly consistently so I have some AX experience under my belt. In my old build I used two guardian plasma accelerators and two gauss cannons. When I use the PAs I can usually blast a cyclops with 2 or 3 volleys before it will exert it's heart however when I've attempted to fight a basilisk it's far different. The number of times I had to hit it was unreal. It was shot after shot after shot and it wouldn't exert it. So the armor hardness is a huge factor. Plus the DPS of each interceptor class increases significantly. The shard cannon you would have to get in close to use it. Plus you will have to actually shoot it many times to be able exert the heart. The distance plus the amount of time you're going to have to tank the interceptors shots is probably why they don't use them.
Click to expand...
... not to mention that hydra exerts are leaning more to the sustained DPS side than the burst side ...
 

ZAKALWEINC8876

ZAKALWEINC8876
If you try to fight a Hydra with Shards, you will not kill it and you will die if you don't give up and run.

That seems to cover it imo.
Gauss>all others, simples, no maths required🙂

o7
 
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