Hey, sorry to bring this up again.
I definitely do trust your experience, but would like to understand.
So, the mod shard deals either 50% thermal dmg to human ships, or 50% to Thargoid ships.
The mod plasma charger deals 50% absolute to human, or 50% to Thargoids.
Not sure about shards, but plasma charger its rather "difficult" weapon to understood, as not everything is obvious at first glance.
Now there is the catch... the AX part of dmg, its actually hidden from stats (in-game)...
I tested it myself with one of my friend a good while ago, the absolute "part" is correct, the dmg dealt to human ships, since c2 mod plasma when fully charged have exacly 78,2 dmg, as target (friendly cmdr) shields was exacly at 100 MJ, and they didnt had anything in SYS. Single hit, single c2 pre-engineered plasma charger, fired at 900m, left them with exacly 21% shields after eating single shot.
Now then, if the dmg would be split 50/50 (AX/absolute), given the listed stats, the dmg should be at 39,1... so my friend shields would be at like 60% or so, after single shot.
So, comparing a 6x shard vs 6x plasma build, that is:
Mod plasma chargers: 8.3 (base dmg) x 17 (multiplicator when fully charged) x 6 (number of hardpoints used) x 0.5 = 423 dmg (absolute).
2 seconds to fully charge and shoot.
vs
Mod shard: 6.77 (dmg per pellet) x 12 (number of pellets per shot) x 5 (shots per salvo) x 6 (number of hardpoints used) x 0.5 = 1218.5 dmg (thermal).
~3.5 seconds to fire the full salvo of 5 shots at 243.7 dmg per shot.
One thing that elite teached me long time ago... numbers on paper does not do justice, compared to what is in game. Also only numbers in game, are ones being correct.
There is many variables to consider, just than plain numbers.
For fully chargerd 6 plasmas, the dmg is at 469,2, not 423. This alone makes it obvious, that Edsy or other sites, seems does have wrong data about this weapon, the AX part of dmg is not right.
The AX "part" of dmg is about 45% greater than listed 4.6... wich seems true, Thargoids seems eat way more dmg from it than its listed in game.
Regardless, what AX dmg truly is, it does not change the fact, that for PVP, the dmg is (confirmed) 4.6.
Against a human ship with 50% resistance to thermal (shield or/and hull), the shards would deal 609.25 dmg, 121.85 per shot.
For shield dmg, the amount of pip on target shields greatly influences the result incoming dmg, skilled cmdrs are more likely to keep that 4 pip at SYS when it really matters, thats why they sometimes feels "toughter" than numbers would suggest.
As for hull, its very unlikely to have all pellets hit the target (if not big ship and not point blank range) due of spread.
Both have a shot speed of around 6000 m/s.
Falloff of plasma starts at 1000m. No spread.
Falloff of shard starts at 1500m. Some spread, but fine against big ship from this distance.
Both have armor penetration around 100, so no damage reduction against any human ships (hardest like Cutter are at 75).
Shards have even less depth of penetraiton that chargers, and resists hits it really hard. High MJ or high Hull ships with good resists, are more likely to outtank any shard users, and outdps it with basically most of weapon combinations, hence its no one uses it outside of AX.
Why wouldn't the shard be valid for PvP?
All I can think of is the difficulty to land the 5 shots of a salvo..?
Mod Shards aint are good to use vs human ships for this and some few other reasons. Its possible to defend with it, but forget killing cmdrs with it, or PVE against non-AX.
Its being outclassed by majority of non-AX setups, if meant to use outside of AX.
Shards dont have charge up mechanics, and are extremely hot for usage, basically requires more than few heat sinks to be even be usable... for PVP, ships without boosters usually are ones to lose first. Anything smaller than big ship, its going to rather tricky to land all pellets for it. And since its thermal, resistances affects it and combined with 4 pips to SYS, while eating shards to shields, its not going to do anything significant in terms of dmg.. And heard about "funny hull" bulids? Those have like 80% + thermal resists on hull, so shards are next to useless against such.... (btw, if you see PVP cmdrs without shields in open - its very likely they have it)
On other hand, plasma chargers deals 100% absolute dmg, its one of most efficent ammo based weapon, are nowhere as hot (it can be used without heat sinks), can be pre-charged, and that allows to attack an targets without letting defences too thin... you can pre-charge your weapons, let the WEP refill, and you are free to allocate those pips from WEP elsewhere in distro. With practice, you can attack with "pre-charged" with 3-3-0 or 4-2-0 settings, wich if done correctly, ensure that attack can be done with "full guard". This gives it edge in fights against PA or frag users, where dmg is usually dealt when both ships passes each other at close range, and chargers cannot be avoided in close range to mid range.
