Torpedoes 3.0

[Jefferson613]

Hey folks, I'm pretty new to the whole forum / playing Elite and I was wondering (since all the things I've read are about a year old) if torpedoes can be used for assassination missions.

I'm planning on using a FGS as my main combat ship, I haven't really delved too much into engineering and want to try something different than beams and multicannons. Are torps viable or should I use seeker missiles or wait 3 more weeks for packhounds?

 

[Herbrand]

Torpedoes have a point only with the Reverberating Cascade special effect - 3 should be enough to take down the shields of something big, but they are not completely reliable so your mileage may vary.

When they do work, their shield generator is down so you can skip the entire shield business.

 

[Jefferson613]

Torpedoes have a point only with the Reverberating Cascade special effect - 3 should be enough to take down the shields of something big, but they are not completely reliable so your mileage may vary.

When they do work, their shield generator is down so you can skip the entire shield business.

So they have no real use for hull killing?

 

[Lex Humboldt]

They do hull damage but ammo capacity is very limited - so usually you can't finish an enemy with torpedoes.

Better use good old multi guns or even better rail guns to snipe the powerplant or drives.

Cannons re also pretty good. Or get some plasmas, allrounders for shield and hull.

 

[CMDR BOSLEY]

It can take up to 5 or maybe 6 reverb torps to take out some shields depending on class, type, and engineering. So it's a big gamble and best to be in a wing since you have to sacrifice so many hardpoints. They are very slow and easy to avoid and destroy as well so be sneaky.

 

[Jefferson613]

Torpedoes have a point only with the Reverberating Cascade special effect - 3 should be enough to take down the shields of something big, but they are not completely reliable so your mileage may vary.

When they do work, their shield generator is down so you can skip the entire shield business.

They do hull damage but ammo capacity is very limited - so usually you can't finish an enemy with torpedoes.

Better use good old multi guns or even better rail guns to snipe the powerplant or drives.

Cannons re also pretty good. Or get some plasmas, allrounders for shield and hull.

Are seeker missiles in the same boat as torpedoes, or are they more viable?

 

[CMDR BOSLEY]

So they have no real use for hull killing?

Not in pvp, hull reinforcements and engineering make torpedos harmless to your hull, but they will mess up utility mounts like missiles do. PVE they do ok against pirates beacuse they don't have hrps but you would be better off with frag cannons or normal cannons for hull in pve.

 

[Lex Humboldt]

Seeker missiles have more ammo capacity but they are not good vs. shields so you need weapons to strip the shields. Imo seekers are only good for very fast and small targets like ship launched fighters or eagles etc.. You can also use a single seeker as a tactical weapon or to support your damage. I'll gues you want to kill NPCs? I would not use torps or missiles. The better damage dealers are frags, rails, plasmas, cannons.

The only use of missiles in PvE is dumbfires vs. skimmers or do disable energy supplies.

In PvP you can use missiles to disable outside modules like weapons and boosters.

 

[777Driver]

Are torps viable or should I use seeker missiles or wait 3 more weeks for packhounds?

For PvE assassinations? Torpedoes are overkill. Mix a few G5 (Sturdy) Reverb and Deep cut torps, you can take out an Elite NPC corvette within seconds. I put the Reverbs on the first fire group, fire the deep cuts a few seconds after the first salvo. Make sure you give them enough time to arm, don't try to use them at close range.

Missiles are fine for assassinations, make sure you engineer them.

 

[CMDR BOSLEY]

Are seeker missiles in the same boat as torpedoes, or are they more viable?

Seekers and particularly packhounds are good for taking out hardpoints and utilities, they do a little hull damage but generally resistances to explosive damage are rather high in pvp, in pve however they work well as most of the ships you go up against have poor outfitting.

 

[Vedmo]

I have a large beam on my FGS with 4 packhounds and 2 dumbfires in the smalls. I have everything engineered, but if I didn't I would probably put a beam in the 2 smalls as well. It's not great for longevity to be sure, if I save the missiles for bigger ships I can sit in a cz or res for half an hour or so before needing a reload. Most importantly to me, a missile boat is a lot of fun! Once shields are down nothing survives for more than a few seconds.

To answer your questions though, seeker missiles and torpedoes both lock onto heat and are guided to your target, dumbfires you aim and they go in a strait line. Torpedoes are slow, 100% breech chance, have 10,000 armor piercing (they're gonna do full damage before resists) and low ammo capacity. Seekers have 60 armor piercing (full damage to smaller ships, not so with larger ones) are faster than torps, and more ammo. Torps then are harder to land, very limited, and don't really shine until engineered. I wouldn't personally use them over seekers in your situation. Once your packhounds are unlocked, you'll have a lot more going towards the target, meaning countermeasures just won't be able to take them all out (other than dropping heat or outrunning them), just be ready for the heat they generate!

 

[Jefferson613]

Thanks People for all the advice! I wanted to try something a wee bit different since I've pretty much been using MCs this whole time ( for a little bit I loaded out a python with all MCs g3 sturdy lol)

 

[lenna]

Thanks People for all the advice! I wanted to try something a wee bit different since I've pretty much been using MCs this whole time ( for a little bit I loaded out a python with all MCs g3 sturdy lol)

Long range weapons are perhaps my personal favourite for engineering. Might not be as effective if you go full-fixed but they can give you an edge in (at least PvE) combat IME - increased range and increased effective range. YMMV of course.

Second to long range weapons are focused (where energy weapons are concerned) which increase the range and the breach chance.

WRT missiles - Point defence can be an effective counter - A friend of mine fired a few pack-hound salvos at a Beta Cutter build with dual PD on top and they either got quashed by the PD or did hardly any damage to the cutter. Despite that, I personally like to use seeker missiles combined with long-range weapons on at least some ships.

Don't be afraid to experiment.