The Salamander is the best missile in the game, you cannot change my mind.
Heathen.Spoilerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4[close]
Good early, but not enough oomph late in the game. Alright for Doom in duels; helps herd ships into mines.Damage doesn't matter if they're dead in the water with their guns disabled.
Heathen.
Damage doesn't matter if they're dead in the water with their guns disabled.
'laughs in omni shield'intrinsic_parity explains why Salamanders are not so great late in the game. That has been my experience as well. In a big fleet free-for-all, Salamanders tend to get picked off easily. Even if they hit something in a big death ball, the target's allies often cover for it. That said, I notice Dooms and their prey tend to break off from the main melee and Salamanders become more useful in those isolated duels.
also
'laughs in point defense'
Seriously, the effect of salamanders hitting is great, but you only get it if your opponent is isolated and doesn't have much PD or omni shields. It's pretty easy to make them completely irrelevant with a little effort in the load out stage. In a fleet context salamanders tend to end up flying into the shields/PD of other ships because they target ships in the middle of the battle line. And they cost 6 OP, which is a lot. Definitely plenty of downsides.
Also, they just fill a very different role than other missiles, so it doesn't even make sense to compare IMO.
Spoilerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4[close]
'laughs in omni shield'
also
'laughs in point defense'
Seriously, the effect of salamanders hitting is great, but you only get it if your opponent is isolated and doesn't have much PD or omni shields. It's pretty easy to make them completely irrelevant with a little effort in the load out stage. In a fleet context salamanders tend to end up flying into the shields/PD of other ships because they target ships in the middle of the battle line. And they cost 6 OP, which is a lot. Definitely plenty of downsides.
Also, they just fill a very different role than other missiles, so it doesn't even make sense to compare IMO.
The eternal engine killer always trumps the one-pump chumps.
And it can't blow up your own fleet.
They cost 5 OP and aren't so easy to dodge when every single ship you field has them equipped
They cost 5 OP and aren't so easy to dodge when every single ship you field has them equipped
Well... true. But it's also true you do not need to dodge them like 90% cases, as most of the ship has decent PD capabilities or omni shield to effectively catch salamanders.
Also, they are not always do damage even if hit the target - some ships have no engines in a point they seek. That is mostly for modded ships, but even vanilla Paragon could be an example: loose a shield and observe how salamanders effectively destroy rear small mount, leaving engines intact.
Plus there are skills and hullmods to increase repair speed, nullifying salamander's effectiveness... So, yeah, 5 OP gamestart pirate-brawl option, nothing more.
They are especially effective against small Remnants
Oh yeah, I forgot about the omni shield behavior wrt Salamanders.This was how three lance Odyssey (when it had overlapping turrets and High Energy Focus) could solo sim Paragon during the 0.8.x releases. Approach unshielded Paragon (it raises shield at the front), fire salamanders at Paragon, wait until it drops shields and redeploy then at the back, then fire lances at Paragon at its undefended front. Run far away until it drops shields altogether, repeat.