6
« on: September 19, 2013, 07:14:19 PM »
Ah, sorry. Missed that part addressing Lasher vs. Tempest.
As far as the rest, no offense, but it sounds like some of you guys are doing more spreadsheet theory crafting than actually playing the game.
As Psygnosis is onto, the heavy blasters are all about burst damage. I haven't done the math, but my Tempest has a flux dissipation rate of 390, which becomes 585 when venting with the power grid modulation skill at 5 and resistant flux conduits. I can unload 8 shots in about 4 seconds, then vent all my flux in another 4, then do it all again. With the skill that increases projectile speed and turret gyros, it's easy to place all those shots in almost exactly the same spot, absolutely shredding armor, weapons and engines. The Tempest is fast enough to dodge any projectile weapon even at close range, so I don't even use shields except to get behind beam using ships, all the vents and venting bonuses are only for vent speed. Most ships only have a few weapons that can shoot behind them, and they're easily disabled with that amount of accurate burst damage, especially with the skill that increases damage to engines and weapons. At that point I can just hang out behind most ships keeping their engines flamed out while easily dodging any missile that comes my way.
I prefer the Tempest over the Hyperion because the Hyperion doesn't have quite enough speed and maneuverability for my tastes, making it hard to get behind more maneuverable cap ships and forcing me to raise shields occasionally instead of dodging everything. Also they don't have enough staying power for longer battles. They only have 120 seconds before CR starts to drop and once that's gone, they start malfunctioning almost immediately due to their 75% deployment cost and .33%/sec CR deterioration rate. I think this serves to balance them well, but doesn't really work for me.
Most importantly, the Tempest with heavy blasters just fits my hit and run playstyle the best and is an absolute blast to fly. No other ship is as much fun for me. Also my favorite looking ship, which doesn't hurt.
As far as high tech frigates in the hands of the AI go, I do very well with them. Their speed and shield efficiency make them more suvivable in my experience than the low tech frigates. As I said, I can take out the Sindrian Diktat garrison fleets with 5 Tempests and 3 Wolves without suffering any losses most of the time. Even in these battles the CR loss isn't really an issue, as you have 3 minutes until CR starts to decrease, then another 2 or 3 until CR gets low enough to notice. I've never had a battle take long enough that CR was a factor. I haven't tried taking on the Sindrian Diktat fleets with 8 low tech frigates, but I don't think they'd fare as well. They don't seem to be able to keep their distance and get swarmed by fire.
