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« on: August 10, 2024, 09:51:15 AM »
I've come to enjoy the storm needler a lot lately, especially on the Retribution. Two of those with a hellbore and two thumpers has proven to be a frighteningly good ship grinder when paired with a built-in expanded magazines. Sure, the hellbore is technically the only anti-armor thing on there, but the sheer number of hits scored by the other weapons means that even if the hellbore is consistenly blocked by shields (and it isn't) I'm STILL shaving faces at a rate that would make Sweeny Todd proud.
It's true that pure kinetic ships can find themselves in trouble once the enemy starts dropping shields to fire weapons, but consider this: every hit on armor reduces armor, which cannot be regained in battle. Every time your puny needles hit the enemy, they are losing damage reduction, bit by bit. When you're hitting them dozens of times a second, that armor loss DOES add up. You WANT them to drop shields so your fleet can start doing real damage. If they don't, they're just reducing their own DPS by staying at high flux...or handing you the win by overloading themselves.
I think kinetics are generally in a good place. The arbalest is the OP saver, the mark IX is its bigger brother, the needler is the all-in shredder, the gauss is the standoff sniper; overall they all seem to serve their purpose fairly well. Tweaks? Maybe, but I couldn't tell you what they should be at the moment.
