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[Grievous69]

For me it's medium ballistics no doubt. There are so many varied options suitable for all kinds of different builds. Sniper, brawler, SO, anti-fighter and hull, PD, budget options, I just never leave a single medium slot open because there's always something useful to put on. I honestly think medium ballistics outshine large ballistics when comparing them relatively.

Second best would probably be large energy mounts. Fewer options there, but each one is unique and useful that it really feels like an upgrade from previous sizes.

[BigBrainEnergy]

Clearly the right answer is missiles. All of them.


Jokes aside my top 3 are definitely large missiles, large energy, and medium ballistic. The weapons in each category are good on their own but they also combine with each other extremely well, like hvd + tachyon, squall + HIL, heavy needler + plasma.

[Grievous69]

I was thinking a lot about large missiles and currently I feel like I use Squalls in 80% of my large mounts. Torpedoes feel wasteful on AI and most ships can't really utilize them well, Hurricane is trash out of the box without hullmods and skills, and Locust is actually super useful, but I tend to go with Squalls for that added shield pressure. Thankfully next patch will address a couple of things, plus we're getting 3 new large missiles which is amazing. I'm going to like them much much more then.

[BigBrainEnergy]

Yeah it's hard to pass up on squalls. The hardest part of any battle is winning the flux war and they just make it so easy. Just pack some squalls and you're done! Torpedoes are almost always best as a player weapon in every mount size although SO champions can absolutely make hammers work. Other than that, hurricanes and locusts have solid niches but you can't just slap them on and call it a day without considering what your fleet needs, because your fleet usually needs more shield pressure than anything.

I'm very curious how the new missiles will perform, but I can only speculate for now.

[Amoebka]

I think the value of mounts is relative to what other mounts a ship has available. Medium ballistics, large energies, and medium missiles are self-sufficient and always good. But small ballistics for example, are generally bad because of no good anti-armor/hull option, but become very good as kinetics/pd when paired with a slot that fills that role.

I would say large ballistics and medium energies are the only real stinkers. I don't want those on any ship ever if possible. Everything else is workable.

[Grievous69]

Yeah that's a fair point, very few ships are equipped with only one mount type and size (if you exclude missiles). And it was always funny to me that the best small ballistic dealing HE damage was the cheapest gun there is, that is if you plan to punch through armour of destroyers and above.

[Igncom1]

Universal Medium. You lose out on under equipping small mounts but gain all of the rest of the medium mounts.

[BigBrainEnergy]

I was just thinking large ballistics aren't too bad, but then I realized the main thing keeping them viable is the integration hullmod. Maybe we need something like that for medium energies on midline ships.

[Igncom1]

I was just thinking large ballistics aren't too bad, but then I realized the main thing keeping them viable is the integration hullmod. Maybe we need something like that for medium energies on midline ships.

Strongly disagree, people try to over gun midlines way too much and then run into issues. Not to mention then people would complain that hightechs don't have that and then the balance just runs away as all ships need to have weapon hull mods to be competitive.

[Grievous69]

So do you mind 3 capitals with ballistics having access to HBI? Keep in mind only Invictus started initially with it (and I get the design choice behind it, makes it more interesting to fit rather than leave some mounts empty and mass fit hullmods), Conquest was the first one with HBI since people often downsized mounts on the off side and then never used large weapons there. Even in symmetric builds I remember seeing at least 1 large downsized to medium due to the number of good options and total OP. Onslaught got it because the 2 side turrets can't shoot forward so Flak Cannons were an easy choice. Imagine now using Devastators there which would cost 40 OP instead of 20 with the hullmod.

Legion is another ship where large ballistics seem like a detriment. Just look at how much better the XIV variant is.

[Igncom1]

I do yes. If it's the unique part of the ship I have no issue, but otherwise it's slapping a band aid on.

If ships like the Conquest and Legion need more space for their heavy guns, who exactly is going to say no to an OP buff for those controversial ships?

As for the Onslaught, I never had a problem down sizing it's weapons if necessary for hullmods, or doing the reverse to keep the guns.

[Amoebka]

Legion should not get HBI, because its larges converge on the frontal target. Conquest and Onslaught get it because theirs can't, so it's not demanded you pay full OP for weapons that won't shoot often.

[Grievous69]

I never said it should get HBI, just pointing out how a ship with large ballistics often focuses on medium missiles, instead of you know, the biggest thing going for it. In one campaign I tried to make work of a full ballistic Legion with cheap fighters and it was just clunky, like piloting a gimped Onslaught. It's supposed to be a battlecarrier, yet it plays like a close range Astral, chucking missiles at foes. I keep saying this in different threads: Legion XIV makes the base one useless, and it's not even overpowered or anything, it's just a straight upgrade.

Another good example is Prometheus MkII., it has 2 large hybrid mounts, yet in no universe you'll be using 2 ballistics there.

[BigBrainEnergy]

At least in the prometheus's case it is viable to use 1 and 1 so large ballistics aren't hopeless. Actually, I'd prefer 1 and 1 over double energies in most cases, so maybe large ballistics wouldn't get trash talked as much if they were paired off with large energies on more than 1 ship.

[Grievous69]

Oh yeah, 1 and 1 is by far the best combo. And I quite like that it's the only ship with such a unique combination, since it would be very powerful on more dangerous ships.