Edit: Verain found a bunch of problems in my math (<3). I've updated my conclusions in this thread.

perhaps i'm just weird, but i much prefer targeting telemetry to blaster overcharge.

 

i can increase my accuracy (indirectly reducing your evasion), directly reduce your evasion and get 75% surge on a 58%* crit chance on primary and 23% crit on secondary weapons.

 

seriously, Blaster Overcharge just doesn't stack up next to all that.

 

imho. your mileage may vary.

This post inspired me to do some math, because it's much more fun than college applications.

Imagine two scouts with identical loadouts excepting the systems component. Targeting telemetry and blaster overcharge offer the following offensive benefits:

Targeting Telemetry: +10% accuracy, +15% global crit, +25% global surge, 15s up/15s down. (T4 right, T5 left.)

Blaster Overcharge: Primary weapons only, +10% damage, +33% rate of fire, +8% crit, 12s up/28s down. (T4 right, T5 left.)

We can average this out over 10,000 unbuffed blaster damage over a two minute (120s) period.

We're going to make some assumptions here, which means our model won't be perfect. The biggest assumption is that accuracy, crit, and surge work identically to their ground game mechanics, and that evasion works identically to defense. Next, we'll assume that RNG stays fairly close to the expected averages (i.e. does not stray far from the mean or mode). Secondly, we'll assume neither ship runs out of weapon power. (With only 10,000 damage dealt, that's not too much to ask, I think.) Thirdly, we assume that targeting telemetry's secondary benefits of increased sensor range and cloaking dispel never come into play, and the extra range on both options does not provide any benefit.

Targeting telemetry gives, on average, +11.25% damage (from crit and surge, not accuracy). Factoring in its uptime, that's +5.6% damage over a 30 second period (assuming you're firing about as much when it's up as when it's down). Over a 120 second period, you get four uses, or +22.4% damage.

Blaster overcharge increases the damage of your lasers by a whopping +52.2%. Factoring in uptime, you get +15.6% blaster damage over a 40 second period (again, assuming you're firing about as much when it's up as when it's down). Over a 120 second period, you get three uses, or +46.8% damage.

I'm going to use these numbers (22.4% and 46.8%) a lot. It is important to remember that these values are over a 120 second period when the abilities are used on cooldown.

If both players do 10,000 unbuffed blaster damage and no missile damage over the course of two minutes, the guy with targeting telemetry will do 12,240 damage while the blaster overcharge guy will do 14,680 damage.

So far, the targeting telemetry guy is behind by 2,440 damage.

Let's account for accuracy. We do this by simply multiplying the damage done by the chance to hit (expressed in decimal form). Setting these two equations equal to each other (i.e. 14680x = 12240[x + 0.1]) shows us that the break-even point is at about 50% accuracy. Below 50% accuracy, targeting telemetry will do more damage; above 50% accuracy, blaster overcharge does more damage.

By my interpretation, 50% chance to hit only occurs against 41% evasion scouts at medium or long range. Close range weapons (especially burst cannons) tend to have accuracy above 100%, which to current understanding partially cancels evasion. There's a bunch of things to consider here -- playstyle, weapon choice, crew members, build purpose (if you're built to fight strikes and gunships, you'll be more accurate than if you fight scouts) -- and the individual will have to guesstimate this.

If you can catch an opponent with the 5% evasion debuff and he has at least 5% evasion, the accuracy breakpoint jumps up to 75%. Again, above this breakpoint blaster overcharge provides more damage than targeting telemetry. In practice, the true breakpoint will be somewhere between these two values, unless you're a magician and can catch multiple targets in the 3km debuff radius every time (and/or can't kill your target before the debuff expires).

Of course, the targeting telemetry user also gets extra damage on his secondaries. For the moment, we'll assume you're not using rocket pods and the target doesn't break locks; thus, accuracy is again a nonissue. To catch up, the targeting telemetry user must do an additional 2440 damage credited to targeting telemetry. Thus, 1.224x >= x + 2440. Unfortunately, this means the targeting telemetry user is going to come out ahead on total damage only if he can get off 10,893 unbuffed damage from secondary weapons in those two minutes -- a tall order even over the course of an entire match.

Looking at rocket pods proves tricky. Suddenly we have two variables to account for: the damage dealt by the rocket pods and the accuracy of the rocket pods (and thus the accuracy of the blasters, and thus the damage difference between the ships). At this point we must arbitrarily choose values for one of these to solve for the other, and a general equation does us more good. The targeting telemetry player must still put out an enormous amount of rocket pod damage to make up for the difference in blaster damage. The telemetry player will only have an accuracy advantage for relative accuracy between 90% and 99% (at which point overcharge's blaster damage is significantly higher) or below 55%ish (at which point the overcharge pilot has missed enough that he has not developed much, if any, of a lead in blaster damage, and both pilots are likely failing to score kills anyway).

For posterity, we shall introduce the effective hit chance of lock-on weapons. This is important for targeting telemetry, since your +22.4% missile damage over 120 seconds only matters if those missiles are hitting. If you get off two proton torpedoes and only one hits, your effective hit chance of lock-on weapons is 50%. If you fire two double volley cluster missiles and the target only barrel rolls away from one of them, that's three out of four possible hits, or 75% effective hit chance. (Note that double volley is bugged -- each volley has a lock that must be broken separately.)

Assuming the same effective hit chance of lock-on weapons, the overcharge player again holds the advantage. Every missile that does not connect is progress the telemetry player is not making towards closing the difference in damage dealt.

In summary, over a 120 second timeframe:

b = total unbuffed blaster damage

h = hit chance (accuracy - evasion). If h > 1.0, h = 1.0.

m = total unbuffed secondary weapon damage

EHM = effective hit chance of lock-on weapons

Damage done by ship with targeting telemetry and lock-on weapons = (b * 1.224 * (h + 0.1)) + (m * 1.224 * EHM)

Damage done by ship with targeting telemetry T4 right and pods = (b * 1.224 * (h + 0.1)) + (m * 1.224 * (h + 0.1))

Damage done by ship with targeting telemetry T4 left and pods = (b * 1.224 * (h + 0.15)) + (m * 1.224 * (h + 0.15))

Damage done by ship with blaster overcharge = (b * 1.468 * h) + (m * EHM)

tl;dr: Telemetry makes amusing crits while overcharge pumps them full of plasma before they can react. Telemetry with evasion debuff averages mathematical superiority for (tooltip accuracy - target's evasion) <= 70%, after which point accuracy does less than rate of fire and overcharge pulls ahead. You the pilot have to guesstimate how much evasion your targets typically run and whether you're willing to break off from high evasion targets to go after other targets.

tl;dr of the tl;dr: Overcharge with damage capacitor for bursts (and get in their face), telemetry with frequency capacitor for quads (and stay back 3-5 km).

hehe, cheers for that!

looks to me, from those numbers, they're roughly equal in power and playstyle will determine which one works best for an individual pilot.

now, any idea how the Cloaking DIspel actually works? does it cut Distortion field?

hehe, cheers for that!

looks to me, from those numbers, they're roughly equal in power and playstyle will determine which one works best for an individual pilot.

 

now, any idea how the Cloaking DIspel actually works? does it cut Distortion field?

Blaster overcharge does so much more damage than targeting telemetry, barring crazy crits (which both can pull off), that I can't personally justify using it. Yes, you can get crits on your pods while you hit with your lasers, and they can do big damage, but the opportunity cost is an additional 33% laser shots fired. Rocket pod crits are nice, but they're unreliable -- and a 20% chance to do +75% damage only comes out to +15% damage. Yes, telemetry applies that to all of your damage dealt instead of just blasters, but secondary weapons frankly do not deal much damage compared to blasters, and there's already a significant cut to blaster damage with telemetry... it's just not worth it right now.

Cloaking dispel currently does nothing. Information from datamining and etc suggests cloaking will be introduced with the interceptor class but is not currently in the game.

Cloaking dispel currently does nothing. Information from datamining and etc suggests cloaking will be introduced with the interceptor class but is not currently in the game.

aha, I thought it was something like that.

nothing of value

Go away.

but secondary weapons frankly do not deal much damage compared to blasters, and there's already a significant cut to blaster damage with telemetry... it's just not worth it right now.

 

.

I think it is more of a stacking increase, much in the same way that 16% evasion is probably not as useful as 6% evasion and 20% hull health compared to a 41% evasion scout. TT probably isn't as worth it without Concentrated Fire. I'll have to take some of your calculations with it and run a TT/Concentrated Fire build versus a BO/Bypass build. Mostly because the point of the build isn't how much consistent damage it pulls out - it's how much burst it can pack in while the ability is active.

I highly suspect BO pulls out ahead in consistent longterm, but TT with CF probably gets some nasty results. Should probably run a BO/CF combo as well for consistency. After all, that combination doesn't care whether a target has shields or not for all calculations.

but TT with CF probably gets some nasty results.

that's why I like it. I've never blown a gunship out of the sky faster in a Blackbolt.

they disappear under a spray of red numbers

CF really does not have much synergy with TT. It's +18% damage vs +27% damage, but you have to use them both at the same time. On the flip side, BO and bypass are both enough to guarantee a kill on their own, something CF and TT can't claim due to their RNG nature. Also, bypass lasts 2.5x longer than CF, making it usable on multiple targets more easily.

You can win the lottery and blow a ship up with huge crits, and I'll freely admit that's tons of fun. But at the same time, three burst cannon hits will absolutely melt things, and BO lets you get off that third hit insanely fast.

TT gets off one shot at t = 0s and one at t = 0.75s. Each hit does ~700 damage with a 23% chance to crit for 1225 damage. Even with pods doing 443 damage with a 23% chance to crit for 775, you probably need at least one blaster crit to get your kill (except against a scout, but don't use TT against scouts). That's just shy of a 60% chance (more if you're me, since I apparently never crit). At that point, you have to wait all the way until t = 1.5s for your kill.

BO gets off one shot each at t = 0s, t = 0.5625s, t = 1.125s (that's 9/8 seconds). Each hit does ~770 damage with a 13% chance to do 1155 damage. You don't need those crits, though, because dude's already dead.

Thank you for this.

My math is embarrassing, but my GSF experience is not. Blaster Overcharge lets me kill that skilled, experienced, upgraded gunship before he can escape. Tactical Telemetry does not.

Very excellent mathematical analysis, Armondd. Though it is still going to come down mostly to personal preference here. Not to mention pure mathematical analysis often goes out the door the moment you come into contact with the enemy. The reason a Burst Laser is superior to quads or rapid fire in practical engagements is that you rarely have time to apply concentrated fire.

For a long term dogfighter/killer, you've proved BO comes out ahead. The interesting part is if you want very short term burst, Concentrated Fire/TT comes out about even with CF/BO against any target with 30%+ evasion. And it comes out ahead if you add rocket pods to the equation.

I'll probably stick with BO, but TT works very well for people like me who aren't as good at making use of offensive cooldowns. You can get almost 50% uptime on TT as opposed to the not quite 25% uptime of BO. It makes it feel a bit more like a passive bonus... or at the very least that I'm not wasting my cooldown as much if I don't hit anything after I use it since it will be back up more quickly.

For a long term dogfighter/killer, you've proved BO comes out ahead. The interesting part is if you want very short term burst, Concentrated Fire/TT comes out about even with CF/BO against any target with 30%+ evasion. And it comes out ahead if you add rocket pods to the equation.

Does it, though? Shooting your cannons 33% faster drastically reduces the time it takes to get off the same amount of burst damage. In fact, other games have burst cooldowns that do nothing but grant you +33% attack speed, sometimes with a defensive penalty for balance.

Let's look at burst lasers, because the math is easier (but applies equally across all lasers because DPS is linear). We'll assume shots do 800 damage, do not pierce shields, and the ship does not have frequency capacitor (which, again, would linearly affect the math and thus not change the results relative to each other). We're also going to discount accuracy, partly because a short range shot has high accuracy and partly because a missed shot in this short a time span means no kill anyway. Our target is a bulky strike fighter (1800 shield, 1450 hull, 3250 total). Remember that burst lasers have a base crit chance of 5%, overcharge grants +16% crit, and telemetry grants +20% crit +25% surge.

The resulting table can be found here.

Obviously, telemetry with pods and ideal crits gets the fastest kill. I don't think anything besides a bypass slug crit can land a kill that quickly. It's also worth noting that with no crits (which isn't uncommon, because RNG), overcharge lands a kill about three-eighths of a second faster than telemetry does, assuming pods.

If I'd been smart, I would have made colums for one crit, two crits, three crits, and the odds of each. That would probably be more helpful than the averages. Unfortunately, the table was a ***** to make and I'm not up to fixing it right now. (Relevant code here, if anyone wants to play with it -- and I won't lie, a java/javascript version that takes accuracy into account would be simply amazing.)

What's interesting is that the average time to kill for telemetry with pods and average crits is higher than time to kill for overcharge with pods and no crits. This means that telemetry requires no less than three crits to get a kill before overcharge does - whether they're laser or pod crits doesn't matter thanks to shield piercing on pods.

Take what you will from the chart, but I think it supports my original counterargument: overcharge provides much, much more reliability than telemetry.

You aren't really counting with the accuracy bonus, and you are mostly counting with burst fire laser.

For me, overcharge gets wasted in a turning fight where my light lasers can't really hit enemy that is close to the edge of my firing cone, no matter how fast I fire. But telemetry gives me the accuracy buff that makes me land several hits. That's practical use for me.

Also, area evasion debuff. Even while I'm not shooting the dude myself, it helps my teammates to clear the annoying scout orbiting the satellite. Even though the numbers are small, the effect is notable in practice.

Of course, nobody can argue with sheer damage potential of the overcharge, and if GSF was an asteroid shooting competition I would totally take it over the telemetry.

Armondd: Bravo! Thank you for all the crazy efforts at dissecting these for us all.

My request is just to ask an opinion:

Do you think that player skill and circumstance against the user's favor would sway the BiS choice here?

Let us assume that the user, for what ever reason, is not a steady pilot , and a horrible shot at that, making 90% of their contact 50% of the way into their max tracking penalty.

Would this play style benefit more from the increased RoF from overcharge, or since they are swimming in targeting penalties constantly and relying on the fluke shot right out of the gate anyways, would targeting telemetry now be the scales tipper for this player?

I'm too lazy to do the math, and I'm sure not expecting you to do more for me, just your opinion would be appreciated.

My gut says OC = more hits landed, TT = maybe those hits might actually count factoring in the critical, as someone with horrible aim has to deal with shield regeneration getting in the way of their sustained damage, and I could see gaining more crits while making contact + a bonus to lock-ons, actually be of more benefit than constant shield chipping to such a player.

Would you agree that in a nutshell, if you have aim problems TT is for you?

Or is OC still the hands down winner?

Does it, though? Shooting your cannons 33% faster drastically reduces the time it takes to get off the same amount of burst damage.

Did you factor in that your weapon power pool will deplete before the duration ends for most weapons?? Your math seems to assume that you can hold down the trigger forever...

You aren't really counting with the accuracy bonus, and you are mostly counting with burst fire laser.

 

For me, overcharge gets wasted in a turning fight where my light lasers can't really hit enemy that is close to the edge of my firing cone, no matter how fast I fire. But telemetry gives me the accuracy buff that makes me land several hits. That's practical use for me.

+10% accuracy for 15 seconds does not, in my experience, add up to a notable difference compared to my tracking penalties. I also need to point out the ridiculous amount of utility you get from +33% fire rate: not only does your burst and sustained damage go through the roof, but you're rolling against accuracy much more, and thus are more likely to hit things.

Also, I wouldn't be me if I didn't offer my opinion despite the fact that you didn't ask for it. Lights are bad against moving targets (that tracking penalty, for one), and so are rapids. In fact, I might go so far as to say that only quads and bursts are really viable right now - one for range and one for lack thereof.

Also, area evasion debuff. Even while I'm not shooting the dude myself, it helps my teammates to clear the annoying scout orbiting the satellite. Even though the numbers are small, the effect is notable in practice.

I don't disagree that the effect is notable, but I guess I'm underestimating the practicality of applying the debuff. Then again, I use telemetry at range, generally (because I want to take advantage of the range of rocket pods, I guess).

Of course, nobody can argue with sheer damage potential of the overcharge, and if GSF was an asteroid shooting competition I would totally take it over the telemetry.

Absolutely correct. Can't emphasize enough that my numbers are only 100% accurate when you're shooting at a block of tofu.

Did you factor in that your weapon power pool will deplete before the duration ends for most weapons?? Your math seems to assume that you can hold down the trigger forever...

I addressed this indirectly; I assumed that the player would deal ~10k damage over a two minute period. That's definitely higher than average (I can't count the number of people I've seen doing less than 10k across a whole map...), but I think that at my best I'm doing more than that. I don't generally run into weapon power problems unless I'm aiming badly with quads, but even with quads I think (gut instinct, not math) I can do 10k damage in two minutes without running out of power if I am well.

In my experience, weapon power issues come from bad aim more often than they come from "asteroid-fire syndrome".

Armondd: Bravo! Thank you for all the crazy efforts at dissecting these for us all.

 

My request is just to ask an opinion:

 

Do you think that player skill and circumstance against the user's favor would sway the BiS choice here?

I'm glad this is helpful!

To answer your argument, there's actually arguments for both skills.

Accuracy is a funny thing. The less of it you have, the more valuable it is. From a pure DPS standpoint, once you drop down to (guesstimating) around 25-30% relative accuracy (i.e. base accuracy - tracking penalty - evasion), telemetry's accuracy buff becomes an enormous godsend and will shoot your DPS through the (paper thin and shoddily built) roof.

As an example, let's look at equations #1 and #4.

b = 5000 (he's bad, so most of his shots miss because aim is a problem)

h = 0.25 (hitting from long range with lots of tracking penalties)

m = 882 (a double volley cluster)

EHM = 1.0 (they don't feel threatened enough to barrel roll)

dam(TT) = (b * 1.224 * (h + 0.1)) + (m * 1.224 * EHM) = 2,142 + 1,080 = 3,222

dam(BO) = (b * 1.468 * h) + (m * EHM) = 1,835 + 882 = 2,717

Clearly, telemetry's accuracy boost is paying dividends here.

On the other hand, a less accurate player will most likely find himself holding down the fire button in the hopes of landing a hit if he sends out enough of them. This means he'll be going through weapon power like nobody's business, especially on something like quads (though significantly less so on something like rapid fires). In this case, overcharge's additional regen, especially with t4 left, may be superior. At the worst, he can push the button and let his power pool up for two or three seconds before he lets loose.

The practical benefits of accuracy vs rate of fire require me to use a specific weapon and calculate the number of hits per second. I know I'm (unnecessarily) favoring burst lasers, but I don't think that's practical here - new players will tend to pick whatever they find most interesting, which means I can't predict what they'll use. My gut tells me that +33% fire rate is likely to outperform +10% accuracy most of the time. I'll let you do the math for 100 damage per hit, 3 hits per second, and 50% base accuracy, which is just above the breakpoint and favors overcharge.

As for preventing shields from regenerating, you'd again have to calculate hits per second and account for the three available reactors. Suffice it to say that burst lasers with damage capacitor and targeting telemetry will likely be significantly worse at preventing shield regen than rapid fire lasers with frequency capacitor and blaster overcharge.

It's really a 15% accuracy boost (+10% accuracy and -5% their evasion).

It also can make the difference between hitting in a "distortion field faceoff" and getting blasted.

I only skimmed but, there are assumptions here about how game mechanics work (such as how evasion is used or to what degree does accuracy can counter it) without any testing used to expose Bioware's mathematical formula. For all we know, accuracy over-rides your misses and the accuracy number rather than referring to a specific stat could have a diminish returns. It could rock, it could stink. Testing would reveal which.

I didn't see any data gathering on how many players use evasion or how much they have, and you'd need that to know which would be more effective. But you wouldn't need that until you knew how accuracy actually performed in the field vs evasion.

Analyzing the tooltips the devs gave us can only take us so far in our understanding of the underlying programming.

It's really a 15% accuracy boost (+10% accuracy and -5% their evasion).

 

It also can make the difference between hitting in a "distortion field faceoff" and getting blasted.

Only if you're really close to them, and then only if you're lucky and it actually makes a difference.

Again, rolling 33% more often with 10-15% less accuracy is often advantageous. On average, overcharge comes out ahead against +15% accuracy when unbuffed accuracy is 70% or higher, and against +10% accuracy when unbuffed accuracy is 47% or higher. All t2 scout weapons have 110%+ close range accuracy, which becomes 75% relative accuracy after pinpointing and 41% evasion but before tracking penalties. Quads' long-range accuracy starts at 85% and comes out to 50% relative accuracy with the same caveats (bear in mind that a target 5+ km away from you when you start doing burst damage is likely a target you have not debuffed). In my opinion, no other t2 scout laser should be used at long range, partly because they all have significantly lower long-range accuracy. Also note that not all ships get 41% evasion (in fact, it's impossible for non-scouts, which make up a significant portion of most groups). Of course, in the end, which to use based on relative accuracy is always a judgment call on the part of the pilot.

In my experience, the best place to be in a distortion field faceoff is somewhere else. You're not likely to get anything productive done, and you're very likely to get blown up by his buddy.

I only skimmed but, there are assumptions here about how game mechanics work (such as how evasion is used or to what degree does accuracy can counter it) without any testing used to expose Bioware's mathematical formula. For all we know, accuracy over-rides your misses and the accuracy number rather than referring to a specific stat could have a diminish returns. It could rock, it could stink. Testing would reveal which.

Yes, and I state these assumptions in one of the first paragraphs.

I didn't see any data gathering on how many players use evasion or how much they have, and you'd need that to know which would be more effective. But you wouldn't need that until you knew how accuracy actually performed in the field vs evasion.

Again, figuring your relative accuracy is always a judgment call on the part of the player. I personally plan for 41% evasion; that way, whenever I run into less, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Yes, and I state these assumptions in one of the first paragraphs.

I don't think you get what I'm expressing. You said something like "Imagine two scouts with identical layouts". That's not the same thing as saying "Imagine I had done some testing to indicate 1% evasion means you evade 1% of attacks, 50% means you evade 50% of them, ect... " and "Imagine I understand how accuracy is used in this calculation and have done some testing to verify this that I can link." and "Imagine I know how a crit hits for extra, because I have data to indicate for this."

Not bad assumptions! But you can't start a mathmatical analysis until you understand all the variables involved.

Bad math doesn't prove something true, it doesn't prove it's false either. It just looks like it proves something.

I recently saw another "Math inside! Beware!" thread that had bogus equations and made-up numbers inputted. I would love to have a detailed analysis of blaster overcharge vs targeting telemetry. Blaster Overcharge is better in my opinion too! But threads with made-up equations to back up opinion is damaging to theorycrafting as a whole.

I don't think you get what I'm expressing. You said something like "Imagine two scouts with identical layouts". That's not the same thing as saying "Imagine I had done some testing to indicate 1% evasion means you evade 1% of attacks, 50% means you evade 50% of them, ect... " and "Imagine I understand how accuracy is used in this calculation and have done some testing to verify this that I can link." and "Imagine I know how a crit hits for extra, because I have data to indicate for this."

You know, I could have sworn I included the assumption that accuracy and surge worked the way they do in the ground game. It must have vanished in one of the revisions. Thanks for letting me know - this is important.

Only if you're really close to them, and then only if you're lucky and it actually makes a difference.

1. Really close = 5km! (you did read the TT description/upgrades, right?)

2. Your weapon range is ... 5775m AT MOST for a range capacitor (really who uses those?) with max'd quads. 5250m for max'd quads with either damage/freq caps. Everything else it is in range 100% of the time for a scout (which is the only ship to get a TT anyway). Unless you are "sniping" at 6600m with rocket pods, and if you're doing that reading my advice won't help you...

Effectively that 5% reduction in evasion will not help when shooting only a striker/gunship that is running zero evasion. Most GS pilots I know run decent evasion, so that really narrows it down to strike fighters...

To everyone that thinks that there is only "One viable build", which is BLC and BOC with Bypass for a copilot:

Maybe for you that's true, but other people may find other builds better for their piloting style/abilities.

I can tell you that in a "face-off" with both ships popping a 6 sec distortion field, a BLC/BOC/Bypass build *can* win, with a lucky hit/crit... but the vast majority are won by a Quad(or BLC)/TT/Def CD copilot.

1. Really close = 5km! (you did read the TT description/upgrades, right?)

I somehow managed to miss the part that upped the dispel radius to 5 km. Thanks for double checking me!

However, I stand by my previous math: on average, overcharge is better if you have 70%+ relative accuracy.

For me personally, this means overcharge is better because I favor burst cannons with pinpointing - at close range, I have 82% hit chance before tracking penalties, giving me over 24 degrees of firing arc before I start having regrets. However, for people who use other weapons (especially at longer ranges), this may not be the case.

I've updated the tl;dr to reflect this. Later I'll go through and see if I can check the wording to indicate that people really should be using the evasion debuff.

Also, I use range capacitors with quads so I can get an edge on the guy and steal kills off my buddies, and I also snipe targets with rocket pods when they have almost no hull. It's great watching a giant explosion so far away from such a little missile.

To everyone that thinks that there is only "One viable build", which is BLC and BOC with Bypass for a copilot:

Maybe for you that's true, but other people may find other builds better for their piloting style/abilities.

Definitely agree. BBB s a common build, and it excels in the current gameplay format, but it's not the only viable build, even in a format that favors its strengths.

I can tell you that in a "face-off" with both ships popping a 6 sec distortion field, a BLC/BOC/Bypass build *can* win, with a lucky hit/crit... but the vast majority are won by a Quad(or BLC)/TT/Def CD copilot.

I think by that point the whole fight is based on luck, which is why I just leave.

I think by that point the whole fight is based on luck, which is why I just leave.

Actually my point was that this is a BUILD fight... eliminate luck as much as possible through a better build.