Incantare
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Posted - 2009.03.11 04:34:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Incantare on 11/03/2009 04:45:25
Smartbombs may no longer cause immunity to citadels but they are anything but fine. Their explosion velocity while in siege is atrociously low at about 3.25 m/s.
Using the missile damage formula I obtained the dps against various capital ships at different speeds, see for yourselves:
Phoenix damage to carriers
Phoenix damage to motherships
All stats are without implants nor rigs, in a max skilled char flying a phoenix with three BCU IIs and do not include drone DPS. Keep in mind no matter how many BCUs are fitted, the damage reduction percentage is the same. I used the Phoenix as an example but the problem is with citadels and affects the Nag as well, to a lesser extent.
Shockingly, the damage of citadels is so poor against moving targets a Phoenix deals more dps out of siege to a Chimera or Thanatos moving at max speed than in siege mode, and barely more against an Archon or Nidhoggur.
That's for theory - I am aware that in practice between other capitals blocking the way, the long time it takes them to accelerate and of course webs - carriers don't move at max speed for the most part, but this extreme example reveals the underlying problem: citadels' explosion velocity being far, far too low in siege mode. In fact if a carrier is flying at ~45 m/s or above, a rage siege Raven outdamages it. Even if the targeted capital is triple webbed, the phoenix still loses about a quarter of its damage due to low explosion velocity.
Even against supercaps Phoenix still loses a significant chunk of its damage, up to 64% against a moving Hel and up to 31% against a Leviathan - the ship with the single largest sig radius and tied for slowest.
I realize capital turrets have to deal with tracking but they are not penalized anywhere near the extent citadels are against other capitals short of shooting one at extreme close range. If you disagree back up your claim with some facts and not just "well turrets miss missiles always hit".
There was a time when citadels weren't just useful against caps, they could also be used effectively against battleships and some BCs but doing so either required a gimped setup or specific support and there was no flood of whine threads about how imba they were. Today this is impossible, but it's not important. What is important is that citadel torpedoes as an anti-capital weapon are massively underpowered. Aside from their (very) delayed damage and being destroyable they are crippled by their explosion velocity.
It feels as if the devs tossed out a random number for citadel explosion velocity and went with it without testing, consequences be damned. Citadels don't need a token boost, what they need is a significant increase in explosion velocity to allow missile dreads to fulfill their role in anti-capital warfare. |