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The Spod
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
17
   |
Posted - 2013.08.14 16:17:00 -
[1] - Quote
When discussing dps figures, hybrid sentryboats really shine on the number. However, one should always take into consideration the lock time drones take before firing the first volley. It becomes very prevalent when killing frigates in 1 volley: blapping takes twice as long as with a turret group on same rate of fire.
Let's say with your 800 garde dps you kill a battleship in 20 seconds. The sentries take two seconds (in reality it's more) to target the battleship. Your actual dps in this case is 720, or 90% of 800. With this in mind, a realistic dps figure could be given for different classes of rats. I can pull a guesstimate off my arse: 80-95% applied on battleship rats (depends on your total dps on target and its hitpoints), 40-60% on cruisers (overkill and fast kills) and fairly little on frigates.
You can unreliably pre-lock targets by hitting engage in the same server tick as the last volley launches on previous target. This technique heavily depends on latency control. This can be practised visibly by using fighters on a carrier: the fighters shoot the former target en route to next one if you do it right.
This leads to a couple of pointers:
1) Possibly, depending on battleship rat repair rate, you should have sentries on one battleship target and use your other weapons on other targets.
2) Sentries are bad at blapping frigates, their damage would be better spent on stuff they don't have to lock repeatedly.
3) Actual sentry dps should always be downgraded due to lock time involved in regular pve.
Comments? Further details on sentry lock time and any other insight would be appreciated. |
Tauranon
Weeesearch
231
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 05:16:00 -
[2] - Quote
When I fly an ishtar or a dominix, I aim to use gunnery for frigates, drones for cruisers, and then both on each individual battleship target, (because battleships rep significant hps if you don't max dps on them), bearing in mind that I may gun coup-de-grace a cruiser if the drones have put it into structure.
99% of the time my latency is stable (but large, I play from Australia). It is generally possible for me to retarget drones during the time after I believe the salvo has gone through but it hasn't been reported to the client. Unfortunately the client and server synchronise the state of turret and launcher groups, so I am forced to sit out round trips AFTER the salvo has completed, and unlike drones, they will refuse the hotkey until the roundtrips are completed.
TL;DR drones are less impacted than ship borne weapons with retargeting delay if there is any real latency, and they are a lot nicer to play, due to their tendency to not refuse the hotkey.
edit: also drone cycles are short, so they don't do tremendous overkill unless of course you let them cycle on cruisers that are already in structure! |
Whitehound
1825
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 06:19:00 -
[3] - Quote
Do not manually control your drones every single time, but let them target for themselves. If you try to control sentries too much then, yes, the ship's locking time and the sentries' locking time add up.
Draw aggro before you launch the sentries. If you launch them too soon then frigates will be the first to target you and the sentries will try to kill them first. When done right and there are several targets to choose from will sentries pick the largest targets first. It is the same for all drones (i.e. light drones prefer to attack frigates).
Loss is meaningful. Therefore is the loss of meaning likewise meaningful. It is the source of all trolling. |
Penn Koskanaiken
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
0
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 19:32:00 -
[4] - Quote
Whitehound wrote:Do not manually control your drones every single time, but let them target for themselves. If you try to control sentries too much then, yes, the ship's locking time and the sentries' locking time add up.
Draw aggro before you launch the sentries. If you launch them too soon then frigates will be the first to target you and the sentries will try to kill them first. When done right and there are several targets to choose from will sentries pick the largest targets first. It is the same for all drones (i.e. light drones prefer to attack frigates).
I was not aware of this. One reason I manually pick the targets is that the drones can sometimes split targets when left on their own. So a flight of 5 might see 3 on one ship and 2 on another. Not sure how to avoid this other than manual intervention.
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Garviel Tarrant
Beyond Divinity Inc
Shadow Cartel
1360
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 20:08:00 -
[5] - Quote
Pretty sure the delay you speak off is just the fact that they apply damage at the end of their gun cycle, might be wrong though.
BYDI recruitment closed-ish |
The Spod
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
17
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 20:35:00 -
[6] - Quote
Garviel Tarrant wrote:Pretty sure the delay you speak off is just the fact that they apply damage at the end of their gun cycle, might be wrong though.
That would explain a lot. Going to have to check on it. |
Whitehound
1831
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 20:44:00 -
[7] - Quote
Penn Koskanaiken wrote:Whitehound wrote:Do not manually control your drones every single time, but let them target for themselves. If you try to control sentries too much then, yes, the ship's locking time and the sentries' locking time add up.
Draw aggro before you launch the sentries. If you launch them too soon then frigates will be the first to target you and the sentries will try to kill them first. When done right and there are several targets to choose from will sentries pick the largest targets first. It is the same for all drones (i.e. light drones prefer to attack frigates). I was not aware of this. One reason I manually pick the targets is that the drones can sometimes split targets when left on their own. So a flight of 5 might see 3 on one ship and 2 on another. Not sure how to avoid this other than manual intervention.
If you have set them to Focus Fire will they always try to shoot the same target. The option is in the top-left corner menu of the drone window. Occasionally can they split fire even when set to focus, but it happens rarely.
Sentries will also not excursively pick large ships, but seem to be going after highest damage dealers and e-war ships first.
Loss is meaningful. Therefore is the loss of meaning likewise meaningful. It is the source of all trolling. |
Donbe Scurred
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
114
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 21:22:00 -
[8] - Quote
Not usually a huge deal and maybe I was just unlucky the times it happened to me but, I found letting them do their own thing occasionally led to them shooting triggers way to early. |
Novah Soul
25
|
Posted - 2013.08.15 23:57:00 -
[9] - Quote
Donbe Scurred wrote:Not usually a huge deal and maybe I was just unlucky the times it happened to me but, I found letting them do their own thing occasionally led to them shooting triggers too early.
I've experienced the same issue with drones in general.... drones tend to be trigger happy....  |
Mnemosyne Gloob
Acerbus Vindictum
Stealth Wear Inc.
117
|
Posted - 2013.08.16 02:47:00 -
[10] - Quote
I like to blap frigates in certain complexes with my sentries (basically where the frigs are a bit away). Lock em up and manually use one sentry to engage one frigate. It is much clicking, but i feel it's faster than just outright engaging one frigate after another with all sentries. |
The Spod
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
17
|
Posted - 2013.08.16 07:10:00 -
[11] - Quote
Any confirmation that sentries do damage in the end of their gun cycle? Didn't find a source and cba test. |
Dorrann
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
40
|
Posted - 2013.08.16 11:38:00 -
[12] - Quote
Novah Soul wrote:Donbe Scurred wrote:Not usually a huge deal and maybe I was just unlucky the times it happened to me but, I found letting them do their own thing occasionally led to them shooting triggers too early. I've experienced the same issue with drones in general.... drones tend to be trigger happy....
I also love how if drones engage a target they are often classed as a second vessel in the area which can cause full room aggro.
Example - Worlds Collide Serp/Guristas, Angel frigates in Serp Base, if your drones attack them or you tell the drones to attack them the room aggros, if YOU attack them with shipboard weapons the rest of the room ignores it.
Joy !
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