Pilot Archive

Well, two guns with 1k-2.5k dmg 0.5 vs. is doing the exact same damage as one 2k-5k 0.5vs. gun. The thing is, you should pick real gun stats to compare with.

A well-REd level 6 or 8 gun will have around 0.65 vs. shields and armor. A level 10 REd gun should have >0.80 vs. shields and armor. One 3000-5000 0.8vs L10 gun is doing an average of 3200 real damage per shot. One 2500-3900 0.65vs L8 is doing 2080 average real damage per shot. So 4160 per shot for 2 of them. More than one level 10. A level 6 REd gun that does 1800-2800 damage is doing 1500 (rounded) average real damage per shot. So 3000 for 2 of them, again more than the one level 8.

The examples above are from REd guns I pulled from posts on the forum.

and don't forget about refire... that can make a big difference

There was a good calculator on DPS of guns somewhere (Anyone? if you've got the link, I seem to have lost it)

Really, when it comes down to damage, the priority when comparing even guns is pretty much this:
1) Refire
2) Damage vs (shields for PvP, both for PvE)
3) Damage

People ask me sometimes why I use a pair of Crafted level 9 Ion Cannons on my Oppressor instead of some heavy-hitting level 8's/9's that are RE'd. Here's the breakdown on the numbers for you to explain: (In PvP terms, since that's what my Opp is for)
(numbers are partly best estimate from memory)

My crafted 9's:
Damage: ~2000-3200, avg of 2600 damage per shot
Damage vs Shields: 0.75
Refire: 0.25 on both
Average DPS vs Shields per shot: 2600 * 0.75 * (1 / 0.25) = 1950 per gun
Average DPS total: 15,600 damage done to shields in 1 second

Example: Pair of RE'd 8's (let's say really good RE's...really good)
Damage: 2900-3900, avg of 3400 per shot
Damage vs Shields: ~0.68
Refire: 0.31 (0.30 if you can really RE them good)
Average DPS vs Shields per shot: 3400 * 0.68 * (1 / 0.31) = 3000 per gun
Average DPS Total: 19,355 damage done to shields in 1 second

As you can see, Max damage really doesn't mean a whole lot. While those 2 RE'd level 8's will kick out more damage over 5 seconds, and more damage per hit, the odds of getting a pair of RE'd level 8's with those kinds of stats are not within the reach of all pilots. Hell, I've been flying for quite some time and still don't have my other Borstel's RE'd. Once simple reason: making them that good isn't easy. Getting the parts needed takes a lot of time.

Here's a rough breakdown:
What I charge for my level 9 QFs (they do sell quite nicely at this): 100k
So, 200k for 15,600 DPS

16 level 8 guns, 2 of which are quest rewards: even going off what the Vendor pays you for them, 14 * 8 = 112k for the 14 guns, plus grinding out 2x freelance/rebel to get 2 borstels/tri-cannons. Or, 128k if you buy all 16 guns. Now, after you get done laughing at buying level 8 guns for 8k credits each (and really good ones at that), you can see that getting crafted guns is cheaper, much quicker, and the damage you sacrifice in pvp is marginal at best.

Ok...that went a lot longer then I expected. But, ask around on your server. I bet a lot of the better pilots out there will tell you that, short of some really insane RE'd guns, having QuickFires is 2nd best. Refire rate is something not to be overlooked at all, as it drastically increases the damage you do.

** Granted, everything I just said is pretty much blown out the window if you have weapons in the range of One-Shot-Killers (ie, RE'd level 10s with 5k+ max damage and 0.80+ vs both)

The bether pilots I use to fight are so tought to hit (a compliment to them =)) that the best startegyI found is kill on the first hit. Normally i use to archieve that with my two REd lvl8. But some of them with HEAVY shileds are a bit tougher (thats why I complement with imagerec missiles). My normal strategy is IF i cant kill it on the first hit, i must seriously criple it then he wont have a chance to overflown me after that. Right now im having some spare room on my JSF but When i finish upgrading my engine to a lvl 10 REd ( i found one with 44k mass pre RE) I wont have much room anymore... I wont load shields or armor at all, my capacitor and reactor both have about 1k mass and generetes a lot (capacitor with 40 recharge rate without overload and reactor with 12k energy without overload),since its only for PvP ill load my RE DI with 1.1k mass OR one of those slow and SMALL ones, just load the overloads before start fighting (since ill be killed in one shot anyway i wont bother with CSS)so im thinking what I will fit tohave the greatest firepower possible in that tiny 36k(a bit more)mass lefting after the lvl 10 engine. And I´ll have 2 guns slots.

For that, I'd honestly recommend trying your best to find a level 10 that will fit in there, though that will be next to impossible. 36k mass would take an insane RE to make it work. Other then that, your best bet will be, most likely, a QuickFire 7 with an RE'd 8. You should be able to squeeze that into 35k, roughly. Just make sure that level 8 has some really high vsShield/Armor, and for the 7, I'd recommend an Ion Cannon. That would tear through just about anything with the first volley.

I just did the following: After RE, the engine had 41k mass, I only loaded the engine, a 1.2k reactor (12k energy wich im using only 7k), a 1k capacitor (80k gen rate with CO4), a 450mass crafted DI with 24 speed (i just load the overloads before geting into any fight, and i wont need speed after that cause i wont have enev shileds to use CSS4)and my two REd incom tricannons. Its doing GREAT like this...

http://naarf.at/swg/damcalc.php