Mobula builds

[geggis]

BlackenedPies: great tip on the extinguisher! I like my gunner up top to bring heatsink but as captain an extinguisher would be very helpful on the top deck.

So, my preferred build after being on hiatus for the best part of a year:

• Twin arties on the wings
• Gat on lower hull side
• Banshee or flak on lower balloon side
• Hades up top

Engies to tend to their sides of the ship -- no leaving your posts! Lesmok for gat. I'm flexible on the banshee/flak side. Buff engies can be handy.

Gunner stays with Hades looking after their gun and main engine. Brings burst or heatsink, lesmok, and incendiary (for short arm-time) or greased.

I bring phoenix claw for quicker turning (will see how I fare without this!), drogue chutes, and tar barrel for ships that get where they shouldn't get (saved my bacon no end of times). I used to bring hydro but the mob balloon gets a lot of hammer and often popping hydro would kill it so I decided to redirect that damage to the engines in the form of tar. Buffed balloon helps with this though. If I can ditch phoenix claw, I might bring hydro again as it was handy as well.

I prefer the arties to be high because of their poor upward arc (and their horizontal arc is great for the wings). The lesmok gat means that the engie can release a clip at range before tending to repairs with some piercing overlap from the dedicated hades gunner. The banshee can have at it constantly but with the flak a bit more patience and timing is required. The fire from the hades and banshee is a bonus.

I have a lot of success with this build, it's competent close range but works very well medium to long. The other plus is that all crew members get to gun and engineer and have very defined roles and responsibilities.

[BlackenedPies]

Welcome back geggis, I have some suggestions for you too.

Burst ammo is so good on the artemis that I'd suggest bringing burst for both sides because the hades double burst artemis is by far your most powerful gun combo. The range of the gat is 450m which is plenty without lesmok. I have lesmok for my left side flak + gat but never end up needing to use it on the gat because typical gat engagements are within 450m. I'd say use your double artemis as much as possible until they get into regular gat range where you can maximize damage with flak/banshee.

I like the idea of a right side flak because burst ammo maximizes its damage at medium range and the flak does significantly more damage than artemis or banshee. Unless you're fighting Junkers or Pyramidions, I'd recommend the light flak for the extra kill power. You'll find that against ships with high hull like fish, spires, and squids the banshee just doesn't cut it. I used to use a banshee with heavy clip and a carronade on the bottom but it took too long to kill anything other than junker or pyra.

For the gunner you will want greased ammo. Although incendiary reduces arm time by 30% vs greased 20%, it's a difference of only 15 meters. The extra dps from greased is incredibly useful against charging ships where breaking armor asap is essential.

As for a buff engineer on balloon, it's a viable strategy if you aren't facing flechette weapons. But in that case I'd have the buff engi full time on the bottom gun. A buffed light flak is great against ships with high hull. I would also have the buff engi bring chem spray because you can't risk the balloon catching on fire since they only have a wrench.

Don't bring claw! It's a waste of a tool on the mobula because it doesn't increase turning acceleration (only speed) and it increases vertical drag by 200%! I highly recommend bringing kerosene. Because mobulas are very light, they have low momentum and kerosene let's them move very quickly. Burning can also help you turn after the speed boost. Even if you're only facing sniping ships, kerosene let's you get to cover quicker and be both aggressive and defensive.

Hydrogen is great on the mobula especially with artemis because they can aim down but not up. It's great for dodging charging pyras and fish, and can be used to bait ships downwards then quickly hydro up. I'd say it's the most important mobula tool. If you expect your balloon to get destroyed then hydro and drogue are required.

Although tar is fun to use, it kinda defeats the purpose of the mobula. Your goal is to always have your guns in arc shooting them. Tar forces you to sacrifice the precious time that you should be using to start shooting again. Because mobulas are relatively slow and bulky, tar will have very limited effectiveness against experienced players. If you really want tar then I'd recommend bringing it instead of drogue and only when you're not afraid of damage to balloon.

Good luck and have fun experimenting!   Mobula OP

[geggis]

Thanks for all the tips Pies!

I used to roll with dual banshees on the lower flanks but haven't revisited that build in a while. How do banshees fare with burst?

15 metres eh? Definitely not worth sacrificing the DPS for that! I always forget how incendiary affects fire-based weapons, specifically something like the hades or banshee. Does it just increase ignite chance?

Yes, the buff engie is a little more risky but the rewards are there. I've not dabbled much with chem spray loadouts as they require the engie to be cyclical and disciplined. I certainly don't rule it out though.

Ah, I thought the claw increased acceleration because it's something I pop in a pinch. That's good to know as hydro has helped me countless times get out of trouble. One of my favourite tactics is to ascend fast and appear to go over the enemy only to slam it into reverse and lower myself back into arc to catch the enemy turning. It works well with ramming Pyras. Kero would supplement this.

Tar isn't something I deliberately position myself to use, it's more if an enemy finds itself behind me and I can't afford to turn round. Fire off some tar, perhaps go straight up and back to give some distance.

And yes, hydro works very well with the arty gun arcs.

Anyway, thanks again. Very detailed and informative response!

[MightyKeb]

Ah, I thought the claw increased acceleration because it's something I pop in a pinch. That's good to know as hydro has helped me countless times get out of trouble. One of my favourite tactics is to ascend fast and appear to go over the enemy only to slam it into reverse and lower myself back into arc to catch the enemy turning. It works well with ramming Pyras. Kero would supplement this.

Just a quick note, a competent pyra pilot would mirror you with hydro and go full kero reverse, so even if you descended back, you wouldnt catch it turning ,you'd just catch it with perfect arcs on you. Good thinking though! I'll be looking forward to experimenting with that manouver.

[Kamoba]

Ah, I thought the claw increased acceleration because it's something I pop in a pinch. That's good to know as hydro has helped me countless times get out of trouble. One of my favourite tactics is to ascend fast and appear to go over the enemy only to slam it into reverse and lower myself back into arc to catch the enemy turning. It works well with ramming Pyras. Kero would supplement this.

Just a quick note, a competent pyra pilot would mirror you with hydro and go full kero reverse, so even if you descended back, you wouldnt catch it turning ,you'd just catch it with perfect arcs on you. Good thinking though! I'll be looking forward to experimenting with that manouver.

When and how you return height to enemy level is situational, but even good pyra pilots will struggle to keep up with the mobulas vertical rise, also gegis mentioned this as a move against ram pyras, he is right, a pyra with intent to ram will loose arcs if dodged.

[BlackenedPies]

The banshee has a 35% chance to set one fire on the thing it hits, and 26.4% to set two fires on aoe. It's aoe radius is 3 meters so burst increases that to 3.6. It's not very much, but burst has potential to start fires on more components due to the larger radius. Because the banshee shoots pretty quick and has a lengthy reload, the extra clip size generally makes up for the lower fire rate. So I'd say yes burst is worth it until they get close. The problem with banshees is that they don't do much damage and are significantly less effective if the enemy is using chem. Unless you're fighting inexperienced players I'd caution against using double banshee.

Incendiary increases ignition chance by 20% for both primary and secondary damage. So for example each shot from a gat would have a 40% chance of setting one fire. The only guns I see incendiary having use on are carronades, mines, and heavy armtime guns. Mainly just the mine launcher. The big problem with incendiary is the low clip size and fire rate which has no effect on mines. Because it reduces range by 30%, it has some use on the lumberjack and heavy flak. On the heavy carronade it has the potential to start many fires, but should not be used to set fires on balloon.

I used to run chem on the balloon side with bottom artemis but realized I had to remind even experienced players to chem in combat. I'd have to check how long it takes round trip to chem balloon but I've heard it's slightly less than an artemis reload (7 seconds) when done right. Unfortunately extinguishers are useless against flamethrowers.

A squid with a flame will be your biggest threat. To deal with them I bring a mine launcher with heatsink and lochnagar, but a flame is also a good easy choice. Something you could experiment with is having your right gun on the bottom and a flame on the top right for the gunner.

I still caution against using tar because ideally you'll never have anyone behind you. In the time it takes to use tar you can hydro and kero. For close range maneuvering every second counts. Also you should never really run in a mobula because you're a slow easy target. The advantage of the mobula is that it's quick with kero and can quickly change direction. Keep in mind that moving backwards reduces thrust by 50% and the mobulas low weight means it doesn't have much momentum. On the other hand a galleon with very high weight isn't affected much by the reduced weight while moving backwards once it reaches full speed.

[Robotic Rampage]

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When used correctly, it will shred all in a hail of fireworks. Hasn't let me down yet.

[MightyKeb]

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When used correctly, it will shred all in a hail of fireworks. Hasn't let me down yet.

Chemspray says hello

[ShadedExalt]

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When used correctly, it will shred all in a hail of fireworks. Hasn't let me down yet.

Chemspray says hello

Name ONE engi that perfectly keep up chem/repair with at least 3 Banshees firing at once for the entire time it would take for the gunners and captain to kill the enemy ship.

[GeoRmr]

only one?

[ShadedExalt]

only one?

I'm aware I'm making it easy.

[Kamoba]

Well give Geo chem spray as a gunner and you'll never see a single fire on the ship... 

[BlackenedPies]

Name ONE engi that perfectly keep up chem/repair with at least 3 Banshees firing at once for the entire time it would take for the gunners and captain to kill the enemy ship.

Each chem let's you use two subsequent mallets on a component. Two competent engineers can keep all important components chemmed indefinitely while the triple banshee fails to do any significant damage. It only works against scrubs, but when it does it can be very effective. It's not much different from using one flamethrower except more fun and less effective.

So yeah any competent engi can keep all their components chemmed 100% of the time under triple banshee because very little damage is actually being dealt. Add in shatter, piercing, or flechette damage and chems are another story. Hades double banshee is far more effective than just 3x banshee.

[ShadedExalt]

Name ONE engi that perfectly keep up chem/repair with at least 3 Banshees firing at once for the entire time it would take for the gunners and captain to kill the enemy ship.

Each chem let's you use two subsequent mallets on a component. Two competent engineers can keep all important components chemmed indefinitely while the triple banshee fails to do any significant damage. It only works against scrubs, but when it does it can be very effective. It's not much different from using one flamethrower except more fun and less effective.

So yeah any competent engi can keep all their components chemmed 100% of the time under triple banshee because very little damage is actually being dealt. Add in shatter, piercing, or flechette damage and chems are another story. Hades double banshee is far more effective than just 3x banshee.

And where could I find a competant engi?  Any I've had melt under that assault.

[DJ Logicalia]

Name ONE engi that perfectly keep up chem/repair with at least 3 Banshees firing at once for the entire time it would take for the gunners and captain to kill the enemy ship.

Each chem let's you use two subsequent mallets on a component. Two competent engineers can keep all important components chemmed indefinitely while the triple banshee fails to do any significant damage. It only works against scrubs, but when it does it can be very effective. It's not much different from using one flamethrower except more fun and less effective.

So yeah any competent engi can keep all their components chemmed 100% of the time under triple banshee because very little damage is actually being dealt. Add in shatter, piercing, or flechette damage and chems are another story. Hades double banshee is far more effective than just 3x banshee.

And where could I find a competant engi?  Any I've had melt under that assault.