Heatsink: Good or Bad?

[Bronzium]

Hi guys,

As an Engineer myself, I find I tend to use Heatsink ammo on quite a regular basis. My reasoning behind this is that it does reduce firestacks, but it also helps to give more ammo to guns. I've seen very few engineers or gunners use this ammo type, and would like to know why it's so underused?

[RedRoach]

The main issue is that, while reloading the ammunition reverts to normal instead of staying heatsink throughout. Many people know that a flamer, with it's non-stop rate of fire and large clip, can easily throw around 8+ stacks before your hwacha or gatling gets reloaded. I don't personally use it, because... well.. I chem spray me own guns between reloads for a full 25 second buff.

[Mezhu]

Heatsink is a great ammo type- however, like all ammo types, it's situational. Its' main uses are two; protecting a gun against fire and increasing some guns total damage per clip at the cost of damage per second and range. When should one use Heatsink?

• As gunner, heatsink is a viable 3rd ammo type on many conventional guns. Use as an alternative to chem spray when engineers are preoccupied or  unreliable, or proc many reloads at opportune moments to slowly extinguish guns and relieve pressure off engineers.
• As a gunner, heatsink is an exceptional ammo type for guns that benefit greatly from the bonus shot(s) and the arming range reduction- these include heavy and light carronades, flaregun, light flak, lumberjack. Beware of the side effects though- quite often there's another ammo type that's more effectively paired with those guns, depending on many variables such as range, gun's health, enemy ship condition etc!
• As an engineer who's supposed to spend a lot of his/her time shooting (on ships with many guns such as the mobula, or as gungineer on a pyramidion etc), you should generally avoid Heatsink. You already have a superior fire supression and immunity tool, which negates the need for Heatsink. There always are exceptions, but you should probably be using the ammo type that's considered optimal for your gun, instead.
  
• As an engineer who's expected to not spend any considerable time shooting but still has access to nearby guns, which otherwise noone would use (e.g. as main engineer on a pyramidion). Heatsink becomes a valid option. In the heat of combat you won't and shouldn't include the sideguns of a pyramidion in your spray and repair circles. This can often lead to these guns dying out of a fire stacks, which went ignored for the duration of an engagement. This becomes increasingly relevant when the enemy uses a flamethrower, even more so if it's a primary source of damage. Preloading Heatsink into these can potentially save the guns and allow you to use them when the moment comes, or at the very least save you the trouble of having to rebuild them (while simultaneously acting as damage shields for your hull during the fight). Especially effective if these guns also benefit from Heatsink

[RearAdmiralZill]

To fight fires, heatsink is pretty worthless because it doesn't work during reloads. It might have other "merits," but for its intended purpose, it just doesn't compare to engie fire tools even remotely.

The only way it'll be good is if it manages to be a better option then just letting the gun burn out and rebuild it. How that can be achieved is beyond me right now.

[Alistair MacBain]

Just like Zill said.
Heatsink as a Fire fighting tool is only worth it in a few specific situations for gunners. As engineer id always say avoid it.
If you're not supposed to shoot as engi there was already a different mistake when the only way to survive is to get you on a gun. If you're a gungineer then you should always carry a chem spray. And if you cant chem your own gun then you did a serious mistake.

For gunners id rarely suggest it. The only build i sometimes use it is for a gunner on a galleon who has to use a lj and hcarro. (example: lj, hcarro front low, 2xhwacha back low)
Then I rather have heatsink to decrease the arming of my lj to get a third shot for the hcarro. But you could also just carry les (or a midrange ammo), greased and heavy to get great effect out of both guns.


As already stated the issue why heatsink is no valid fire fighting tool is the missing immunity during reloads. This makes it useless against flamers. And any other fire based gun doesnt apply enough stacks to even consider it. Rather have your engis on point and let them ext for you.

[Mezhu]

You can succesfully reload quite a lot of guns while under flamer fire without them overheating. It's not like you'll always be put against a greased flamethrower tunneling vision on your gun from point blank range. You can also preload them, or you can properly time the reload. You can use heatsink to slowly reduce a sprayed gun's firestacks while repairing it with wrench to keep it healthy at the same time. Heatsink isn't supposed to be the penultimate counter to fire, it doesn't replace an engineer. What it does is give an additional option against fire, even if it is to provide the engineer with some additional reaction time, while being a pretty decent ammotype to begin with.

Opinions will always divert- I can testify to the fact, however, that Heatsink has saved my guns innumerable times. And I'm not talking about pubs only- I've always used heatsink when main engineering on Fiasco's ship and as a matter of fact I've even succesfully used it as cover ammo on mortar on that same ship as buffgi/2nd main versus fire-happy teams. I always pack Heatsink when using the heavy carro as a gunner, and almost always on all other guns (with some exceptions, of course).

[Replaceable]

For fire: Chem>Heatsink every time.

I would consider heatsink only when there are awful engineers in a pub game.. but anything else no.

Heatsink isn't optimal on most guns though to be honest.

But i heard it is good on:

• Light Flak (extra shots) [greased or heavy clip is better, though for either greater dps or greater accuracy
• Flare gun for 3 shots
• Heavy guns that need reduced arming time and you're greedy and want more shots. (As mentioned above.) [im still pretty sure other ammos are better.]
• Mercury, as mentioned above. [I'd rather charged, because I'm pretty certain, but not wholly certain, heat sink can't one shot components, (maybe with buff?)

Anywhere else you people like a bit of ol' heatsink?

[GeoRmr]

Heatsink is better than greased for the light flak as it has more damage per clip, (greased has less) and the flak shots fast enough to land all the shots in the hull break as is. Heatsink mercury can one shot components and is great for the extra disable potential.

[RearAdmiralZill]

This is the problem though. Who uses heatsink for its intended purpose?

....

Exactly. Might as well call it "lead shot" with how people use it. Gunners would likely enjoy a fire fighting ammo that actually worked.

(lead as in pencil lead)

[Mezhu]

This is the problem though. Who uses heatsink for its intended purpose?

I do, and I can count some of the best players currently involved with the game who also do or specifically ask for it when piloting.

Anywhere else you people like a bit of ol' heatsink?

Heatsink has the most DPC (and long-run DPS, as you spend more time shooting and less reloading) on Heavy Carronade, which is a gun that benefits greatly from this as it relies on prolonged fights. Close-range, past the first Heavy Clip balloon pop, with each pellet hitting, Heatsink is by far the the best ammo to use. Switch to Lochnagar pre-ram for that huge damage spike. Incendiary has the advantage of forcing enemy engineers to include spray in their rebuild routines, and Charged has more damage per shot, but Heatsink is still generally superior.

Heatsink is also superb if not ideal on mercs, as Geo already stated.

It increases the dpc of a light Carro as well (+1 shot versus Greased), but the dps suffers slightly. Still perfectly viable, I sometimes pick it over Greased depending on ship and loadout (a permabuffed heatsink light carro is pretty scary).

[Sammy B. T.]

I've found myself using heatsink several times as a substitute for greased for my mallet spanner buff engineers. Especially for carronades. It was nice for my squid as the man in charge of the front gun was able to buff, quick repair and not worry too much about fires. It certainly isn't as good as chem spray but the dps difference is minimal and it was one less thing for the rest of my crew to worry about.

[sparklerfish]

Heatsink is my preferred ammo for light flak for reduced arming time and extra shots, and often my third ammo choice as a gunner for a gun that has two other optimal ammo types to help with fire prevention/suppression.  It's also awesome for the flare gun because it gets you three flares, and if it's the rear gun on a pyra you can start it loading and get in a full repair cycle or even two if you're quick and still get back in time to finish the reload.

[Squidslinger Gilder]

When I brought back the trifecta Junker in a match months back, I had heatsink in the LF and I think on the front. No one caught that we were using it, they thought it was chems. But it was all purposeful.

With disable as effective as it is and engineers already stressed with chem cycles, I looked at options for doing the trifecta again since I knew we needed a kill ship but I didn't like how gat/mort had been treating us at the time. It just takes too long to strip armor and too long to get the mort into position.

I want the old LF back pre arming timer. It was the best gun for boats with side mounts that needed turning and accuracy to compensate for lateral movement. LF can still do it but now only with range being accounted for.

So considering that, gotta look at ammo. Incendiary fires too slow so greased was an option. However, having the guns sinked in the back gave them quick movement and firing + freed up my engineer from needing to worry about spraying them. That allowed her to be more effective.

You don't think of it as much, but having guns sinked, does help with sprays. Certain builds and boats, it is nice to have.

[GeoRmr]

@zill
 I use heatsink for fire protection, particularly on the mobula where the middle gun is a long journey for either of the engineers, usually fighting mid to long range the gun only accumulates a few firestacks and being able to extinguish 3 on demand is quite helpful. If we get attacked by a close range flamer i load in the heatsink and leave to get on a different gun, knowing that the gun will likely be operational should i need to get back on it. Sometimes we run galleon with 1 main engi, gunner, and spanner mallet buff, because we exclusively use the starboard guns for close range its great to preload both the hwacha and heavy carronade with heatsink and forget about them. (when fighting flame heavy builds we sometimes do this anyway)

[RearAdmiralZill]

I've used that galleon crew setup before and didn't care for it. The guns were generally destroyed anyway, so you then just have an awkward heatsink ammo on a crew member who could be using something else.

My issue with heatsink is that its too niche. If you preload it, you still have to use it, which generally means your first clip is underwhelming. Then a reload, and anything over 3 stacks is just a start to either letting the gun burn out and rebuilding, or an engie coming to get it anyway as the gunner whacks it every reload cycle.

Again, I don't particularly care about its other merits for reducing arm times or giving extra ammo. Those stats were put on it eons ago to make it less effective than other ammo at the time, save for its fire retardant. Now its (I believe) more often used for those stats, and not the fire retardant, because an engie can do the same job more effectively anyway. My biggest complaint about it is lack of protection while reloading.