Gunnery for Dummies v1.3.5

[Erheller]

Heatsink on light flak vs. greased on light flak

Heatsink: More damage per clip (697.2 damage per clip with heatsink versus 588 for greased)

Greased: Much faster rate of fire (1.5 seconds to empty greased clip, 2.8 seconds to empty heatsink clip

My calculated theoretical rates of fire don't seem to coincide with actual rates of fire (at 16.67 rounds per second, the flamer should take 18 seconds to empty a clip, but it's actually closer to 20 seconds), but greased still has a distinct advantage over heatsink in this regard.

[N-Sunderland]

Heatsink on light flak vs. greased on light flak

Heatsink pros:
More damage per clip (630 damage per clip vs 588 damage per clip)
Lower arming time

Greased pros:
Faster theoretical rate of fire (1.5 seconds to empty clip vs 2.8 seconds to empty clip)
Greater range

Heatsink is -17% projectile speed, and greased is -20%. Heatsink has greater range.

[macmacnick]

...I used the wiki as the source of the projectile speed decrease information... Someone needs to update the wiki.

[Erheller]

Oh, I completely missed that heatsink got changed a couple patches ago.

Right now the tooltip says that it's -17% damage, -20% projectile speed (and some other stats that haven't changed). Assuming that's right, light flak will have 697.2 damage per clip with heatsink versus 588 for greased. But greased can empty its clip much faster than heatsink. Range and arming time *should* be the same between the two.

...I used the wiki as the source of the projectile speed decrease information... Someone needs to update the wiki.

Yeah, the wiki has some really inconsistent information. Wilson's Notes apparently take their stats from the game files themselves and are self-updating, according to awkm.

[N-Sunderland]

Whoops, yeah. I got damage and speed mixed up. Neeeever mind.

Still, they have equal projectile speed.

[Erheller]

Whoops, yeah. I got damage and speed mixed up. Neeeever mind.

Still, they have equal projectile speed.

Thanks, updated the comparison post.

[Echoez]

This is much more in-depth from what I went for when I was still realy into this, great job Wundsalz, you describe everything in great detail, what was a simple beginner guide is now a much more complex tool that players that are above the basics can use to better refine their playstyle while still being a very good starting point for raw beginners.

Salutations to you good sir!

[Devinstater]

Any thoughts on the Banshee rocket Carousel?

[GeoRmr]

Heatsink on light flak vs. greased on light flak

Heatsink pros:
More damage per clip (630 damage per clip vs 588 damage per clip)
Lower arming time

Greased pros:
Faster theoretical rate of fire (1.5 seconds to empty clip vs 2.8 seconds to empty clip)
Greater range

Heatsink is -17% projectile speed, and greased is -20%. Heatsink has greater range.

This is untrue, they both have -20% projectile speed. [You already noticed ^^] The only rounds that reduce arming distance further are incendiary with -25% projectile speed (not recommended, I find that the 5% is negligible and not worth the greatly reduced -25% clip-size and -30% rate of fire).

With the already relatively fast rate of fire that the light flak has I tend to prefer heat-sinks increased damage, when buffed it is capable of killing ships in one clip.

I would argue that greater range is not a pro but a con, the purpose of bringing these ammunition types should be in the interest of reducing arming time, otherwise burst rounds with their +20% clip-size and no negative damage modifiers would be preferred.

[Wundsalz]

The Banshee Rocket Carousel


The banshee rocket carousel deals decent damage to the permanent hulls but with only roughly 500 hull-damage per clip it is not able to kill any ship but the junker on its own with a single volley even if all projectiles hit the hull directly which is unlikely due to the banshees strong projectile spread.
In addition to the hull damage the rocket carousel has got a high to set fire charges on your enemies components. there is a 35% chance the component the banshee hits directly is set on fire with one stack. In addition to this any component within 3m of the projectile impact has got a chance of 26.4% to be set on fire with two fire-stacks.

Play style:
Banshees are usually paired up with gatlings or hades guns which are excellent hull-strippers. Hence your primary job is to destroy the enemy ship once their hull armor is down. However due to the high ignition chance of the banshee it can help out with the hull stripping as well. Fires, especially on hull and the balloon, put additional pressure on the engineer who tries to keep up their hull under your gatling or hades fire. In general it's a good idea to just point and shoot the banshee at your enemy. If you see smoke emitting from your enemies hull and you think your hades or gatling gun will get rid of the hull-armor within the next few seconds it's a good idea to delay your shots a little so you can hit your target once their hull is unprotected.
Due to the high ignition chance, the banshee can be used to attack balloons, as fires pose a major threat to it. If your enemies balloon is not chem sprayed (which prevents fire stacks and is indicated by a white glow around the balloon component), it's often a good idea to place a couple of shots at their balloon. Note though that balloon destruction are not a primary objective of the banshee, but a situational side-usage.


Viable ammo types:

greased rounds
Greased rounds optimize the dps and ignition chance of the carousel at the cost of reducing its maximum range.
heavy clips
Heavy clips make the carousel pin-point accurate and hence allow you to use it efficiently close to its maximum range despite the guns strong projectile spread. A single heavy clip banshee volley deals roughly 340 damage to the hull and hence is not able to kill any ship, including the junker, on its own.

[GeoRmr]

The Banshee Rocket Carousel


The banshee rocket carousel deals decent damage to the permanent hulls but with only roughly 500 hull-damage per clip it is not able to kill any ship but the junker on its own with a single volley even if all projectiles hit the hull directly which is unlikely due to the banshees strong projectile spread.
In addition to the hull damage the rocket carousel has got a high to set fire charges on your enemies components. there is a 35% chance the component the banshee hits directly is set on fire with one stack. In addition to this any component within 3m of the projectile impact has got a chance of 26.4% to be set on fire with two fire-stacks.

Play style:
Banshees are usually paired up with gatlings or hades guns which are excellent hull-strippers. Hence your primary job is to destroy the enemy ship once their hull armor is down. However due to the high ignition chance of the banshee it can help out with the hull stripping as well. Fires, especially on hull and the balloon, put additional pressure on the engineer who tries to keep up their hull under your gatling or hades fire. In general it's a good idea to just point and shoot the banshee at your enemy. If you see smoke emitting from your enemies hull and you think your hades or gatling gun will get rid of the hull-armor within the next few seconds it's a good idea to delay your shots a little so you can hit your target once their hull is unprotected.
Due to the high ignition chance, the banshee can be used to attack balloons, as fires pose a major threat to it. If your enemies balloon is not chem sprayed (which prevents fire stacks and is indicated by a white glow around the balloon component), it's often a good idea to place a couple of shots at their balloon. Note though that balloon destruction are not a primary objective of the banshee, but a situational side-usage.


Viable ammo types:

greased rounds
Greased rounds optimize the dps and ignition chance of the carousel at the cost of reducing its maximum range.
heavy clips
Heavy clips make the carousel pin-point accurate and hence allow you to use it efficiently close to its maximum range despite the guns strong projectile spread. A single heavy clip banshee volley deals roughly 340 damage to the hull and hence is not able to kill any ship, including the junker, on its own.

Burst rounds should be added to this: Extra ammo for more overall damage (and more fires started per clip than greased), no reduction in range, and increased AOE for the spread of fires.

Of course greased rounds have their advantages over burst, (for an engineer to quickly empty a clip and return to repairing, on a squid for example) but generally I  dislike greased rounds on this weapon as it IS double explosive used to kill hull, and with already low damage values greased rounds seem like a large sacrifice of kill potential.

[Wundsalz]

The Banshee Rocket Carousel


The banshee rocket carousel deals decent damage to the permanent hulls but with only roughly 500 hull-damage per clip it is not able to kill any ship but the junker on its own with a single volley even if all projectiles hit the hull directly which is unlikely due to the banshees strong projectile spread.
In addition to the hull damage the rocket carousel has got a high to set fire charges on your enemies components. there is a 35% chance the component the banshee hits directly is set on fire with one stack. In addition to this any component within 3m of the projectile impact has got a chance of 26.4% to be set on fire with two fire-stacks.

Play style:
Banshees are usually paired up with gatlings or hades guns which are excellent hull-strippers. Hence your primary job is to destroy the enemy ship once their hull armor is down. However due to the high ignition chance of the banshee it can help out with the hull stripping as well. Fires, especially on hull and the balloon, put additional pressure on the engineer who tries to keep up their hull under your gatling or hades fire. In general it's a good idea to just point and shoot the banshee at your enemy. If you see smoke emitting from your enemies hull and you think your hades or gatling gun will get rid of the hull-armor within the next few seconds it's a good idea to delay your shots a little so you can hit your target once their hull is unprotected.
Due to the high ignition chance, the banshee can be used to attack balloons, as fires pose a major threat to it. If your enemies balloon is not chem sprayed (which prevents fire stacks and is indicated by a white glow around the balloon component), it's often a good idea to place a couple of shots at their balloon. Note though that balloon destruction are not a primary objective of the banshee, but a situational side-usage.


Viable ammo types:

greased rounds
Greased rounds optimize the dps and ignition chance of the carousel at the cost of reducing its maximum range.
heavy clips
Heavy clips make the carousel pin-point accurate and hence allow you to use it efficiently close to its maximum range despite the guns strong projectile spread. A single heavy clip banshee volley deals roughly 340 damage to the hull and hence is not able to kill any ship, including the junker, on its own.
burst rounds
Burst rounds increase the AoE of your shots and hence enlarges the area in which you can set fires. It also increases the hull-damage per clip to 630 which is enough to reliably kill a junker with a single volley even if a couple of shots miss.

[Wundsalz]

I've updated the guide and added burst rounds. Can someone delete my previous post or replace it with my last post, please?

I really do like greased rounds on the banshee. It does not reduce the damage per clip compared to normal rounds. But it does increases the dps by 25% (7% if reloadtimes are included) compared to normal rounds. They ensure that the clip can be emptied while the enemies hull is down and single burst volley isn't sufficient to kill an enemy reliably anyway. Also, in direct comparison to burst rounds, greased rounds have a 2.5% higher dps including reload times.

[Devinstater]

Thanks for the thorough response. I love it when I get to fire the Banshee.

Where did you get the great graphic with the firing arc info? I had an issue with the Zcarronade being unable to aim down... It would be nice to be able to learn these things so I can alert my captain ahead of time.

[Alistair MacBain]

Those are the pages of the Wilson Notes.
At the upper left corner you got a book icon. Click this one and you will see several useful things. Wilson Notes Volume 1 and 2 are for guns.
But to get all pages for those books you need to complete the challenge fo this gun/map/ship.