The beauty of Heatsink Clip

[Koali]

Ah yes, the oft-overlooked Heatsink Clip.

...

No, this isn't gonna be a cool guide.

This thing is a bit like a Gunner's Chemspray. Both extinguish 3 stacks on use and make the component immune to future stacks-- but not to fire damage itself. The difference between Heatsink and Chemspray is that Chemspray lasts for 25 seconds and Heatsink lasts until the gun is reloaded.

Heatsink Clip reduces damage and projectile speed (and, thus, arming distance), but increases clip size.

Doesn't sound like much, does it?

Well, a nice thing is that it give guns with 2 shots (Mercury Light Field Gun, Typhon Heavy Flak, Hellhound Heavy Twin Carronade, and Beacon Light Flaregun) a third shot.

A THIRD SHOT.

You load up Heatsink into the Carronade on a Blenderfish, you start brawling with an enemy Blenderfish. (For those who don't know, a Blenderfish is a Goldfish with a Heavy Carronade on the front.) You and the enemy Gunner both start trying to shoot out each other's gun and balloon. (For the purposes of this example let's assume the enemy Gunner doesn't manage to take out your gun.) After you both fire 2 shots each, the enemy Engineers (and friendly ones, for that matter) will most likely be attempting to repair the balloon. Once the enemy's balloon is rebuilt (but not repaired) you take a potshot at it and knock it down again.

You're free to sue me for excessive parentheses

[David Dire]

I thought you were gonna make a nice Guide like mine, but no, you just have a Heatsink Fetish.

[Koali]

Hm. Fetish, you say? You're a Cake, you just despise being unable to set my guns alight.

Note that most things I say are purely in jest.

[Carn]

yeah, last night i was on a sniper mobula, but a flamer squid kept getting us, my i could keep firing, plus at that range the extra shot is worth it

[Koali]

*Goes and stands next to Carn*

[Crafeksterty]

Charged is still more damaging. And it requiers less shots to do that damage in.

TWO SHOTS.

[Carn]

i agree with you on that, but the heatsink allowed me to keep firing, while the squid was setting everything else on fire, if i had kept charged rounds i would have done overall less damage because my gun would have been disabled

[Koali]

Ooh, but Charged is less surprising!

*Balloon is rebuilt.*

"Alright, that was both shots, that carronade won't fire for another--"

*Balloon goes back down.*

"!@#$%"

[Crafeksterty]

The third shot wouldnt have taken down a baloon. Remember, less damage, and baloon rebuild + repair is like 80% of the baloon so it would survive. And why would you hold a third shot for when the baloon pops back up? The reload is fast enough to deliver another set of shots. Charged all the way.

i agree with you on that, but the heatsink allowed me to keep firing, while the squid was setting everything else on fire, if i had kept charged rounds i would have done overall less damage because my gun would have been disabled

You are arguing of heatsinks ability to negate fire more than the ability to cause damage.

[Carn]

did i give the impression that i was arguing for its damage? i wasn't its a useful ammo type, main gun on a mobula is pretty out of the way for engies, when your enemy is a flamer squid it pays to bring heatsink

[Crafeksterty]

Y-yeah. I mean i know how you can see it as usefull. Ofcourse it takes fire away, but were talking about the third shot that heatsink gives...
Which charge does a better job at dealing in damage. If you switched to heatsink before the fire, then were talking about how heatsink is usefull in firery situations. Which it is.
But for a third shot, or damage. no. It was only smart that you did change to heatsink.

[BlackenedPies]

Heatsink light flak.

[ZnC]

I knew this ammo type would be discussed one day like Incendiary Rounds.

Having studied all the ammo types extensively, I shall share another gunner secret. The true strength of Heatsink Clip is in Rotation Speed.

[Kamoba]

Heat sink mercury disables.
Almost as smexy as Artemis with burst.

[nanoduckling]

I tried using heatsink on a heavy carro instead of charged for a bit, two shots to a damaged balloon (after blending with heavy at range) then one as soon as they rebuild before they repair. You basically have to be at point blank range, and I'm still not sure if it works without ramming, at least with awful reaction times like mine. My conclusion was just bring charged or loch if that is your thing.

Three flares are useful, although we do experience diminishing returns, especially on a few maps. That first flare is always the most valuable. That said at close range against a ship with disrupted chem cycles two in the balloon and one in the hull is devastating against a ship running all chem.

Heatsink is a great ammo type for other reasons though. Consider trying to get artemis quadfecta on a pyramidion, your pilot can probably leave the ship stable enough for everyone to get one clip (I see no evidence for springs and the like during reloading so I'm assuming it is a clip going in) off, and the pilot is running to a gun with horrid turning. Preload it with heatsink and with really careful piloting getting two clips off is a possibility. That much artemis fire will break everything on an enemy ship and can even get hull breaks if the enemy engineers are off their game.

This can be useful even with non-insane builds. If I'm a gunner and have to use an artemis close range heatsink is incredibly useful for that added turning rate.

Another underrated use of heatsink is in flame throwers. In flamer range you are close up so turning speed matters, the flamer doesn't suffer much for the damage reduction since immediate damage isn't the point, larger clip means more total fires set and while the rate of fire difference (compared with greased) works against you it also ensures most of the time your gun is immune to fire. If the ship you are flaming is looking to flame back heatsink can be very valuable on something like a squid freeing your engineers to look after other components and allowing your pilot to perform more aggressive manoeuvre.

Also heatsink mercury for ranged disables, if you have a amazing gunner. A quick play with the Llamatron 2.0 reveals you can break anything except a medium engine, the armour and the balloon with one shot of heatsink mercury.

So yeah, I like heatsink too.