Hidden damage types?

from Sins Forums
I've recently started playing online, which is naturally very different from beating up computers. I've only played one game so far, a 2v2 which I won, but between that and reading some posts on this forum I get the impression that there's a lot of information I'm missing on how this game is played.

My main question is about LRM spamming. In the game I played, both my opponents built almost nothing but LRMs. Also, many of the posts on this forum seem to be complaining about LRM spam. The thing that confuses me is that, according to in-game values, LRMs really don't seem very good. They do one more damage than the basic combat frig at slightly longer range, but have less health to compensate - what makes them such a powerhouse?

In addition to this, another thread on this forum, about advent strategy, says something about how building defense vessels is the best way to counter LRMs. Is there a reason this is the case? Are defense vessels not really just anti-fighter craft?

All of this together seems to imply that there is a lot of information about the game that the UI simply doesn't tell you. Do some ships do more damage to some ships than others? Is there anything else similar that I should know about?
strategy
5,280 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
To add on, it seems I have no clue how shield mitigation works. It caps out at something? You can have 56% shield mitigation? How in the world?

Is there some sticky I can read that has things like this summarized?
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
LRMs are great vs basic assault. which, is the only other option you have near the beginning of the game give or take some differences depending on race. There is a chart floating around that shows what damage type ships do % damage to other ships.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Yes, there is a chart here somewhere explaining what works good against which other units. Don't have the link here right now ...
Basically: LRM > light frigates > FLAK > LRM.
Add in fighters (carriers) which also beat LRM but get eaten by FLAK so that it's usually not worth getting them early as LRM counter. LRM + FLAK usually works better then LRM + fighters.

Mitigation is a simple damage reduction, that is always active (no matter if shields are depleted or not) and can only be bypassed by the Vasari phase missiles. That's why the shield penetration upgrade for Vasari is the by far best weapon upgrade in the game and why the Vasari support cruiser (-10% shield mitigation) is so good.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
I've played several LRM spamtards and they've all accused me of cheating and left the game as soon as I decimated their sad little fleet. Explosive nanites ftw.

The ability I refer to is the lvl 6 ability on the main Vasari battleship, it coats your enemy fleet with nanites that do AoE damage whenever you destroy a ship. Suffice to say this can cause a nice little chain reaction of doom to cascade through their nubfleet. Certainly not the only way to deal with this spam tactic, but probably the most fun.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
LRMs do 150% damage to Light Frigates, while Light Frigates only do 75% damage to LRMs.
LRMs do 75% damage to Structures and Capital Ships while Light Frigates do 50% to Structures and Capital Ships.
Capital Ships deal 100% damage to Light Frigates, but they only deal 75% damage to LRMs.
Turrets deal 150% damage to to Light Frigates, but they only deal 100% damage to LRMs. (And LRMs can often outrange turrets.)
Thus, in early game LRMs are easily 50-100% more efficient than Light Frigates.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Awesome, that helps a lot. Thanks!