EVE Guide Weapons 101 - Turrets  

Weapons 101 - Turrets

This guide is meant as an introductory overview of the different turret types in EVE, comparing the basic strengths and weaknesses of all turrets, basic skills that affect their performance and general tips of usage. Also be sure to check out the flash-based guide on the official EVE website, which demonstrates in detail how things like tracking, transversal and signature work.


Table of Contents
---
I. Introduction to Turrets
II. Laser Turrets
III. Projectile Turrets
IV. Hybrid Turrets
V. Turret Skills
VI. Turret Ammo

I. Introduction to Turrets]

Turrets in EVE are mounted damage dealers that share several important characteristics. First of all, their projectiles are instant, and do not have to cross a distance to reach a target like missiles and drones. Their chances to hit are dictated by their respective tracking value, range and signature resolution. Also, like other modules in EVE, they take up Powergrid and CPU when fitting. Turrets fit into High Slots, and can only be put on ships with free "Turret Slots". For example, a ship with 5 high slots but only 3 turret slots can only ever fit three turrets at the same time.

General characteristics of all turrets are as follows:

• Optimal Range

The range at which your gun will not receive a range penalty to hit. Optimal is affected by ammo type, with specific ammo giving penalties or bonuses to optimal ranging from -50% to +50%.

• Falloff Range

Once past optimal, the accuracy of a turret will decrease gradually. At maximum falloff range, chance to hit the target is decreased by 50%. At double falloff, the chance to hit is at 0%.

Example: A gun's optimal range is 15 km, and falloff 5 km. At 15 kilometers, the gun receives no penalty to it's chance to hit. At 20 km (optimal + falloff), the gun receives a 50% penalty to hit. At 25km (optimal + 2x Falloff), the gun cannot hit a target (chance to hit has been reduced to 0%).

• Damage Multiplier

The base damage a turret will do. This multiplier comes on top of the damage done by loaded ammo type. Note that damage done is further affected by how well the target is hit.

Example: A 150mm Railgun (small hybrid turret) has a modified damage multiplier of 3.75x after skills and modules have been calculated. It has Thorium Charge S loaded, which does 5 kinetic damage and 4 thermal. This means that the actual base damage of the Railgun is 18.75 kinetic (5 * 3.75) and 15 thermal (4 * 3.75).

• Rate of Fire

How often a turret fires, measured in seconds. Differs greatly between weapon classes and sizes, but is otherwise straightforward.

• Activation Cost

How much capacitor it costs to fire the weapon. This is affected by skills and sometimes by ship bonuses (mostly in the case of Amarr ships).

• Tracking Speed

Tracking Speed is the rate at which a turret can turn, and is measured in radians per second. A turret with 3.14 rad/sec value could rotate 180 degrees in one second, although the fastest turrets in the game generally have a base rad/sec rating of 0.1-0.2.
Tracking speed comes in to play when a target moves sideways across a turret's field of view. When a target is closer, the same linear speed converts to a greater "radians per second" speed. 500 m/s orbiting at 5km range equals .1 rad/s, 500 m/s at 2km equals .25 rad/s. There is a fair bit of math behind tracking calculations, but essentially, the faster a turret is, the easier it can track faster ships.

• Signature Resolution

A turret's signature resolution is the weapon's ability to "see" targets. This is a further modifier to a gun's ability to hit a target, and works by comparing the signature resolution to the target's signature radius. All ships in EVE have a signature radius, with frigates sitting in the range of 35-45, cruisers around 95-120 and battleships hovering around 400. Similarly, small turrets generally have a signature resolution of 40, medium turrets a resolution of 100 and large turrets 400. If the turret's signature resolution is larger than the target's, it will receive a penalty to hit.

Example: A large turret is trying to hit an average frigate. The turret has a signature resolution of 400, and the frigate a radius of 40, meaning the turret receives a 90% penalty to hit (40/400 = 0.1 = 10% chance to hit).

II. Laser Turrets]

In EVE, laser turrets are favored by the Amarr, and their ships frequently give various bonuses to laser turrets. Laser turrets, unlike projectile and hybrid turrets, do not consume ammunition, but use focusing crystals as ammo (note that faction crystals and tech 2 crystals gradually deteriorate over time, and cannot be repaired). In addition to not consuming ammunition, saving on cargo space and greatly improving their longevity in combat situations, laser turrets can instantly change their crystals while projectiles, hybrids and missiles require 10 seconds to change ammo types. This gives them a certain edge when it comes to respond to new tactical situations.

However, of all the turrets, lasers consume the most power in use, both in terms of powergrid and capacitor. This is partially addressed by the fact that many Amarr ships (such as the Apocalypse-class battleship) give bonuses to the capacitor use of laser turrets, on top of the fact that Amarr ships tend to have bigger base capacitors and more robust powergrids. They are also limited to just doing EM and Thermal damage, making them more effective against shield systems than armor. Laser turrets do very decent damage regardless, especially when using tech 2 variants with advanced ammo types and have good refire rates.

Laser turrets are divided into two categories, Pulse and Beam lasers. Pulse lasers are easier to fit, require less energy to fire and have better refire rates, but do less damage and have less range. Beam lasers are often preferred when engaging at a range. Furthermore, there exists the Tachyon Beam Laser, a sub-group of Large Beam lasers, which does massive damage at great ranges, but is extremely difficult to fit, has a low tracking speed and consumes a lot of energy with every shot.

III. Projectile Turrets]

Projectile Turrets are weapons used mainly by the Minmatar in EVE, and are divided into two groups; artillery and autocannons. Both these groups consume little or no cap with each shot. An artillery cannon is meant for long ranges and does a lot of damage per shot. In fact, artillery cannons tend to do the most damage per shot in EVE, and while they have relatively small optimal range they have massive falloff, making them less vulnerable to the range at which they engage. This is however balanced by their long refire rates and low tracking speed. This makes them ideally suited for quicker, long-range skirmishes where initial punching power is more important than sustained damage potential, where their alpha strikes (first volley of fire) can make a real difference.

On the other hand, autocannons do little damage per shot and have a very short range, but have significantly lower refire and some of the best tracking speeds in the game.

One defining characteristic of projectile weapons, besides not requiring energy to fire, is their tendency to need to be reloaded frequently. The fact is that projectile weapons consume ammo very rapidly, and with the 10 second reload time this can cause a pilot using them some problems. There is also the problem of the actual quantity of ammo, as minmatar pilots tend to run the constant risk of simply running out of ammunition. This is because almost all Minmatar ships, which are the primary users of projectile weapons, are designed as skirmishers rather than sustained damage platforms, specializing in hit-and-run tactics. Understanding this fact can be crucial to proper use of the projectile turret.

IV. Hybrid Turrets]

Hybrid turrets are a weapon typically used by the Gallente and Caldari, with the Gallente focusing on Hybrid Blasters and Caldari on Railguns. The difference between the two hybrid turret classes are very similar to that between the two projectile turret classes; Blasters excel at close ranges and have a high damage output, while railguns sacrifice some power for greater ranges.

Blasters are possibly the most damaging weapon class in the game between traditional weapons. They have relatively high damage modifiers, but also enjoy rapid refire and decent tracking. However, the range on blasters tend to be abysmal, forcing users into extreme close quarters. Since blaster-fitted ships tend to be sitting ducks if caught outside their optimal range, it is recommended to make sure that one has the speed required to close any gap between your ship and the target quickly enough.

Railguns, on the other hand, are arguably the best fleet battle weapons in the game. They do not suffer from the lower damage-per-second of their Artillery cousins, although they have considerably lower alpha strikes, have excellent optimal ranges and better tracking than Artillery guns.

One thing to note is the considerable capacitor consumption of hybrid turrets. While it is lower than that of laser turrets, neither Gallente nor Caldari ships get any sort of capacitor use reduction bonuses like the Amarr, and their base capacitor values tend to be lower. Blasters especially wolf down energy per shot, which only comes on top of the regular energy consumption of any speed modules a pilot might fit to deal with the stunted range. Because of this, weapon energy consumption is a very real factor when using hybrid turrets, like with lasers.

V. Turret Skills]

A large number of skills affect the performance and statistics of turret-based weapons, all of them in the "Gunnery" skill sub-group. The base skill for all turret-based weapons is the Gunnery skill itself, which gives a 2% bonus to all turret rate of fire (refire) per level.

Base Turret Skills

There are twelve base turret skills in EVE, with four per turret type; small, medium, large and extra large. These weapons are intended for frigates, cruisers, battleships and capital ships, respectively, although you can always "downsize" your weapons. That is, there is nothing stopping a battleship from fitting a frigate-sized turret.

All base turret skills give a 5% damage bonus per level to their respective type. The Medium Hybrid Turret skill gives 5% damage bonus per level when using either medium-sized railguns or blasters, and so forth.

Turret Performance Skills

There are six turret performance skills in EVE that affect the base characteristics of all turrets. These are:

• Controlled Bursts - 5% reduction in turret capacitor use per level
• Motion Prediction - 5% increase in turret tracking per level
• Rapid Firing - 4% bonus to turret rate of fire per level
• Sharpshooter - 5% bonus to turret optimal range per level
• Surgical Strike - 3% bonus to turret damage per level
• Trajectory Analysis - 5% bonus to turret falloff per level

Turret Auxiliary Skills

There are two Auxiliary skills that affect the fitting requirements of both turrets and missile launchers, called Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades, that affect the CPU and Powergrid use of turrets, respectively.

• Weapon Upgrades reduce the CPU requirements of a turret by 5% per level. This can be extremely useful, as turrets tend to be rather CPU-intensive.
• Advanced Weapon Upgrades reduce the Powergrid requirements of a turret by 2% per level. This is an advanced skill, has a high training multiplier and requires lvl 5 in Weapon Upgrades before training.

Turret Specialization Skills

There are eighteen Specialization skills in EVE, two per turret type (Medium Hybrid Turrets split into Medium Blaster Specialization and Medium Railgun Specialization). These are prerequisites for the use of tech 2 turrets, and all of them require lvl 5 in their parent weapon skill. Note that there are no Capital Turret specialization skills.

All Specialization skills grant a 2% bonus to damage per level to their respective tech 2 turret types (Medium Railgun Specialization grants a damage bonus only to tech 2 medium railguns, such as the 250mm Railgun II).

VI. Turret Ammo]

Turret Ammo is grouped into twelve groups, by size (small, medium, large and extra large) and turret type (laser, hybrid and projectile). All ammo groups contain a gradient of ammo that spans from close-range to long-range. For example, Antimatter Hybrid Ammo has a -50% range penalty but very high damage, while Iron charges has a 60% range bonus but low damage. In between is a score of other ammo types that have varying range modifiers and damage. Every ammo sub-category contains eight ammo types.

All hybrid turret ammo does a mix of Thermal and Kinetic damage, the ratio between the two damage types depending on the ammo itself. It is generally split into damage and range ammo, with damage ammo typically used in blasters and range ammo going into railguns. This is not a rule, however, and damage ammo is often used in railguns for medium to close-range encounters. Get used to the fact that whatever ammo type you put into blasters, however, your range is always going to be somewhat lacking due to the low base values involved.

Laser crystals, like hybrid ammo, only do two damage types; thermal and electromagnetic (EM). Unlike hybrid ammo, however, they are not consumed when shooting, and can be instantly replaced with crystals in the cargo hold. The damage ratio between crystals can vary greatly, and it is always a good idea to study the ammo you are carrying in any case.

Projectile ammo, quite unlike the other two ammo types, can do a multitude of damage types. Every ammo does two different damage types, which gives increased tactical variety as damage can be alternated depending on the target's shield and armor resistances. When selecting projectile ammo, take note of the damage types involved, as well as the volumes you are going to go into battle with, since the consumption rate of projectile ammunition is high. This is especially true of autocannons.

Tech 2 Ammo are specialist ammo types only usable by Tech 2 turrets. These types split into further two groups (numbering a total of eighteen), with medium Advanced Blaster Charges only being usable with Tech 2 Medium Blaster Turrets, et cetera. Every T2 ammo sub-category has 2 types, one ranged-centric ammo and one damage-centric.

Also, unlike their Tech 1 variants, Tech 2 ammo also confer disadvantages to your ship or turrets. These can be a rediction to turret tracking, to your ship's capacitor recharge rate or your ship's velocity, or any number of things. Note that these disadvantages often stack, meaning that 5x 250mm Railgun II's fitted with Javelin M ammo confer a 53% penalty to your ship's shields and velocity (14% penalty per gun, ^ 5 or 0.86 * 0.86* 0.86 * 0.86 * 0.86 = end multiplier of 0.470). The turret-specific penalty is only per turret however, so every 250mm Railgun II turret would only receive the base 25% penalty to tracking.

---

Converted from Guides
Created:	2007-01-12 18:25:29
Last Changed:	2008-02-19 08:37:11
Author:	Sham
Category:	General
Last Edited	413
Score:	5.00
Note:	None
Guide ID:	844
Last Changed:	Unknown

EVE Online Wikibase™