What's the good M turret right now?

[vvvvvvvv]

What's the good M turret right now?

There's guide on steam regarding weapons, it basically says "all turrets are bad, except flak". Then flak supposedly got nerfed in last update as multiple people suggested pulse.

M pulse, however, seems to be producing less damage than front-facing pulse laser. So it is not exactly clear what to slap onto frigates/corvettes. Rockets? Missile damage didn't look that great either.

Am I missing something here?

[LameFox]

The Boron have one good one. Forget its name, the longer ranged one. The ones on the Sapporo aren't bad either.

For everything else, they're all pretty unimpressive except missiles, which require annoying ammo management. A turret is like a bad version of the main gun one size down, so yeah, an M pulse is sort of like having a single stationary defence drone firing from your ship. Personally I use bolts a fair bit. They'll only really hit anything as it flies down the barrel, but that's true of the others too, so I just pick them for having slightly more damage.

Or I guess in very high volumes you can go with beams, but the range and damage are both tragically low. If fighters were smarter than a legume they'd never get close enough to even take damage from one, but since they still like ramming...

[vvvvvvvv]

The Boron have one good one. Forget its name, the longer ranged one. The ones on the Sapporo aren't bad either.

Sadly I'm flying non-boron ships. Turrets on Erlking (especially on Erlking), Sapporo and H aren't bad, but I can't install them to other ships. Definitely wouldn't mind xenon needler on my Cobra.

For everything else, they're all pretty unimpressive except missiles,

Last time I tried missiles, I installed torpedo launcher at mid slot of a cobra, found a stray K, shot at it and the damage basically tickled it a little. So it feels like I'm missing a piece of a puzzle here as well. At the moment trying Shard turrets. They're dealing some damage, currently contemplating whether it should be buffed with Slasher or Expediter. I used bolts before, but they fill space with bullets that don't hit anything most of the time. Looks cool, though.

[LameFox]

It does depend a bit on the ship too. Shards are alright if you fly up close to things. Pretty pointless on an L/XL due to range and spread though.

Missiles are basically just a slight buff over regular weapons I guess, at least compared to what they were in X3. Which is I suppose reflected in their use of weapon/turret slots now. I'd use them more if the resupply system automated better.

[GCU Grey Area]

Rather fond of beam turrets myself. Beam damage may be low, but they're generally reliable. I prefer something that usually hits it's target, rather than a higher damage weapon that mostly misses. Tend to avoid flak myself because it's very noisy & I also have concerns over it's potential for friendly fire.

[LameFox]

I did try beams lately on a Dragon, since I figured they could stop shield regen and two M turrets would never do much damage anyway. But with how mobile ships are now they seemed to struggle a bit with tracking.

[vvvvvvvv]

Rather fond of beam turrets myself. Beam damage may be low, but they're generally reliable. I prefer something that usually hits it's target, rather than a higher damage weapon that mostly misses. Tend to avoid flak myself because it's very noisy & I also have concerns over it's potential for friendly fire.

M beam turrets seem to do nothing regardless of their number. I've never seen them damage anything even though they hit. Forward facing Mk 2 beams with slasher are quite good. L beams are good, especially terran. But not the M beam turrets.

[GCU Grey Area]

M beam turrets seem to do nothing regardless of their number. I've never seen them damage anything even though they hit. Forward facing Mk 2 beams with slasher are quite good. L beams are good, especially terran. But not the M beam turrets.

They work well enough for my purposes. As a quick test just killed a PE with only the 6 M beam turrets on my Hyperion. Not the fastest way to kill such a ship (Hyp's main batteries could have taken it apart MUCH faster), however those beams turrets do consistent damage & can kill. Incidentally, remaining turret slot is fitted with a pair of Dumbfire turrets (loaded with 300 Heavy Dumbfire mk2) to give it a bit more punch against capitals. All turrets are modded - Cowboy on the Dumbfire turrets (+reload) & Exterminator on the beams (+damage, +reload & +lifetime). Do agree with your other points though. Main gun beams are really good & tend to go full beam loadouts (M&L) on capitals that can fit both. Love watching enemy fighters/drones fly into the middle of my fleet & take beam fire from all sides.

[vvvvvvvv]

As a quick test just killed a PE with only the 6 M beam turrets on my Hyperion.

Try Corvette or Frigate. 2x or 4x m turrets instead of 6. As for beans on Hyp, I basically watched them not being very useful a while ago during another xenon attack on getsu fune.

[GCU Grey Area]

Try Corvette or Frigate. 2x or 4x m turrets instead of 6. As for beans on Hyp, I basically watched them not being very useful a while ago during another xenon attack on getsu fune.

On a frigate I tend to go for shard turrets & fly to point blank range for best effect (often have shards as main guns too). Don't often fly corvettes so can't comment on those. Initially did have shards on my Hyp too, because I was flying it more like a frigate. However after a while switched back to beams due to the behaviour of enemy fighters. They didn't seem to want to approach Hyp as closely as they'd let me get in a frigate, so the shard turrets were less effective than I had hoped.

[vvvvvvvv]

Try Corvette or Frigate. 2x or 4x m turrets instead of 6. As for beans on Hyp, I basically watched them not being very useful a while ago during another xenon attack on getsu fune.

On a frigate I tend to go for shard turrets & fly to point blank range for best effect (often have shards as main guns too). Don't often fly corvettes so can't comment on those. Initially did have shards on my Hyp too, because I was flying it more like a frigate. However after a while switched back to beams due to the behaviour of enemy fighters. They didn't seem to want to approach Hyp as closely as they'd let me get in a frigate, so the shard turrets were less effective than I had hoped.

Corvette is usually more agile than frigate, has more forward guns, fewer turrets, no S-dock smaller missile storage bonus. Typically in the game, frigate --> 4 turrets, 2 front guns, +100 missiles, corvette --> 2 turrets, 4 front guns, +40 missiles.

I'm also leaning toward shards at the moment because I saw them actually damage something.

[Baconnaise]

All turrets are modded - Cowboy on the Dumbfire turrets (+reload) & Exterminator on the beams (+damage, +reload & +lifetime).

Do equipment mods work for missiles now?

[GCU Grey Area]

Corvette is usually more agile than frigate, has more forward guns, fewer turrets, no S-dock smaller missile storage bonus. Typically in the game, frigate --> 4 turrets, 2 front guns, +100 missiles, corvette --> 2 turrets, 4 front guns, +40 missiles.

I'm also leaning toward shards at the moment because I saw them actually damage something.

Oh, I know what corvettes are. I just don't tend to fly them all that often, so can't comment on the best turrets for them. Occasionally use one to flip sector control by torpedoing admin modules, but that's about it. In that specific use case the number of launchers I can fit on the front is the critical factor (essentially I want all 32 torpedoes on their way to the target before the first salvo hits).

Have a much greater fondness for frigates - in most games I spend most of my time in one. Best ships in the game for personal use as far as I'm concerned (at least until Hyp came along). The S dock makes the frigates exceptionally versatile for generic/guild missions (tend to keep an S miner parked there) & they have capacity for 100 torpedoes in case I need to eliminate enemy capitals. My typical frigate loadout is 4 shard turrets, 1 torp launcher & shard guns in remaining main gun slots.

One thing to be careful of with shards however is that range is an absolutely critical factor & is effectively a lot lower than the numbers in the encyclopedia might suggest, due to shot dispersion. At their listed "effective range" most of the shot will simply miss; fly to about half of that (preferably less) & it can have a truly devastating effect, tearing apart enemy S/M ships apart in short order.

Do equipment mods work for missiles now?

As far as I'm aware only those with reload & rotation effects are worth fitting. The mods work on the launcher/turret, but have no effect on the missiles themselves.

[vvvvvvvv]

Oh, I know what corvettes are. I just don't tend to fly them all that often, so can't comment on the best turrets for them. Occasionally use one to flip sector control by torpedoing admin modules, but that's about it. In that specific use case the number of launchers I can fit on the front is the critical factor (essentially I want all 32 torpedoes on their way to the target before the first salvo hits).

Have a much greater fondness for frigates - in most games I spend most of my time in one.

Well, my primary ship before Hyperion used to be Split Cobra for a very long time. But prior to that I flew a Katana, until I checked out interior of Cobra. Katana has good stats, its interior has a lot of empty space in it, but is continuous. Cobra (sadly) is not continuous, but the interior is too nice and cozy to ignore. Corvettes fly like Katana. Meaning like a big fighter --> zoom, boom, skedaddle. Typical arrangement is 4 front guns or more, meaning more dakka under direct control. Dragon Raider with Slasher Mk2 Beams seems to be quite nice.

Anyway, I'm currently still trying unmodded turrets. Seems bolt turrets have difficulty tracking at distances where Shard starts to scratch the target. So I guess shards win? The turret sound is a bit too loud for my liking though. Another thing is that prior to 7.5 I could rip many targets with Mk2 bolts without getting scratched, now SCA in Moo-Kyo can actually halve cobra's shield. Interesting.

[vvvvvvvv]

Tested out all-beams cobra. Full salvo of 4 m beam turrets takes 8 % off shield from... Kestrel Sentinel. Wiki lists 24 MW output, so I guess SCA isn't using the best shields. Tracking is kinda slow. Front MK2 beams are much better.

Results so far:

Shard turrets --> Short range, functional, actually chips the targets.
Bolt turrets --> Tracking problems, feels like I need to come much closer than with shard turrets. Looks cool, though. Might become more useful if modded.
Beam turrets --> Very low damage output. Slasher could help, but not by much, I'd guess. Could probably work against missiles.
Pulse turrets --> Actually hit targets, low damage. Hits land roughly at the range where shard turrets become useful.
Flak --> Seems to still work? Aside from the usual friendly fire issue.
Plasma --> Decent damage, but to hit an M ships I had to fly within 300m from it.

No M missile turrets, huh. I recall reading that those were originally present, but turned out to be too good. Not sure if it is true...

[Vedmo]

Rather fond of beam turrets myself. Beam damage may be low, but they're generally reliable. I prefer something that usually hits it's target, rather than a higher damage weapon that mostly misses. Tend to avoid flak myself because it's very noisy & I also have concerns over it's potential for friendly fire.

M beam turrets seem to do nothing regardless of their number. I've never seen them damage anything even though they hit. Forward facing Mk 2 beams with slasher are quite good. L beams are good, especially terran. But not the M beam turrets.

I’ll use medium beams on a raptor on the turret banks with several turrets, and they are highly effective. Smaller medium banks I go flak. I’ve been meaning to get around to testing if medium pulses there would do better, but haven’t, as I’ll have that Raptor park next to a destroyer I’m using to take down a station and it will easily make child’s play of responding Xenon small and mediums along with swarms of defense drones. It used to be all L beams as well, but I swapped all the forward facing L’s for plasma to add to the damage being chucked at stations.

I would not run medium beams on anything else though probably, especially on medium ships. I usually keep flack there, as it offers a nice damage boost when closing in on targets and is fairly reliable close distance, especially when flying head on.