Advent and weapon reload

[Osidiousdk]

Looking for advice with advent. For offensive power of cap ships those with missiles and plasma ejectors, would you go vex and plasma agitator? Caps with lasers and beams would you just go accelerator? Maybe I am not understanding weapon reload speed properly. Does weapon reload speed effect lasers and beams too and not just weapons that have shells?

[TheSleepingLibrary]

I believe (though I'm not the type to pay that close attention to what my ships do during fights) that reload is pretty much just the speed of the 'firing cycle' of the weapon. How short the interval is between the weapon firing to be specific. So Advent's lasers will fire faster if you give them the reload item.

[dolynick]

A ship-wide weapon cooldown buff (which the Vex is) will affect all weapons. That's why the vex is much higher tier than the others, it's total DPS increase effect is generally going to be larger than the other weapon items (provided you're stacking psi power to boost it) as it's buffing them all equally. If you have a ship with most of its weapon damage concentrated on one type of weapon, then one of the others can be better in overall gain.

You can, of course, combine them. Cooldown and the typical damage (per shot) buff types are actually multiplicative in effect so it can be quite a powerful increase.

[Mander]

I've done some testing with other users in the past, and to maximize your Capital Ship damage as ADVENT, the best return of investment seems to be:

1-2:
Harmonic Circuit + Vex Amplifier as first 2 slots: this because the former feeds the latter (and ship's abilities in general).
Vex Amplifier is stronger than almost all other weapon augmenters, bar Plasma (if memory serves, at least until research cap, where Vex + Psi research finally overcomes it). A higher ROF returns better damage and Vex also works with PD, granting a better missile screen.

3:
Pertaining weapon augmenter: be it energy accelerator or plasma accelerator. The increase in range is very good and add on the previous point, granting better damage with better reach (on top of the bombers you’re already deploying, ofc).

4th slot is free, but personally I suggest psikinetic Armor: ADVENT are already shields heavy. Better armor grants higher chance of surviving even against Vasari fleets.

[Wuorg]

Originally posted by Mander:

I've done some testing with other users in the past, and to maximize your Capital Ship damage as ADVENT, the best return of investment seems to be:

1-2:
Harmonic Circuit + Vex Amplifier as first 2 slots: this because the former feeds the latter (and ship's abilities in general).
Vex Amplifier is stronger than almost all other weapon augmenters, bar Plasma (if memory serves, at least until research cap, where Vex + Psi research finally overcomes it). A higher ROF returns better damage and Vex also works with PD, granting a better missile screen.

3:
Pertaining weapon augmenter: be it energy accelerator or plasma accelerator. The increase in range is very good and add on the previous point, granting better damage with better reach (on top of the bombers you’re already deploying, ofc).

4th slot is free, but personally I suggest psikinetic Armor: ADVENT are already shields heavy. Better armor grants higher chance of surviving even against Vasari fleets.

Pretty much exactly my thoughts as well. Only thing I'd add (since the game does a poor job of explaining) is that "Energy Weapon" refers to both beams and pulse weapons, but not plasma.

[Osidiousdk]

Thank you all, the lack of information on some of the screen cards are amazing, would of been nice of the devs to add the alt button to those screen cards also, so it can go more in depth the information like the cap ship cards.

[DM|Hachbubuch]

I usually don't use items that buff plasma only or give +30% dmg to energy weapons. As for me, it's better to have 2 items for PSI (Circuit + Dynamo) with a Vex amp + item for defence (versus TEC it's shield boost, versus Vasari it's armor). The only ship I feel not having much gain from PSI is Rapture, so there it might go Plasma agitator + 30% dmg + Vex amp + defence item (also it seems Rapture has one of the best plasma weapons).

[DM|Hachbubuch]

Originally posted by Osidiousdk:

Thank you all, the lack of information on some of the screen cards are amazing, would of been nice of the devs to add the alt button to those screen cards also, so it can go more in depth the information like the cap ship cards.

Agree. Also, about that "-reload%". The question is: is it REALLY a decrement for reload TIME or an increment for reload SPEED? For example, -50% reload time results in +100% damage, while +50% reload speed results in +50% damage. Asking this because the devs sometimes confuse me (like TEC having an upgrade, which "reduces salvage time by 100%" which actually increases salvage speed by 100%).

Also, I have no idea Vex amp stacks with Radiance's passive ability, which decreases reload time. If they both decrease reload time, then do they multiply the effect, or just sum it (which would lead to better synergy of these effects)? If they both increase reload speed - the same question.

[ArcticISAF]

Don't take this as correct, as it's just a thought. I think there's a period where the weapon is firing, and then a period where the weapon is reloading. I believe the reload time affects this second part. Otherwise some of the TEC items + skills would be busted.

[RaozSpaz]

Originally posted by ArcticISAF:

Don't take this as correct, as it's just a thought. I think there's a period where the weapon is firing, and then a period where the weapon is reloading. I believe the reload time affects this second part. Otherwise some of the TEC items + skills would be busted.

Talking about Kol + Autoloader? XD And maybe even dabbling on top an Akkan. Yeah. All of them combined drastically increases damage output. It does fall off as the value gets bigger obviously [much like defensive stats], but seeing a Kol fully buffed out is wonderful to watch.

[Osidiousdk]

Originally posted by DM|Hachbubuch:

Originally posted by Osidiousdk:

Thank you all, the lack of information on some of the screen cards are amazing, would of been nice of the devs to add the alt button to those screen cards also, so it can go more in depth the information like the cap ship cards.

Agree. Also, about that "-reload%". The question is: is it REALLY a decrement for reload TIME or an increment for reload SPEED? For example, -50% reload time results in +100% damage, while +50% reload speed results in +50% damage. Asking this because the devs sometimes confuse me (like TEC having an upgrade, which "reduces salvage time by 100%" which actually increases salvage speed by 100%).

Also, I have no idea Vex amp stacks with Radiance's passive ability, which decreases reload time. If they both decrease reload time, then do they multiply the effect, or just sum it (which would lead to better synergy of these effects)? If they both increase reload speed - the same question.

I never even thought about if radiance's energy armor would stack with vex, or if vex would be entirely worthless for a raidiance.

[Nextor]

Originally posted by Osidiousdk:

Thank you all, the lack of information on some of the screen cards are amazing, would of been nice of the devs to add the alt button to those screen cards also, so it can go more in depth the information like the cap ship cards.

...
Universal constant. Little useful info on half of all cruisers...