Flak vs Autocannons?

[NickyBugs]

So it's my understanding that PD works better against missiles because of higher dps and no evasion on the missiles and Flak works better against strike craft because of high tracking against high evasion.

Now I'm looking at the numbers and wondering if autocannons would be better vs strike craft than flak? Way higher average damage when you take into account bonuses against shields and hull, higher accuracy and higher tracking. So why ever use flak over autocannon?

Is it due to target priorities? Like flak will always target strike craft first but autocannons will ignore them to focus on corvettes and stuff? New to the game so there's a lot I don't know.

[olstar18]

No flak goes in a pd slot not a weapon slot so it really isn't a choice between the two. Autocannon is more like a short range high dps railgun.

[NickyBugs]

I mean I could just make my corvette for example have 3 S slots instead of 2 S and a P.

[olstar18]

Well look at what weapons your enemies are putting on their ships. Are they putting a lot of strike craft. Maybe setting you corvettes to the pd setup would be a good idea. If missiles then pd guns. If neither then going with full offense loadout might be better. Its really a rock paper scissors kind of thing. I'm afraid there isn't really a 'best' option as it is situational.

[Nightskies]

At the end game, flak is nearly useless because the tracking enhancement from the computer alone pushes the 'autocannons' high enough to remain effective against even the most nimble strike craft, and you want them to target missiles first anyway. Which they do prioritize, but it doesn't effectively do so due to short range.
As mentioned before, the smart PD aren't actually called autocannons, but i know what you meant. I think...
Unless you actually did mean autocannons, in which case, as said, two different categories of weapons. The DPS on point defense is terrible against ships, don't trust the number.

[NickyBugs]

Originally posted by Nightskies:

At the end game, flak is nearly useless because the tracking enhancement from the computer alone pushes the 'autocannons' high enough to remain effective against even the most nimble strike craft, and you want them to target missiles first anyway. Which they do prioritize, but it doesn't effectively do so due to short range.
As mentioned before, the smart PD aren't actually called autocannons, but i know what you meant. I think...
Unless you actually did mean autocannons, in which case, as said, two different categories of weapons. The DPS on point defense is terrible against ships, don't trust the number.

Yes I'm actually talking about the gun called "autocannon". Sorry it might have been confusing me opening up talking about PD vs Flak and then switching to Flak vs Autocannon. I'm suggesting that based on the numbers instead of "PD for missiles and Flak for strike craft" it should be "PD for missiles and Autocannons for strike craft". Unless Autocannons are simply going to ignore the strike craft and target actual ships.

PD would still be better for missiles because of the lower cooldown and the fact that auto cannons would waste most of their high damage per cooldown on the low hp missiles.

[Nightskies]

Yeah, autocannons don't shoot missiles or strike craft.
can't, rather.

[Meewec]

i generally only go point defense/flak if i'm facing a scourge invasion or heavy missile usage from an enemy. the rest of the time my corvettes are 1 plasma and 2 autocannons for weaponry. then i smack on the best afterburners i can and 1 shield, 2 armor(sometimes 1 of these gets made into crystal plating).