Trying to understand fleet composition

[tserleg1471]

I've read a few guides about it, but it's a quite complicated topic, and some guide are about different patches with different metas. XD

To express better my doubts, I'll tell what I plan in my current game vs IA, so you can tell me in what aspects I am wrong (probably most of them) and help you to explain me better how to design my fleet:

1- Missile corvettes in early.
2- Disruptor corvettes when available. They defeat any ship until cruisers. Can they defeat also Point Defense?
3- Skip Frigates, because I haven't First Contact DLC and they are useless without stealth.
4- Skip destructors. I've read that their main use is to get Point Defense vs missile corvettes. IAs have balanced fleets, so better stick with Disruptor Corvettes.
5- I am even more lost in late game. How problematic is to mix weapons that penetrate shields with weapons with bonus vs shields? Here the only thing I understand is that depending of the size of your targets, it is better to use weapons in specific slots, but not sure about if I could take profit.

Any explanation or recommended guide for current meta?

[HyperKnight]

Missile corvettes have terrible DPS compared to laser+PD ones.
Destroyers are useful for filling them with plasma and hammering on stations.
Frigates are very good against the cruisers/BS if they are attacking in corvette swarm.
Disruptors have poor DPS compared to the other weapons so it is arguable whether their penetration is worth it.

[VulpesFulguralis]

1:Missile corvettes are only good If you are faster than the enemy AND they don't have PD. Start lazer/railgun. Or PD/lazer if your going to fight a lot of ameoba/missle corvettes.

2:Disruptors are wonders for winning battles, but with their low damage expect most of the enemy fleet to survive and come back later.

3: Yes. Frigates are worthless with out stealth. slower than cruisers and with less health and evasion to boot. If you want to make them work a bunch of corvettes like Cait sith said and make sure its split into 2 fleets to try and screw up the kiting of the big ships.(2 fleets of 10 frigates and 30 corvettes will do more damage than one fleet of 20 and 60.)

4:Destroyers are stronger than corvettes, so don't hesitate to build them instead of a corvette swarm if attacked early. And If you get them early enough it might enable some earlier aggression from you too. Otherwise i try to rush past them because cruisers are so much better.

5:Honestly no clue.

The Meta, In short speed is king. If you're faster you can kite with missile/artillery ships or rush in with shorter range more powerful weapons like disruptors/autocannons/torpedoes. Also building mostly armor. In PVP its because Armor generally gives more health than shields. Solo its because the AI LOVES filling ships with autocannons.

[Chthonic Guardian]

I throw in a few torpedo frigates, as they do some damage and also act as excellent meat shields for the more valuable ships. But yes, they are death traps for their crews.

[Jack Jester]

1. Smaller ships, lots of armor, lots of evasion.
2. Don't build too many destroyers, they just take up space for cruisers
3. Disruptors are good, but it depends on the opponent and what mods he has in his ships. you shouldn't just rely on this weapon.
4. Shilds are good, armor is better. Installs more armor than shields. Shields are often useless, either because the enemy is shooting through it or because the star in the star system prevents it.
5. Regenerating or reactive armor in larger ships are game changers.
6. It also depends a lot on what weapons research is focused on.

[DYNIA]

Originally posted by tserleg1471:

I've read a few guides about it, but it's a quite complicated topic, and some guide are about different patches with different metas. XD

To express better my doubts, I'll tell what I plan in my current game vs IA, so you can tell me in what aspects I am wrong (probably most of them) and help you to explain me better how to design my fleet:

1- Missile corvettes in early.
2- Disruptor corvettes when available. They defeat any ship until cruisers. Can they defeat also Point Defense?
3- Skip Frigates, because I haven't First Contact DLC and they are useless without stealth.
4- Skip destructors. I've read that their main use is to get Point Defense vs missile corvettes. IAs have balanced fleets, so better stick with Disruptor Corvettes.
5- I am even more lost in late game. How problematic is to mix weapons that penetrate shields with weapons with bonus vs shields? Here the only thing I understand is that depending of the size of your targets, it is better to use weapons in specific slots, but not sure about if I could take profit.

Any explanation or recommended guide for current meta?

1.2. its crap
3. they are not useless if you build missless spam vs battleships without ss
4. desto have M slot for laser or plasma vs other destros so its not useless

1-4 covertes with PD and 2x laser or pd,autocannon,plasma

destro 3x laser 2x autocanon or 3x plasma 2x autocanon

if dont have autocanon use coilguns

distruptor is crap take missless or normal guns

mid game crusers with SS/PD and 6x M - 4x/lasers or plasma 2x autocannons/coil guns

late

battleships - PD/SS and arty lance, 1 plasma canon and 2x antishields

for special slots arrmor and shield hardeners vs bypass weapons that make distruptors useless and missless less effectvie vs shield hardeners

[Big mean bunny]

Late game: Kinetic artillery with any combo of energy X slot large hard point laser/plasma
or plasma torp/ww missile/ fighter(ancient drilla drone optimal) works. Will only be stronger when the repeatable tech nerf is live.
Nothing wrong with destroyers: flak is very strong, useful against soft targets close in. Anti missile needs targeting booster before equipping if you want it to multi role like flak. Pure disrupter destroyer beats corvette due to HP disparity,
Shield and armour hardening and to a lesser degree crystalline armour counter disrupter but care needs to be taken about relic use unless using crisis ships.