Jupiter Arms Artillery Cruiser

[ReaperLord]

How are Jupiter Arms Artillery Cruisers supposed to be used? They're really slow and plodding, the bow MUST face the target to fire, they use a burst-fire weapon, and they are so big compared to the Oberon or Akula Vektor lines of artillery cruisers.

[Columen]

Situational awareness and energy management are critical with this class of ship. Like you've said, it's slow, is forward-firing and has a larger hitbox. You should be sticking close to your teammates so that any incoming targets are taken care of easily - corvettes especially. The burst-fire is ideal for finishing off low health targets or making any ship out of cover think twice about doing that. Always call out targets that are getting too close for comfort; if you have a half decent team they'll prioritise them.

If you find yourself under fire you need manoeuvre yourself so that your exposed surface area is low as possible (that would mean trying not to be too high/low or facing sideways). Never sit still either, try to bob up and down at the very least so that you are harder to hit. Snapshotting shields helps, especially when faced against another artillery cruiser. When you see an incoming hit raise your shields, then drop them. Repeat. It'll make your energy last longer and reduce the damage you take.

Modules and officer briefings also go a long way in increasing your survivability. Some popular modules include evasive/dive manoeuvre, armour amplifier, anti-missile lasers/pulse, proximity mines, and stasis/drain/scrambler missiles. Dive is best used when you have cover below you. Evasive keeps you on the move and helps with maneuvrability/dodging. Armour amplifier helps if you have more missiles than AML/AMP can take of (AMP also works against torpedoes), or even against ramming ships/artiller cruiser strikes. Proximity mines if used right are a great deterrent against corvettes and rammers, or if you'd rather the missiles can disable a target enough to buy you/your teammates time to knock em out before they knock you out.

It does take some practice getting used to the JA arties but it's just a matter of keeping an eye on your radar/environment and being careful with your energy usage. Find what strategies/builds work for you by tinkering around with them. The good thing is that if you've got great aim, you can sometimes one shot targets with power to weapons - the damage output is really devastating. Again, officer briefings like glass cannon will make this more pronounced.

[BeatleOne]

Imagine if you hade strafing in the game and when facing the enemy you could actualy MOVE to right or left! What a world would that be !

[Brother Belial]

Originally posted by BeatleOne:

Imagine if you hade strafing in the game and when facing the enemy you could actualy MOVE to right or left! What a world would that be !

There's a module for that called evasive maneuver.

[Szeron]

Probably the best way to use the JA Artillery is to find a Destroyer-Bro to watch your back and feed you weaponbooster(applies to all artillery, but the others are better equipped to deal with close-in targets on their own). Outside of that, your main tactic should be to stick low and hug the cliffsides/ridges to avoid unwanted attention while you blast enemy tacticals and vulnerable targets at full power. You're a big target, so try to avoid being seen until it's too late for the enemy.

[Luxaeterna]

It has those weakness that you meantioned but it biggest strength is that it's damage is the highest among all the artys. The JA arty becomes a delete button if you receive a damage buffed and you set energy to weapons.