Medium projectiles used to be a decent weapon system a couple years ago, but in recent times they have fallen to the wayside. Autocannons are out brawled by blasters and artillery is a lesser kiting weapon when compared to both laser weapon systems, rails and missiles. The main issue with projectiles can be broken down into three parts: The slot layout on all Matari ships, the tracking enhancer nerf that occurred a while back, and the weapons themselves.
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Minmatar Cruisers
With the way Minmatar cruisers slots are layed out, they are forced into three different ways of fitting. The first is armor buffer, the second is shield buffer, and the third is kite with a shield buffer. The majority of Minmatar cruisers can not fit a decent active tank at all, mostly because they trade either a mid or low a slot for a high utility slot. Because of this all the ships are heavily leaning towards a shield buffer fit, which means you’ll need to use tracking enhancers.
Tracking Enhancers
When tracking enhancers were nerfed, it essentially ruined them. For those unfamiliar with the nerf, it was a 10% falloff reduction. Because of this all Minmatar cruisers essentially had their range reduced by 10% as well, as tracking enhancers are extremely prevalent on their hulls. This caused autocannons, which usually were used as a kiting weapon system, into a brawling weapon system, where they simply aren’t proficient.
Medium Projectile Weapons
In the last paragraph the tracking enhancer nerf explained how autocannons had gone from a kiting weapon system, to a brawling weapon system, where they are clearly lacking. In a brawling situation they are out-tracked and out DPSed by blasters the majority of the time, making them a noncompetitive weapon system. A basic summary is this, before the tracking enhancer nerf, they were a flexible weapon system that offered a mix of selectable damage and projection. With the projection taken away, the only good part about them is selectable damage, which while a good upside, isn’t much of one.
The other projectile weapon system, artillery, is just a laughable weapon system. Artillery lacks so much DPS when compared to other kiting weapon systems that they just cant compete on any level. While you can say the alpha is why they have such low DPS, the alpha needs to be high enough to kill the opposing ship in a couple volleys, which doesn’t happen with cruiser hulls. Even if you hit critical mass with a large alpha fleet, to where you are blapping enemies off the field, you would probably be better off using a different weapon system, such as beams or rails. Rails and beams have much higher DPS and excellent projection. Overall you are left with a weapon system that does 25% less DPS than any other kiting weapon system, with not many redeeming qualities.
How to Fix Medium Projectiles
To fix medium projectiles you need to work with their largest bonus, which is the selectable damage type. Even with selectable damage types being the biggest pro of projectiles, their T2 ammo type doesn’t reflect that. They should implement variable damage typed T2 ammo like they have with missiles, this would bring them a bit more inline with the other ships. You could also un-nerf the tracking enhancer from a 10% reduction, to instead a 5% reduction on falloff, this wouldn’t make them as strong as they were before, but would make them a competitive weapon system again.
Overall, the entire issue comes down to the fact that Minmatar cruisers are bad at brawling but autocannons force them to because they can’t project damage anymore, or they use artillery which are a non-competitive weapon system and are just laughable.
I would like to thank Baali Tekitsu for his help in writing this article.
