[SC] Premium ammo No defence? Shields dont matter?

So I have been playing this game for awhile now and I'm seeing a trend. That is build your ship to have the highest DPS possible, because highest DPS wins 1v1.

It seems to me that the whole point of playing this game is grind out small incremental damage boosts, that come in the form of LF 4's, pilot skills, upgrades to weapons, 10 drones with good formations so on and so on.

The major problem I'm having is the whole premium ammo thing. It seems premium ammo does so much more damage that it completely negates shields, hull strength to some extent because everyone pretty much uses the same ship anyway and those ships die in a few seconds to high grade premium ammo, which is also boosted as much as possible by the things I mentioned above.

So I guess my question is: Is this game all about how much DPS you can do? is that it? is the game really that shallow that shield strength, defensive drone formations and such don't really matter tht much? Because there seems to be no defenc against these insanely high damage builds other than making your ship do a tad bit more damage than the other guy?

Is this it? If so....I think I have sumbled upon the thing that's going to just make me turn away from this game despite all the money I have blown on it. Someone plz fill me in?

 

OK I will try to be short - first off what on earth is "premium ammo" ? I first started this game almost 6 years ago and I had never seen a person label a type of ammo "premium"; to my knowledge, all ammo types that exist could be used by ALL players regardless of them being prem or not ; As for your question I will only state this: if you really think damage is all that matters in this game then you've got much more to learn about

 

Percentages favour Shield designs over Damage designs
Hercules is better than Havoc (percentage wise)

Of course, you need to take into account an individuals' skill as well...

May I ask what your configs are?

 

DarkerMatter I assume that by Premium Ammo you mean Ammunition bought with cash or collected from Boxing/Booty boxing or Gate spins
Damage versus defense is obviously a key part of the game... BUT I will add, and others will know me, I dont think the differential between the UFE and the simple FE, or below, is sustainable..
Either we accept that the rules/principles/basic honour principles that the game is built around are 'enforced' or the exodus will outweigh the new players.. not a good scenario

 

yes by premium ammo....I mean ammo you pay for in U's not Credits, And its premium because U's Are purchasable with cash and credits are not....credits are far easier to acquire then U's in large amounts but what do you mean by UFE and FE I'm new to the game so I don't understand. All I know is each shield I equip gives 10k shield points and weapons do like 20k-60k or more per second.....so what is the point in having a defensive build and not equipping all guns?

With top damage build and premium ammo the fight is over in like 2-3 seconds all it comes down to is who is cloaked and who isn't and who starts shooting first. Seems kinda stupid way to play pvp? is there anything more to this game? can you in fact build defense with very low dps and actually tank another player? I find that hard to believe but is it possible?

 

UFEs have better equipment than FEs. A basic FE has lf3s and bo2 and 8 iris drones while a UFE has Havocs/Hercs with upgraded lf4s, upgraded bo2s, drone upgrades, boosters, pilot points etc making them alot stronger.

If you're FE there's not much point fighting back against UFEs because its just a waste of your ammo. Just run.

Even though it seems useless to equip shields more shields give you more of a chance that you could survive and run away successfully. For example have a slow config with all shields on your ship and 3-4 shields on your drones. Rest lasers. This will be your battle config which you use to farm npcs etc.

Then have another config where u have all speed gens and full shields on drones. This will be your running config. So when u get attacked, switch to your running config and fly towards the nearest demil zone/ jump portal.

When an UFE 1v1s another UFE, they don't usually use damage builds as damage is not as good as shieldpower.

Maintain minimap awareness, cloakers will be a red dot visible on your minimap. Minimise your chance of getting popped by dragging npcs near a portal and kill them there, so if a cloaker jumps on you then u could easily jump away. If you get destroyed (you will get destroyed, everyone gets destroyed) just repair you ship for free, check drone damage (don't let them get destroyed especially iris drones) and just go back to doing what you were doing.

It can get frustrating getting popped constantly but in the end it doesn't really matter. Just farm uridium get stronger and in no time you will be able to defend yourself better.

Not really you can't have too many shields otherwise your damage output will be too little. Rule of thumb, don't put more than 10 shields on drones on your slow configuration.

 

ok then it does seem like the game is built around dps, as you cant tank a player in pvp. Shields are only for giving a few extra seconds to escape.... this is not the pvp I was hoping for. Skill? the only skill involved in the game seems to be who is using the best or most expensive premium ammo and who has the best equipment with the most possible upgrades. Since the game is so difficult for new players, the community seems barren game is already dead, and even if I did stick with it and invest large amounts of money and time all I have to look forward to is some 2-6 second fights based off my equipment and pilot accuired skills I see no point in staying with game thanks for the info

 

No problem, good luck with other (and frankly) better games out there

 

Dmg is everyting but also shields the problem is most players have 100k or 200k shields the fact is u need 400k plus shields to have time to fight back emps and ista are alos needed so I say dmg and shields is important just need to have the right stuff.