Hey,
i have struggled hard to find a good weapon composition vs. AE, big fleets with X module weapons. I could break my issue down to simple sounding, yet complex problem:
The perfect timing between weapon range (engagement distance) and combat situational moment aka shields are down or not.
It is hard to know when which types starts firing and if the shields are down at that moment.
Generally, specialized weapons are only effective for a specific situation, e.g. shields still up / regenerated or the hull is attackable. This problem is definitly known by people that rely heavily on plasma.
Background "story":
After several desperate attempts on "Keepers of Knowledge" i lost tons of ships over and over with a fleet composition out of destroyers and battleships (320k), equipped with plasma, flak and shield disruptors. Unluckily, the unbidden arrived in my war with that AE. I beat the unbidden, got the mass desintegrator and in a desperate attempt equipped my fleet fully with them. Hell, afterwards i ripped 3x 400k fleets with my ~300k fleets at easy in quick succesion.
Plasma doesnt do well versus shields, other weaponry lacks the armor penetration which is realy important vs big ships. Mixing in Shield disruptors is good vs shields, however becomes almost useless when the shields are depleted. Instead of coping with the issue, i thought of a "mixed" approach which is independent wether shields are up or down or the enemy relies on shield heavy setups (cruisers, corvettes and destroyers) or armor heavy setups (cruisers, battleships). Thats when i came up with this idea based on my experience during that freaking war:
First and foremost a different kind of view for MDs. For MD you have to consider the overall shield and hull damage during a "shield up" or "shield down phase":
1. Shield up phase: 50% normal dmg vs shield plus 50% hull damage. With the armor reduction we achieve 50% shield damage, 50% hull damage which is further increased by the armor penetration (=25%). Overall, while shields are up, MD deals 125% of its normal damage.
(1.5) Shields are damaged at half speed due to penetration.
2. Shields down phase: 100% on hull with armor penetration equals 150% of its normal damage.
Generally , comparing the raw damage numbers of pure plasma and MD, plasma is slightly better (ignoring the nonlinear damage reduction of armor):
Both phases MD: 125% + 150% / 2 = 137,5%
Both phases plasma: 80% + 190% / 2 = 170%
However, shield regeneration and projectile distribution (= less concentrated fire) is not considered.
When including shield regeneration, plasma loses its advantage with greater shield regeneration and projectile distribution. I introduce these as a weigthing factor "x" and "y" (for a better argumentation i note it in a bit cumbersome way):
Both phases MD: 125% / 2 (x + y) + 150% / 2 (x + y) = .....
Both phases MD: 80% / 2 (x + y) + 150% / 2 (x + y) = .....
Important are the values for the shields up phase. For MD 125% / (x + y) and for plasma 80% / (x + y). As one can see, with greater shield reg "x" and projectile distribution "y", plasma becomes less effective compared to MD.
However, as of MD the shields are up much longer.
Thus i choosed to increase the effectivness of the by far strongest anti shield weaponry, the shield disruptor. It has to be noted, that the base damage is pretty low in comparison to plasma, but vs shields nothing beats the SD.
Both phases SD: 300% / 2 (x + y) + 100% / (x + y) / 2 = ....
In interaction with MD, the effectivness of SD is increased by 50% due to longer uptime of the shields. It is important to note that i assume (based on my experience) you wont be able to kill any ship beside corvettes before their shields run out.
This can further be increased with the focused arc emitter.
My final composition was, if possible, a focused arc emitter, one shield disrupter in an L slot, one Flak on some ships and the remaining slots full of MD. This is the best weapon combination i have found so far.
I am interested in your thoughts, especially if you can compare this composition vs the usual subjects.
