Mass Driver - The Best?

[TuxedoMask]

Okey, so I'm flying through some pirate bases near Brennan's Triumph, in my tricked out Split Mamba Raider. She's fully maxed out, and packing 4 Mass Drivers, and 4 Alpha Particle Accelerator Cannons.

A few fighters starting wanting to cause some problem, so I flip on all my weapons, and teach them a lesson. Needless to say they die fast.

But I'm noticing that my Mass Drivers nicely pound on their hull, while my PAC seem to waste their time only taking out their shields. Obviously this is what the weapons were designed for. However, who cares what the ships shields are at, when its got no hull? Last I heard, a ship doesn't fare to well when hull at 0, even if shields at full

So I head back to dock, and unload the PACs, and load in 4 more Mass Drivers, and head out with 8 guns of Mass Driver and a nice pile of ammunition. I find a few pirates buzzing around picking on some Teladi. I'm thinking, the Teladi are nice enough folks, so I go off to help them.

I enjoy the Mass Drivers ripping right through shields, and destroying the hull directly. This is great, not only doing damage to destroy the ship BUT also crippling their systems at the same time.

So my question finally boils down to:

Why wouldn't you want to equip ONLY mass drivers?


One obvious reason is:

Ammunition. Costs money, takes up cargo space, and runs out. Well, I don't care about money, I'll get used to to the cargo space being used out, and if you monitor your ammo consistently, you should never run out. There might be some missions where you don't have the option to head back for more, but so far in 'free' play, this isn't an issue.


So asside from that, which I haven't had a problem with so far, *WHY* wouldn't I want to keep going with Mass Drivers on all the time (when the sole point is destruction. Maybe not so great for capping or disabling or such, but if all I want is destruction...)


Am I missing something? Or is everyone sporting an 8 pack of Mass Drivers


Thank you.

[handy388]

1. range: MD's range is barely over 1.0km
2. cost: can be a big problem in early game. But one unknown object can buy you enough ammo that last you years.
3. need for capping?
4. psychological reason. Personally I know MD kills fast, especially for a M6, but I just think effects of BHEPT are cooler.

[Unknown_Terror]

I'm not carrying mass drivers,

I'd rather never ever ever have to buy ammunition. My cargo space is dedicated to e-cells so i can jump whenever i want and not have to worry about running out too soon, i tried mass drivers before and regardless of the firepower and enery usage i don't like them at all. But thats just my opinion and style of playing, i know MD's are actually good, but they arent for me. My HEPT's do the job and never run out of ammo.

[droleander]

i imagine it's hard to jump places when your cargo bay is loaded with mass driver ammo/8 mass drivers

[Unknown_Terror]

i imagine it's hard to jump places when your cargo bay is loaded with mass driver ammo/8 mass drivers

Yea....Exactly, I did try out 2 MD's and 6 HEPT's, but i thought whats the point i might as well have 8 HEPT's.

[Nanook]

If all you want to do is kill things, yes MD's are great. But you'll never capture a single ship with MD's only. Why? Because the shields have to be knocked down to zero AND you have to have hull damage. So no shield damage, no captured ships. And capturing can be VERY lucrative not to mention fun. So, have fun killing things, but think about how you're going to pay for all that MD ammo.

[TuxedoMask]

Yes, good point.

As it is, I carry enough fuel on me to barely make one medium sized jump (usually about 5 sectors), often enough to get me near enough to some more fuel.

I also make liberal use of the SETA

Is there a weapon class that is powerfull enough, that it can take out shields AND hull faster then the Mass Driver can take out just the hull? I haven't seen any that would work on fighter class ships? So that might not be an option there.

[Nanook]

AHEPT's will do what you want. And your Mamba Raider can carry them. They do use a lot energy from the laser bank, so you might keep them in one weapons bank, and put some MD's in another, for when you run out or energy. Actually, the loadout I'd use would be 4 AHEPT's, 2 BPAC's and 2 MD's. And an MD for the rear turret. Missile defense, you know.

[Slonor]

I tried them out too, but they are utterly worthless for capping and they use up precious cargo space. Also, if you put those on a destroyer he is going to burn through more money than you can cap back in captured ships. Plus the range is crappy. On the other hand, I sure am glad my enemies don't use it because that means every single hit would require VERY costly repairs.

[layton99]

Depends on what ship you use. Using a Nova Vanguard at the moment and it has a big enough cargo space to carry ammo and cells. I only use MD's to kill if I'm capping then I use APAC's then if he doesn't jump I switch to 2 APAC's and 3 MD's. Use MD's for clusters. 2 on front one on rear.

All weapons have a purpose. A lot of people don't like the pbe's but I quite like them have had loads of caps with them shame the Nova can't carry them.

[Star_Raider15]

mass drivers are truly usefull in M6 mainly because it takes out M4/M5 but except that arent very good so i sugest u use AHEPT or if u have an M6 then BHEPT

[droleander]

are mass drivers the machinegun-like things that you fire from the turrent in the second story mission?

[Preda]

I, for one, carry a single MD and 30 boxes of ammo on my split M4, exclusively for M6s and for those ships that essentially piss me off.

I also use a PBE(wonderful gun this is) for M5s and4 AHEPTs for capping and other threats.

[danprivatus]

put some MD's in another, for when you run out or energy.

For me, that is the best reason to use MDs! I switch between a Mamba Raider and a Nova Raider and both of those ships have a few MDs and ammo packs for exactly that reason -- weapons energy. When I'm in a swarm of bogeys, I often get that "energy low" message. No problem -- just hit the number for "MDs" and I'm back in the fight. Once my weapons energy is back up, I switch back to A-HEPTs.

MDs -- never go into a dogfight without 'em!

[unmarkedhelicopter]

droleander, No mission two you sit in a turret and you have multiple weapons available to you (you can change them) but the default is a souped up pbe and is best of all the weapons in that engagement.

[jlehtone]

1) Range is no issue. I wait 'till I see the white of their eyes anyway.
2) I hate the noise of them.
3) Thick hulls take too long with MD.
4) I prefer a ship with more energy anyway.
5) Missile kill from 30 km is a better use of one cargo unit.

FAA is noisy too, but at least the bursts are short.

No, MD is not my favorite.

[XanII]

isn't MD totally useless against TL:s in say, assasination missions. i believe it would tage ages to destroy an Orca with MD.

i like MD:s, got 3 of them in use all the time, yet i wont let go my HEPT guns.

[Geggo]

I have to agree with jlehtone on this one.

I fly Mamba Raider about 99% of the time equipt with 3 AHEPT's and rear massdriver for missile defence (10 ammo boxes) rest of the space is loot missiles and usually well above 100 energy so I can jump straight across the galaxy.

For the record I have tried massdrivers (took down couple dosen N/M in xenon sector as well as few J/K, L's took for ever to kill with massdrivers) and they do have uses but simply doesn't cut it for me as I need to be able to take on scores of Fighters at any given time and relying on ammo and short range weapons just ain't going to work.

[jlehtone]

isn't MD totally useless against TL:s in say, assasination missions.

I once tried a trick in XI mission. Had Mamba R with all MD. Jumped to the Xenon sector, where the J's were waiting before delivering those wings of fighters. Closed in and used the 8 MD battery to bring their hull down. Then jumped back to the invaded sector and finished them in there. Over 100 boxes per J. But those J's have nothing but GPPC. Easy to sneak in.

Then I learned that you can kill them in Xenon space and you still get the reward. No more MD.

[vinnie_]

Not a fan. Two beta PBE's will strip 50,000kj of shield in less than 2 seconds and then do almost as much damage as 8 MD's against the hull. Same range, no ammunition cost, leaves 6 slots for some ahept or alternative long range loving of your choice.

Only downside is there isn't much that can mount them, I was happy when I found a mamba that could. Makes those speedy little M5's dissapear real quick.