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Missiles are self-propelled ammunition launched from missile launchers . Unlike turret weapons, missiles can track and follow their target. Rather than optimal and falloff range, missile range is determined by velocity and flight time, while missile damage is determined by the velocity and signature radius of the target and the explosion radius, explosion velocity, and damage reduction factor of the missile.
Compared to the turret weapons, missiles have a bit lower rate of fire and higher damage per hit. They also do not care whether the target is close or far away. The primary strength of missiles is that assuming that the target is within range, a missile will always "hit" its target, but the damage dealt will vary depending on the size and speed of the target. However, missile launchers fire more slowly than turrets of a similar size, and missile damage is delayed due to travel time, rather than being instantaneous.
A missile does not so much hit a ship as explodes near it. When a missile crosses the signature radius of its target, it blows up. The speed at which this explosion grows and the maximum size of the explosion determine the amount of damage done to the target. EVE uses a mathematical equation to compute the precise amount of damage that the explosion does to the ship.
Note that launcher ammunition is often called "missiles" regardless of the ammunition's proper name, and thus this term can refer to any of rockets, missiles or torpedoes.
Out of T1 ships the Caldari ships are the best known missile users though a few Minmatar ships also use missiles. The Armageddon and Arbitrator also often use missiles even without missile bonuses. Additionally, the Khanid Kingdom made T2 Amarr ships, Guristas ships and Mordu's Legion ships use missiles as their weapons.
Many hostile NPCs also use missiles as secondary weapons, and wield a single slow-firing launcher. These missiles will usually have the same range and damage application attributes of an ordinary missile of that ship's size.
- 2.1 Short range missile systems
- 2.2 Long range missile systems
- 2.3 Rapid missile systems
- 2.4 Festival Launchers
- 2.5 Other equipment
- 3.1 Fleet roles
- 3.3 The missile entities problem
- 3.4 The delayed damage problem
- 4 Production
- 5 Footnotes and references
These skills apply to all missile launchers. They increase firing rate and damage, and they improve the accuracy of missiles against smaller, faster targets.
- Missile Launcher Operation 2% Bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per skill level. This gives a bonus to DPS — and it is a prerequisite for many other missile skills .
- Rapid Launch 3% bonus to missile launcher rate of fire per level. Essentially, a DPS increase.
- Warhead Upgrades 2% bonus to all missile damage per skill level. Another DPS increase, smaller than Rapid Launch, but still worth training.
- Missile Bombardment 10% more flight time for all missiles per level. If you are planning to use a long range or "kiting" strategy, train this higher.
- Missile Projection 10% bonus to all missiles' maximum velocity per level. Another range increase that is especially useful for "kiting".
- Guided Missile Precision 5% decrease per level in factor of signature radius for all missile explosions. Proficiency at this skill increases damage to small targets.
- Target Navigation Prediction 10% decrease per level in factor of target's velocity for all missiles. As with Guided Missile Precision, this makes missiles more effective against faster targets.
In addition to the general missile skills, there is a specific primary missile skill for each class of missiles, and each will let you load and fire that one class. In addition, each level of the skill will improve your damage by 5% when using that particular missile class.
- Light Missiles
- Heavy Missiles
- Heavy Assault Missiles
- Cruise Missiles
- XL Cruise Missiles
- XL Torpedoes
- Auto-Targeting Missiles
- Defender Missiles
All the missile types also have a "Specialization" skill. This gives you access to T2 launchers and missiles, and it provides a 2% bonus per level to the rate of fire of modules that require the specialization (mostly the T2 modules). All of these require that you have trained the Primary Skill to Level V, so they are usually pursued after your other training is complete.
- Rocket Specialization
- Light Missile Specialization
- Heavy Missile Specialization
- Heavy Assault Missile Specialization
- Cruise Missile Specialization
- Torpedo Specialization
- XL Cruise Missile Specialization
- XL Torpedo Specialization
There are a total of four size classes for missiles, each with a short range and a long range launcher. Additionally, small, medium, large and XL launchers have 'rapid' launchers that shoot missiles of one size class below normal.
Each launcher class can launch missiles of that class. E.g., Light Missile Launchers launch Light Missiles, as do Rapid Light Missile Launchers. Heavy Assault Missile Launchers launch Heavy Assault Missiles. Torpedo Launchers launch Torpedoes. And so on. Different types of launchers within the class vary the firing rate and other characteristics of the launchers.
Each variety of EVE damage is available for each missile type. Inferno , Mjolnir , Nova and Scourge apply thermal , EM , explosive and kinetic damage, in that order. A given missile will apply only one variety of damage, and each missile category does the same number of hit points of damage.
This said though, many Caldari ships (such as the Drake ) have bonuses to only a single type of missile damage: Kinetic . These ships are commonly referred to as "Kinetic locked". In general, damage type locked ships like this should usually only ever use missile ammo that matches the damage type of their bonus unless there is a very good reason to use a different type.
Missiles can be roughly split into three groups: Short range, long range and rapid.
Short range missile systems
Short range missiles have shorter cycle times and higher DPS than long range missiles. Compared to their long range counterparts, Rockets and Heavy Assaults have lower damage but better application, while Torpedoes and XL Torpedoes have higher damage but worse application.
- Rockets (frigates, destroyers)
- Heavy Assault Missiles (a.k.a. HAMs) (cruisers, battlecruisers)
- Torpedoes (battleships, stealth bombers)
- XL Torpedoes (capitals)
T2 missiles:
- Javelin - Improved velocity (=better range) but slightly less damage.
- Rage - Increased damage but also greatly reduced application and slightly reduced velocity (=reduced range).
Long range missile systems
Long range missiles have longer cycle times and lower DPS than short-range missiles. Compared to their short range counterparts, Light and Heavy Missiles have higher damage but worse application, while Cruise and XL Cruise have lower damage but better application.
- Light Missiles (frigates, destroyers)
- Heavy Missiles (cruisers, battlecruisers)
- Cruise Missiles (battleships)
- XL Cruise Missiles (capitals)
- Precision - Same damage as T1 but with better application and greatly reduced flight time (range).
- Fury - Better damage with reduced application and flight time (range).
Rapid missile systems
Rapid launchers are unique among weapon systems. These missile launchers have very high fire rates, but fire missiles of one size class below what the ships of this size would normally fire. For example, a cruiser (medium) would use rapid light missile launchers to fire light missiles (small). This reduces the skill training required to use the weapons (as missile skill requirements are based on ammo type, not launcher size), and also gives ships fitted with rapid launchers unnaturally good damage application. The drawback is that they have relatively small clip sizes (19-30 shots) and very long reload times (35-40 seconds). This makes them very effective at quickly removing smaller enemies, but inefficient in larger fights if the target doesn't die before the reload hits, as between the high fire rate and small clip a rapid launcher can easily spend as much time reloading as it does firing.
The small clip and long reload of rapid launchers make them very good weapons to Overheat , as they can be overheated for part of their clip for further increased fire rate and DPS, repaired (using Nanite Repair Paste) during their long reload time (during which time their rack heat also dissipates), and then overheated again in the next clip.
Rapid Torpedo Launchers are considered the ' High-Angle Weapons ' of missiles, and thus can only be fitted to the Phoenix , Phoenix Navy Issue , and Caiman .
As Rapid Light Missile Launchers fire frigate-sized Light Missiles, they are considered 'small weapons' and gain the damage bonus of the Wolf Rayet system effect .
- Rapid Light Missile Launchers (RLML) (cruisers, battlecruisers)
- Rapid Heavy Missile Launchers (RHML) (battleships)
- Rapid Torpedo Launcher (dreadnoughts)
Festival Launchers
Festival Launchers are a type of special edition launcher used to fire festival charges that normally consist of fireworks or snowballs. These items are typically used during in-game events, holidays, or celebrations to add a visual and festive element to the game. These effects are purely visual and do not cause damage or affect gameplay mechanics. Occasionally AIR Daily Goals or an event will ask you to hit an NPC or player with a festival charge. This includes not decloaking ships and causing a damage notification. Locking a target will cause them to be yellow-boxed and festival charges will produce sound and visual effects when hitting their target. Festival launchers are popular during community gatherings, in-game weddings, anniversaries, and other player-driven events. They help enhance the celebratory atmosphere and bring players together. They are often distributed in crates that when opened come with a launcher and a set of festival charges matching the current event.
- Festival Launchers have a cycle time of 4s
- Display Launchers have a cycle time of 20s
- Fireworks come in various colors, lights, and effects and can be grouped into those with a small, medium, or large radius of effect. Firework types demonstration YouTube playlist
- Snowballs are typically given out during a Yoiul Festival or Winter Nexus . Snowballs will melt after an event has concluded but can be exchanged for fresh ammo with a Meltwater-Snowball Exchanger at Yoiul Festival Snowball Exchange stations during the next event.
Festival charges have the longest flight time of any missile type while the launchers have the lowest fitting requirements.
Other equipment
Other rarely used missile types:
- Defender missiles. When activated, Defender Launchers will scan local space for bombs within range. If a bomb is detected, the launcher will fire one Defender Missile to intercept and destroy it. If no bombs are found, the launcher will still cycle. The Defender Launcher has 120-second reactivation timer. [1]
- When fired, an Auto-Targeting Missile will locate and target the nearest enemy ship or drone that has previously fired on you. Auto-targeting missiles do not require the user to be locked on to the targets they engage; however as they cannot be deliberately aimed, deal less damage, and have a hard maximum range beyond which they will not acquire targets, auto-targeting missiles are usually passed over in favor of regular missiles.
In addition to the actual missile launchers, there exist several modules and items for missile launchers. These will improve the effectiveness of all missile weapons.
Tactics and Strategy
In general, missiles are a simpler weapon system to use than turrets. But while a missile can apply up to 100% of the Base Damage to a ship in some situations, damage is often reduced by two factors:
- If the target ship is moving faster than the explosion velocity of the missile. Think of this as a fast ship being able to somewhat outrun the explosion.
- If the signature radius of the target ship is smaller than the missile's explosion radius. Think of this as a small ship flying through a large explosion and only being hit by a part of it.
In other words, missile weapons are best at doing damage to larger, slower targets at longer range. This is not to say that a pilot cannot kill small, fast targets with the right missiles, or that there are no short range missile boats. Rather, the most common applications of launcher fitted ships tend to be as longer ranged, heavy damage weapons.
Fleet roles
In general, the most common ships seen relying on missiles in fleets fill one of two roles. Ships fitted with Rapid Missile Launchers work as anti-support, assigned to picking of smaller enemy ships like frigates and destroyers while the rest of the fleet is otherwise engaged, and whose larger weapons are unable to hit these small targets. Ships fitted with full-size launchers act as mainline damage ships, able to beat through individual damage weaknesses in the enemies' defenses with their sustained, reliable damage. However, because missiles are ineffective at targeting ships below their size, missile ships are generally not very efficient at destroying enemy logistics ships (which generally have naturally small signatures), which can at times hurt their effectiveness.
There do exist doctrines for entire fleets of missile ships. Fleets of stealth bombers , for example, are common.
Kiting is a form of hit-and-run strategy, attacking enemies while staying beyond their effective range, and always having a way out. As kiting ships rely on their speed and range for defenses, many good kiting ships are shield-tanked missile ships. Mordu's Legion ships are particularly good at this combat style.
The primary goal of kiting is to stay alive. This means staying out of their range, either by keeping pace and range while pursuing, orbiting at around 20-30km (within missile and Warp Disruptor range but outside of other modules' range), or by running away from them just slightly faster than they can catch up. Because launching missiles at pursuing targets makes the pursuers get hit sooner, and because missiles will chase and hit their targets without any interaction from the launching ship, missile ships are extremely good at both flying evasively and straight running away. (Unlike turret ships, missile ships are not required to line up good shots with their targets to land hits; missiles merely need to be within range, and beyond that, the missile ships can take on any flight path they wish.)
PvE enemies tend to be rather single-minded, locking on when they see you, approaching orbit, and never giving up. This makes kiting a popular strategy when running missions. When compared with fighting NPCs head-on, kiting increases the time required to kill targets (as longer-ranged weapons have lower damage), and the resulting loot will be scattered across a large area; however in exchange, your ship will sustain relatively little damage, and as you are already in effect running away it is very easy to warp out and escape the field if necessary.
PvP is much more difficult in this regard. Inexperienced pilots may chase you to their deaths, but experienced pilots will just let you run, knowing that both you and they likely have the choice to escape. The greatest danger in kiting is extremely fast ships such as interceptors , which can outrun, catch, and tackle most other ships, giving their allies time to close in for the kill. Part of the popularity of cruisers with Rapid Light missiles is that these missiles are extremely effective at destroying interceptors.
The missile entities problem
Missile launchers create missile entities, an object in space that chase their targets, until they hit and do damage or run out of flight time. While these entities are not visible on the overview nor selectable, they can decloak ships, and have structure hp that can be damaged or even be destroyed by area-of-effect damages like Smartbombs , Bombs , and Guided Bombs .
Missiles are vulnerable to damage and can't survive many hits from smartbombs, one should avoid destroying their missiles with their smartbombs by avoiding fitting or activating them at the same time. Bombs from stealth bombers may destroy their torpedos too.
This feature also enabled a strategy known as 'Firewalling', in which multiple smartbombs are used to block out and destroy incoming missiles. While this strategy is difficult to plan and execute appropriately, it can greatly reduce a fleet's incoming (and outgoing) missile damage.
The delayed damage problem
One of the issues with missiles compared to turrets is that while turret shots impact and damage their targets in the same moment as they are fired, missiles do not have this luxury. Instead, when a missile is launched, there can be several seconds of delay between the launch and the target is damaged. This has several effects.
- In PvE, it can lead to wasting missiles overkilling targets (where the target dies with another volley of missiles in-flight), and at the same time leave the attacker exposed to enemy fire for longer.
- In PvP, when an enemy is targeted by missiles, they receive the warning about being Red Boxed at the moment the launchers fire, which gives them time to either overheat active hardeners, broadcast for their logistics to repair them or, at longer ranges, potentially warp out before the missiles land.
- If an enemy ship is flying away from a missile ship, the missiles need to chase after it as it flies away. This means that missiles can have significantly reduced effective range when used on fleeing enemies. (However, in exchange they also gain significantly increased effective range when running away and shooting at a pursuer.) Furthermore, extremely fast ships like interceptors can actually completely outrun missiles that are in flight, and never be hit at all despite staying within range.
- To prevent the obvious exploit of launching missiles and then warping out before the missiles connect, if a ship enters warp, all of the missiles it has in-flight vanish immediately. This means that, especially at long range, missile ships must stay on grid until all of their fired missiles have landed, to avoid losing damage. This problem is most apparent on stealth bombers making torpedo runs on targets.
Due to the Shortage Phase, Isogen, Nocxium and Zydrine no longer appear in High Security Space. With this in mind, players (particularly those who craft their own ammunition, especially if they also mine the materials themselves) can find themselves burning through expensive stockpiles of these materials. A table provided below will hopefully assist the player somewhat in making choices of missiles to use in PvE to minimize such shortages.
Auto-Targeting and Assault variants use the same as entered above.
Highsec refers to Only Tritanium, Pyerite, and Mexallon. Other entries are those materials required in addition to Highsec ones. So for example, if you have a potential choice of Light Rapid Missiles or Heavy Missiles (e.g. on a Bellicose) and other tactical considerations are not applicable, then using rapid light missiles would remove the need for Nocxium while crafting ammunition replenishment.
For the cruise and Torpedo variants, this information may assist in choosing which type of damage to deal. So for example, Guristas Pirates are more susceptible to Scourge Missiles than Inferno Missiles, but these will use up Nocxium as well as Zydrine. You may therefore choose to deal damage slower by using Inferno saving Nocxium stockpiles when crafting replenishments. Bombers, it should be noted, have bonuses to particular torpedoes.
Footnotes and references
- ^ Defender Missile update announcement
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EVE Guide Weapons 101 - Missiles
Weapons 101 - missiles, i. introduction to missiles].
In EVE, missiles are propelled damage dealers launched from a missile bay. They differ from turrets in that they always hit if they manage to reach the target, and the fact that they have to physically reach the target in order to inflict damage, as opposed to the instantaneous hits from turrets. The Caldari specialize in missile platforms, while the Minmatar also utilize missiles greatly as secondary weapon systems. In EVE, missiles generally do lower but more consistent damage than turrets. Since they are not constrained by all the hit formulas turrets suffer from, missiles can be extremely effective if used right, especially in regards to size difference between missiles. Also, missile bays can load any damage type, making missile-based ships often more versatile than their turret-clad cousins. General missile characteristics are as follows: Rate of Fire (launcher) The rate at which the missile bay fires missiles. This value is affected by skills and modules.
- Maximum Velocity (missile)
The speed at which the missile travels. This is a base value that is affected by skills, and sometimes by the ship flown. Guided missiles are generally much faster than unguided.
- Maximum Flight Time (missile)
How long the missile can fly in seconds before it disappears, provided it does not reach it's target first. The maximum range of a missile can be calculated by multiplying this value with the missile's velocity. This base value is affected by skills.
- Damage (missile)
Base damage of the missile itself. This value, unlike with turrets, is not affected by the missile bay itself. It is affected by several skills and modules.
- Explosion Velocity (missile)
The "speed" of the missile's explosion. If the target's velocity is greater than this explosion velocity, the damage of the missile is reduced (the target "outruns" the missile's explosion). This value stacks with explosion radius.
- Explosion Radius (missile)
The explosion radius of a missile determines how effective it is against differently sized targets. To determine how this value affects a missile, EVE compares the missile's explosion radius with the target's signature radius. If the ship's signature radius is greater or equal to the missile's explosion radius, there is no change. However, if the ship's signature is lower, the game reduces the missile's damage by the appropriate percentage, meaning that the larger the missile used on a small target, the less effective it will be in damaging it. This is a linear relationship, meaning that the exact percentile difference between the explosion radius and signature radius is also the amount of damage reduction. This value is affected by skills, but only on guided missiles. Example: A missile with an explosion radius of 400m is fired upon a ship with a signature radius of 150m. As 150m is 37.5% of 400m ( = 0.375 ), the damage of the missile itself is reduced by 62.5%
II. Guided Missiles]
Guided missiles in EVE are split into three size categories; light, heavy and cruise missiles. These missiles are all long-ranged, agile damagedealers for their size classes, effective at sniping but lacking the punch of unguided missiles. They are fired from the Standard, Heavy and Cruise Missile Launcher, respectively. The main purpose of the guided missile is to track and hit small, fast targets at ranges where the target cannot fire back. Because of their ability to damage a wider range of ship classes thanks to a lower explosion radius and greater velocity, guided missiles such as cruise missiles are often regarded as a "safer" option than the slower, more damaging torpedoes. However, guided missiles may often lack the punch to overcome the stronger tanks.
III. Unguided Missiles]
Unguided missiles in EVE are split into four size categories; rockets, assault missiles, torpedoes and citadel torpedoes. These missiles, like guided missiles, fit into the general ship size categories in EVE; Rockets are fired by Rocket Launchers and are designed for use by frigates, assault missiles are used with Heavy Assault Launchers and excel against cruisers and larger targets, Torpedoes are fired using the Siege Missile Launcher and are most effective against other battleships, and Citadel Torpedoes are the only capital-sized missile class in the game, used with Citadel Launchers. Usage of unguided missiles tends to be trickier than guided, due to their limited speed and range. Also, since their relatively high explosion radius isn't affected by skills, they have a tendency to be much less effective against smaller targets. Also, while unguided missiles can do massive damage, they rarely outstrip the sheer damage potential of turret ships. On the other hand, their damage output is far more consistent than that of turrets due to the lack of hit formulas on missiles, so their actual damage can often be higher than on close-range turret ships. With that in mind though, it is worth noting that torpedoes can have an effective range of up to 55km, which far outstrips that of large Blasters and Autocannons, while rockets can reach up to 7km and assault missiles edge over 10km.
IV. FoF and Defender Missiles]
F.O.F. (Friend or Foe) and Defender missiles are two specialist sub-classes of missiles in EVE. Defender missiles are light anti-missile rockets that can be fired from all missile launchers in EVE. They are designed to intercept and neutralize incoming rockets, although in some cases it may need several defender missiles to destroy one incoming missile (such as torpedoes and cruise missiles). Defender missiles target incoming warheads on their own, and will not fire unless a volley is incoming, at which point they will autofire until there are no more missiles to target or manually stopped. They are generally most effective when used with the cruiser-sized Assault Missile Launcher, due to it's high refire rate and the larger capacity when compared to Standard Launchers. FoF Missiles are "fire and forget"-type warheads, mostly used when the missile boat has been jammed or cannot target an enemy for any reason. When activated, the FoF missile will fire and target the nearest hostile ship or drone. Although useful when completely locked down, they are rarely used due to the lack of control the user has, as well as the fact that they do less damage than their guided counterparts.
V. Missile Skills]
A large number of skills affect the performance and statistics of missiles and missile bays, all of them in the "Missiles" skill sub-group. The base skill for all missile launchers is the Missile Launcher Operation skill, which gives a uniform 2% rate of fire bonus on all missile launchers fitted. Base Missile Skills There are nine base missile skills in EVE; three guided missile skills (light, heavy and cruise missiles), four unguided (rockets, heavy assault missiles, torpedoes and citadel torpedoes), and two specialist skills (FoF missiles and defenders). All these skills give a 5% damage bonus per level to their respective missile type, save for the skill Defender Missiles, which gives a 5% velocity bonus to defender missiles.
Missile Performance Skills
There are five missile performance skills in EVE that affect the base characteristics of all missiles and launchers. These are: Missile Bombardment - 10% increase in all missiles' maximum flight time per level Missile Projection - 10% increase to all missiles' maximum velocity per level Rapid Launch - 3% reduction on all missile launchers' rate of fire per level Target Navigation Prediction - 10% decrease in factor of target's velocity for all missiles per level Warhead Upgrades - 2% bonus to all missile damage per level The following skill only affects guided missile (light, heavy and cruise missiles): Guided Missile Precision - 5% reduction to guided missile explosion radius per level
Missile Auxiliary Skills
There are two Auxiliary skills that affect the fitting requirements of both turrets and missile launchers, called Weapon Upgrades and Advanced Weapon Upgrades, that affect the CPU and Powergrid use of missile launchers, respectively. Weapon Upgrades reduce the CPU requirements of a turret by 5% per level. This can be extremely useful, as missiles tend to be rather CPU-intensive. Advanced Weapon Upgrades reduce the Powergrid requirements of a turret by 2% per level. This is an advanced skill, has a high training multiplier and requires lvl 5 in Weapon Upgrades before training.
Missile Specialization Skills
There are six missile specialization skills in EVE, one per main missile type (there are currently no specialization skills available for FoF missiles nor defenders). These skills are the prerequisite for use of tech 2 missile launchers, and all of them require lvl 5 in their parent weapon skill (Torpedo specialization requires lvl 5 in torpedoes, for instance). Note that there is no citadel launcher specialization skill. All specialization skills grant a 2% bonus to the respective launcher's rate of fire (Cruise Missile Specialization grants a ROF bonus only to Cruise Missile Launcher II).
VI. Missile Ammo]
All missile types have 4 basic versions, one for each damage type. No missile does more than it's one damage type. There is generally no difference in the stats between the various damage type missiles - they all do the same damage and at the same speeds. As such, tactical decisions between ammo types are limited to the damage type the pilot wishes to do. Tech 2 missiles (used only with t2 missile launchers), like turret ammo, fall into two categories; range/accuracy and damage. On guided missiles, the two categories are named Fury and Precision. Fury missiles do higher damage at the expense of significantly reduced flight velocity, which limits their range greatly. On the other hand, Precision Missiles have half the explosion radius of their t1 counterparts with no reduction in damage or range. Unguided t2 missiles split into Javelin and Rage. Javelin unguided missiles have most of the flight characteristics of their guided counterparts, if not better; i.e. a Javelin Torpedo will fly as fast as a regular cruise missile, but for 5 seconds longer. They also have higher explosion velocity and lower explosion radius, making them that much more effective against smaller targets. Rage missiles, on the other hand, do alot of damage - 50% more damage to be exact. However, they are even slower than their t1 versions, less than half the explosion velocity and double the explosion radius, making them inefficient against small or even same-sized targets (rage heavy assault missiles tend to be more effective against battleships than cruisers, while rage torpedoes are usually only used on capital ships or battleships that have been lit up using several Target Painters, thereby artificially inflating the target's signature radius). Also, unlike their Tech 1 variants, Tech 2 missiles also confer disadvantages to your ship or missile launchers. This disadvantage is uniform; damage-type t2 missiles incur a penalty to capacitor recharge rates, while range/accuracy missiles give a penalty to velocity. The actual values of the disadvantages differ between missile classes (Rage Rockets give a 45% penalty to cap, while Rage Torpedoes give a 20% penalty to cap). Note that these penalties stack, meaning that 4x Cruise Missile Launcher II's fitted with Fury Cruise Missiles give a total of 107% penalty to capacitor recharge (20% penalty per launcher, ^ 4 or 1.2 * 1,2 * 1,2 * 1,2 ) , meaning that the capacitor recharge of the ship will be reduced to 0 (the extra 7% are discarded) as long as there are fury cruise missiles fitted into all four launchers.
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COMMENTS
Torpedoes are often favored because of their higher DPS, and the tendency of targets to evade missiles at longer range. Personally, I like cruise missiles better because the apply damage better with less tackle and are easier to fit, but most people seem to be ignorant of how missiles apply their damage. 2,645.
Cruise Missiles do make great long-range anti-support weapons, but Torpedoes make for excellent close range battleship killers. Obviously this is more for smaller-to-medium sized gangs (i.e. not 150km battleship fleets), but saying that Torps are only useful for PvE is just plain incorrect.
Torpedoes have five times the base damage of Light Missiles, but they have ten times the explosion radius and half the explosion velocity. So, you would expect Torpedoes to be very good against large, slow ships (due to their BD), but very poor against small, fast ships (due to their ER and EV).
The relationship between cruise missiles amd torpedos seems backwards. In general, the short range missile system has decent application and low range (HAMs, rockets). And in cases like rockets, less fitting than light missiles.
Cruise Missiles and Torpedoes. Cruise Missiles fit to battleships and--like Heavy to Light--have a greater damage output but are effective against bigger ships such as battleships and capitals. Cruise Missiles are guided whereas Torpedoes are not. This is a disadvantage of using Torpedoes, however their DPS is generally greater than Cruise ...
Missiles are self-propelled ammunition launched from missile launchers. Unlike turret weapons, missiles can track and follow their target. Rather than optimal and falloff range, missile range is determined by velocity and flight time, while missile damage is determined by the velocity and signature radius of the target and the explosion radius ...
Torps look like they hit harder but only if the target has a bigger sig radius to absorb the damage. Cruise look like less damage but they work better on smaller sigs and they can go further as well. If you know for certain you're only fighting big fat Battleships, then sure use Torps.
Cruise missiles have a much longer effective range that torpedos thanks to their speed; waiting 20+ seconds for a torpedo to reach its target can be a serious pain. Cruise missiles do less damage than Torpedo's, but have the advantage that they can do more damage to smaller targets.
Rockets, heavy assault missiles, and torpedoes are basically small torpedoes, medium torpedoes, and large torpedoes respectively. Pick the size ship you are comfortable with that's suitable for the job you want to do, pick your favorite missile ship in that class, and grab the appropriate weapon.
There are nine base missile skills in EVE; three guided missile skills (light, heavy and cruise missiles), four unguided (rockets, heavy assault missiles, torpedoes and citadel torpedoes), and two specialist skills (FoF missiles and defenders).