Starfish

I finally got entrenchment

from Sins Forums

Well as my subtitle suggets, I finally got entrenchment. I was playing around with the new tech last night trying to figure everything out. The ogrov seemed pretty decent, but I found the starfish pretty lackluster.

At 18 fleet supply, that''s roughly the equivalent of 3 illuminators.

According to this link - http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7xc_snd9Cc-6o2UwvPEWUg&gid=2 - illuminators have 16.6 DPS, so divided between the three banks ( I heard it's 50% up front, and 25% on each side) that's 8 dps frontal and 4 dps to two other possible targets for each illuminator. Combined, that's 24 DPS frontal and 12 to side targets.

According to the in game infocard, it has an 18 DPS. Now I know nothing about how they are divided, but I only saw it firing at two targets at a time, so that's 9 to one target and 9 to another.

Of course, I tried in game seeing  which group took a structure (extractor) down faster, and they seemed pretty close, but the illums seemed slightly faster. On the other hand, 3 illums are ALSO useful against a fleet, whereas a starfish sucks against anything but structures (at least, they drop like flies anyway).

The only advantage I can see gained from a starfish is range, but they didn't seem to be able to move and shoot, so that advantage seems neutralized against Orkulus.

Is there a good reason to use the Adjudicator?

strategy
7,925 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

They can hit five structures at a time plus do an excellent job clearing out minefields

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

The Starfish definitely is useful. But it is not the big fat Orkov torpedo cruiser. Think of it as a tornado in the midst of a city. It will damage everything it comes close to.

So how to use them? In case the enemy has built a defense cluster like TEC often do: Kill the surrounding ships with your fleet. That is imperatve! Then send in your Starfish. Take out the starbase with them or any defense turrets surrounding it first, then the other ones. Your ships will always stay out of range. So don't fear getting killed. If the starbnase is down, move in your starfish to take out the rest.

Which tactics to use against orkulus? Well, both structure assault cruisers are very weak against any attack. BUT: use them in numbers like 15-25 and any starbase will fall QUICKLY. Try to free up some fleet points for them or ask your eco-team mate to build some. That sounds like a lot of waste? Er, well, not at all! If you sent in 60-80 illuminators any starbase with 3+ armor and weapon upgrades will shred them into pieces. That would lead to a terrible lack of lrm-frigates which your opponent might use to destroy your fleet's remainder! Especially for orculus: Let one group attack from the front and another from behind if the orkulus has a frontal deflector shield upgrade.

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Also, if you tell the starfish to attack a target, it fires from as far away as possible, allowing only 1 or 2 banks to fire at once. Move it closer to a group of structures to get more banks firing and more damage be dealt to that defensive cluster. Starfish aren't the greatest assault weapon against starbases, but they'll do the trick, and they're great for clearing any cluster of structures.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Does anyone know if the damage dealt is 18 DPS to every target or 18 between all targets?

It would seem pretty useless to be dealing only 2 dps each to 7 turrets and hangers, for example.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

It is split between 5 banks at a rate of 3.6 dps per bank. Mind you that the infocard does not show much info on actual damage, such as what each weapon fires (ex. each bank could fire 18 damage points but takes five seconds to do it) plus you need to consider damage to each armor type (ex. starfish do more damage to structure armor than another type of armor)

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Seems they are weaker than I thought. They probably need to be used in groups of 5-15 to have any real effect. That many starfish is gonna cost.

I've been taking down starbases with bombers mainly. I take out supporting fleets then just hang back and bomb the planet while i wait. Though that was versus the AI, and the AI seems particularly inept at using starbases. I expect the starfish would need extensive fighter cover to take out SB defended by SC though.

Anyway, thanks Ryat

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

no i think the shots do 18dmg it only has 1 bank but that one bank can fire at 5 targets.

Thats what I heard from the beta. Need annatar here to be sure.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

top vasari,

 the entity from 1.02 info is 5 targets on front bank none on other banks with damage per bank of 55 and a burst count of 4 and a range of 12000 and a cooldown of 4 seconds can only target structures

harpo

 

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

To put it in other words: The starfish can only attack from the front. Even though it's shaped like it can shoot from anywhere, the weapon is only in the front. That weapon can attack up to 5 targets at the same time dealing full damage to each, but it means that those targets need to all be within the firing arc of the weapon, which is why sometimes you'll see it shoot fewer targets.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Isn't the firing arc almost 360 degrees? I thought it was more of a targets in range thing.

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

No, the firing arc is hardcoded for each emitter/firing point. I'm not sure how many degrees it is, but it's definitely not 360 and you can easily test it, just move it in the middle of a bunch of structures, and observe how it fires.