Review of the January Raid Preview

Mauser will make your life easier

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

As many of you have already learned the preview was a PITA and most of our older weapons were not very effective. I have put my video up of the progression of me attempting to get the Centurions to work in the level 57 target (this would be T4 I think) and it was a mess with PAC. You can find the video at the end of this article.

Centurion –

What I found was that to do the T4 decently you need a bit more Arbalest. I know that I recommended a build that was working on the level 97 mining bases. It the assumption that the targets would be similar to those, not have enough health on the turrets to withstand multiple blasts from the secondary weapon. I know it sucks and that there is not much time left to get some refitting in if all you have is the Centurion. That knowledge had me taking a night to sit and think and collect thoughts so that I did not get all ranty here. The goal was to get my readers a build that could do at least T4 in the raid, and unless the targets change a bit with the lowering of health in T4, you will have a hard time with the PAC, Earthshaker, and D110.

We have roughly 4 days, if you get your tokens from the Forsaken mission, I will refit at least 4 arbalests to your Centurion at a minimum. If you were able to get the Mauser, I would build the build that did the best for me in the preview.

The Best Centurion for the Raid

Centurion for lower tech levels

Centurion for the low tech level I know might still not cover all players. If you do not have the Nuclear Accelerator then use Harden Barrels 3. You can get Reflective Coating 3 in the Sea of Flames Prize pack 1. You can get D2-R in the Ashes to Ashes Prize pack 1. Both are available to level 50 players.

You will need a siege battery, if you only have 2 or lower then stick to Tier 3 targets. 

Cannoneer –

What can I say about this? It did T4 with the Mauser, could do T5 target with the Mauser. After the Centurion failing with the older tech, I did not even bother testing them on this hull. I did not get the video with the Millenium, but I did manage to auto a 75 for almost the whole fleet health due to connection issues.

The tactics that I ended up using that worked best was to go counter-clockwise the whole way around. This strategy allowed the base to fully rise from the depths. That also helped me to avoid the danger of a platform pushing me into the shorter range turrets. The video I got did not show this as I found this path just as my connection became unstable and I lost connection. I think this path will allow me to do the target for 0 Damage with the Millenium cannon.

My combat speed was about 50 the whole time and that allowed me to dodge the big Launcher in the middle and move out of the way when platforms were coming up. I think you could get by with the mid-40s though and might try that at the start of the Raid.

The build presented is the one I used in the preview. I think I have an idea for a better one, but I want to test it before I share it. 

Best theory idea for the Cannoneer

Mauser build for the Cannoneer

IronClad

In the video, you will see that I could auto the T4 targets with the Mauser. It took a little more damage than my Centurions with a similar setup. But that could have been the build. I would think to increase ballistic resistance and use the Reflective Coating 3 for my specials. That would increase your resistance a bit more and give you less weight.

IronClad build

Summary

Overall I liked the idea behind the targets. I was very discouraged by the fact that the older tech was not so useful. The health of the targets seemed over the top and I am hopeful they tune that down when the raid launches next week. It will be a nasty grind for those without the Mauser, and even with that weapon you will be limited to T4 targets for your Centurion and Ironclad to keep repair time down. That is not to say that you cannot do T5, but just know that the health and damage in those targets is much higher and you should reserve that for the cannoneer builds with the Mauser or Millenium cannons.

The good thing is that the splash was not so noticeable so you could go with just the cannon system 4 and not worry about boosting splash much higher on the Ironclad.

Video

Vacation about over and time to get back into the game

What would you like seen tested?
By Specialist_AKA_Specs

My vacation this last 10 days has been pretty relaxing, but it is time to get around to playing Battle Pirates again. With that in mind, I am hoping we get a preview server this week, and I can test some builds for the coming raid. I think I would have time to test four builds. So, First build will be my current Centurion build.

The second build I will be testing is my Cannoneer build. It will not be a full build but a few Drac Arbalest, a PAC and then 2x armor. The issue I have with this build is that it is already at max weight. Would you like to see one with an engine and one with the Drum Loader from the FM?

That leaves at least two builds that I can test in the preview if we happen to get lucky this week. What would like to see? Please share the build ideas below and I will at the minimum share them in an article and hopefully video of them after the Preview is over (If I am allowed).
I will try to build as many different ideas as we can come up with this week.

Hope everyone had a great start to the New Year and had a wonderful holiday week.

Does the Harlock Centurion confirm the Rumors?

The perfect flagship for the best Hull at this time for Siege targets

By Specialist_AKA_Specs

My readers will remember Monday I made a prediction (read here) that the Centurion fleet will be the best hull for the raid in January. At least where my non-coiner friends are concerned, and the build I gave them will make it easy to get it ready for that raid and have it ranked for it to provide them with a shot at whatever the new siege hull happens to be. The reason for that article was quite simple, in August we got the Hellwraith for 30 million raid points. I know that many got that hull and were able to get it built for September. I am not sure the exact cost of the Siege hull, but all signs are pointing to the Siege raid in January, and if they do offer the best hull January raid it is going to cost at least 30 million points. We have not seen new hulls released at a lower price from other newer hulls, so it is safe to assume that it will be at least 30 million and 15 to 20 million for the weapon and special. So for those that cannot get almost 50 million in a raid the Centurion is the way to go.

With that rehashed here is the good, bad, and ugly on the Harlock Centurion.

Good

It is a great flagship to lead four Centurions. It should elevate the fleet I had proposed from Tier 4 to Tier 5 with rank and retro lab levels achieved. I am telling my alliance that is building new Centurions to create blanks until we know for certain on if we are getting the weapon and special for the next raid cycle in December. So, with that in mind if you happen to win this hull through the farming the 97 mining bases you will want to build it as a blank as well.

It boosts resistance, reload, turn speed, combat speed and most importantly Splash reduction. There is a reason for that ability being important, and that is that it reduces damage significantly. A similarly built Punisher fleet takes 4+ hours of damage, while the Centurions (without the flag) takes just over 1 hour 40 minutes in a level 97 mining base

The hull itself gets nice boosts to allow it to enter combat and not necessarily be a sit in the corner hull. You could build it with a single countermeasure and just auto targets, but honestly, this is an excellent compliment to the Centurion hull.

Honorable mention for good is the fact you can get 120K base parts for a single mining base, that is an excellent

Bad

You need 50 of them, while not as bad as the other limited and not as high as the Gamma. It is a lot of farming. The Mining bases will not be affected by threat level, meaning you need to hit 50 of them. It also means that if you do not have centurions already, you are going to take damage that you should not make it painful to obtain. The Punisher fleet I have taken just under 5 hours of damage. That is 250 hours of repairs or 500 coins. The Centurion fleet took 1 hour 44 minutes of repair or 3 coins (as I would not coin that 14 minutes) or 150 coins.

The another bad thing is that it is tied to a chore that many do not like and feel it is a waste of time. While it was not painful for me, I know for some of my friends that do not have the Centurion fleet built, yet thy will struggle.

Ugly

We can coin it after getting one shard. Here is the ugly part, though. It is about $100 to coin it after that one. That is a lot of coin at this time of year for those that might be on a fence to coin. Each shard lowers the coin cost by 48 though, so you could farm for the next few weeks and then maybe get it down to $10 if you wanted to. For the majority, though, and those that are my students and non-coiners at this time, this is going to be very off-putting to them. While I can say it is the ugly side of this hull, it does not diminish my opinion that the value of the hull is worth waiting for and farming it.

My Thoughts

I love the idea behind the hull. I see the great value of it when paired with my current Centurion fleet. So much so that I have paused the build on my 5th and started my malice. I will get the flagship and then build it in preparations for January raid. I do feel confident that if the new siege hull offered is not too expensive point wise I will get that, but just in case I am going to get my Centurion fleet ready to go for January, and that will include the Harlock Centurion fleet. Even with the ugly part, I can ignore that and just farm the 50 shards.

The advice still stands from Monday. If building new Centurions then build them as blanks and wait to see what December raid brings us. Worse case you are out three weeks of build time and you are lucky to get the new hull, weapon and special. Best case, we find out that we cannot get the new siege hull, but do get the weapon and special that is an upgrade from current weapons and we can begin our refits right away.

A proper Pirate Prepares for the road ahead

What can we expect for the new format?

By Specialist_AKA_SPecs

The January Raid format is rumored to be Siege style. This raid format should mimic our Draconian Mining bases. That means that free players should start to think about what they have to take the mining bases. The obvious choice is the Centurion hull. It has all the right resistances, excellent specials, armor slots, and weapon slots. Punisher would be a close second, and with any luck, these two will be able to do at least the Tier 5 targets to get us whatever the new hull and weapon will be for the Siege targets going forward.

  

What is needed?

Priority is no more than 15 days per ship; you want two of these a month. So balance the build with that in mind. Also if you are making fresh, make the new hulls with a thud 1 and engine so that you can get them out for VXP weekend. Then you will refit them after they are ranked. The build I shared you can see is below ten days for me. I have an officer and R&D level 28 (think, not a priority for me at this time).

Weapons and Armor

I would add in 1 Particle Cannon, for the simple fact that you can time that secondary blast and remove many buildings in a single blast. The next would be Arbalest; the reason is that it can punch through walls very quickly and has good building damage. If you do not have these weapons, then Crossbow is a good alternative to get you started. And that is received in the first few tiers of the Forsaken Mission.

Armor would depend on your taste. I would with D3-R x 2 or D3-C x 3. You could also go with no armor to see how the targets are and how the fleet handles. You want to try to get five in a fleet, so take your total dock weight and divide it by 5 to get an idea of what you can have per ship. The ballistic armor can be found by hitting cargos, do believe level 31 salvages drop them. Level 40 will drop D4 versions (I think unless they changed it). Radiation armor was in the Forsaken Mission, and you can get them in the Ashes to Ashes Campaign.

Specials and Resistance

In the current siege targets, we need ballistic and radiation resistance. You will want to get these as high as possible, so this means CL-3, that is the best for this type of target. You can get the Reflective coating from Ashes to Ashes that gives Radiation resistance and evade. If you go that route, you will want to go with all ballistic resistance armor more than likely to get your resistance up. And maybe auto loader as you cover your evade with that special.

You will want to go with Nuclear Accelerator if you have it, or Harden barrels 3. These specials increase your weapon range to the max level. Honorable mention would be cannon system, while not same range you add reload as the extra benefit.

Siege Battery 3 is the best choice for this slot that gives you almost 50% resistance (R15) to the turrets which will be on the targets and adds to your resistance from the special and armor. If the turret does 20K damage (after kixeye math kicks in) this special will lower that to 10K automatically, and your resistance could reduce that another 8000, granting damage of 2K going to the ship before your deflection.

I chose Speed System 4, but five can be used as the best case here. You just want the best engine you can get, and this one gives turn speed as well as a good combat speed.

Do Not Neglect Retrofit Lab

With all this said you would want to start on the retrofit lab to get these items all to R15 that you can. I would start with my defensive stuff first. Armors, then the resistance special, and then evade specials. From there get your weapons up to R15 and then the other specials after those three things are done.

Flagship 

Now you might have Omega Behemoth, and that can be used to give your fleet a boost of 50% reload. If you have a Vassago Punisher, your punisher fleet might be the better choice due to the amount of deflection it has and the fact many of you probably already have this hull. The Vassago gives 50% reload and 40% Radiation resistance and 30% Ballistic resistance putting the Punisher on par with the Centurion/Omega. It also has the right resistances to tackle Siege targets on its own.

Summary

If you build this fleet now, you can do the current siege targets easily and get base parts. For the raid, worse case this build will only do T4, but it should allow you to get some points in the raid on your own while you wait for your alliance to finish up and offer aid. Best case this build out of the box will handle T5, and you can sit back and relax as you get all your items on your own. The raid format will change in January 2017, so you will want to start this as soon as you finish your Forsaken Mission fleet.