Projectile ammunition
Ammunition Types
| Name | Range Mod. | Tracking Mod. | Damage Types | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EMP | -50% | 0% | EM (75%)/exp (16%)/kin | High |
| Fusion | -50% | 0% | EXP (83%)/kin | High |
| Phased Plasma | -50% | 0% | THERM (83%)/kin | High |
| Titanium Sabot | 0% | 20% | KIN (75%)/exp | Moderate |
| Depleted Uranium | 0% | 20% | exp (38%)/therm (38%)/kin | Moderate |
| Proton | 60% | 5% | em (60%)/kin | Low |
| Nuclear | 60% | 5% | EXP (80%)/kin | Low |
| Carbonized Lead | 60% | 5% | KIN (80%)/exp | Low |
After the Dominion expansion, projectile ammo is divided into three tiers -- three short-ranged, high-damage types, two medium range, medium damage, high-tracking types, and three long range, low damage types. Within each tier the only differences are in the damage type, so EMP, phased plasma and fusion all do identical amounts of raw (before enemy resists are applied) damage.
Faction versions of these ammunition types are available, and offer a nice increase in damage for a price. If you can afford it it's good to carry and use one or two loads of faction ammo in PvP; for PvE faction ammo is usually not cost-effective.
Ammo and Autocannons
- Your optimal range doesn't exist (or might as well not exist)
ACs have terrible optimal ranges and long falloff (read more about optimal and falloff here). The only reasons why you should be taking autocannons into their optimal range is when fighting missile ships or if you've landed on top of a sniping battleship. All other times, fight in your falloff.
- If your ship has a falloff bonus, it's designed to fit autocannons
Because optimal range bonuses on autocannons are as useful as explosive damage bonuses for lasers.
- T1 ammo range bonuses are irrelevant!
All T1 projectile ammo range modifiers apply to your optimal range, not falloff. As ACs have tiny optimal ranges and huge falloff, you can always load EMP, phased plasma or fusion -- your range would barely increase if you load one of the other ammo types.
(There are some very minor exceptions to this rule. For example if you're trying to hit a close-orbiting Jaguar with medium ACs Titanium Sabot not only gives you a tracking bonus, but also hits the Jaguar's weakest resist, kinetic.)
- Don't ignore the low and middle-tier autocannons
125mm, 150mm, Dual 180mm, 220mm, Dual 425mm and Dual 650mm autocannons have stupidly low fitting requirements and allow you to either fit massive plates, loads of nos, twin reps, MWDs and cap boosters without gimping your setup. Using the next tier above means 4-5% more damage, a slightly reduced ammo consumption, and more falloff.
- Fit top-tier autocannons for PvE
They use a lot less ammo, which is very important when shooting rats with autocannons as they have the highest rate of fire of all turrets
T2 AC Ammo
There are two types of T2 AC ammo, Barrage and Hail. Barrage is ridiculously useful, and Hail is pretty useless. Note that only T2 autocannons can load T2 ammunition.
Barrage
Barrage comes with a 50% boost to falloff and a 25% penalty to tracking. It does a mixture of explosive and kinetic damage, a little more explosive than kinetic. This is the quintessential kiting/skirmishing ammo type, which lets you fit autocannons and fight at the edge of warp disruptor range.
The only things it's a bit useless against are I-field shield tanks and T2 Amarr ships, who have very high explosive resists and are weaker to EM or thermal damage.
Hail
Hail does a lot of damage, on paper. Unfortunately it also cuts your tracking speed by 50%, cuts your falloff by 50% and slows down your capacitor recharge rate. (It also cuts your optimal by 50%, but you didn't want that optimal anyway, right?)
When fighting large, stationary targets, Hail may actually be useful. Generally, however, Hail's penalties mean that other ammunition will actually do more real, applied damage even if Hail offers the best on-paper damage.
Ammo selection
So, what ammo should you actually pack? You don't need to carry a load of every type.
PvP: T1 ACs
- Phased Plasma for general use (thermal is a decent all-round damage type)
- Fusion to hit armour tanks
- EMP to hit shield tanks
PvP: T2 ACs
- Barrage for general use, unless you plan to fight at close range
- Fusion to hit armour tanks
- EMP to hit shield tanks
- Phased Plasma to hit T2 Amarr ships or for general use at close range
PvE
The rule of thumb for PvE is to hit the weakest resists of the rat type you're fighting, as detailed here.
However, remember the tiering by damage. Some assume that since, for example, Guristas' lowest resist is to kinetic damage, titanium sabot is the best ammo to kill them. Actually, the higher damage of phased plasma makes up for the slightly worse resists.
| Rats | Best | Second-Best |
|---|---|---|
| Angel Cartel | Fusion | Titanium Sabot |
| Blood Raiders | EMP | Phased Plasma |
| Guristas | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Serpentis | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Sansha | EMP | Phased Plasma |
| Mercenaries | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Mordu's Legion | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Rogue Drones | EMP | Phased Plasma |
| Amarr Empire | EMP | Phased Plasma |
| Caldari State | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Gallente Federation | Phased Plasma | Titanium Sabot |
| Minmatar Republic | Fusion | Titanium Sabot |
