which gun upgrade

[TheConqueror]

hi, i have some questions about gun upgrades of comms
1.the beam accelerator gun upgrade (the one that speeds up fire) how fast does it make it ? does it make it to exactly 2x or less/more (please tell me by details)
2.and are all the 3 beam accelerator upgrades same (have the same effect) ? (for cybran , sera, aeon)
3. the uef damage + gun upgrade and the beam accelerator , which one is more efficient for fighting t1 units or quick rush strategies?
4. if there were 2 comms with same hitpoint and regen rate and one had beam accelerator and other had the damage+ on a 1on1 battle , who would win (excluding explosion damage) ?
thanks
-TC

[Koecher]

Use the DB and find out yourself
http://www.faforever.com/faf/unitsDB/un ... 01,XSL0001

[Kamicase]

To answer your questions:

1. As far as I know it Beam Accelerator doubles rate of fire across all Factions (except for UEF of course), for a more precise answer check the DB.
2. See 1.
3. Higher rate of fire always beats higher damage due to less overkill. But the difference is almost always neglectable.
4. +Damage doubles Damage and +Speed doubles rate of fire. Even if one of the Commanders puts down some extra damage, remember that the ACU death nuke does 2500 damage (2000 inner ring + 500 outer ring) so if you're duking it out on equal health you're pretty much guaranteed a draw.

[Mycen]

Also remember that not every ACU has equal starting HP. So assuming your scenario of ignoring death nuke damage, a UEF ACU would beat a Seraphim ACU would beat an Aeon ACU would beat a Cybran ACU.

Keep in mind that the death nuke radius is the same as the upgraded gun radius, however, so since the death nuke damage is automatic, instantaneous, and unblockable, even the gun upgrade's extra range will not prevent the prevailing ACU from being destroyed.

Also remember that the overcharge adds quite a bit of extra damage when used repeatedly. Against another ACU it will add 150 DPS, so a player who doesn't have the gun upgrade but uses their overcharge cannon as often as possible will actually have more damage output than a player with the gun upgrade who does not. If both players have gun upgrades and one uses their overcharge effectively, they can easily overwhelm an opposing ACU to the point where they will survive the death nuke and get a win rather than a draw.

[Golol]

To answer your questions:


3. Higher rate of fire always beats higher damage due to less overkill. But the difference is almost always neglectable.

well not always.
if you have range + gun upgrade for example on aeon you might shoot 3 times at an enemy that only needs 2 shots (you shoot 3rd time before 2nd shot hit). in such a case a uef upgrade would have been better

[Plasma_Wolf]

The thing with that 3rd shot fired before the 2nd hits is that it only happens when the enemy unit is beyond the extended range of the Cybran/Seraphim/UEF gun upgraded ACU. An enemy ACU would not even have fired at all and so the unit will still be completely alive. While the Aeon ACU range extension will have killed it with overkill. The obvious advantage for the Aeon (being able to fire) is much bigger than the disadvantage of the overkill.

Whenever the unit is within the range of the C/S/U gun upgrade, this 3rd shot overkill barely occurs, if at all.

[Golol]

i know, i just said it to show that higher rate of fire does not always mean less overkill.

[Hawkei]

The firing rate overkill occurs more often then you think. For instance, a Seraphim, Cybran or Aeon ACU will often waste an extra shot when "blaping" units, and the UEF ACU gun does massive overkill against LAB spam. Added the increased manouverability and the ability to run circles around and bump the commander. Throwing LAB's in is a good way to neutralise an ACU with the gun.

UEF gun = 2x damage, 1x RoF = 2x DPS
Sera gun = 1x damage, 2x RoF, increased range = 2x DPS
Sera gun (left arm) = AoE, massive damage
Aeon gun (right arm) = 1x damage, 2x RoF = 2x DPS
Aeon gun (left arm) = very high increased range
Cybran gun (left arm) = 1x damage, 2x RoF = 2x DPS

As for which gun to use and when. The UEF and Cybran only have one gun upgrade to choose, so that simplifies things. The UEF may consider alternatively getting the missile instead, and the Cybran's gun is in conflict with the engineering suite. So, the Cybran may prefer to get engineering instead. As for the Seraphim, they only have 1 gun of worth in the early game. However this conflicts with the restoration upgrade which is sometimes prefered.

Aeon have the most flexible ACU and the one which I have most experience with. I recommend getting the fire rate gun generally, but I will get the range gun instead when there are units on the field which can outrange my ACU. Such as Aurora or T2 bots. Range gun combined with OC cannon is usually all that is required in this siduation. Combining range gun, OC cannon and extended sensors can effectively deal with Monkeylords. But rate gun with engineering suite is what I generally get 90% of the time. Since the patch, I have actually found the superior combo for dealing with T2 bots, like Illshova, is to get the Chrono dampener and range gun.