Rocket Application

Editor’s note: Amid all the talk of WWB and a metagame gone into overdrive, it’s good to get back to basics with a real pro. Suitonia is here deliver a little nugget of wisdom on Rage Rockets. – Niden

A lot of people ask me why I only carry Rage Rockets in nullsec, and seem to think that they apply awfully and are unusable against frigates. So I want to show that Rage Rockets apply perfectly to almost every frigate in the game, providing that they are not using an afterburner, and to go a bit deeper into the missile mechanics for new players. I will ignore a lot of complicated stuff in the damage formula we don’t have to worry about, it looks complicated but it’s actually pretty simple for rockets.

The missile damage formula is: 

damage created = base damage * min[1, S/E, (S/E*Ve/Vt)^(ln(drf)/ln(5.5)]

I’d recommend checking out Mr Hyde’s videos on the subject if you’re interested.

1) Beginner

2) More Advanced

Let’s take a look at the application stats of the type of Rockets you’ll probably be using.

The explosion ratio is the explosion velocity divided by the explosion radius of the missile. This will be multiplied with the target ship’s signature radius to determine what speed they must be below to take full damage from our rockets. This is what Mr Hyde refers to as the MTV in his videos. This is the first check in the missile damage formula, and because both Caldari Navy (15m) and Rage (25.5m) have a smaller explosion radius naturally than all frigates in the game (30m lowest frigate signature) [outside of stuff like links/HG Halos] we do not need to concern ourselves with any other part of the missile damage formula.

Rage Rockets deal 20% more DPS than Caldari Navy so they are very important to use.

To give you a few examples of the application of Rage: An Incursus has a base signature radius of 42m, and a base speed of 425 m/s, we will assume the pilot has max skills and that no modules are affecting these stats.

The MTV for the Incursus is 42 (the signature radius), multiplied by 7.607843137 (the explosion ratio), gives us a value of 319.5 m/s. This means that the Incursus will take full damage from Rage Rockets providing that it is going slower than 319.5m/s. For Caldari Navy, this value would be 42 x 15 = 630 m/s. In other words, Caldari Navy rockets would fully apply even without a web against an Incursus (providing it doesn’t have an afterburner and that it’s scrammed), and Rage will apply fully if webbed; the Incursus webbed speed is 425 x 0.45 (1 – 0.55 the web strength) = 191.25m/s, meaning it will be well below the threshold that it needs to mitigate any damage.

But what about something faster, like the fastest and smallest T1 Frigate in the game – the Slasher! It has a base speed of 538, and a sig of only 30 m. Again, providing no other modules are affecting our scenario, the MTV of the Slasher is 30 x 7.607843137, giving us a value of 228 m/s. The Slasher’s base speed is 538m/s, which when webbed by our 55% Fleeting web, drops down to 242.1 m/s (because 538 x 0.45 = 242.1). So WOAH there cowboy, the Slasher is FASTER than our MTV and Rage doesn’t apply fully. So how much does it apply? Well that’s easy, 228/242.1 = 0.94, or 94% application, which is more than plenty for dealing with what is normally a disposable T1 tackle frigate that often will have a shield extender or shield rigs pushing it up to maximum Rage DPS (on account of a larger signature).

All other T1 frigates in the game will take full damage from small Rage missiles (assuming base stats and no speed modifiers, afterburners, or sig reduction – which is rare and usually only seen on linked ships, and you should avoid linked ships like the plague obviously).

Here is a list of all Tech I frigates if you’re interested: