I see it in-game a lot, and the blue prints are very expensive in trade indicating the market considers it to be quite valuable, and yet there seems to be very little written about it anywhere in either guides or informative discussions.
Are the secrets and tips of the singularity some of the best kept secrets around here? Or is it actually good for nothing more than the most obvious use cases: spectating in battles and sneaking around in open space?
HI!
Singularity is a powerfull tackler thanks to his special module, it allows to stay invisible as long as he want.
So, he can choose his targets and attack at the best moment =)
Sogh,
CEO of the ARKFR corporation.
Ah, merci Sogh! I had not fully considered that.
However, thinking about it some more, I would hope there would be some other advantages over other tacklers, maybe build specific opportunities, even if they are small. Other tacklers also have invisibility, for a limited period of time. So how long in most cases does it take to see a potential opportunity to strike, activate invisibility, and get into position? If the Lion MKII can do the job in most cases, then the singularity has the advantage only in rare situations. The rest of the time the Lion MKII, although less durable, might be more attractive for the tackler module range bonus.
Another consideration is how long does it take to complete the attack cycle in battle? The singularity’s long descent spec mod has a cool down of 25s, vs the 35s for the usual ODG ‘Chameleon’ special module. The Singularity could attack and recloack more frequently during a battle than standard tacklers. But for that line of reasoning, there is also Jaguar! It’s Armada’s ODG ‘Chameleon’ special module has a cool down of only 15 seconds. The catch is the Jaguar has to be in position within 7 seconds of activating invisibility. Not a lot of time, but it’s fast, and the modifier slots are configurable at time of manufacture so it can be built very fast by allocating more slots to engine. Potentially, Jaguar might be even better in battles than the singularity. Singularity is more durable than Jaguar, but maybe the Jaguar can make up for some of that with speed. And, the Jaguar can also have have a 50% tackler module range bonus is desired, like the Lion MKII.
As for unique equipment, the drone booster CPU module sounds a bit lame. The trap mine active module doesn’t sound that great. The accelerator gun doesn’t sounds ok, but not exceptional.
I keep talking myself out of Singularity. What am I missing?
5 hours ago, teneighty9 said:
I keep talking myself out of Singularity. What am I missing?
Accelerator gun correctly setup is a near hitscan railgun.Trap mine and drone booster are newbie traps as trap mine makes targets harder to kill and drone booster shows where you are even when cloaked due to it’s visual effect. The strength of Singularity lays both in it’s special module Long Descent, The Accelerator gun and the general perspective of players using the ship. An extremely large amount of players who use this ship abuse the infinitely chaining Long Descent as their primary play meaning the public view of the ship is of a coward - so when you cloak via Long Descent more often than not your attacker/target will disengage quickly under the belief you have run off to heal.
In more situations than not if you decloak near your original position upon seeing your opponent disengage and checking to see where other enemies are you can very easily secure the kill with Accelerator gun.
Don’t get me wrong - an aggressive Rockwell can do the same kind of plays but the public view of Singularity is so poor that it is often not expected to see someone playing aggressively with the ship or performing well with it.
Psycological strategy, very insightful!
As for the accelerator gun, better than I had anticpated perhaps. By “hitscan”, which I understand to mean instantaneous projectile, you must be referring to the projectile speed, or potential at least. You have to get 5 critical hits within 15 seconds to reach the maximum projectile speed: 4400m/s * (100 + 150%) = 11,000m/s. That is faster than I expected, disintegrator projectile speed territory. I suppose it would be foolish to use the supernova deflector, reducing the projectile speed 30%? Although, even at -30% it would still be 7700m/s at it’s maximum projectile speed, still faster than an R17 assult railgun. You would definitely want to increase your critical chance as much as possible to help get that projectile speed going.
Seems like a bit of a guide taking shape. Does this about wrap it up? Anything else to be said?
It’s long descent is very unique obviously, but I imagined it differently. In reality it’s kind of boring. I regret building it now instead of something more useful and more fun.
I may have another Singularity specific strategy worth mentioning.
Rather than extending invisibility indefinitely, which is a novelty but not very practical, wait patiently for the special module to cool down, then attack. The module is ready to reactivate at any moment for escaping. In order to sneak attack, other tacklers have to sacrifice reliable escape. The standard ODG Chamelon has a minimum 17s of downtime, the Jaguar’s unique module has a minimum of 8s. You may need to hide sooner than that.
Another invaluable perk is damage (except for collisions) will not pull the Singularity out of invisibility. Stray projectiles, sweeping beam cannons, splash damage, area of effect weapons… they can still damage it, but it remains cloaked. When surrounded with attacks coming from every angle, the chance of being hit by fluke while trying to escape is increased. Losing invisibility here is certain death.
I was testing out the singularity in PvP and after only 1 or 2 rounds I landed in a domination battle. There I began testing this strategy. Equipped with the unique accelerator gun but all equipment mark 1, nothing upgraded, synergy only at level 3, and inexperienced as a pilot: 6 kills and 6 assists. Made some fatal mistakes but still finished about average. I could pass behind enemy lines and pick any convenient target, even in the middle of the group, knowing I could reactivate invisibility as soon as the target’s allies began reacting. In one case, I cloaked and began my escape when about a full second after going invisible I was struck by a stray missle from a tempest launcher. I was pretty much surrounded at the time. Any other tackler would have been foiled, focused, and fragged immediately. No big deal in a singularity provided there is just enough hull integrity left.
This proved to be effective but is a slow process compared to a powerful frontal attack ship, unlikely to rack up the most kills. Longer cycle than Jaguar too.
Sounds overpowered, but Singularity can be countered by a recon’s micro-locator like any other tackler.