Apocalypse

Apocalypse: Weapons

• Nova Cannon
  ^{*Special Weapon (4 Uses)}
• [2] Heavy Macro Turrets
  ^{Efficient Accuracy – 270° Front – Range: 18,000
  Shots: 1 | Damage: 21 | Reload: 6s | Crit: 5.25%}
• [6] Lance Battery Weapons
  ^{Perfect Accuracy – 90° Sides* – Range: 9,000
  Shots: 2 | Damage: 15 | Reload: 12s | Crit: 7.5%Armor Piercing (-25%)
  *3 per Broadside}
• Overload Lances
  ^{(+9,000 extra range for lances w Lock On orders, +13,500 total)}

So the first thing to address and get out of the way, besides the fact that the Apocalypse carries the Nova Cannon, is that it is the only ship in the Imperial Navy to carry the Overload Lances special ability which adds 13,500 to the range of lances when Lock On orders are used as opposed to the normal 4,500 bonus to range.

Update (Patch 2): While previously the Overload Lances ability was garbage (only granted +4,500 extra), considering all it did was make the Apocalypse’s Lances match the same range that comes standard with some Lances found on a lot of other imperial ships, which still made them terrible since those other Lances could push further in range with Lock On, while the Apocalypse simply matched them with the stance on. Now with the extra 4,500 units added on top of that bonus, the Lances can reach out to 22,500 units thanks to the ability. This still isn’t super amazing, since if you like just below here at the Oberon’s pair of Lance Batteries, you’ll see their base range means they will match the Apocalypse’s for the same DPS/CPM per battery with Lock On orders active, but at least the Apocalypse no longer lags behind.

It is unfortunate however because it doesn’t seem to make sense to give the Apocalypse this special ability, even with its new extra bonus, when six bays of Super Heavy Lances would give it the same effect without the need of an extra ability to close the gap. Perhaps this does somehow affect the underlying cost of the ship, since the points costs are determined by the underlying modules that make up each vessel, assuming the points cost for the special ability doesn’t eat up whatever theoretical savings there might be in using the shorter range lance bays over the Battleship mountable longer-range variants.

Either way, as lance boating goes, you can do no better than the Apocalypse even considering the end result of the lance ability. Lance boating usually comes at the cost of a lot of raw DPS loss, however, having six full-sized bays to pack them in helps counter the typical loss. A deadly hunter of small fast ships.