Does the disruptor bomb have a visual effect? I know the warhead it fires it very small and doesn’t have a streak or a flare, so I can’t tell if the weapon is firing and hitting the opponent or not. Should I see their shields go down similar to when I take out the shield or do they just change color or something…?
There aren’t any additional effects or anything, you only see the bomb hitting the shield and, immediatly, the shield goes down the same way as if it was taken down (I mean, the same visual effect).
Okay, thanks.
Somehow my disruptors just aren’t getting through then. I’ll have to figure something out.
It’s not that they are not working, they are just really slow and weak. The only use they ever had was to bypass ISSB back in 1.44.
Does the stability have to go down all the way for the shield to go down, or does one hit from the disruption bomb take down the shields?
Has to go all the way down, then it goes down for like 2 seconds, and it goes back up to full stability.
It’s so bad it has trouble taking down frigate shields… Back when ISSB was overpower and people waste half their credits on them, you will think a module that bypass half of someone’s credit investment will be effective. But it just wasn’t, it still only wins by a thin margin when combined with challenger advantage.
I tried them once, and only once…the only other weapon I can think of that has less use is the Nomad dogfight laser…
I use disruptor bombs and emp missles on almost ALL my frigates. I mean there cool weapons and if you managed to drop a shield you can do a ton of damage to an unarmored ship before its shield comes back up. And sometimes I have dystroyed the shield genarator so the shields do not come back up. You do not belive me in how useful they are, try “The Orion Ambush” And watch for the triangle of fraigates that appair in the bottom left conner. they ALL have emp and disruptors on them, as with a smaller group of three top left.
I know as i seen the white bar drop fast while i sat there emp’ed to death. I use that map for testing of the Caldair race, I just wish there was no memory leak . . . .
Rather than putting down opinions, I guess I will just put down the mechanics of how disruptor bomb works. Good or bad? You decide.
The Disruptor
650 range, 1.3 tracking, 0.41 speed, 1.8 cooldown, 75 damage
It does full 41.67 DPS to shield stability at max range (650).
The Shield
Starting Shield Stability = Starting Shield Strength.
Shield Stability Recharge Rate = Shield Recharge Rate
Shield goes down when shield stability reaches 0
During the time when shield is down, shield stability cannot receive damage.
Shield goes back up when shield stability reaches full.
So what are it’s flaws?
Disruptor is not good with any of the command, as we don’t have a “fire at shielded units only” command. It will inevitably waste a lot of it’s shot on ships with it’s shield deactivated, therefore lowering it’s DPS.
Shield stability and shield strength runs on 2 separate bars. Since only 1 bar needs to be knock down, it does not mix well with Ion Cannons (or any other other shield removers like CL) as one of them will be wasting shots while firing at the same shield.
It’s a missile without decoy. It’s useless in small numbers because it will get scrambled. It’s useless in large number because it can’t damage hull.
It is useless versus Tribes. Even for the other race, hull tends to absorb a significantly larger portion of damage than “shield damage taken”.
It has an outrageous cost of 82 credits, 44 weight, 8 power, and 12 crew.
After going through this much hassles, the shield disable is only temporary.
Ion cannon does not have any of these problems, cost significantly less, and deals 25.86 DPS to both shield and hull.
Conclusion: Except during 1.44 vs ISSB, Ion Cannon > Disruptor Bomb by far
That’s another thing…what bothers me is that the Bombs mess with the stability…which recharges just like the shield normally does…the stability is the same strength as the shield…so…why waste slots and credits on a weapon that ONLY damages shield stability, not anything else, when you can equip weapons that damage the shield itself, which will drop it PERMANENTLY, and then STILL be useful afterwards?
Somewhat like Camouflage Shields, Quantum Blasters, Carrier Support Bays (the basic version) and the Empire’s “Hasta” frigate, it’s an answer in search of a problem.
“Why waste your slots and credits on it?” I see no tactically valid reason. Go buy something that does the job better. Case closed. 
I actually use Quantum blasters instead of Cruiser lasers.
Makes things more of a challenge.
That is indeed a challenge and I compliment you for playing the game with a bit of a handicap. For an even greater handicap, try employing mass quantities of disruptor bombs regularly. I think I’d prefer to under-arm my cruisers with those quantum blasters instead!
I just hate relying on Cruiser Laser spam to fight my battles for me.
The thing is that I’m a Laser guy…I generally hate missiles unless they’re the anti fighter ones for Frigates. But most beam weapons suck against shields. And if you don’t want to use missiles to break shields, your choices are Cruiser Lasers or Quantum Blasters.