Ned_Reddavis
Honorable Pirate
This guide is only going to discuss the damage output of various ship broadsides and not which ships are ideal in what scenarios or how to use ships. For that kind of information you can check out Charles Warmonk's Guide. Before I start I just want to thank my guildmates Nightwatcher and Maximus Creed for letting me borrow their ships for testing and Eric Sailcutter here on the forums for discussing this topic with me.
Note: For higher damage per second, invest in Taskmaster as that reduces the cooldown use for broadsides as does the leadership skill acquired from the Black Pearl Quest.
Basically, to get an assessment of how much damage your ship will do, and therefore the highest damaging ships, we want to know the type of broadside that will boast the most average per-shot damage. Since upgraded ships will have a chance at shooting a round shot or the special upgraded shot, we have to form a weighted average between those shots and then multiply that by the amount of shots to be fired by the ship. Now, one can easily research the chances at a special shot for each kind of ship, but we also need to know the baseline damage of each shot. Well I went and did that on a Notoriety level 50 pirate with only 1 skill rank in broadsides and the shot of choice:
From here we just simply multiply up our shot damage if we have extra ranks in broadsides, barrage, or cannonballs, and also multiply by the weighted chance at the shot being fired. As an easy example, let's take the calculation for a maxed skull and bones broadside with rank 5 broadsides, barrage, fury, and round shot at notoriety level 50: Weighted Average Per Shot Damage=1.2*1.25*2(324*0.5+180*0.5). Outside the parentheses are the factors that change the damage of shots, and I can pull out the 2 since both shots are at rank 5. Inside the parentheses is the fury shot base damage times the chance at it being fired (50%) added with the round shot base damage times its chance at being fired (also 50% yay math). Boom there's your average damage, now multiply that by your broadside cannon count and that's your average total broadside damage in this case. OK, now I'll give the big chart with per cannon shot broadside damage on all the variants with various rams at the maximum ranks and notoriety for the highest damage! (Copperhead data is pre patch 1.21.2)
EDIT 1: Patch 2019-08-01: tlopo-rc-v1.21.2 changed the mechanics of copperhead ships from a raw chance to a raw chance that only allows a maximum of 1 copperhead shot. This decreases the per broadside damage significantly. To find the chance at an explosive being produced we can find the chance that one is not produced. This is simply the chance per shot (.85) multiplied by itself however many times a shot is fired, (.85)^n where n is the number of broadside cannons. Since there can be only 1 explosive shot, ships that shoot less broadside shots will have a worse chance at producing that explosive round. War sloops have a 68% chance to have an explosive shot, war frigates have an 80% chance and the rest have an 86% chance. The less broadside shots you have, however the higher your average shot damage will be, but the lower your total broadside damage is as well due to fewer explosives. It seems that 12 shot broads achieve around stormchaser in terms of overall broadside damage. It appears that now it is ideal to use STEEL ram above the rest and Priming is coming out on top of Iron Priming.
EDIT 2: Path 2019-09-07: tlopo-rc-v1.21.8 adjusted the rates at which the copperhead ships produce explosives. They are now 15/35/55 for ranks 4/5/6. At 55% with a 12 shot broadside, you are nearly guaranteed to get an explosive come out. Two columns have been added to show these new changes. This has made copperhead slightly edge stormchaser in terms of average broadside damage and average shot damage.
So in descending order, the best damaging ships are Copperhead, Stormchaser, Skull & Crossbones, Firestorm, No Upgrades, and Fortune Hunter. Not gonna lie, this conclusion depressed me that my Skull & Bones ship is not as powerful as it could be if I chose a different route! Now, due to Copperheads having a similar rate at producing its special shot as Stormchasers producing theirs, the two have similar consistency, but with Copperhead you are banking on hitting that one explosive shot. Stormchaser has a bit more flexibility in it's damage, but has slightly less damage on average. Also, notably the best rams for ships tend to be ones that upgrade the special shots that come out, which I appreciate, although steel comes out high in many cases.
Anyways, hope you learned something and that this helps anyone with their ship customizations. Ned Reddavis out!
Factors Affecting Damage
- Right and Left Broadside Skills: Pushing these starting sailing skills up in rank increases your broadside damage up to a flat 20% more damage at rank 5.
- Barrage: This is one of the passive skills for the cannon skill tree and each rank gives you 5% more broadside damage up to 25% at rank 5.
- Notoriety: Increasing your notoriety constantly increases the damage of all weapons (and ships and cannons) so being level 50 is ideal.
- Cannonballs: Each cannonball type in the cannon skill tree can be increased to rank 5 with skill points (and higher with rams) and this actually do affect broadside damage as well. Having points in these skills only affects the damage of that specific cannonball variant, so if you do not upgrade, say firebrand, then using a firestorm ship will have weaker firebrand broadside damage than you could otherwise have. Cannon Rams that have shot boosts or critical strike boosts also increase damage. Up until rank 6 you will get an extra 25% more damage per skill point and then have diminishing returns at higher ranks. Reference the chart below for full details.
- Weak Points: Certain ships have parts that are more susceptible to damage and take 25% more there. For example, Frigates are weak in the back side. Additionally you can fully break the sides or back of a ship (noted by the fire) and at that point you do 100% more damage on that part of the ship.
| Skill Rank | Net Damage Increase |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 1.25 |
| 3 | 1.5 |
| 4 | 1.75 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 2.25 |
| 7 | 2.375 |
| 8 | 2.5 |
| 9 | 2.625 |
Note: For higher damage per second, invest in Taskmaster as that reduces the cooldown use for broadsides as does the leadership skill acquired from the Black Pearl Quest.
Broadside Variant Damage
Broadside damage will generally depend on what ship you use and how many cannon shots come out of your ship's broadside. So, for more broadside damage we therefore favor galleons and brigs which both contend for the spot for highest broadside cannon count. Broadsides more specifically depend on the upgrades put on your ship and this is where I will begin discussing damage from upgraded ships.
Basically, to get an assessment of how much damage your ship will do, and therefore the highest damaging ships, we want to know the type of broadside that will boast the most average per-shot damage. Since upgraded ships will have a chance at shooting a round shot or the special upgraded shot, we have to form a weighted average between those shots and then multiply that by the amount of shots to be fired by the ship. Now, one can easily research the chances at a special shot for each kind of ship, but we also need to know the baseline damage of each shot. Well I went and did that on a Notoriety level 50 pirate with only 1 skill rank in broadsides and the shot of choice:
| Round shot | Firebrand | Lightning | Explosive | Fury |
| 180 | 225 | 540 | 2160 | 324 |
From here we just simply multiply up our shot damage if we have extra ranks in broadsides, barrage, or cannonballs, and also multiply by the weighted chance at the shot being fired. As an easy example, let's take the calculation for a maxed skull and bones broadside with rank 5 broadsides, barrage, fury, and round shot at notoriety level 50: Weighted Average Per Shot Damage=1.2*1.25*2(324*0.5+180*0.5). Outside the parentheses are the factors that change the damage of shots, and I can pull out the 2 since both shots are at rank 5. Inside the parentheses is the fury shot base damage times the chance at it being fired (50%) added with the round shot base damage times its chance at being fired (also 50% yay math). Boom there's your average damage, now multiply that by your broadside cannon count and that's your average total broadside damage in this case. OK, now I'll give the big chart with per cannon shot broadside damage on all the variants with various rams at the maximum ranks and notoriety for the highest damage! (Copperhead data is pre patch 1.21.2)
DAMAGE!!!!!!!
| Maxed Ship Variant | Ram | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| Firestorm | Cajun | 773 |
| Fortune Hunter | Cajun | 715 |
| Skull & Crossbones | Haunted | 833 |
| Copperhead | Priming | 1610 |
| Copperhead | Iron Priming | 1613 |
| Stormchaser | Phantom/ Iron Priming | 1199 |
| Firestorm | Steel | 702 |
| Fortune Hunter | Steel | 712 |
| Skull & Crossbones | Steel | 857 |
| Copperhead | Steel | 1603 |
| Stormchaser | Steel | 1137 |
| No Upgrades | Steel | 743 |
EDIT 1: Patch 2019-08-01: tlopo-rc-v1.21.2 changed the mechanics of copperhead ships from a raw chance to a raw chance that only allows a maximum of 1 copperhead shot. This decreases the per broadside damage significantly. To find the chance at an explosive being produced we can find the chance that one is not produced. This is simply the chance per shot (.85) multiplied by itself however many times a shot is fired, (.85)^n where n is the number of broadside cannons. Since there can be only 1 explosive shot, ships that shoot less broadside shots will have a worse chance at producing that explosive round. War sloops have a 68% chance to have an explosive shot, war frigates have an 80% chance and the rest have an 86% chance. The less broadside shots you have, however the higher your average shot damage will be, but the lower your total broadside damage is as well due to fewer explosives. It seems that 12 shot broads achieve around stormchaser in terms of overall broadside damage. It appears that now it is ideal to use STEEL ram above the rest and Priming is coming out on top of Iron Priming.
EDIT 2: Path 2019-09-07: tlopo-rc-v1.21.8 adjusted the rates at which the copperhead ships produce explosives. They are now 15/35/55 for ranks 4/5/6. At 55% with a 12 shot broadside, you are nearly guaranteed to get an explosive come out. Two columns have been added to show these new changes. This has made copperhead slightly edge stormchaser in terms of average broadside damage and average shot damage.
| War Ship Broadsides | Ram | Avg Shot Damage (old) | Avg Broadside Damage (old) | Avg Shot Damage (new) | Avg Broadside Damage (new) |
| War Galleon/Brig (12) | Priming | 1085.29875 | 13023.585 | 1164.336602 | 13972.03922 |
| Iron Priming | 1051.5825 | 12618.99 | 1136.208887 | 13634.50664 | |
| Steel | 1152.73125 | 13832.775 | 1220.592032 | 14647.10438 | |
| War Frigate (10) | Priming | 1144.10475 | 11441.0475 | 1275.522457 | 12755.22457 |
| Iron Priming | 1114.5465 | 11145.465 | 1255.256368 | 12552.56368 | |
| Steel | 1203.22125 | 12032.2125 | 1316.054635 | 13160.54635 | |
| War Sloop (7) | Priming | 1255.7025 | 8789.9175 | 1558.575648 | 10910.02954 |
| Iron Priming | 1234.035 | 8638.245 | 1558.323422 | 10908.26395 | |
| Steel | 1299.0375 | 9093.2625 | 1559.080102 | 10913.56072 |
So in descending order, the best damaging ships are Copperhead, Stormchaser, Skull & Crossbones, Firestorm, No Upgrades, and Fortune Hunter. Not gonna lie, this conclusion depressed me that my Skull & Bones ship is not as powerful as it could be if I chose a different route! Now, due to Copperheads having a similar rate at producing its special shot as Stormchasers producing theirs, the two have similar consistency, but with Copperhead you are banking on hitting that one explosive shot. Stormchaser has a bit more flexibility in it's damage, but has slightly less damage on average. Also, notably the best rams for ships tend to be ones that upgrade the special shots that come out, which I appreciate, although steel comes out high in many cases.
Anyways, hope you learned something and that this helps anyone with their ship customizations. Ned Reddavis out!
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