| “ | The Aurora Ray is a tactical VSec weapon that fires pre-ionized energy blasts, perfect for shredding through shields. | ” |
| — In-Game Description |
| Aurora Ray | I | II | III | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mass | 196t | 392t | 784t | ||
| DPS | 18 | 30 | 56 | ||
| Range | 0 - 3,250 m | ||||
| Projectile Speed | 4,000m/s | ||||
| Shield Damage | +25% | ||||
| Sound Effects | |||||
| Unlocking (Only obtainable in event Face Off and Backlash) | |||||
| Arms Lab Required | VII | VIII | IX | ||
| Blood Amber Shards Required | 50,000 | 250,000 | 750,000 | ||
| Build | |||||
| Time | 40m 20s | 1h 20m 30s | 2h 41m | ||
| Helium-3 | 398,156 | 896,264 | 1,898,933 | ||
| Antimatter | 70,263 | 298,755 | 813,828 | ||
| Repair | 0s | 0s | 0s | ||
General
| “ | Shred through shields with the Aurora Ray's pre-ionized energy blasts. | ” |
| — Sybil |
The Aurora ray is an event energy weapon. It was available in the event Face Off and Backlash.
Aurora ray is one of the most versatile and all rounder weapons. It has moderate range, solid firepower and near-perfect accuracy for shooting down squadrons. Because of its versatility, it is a very common weapon amongst mid level to end-game players and is frequently equipped on any ship type ranging from frigates to battleships.
Strategy and Setup
| “ | Burn through enemy shields with the Aurora Ray. | ” |
| — Event Store |
Advantages:
The Aurora ray is versatile and reliable, a general purpose weapon, making it very common weapon of choice on ships and fleets amongst the mid- and high- level players. Its relatively high firepower combined with its bonus damage to shields and excellent accuracy gives it a very flexible role; shooting squadrons reliably, as well as causing very consistent damage output regardless of range in volleys of laser fire that never miss enemy ships.
Aurora rays being fired from both the Zeal battleships and Python cutters.
Battleships with Aurora Rays are extremely potent, with ships such as the Dread battleship and the Zeal battleship possessing almost 400 damage per second. This lethal amount of firepower in combination with the Aurora ray's bonus damage to shields makes Aurora ray equipped battleships capable of vaporizing any ship in mere seconds while still maintaining the ability to reliably shoot down enemy squadrons.
This setup is also reliable against VEGA, VSEC, ISC and DC fleets as they tend to have armor and shields beyond what is equip-able from a player's factory.
Many destroyers are commonly equipped with at least one Aurora ray III for the sake of shooting down enemy squadrons in PvP.
Like the Disruptor ray, the weapon fires several times in a quick burst before recharging. The weapon has 250 meters more base range than the Thermal beam, but 250 meters less base range than the ECHO ray. This is something to consider when equipping this weapon on battleships, as battleships with ECHO rays and similar weapons will out-range Aurora ray equipped battleships, a disadvantage overlooked by many.
Like most ship energy weapons, this weapon does not miss ships in its arc. While the weapon has built in shield damage, the ion modulator will still further increase the damage done to shields beyond the weapon's base bonus. This can make the Aurora Ray a great weapon to knock down shields.
All these advantages combined make the Aurora ray among the best all rounder energy weapons in all forms of combat from close to long range.
Disadvantages:
The Aurora ray has a relatively moderate range in comparison with some energy weapons but lacks greatly in comparison to other weapon types. This makes equipping range-extending boosters recommended, particularly on slow moving ships, to avoid being rendered helpless by faster and longer-ranged ships.
Adding the ion modulator can further increase the weapon's base damage to shields, but doing so will reduce damage to armor. This is something to consider as some end-game ships have more than 10,000 armor points when fully upgraded to Mark V.
Energy weapons are rather very common in PvP, hence many players - particularly high level players - will equip energy resistors, reducing Aurora ray's effectiveness. This is common disadvantage, across all energy weapons, as a ship with resistor III can lower Aurora ray's damage per second from 54 to a mere 39.
Trivia
- The Aurora Ray was first teased in the Countermeasures event video, during the Osprey frigate fitting.
- In essence, the Aurora ray is similar to Thermal beam, but sacrifices firepower against armor for extra range, since thermal does more damage.
- The Aurora ray's repair time is a pattern, where the number is squared when you go up the tiers, starting from Aurora Ray I having a two minute repair time.
- The Aurora ray III's build time is the Aurora ray II's build time, multiplied by 2.
- Despite being of VSec in origin, they are not equipped on any VSec ships.
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