Originally by: Theodore Kaczynski
Missile users already don't have to worry about [...] while being able to pick damage types.
Choosing damage types becomes a moot point in PVP (screw PVE) where everybody (as in everybody that isn't comedy fit and/or ratting/plexing) omnitanks in the first place and most missile bonuses except a select few (namely the Raven, Rook and Widow, Lachesis, Huginn and Typhoon (with lolsplitweapons) with RoF bonus, the Golem with a general missile damage bonus, a few of the Amarr missile boats with a general bonus for short range missiles) have bonuses applied to their racial damage type (with a few ships that at least have a RoF bonus on top like the Nighthawk and Cerb or have a minor damage bonus for other damage types like Kestrel, Breacher and Inquisitor).
Going by Caldari ships kin bonus:
According to my calculations using the relevant ship skill at a reasonable Level 4 (-> 20% Kinetic damage bonus, on L5 the damage bonus becomes only more significant meaning less increase after switching ammo), switching ammo away from the kinetic bonuses usually only brings a very minor damage increase thanks to that or even a slight damage decrease, unless your target didn't plug his biggest resistance hole at all.
Rough, quick and dirty calculation examples (assuming 100 as missile base damage) and listing values for bonused missiles (Golem, Sacrilege, etc.) and L5 skill damage for comparison:
Drake with T2 Invul and EM Hardener has 58% Thermal, 68.5% Kinetic and 75% EM resists. Going with Drake as a typical Shield tanking example since T1 armor tanks already have Kin as their default second weakest resist and it's a decent damagetype to use against to begin with.
EM Missiles: Higher resists than Kinetic, pass.
Therm Missiles (100*1-0.58): 42
Bonused Therm Missiles (120*1-0.58): 50.4
Kinetic Missiles (120*1-0.685): 37.8
Kinetic Missiles L5 ship skill (125*1-0.685): 39.375
So depending on your relevant ship skill you'll do around 10% more damage than just sticking with your bonused damage. Not stellar, but an OK increase. OTOH, if you had a bonus on those therm missiles you'd get over 30% increase in damage instead.
Adding another Invul further compresses the spread of resists with therm at 69% and Kin at 76% leaves you with following damage after resists:
EM Missiles, higher than Kin resists. Do not want.
Therm Missiles (100*1-0.69): 31
Bonused Therm Missiles (120*1-0.69): 37.2
Kin Missiles (120*1-0.767): 27.96
Kin Missiles L5 Skill (125-0.767): 29.125
As expected pretty much the same as the added Invul doesn't change the resists in relation to each other. An approximate 10% increase assuming you hit the right Damage hole against ~30% with a general damage bonus.
Now let's check it with shield rigs (2xEM 1xTherm Shield rigs + 2x Invul) since those are cheap enough for sticking on your average pewpew ship and will probably become more widespread with the addition of rig sizes. You'd end up with 70.6% EM, 74.3% Therm and 76.7% Kin resists.
EM Missiles (100*1-0.706): 29.4
Bonused EM Missiles (120*1-0.706): 35.28
Therm Missiles (100*1-0.743): 25.7
Bonused Therm Missies (120-0.743): 30.84
Kin Missiles (120*1-0.767): 27.96
Kin Missiles L5 Skill (125*1-0.767): 29.125
Switching damage type now boils down to a meh damage increase of < 5% for EM and a decrease of ~10% for Therm missiles. With general bonus, you'd get a 26% and 10% damage increase respectively instead.
Best case scenario, Tank with 2x Invul, leaving you with 61.2% EM and 76.6% Kin:
EM Missiles (100*1-0.612): 38.8
Bonused EM Missiles (120*1-0.612): 46.56
Kin Missiles (120*1-0.767): 27.96
Kin Missiles L5 Skill (125-1*0.767): 29.125
Now you hit the paydirt where switching damage type is completely and undeniably worth it with ~30% increase in Damage even over L5 ship skill and a buttraeping 65% increase in damage using damage bonused EM missiles.
[continuation follows]
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