montka? is a strong bonus as can be seen from the amazing balls
doubling crit rate ontop of aim bonus (is it additive or multiplicative)

but the kaujon seems pretty bad honestly
only possible from stealth, and most tau shooting caps at 13k(? i think, dont remember exactly, but think so even with aim range bonus) so the extra accuracy doesnt really help them by a lot (especially while already getting the aim bonus to get that range)
also pretty vague about how much more accurate it makes them

mostly asking about other peoples opinion, especially people who played more tau
i think almost everyone always used the crit one, anyone suggestions of what would make the accuraty one more enticing but keep its flavor

mont´ka is probably not 3x but 4x like the chaos lance build from the first game with a lot more dps doing crits thanks to no more armor saves. it breaks morale pretty fast. I hope it will get nerfed hard.

the excellent (?) aim bonus gives you eldar accuracy, so it is -15% per bracket instead of -20%. going for the escort lock-on upgrade gives you the same without having to keep stuff stealthed. I think the average tau protector range is around 13.5k for line-ships, that means it gives you 15% more accuary if you can keep stuff stealthed (silent running or sitting in terrain unprobed/marked). lock on + escort targeting buff is obviously superior for a ranged stand-off, while costing one upgrade.

more importantly the opportunity cost of not going with the crit buff is extremly harsh. this makes the merchant tau roster very unattractive to use, because only their auxilliary ships have the warfare trait. it is a hidden nerf for using ordnance / torpedo builds too.

the balls are too slow and short-ranged to be amazing. a built with 185 minimal speed is more flexible with less weaknesses to exploit.

@Fosil I've only really had an issue with the extra crit on the auxilary ships. The base protector ships dps per point is so low that it isn't an issue like it is when you're running auxiliary builds. Imo the auxiliary ships shouldn't get the bonus and protector base ships should be made more appealing.

@BrohanBroski I can't check in-game, but the cheapest LC with 8(?) weapon dps for 10X points and the escort with 3 weapon dps for 3X(?) points are both good value. the other protector ships pay too much for ordnance/torpedos and escort hooks (looking at the bork'an). going full LCs + escorts works okay after getting the speed upgrade. it is a bit stressful, because without an anchor for your formation, you have to reposition a lot to avoid getting rammed and the ship pathfinding really likes to crash your own stuff.

Is the the cheap LC still bugged with the lances?

@brohanbroski think you are thinking of the trader LC
not the protector one