Yes, roundballs, to my knowledge are the only ones needing patches. Sabots definitely no, and the conicals I've used do not need them either. There are varying thickness of patches, and varying diameter of balls, so if you shoot round ball you'll want to play with different setups to see which combo gives the best accuracy. For example, in a .50 caliber, you could try .490 ball and .18 patch, or .495 ball and .10 patch, etc. Lots of combos and schools of thought on it.