Cobra Mk III vs Viper Mk III

Is it worth upgrading my Viper to a Cobra, knowing full well that I make most of my money bounty hunting and assassinating high profile targets? I would really love to fly the Cobra again but after trying it out, I felt that it was too weak for combat and I decided to downgrade back into a Viper. What do you guys think?
 
The primary advantage of the cobra is its hyperjump range over the Viper, so if you plan on doing any travelling or trading at all (it has much more space for cargo) then the cobra is much better. As fighters, they have strengths and weaknesses but I would put them on about a par for pure combat. Try running the cobra with shield cells and you'll see a big improvement on your durability.


JAD.
 
The primary advantage of the cobra is its hyperjump range over the Viper, so if you plan on doing any travelling or trading at all (it has much more space for cargo) then the cobra is much better. As fighters, they have strengths and weaknesses but I would put them on about a par for pure combat. Try running the cobra with shield cells and you'll see a big improvement on your durability.


JAD.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Viper the true shield ship, since it naturally has more shield capacity than the Cobra? Also, if I were to make the Cobra into a shield ship, would that mean sticking to the default light armor plating? Cheers
 
The Viper has better shielding, but there's always a point to mounting shield cells. No, there's no need to stick to light armor plating, other than cost and mass.
 
I've been all the way up to an 'A' kitted Asp but come back to the Viper, it's the best for bounty hunting and assassination missions without a doubt. I get about 13.5Ly range, not great but bearable. With a fuel scoop you can make 200Ly trips in a reasonable amount of time.
 
I've been all the way up to an 'A' kitted Asp but come back to the Viper, it's the best for bounty hunting and assassination missions without a doubt. I get about 13.5Ly range, not great but bearable. With a fuel scoop you can make 200Ly trips in a reasonable amount of time.
I'll definitely second this. I just love the Viper so much and there's really no reason to ditch it, although im looking into flying an interdictor missile Eagle to hunt down some players with :D If all else fails, I'll probably just kit my Viper with dumbfires and remove some of my high end modules to even out the power output needed.
 
Is it worth upgrading my Viper to a Cobra, knowing full well that I make most of my money bounty hunting and assassinating high profile targets? I would really love to fly the Cobra again but after trying it out, I felt that it was too weak for combat and I decided to downgrade back into a Viper. What do you guys think?

People can and will debate this, so its a bit of a matter of opinion, but I believe the Viper is better than the Cobra for strictly combat oriented tasks. Its not extremely far ahead or anything like that though, its actually pretty close, so many people like the Cobra instead for its versatility. Properly kitted out the Cobra can literally do anything there is to do in this game, which makes it very nice.

One on one with equal skill and equal top end gear? The Viper should always win. But its close.
 
I haven't piloted a viper in anger yet, but I've found as a bounty hunter in a cobra, that cobras are *MUCH* harder to kill than vipers.

Vipers = 10 seconds of beam laser and the shields are gone and they pop within a couple of seconds (and usually before they've had a chance to turn around and return fire)
Cobras = 5-10 seonds of beam laser and the shields are gone but then I need a multi-cannon to kill them before their shields recharge or they return fire.
 
I love my Viper. I also keep a Cobra for multi-role purposes (trading and using the high jump range to turn in my bounties.)The Viper is the way to go for sure.
 
How many internal utility slots does the viper have? I'm finding the x2 on the cobra limiting, hard to pick 2 between warrant , cargo and frame shift scanner.
 
Cobra can fit bigger power plant then Viper.
Cobra have longer hyper jump range then Viper.
Cobra have bigger cargo space then Viper.
Cobra have more hard points then Viper.

The choice should be obvious.
 
I just bought both! :)
Why mess about?

The Viper is aces if your after a burn about with some dog fighting....it's my x-wing that i blast around in humming whoosh sounds!

My Cobra screams like the millennium falcon in my mind and it's a bruiser with enough cargo to earn me good money!
Keep them at the same station...swap when you fancy and jobs a good un!

My one tip...but Cobra first then buy Viper...that way your not forced into small cargo runs for cash!
Dunno why people argue the point any more!
Multiple shops are great!!
 
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Cobra can fit bigger power plant then Viper.
Cobra have longer hyper jump range then Viper.
Cobra have bigger cargo space then Viper.
Cobra have more hard points then Viper.

The choice should be obvious.

Cobra DOES NOT fit more weapon hard points.
Cobra is slower.
Cobra is less agile.
Cobra has weaker shields.

Not so obvious now, mate. :(
 
Cobra can fit bigger power plant then Viper.
Cobra have longer hyper jump range then Viper.
Cobra have bigger cargo space then Viper.
Cobra have more hard points then Viper.

The choice should be obvious.

I'm sure the 4 guys at the capital ship combat zone yesterday thought their cobra was superior to my viper, up until the point they tried to run :)

Is there a popular video of someone using dumbfire missiles? I'm seeing lots of players use them

Cobra can fit more shield cells, if you do that its hands down better.
 
Cobra DOES NOT fit more weapon hard points.
Cobra is slower.
Cobra is less agile.
Cobra has weaker shields.

Not so obvious now, mate. :(

I think the Cobra has a faster boost (mine boosts close to 430) and better capacity for shield cells. With grade A thrusters and power distributor you can boost with impunity.
 
I think the Cobra has a faster boost (mine boosts close to 430) and better capacity for shield cells. With grade A thrusters and power distributor you can boost with impunity.

Yup, but boosts aren't all that great for combat. Agility is much more favoured and in battle, the ship with the fastest turning speed wins.
 
there is no reason to ever buy a Viper over a Cobra, unless you really like the beauty of the viper and you are prepared to put in million to make it decent and accept all it's weaknesses and future problems

disadvantages:
- Power hungry: fully upgraded is impossible, you have to choose what to sacrifice which is not normal, and because of that there is a lot of other problems related, you can't choose your weapons, you have to put the worst utility/internal stuff, you will have to disable/enable modules all the time, and finally try to find for hours what is the "sacrifice build" that will at least be enough for you
- Only 1 profession effective: Bounty hunter ! this is the best job you can do, and the Cobra will be better at it, you can also do other job but you'll be crippling yourself for obvious reasons
- No edge against a Cobra: the Cobra will be faster than you, have more shield cell, will have the same agility, can use all the best weapons and all the best utility stuff at the same time without any drawback
- Weight punishment: for each 1 tonne of upgrade that you will equip, you will loose a hell of a lot Speed/Agility/Jump range, if you dare equip armor then you will certainly reach between 11 and 12,7 Jump range, which is seriously bad for a ship that worth 4 million
- Jump range is crap: the initial jump range is very bad, the maxed out jump range is very bad, some people will say "it's a drawback for the rest", what rest ?
- Costy to make it decent: you need minimum 2 million to begin to be decent, you will need a "full sacrifice build" of 3 to 4 millions to make it average.
- Fuel cost: the fuel cost on this thing is monstruous, and i really don't understand why, Fuel scoop mandatory so your build option will be even worst

advantages:
- Better for fixed weapons that the Cobra, but doesn't really matter since you can't use the big fixed weapons
- Smaller target than the Cobra

now you can understand why so many people are crying for a balance, as i always say "a Specialist should always be better at his own specialty than a generalist"
 
there is no reason to ever buy a Viper over a Cobra, unless you really like the beauty of the viper and you are prepared to put in million to make it decent and accept all it's weaknesses and future problems

disadvantages:
- Power hungry: fully upgraded is impossible, you have to choose what to sacrifice which is not normal, and because of that there is a lot of other problems related, you can't choose your weapons, you have to put the worst utility/internal stuff, you will have to disable/enable modules all the time, and finally try to find for hours what is the "sacrifice build" that will at least be enough for you
- Only 1 profession effective: Bounty hunter ! this is the best job you can do, and the Cobra will be better at it, you can also do other job but you'll be crippling yourself for obvious reasons
- No edge against a Cobra: the Cobra will be faster than you, have more shield cell, will have the same agility, can use all the best weapons and all the best utility stuff at the same time without any drawback
- Weight punishment: for each 1 tonne of upgrade that you will equip, you will loose a hell of a lot Speed/Agility/Jump range, if you dare equip armor then you will certainly reach between 11 and 12,7 Jump range, which is seriously bad for a ship that worth 4 million
- Jump range is crap: the initial jump range is very bad, the maxed out jump range is very bad, some people will say "it's a drawback for the rest", what rest ?
- Costy to make it decent: you need minimum 2 million to begin to be decent, you will need a "full sacrifice build" of 3 to 4 millions to make it average.
- Fuel cost: the fuel cost on this thing is monstruous, and i really don't understand why, Fuel scoop mandatory so your build option will be even worst

advantages:
- Better for fixed weapons that the Cobra, but doesn't really matter since you can't use the big fixed weapons
- Smaller target than the Cobra

now you can understand why so many people are crying for a balance, as i always say "a Specialist should always be better at his own specialty than a generalist"

Well I for one think that the Viper is a specialist ship in its own right. I second that. Buff the Viper!
 
- Fuel cost: the fuel cost on this thing is monstruous, and i really don't understand why, Fuel scoop mandatory so your build option will be even worst

This came as a complete shock when I first went from my Eagle to a Viper. It has the same size fuel tank as the Eagle.
 
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