How much damage can a FDL take?

Deathcon5

D
My buddy and I were out doing some bounty hunting in two A grade anacondas. We are headed back to the community goal turn in when he was interdicted. I dropped in before any shots were fired. Then he was attacked by a commander in a PVP build fdl. He was using a rail gun and stealth build. He wasn't trying to avoid getting hit or trying to get behind us, he was just making passes. Every time he would make a pass we would both unload on him with a disturbing amount of Firepower. After about 5 minutes of this he blew up my friends ship. He started working on me at this point and I blasted him for another few minutes until my shields were down. His ship did not seem to be taking any damage so I left. How can this be? What armor upgrade makes you nearly invulnerable to both lasers and multi cannons? I could understand if he were using his ships maneuverability to get behind us. But that was not the case. He just took insane damage and showed no sign of it. I even rammed into him at high speed in a head on collision. That alone should have smashed his hull in a good bit. And we weren't missing that much when we shot. I could see and hear the hits. I could never get a lock to see his hull %damage though.
I don't go out looking for PVP fights, and I know that a dedicated PVP build is advantageous. But, is it normal for a PVP build fdl to take 5 times more damage then and Elite NPC fdl? What's the method to counter this?
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
A silent running FDL with HRPs is more or less invincible. Lol
It has over 2000hp of armour. Plus rail guns. Pretty nasty machine!
The only counter is to match him, and outnumber him. Lol
 

Weps

Weps
Deathcon5 said:
But, is it normal for a PVP build fdl to take 5 times more damage then and Elite NPC fdl? What's the method to counter this?
Click to expand...

These values have been carefully selected to provide a rare and meaningful experience. I trust you found that experience rare and meaningful.
 

Jon flint

Jon flint
Ferdies are tough little blighters, even my PVE-FDL (not a silent run build) has an armour value of 1418 and shields of 1029MJ. Its going to take more than a couple of passes to cause any significant damage.
 

Thetele

T
Deathcon5 said:
My buddy and I were out doing some bounty hunting in two A grade anacondas. We are headed back to the community goal turn in when he was interdicted. I dropped in before any shots were fired. Then he was attacked by a commander in a PVP build fdl. He was using a rail gun and stealth build. He wasn't trying to avoid getting hit or trying to get behind us, he was just making passes. Every time he would make a pass we would both unload on him with a disturbing amount of Firepower. After about 5 minutes of this he blew up my friends ship. He started working on me at this point and I blasted him for another few minutes until my shields were down. His ship did not seem to be taking any damage so I left. How can this be? What armor upgrade makes you nearly invulnerable to both lasers and multi cannons? I could understand if he were using his ships maneuverability to get behind us. But that was not the case. He just took insane damage and showed no sign of it. I even rammed into him at high speed in a head on collision. That alone should have smashed his hull in a good bit. And we weren't missing that much when we shot. I could see and hear the hits. I could never get a lock to see his hull %damage though.
I don't go out looking for PVP fights, and I know that a dedicated PVP build is advantageous. But, is it normal for a PVP build fdl to take 5 times more damage then and Elite NPC fdl? What's the method to counter this?
Click to expand...

Never use NPC to measure how good ship can be. NPCs builds are unknown (we don't know if they use A rated and highest size shields). NPCs also don't stack as many shield boosters or hull armor upgrades as they can or shutdown modules to get power for others. NPCs use medicore ships and players always use the best available choice.
 

Nerwan

Nerwan
Deathcon5 said:
But, is it normal for a PVP build fdl to take 5 times more damage then and Elite NPC fdl? What's the method to counter this?
Click to expand...

Yes it is fairly normal.. What ships were you guys using? Your MCs would have eventually had an impact on him but if he was running silent and you were using gimballed you probably didn't hit him much. Fixed lasers would have hit him but they don't work as well against a hull as they do against the NPC Fdls that all uses shields. An FDL can pack 5 rail guns which can have shields down very quickly, particularly on PvE builds that use bi-weaves etc..

You mention you guys rammed him but in what ship? Ramming an Fdl in a FAS/Python/Dropship is very effective because they all weigh more.. Ramming an Fdl in a Viper/Vulture/Cobra is a bad idea because they're all lighter..

Ways to fight rail Fdls:

1. A FAS with frags.. ramming, staying close, burst with the frags then ram you can kill a hull tanked Fdl very quickly (unless they start flying backwards or a very evasive) - Someone did this to my Fdl the other day (I'm not that great in a stealth FDL)
2. A Dropship with 3500 armour, even more armor than the FAS and even better at ramming.. Not as good at maneuvering..
3. A Python, filled with SCBs, and 3 large frags.. you can carry so many SCBs he won't be able to get your shields down and 3 large frags will make mincemeat of a rail-de-lance
4. Any of the big ships with multi-cannon turrets and shield tanking..

Of these though, only the FAS can actually chase the FDL at the same speed if he wants to run.. and if he flys away backwards he can still fire all those rails at you.. (although I can't because I'm not good at aiming rail guns while flying backwards with FA off and I think it's a cheap trick anyway)
 
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Nugstar

Nugstar
Deathcon5 said:
My buddy and I were out doing some bounty hunting in two A grade anacondas. We are headed back to the community goal turn in when he was interdicted. I dropped in before any shots were fired. Then he was attacked by a commander in a PVP build fdl. He was using a rail gun and stealth build. He wasn't trying to avoid getting hit or trying to get behind us, he was just making passes. Every time he would make a pass we would both unload on him with a disturbing amount of Firepower. After about 5 minutes of this he blew up my friends ship. He started working on me at this point and I blasted him for another few minutes until my shields were down. His ship did not seem to be taking any damage so I left. How can this be? What armor upgrade makes you nearly invulnerable to both lasers and multi cannons? I could understand if he were using his ships maneuverability to get behind us. But that was not the case. He just took insane damage and showed no sign of it. I even rammed into him at high speed in a head on collision. That alone should have smashed his hull in a good bit. And we weren't missing that much when we shot. I could see and hear the hits. I could never get a lock to see his hull %damage though.
I don't go out looking for PVP fights, and I know that a dedicated PVP build is advantageous. But, is it normal for a PVP build fdl to take 5 times more damage then and Elite NPC fdl? What's the method to counter this?
Click to expand...

You should have beaten him in a 2V1 with 2x A rated anacondas, unless you're builds weren't setup for combat.

This is my build (combat/multirole), and I've killed PVP silent running FDL'S with it...

http://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda/...w18eAMJTpA=.CwBj5BGadvJAJkcZZgaA?bn=Conda 2.0
 

Jesse30

Jesse30
You lost because inexperience in PvP combat nothing more, we all been there and done that. Learn from it and go back to get your revenge with A spec FAS or FDL.
 

SCTrojanbulldog

SCTrojanbulldog
Jesse30 said:
You lost because inexperience in PvP combat nothing more, we all been there and done that. Learn from it and go back to get your revenge with A spec FAS or FDL.
Click to expand...

This was my thought.... Anacondas are tough but if you rolling gimbaled or turreted beams, beams in general... You're not going set up to maximize hull damage. Most players prefer multi cannons, which again, are sub optimal to an armored out FDL. Target assist weapons have a hard time locking on a "stealther".


Your best options are PA's, fixed pulse or burst, and fixed medium cannons. All weapons that I traditionally do not see on many builds except for PA's.... And even that is kinda rare.

Your best option in either case.... High wake to a system 11+ ly away.
 

GTwannabe

GTwannabe
Shieldless FDL's die in one solid boost ram hit from my FAS. I love seeing them in RES because they typically have 200k+ bounties.
 

digitalscream

Banned
D
The answer isn't always bigger, more powerful ships - another alternative is to have a small, agile and gun-heavy ship piloted with a bit of skill. I've beaten tank + rails FDL builds in my Vulture - the trick is to use the agility and move around fast enough that they can't hit you.

It's rare that I manage to kill one, though. They usually fire all their rails at once, which means that if they can't hit me...their 30 rounds run out pretty quickly, and they run away.
 

Mechanist

Mechanist
digitalscream said:
The answer isn't always bigger, more powerful ships - another alternative is to have a small, agile and gun-heavy ship piloted with a bit of skill. I've beaten tank + rails FDL builds in my Vulture - the trick is to use the agility and move around fast enough that they can't hit you.

It's rare that I manage to kill one, though. They usually fire all their rails at once, which means that if they can't hit me...their 30 rounds run out pretty quickly, and they run away.
Click to expand...

I bet the Hauler Mafia could take out those FDLs :cool:
 

yyy

Y
A FDL with HRPs and military grade composite is pretty hard. It takes a good beating. I've attacked wings of big NPC ships in my stealth ferdy and lived to tell the tale.
 

Alexander the Grape

Alexander the Grape
Nerwan said:
Ways to fight rail Fdls:
1. A FAS with frags.. ramming, staying close, burst with the frags then ram you can kill a hull tanked Fdl very quickly (unless they start flying backwards or a very evasive) - Someone did this to my Fdl the other day (I'm not that great in a stealth FDL)
2. A Dropship with 3500 armour, even more armor than the FAS and even better at ramming.. Not as good at maneuvering..
3. A Python, filled with SCBs, and 3 large frags.. you can carry so many SCBs he won't be able to get your shields down and 3 large frags will make mincemeat of a rail-de-lance
4. Any of the big ships with multi-cannon turrets and shield tanking..
Click to expand...

1 Won't work, properly flown FDLs wont let you get close
2 Won't work, dropship will get outflown and PP sniped by competent pilots
3 Won't work, you will be burst through and the FDL can easily avoid a frag python
4 Could work: Unless they're in a wing, in which case you will get alpha'd down

Your only hope is to hope they suck and wait for FDL/c2 rail nerf, or grab one yourself

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digitalscream said:
The answer isn't always bigger, more powerful ships - another alternative is to have a small, agile and gun-heavy ship piloted with a bit of skill. I've beaten tank + rails FDL builds in my Vulture - the trick is to use the agility and move around fast enough that they can't hit you.

It's rare that I manage to kill one, though. They usually fire all their rails at once, which means that if they can't hit me...their 30 rounds run out pretty quickly, and they run away.
Click to expand...

If they know how to use FA off and can aim, you're still toast because they can get and keep ludicrous range
 
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ShadowWolf Kell

ShadowWolf Kell
Basically the FdL got Vulture treatment, but none of the drawbacks (which it actually had originally.)

IIRC, most just wanted a larger jump range and heat adjusted slightly while fuel scooping. Instead we got Super Python Mk 2. After running one post buff with 5 PACs, it really took the wind out of my sails. Both for the FdL, and ED in general.
 
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