If you have the ranks, you may want to try the FAS and FGS. The FAS is surprisingly manoeuverable after the FDS and may be just the kind of firepower/nimbleness you're after. As for the FGS, not only does it pack up tons of firepower, but it can also carry a SLF. Both ships have core military slots too, that will markedly improve your survival.
This, loving the FAS balance of agility and firepower after becoming annoyed by the Vulture.
Not sure what your problem was with the Vulture because he sound exaclty like the ship you are asking for. Dominating CZs with that one since he got added to the game..
I barely lose the first ring in my engineered Vulture either...
Reading this over and over again, but not sure what I did wrong. Wouldn't consider me a totally bad fighter because with the FAS I just dominate CZs..
But with the Vulture kills were slow, and I was sooo fragile, two guys just shortly focusing at me meant I had to run, and running was hard because I had set the frameshift drive to lower priorities and could just boot it when I stowed weapons to have some boom... and seeing how fast I eat NPC Vultures with my FAS I would not step back to the other side
What kind of setup are you Vulture guys running, and how much engineering please? Still love their sound when they are around me