Is there a best pvp ship, and if so, what and why? Or is it more something like vulture beats fdl which beats corvette, which beats vulture? Im looking to get more into pvp, bounty hunting, and maybe light piracy and looking where to start. Currently I have a cutter and clipper because ... imperials!
Yes, an Imperial Eagle with dirty drive 5, point defence.
And an oversized transmitter, so that you can broadcast "pthpthtphtpthptppp" over local as you boost away from the sociopath and their excessive amount of guns, and advertise your anger management consultancy services.
And an oversized transmitter, so that you can broadcast "pthpthtphtpthptppp" over local as you boost away from the sociopath and their excessive amount of guns, and advertise your anger management consultancy services.
I prefer the FAS, but I'd like a little more shield on it. I use it as a hull tank though.
Well that's one way to pvp I guess - leave.
Well that's one way to pvp I guess - leave.
FDL and FAS. FAS can be easier to rock paper scissors. Some guys run clippers, easier still to rock paper scissors but tbh if they want to survive they'll survive. Most other ships rely on some level of disparity.
The (albeit hipshot assessment) tragedy to FD's balance in pvp is that their combat ships are very linear in overall growth. For example, you don't have something with viper shield strength, hull strength, agility and size that has, let's say, slightly greater dps than the fdl. People would fly that btw FD - just to change it up but not let down the wing dps. There are minor fluctuations, but the trend seems to be be pretty linear in growth up to the fdl. Then the big rigs come in with terrible agility with more dps.
FD has created a game that takes an old school style of progression and puts it in a multiplayer game. Like you get +1 attribute per xxxx credits. +1 hardpoint. +1 distributor. Give me a 560m/s (with 135% dd5's) small with 6 c1 hardpoints, and a c5 distributor... but give it a small's stats on hull/shields.
FD was clearly envisioning a single player game when they made these ships. End game with a skilled player is quite limited. You can tell when all but 2 or 3 ships are deemed a liability in a competitive match. Only in pvp though. End game for pve is slaughtering the universe in the ship of your choosing, with solitary challenges of your own imagination, with purchased flair for the occasion.
The (albeit hipshot assessment) tragedy to FD's balance in pvp is that their combat ships are very linear in overall growth. For example, you don't have something with viper shield strength, hull strength, agility and size that has, let's say, slightly greater dps than the fdl. People would fly that btw FD - just to change it up but not let down the wing dps. There are minor fluctuations, but the trend seems to be be pretty linear in growth up to the fdl. Then the big rigs come in with terrible agility with more dps.
FD has created a game that takes an old school style of progression and puts it in a multiplayer game. Like you get +1 attribute per xxxx credits. +1 hardpoint. +1 distributor. Give me a 560m/s (with 135% dd5's) small with 6 c1 hardpoints, and a c5 distributor... but give it a small's stats on hull/shields.
FD was clearly envisioning a single player game when they made these ships. End game with a skilled player is quite limited. You can tell when all but 2 or 3 ships are deemed a liability in a competitive match. Only in pvp though. End game for pve is slaughtering the universe in the ship of your choosing, with solitary challenges of your own imagination, with purchased flair for the occasion.
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Deleted member 115407
D
In that regard, the game succeeds wildly.
There's no single best PvP ship, but the current PvP metagame tends to focus around some of the heavier Medium ships like the Fer-de-Lance, Federal Assault Ship, and the Imperial Clipper*. They carry enough firepower to be dangerous to anyone, and have enough speed to dictate the range of engagements. Anything significantly tougher than them or more heavily armed can't keep up; anything else that can keep up is unlikely to really dent them, can't out-turn them that much, and will not hold up under their fire for long.
Of those three, the Fer-de-Lance is a strong shield-tank with good hardpoint placements and isn't really weak in any respects (except jump range and fuel tank size). The Federal Assault Ship has relatively weak shields but has enough internals to build a fearsome hull tank, and also has good hardpoint placement. The Imperial Clipper is the fastest of the lot and also makes a pretty strong hull tank, but its turn rate isn't the best and its hardpoint placement is poor for Fixed weapons.
There's PvP builds for just about everything; I've personally seen great use of Imperial Cutters, Federal Corvettes, Anacondas, Federal Dropships and Gunships, Imperial Couriers, Diamondback Scouts, Cobras (Mark 3 and Mark 4), Vipers (Mark 3 and Mark 4), and Pythons. I've seen video of even more things, including one memorable video of a T9 Heavy. However, the FAS, Clipper, and FDL are probably the three "best" that can handle just about any PvP situation.
*Yes, the Clipper is a Large-pad ship but it flies a hell of a lot like a medium, so I include it here.
Of those three, the Fer-de-Lance is a strong shield-tank with good hardpoint placements and isn't really weak in any respects (except jump range and fuel tank size). The Federal Assault Ship has relatively weak shields but has enough internals to build a fearsome hull tank, and also has good hardpoint placement. The Imperial Clipper is the fastest of the lot and also makes a pretty strong hull tank, but its turn rate isn't the best and its hardpoint placement is poor for Fixed weapons.
There's PvP builds for just about everything; I've personally seen great use of Imperial Cutters, Federal Corvettes, Anacondas, Federal Dropships and Gunships, Imperial Couriers, Diamondback Scouts, Cobras (Mark 3 and Mark 4), Vipers (Mark 3 and Mark 4), and Pythons. I've seen video of even more things, including one memorable video of a T9 Heavy. However, the FAS, Clipper, and FDL are probably the three "best" that can handle just about any PvP situation.
*Yes, the Clipper is a Large-pad ship but it flies a hell of a lot like a medium, so I include it here.
As others have said it's entirely subjective. There are several that will automatically do good at PvP but no "best" one unless you know what you are fighting against in advance.
Several people take pleasure in building really odd builds to take down specific enemies. There's a common one with shield stripping torpedoes then massive hull damage weapons like frags designed to take down Imperial Cutters with their insane shielding and speed. Theres another tactic that uses hull and module defence excessively along with silent running to stealth their way around the fight blasting their opponent from behind and never presenting a target for more than a few seconds.
If your PvP ship is built for the average PvP enemy it will likely fare badly against these builds designed specifically to take you down. However, by building your ship up to beat one of these specific builds its not going to be as effective as before as you'd for example replace a damage increasing weapon modification for one that makes the silent running ship more visible once you get a hit in, or increases their heat to force them out of silent running quicker.
In the end though I think the best has to be the FDL after that it's all up to the loadout, engineering and pilot but also very importantly the enemy.
Several people take pleasure in building really odd builds to take down specific enemies. There's a common one with shield stripping torpedoes then massive hull damage weapons like frags designed to take down Imperial Cutters with their insane shielding and speed. Theres another tactic that uses hull and module defence excessively along with silent running to stealth their way around the fight blasting their opponent from behind and never presenting a target for more than a few seconds.
If your PvP ship is built for the average PvP enemy it will likely fare badly against these builds designed specifically to take you down. However, by building your ship up to beat one of these specific builds its not going to be as effective as before as you'd for example replace a damage increasing weapon modification for one that makes the silent running ship more visible once you get a hit in, or increases their heat to force them out of silent running quicker.
In the end though I think the best has to be the FDL after that it's all up to the loadout, engineering and pilot but also very importantly the enemy.
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Achilles7
Banned
Chongo always gets a bit melancholy when he's sitting in his porch rocking chair, listening to some blues with a bottle of JD clasped to his bosom!
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just 2 hardpoints.
for mainly three reasons:
- not enough speed. the minor difference to fas/fdl or clipper pre engineering gets massive after engineering. you can't dictate engagement against many ships.
- just two hardpoints. a problem to apply all specials you want to bring to a pvp fight
- large hardpoints only beat smaller hardpoints in dpe after shields are down ... unlikely in many pvp encounters because see above.
Interesting, I have an FDL which is mostly engineered, but mostly not G5 but G3 (limited engineer access atm).
I went up against a Corvette a month or 2 ago (when my FDL had less mods & I didn't have a therm resist shld booster, were all HD), after a few passes (which bar 1 of them, went badly, lol) after losing about a 1/3 of my shlds & I could see no visible damage to her shields(!) I decided to bug out! Lol
So do you guys reckon an FDL could take out a Corvette with similar level mods & similar level skills?? I would've thought the Corvettes massive shlds would give it a huge advantage.....
I went up against a Corvette a month or 2 ago (when my FDL had less mods & I didn't have a therm resist shld booster, were all HD), after a few passes (which bar 1 of them, went badly, lol) after losing about a 1/3 of my shlds & I could see no visible damage to her shields(!) I decided to bug out! Lol
So do you guys reckon an FDL could take out a Corvette with similar level mods & similar level skills?? I would've thought the Corvettes massive shlds would give it a huge advantage.....
No decent pilot in a PvP fit Cutter or Corvette will die unless they want to or make a big mistake, but you can chase them away. I've only lost my shields twice in my Corvette. One was a wing fight where I didn't notice someone launching torps and the other was a 1v3 where I focused one cmdr while the other 2 were unloading frags on me. I didn't die either time and still chased the cmdr away in the 1v3 before I jumped.
-Plus the vulture is way bigger than you'd imagine. It's easier to hit. so it cant be used all the other small ships.
-Also Power management or the lack of it
-Easy to break canopy
- Two hardpoints close together means 2 missiles and Bye bye weapons
(also they are fairly easy to hit)- Not much mass for ramming.
The vulture is just not the best ship in the lot... But Majinwash would kill me if he sees this comment...
It literally is PVP. If you are attacked by someone out to destroy you while you are minding your own business HIS goal is to kill you, hence his attack. YOUR goal is to survive. The METHOD of "winning" a PVP encounter is entirely up to you, and to run IS to win the encounter if one knows ones firepower and/or defense is not enough to take out the attacker.