Federal Corvette PVE hardpoint loadout

[Caeris]

Tested different types of loadouts (also fun builds ex. only PAs, Rail Guns, Fragment Cannons, ...) in res and czs.

All of them have their pro and con.

Before i write 20+ builds here with fixed/gimballed and turrets, i limit it to 4 good ones.

---

- 2x Huge Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Incendiary rounds
- 1x Large Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Incendiary rounds
- 2x Medium Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Incendiary rounds
- 1x Small Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Incendiary rounds
- 1x Small High Capacity G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Corrosive shell

Pro:

- Very Good against small/medium/large ships
- Heavy dmg. output
- PP down in few secs
- 4 pips in sys is no problem

Con:

- Heat goes fast up in permanent fire
- Ammo isn´t unlimited (even with synthesis)
- Reload times
- Hull dmg. little bit weaker cause of thermal, but high enough
- Chaff from enemy disturb your aim

---

- 2x Huge Efficient G5 Plasma Accelerator | Target Lock Breaker | Dazzle Shell
- 1x Large Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Smart Rounds
- 2x Medium Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Auto Loader
- 1x Small Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Emissive Munitions
- 1x Small High Capacity G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Corrosive shell

Pro:

- Very Good against small/medium and good against large ships
- Good dmg. output
- PP goes very fast down
- Enemy need to search you (miss you), cause of PA effects
- Stealth ships can be revealed with emissive effects

Con:

- Ammo isn´t unlimited (even with synthesis)
- Reload times
- Chaff from enemy disturb your aim, but PA isn´t affected
- A good aim is required, especially by high manoeuvrability ships
- Wep drain medium in permanent fire
- 4 pips in sys not always available

---

- 2x Huge Efficient G5 Beam Laser | (Gimballed) | Thermal Vent
- 1x Large Efficient G5 Plasma Accelerator | Target Lock Breaker
- 2x Medium Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Auto Loader
- 1x Small Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Emissive Munitions
- 1x Small High Capacity G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Corrosive shell

Pro:

- Very Good against small and good against medium ships
- Good dmg. output
- Burns shields away
- Enemy need to find you more (miss you), cause of PA effect
- Stealth ships can be revealed with emissive effects

Con:

- Ammo isn´t unlimited (even with synthesis)
- Chaff from enemy disturb your aim, but PA isn´t affected
- Wep drain very high in permanent fire
- Heat goes fast up in permanent fire
- 4 pips in sys not always available
- Bad against big ships

---

- 2x Huge Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Auto Loader
- 1x Large Overcharged G5 Multicannon | (Gimballed) | Corrosive shell
- 2x Medium Efficient G5 Beam Laser | (Turreted) | Thermal Vent
- 2x Small Efficient G5 Beam Laser | (Turreted) | Thermal Vent

Pro:

- Good against small/medium and medium against large ships
- PP goes fast down
- 4 pips in sys is no problem
- No heat problems
- Wep drain low
- Enemy can be hit even out of sight, cause of turrets
- You can stay hours in res/czs, cause MCs aren´t always needed in combats

Con:

- Ammo isn´t unlimited (even with synthesis)
- Chaff from enemy disturb your aim
- Medium dmg. output
- Corrosive hardpoint below
- Longer fights


Let´s dont forget: The pilot ability is an important point and can change every combat.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

Nice formatting of your post, but all four of your builds are terrible for PVE because they're all way too heavy on ammo usage. A PVE corvette should be able to go to a conflict zone and complete 80+ kills without re-docking at least four times.

You also put corrosive on the large or small multicannon

1) which is bad because it has spin-up time, unlike a huge MC.
2) which is bad because it has a fire rate at least double that of a huge MC (out of ammo twice as quickly).
3) and you don't use high capacity magazine which is essential for PVE to prevent you from having to abandon a good instance for restocks.

Finally, all your builds are heavily dependent on gimballs or turrets and chaff is exceedingly common on NPC loadouts. That's a really tedious and painful combination.

Making a good PVE ship is not about having the best DPS, it's about having the most endurance and your build have none.

 

[captainchubb]

Nice formatting of your post, but all four of your builds are terrible for PVE because they're all way too heavy on ammo usage. A PVE corvette should be able to go to a conflict zone and complete 80+ kills without re-docking at least four times.

You also put corrosive on the large or small multicannon

1) which is bad because it has spin-up time, unlike a huge MC.
2) which is bad because it has a fire rate at least double that of a huge MC (out of ammo twice as quickly).
3) and you don't use high capacity magazine which is essential for PVE to prevent you from having to abandon a good instance for restocks.

Finally, all your builds are heavily dependent on gimballs or turrets and chaff is exceedingly common on NPC loadouts. That's a really tedious and painful combination.

Making a good PVE ship is not about having the best DPS, it's about having the most endurance and your build have none.

There is some wisdom in what you say. I got to elite in combat last year by spending hours in a compromised nav beacon in an anarchy, with a Corvette with fully pulse setup. However, since engineers I've been using build 1 from the four listed above. It's just way more fun than a setup which doesn't require re-loads.

 

[Caeris]

Nice formatting of your post, but all four of your builds are terrible for PVE because they're all way too heavy on ammo usage. A PVE corvette should be able to go to a conflict zone and complete 80+ kills without re-docking at least four times.

You also put corrosive on the large or small multicannon

1) which is bad because it has spin-up time, unlike a huge MC.
2) which is bad because it has a fire rate at least double that of a huge MC (out of ammo twice as quickly).
3) and you don't use high capacity magazine which is essential for PVE to prevent you from having to abandon a good instance for restocks.

Finally, all your builds are heavily dependent on gimballs or turrets and chaff is exceedingly common on NPC loadouts. That's a really tedious and painful combination.

Making a good PVE ship is not about having the best DPS, it's about having the most endurance and your build have none.

A problem is, that everyone has their own build that they call good or bad. Others want a high dmg. build, others for long combats, others more support, .... .

However...

As long as you have fun with your build it doesn´t matter.
There´s no allround build for everything.
I said it before, every build has their pro and con, even endurance builds. ^^

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Thermal vent can't really cool the ship. All it does at this point is negate the thermal load of the weapon itself. Still the most useful beam laser effect, in most cases, but not as potent as it used to be.

I've flown my FAS with two medium fixed thermal vent beams, and I can actually get my ship's temperature down to 0 if I can keep on target. You very much can cool your ship with thermal vent. Not tried it on turrets though.

 

[Morbad]

I've flown my FAS with two medium fixed thermal vent beams, and I can actually get my ship's temperature down to 0 if I can keep on target. You very much can cool your ship with thermal vent. Not tried it on turrets though.

How recently have you tested this?

Since 2.3.something I haven't been able to get below base, non-firing, heat.

 

[kurush]

Yeah "boring laz0r'vette".

It is not boring, it is hassle-free. Just fly around and press the space bar from time to time, see enemies die.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

I used thermal vent on my C3 beam for the first time in 2.3.02 with the aim to ditch heatsinks and use my SCB during opportune beam-laser moments (usually when the AI is chaffing).

Whilst I could never get my heat to decrease below the base heat, I did notice that the 7A SCB only took me to 105% heat when firing the beam, rather than about 125% heat when not.

I have no idea how heat is actually calculated in elite, because it's yet another hand-wavy stat that every weapon has, but Fdev have not explained in game or on here, from what I can see.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

It is not boring, it is hassle-free. Just fly around and press the space bar from time to time, see enemies die.

My definition of boring is having to interrupt the pew-pew fun I'm having to deal with supercruise, docking, some slow+laggy menus, some unskippable hangar animations, more supercruise, and then the tedium of waiting for the new instance to become suitably populated with targets again. Sythesis avoids this but just postpones the boredom because at some point you have to drive around on a beige wasteland shooting rocks repeatedly.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

How recently have you tested this?

Since 2.3.something I haven't been able to get below base, non-firing, heat.

Last week.

 

[Morbad]

Last week.

Interesting. How long did it take to cool the ship?

 

[CMDR Corlas]

Interesting. How long did it take to cool the ship?

Let's see... Just re-equipped them on my Assault Ship. Running a 5A power plant with a 15% thermal efficiency bonus. Lasers have a G1 long-range mod. 21.79 MW deployed, but that's with an AMFU I otherwise turn off and some other items that disable with hardpoints deployed.

Idle traveling speed in realspace is at 26%... Maneuvering around an RES averages between 30% and 40%.

Hard to judge in combat when no big slow targets are spawning right now, but I went from 30% heat to 9% in about 10 seconds of firing on an FDL from 2 - 3km out, before I screwed up my aim and missed.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

I'm running with (all gimballed)

one large emissive long range pulse laser
one medium scramble spectrum long range burst laser
one medium phasing sequence long range burst laser
two small efficient thermal vent beam lasers
one huge corrosive overcharged multicannon
one huge autoloader overcharged multicannon

It's not the fastest killer, but has pinpoint accuracy at good range and the guns' distributor draw is jast below distributor recharge, if I only fire the lasers vs shields. Can fire non-stop and reliably kill everything from SLF to the big three, PvE only.

 

[Decoy_Raven]

2x C4 Long Range Pulse Laser, 2x C1 Long Range Cascade Railguns, Rest Overcharged Frag Cannons (one corrosive ofc). All hardpoints should be fixed.

This was originally a tip from Rinzler in a similar thread, and more of a PvP build but the setup is fun in PvE imo. Cascade works great against NPC Cutters and with long range lasers you can claim kills 6km away in CZs. Shotguns are great for when you ram bigger ships, you can basically slap them and "hold" them while you execute them with your shotguns.

 

[EvE4evah]

I just use my PvP setup for PvE, with no alterations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niinmzd3N3o

In general, I use consumables, including ammo, very sparingly against NPCs as I like to be prepared for hostile CMDRs at all times.

I just can't do that with a DS4 controller ;(

BTW Morbad, could you tell me how you've modded those huge fixed beams of yours?

 

[Van R Flyheight]

2 class 4 "efficient" beam lasers (no ammo for the big guns so they never run out)
2 class 2 & 2 class 1 "efficient" multicannons (efficient is a theme here, not the most exciting but the capacitor never runs out, Hollywood style)
1 class 3 corrosive multicannon (I find the lower class 3 doesn't fire as often so it's always the last one to run out)

That's my loadout. I don't claim it's the best but I did jiggle around a bit before I arrived here so I'm quite happy with it.

 

[XW_Ziggy]

BTW Morbad, could you tell me how you've modded those huge fixed beams of yours?

Based on his low heat when firing and WEP capacitor draw, those are definitely efficient beams, probably both with thermal vent.

 

[khaos526]

Looking at all these suggestions and I'm probably going to go with either A or B

A) 2x Huge overcharged MC's (one corrosive, one autoload)
5x efficient turreted beams (few with Therm Vent)

or

B) 2x Huge Turreted efficient Beams (Thermal Vent)
5x MC's (one being corrosive and others autoload)

I will probably have to try each one out though...

 

[ForeverN00b]

Looking at all these suggestions and I'm probably going to go with either A or B

A) 2x Huge overcharged MC's (one corrosive, one autoload)
5x efficient turreted beams (few with Therm Vent)

or

B) 2x Huge Turreted efficient Beams (Thermal Vent)
5x MC's (one being corrosive and others autoload)

I will probably have to try each one out though...

They don't make huge turreted weps AFAIK. Which is good, because it would be a royal waste of the 2 huge HPs of the vette.

If you are going to do a MC/laser mix, I highly recommend 2 huge MCs and have your smaller hardpoints be lasers. Larger MCs have more penetrating power and thus scale well against larger ship hulls. Lasers don't vary in penetration relative to size, so they are more optimal in the smaller hardpoints in my opinion.

Edit: Huge MCs don't have a firing delay, while medium and large ones do. This is a nice quality of life upgrade for huge multicannons, another reason I recommend them on the vette (over huge lasers).

 

[Morbad]

BTW Morbad, could you tell me how you've modded those huge fixed beams of yours?

Based on his low heat when firing and WEP capacitor draw, those are definitely efficient beams, probably both with thermal vent.

Correct.

Specifically, I spun them for moderate damage increasing secondaries and the secondary effect combo that reduces capacitor drain at the cost of increased power consumption. They are fairly exceptional rolls at this point as I've had them a long time and throw all the efficient 5 mats I get in their direction.

Both are each 46+ DPS with sub 4.9MW cap drain and still low enough power consumption to work with an armored PP and the rest of my loadout. By themselves they can be fired almost indefinitely with 3.5 WEP pips.