Yes they are one of the easiest things to engineer. But if your like me and engineer specific ships and don't module swap.....it gets old after engineering the 20th HRP lol.HRPs are one of the wonderfully easy things to engineer in this game. You always want Heavy Duty deep plating bulkheads unless you have a major weight issue (and even if you do, it's usually still optimal), and heavy duty deep plating HRPs. There is only one exemption to that, and that is if you use Reactive Bulkheads, you might consider making the smallest HRP a thermal resist, however, I tend not to bother due to the low prevalence of lasers in pvp, while in pve, they tend to use lasers on shields and kinetic on hulls, so still the thermal is of little value. I used to do this (a single thermal resist), but I don't any more, the raw armor and extra kinetic resist is usually worth more overall (due to no diminishing returns on pure armor).
P.S. This is for all situations, across the board, not just CZs.
Best armour mod for combat zones?
- Thread starter zipline
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I only have 2 size 5 HRPs, I could add a 3rd if needed, but why would I need to up the thermal if NPCs mainly use kinetic once shields are down?
Thanks cmdr, that's a lot of G5 heavy duty gear! I only have my hull and 2 size 5 HRPs at G1 heavy duty as I haven't quite finished unlocking the G5 engineer, I may have been imagining it, but my phantom was already feeling a tad sluggish with just that, so how does yours fly with that extra weight?
And this is what I am finding. I need to stay on my target just a little longer to finish the job and collect the bond but my shields are usually down by then as they always call their mates over when they're in trouble, but if I bug out I end up missing out on the bond. I was down to 3% hull the other day before getting out by the skin of my teeth, that feels like a little too close to the edge! I am currently G1 heavy duty on my hull and 2 HRPs ... so will I see a big difference when I up all that to G5?
Yep, only own one ship and trying to 'git gud' in it for everything.
Thanks cmdr, I've got 2 size 3 MRPs, pity you can't engineer them, is that enuff?
I was going to use that slot for the supercruise assist to get me into CZs quicker!
MRPs do stack, but what I do is do some combat and afterwards check the MRP for damage %. If you are not using an MRP (i.e. its not touched) then its a wasted slot. In my Corvette I had 2 and dropped it down to one in the end and crammed in more HRP since my hull gets hit more. I'd also be wary of overengineering your powerplant too- at G5 overcharged makes them like glass.
Coriolis tells me that a Phantom with vanilla MGC armor has integrity of 630.
G1 HD increases that to 706 or 762 with DP.
G5 HD is 832 and is 898 with DP.
For comparison, a single 5D HRP will give you an extra 390 integrity, moving up to an extra 738 with G5 HD + DP.
In a nutshell, it seems like you've got a LOT of scope for improvement on what you currently have.
Thing is, the Kraits aren't exactly terrific fighty ships.
The sort of mod's you need to do to the Phantom will make it okay but a similarly modded Python would be significantly better.
Did you post up a build of your ship as it currently is?
If not, people will be able to provide more specific advice if you do.
Personally, I'd always try to improve the shield before accepting that it's going to get broken and then taking damage while trying to get the kill.
Lastly, if you're really struggling in CZs, or you're struggling to obtain mat's to complete upgrades, I'm currently on my way back from Colonia and should be back in the bubble by tomorrow.
If you want to hook up and go blow some stuff up, either for practice or for mat's, shoot me a PM and we can work something out.
This is true but some ai ships only have lasers, so some thermal resist is needed. To be honest, in that case, id go with military bulkheads with heavy duty layered plating, and heavy duty layered plating on both the hrps. At least the resistance will be somewhat balanced. It's not ideal but it's the best you can do with so few hrps in play.
It flys just fine. I have another build that uses lightweight engineering on reactive armor to get a 575 boost speed but even at 565mps you're faster than any other popular pvp ship. There's only a couple ships that can keep up with you.
Why would you have him downgrade to from reactive to military grade? That seems rather silly.
Heavy duty with one thermal resistant hrp yields a higher armor rating and better resistances.
I mean if you're running a stripped out ship for running around, sure, but the OP is talking about combat zones so I would hope they have some HRP's on board.
Thanks cmdr, no I haven't posted my build as I just had to hard reset my tablet and have lost all my stuff and tablet still poorly! I had 6a shields reinforced to g5 but swapped to bi-weaves with thermal resist and fast charge and I am loving them. Dirty drives, charge enhanced dist and armoured pp, power to spare. As you say, I think moving the hull and HRPs up to g5 will make a big difference and may even be enuff, but I may leave the fuel scoop or guardian fsd boost at home and add another HRP with some thermal resist. Would love to hook up but on ps4 solo ... refuse to pay Sony to use my own broadband!Coriolis tells me that a Phantom with vanilla MGC armor has integrity of 630.
G1 HD increases that to 706 or 762 with DP.
G5 HD is 832 and is 898 with DP.
For comparison, a single 5D HRP will give you an extra 390 integrity, moving up to an extra 738 with G5 HD + DP.
In a nutshell, it seems like you've got a LOT of scope for improvement on what you currently have.
Thing is, the Kraits aren't exactly terrific fighty ships.
The sort of mod's you need to do to the Phantom will make it okay but a similarly modded Python would be significantly better.
Did you post up a build of your ship as it currently is?
If not, people will be able to provide more specific advice if you do.
Personally, I'd always try to improve the shield before accepting that it's going to get broken and then taking damage while trying to get the kill.
Lastly, if you're really struggling in CZs, or you're struggling to obtain mat's to complete upgrades, I'm currently on my way back from Colonia and should be back in the bubble by tomorrow.
If you want to hook up and go blow some stuff up, either for practice or for mat's, shoot me a PM and we can work something out.
I stated why in the post, it's not silly at all. If you only have two hrps, your choices are reactive with thermal reflective, or military with heavy duty layered. Given the cost of reactive and the mats to suboptimally engineer it (thermal resist is suboptimal in 90% of cases, as you correctly state yourself, so I would balk at applying this engineering in such a niche case), I'd go with the military option for pve. If he already has reactive, sure, thermal resist reflective plating, but the military option is not far off, a touch more absolute armor, 600 loss of kinetic and explosive, nearly 1000 gain on thermal. It's swings and roundabouts, so as I say, I'd take the cheaper option for pve given the choice. Going slightly back on what I said earlier, the thermal resist will actually be quite useful in CZs as the AI spams a lot of railguns and few missiles.
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hehe, tell me about it...
Vette - 7 HRPs
Challenger - 6 HRPs
Chieftain - 5 HRPs
Krait - 5 HRPs
FGS - 5 HRPs
Python - 4 HRPs
FDL - 2 HRPs
Vulture - 1 HRP
That's the current stock... 35 HRPs in my fleet. All g5 heavy duty deep plating except 5 which are size 2 thermal resist deep plating.
Seems I am missing a trick here, I may drop all my nice-to-have core internals and just fill up the slots with HRPs and a few MRPs, is that what combat cmdrs are doing?
Well....there's a topic for further debate...
You see I am what is known as a minmaxer, as are all the people who have pressed like on my posts. We subscribe to a school of theorycrafting that ignores material costs, ignores QoL and focuses on the goal (survival). Many will take a ship to a CZ with a docking computer, a fuel scoop and all that other completely unnecessary, but nice-to-have stuff. They may well be able to complete the scenario easily as well (I think I could, even in my trade python!) The only difference is that when they get focused by all 4 spec ops ships, they are going to be in some trouble. It does happen and the way to get them off you is to fly through the middle of the melee so that some of them peel off and attack what they perceive to be higher priority targets (your CZ mates), but in that time you will take heavy damage. That's the reason I go full combat heavy, no wasted modules at all, so that there is nothing that can possibly 'go wrong', I can tank all 4 spec ops ships for a good 6 minutes in my challenger.
I could slap a prismatic, 3 boosters and a chaff on my python and clear a CZ just as easily as I do in my pvp challenger, BUT, if I get in trouble and make a mistake and shields go down, I WILL be forced to leave. A good hybrid Challenger/Krait/Chieftain, LOADED as mine are, with defense as much as possible, can keep fighting shields down, until 10% hull. You just don't think about hte shields any more, they cease to be shields and become a 'heal' that you get every 45 seconds (45 sec recovery is the time to aim for on a biweave shield, maybe a bit less for pve if you can).
For me it's about comfort and knowing that I can stay all day, and there is literally nothing that can kill me. But more than anything else? It;s about purpose. I fill it with maximum armor because I can, because I like seeing massive numbers, I like being utterly indestructible and knowing I'm 'optimal'. But that's my way of life, I'm in this game for the shipbuildingn and theorycrafting as much as I am for flying them. My idea of 'optimal' is rightly, many people's idea of 'massive overkill'.
You see I am what is known as a minmaxer, as are all the people who have pressed like on my posts. We subscribe to a school of theorycrafting that ignores material costs, ignores QoL and focuses on the goal (survival). Many will take a ship to a CZ with a docking computer, a fuel scoop and all that other completely unnecessary, but nice-to-have stuff. They may well be able to complete the scenario easily as well (I think I could, even in my trade python!) The only difference is that when they get focused by all 4 spec ops ships, they are going to be in some trouble. It does happen and the way to get them off you is to fly through the middle of the melee so that some of them peel off and attack what they perceive to be higher priority targets (your CZ mates), but in that time you will take heavy damage. That's the reason I go full combat heavy, no wasted modules at all, so that there is nothing that can possibly 'go wrong', I can tank all 4 spec ops ships for a good 6 minutes in my challenger.
I could slap a prismatic, 3 boosters and a chaff on my python and clear a CZ just as easily as I do in my pvp challenger, BUT, if I get in trouble and make a mistake and shields go down, I WILL be forced to leave. A good hybrid Challenger/Krait/Chieftain, LOADED as mine are, with defense as much as possible, can keep fighting shields down, until 10% hull. You just don't think about hte shields any more, they cease to be shields and become a 'heal' that you get every 45 seconds (45 sec recovery is the time to aim for on a biweave shield, maybe a bit less for pve if you can).
For me it's about comfort and knowing that I can stay all day, and there is literally nothing that can kill me. But more than anything else? It;s about purpose. I fill it with maximum armor because I can, because I like seeing massive numbers, I like being utterly indestructible and knowing I'm 'optimal'. But that's my way of life, I'm in this game for the shipbuildingn and theorycrafting as much as I am for flying them. My idea of 'optimal' is rightly, many people's idea of 'massive overkill'.
On a related note... A-Rate Life Support is, imo, mandatory. that 5m vs 25m you when your canopy pops is the difference between winning the CZ and having to flee.