Advice please on PvE combat ship

[Bigmaec]

My Vulture on PS4 is G5, but my Vulture on PC is not, as I haven't unlocked most of the engineers yet. The only thing G5 is my FSD which I share with my Dolphin. I've got G3 efficient beams, a G1 armored PP, a G3 biweave shield, a G0 military hull, a couple of OC shield boosters, etc.

Even so, I can clear a CZ as long as I'm careful. And Thargoid Scouts? Easy-peasy!

Obviously skill does play a role in what we can do with a specific ship and build.

Thank god I have all g5'd so i won't need skill any more

 

[Old Duck]

Thank god I have all g5'd so i won't need skill any more

You really have become a griefer!

 

[mpfj]

Many thanks for all the pointers.

I might buy all three (Krait, Phantom and Cheiftan) and take them out for a spin ... I did that with Vulture vs DFS vs FAS and decided the Vulture suited me better.

According to INARA, here's my current engineer info:-

Spoiler

Engineer access: Zacariah Nemo Discovered
Engineer access: Marco Qwent Discovered
Engineer access: Tod "The Blaster" McQuinn Invited
Engineer access: Marsha Hicks Invited
Engineer access: Lei Cheung Grade 5 access
Engineer access: Felicity Farseer Invited
Engineer access: Elvira Martuuk Grade 5 access
Engineer access: The Dweller Grade 4 access
Engineer access: Liz Ryder Discovered
Engineer access: Mel Brandon Discovered

Beluga. 4k armor unengineered at the turn rate of a medium ship. 5 medium hardpoints and a fighter will get any ship over with, and ramming is effective too

That's certainly piqued my interest ,,, would be my kind of fun to get to Elite Combat using a cruise liner

Hey @mpfj do you have guardian stuff?

Nope ... afraid I've no interest in any of the "bug hunting"

 

[Bigmaec]

Ah, with those infos I think you're good. You can build a good shielded ship with a good distributor, so I'll agree, try the Kraits and the chief and use what suits you best. Just skip the SLF, I had it falsely in my build but the SLF costs you half the experience, so double the time.

 

[Ashnak]

For PvE outside of CZs (I'm not into PvP that much), my preferred weapons are Pacifiers, so I want/need a ship with as many L hardpoints as possible. Krait Mk II fits that bill.
Second choice would be my Mamba - only two Pacs, but the Huge MC in the top HP is simply fun.
From the Alliance ships, only the Chieftain offers two L HPs, but not much more besides.

 

[Northpin]

I'm Elite Trader and Elite Explorer but only 1% Deadly Combat.
After a year out exploring, I've just bumped my cash reserves from 900MCr to 7.2BCr

Having not done any PvE combat for quite a while (18 months+) can anyone offer some advice on what ship / loadout / etc I should aim for so I can have fun with the final 99% to get to Elite Combat.
My current combat ship is an A-rated non-engineered Vulture.

I'm really not interested in RNGeers (I've unlocked a few to assist in my exploration build) but could be persuaded it if will increase the fun.

I don't want to slog through the last bit but neither do I want to find it too easy, so any advice would be greatly appreciated

If you just want the Elite rank in combat, unlock some guardian stuff then prep a krait mk2 and kill some 2000 thargoid scouts.
It may work even without guardian hrp/mrp, but guardian shield boosters really help if no engineering

IF you want to have fun in CZ, you need a heavily engineered ship. Them NPC's are happly flying those engineered ships and will make your CZ adventures quite painfull

 

[Ashnak]

Nope ... afraid I've no interest in any of the "bug hunting"

Guardian stuff also includes FSD, shield, hull boosters. No need to go bug hunting for any of those. I like the Guardian shield boosters in my (shield tanking. kinetic weapon) combat ships.

 

[Aashenfox]

Depends where you're using it. If you have assistance from NPCs then the shields don't really matter. If you're soloing everything then stuff like the Chieftan line and the Federal ships should be avoided due to their crappy shields. Good mission and duelling ships, but bad sustained combat ships.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you know something I don't, despite how unlikely that is, so... Go clear a medium cz with spec ops kills in your favorite combat ship, time yourself. If it's less than 12 mins I will need video proof. Now consider I can do it, in the chieftain, solo, without losing my BIWEAVE shield once in 8m45s, and that's not even the squadron record, which is 8m23s by @Camisade (we take this stuff THAT seriously). The thread asked for THE most effective combat ship. For me most effective means solo killing the most npcs in the fastest possible time. Believe me, that's the chieftain. If your approximately 610mj biweave (if your ship is built correctly) goes down at any time in pve, that is 100% on you, I would have to be extremely careless to lose that shield and even if I did, the npcs would not get more than 5% off my massive 4252hp hull before the shield was back up in exactly 1 minute.

 

[Aashenfox]

Here's a quick demonstration of the destructive power that is the Krait mk2... And imagine... The chieftain is even faster...

Source: https://youtu.be/R2DdeRyD7zw

 

[Stealthie]

I'm Elite Trader and Elite Explorer but only 1% Deadly Combat.

.........

I don't want to slog through the last bit but neither do I want to find it too easy, so any advice would be greatly appreciated

It sounds like you're actually asking how to achieve Elite combat rank rather than asking about getting involved in combat for any tangible purpose.

If that's the case, the simplest way is probably just to bung some guns on a Krait and go and explode Belugas at tourist beacons.
If you're feeling adventurous, fit some Collector controllers and scoop up the mat's they drop.

On a similar note, you can go and shoot baby Thargoids instead, but they tend to shoot back.

OTOH, if you're genuinely interested in combat, itself, then you really need to explain what sort of stuff you want to get involved with.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you know something I don't, despite how unlikely that is, so... Go clear a medium cz with spec ops kills in your favorite combat ship, time yourself. If it's less than 12 mins I will need video proof. Now consider I can do it, in the chieftain, solo, without losing my BIWEAVE shield once in 8m45s, and that's not even the squadron record, which is 8m23s by @Camisade (we take this stuff THAT seriously). The thread asked for THE most effective combat ship. For me most effective means solo killing the most npcs in the fastest possible time. Believe me, that's the chieftain. If your approximately 610mj biweave (if your ship is built correctly) goes down at any time in pve, that is 100% on you, I would have to be extremely careless to lose that shield and even if I did, the npcs would not get more than 5% off my massive 4252hp hull before the shield was back up in exactly 1 minute.

I'm not sure that speedrunning spec ops has anything to do with the OPs question. But that is pretty impressive.

 

[Aashenfox]

I'm not sure that speedrunning has anything to do with the OPs question. But that is pretty impressive.

Effectiveness. It's what I'm all about. Pve, pvp, in the bedroom. Effectiveness.

 

[jasonbarron]

Effectiveness. It's what I'm all about. Pve, pvp, in the bedroom. Effectiveness.

Try to get it done as quick as possible in the CZ and the bedroom, eh CMDR? How do you advise engineering your hard point for that?

 

[CMDR Big Mike]

My Scout Shredder (Krait Mk II w/ AX multicannon turrets as primary AX weapon):

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

For scout killing I like to use 2 turreted AX MCs in large HPs and 2 guardian gauss in the medium. I usually do this to warm up before interceptor hunting ( I switch the turrets for fixed shard for that)

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Effectiveness. It's what I'm all about. Pve, pvp, in the bedroom. Effectiveness.

Mm, lots of us are fairly casual. OP himself hasn't engineered anything. So from a casual's perspective and skill level (speaking for myself) those hulltank ships just aren't built for sustained PVE. Too many trips back to repair. For me, a PVE ship would be something with good shields and won't run dry on ammo.

Ship advice should always take into account player skill/commitment level etc. I'd go with the Krait as well. Nice and fast, fun to fly, and pew pews well for a casual player.

 

[Aashenfox]

Try to get it done as quick as possible in the CZ and the bedroom, eh CMDR? How do you advise engineering your hard point for that?

Heavy duty, for sure. When you're as fast as me, you need the 'hull' resistance.

 

[jasonbarron]

Heavy duty, for sure. When you're as fast as me, you need the 'hull' resistance.

I bet your partner thinks you're a griefer!

 

[Aashenfox]

Mm, lots of us are fairly casual. OP himself hasn't engineered anything. So from a casual's perspective and skill level (speaking for myself) those hulltank ships just aren't built for sustained PVE. Too many trips back to repair. For me, a PVE ship would be something with good shields and won't run dry on ammo.

Ship advice should always take into account player skill/commitment level etc. I'd go with the Krait as well. Nice and fast, fun to fly, and pew pews well for a casual player.

Well, since we're on the subject of experience levels, all the advice about thargoid scouts is a little moot, without hull engineering he'll get rekt in seconds. I believe that the opposite of what you say is the case. You explain to people why the best is the best and leave them to make a path to it in their own time.

If we're talking non engineered, no ranks, no PP unlocks, then it has to be a full pulse laser Anaconda. It would be the only thing with enough combined dpe and dps to get anything done.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Well, since we're on the subject of experience levels, all the advice about thargoid scouts is a little moot, without hull engineering he'll get rekt in seconds. I believe that the opposite of what you say is the case. You explain to people why the best is the best and leave them to make a path to it in their own time.

If we're talking non engineered, no ranks, no PP unlocks, then it has to be a full pulse laser Anaconda. It would be the only thing with enough combined dpe and dps to get anything done.

There's a case for telling people what the actual best is, like I'm now viewing my Challenger a little differently and wondering how it's possible to fly it without losing shields being a normal thing.

I've tried a laser Conda and it was pretty good, although the dps dropped off hard against other Condas.

 

[Aashenfox]

There's a case for telling people what the actual best is, like I'm now viewing my Challenger a little differently and wondering how it's possible to fly it without losing shields being a normal thing.

I've tried a laser Conda and it was pretty good, although the dps dropped off hard against other Condas.

As you no doubt realize, I'm an end game minmaxer, I can't think any other way, it's difficult to even remember what the unengineered base stats are on most of the ships. My favorite ship is the challenger, I just love the tanky ones. It's not quite as effective as a chieftain offensively (not far off though), but it is far stronger defensively. This does absolutely require shield, booster, bulkhead and hull engineering though, otherwise, as others have said, the initial shield values of the alliance ships are very low. Since you anyway have a challenger, I would urge you to persevere with it, bearing in mind that 90% of the modules are transferable to the slightly more offensive, more agile chieftain if you ever do want to make the switch. The main trick to not dying in pve is pip management, but focusing on unlocking Lei Cheung (laksak), didi vatermann (leesti) and Selene Jean (kuk), will certainly ensure that you are never ever killed by an npc again.

I'll pm you my challenger build.