Ships First Try FDL Combat

Here is my first attempt at engineering my FDL. Please help me get this right. General combat role.

 
I presume this is for PvE. First of all leave corrosive shell on one multi-cannon because its effect does not stack. One point defence for a manoeuvrable ship is probably enough - (also NPCs don't use missiles that much), you could replace the second one with a shield booster and put one more shield booster in the free utility slot. Play around with the heavy duty/resistance augmented combination to find the best balance between base shield strength and resistances. I would also recommend installing a prismatic shield generator and engineering it for heavy duty and hi-cap for increase shield strength. The rest seems okay, you might want to engineer the armour to heavy duty instead because if I remember correctly NPCs usually switch to kinetic weapons once your shields are down.
 
Well beams on a fdl isn't my cuppa tea.
Prefer all rails and a gimballed multicannon or beam thermally vented.
But this is my beast all purpose killer.


The shields recharge very quick hehehe
Also l have a carrier so jump range isn't an issue
 
NPCs tend to use lasers, so I'd go for thermal resist on the boosters. Also efficient thermal vent on the lasers and one corrosive on the MC
 
TBH I prefer the Mamba all the weapon hardpoints on top and no annoying asymmetrical cockpit and bar, this is a general purpose PVE build I use https://s.orbis.zone/87so

The class five shield and class 6 PD are a bit limiting compared to the Kraits and Pythons but you can't have everything I guess ;)
 
A few things I’d suggest
1) Hull....
If you are using Reactive - go for Heavy Duty & Deep Plate
Plug the Thermal hole with a size 1 HRM with Thermal & Deep Plate (Ditch the supercruise & docking computer)
The overall boost will be significant
2) Shields = where an FDL shines.
Once you can engineer the shield if it’s for PvE go
—> Bi-Weave - Thermal & Fast Charge with 4 if not 5 Shield Boosters!
Three Resistance Augmented (May need Flow Control) and Two Heavy Duty.
3) Other Utility = Chaff, not point defence.
If you are running 4 Shield Boosters, take 2 chaff....

4) Weapons - MCannon should be on the Huge (and maybe 1 of the Medium). Corrosive on 1 MCannon
Then the rest should be Long Range Pulse Lasers (1 with Emissive the rest Oversized)
Gimballed vs Fixed is up to you. Fixed = more damage if you have mastered flying!

The idea here is your long range pulse lasers take down the shields and your Corrosive Huge MCannon melts the hull.
 

Trying to get my ideas down into a build....
DOI.....I fly a Vulture, so my build is not based on direct experience. Look at the difference in Shield & Hull here though. Plus the weapon choices make more sense?
 

Trying to get my ideas down into a build....
DOI.....I fly a Vulture, so my build is not based on direct experience. Look at the difference in Shield & Hull here though. Plus the weapon choices make more sense?
Carrying a shield cell bank, without carrying heat sink launcher or beam laser with thermal vent, won't you cause overheating damage to your own ship every time you launch a shield cell bank?
 
For a few seconds....you will take like 1% Hull damage
if that’s unappealing replace it with a Guardian Shield Reinforcement 🤷‍♂️
 
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What about weapons? I propose 1 X MC with increased capacity and corrosive EE and 1 X MC with overcharged incendiary? The lasers are 3 X beam lasers with 1 X huge effcient oversized and 2 X effcient thermal vent?
 
What about weapons? I propose 1 X MC with increased capacity and corrosive EE and 1 X MC with overcharged incendiary? The lasers are 3 X beam lasers with 1 X huge effcient oversized and 2 X effcient thermal vent?
Looks good to me. Balanced against both shields and hull - the multi/laser loadout is popular. Try these weapons in action first before touching engineering to see if you like how they perform in combat zones, haz res sites, etc.. and if they fit your style go for it. There's nothing worse than wasting lots of mats on something you won't like.
 
What about weapons? I propose 1 X MC with increased capacity and corrosive EE and 1 X MC with overcharged incendiary? The lasers are 3 X beam lasers with 1 X huge effcient oversized and 2 X effcient thermal vent?

With 3 beams you already have enough thermal damage. You may be better off replacing the incendiary with auto loader. Looks pretty balanced overall and should serve you well in PvE.
 
any thoughts on these weapons?

for pve, use what you like best.

as for pvp ... use what you like best! :D

okay, some frequent combos
pvp 3 pa + 2 rails
pve 1 huge fixed beam + 4 gimballed multis (not best efficiency for larger ships because of size penalty for projectiles, but still a solid all purpose combo)
or full fixed/gimbal multi/pulse

and just to add to your confusion: i currently use this (i don't do separate pve/pvp builds except if it's for some tournament or such. i always compromise)


and, yes, it isn't tanky, nor shieldy. for me that's nonsense. why should i allow people to be shooting at me? if i'm soaking damage i'm in the wrong place anyway, whatever the situation is (cz turning on me, focused by a wing, against someone more maneuverable than me, ...) the right thing to do isn't staying there soaking up damage but moving my butt accordingly so it doesn't happen or else get the fig out of there :D

just one thing. never EVER put frag cannons on a fdl. that's a disgusting noob weapon. save it for the cutter.
 
What about armour?
I would recommend getting the reactive surface composite and engineering it for heavy duty and deep plating. Your only weak spot will be thermal resistance, but NPCs tend to use a combination of kinetic and explosive weapons once shields are down anyway, so you won't be at a disadvantage. If you want to balance out the thermal resistance you could add a hull reinforcement package engineered for thermal resistance but that isn't really necessary in my opinion.
 
and HRP modules?
You could replace the FSD booster in your build for a hull reinforcement package engineered for heavy duty and with a deep plating experimental effect. Even better if you moved the fuel scoop down to the size 2 slot and installed two heavy duty + deep plated hull reinforcement packages for extra armour.
 
For PvE:
With the weapons you have on it and leaving the scoop and booster to be more mobile I would do this: https://is.gd/lG9bvT
You could also go for all dakka and put 5 MCs on it: https://is.gd/WjSpoL, the positive for this build is less distro draw from weapons, but you will have to rearm more often.
Change the power plant from oc to armored, use oc only if you can't get everything powered with armored. Armored runs not only cooler but also has a much higher integrity.

If the shield goes down turn the HD boosters off and use it as a 570MJ ship. The shields should come back up in a little over a min. Low-draw on the shield might be an alternative if you see the sys cap empty all the time. Later on you could replace the huge MC with an efficient PA to practice with fixed weapons.

For armor keep the lightweight alloy with HD + deep plating, it's half the rebuy and also much faster. You can substitute the scoop and booster for an HRP and MRP if needed, https://is.gd/YrgWO6.
 
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