Ships Cobra-III build advice?

[NorthernDevo]

o7 folks - I've loved the classic Cobra since '84; one of my biggest delights in ED was that the legendary ship is so beautifully rendered.
Naturally, over time I moved on and went bigger, up to the 'Vette, then settled on the Krait.

Just in the past couple of days though I've been dragging the tarp off my luvverly Screaming Weasel and been having a blast in the local High-RES trying out new toys and loadouts.
I've currently got a 4A Prismatic on her (thanks to the Blue-haired Bunnykins) delivered just this morning, Rails all around for aim practice*, some basic engineering. Here's the current build: just made up from whatever parts and blueprints I had on the Carrier at the time:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

EDIT: Just fixed the Coriolis build; that was an earlier one.
(*I'm FINALLY getting away from gimbals and working on fixed weaponry.)

Obviously she needs a lot of work; I'm trying to develop her into a fun little toy with separate loadouts for PvP and PvE. I'm also working on a significant shift in combat philosophy, away from my usual MC/SCB builds and attempting to develop my accuracy and close-fighting skills, which are sorely lacking.
Things tried so far: PA2's w/ FC1's, both fixed - not bad, no charge delay on the PA's but I can't hit the broad side of a barn with them yet lol (assuming the barn is moving.) Rails are MUCH nicer but the charge delay is a bit bothersome - though I'm starting to hit my smaller targets now.
Tried Rail2's with gimballed MC1's - not bad but lousy DPS. I'll try Pack Hounds when I get them - a month away lol but other than that, not had much practice with missiles and I'm still keeping away from lasers ATM. No real reason; I'll start working with them a bit more.

Any tips?

BTW - here's a pic of my lovely li'l bus:

Thanks!

 

[Mr T]

Will you not be doing engineering on it?
What about a kill warrant scanner?

 

[Madrax573]

Fancy Shields on a Cobra III aren't worth it IMO. Just whack some class 4 BiWeaves on there and be done with it. Fully armoured up you'll still easily pull 600m/s under boost.

I'd move away from fixed weapons on the smalls as they are so far apart (The cobra isn't really that small) it'll be hard to get them both to hit the target.

 

[efoo]

No fuel scoop? Need your FC to ferry it?

 

[NorthernDevo]

Fancy Shields on a Cobra III aren't worth it IMO. Just whack some class 4 BiWeaves on there and be done with it. Fully armoured up you'll still easily pull 600m/s under boost.

I'd move away from fixed weapons on the smalls as they are so far apart (The cobra isn't really that small) it'll be hard to get them both to hit the target.

OK thanks. I was thinking about that at work and was wondering about the combo of Med rails (or Gauss Cannons) and Small gimballed beams with Thermal - partly for that precise reason (I could only hit a small ship with 3 of 4 rounds), and for heat control on the mains. Never tried it and will give it a shot.
Good advice on the shield - I was thinking either going with the Bi-Weave and size-4 SCB or keeping the Prismatic and and G5'ing some Hull reinforcement there.
The Prismatic sure helped in a test fight against a Dangerous Python with beams and rails, but the cheaper option is probably the better go.

No fuel scoop? Need your FC to ferry it?

She has a decent range for around the bubble, but rather than being a bubble taxi I plan to use her more for RES and mission-board work specialized strictly for combat - so basically yes, or simply station-hopping.

Will you not be doing engineering on it?
What about a kill warrant scanner?

She does have some Engineering; basically what I had laying around at the time. My plan is to try different things out to get a build I like and then G5 it up to those requirements.
I know I need to upgrade those sensors - I chose the lower set because I hadn't upgraded the PD and was out of power.

Thanks for the help folks, it's greatly appreciated.

 

[sinisalo]

I know I need to upgrade those sensors - I chose the lower set because I hadn't upgraded the PD and was out of power.

I suggest actually downgrading them. G3 Long Range D-rated sensors are the sweet spot for me. You will gain 5 m/s, drop the power draw slightly.

Speaking of power.... the deployed number is 118%. Are you able to cover that with module priorities? Seems too much, especially with so few optionals that can be shut down. Can't turn off a HRP.

 

[Madrax573]

OK thanks. I was thinking about that at work and was wondering about the combo of Med rails (or Gauss Cannons) and Small gimballed beams with Thermal - partly for that precise reason (I could only hit a small ship with 3 of 4 rounds), and for heat control on the mains. Never tried it and will give it a shot.
Good advice on the shield - I was thinking either going with the Bi-Weave and size-4 SCB or keeping the Prismatic and and G5'ing some Hull reinforcement there.
The Prismatic sure helped in a test fight against a Dangerous Python with beams and rails, but the cheaper option is probably the better go.


She has a decent range for around the bubble, but rather than being a bubble taxi I plan to use her more for RES and mission-board work specialized strictly for combat - so basically yes, or simply station-hopping.

She does have some Engineering; basically what I had laying around at the time. My plan is to try different things out to get a build I like and then G5 it up to those requirements.
I know I need to upgrade those sensors - I chose the lower set because I hadn't upgraded the PD and was out of power.

Thanks for the help folks, it's greatly appreciated.

Thermal vent beams can drop your temp quite nicely. I often have a small thermal vent beam even on my bigger ships to help out with heat restrictive weapons. Just make sure that you don't make your beams 'efficient' as the thermal venting as you want to generate heat to push to your target. My go to is long range gr1 just to remove falloff. It's the single biggest dps increase to lasers if you can't guarantee keeping within the ridiculously short optimal range, and the DPS dictates how much heat you vent.

To me doing any shield tanking in the Cobra III is bit of a waste of modules tbh. I stick an engineered 4BW on there and be done with it. It has such a bad shield modifier it's only really to stop the first few hits so you can set up your maneuvers to start avoiding damage as much as possible. The CIII is one of the few ship I tell people to make sure is pointed at the incoming fire as it's profile is so flat and cockpit window relatively small (unlike Lakons for eg) that you can avoid a lot of damage like that.

I generally don't bother with a fuels scoop on CIII's in the bubble as it has enough range to get most places, and the odd detour slightly to refuel at a station/outpost breaks up the gameplay with a bit more organic play for me.