Newcomer / Intro Need advice on combat ship

[tolm]

I’ve had a few PvE combat ships and am far from an “accomplished pilot”. With appropriate engineering it really doesn’t matter what you pick: within reason, of course. Whilst some folks can probably take on an Elite wing in a Vulture, I would likely come out in more than one piece …

I think the “best compromise” for me of agility vs firepower vs survivability is probably the Chieftain: 6C BiWeave shields for protection; 2xC1 LR Beams + 1xC2 LR Beam for stripping shields; 2xC3 OC MultiCannon + 1xC1 MultiCannon with Corrosive and you can obliterate anything whilst running rings around anything larger than you.

Once FDEV decide what they’re doing with PS -> PC transfers I will be looking to roll one up again one way or another.

 

[0threeleven]

I seem to be holding my own now, just made novice, I got ganked (I think that's what the slang is). I submitted, hit combat mode immediately, popped the trigger to deploy, spun upwards, got a lock and it was a freaking sidewinder. I drained my lasers, stripped his/her shields in the first pass, boosted around hit him/her with both lasers and cannon and fireball! That's how I became a novice, this is most difficult to say the least, but I love it........

 

[Zieman]

I seem to be holding my own now, just made novice, I got ganked (I think that's what the slang is). I submitted, hit combat mode immediately, popped the trigger to deploy, spun upwards, got a lock and it was a freaking sidewinder. I drained my lasers, stripped his/her shields in the first pass, boosted around hit him/her with both lasers and cannon and fireball! That's how I became a novice, this is most difficult to say the least, but I love it........

Looks like you ganked the poor (NPC?) Sidey who interdicted you for a nice chat...

 

[0threeleven]

Looks like you ganked the poor (NPC?) Sidey who interdicted you for a nice chat...

Ya, their just NPC's for now, when I get a little better, will see. I can just cruise around a system and it WILL happen. If you don't polish them off quickly a system authority ship will show up and steel your bounty when their hull integrity is below 20%.

 

[WeComeInPeace]

This thread is pure nostalgia. I started out being a pacifist by heart, but after learning how to fly while core mining I used some of my CR and bought a Conda just to go and punch some pirates. That turned out to be remarkably "easy". I think that "combat tutorial" shied me of, because that was way more difficult than popping rock and pirates at a haz res. Still I remember all too well, the first time I went to open, now that I "knew how to fight", got proper ganked by a wing and just sat there going "Aaaaaa..." while not being able to remember anything, and then boom That's when you also learn that "dying" in ED means going to a nearby station, having a new paintjob, and paying a minescule amount of CR (for a miner).

I also agree about the Vulture. It's a great little ship for any combat practice, because it's rugged enough to feel sort of safe. Just add armor and shield, and it's a tiny tank. It's also really agile once it's fully engineered. Here's the catch though: At least I personally realized at one time, that I was carrying a lot of shield/hull/mass that I didn't use for PvE. That also made recharging the shield slower. In the long run, you need enough protection to survive, and any more is just hindering your movements (and thereby your time on target). Finding the balance is "entertaining"

 

[0threeleven]

When I unlocked Mel Brandon, I built an extensively engineered Krait Phantom Mk II, I went for engines and rolled grade 5 thrusters (dirty tune), that thing is flat out squirrely. It'll boost 498 and cruise 396. I put in Bi-weaves with a shield booster and 2 hull reinforcement packages and 1 module reinforcement, 2 point defense turrets on top (those are very handy) and I forget what You call the engineer mod for the 2 beam lasers (stronger?). It's got a big cannon too, no cargo racks, no fuel scoop, grade 5 FSD (I'm doing this from memory).

I was scraping with a Chieftain and it rammed me, had 3 rings on my shield and he took them completely out, I was shocked. It took for ever for them to recharge, glad I had all those reinforcement packages. He kept firing missiles at me and they were literally blowing up right outside his ship from my point defiance turrets, made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I'm really impressed at how well that ship handles for it's size, not as good as the Vulture but it sure is nice to strip 2 rings off an Anacondas shields with your first shot (makes them notice you).

 

[aRJay]

When I unlocked Mel Brandon, I built an extensively engineered Krait Phantom Mk II, I went for engines and rolled grade 5 thrusters (dirty tune), that thing is flat out squirrely. It'll boost 498 and cruise 396. I put in Bi-weaves with a shield booster and 2 hull reinforcement packages and 1 module reinforcement, 2 point defense turrets on top (those are very handy) and I forget what You call the engineer mod for the 2 beam lasers (stronger?). It's got a big cannon too, no cargo racks, no fuel scoop, grade 5 FSD (I'm doing this from memory).

I was scraping with a Chieftain and it rammed me, had 3 rings on my shield and he took them completely out, I was shocked. It took for ever for them to recharge, glad I had all those reinforcement packages. He kept firing missiles at me and they were literally blowing up right outside his ship from my point defiance turrets, made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I'm really impressed at how well that ship handles for it's size, not as good as the Vulture but it sure is nice to strip 2 rings off an Anacondas shields with your first shot (makes them notice you).

Yes the Kraits are nicely agile for their size.
There is an experimental for shields called Fast Charge which is great for bringing them back quicker, if you aren’t too busy with the fight shutting down the shield boosters until the shield is back will speed things up as well (don’t panic when you switch the boosters back on your shield display will drop).
Missiles are only effective against unshielded targets so keep the pips in Sys while the shields are regenerating if that capacitor drains not only will the shields not recover but you will lose the Point Defence as well.

 

[0threeleven]

Yes the Kraits are nicely agile for their size.
There is an experimental for shields called Fast Charge which is great for bringing them back quicker, if you aren’t too busy with the fight shutting down the shield boosters until the shield is back will speed things up as well (don’t panic when you switch the boosters back on your shield display will drop).
Missiles are only effective against unshielded targets so keep the pips in Sys while the shields are regenerating if that capacitor drains not only will the shields not recover but you will lose the Point Defence as well.

Well that makes total sense then, that's why he rammed me and then started firing missiles at me. Wasn't it you who told me to ram? Now I know why, it's a very effective weapon, I think those shields do very well. Oh ya, their grade 5 thermal resistant, I forgot to mention that. I'll have to take it back to The Brigg and put that fast charge experimental effect on the shields. Everything you guys have said was right on the money, I'm having a blast..........

 

[aRJay]

Well that makes total sense then, that's why he rammed me and then started firing missiles at me. Wasn't it you who told me to ram? Now I know why, it's a very effective weapon, I think those shields do very well. Oh ya, their grade 5 thermal resistant, I forgot to mention that. I'll have to take it back to The Brigg and put that fast charge experimental effect on the shields. Everything you guys have said was right on the money, I'm having a blast..........

Not me, I know why ramming is effective but I don’t have the reflexes to do it intentionally.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

There is an experimental for shields called Fast Charge which is great for bringing them back quicker, if you aren’t too busy with the fight shutting down the shield boosters until the shield is back will speed things up as well

I prefer maxing my shields strength with Reinforced and HiCap and when I'm about to lose them, I just boost away, restart my ship systems and 50% is back in 15 seconds...

But shield tanks are only effective against NPC's... PvP experts will kill you in a second with ship built as a shield tank...

 

[aRJay]

I prefer maxing my shields strength with Reinforced and HiCap and when I'm about to lose them, I just boost away, restart my ship systems and 50% is back in 15 seconds...

But shield tanks are only effective against NPC's... PvP experts will kill you in a second with ship built as a shield tank...

As far as tanking goes I tank hull and shields, I don't often go full weight with armour but where others use a lot of slots on Shield Cell Banks I go in for Hull and Module Reinforcement.

As for PvP I have issues with multiple players in the same instance so play in a quiet private group.

 

[0threeleven]

I dropped in to one of those Haz-Res sites and cruised around until the shooting started and I picked out an Eagle, thought it would be quick work. So, I took a shot at him and all 4 pirate ships turned on me, I didn't expect that. So I'm mass-locked because of the asteroids, I start running and boosting (all pips engines), I get in to those big rocks and they split up. 1 went high, 1 low and the other 2 left and right, they were trying to box me in. I was able to out run them and get out of the asteroids, that was my closest one yet. The AI seems to be doing well in those sites.

 

[aRJay]

I dropped in to one of those Haz-Res sites and cruised around until the shooting started and I picked out an Eagle, thought it would be quick work. So, I took a shot at him and all 4 pirate ships turned on me, I didn't expect that. So I'm mass-locked because of the asteroids, I start running and boosting (all pips engines), I get in to those big rocks and they split up. 1 went high, 1 low and the other 2 left and right, they were trying to box me in. I was able to out run them and get out of the asteroids, that was my closest one yet. The AI seems to be doing well in those sites.

When you scan and ID the target ship watch out for where it says something like 4/4 at the bottom of the description that shows it is in a wing.

 

[0threeleven]

When you scan and ID the target ship watch out for where it says something like 4/4 at the bottom of the description that shows it is in a wing.

Well dang, I didn't know that, I'll pay closer attention next time. Leason's learned the hard way, I'm getting there slowly.

 

[Para Handy]

When you scan and ID the target ship watch out for where it says something like 4/4 at the bottom of the description that shows it is in a wing.

Well dang, I didn't know that, I'll pay closer attention next time. Leason's learned the hard way, I'm getting there slowly.

I hate that they don't call them wings any more - all this footy-shooty stuff spoils some things in space:

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

My vote is for a viper. Tank up some armor, but not too much. Agility and speed are key. Run a bi weave and some combination of lasers and cannons. Dont mess around with C1 multi cannons. They are just pea shooters. Fixed C1 cannons can actually do a little bit of damage to enemy modules. If you can master flying a viper, you will be a much better pilot for it.

 

[Rock Hunter]

I dropped in to one of those Haz-Res sites and cruised around until the shooting started and I picked out an Eagle, thought it would be quick work. So, I took a shot at him and all 4 pirate ships turned on me, I didn't expect that. So I'm mass-locked because of the asteroids, I start running and boosting (all pips engines), I get in to those big rocks and they split up. 1 went high, 1 low and the other 2 left and right, they were trying to box me in. I was able to out run them and get out of the asteroids, that was my closest one yet. The AI seems to be doing well in those sites.

Wings are dangerous if you aren't focused. Often they'll be in a wing of three or four, usually with one larger ship (say a Federal Gunship) and two/three smaller ships (often Eagles or Sidewinders.) It's easy to concentrate on the Gunship as it's the biggest and most deadly but if you don't deal with the wingmates you'll find your shields down and your hull getting plinked away surprisingly quickly. Their manoeuvrability makes it easy for them to tag team you giving them time for their shields to start to recover, turn and make another pass. Often in the melee you'll have one targeted but lose it as it drops a heatsink, boosts passed you or uses weapons effects like target lock breaker, thermal vent etc that either disable your lock or make them so cool you can't pick them up - at this point it's tempting to just lock onto the nearest enemy target but that way the original target is recharging their shields and resuming the attack. Stay on your target, destroy them and move onto the next.

When you have all engineers unlocked and heavily engineed some combat ships or have bought something like a Federal Corvette they're usually little more than irritants that need dealing with but even then they can still cause big problems. I'm quite happy to overlook a wing as a potential target in a Res/CNB sometimes as there's nearly always an easier, quicker and higher paying target.

But shield tanks are only effective against NPC's... PvP experts will kill you in a second with ship built as a shield tank...

Although there's a meta shield tank FdL that's a nightmare to go up against in the right hands, the ubiquitous Cutter shield meta that Gankers complain about ( there's no fun in things that don't go pop quickly enough...or ever ) and, on the flip side, the hull tanking Chieftain that I felt so impervious in....until I was blown up extremely quickly by a PvP player who showed me not to get too smug and cosy in my ships. There's usually a build that beats another, it's just whether you're in the right build to go up against the one your opponent is in - and then there's the skill....that's the part I failed at so spectacularly

 

[0threeleven]

You guys have been a veritable gold mine, I noticed I had 1 beam laser that would drain faster than the other. I took a look at my modules and had only rolled 1, the other was still stock. I was engineering everything I wanted without pinning while I was at Mel Brandon's base but when you have 2 of something it will only allow you to mod 1 device. So, I'll go back and pin the weapons blueprint, go back to Jaques, 19Ly (one jump), engineer the other beam laser, go back to Mel's and pin the one I want.

I have learned an incredible amount in this past week, and I know I've barely scratched the service. So, thanks a ton, it's much appreciated, thank you.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

One wealthy advice: If you pick up a fight with an opponent who deploy's a fighter (which you should see immediately, because of that light tunnel, that will light up under his belly as he is deploying it), immediately position yourself so that you can target the fighter and destroy it first. It usually takes really only a couple of shots, but will give you the same payout as the mother ship... Like for example if you fight an Anaconda and he deploys a fighter, the fighter bounty will be 750.000 and the Anaconda will be the same...

You need to destroy it first, because if you destroy the conda first, the fighter will disappear...

 

[0threeleven]

One wealthy advice: If you pick up a fight with an opponent who deploy's a fighter (which you should see immediately, because of that light tunnel, that will light up under his belly as he is deploying it), immediately position yourself so that you can target the fighter and destroy it first. It usually takes really only a couple of shots, but will give you the same payout as the mother ship... Like for example if you fight an Anaconda and he deploys a fighter, the fighter bounty will be 750.000 and the Anaconda will be the same...

You need to destroy it first, because if you destroy the conda first, the fighter will disappear...

Thank you for that, it's another little gem I didn't know about. I went back to Brandon's and redid everything, I put the high-grade capacitor experimental effect on the Bi-weaves, rolled the shield cell banks to grade 5 with quick charge experimental, did the beam lasers double braced to grade 5 with those fancy capacitors and put some kind of heat resistant thingy on my grade 5 dirty drive thrusters to help with heat output.

So, I need to think about unlocking the other engineers out here in Colonia. I think I'll just try for Etienne Dorn next.