Ships Anaconda Anaconda and Krait MKII builds help

[LameoveR]

Hello everyone!
Haven't played much last 2 years and came back couple of weeks ago.I'm trying to build 2 ships for 2 roles - assassination missions and massacre missions.Maybe it would be better to combine both roles in one ship (Anaconda)

I need your opinions and suggestions on my builds, please.First one is Anaconda i'm trying to build for massacre missions.
Anaconda

I read many articles for the last 3 days but still didn't get some things.

1. Anaconda build is still in progress and my main concern is weapon loadout. As you can see i use MCs on bottom and Beams on top.Huge and large MCs always do the job no matter what, huge one even feels like he's in the nose section, not in the center. But sometime it feels small MCs don't even shoot the target.But still my TTK of deadly or elite enemies is just awful :-/Is it better to put Huge + Large beams on bottom and put Large+Med MCs on top? What about small hardpoints?Maybe some other weapon loadout suggestions?
2. I've never played with hull tank and won't bother buying and engineering 350mil reactive armor and hull reinforcements that would make Anaconda even more sluggish.I'd like to use shield tank without any HRP\MRP and want to decide - passive shield tank or SCBs shield tank? Or passive with 1 SCB as backup?The thing is i don't need super-mega shield tank for assassination missions, i need better TTK.But massacre missions sometimes bring wings of 3-5(?) small ships that hit hard and i'd like to sustain their damage.I've tried to find some anaconda massacre videos for no avail - everyone fly Corvette or Cutter or T-10.Please give me suggesttions how to make better shield tank!

Second build is Krait MKII.
Krait MKII
I've tried it in low-threat massacre missions but it can't sustain long vs 5 or so little ships even with 4 pips in SYS and dangerous fighter pilot on my side.My 2 rails shoots very rare cuz i'm not so good at aiming little ships or target is further than 1.5km.I think i need to change rails to beams or other lasers or even MCs.And again - i don't want to use hull tank cuz i don't understand it

Any suggestions how to improve my builds? I know i need to improve my skills tbh

P.S. Sorry for long post.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

I can only comment on your Mk2 I'm afraid...I'm not a big ship cmdr so have very little experience in speccing a conda
For your Mk2, your hull is paper thin, so once your shields go down then you're in serious trouble...both from NPCs and gankers. I would switch those guardian shield boosters for HRPs and maybe one or two MRPs and get reactive armour.
Two medium beam lasers would work well on their...Short Range engineered, if you're good at keeping close to your targets, long range or efficient otherwise.
Ditch the advanced docking computer!
You could also ditch the fuel scoop as missions are usually only 1 jump away from the mission giver, so no real need on a ship designed for one purpose.
Some people like fighter hangers, personally I don't as they take up HRP slots. You're running a class 6, that can carry two diff types of fighters, this is overkill. If you really want a fighter then switch down to a class 4.

If you really want to go down the shield tank route then I would use duel class 5 SCB and remove one of your shield boosters and replace with a heatsink and the SCB will get quite toasty.

Learning to fly using vertical and lateral thrusters will also reduce for the face tanking, that I am assuming you're doing. Avoiding fire is much better than trying to face tank it.

 

[LameoveR]

For your Mk2, your hull is paper thin

As i said above - i don't want to mess with hull tanking. If i would be in trouble losing shields, i'd just FSD away. I play SOLO or Private group, no Open play.

Two medium beam lasers would work well on their...Short Range engineered, if you're good at keeping close to your targets, long range or efficient otherwise.

what about other weps? I think with my shield tank preferences it would be better to pack Krait for Assassination missions.
What about engineered frag cannons for fast mission target kills or any other gimballed weapons? Jump in, burst damage, jump out.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

As i said above - i don't want to mess with hull tanking. If i would be in trouble losing shields, i'd just FSD away. I play SOLO or Private group, no Open play.

what about other weps? I think with my shield tank preferences it would be better to pack Krait for Assassination missions.
What about engineered frag cannons for fast mission target kills or any other gimballed weapons? Jump in, burst damage, jump out.

It has nothing to do with hull tanking You really should be running military/reactive armour on any ship, apart from maybe explorers. With lightweight armour and no HRPs you won't have time to wake out as your hull will drop so fast.
if you stack assassination missions then it's possible to get two targets in the same instance...even worse if you stack assassination and massacre then you can end up being hammered. It also allows your ship to dabble in CZs where the NPCs seriously pack a punch. Likewise, if you want to go big and try and solo wing assassination missions then you really need some form of upgraded hull armour and HRPs.
IMO all combat ships should have reactive/military hull and at least a couple of HRPs.

Double shot/overcharged screening shell frag krait is fun! Splats things very quickly. I don't use mine that often as I prefer small ships. I've recently added double shot frags to my Vulture for solo wing assassination missions and it works a treat. Frags are not that good for farming in a HazRes though as you run out of ammo quite quickly...but for single kill burst damage they're great.

You could also go for a full MC build, all short range blaster with the two mediums having corrosive and incendiary and the three big with 2 x oversized and another incendiary.

With all those guardian shield reinforcements you'll be limiting yourself on weapons and engineering effects due to their huge power usage.

 

[sinisalo]

That's not a bad Krait OP. I'd probably make some weapons changes so that you have reliable shield stripping. Each commander is different of course, but I like two large beams on the Krait II. That will let you strip the shields off those small ships you mentioned in seconds.

I agree the build could use more integrity, but I don't agree with Cmdr Snuffler that combat ships should have armor. None of my ships have any armor upgrade aside from heavy-duty on the stock bulkheads. Speed is life and armor is heavy and expensive and I don't use it. If this is a PvE ship I think you can skip it. Subjective preference for me.

But replacing one or two GSRs with HRPs would boost that integrity and make the ship more survivable. You can have a shield tank with good integrity, they are not mutually exclusive in my view. Here's my combat Krait as it was for the CG yesterday.

Lightweight Bi-weave Krait

This boat goes in pirate threats, so it's survivable enough even being so light and having no armor. Unladen weight is just 605t. Coriolis shows pitch of 152/s with four pips making it nimble enough. Good speed too. These allow you to dictate the combat. Your Krait's pretty fast already, but it can be faster!

With a rethink on the weapons I reckon you can make it more effective. Ditch the rails, replace those with MCs and add a couple beams is one way to do it. Coriolis doesn't always seem to show MC engineering when you click on it, but on my ship the centerline large is overcharged corrosive and the two outboard mediums are overcharged autoloader.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

I agree the build could use more integrity, but I don't agree with Cmdr Snuffler that combat ships should have armor. None of my ships have any armor upgrade aside from heavy-duty on the stock bulkheads. Speed is life and armor is heavy and expensive and I don't use it. If this is a PvE ship I think you can skip it. Subjective preference for me.

If it's weight you're looking to save then go lightweight engineered reactive armour, which I have on my Phantom explorer. This would give you much more hull hit points and massively increased resistances than what you have now with a reduction of only 1m / s in speed, which you wouldn't even notice. By upgrading from lightweight alloys you make your ship much more versatile now and for future combat scenarios. Lightweight alloys are all good and well for fighting low level pirates 24/7...but that's just the tip of the iceberg as far as combat goes.
It's not just me, almost any combat pilot on these forums would recommend military or reactive armour for a combat ship.

 

[sinisalo]

It's not just me, almost any combat pilot on these forums would recommend military or reactive armour for a combat ship.

I know one who would not. Blaze your own.

 

[LameoveR]

Thanks a lot for your suggestions about Krait! I will surely try HRPs and Frags and full MC build for assassinations

What about Anaconda massacre build? I won't drop this ship i still remember the days of grind just to buy it
I saw suggestion to put Huge and Large Beams to bottom, put large and med MCs on top and put high-capacity seeker missiles on small hardpoints.

 

[sinisalo]

I sold my anaconda ages ago and so have no Conda-specific advice for which weapons to put where. Not my idea of a combat ship really, just subjective preference. It makes sense to me, with all other things being equal, to put lasers lower, and MCs higher so that the MCs are in better position to lead the target. Beams go straight and can hit from either side of the waterline in pure pursuit. The lower the MCs are mounted means the more lead pursuit you need to pull to get them to bear on target due to their shot speed. So it seems that putting MCs on top and beams down low would result in more weapons firing and fewer out of gimbal limit. How this translates to the Anaconda and her hardpoints, and what you are looking to achieve, may not line up precisely, but I think this works as a 'rule of thumb' sort of thing.