I got interdicted by one in an Invasion system on Sunday, June 4th.Yes MCs do work against Cyclopses' hull, slowly but they do. They are best against hearts as they discard the hearts' main difficulty - pinhole aiming.
So plasmas to exert and MCs for hearts are for sure a very efficient and fast setup, I wouldn't be surprised if they allowed easy-lazy speedrunning (=blowing a heart while staying cold and before the previous one's sleep phase is over - so past the 2nd heart, the Cyclops is stunlock doing nothing but meows and shields).
Don't know about Glaives, this Thargweek I did a few planetaries and got interdicted elsewhere maybe 20-30 times doing alerts, and I have yet to see one... Has anybody seen them outside of maelstroms/controlled since June 1st ? If not, maybe FD "fixed" themand sent them back to where they belong ?
Are medium ships going to viable for AX for much longer?
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This is a VERY difficult claim for me to make due to nature of trying to verify all 3073 Apollo's Wrath submissions from the Anti Xeno discord, but im very confident to say that a majority of the people that hold this rank have used that very build i linked to successfully solo a cyclops. Its not too high of a skill step. You learn how to do things you otherwise wouldn't, which is good. Yes it takes practice, do not get me wrong, its not nearly as easy as "hur hur shoot it till it dies" gameplay that the rest of the game has, but its not that hard. I personally suck with hitscan weapons and always have, even I did it.Well that's the classic meta Chieftaintried it and left it, it's as deadly as difficult to fly. Flawless gauss aiming and mastering 2-button alternate fire required, perma-heatsink cooling means time pressure to hit before having to synth-reload. Sure it can kill anything but the skill step is soooooo high.
Yes. They are Hyper / Interdicting in Control + Invasion systems and appearing in AX CZs. I have had that happening with me several times.Don't know about Glaives, this Thargweek I did a few planetaries and got interdicted elsewhere maybe 20-30 times doing alerts, and I have yet to see one... Has anybody seen them outside of maelstroms/controlled since June 1st ? If not, maybe FD "fixed" them
I don't claim being the best of pilots, far from it My hands tend to overtime and overreact so my general flight is more rushy and messy, trying to be 100% precise is a vain pain. Going from keymouse to a HOTAS with refined calibration and response curves already gave me a ($300 
) steep accuracy increase, but now it's, well, me, and today the meta Chieftain remains a lost bullet dispenser in my hands.
Yes many builds are "too easy" hence boring past the 2 hours needed to master them, I do have a bunch of ships collecting dust in the shipyard - or recycled into something else. I've had fun with them though, and ease of use gave me time to learn a lot about mechanics.
At this moment I adopted the aforementioned "large beam, 3m plasma, 3s gauss" Challenger.
I'm slowly getting something out of gausses, adjusting shot delay and turn rate together is still a hard one. When adjusted and very minor aim correction is needed, I get 90% hit - but that's 30% of the time.
And meanwhile I feel like I'm learning better and quicker how to shoot hearts with plasmas, only because no delay to manage, just release the button when dash meets dot... In the end it's all about what fits best with personal preferences !
Thanks for the feed about Glaives, no "luck" for me yet
My hands tend to overtime and overreact so my general flight is more rushy and messy, trying to be 100% precise is a vain pain. Going from keymouse to a HOTAS with refined calibration and response curves already gave me a ($300 ) steep accuracy increase, but now it's, well, me, and today the meta Chieftain remains a lost bullet dispenser in my hands.Yes many builds are "too easy" hence boring past the 2 hours needed to master them, I do have a bunch of ships collecting dust in the shipyard - or recycled into something else. I've had fun with them though, and ease of use gave me time to learn a lot about mechanics.
At this moment I adopted the aforementioned "large beam, 3m plasma, 3s gauss" Challenger.
I'm slowly getting something out of gausses, adjusting shot delay and turn rate together is still a hard one. When adjusted and very minor aim correction is needed, I get 90% hit - but that's 30% of the time.
And meanwhile I feel like I'm learning better and quicker how to shoot hearts with plasmas, only because no delay to manage, just release the button when dash meets dot... In the end it's all about what fits best with personal preferences !
Thanks for the feed about Glaives, no "luck" for me yet
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After playing around with a human-only AX Mamba (3x large EAXMC, 1xTV beam), and soon a human only AX FdL and AX Challenger (3x medium EAX missile, 1X large EAXMC 1x TV beam) I'd say the caustic sinks have actually enabled shielded, human weapon based cold orbiting builds rather than made mediums non-viable. Heat sinks and silent running are no longer necessary for a cold orbiter, since you don't have to burn off the caustic anymore, which takes away the biggest downside to shields. The good thermals of human based weapons let you run <20% with just a TV beam, so you can orbit indefinitely. Still trying to decide between reinforced and enhanced low charge on the shield - the lower distro draw and faster rebuild on ELC is very tempting.
The Mamba absolutely shredded glaives, scouts, and cyclops. The CZ I was in had some Glaives show up and I took them out while the guardian based ships went in to repair. I didn't find a basilisk to test it against, but that would probably be a challenge. The flight model takes some adjusting to as well, but I haven't used a Mamba before. Drifty, but fast. The FDL/Chally should have an easier time exerting hearts on the larger variants, but won't be able to pop the hearts as quickly. Super simple to fly too - pips are 1.5,3,1.5 during the shield phase, and 1.5,1.5,3 while exerting or popping hearts. Obviously pips to sys during the shutdowns.
Now if they would only give us a size 4 EAXMC, the FDL would absolutely shred.
The Mamba absolutely shredded glaives, scouts, and cyclops. The CZ I was in had some Glaives show up and I took them out while the guardian based ships went in to repair. I didn't find a basilisk to test it against, but that would probably be a challenge. The flight model takes some adjusting to as well, but I haven't used a Mamba before. Drifty, but fast. The FDL/Chally should have an easier time exerting hearts on the larger variants, but won't be able to pop the hearts as quickly. Super simple to fly too - pips are 1.5,3,1.5 during the shield phase, and 1.5,1.5,3 while exerting or popping hearts. Obviously pips to sys during the shutdowns.
Now if they would only give us a size 4 EAXMC, the FDL would absolutely shred.
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Happened to me too. It is a steep learning curve. I am still on it and expect to keep learning even before being able to perfect it.+I don't claim being the best of pilots, far from it
I try to always specialize my ships for the role that suits them better. Very rarely do I repurpose them, but it happens. Still use most of them for many different reasons.
If you get Hyper / Interdicted by Glaives I hope you can maximize the Guardian firepower while it is still available. You will have less than 60sec, at best.
IMHO, the most effective approach against the Glaive, is to be really aggressive immediately and to joust it. Do not let it approach to less than 1000m. Best tactic for that is Boost + FA OFF + Reverski + start shooting. As soon as it approaches to less that 2000m boost pass him slightly away to avoid hitting it. If you did hit it, that might make you vulnerable to the Lightning Attack and make its shields go up. After boosting past it, there won't be any time for the Lightning Attack to connect and you can do the Reverski and repeat until it is destroyed.
Silent Running + Heatsinks are optional. From my latest experiences, I am not sure if they make any significant difference.
Very true.
Those quotation marks are adequate, since bumping in to them might not be pleasant...Thanks for the feed about Glaives, no "luck" for me yet
Remove the 3 gauss, use 3 small turreted beam, and one flak, and now you have something really good. make sure you turn on the trailing sights if you are going to use MPC (modified plasma chargers) because you can and will be able to shoot hearts without having to scan the hearts. if you want proof i have videos
That sounds like you only tested at planetary CZs. A swarm can still take down a shield in practically no time at all with their laser fire.
The Mamba's boost is great at dodging the swarm, last night was at a planetary CZ, but today I tested it in a controlled system with little difficulty. I'm used to flying without flak. It definitely requires a "boom and zoom" variant of cold orbiting because of the Mamba's weak lats/verts, but with the gimbals it's still easy to get rounds on target with an erratic orbit. Ran out of ammo long before I ran out of hull.
The shield is just there to absorb the occasional hit if you mess up your orbit. I'm working on these builds to go into controlled systems, farm some 'clops, and jump back to a fleet carrier when the ammo is used up, not to complete AXCZ's solo. Or for if there is ever a point in fighting inside the maelstrom.
I just boost away for a quick reboot cycle when I get a chance, or flip the module off if I don't have an opening. With human weapons and the TV beam you don't need heat sinks at all, but I agree that it does require managing your SYS more actively than a shieldless build.
In practice I haven't been finding that I lose the shield to cyclops, but I have a decent amount of AX experience in the gauss chief so I'm used to flying evasive. It's not meant as an intro build for newer players, just experimenting with what is possible with human AX weapons and the new caustic sinks on some medium hulls.
Let's say caustic sinks made shields a viable option - with one obvious big advantage and many drawbacks. Another "real" choice to make, that's a good thing !
Drained SYS can be avoided by carefully matching distributor capacity and recharge rate via engineering blueprints and shields' grade. But it's still quite a time with 4 pips to SYS, that almost means downtime. Boost&reboot can be a better option but you'd better have good sensors as it can easily take you 15km away.
The hitbox increase is significant - it's obvious when shooting at pirate NPCs. I avoid having swarms as much as I can but yes, the few times I had both them and shields, they steadily ripped the shields off.
Also don't forget shields can increase phasing hull damage by turning it to absolute.
About the Mamba... I don't know, see for yourself. I tried it for human PvE and I personally didn't like its "slippery musclecar" feeling, but with its slim profile, a pilot mastering speed&slide and long range weapons, it must be the most evasive death dealer.
Drained SYS can be avoided by carefully matching distributor capacity and recharge rate via engineering blueprints and shields' grade. But it's still quite a time with 4 pips to SYS, that almost means downtime. Boost&reboot can be a better option but you'd better have good sensors as it can easily take you 15km away.
The hitbox increase is significant - it's obvious when shooting at pirate NPCs. I avoid having swarms as much as I can but yes, the few times I had both them and shields, they steadily ripped the shields off.
Also don't forget shields can increase phasing hull damage by turning it to absolute.
About the Mamba... I don't know, see for yourself. I tried it for human PvE and I personally didn't like its "slippery musclecar" feeling, but with its slim profile, a pilot mastering speed&slide and long range weapons, it must be the most evasive death dealer.
Well, I see your point but... personal choices.
I do have 3 small beams on my "shard chieftain", they are so powerful they make an "on demand heatsink" but that would be overkill here, plasma heat is easily managed and requiring a heatsink only for 3+ gauss shots is OK.
I'm letting flak aside as I try not to encounter swarms - there is something my brains just don't compute about FAoff, I tried it many times and I just end up spinning around within seconds. Maybe later.
Since this build has proven consistent enough for me to kick a Medusa's * with neither ease nor pain, I'll consider recycling those 3s and what to do with them when I master plasma heart shooting enough to tackle a Hydra... Maybe later².
Yes I've been using trailing sights since the day I discovered their existence in one of Mechan's videos.
I like scanners because for zero effort basic scans give so much info : variant, heart, hull and shield state, interceptor's whereabouts. Plus a 10s orbit scan is not a big deal, then subtargeting allows aiming at hearts through the bug's "thrust blur" and partly through plasma dust, and finally hearts not glowing anymore made aiming at them uneasy.
They really don't, a single pip in sys is enough to fire off a heatsink even if the capacitor shows empty.
Maybe it’s a “size” issue? Because that definitely was not the case in my Cutter with 8C bi-weaves!!
The flight model is definitely different than what I'm used to, it winds up with more of an oval or triangular pattern of boost passes than a circle. I'll try to get a video of me using it, I just got done polishing up the engineering to the version I posted - the initial tests were in a much less polished prototype using mostly scavenged modules. I've never recorded Elite before so no promises on the video being any good. So far it has worked for what I wanted - a build with enough sustain to work in controlled systems with glaives added to the game.
I might switch it over to ELP/low draw shields - that can be sustained indefinitely as long as it doesn't break with just 1 pip in SYS. If it breaks just shut it off, the hull underneath is plenty to finish off a clops.
I still say if FDev would give us a size 4 human MC that follows the standard logic of more piercing than its smaller brother, it would go a long ways to making human-only AX builds viable. That's clearly what they're trying to push people into anyway.
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the replace the flak with a shard. you call those lasers overkill, i call it redundancy. when you are in ax conflict zones a lot alone, there will be times that swarms hate you a lot and you may be down a laser to repair it. also we dont talk about the broke glowing, thats a bug lolWell, I see your point but... personal choices.
I do have 3 small beams on my "shard chieftain", they are so powerful they make an "on demand heatsink" but that would be overkill here, plasma heat is easily managed and requiring a heatsink only for 3+ gauss shots is OK.
I'm letting flak aside as I try not to encounter swarms - there is something my brains just don't compute about FAoff, I tried it many times and I just end up spinning around within seconds. Maybe later.
Since this build has proven consistent enough for me to kick a Medusa's * with neither ease nor pain, I'll consider recycling those 3s and what to do with them when I master plasma heart shooting enough to tackle a Hydra... Maybe later².
Yes I've been using trailing sights since the day I discovered their existence in one of Mechan's videos.
I like scanners because for zero effort basic scans give so much info : variant, heart, hull and shield state, interceptor's whereabouts. Plus a 10s orbit scan is not a big deal, then subtargeting allows aiming at hearts through the bug's "thrust blur" and partly through plasma dust, and finally hearts not glowing anymore made aiming at them uneasy.
So, I guess to answer OP's question - I don't think medium ships are outdated in AX.
The only problem with C4 EAX MCs is that pushes towards Large ships even more than the current proliferation of modules / utilities does.That would really be very good!
Sure, they’ll be some nut jobs in FDLs and Mambas with 2K armour but mostly we’ll be talking yet more Cutters and Anacondas,
Which brings me to the “garbage tier” Corvette … which is still simply too slow to be properly useful.