Best "Crazy Raging Scout" Build?

[nanothargon]

So, what's the best build for the "new" scouts, in a Space (Station) or Surface Station CZ? I realise this is probably a bug/overcorrection, which is likely to be rebalanced soon, but still...

I'm keen to provide support for noobs or folks who would prefer to focus on interceptors, but I'm wondering - with the new meta (6 weapons) and the NEW scouts (bugged super-scouts), what's the best approach? This community is generally very good at saving people time and pooling effort, so... what's the best way forward?

Shielded, or not?
Passive cool running, thermal vent, heatsink, or - ignore cooling?
Chief, Krait Mk2, Cutter, Anaconda, T-10?

Obviously (?) the weapons need to be 6x Enhanced AX multicannons, or as close as we can get.

Right now, I'm thinking this: (Xenophobe class scout hunter)

EDSY

EDSY is a ship outfitting tool for Elite Dangerous

edsy.org

Which is a really simple approach -
Krait MK 2, 5x AX Enh Gimballed Multicannons, passive cool(ish), hull tank, caustic sinks, no repair.

The focus is - do as much damage to scouts in as short a time as possible. The AX scanner is to enable identification and prioritising of regenerators and berserkers. No repair, since this is for stations, and simple is good. Since it's a low-power build, it makes sense to go for the passive cooling approach, to reduce detection a little, and maybe avoid a little aggro and damage.

I suspect anaconda and t-10 don't work with these scouts; slow tanking isn't an option because you'll get swarmed. Cutter might work, since it can probably boost clear from the fight, but I think time-to-target and time-on-target for the guns will be way better with the Krait.

What are your experiences?

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

diamond back explorer with low power shield, military armour g5 and hull reinforcements, dirt drives g5 and 18-16% heat, gets shredded vs 4 interdiction scouts. I don't know.

 

[Vardaugas]

Maybe a T-10 with 4+2 Enhanced AX MC Turrets? Can't damage you when they're dead.

 

[DemiserofD]

Yeah, their damage is high but they're still not tanky. Just need to wipe them out before they can do their damage. Might go for shields too, to really maximize the durability.

 

[nanothargon]

Update: I tried the hull tank krait above, at a planetary port cz; it works fine. You just need to be super aggressive and focus solely on scouts. Two of these dedicated scout killers could keep the instance mostly clear of scouts, I think. 5x axmc works well with the kraits agility; one pass is enough to kill each individual scout. Caustic sinks mean scout caustic is a non issue. Bail for restock/repair at the port at 30% hull.

I’m not saying this scout bug is fine, I’m just saying - fighting the superscouts is doable, if you can have a couple of cmdrs in a cz dedicate solely to that, in G5 AX ships. You can tag interceptors for the combat bonds by just doing a quick drive-by, so you’re not missing out on cash, and it feels good to have a single, simple, helpful role. I might experiment with a turret version for a T-10 later, with a ton of limpets for even more team support.

Obviously the bug kills solo play and obliterates NPCs, so it needs fixing. But for now, I quite like being helpful happy smiley scout butchering guy.

 

[Elpapo]

Any 500+ m/s OC plasma chargers bulid with atleast 3 of these. Use trailing mode to have best accuracy for shots.

3 plasma chargers - one shots scouts within 1km.
4 plasma chargers - one shots scouts within 1,5km.
5 plasma chargers - one shots scouts up to 2km.

Note that shots must be fully charged and be medium sized.

AX FDL or Phantom, with 4 weps like that, will be extremely effective to do such task. FDL have more utility slots and it have more than enough mobility to dogfight with flyin saucers, while Phantom is faster but less mauverable, while having much better armour, higher class optionals + size 7 distro, wich makes my favorite AX of all.


Also, its worth to mention that shielded (high regen biwaves) bulids will preform much better than pure hull tanks, as these can still eat few scouts shots and not lose entire shields, without lossing any hull. I belive this is one of major "adjustments" most AX cmdrs should to thier AX bulids, as shields are usually only used in big ships, and very rarely on medium ones. (I do AX too, and all my bulids are shielded, and rarely saw similar bulids to mine at all)

 

[nanothargon]

Also, its worth to mention that shielded (high regen biwaves) bulids will preform much better than pure hull tanks, as these can still eat few scouts shots and not lose entire shields, without lossing any hull.

It means a bigger hitbox, and more power, and more management of SYS. It’s probably a bit more resilient; I mean, you get all that phasing damage as well. I quite like shieldless for the simplicity of it, but I might try an FDL to change things up a bit.

 

[Elpapo]

It means a bigger hitbox, and more power, and more management of SYS. It’s probably a bit more resilient; I mean, you get all that phasing damage as well. I quite like shieldless for the simplicity of it, but I might try an FDL to change things up a bit.

Hitbox is certainly higher, but still perfectly fine for medium ships to entirerly evade scouts shots, there how: pop a heatsink, keep temp down, fly evasively as much, and scouts wont be able to follow. They have much less weaker sensors than interceptors. Once run of sinks, retreat a bit, synth sinks, then engage again.
I found that if I consider bunch of scouts as its angry medusa or hydra, helps a lot... just make sure you dont fight'em without sinks doing thier job.
Thats preety much that simple, atleast for Myself.

Surely shield bulids they do need more power (about 2-3 MW more in average), but for example, my ax phantom, uses size 6 shield (thermal resist bi-waves + regen), have 4 plasma chargers, and still able to use G3 low emission PP. It has like 280 MJ only, buts that can be enough eat couple of shots, wich maybe will cost about 0.5%-2% of hull, not like 10% otherwise at shieldless. It does regen very quickly, and overall makes my ship more "tanky" than many hull tanks out there, due that for most of time, I dont take dmg directly to my hull. I even have interdictor on it (PVP reasons), and about 3k hull. Works fine for me, even right now. If I pop single sink I can take out about 3 to 5 scouts, before I need pop another one.

FDL is capable to evade shots even without heatsinks, by its sheer mobility alone. But it needs be handled like by skilled PVP'er atleast, and those skills wont come by from any PVE activity in game, it can be only learned by fighting other crazy cmdrs, and for quite lot of time... Again, I guess its expert thingy, I mean shielded FDL for AX use.

Phasing dmg is about 10% only, very litte gets into hull. If shield is alive at all times, its very likely to run of ammo first, than losing any significant amount of hull. That being said, it can be much more difficult than it sounds, but certainly possible.

Indeed shield bulids require as very efficent pip managment, as if it is atleast PVP with skilled cmdrs, if not bit more than that. Due that SYS needs be maintainted at all times, you dont want be caught with recharging shields, almost no juice in SYS, when suddenly a new interceptors jump in and uses thier pulses. You need have something to permaboost, and also energy to fire at bugs... it can be very demanding otherwise compared to hull tank bulid that only need SYS to heat sinks and anti-pulse...

But atleast plasma charger bulids can remove pips from WEP once shots are charged, and keep that 4-2-0, until time to fire, wich helps a lot with dealing with "current" scout situation. As you need land only one volley, and they are goners.

In other words, shield bulids are for experts I guess, average joe cmdr who never did PVP at all, probly wont be much sucessfull at all, due of lack enough pip managment skills more than flying skills, as once shields are gone, you have already less hull to begin with than with standard hull tank bulid. And by most of time, they will be bottlenecked by having not enough SYS, due of shield drain or other SYS factors, during heat of battle.

 

[DemiserofD]

Biggest problem is the swarms. Swarms have dramatically more phasing than anything else. Normal phasing is 10%, swarms are something like 60%, which is why swarms usually kill fighters before their shields go down.

Which is why I'm hoping they make some phasing-resistant shields. As-is, shields are very unwieldy for space-based CZs.

 

[Dash]

Tbh, I could handle the scouts in the shardconda once I figured out what was going on (still wrecked me and stopped me from dealing with interceptors). You have to keep on the boost and keep moving. So anything agile I'd imagine would be good.

 

[Kissamies]

Any 500+ m/s OC plasma chargers bulid with atleast 3 of these. Use trailing mode to have best accuracy for shots.

3 plasma chargers - one shots scouts within 1km.
4 plasma chargers - one shots scouts within 1,5km.
5 plasma chargers - one shots scouts up to 2km.

The absolute minimum modplasmas to one shot a scout is 2 mediums and 1 small. More is naturally better because it increases the one shot range as you demonstrate. I generally rock 5 mediums. My alt has a build with 2 medium modplasmas and 3 large eAXMC. That is workable against scouts. Plasmas take most of their hull and the MCs finish the job. It adds a bit flexibility against the interceptors too.