I thought those rumours started on the 1st April.
Ships Best small combat ship
- Thread starter RebornxMystic
- Start date
Don't be a follower, "the sidewinder" is hands down the best plus it packs even more power with the raider ship kit!
The Vulture vs Viper IV "thing" above ignores one very important factor - the Vulture carries large weapons. However, I like to have a corrosive MC on the go and putting that on a large MC seems such a waste - so, to my mind, that makes the ViperIV more fun to use. However I am not a combat-oriented type so my opinion is just a personal "feeling" of enjoyment.
Last edited:
You don't need KB+M to use fixed weapons mate. give it a try and see how you go. It is a great training exercise for fine control as well...
I love the V4 and fly it much more than I fly a vulture. if we talking strictly combat though, the vultures C5 power distributor totally outclasses the vipers C3. That alone gives a significant firepower sustainment advantage. You can argue all you want about hardpoints but the distributor on the vulture is better than any other small ship.
I'm at a point where I have one medium ship now (Chieftain), and the rest of my ships are small. No engineering yet. Been playing a month. My small combat ships:
Cobra MKIII - Not the strongest, but it's a generalist, and I've killed a fair share of low level pirates with it. Cheap and useful.
Here's my most recent build:
https://s.orbis.zone/e77t
Vulture - Most expensive of my small ships with the upgrades. Tanky. Probably the best small fighter. My most recent build uses large pulse lasers, which is mostly fine, but if you try to kill PVE Python+ ships, they have a good chance of warping away before you can finish them off because there just isn't enough DPS. The extra chaff launcher brings it just over 100% power draw, so mind the power priorities to make sure supercruise stuff is disabled when you deploy the hardpoints. Or just delete the second chaff launcher. You could also replace the Fuel Scoop with another hull/module reinforcement to eliminate power problems.
s.orbis.zone
I might also experiment with replacing the lasers with two large Frag cannons. Definite increase in DPS, but the ammo won't last long. 
Imperial Courier - I just bought this after grinding enough rank so that I could basically have an X-Wing lol. Here's my current build:
s.orbis.zone
Cobra MKIII - Not the strongest, but it's a generalist, and I've killed a fair share of low level pirates with it. Cheap and useful.
Here's my most recent build:
https://s.orbis.zone/e77t
Vulture - Most expensive of my small ships with the upgrades. Tanky. Probably the best small fighter. My most recent build uses large pulse lasers, which is mostly fine, but if you try to kill PVE Python+ ships, they have a good chance of warping away before you can finish them off because there just isn't enough DPS. The extra chaff launcher brings it just over 100% power draw, so mind the power priorities to make sure supercruise stuff is disabled when you deploy the hardpoints. Or just delete the second chaff launcher. You could also replace the Fuel Scoop with another hull/module reinforcement to eliminate power problems.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Imperial Courier - I just bought this after grinding enough rank so that I could basically have an X-Wing lol. Here's my current build:
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Without engineering, it goes Sidewinder to Diamondback Scout to Vulture to FDL. Learn how to outfit and use them from my beginners combat series. there are 6 parts.this is part 1, which you can skip if you've done any combat at all:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq5_93dGDg0&t=172s
if you can be bothered to engineer them
Don't get me wrong, I am a big viper fan. But the Vulture has WAY more shields and large hardpoints, has a massive PD and is about 50% more agile.
It costs 10x more base and 5x more outfitted, but it's clearly objectively vastly superior.
Now, if we forget about the viper and consider the adder on the other hand...
It costs 10x more base and 5x more outfitted, but it's clearly objectively vastly superior.
Now, if we forget about the viper and consider the adder on the other hand...
The difference in cost between a Viper and a Vulture is an hour in the high RES using a Sidewinder. Other than for training and very niche purposes, the small ships now are completely superfluous. Maybe something will change with Odyssey.
Not to a beginner. Read their experiences and you'll find 1m/hr is a lot, and a fully specced vulture is 20x that.
But yeah, to a more experienced player it's all irrelevant.
This is a very narrow minded view of thing tbh.
Lots of people use small ships in combat simply because they enjoy flying them more than medium or large ships.
It's comments like this that give new players a total false sense of what ships are capable of so they rush to the "end game" ships like Vonda and totally miss some of the best times they can have in ED.
Such an oversimplification that is totally incorrect in my experience.
Lot's of people? Are you sure you don't mean a few cranks?
The only way you can make 1 mil/hr in a high RES is not to shoot any ships for 50 minutes in every hour! Have you tried a starter Sidewinder in a high RES recently?
Last edited:
No,
Lots of people fly small ships simply because they like them, just because someone play a game differently to your viewpoint it doesn't make them 'cranks'.
But feel free to keep to your woefully ignorant ideas
Yes. A beginner is going to have trouble locating opponents, flying to them and getting even a single shot in. They will kill a ship once every few minutes at best, without KWS scanning. For a true beginner even 1m is optimistic.