Chieftain shields 3 V 1

[777Driver]

Spent the past few days flying a Chieftain PAC build, the ship handles itself fine against multiple medium and small targets. Whilst sightseeing around the old worlds I dropped into a signal source and bit off more than I could chew.

Two things I need some advice on, not really sure if there is any point using the Bi-weave, would you recommend just sticking an extra HRP or MFP instead of the shield? Suggestions for the other hard points, would like to try rails, however probably not the most sensible solution, what would blend well withe two PACS?

Flying is a bit rough , am still getting used to the ship, surprised she held up so well, although it definitely is about speed in this case.

[video=youtube;vQosMyGGS5Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQosMyGGS5Y&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[CMDR The Riz]

Spent the past few days flying a Chieftain PAC build, the ship handles itself fine against multiple medium and small targets. Whilst sightseeing around the old worlds I dropped into a signal source and bit off more than I could chew.

Two things I need some advice on, not really sure if there is any point using the Bi-weave, would you recommend just sticking an extra HRP or MFP instead of the shield? Suggestions for the other hard points, would like to try rails, however probably not the most sensible solution, what would blend well withe two PACS?

Flying is a bit rough , am still getting used to the ship, surprised she held up so well, although it definitely is about speed in this case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQosMyGGS5Y&feature=youtu.be

The Bi-Weave shield allows you to regenerate a set amount of HP every time it comes back up and acts as a buffer against missiles and module damage, so I'd suggest keeping it (Which class were you using there?). The one thing to keep in mind when fighting without a shield in the Chieftain is your thrusters are vulnerable from all angles and especially to missiles.

The Chieftain build I liked the most from my Beta testing used 2 Large APA's (both had Target Lock Breaker, but I think Dispersal and Dazzle Shell would work better here), 3 small Railguns and a Packhound / Seeker rack in the Medium slot for fast-movers (Eagles, Vipers, SLFs). For Utilities I used some Chaff, PDTs for the missiles and maybe a Resistance Augmented Shield Booster or two.

 

[GunnerBill]

I'm currently testing 3.0 Engineered Shield types on my Chieftain.

Shields:

The following builds have 2 x HD A0 Boosters at 73% Boost w/ -2% on all resistances and 1 x A0 Thermal Booster with 20% Boost, 26.9% Thermal & -4% on the other resistances.

6A Prismatic - Thermal + Lo-Draw L5

Spoiler

6C Bi-Weave - Reinforced + Thermal Block L5

Spoiler

6C Bi-Weave - Thermal + Hi-Cap L5

Spoiler

SCB:

1 x 5A Specialised L3, 453 Thermal Load.

Armour:

Reactive Thermal w/ Angled Plating L5
1 x 4D HD HRP w/ Angled Plating L5
2 x 4 MRP

Wep's:

2 x Large Fixed Efficient Beams + Oversized L5

1 x Medium Overcharged Multi Cannon L5
2 x Small Overcharged MC L5
1 X Small Overcharged MC + Corrosive L5

MC's are gimbaled.

Conclusions:

At the moment I'm favouring the Reinforced Bi-Weave option as it gives best flexibility and a pretty good raw strength with OK resistances.
The ship runs at about 41% heat resting* so popping a SCB (no HSL) gives around 110% heat for a very short time, so no worries there.
No problems with the armour, I've lost shields a couple of times and taken her down to ~50% hull with no malfunctions as the MRP's do a good job.

Weapons. I've tried 3 & 4 rail builds (small & medium) on this with the SP or Feedback mods and even with thermal reductions for 3.0 I still find the ship overheats with the kind of fire rate I like for combat. Pretty effective though and wingmates love it when they fire. WHAM!!

I tried Packhounds once in a Beta a while back and they literally set fire to my ship, never again! Maybe they're better now?

So Beams & MC's: I like the balance of the Thermal and Kinetic. The two Beams do a great job of stripping shields off even the biggest high level NPC's and the Multi's, using the single corrosive, really cut into the hulls and seem especially good at tripping a PP kill. In general I've found that using the corrosive really improves the effect of the Beams on damaging hulls so is doubly worth having.
I tired a full frag build (Double Shot) and got 1500 dps and one that kept the beams. Amazing to pop a Conda in a couple of shots when the shields were down but ultimately not enough ammo capacity for PvE.

Hope that helps.


* If you are not under threat, kill the Thrusters and drop the heat to <39%. Definitely no problems popping a SCB then.

 

[777Driver]

The Bi-Weave shield allows you to regenerate a set amount of HP every time it comes back up and acts as a buffer against missiles and module damage, so I'd suggest keeping it (Which class were you using there?). The one thing to keep in mind when fighting without a shield in the Chieftain is your thrusters are vulnerable from all angles and especially to missiles.

The Chieftain build I liked the most from my Beta testing used 2 Large APA's (both had Target Lock Breaker, but I think Dispersal and Dazzle Shell would work better here), 3 small Railguns and a Packhound / Seeker rack in the Medium slot for fast-movers (Eagles, Vipers, SLFs). For Utilities I used some Chaff, PDTs for the missiles and maybe a Resistance Augmented Shield Booster or two.

Cheers shields are 5C, enhanced low power (lo-draw) am using dazzle shell & overcharged on the PACS. 3 small rails with with Feedback Cascade sounds good. Would like to try packhounds, just don't think I can get into the whole powerplay thing.

edit - Just checked what materials I'll need for the rails, guess I won't be getting them any time soon.

 

[captainchubb]

Cheers shields are 5C, enhanced low power (lo-draw) am using dazzle shell & overcharged on the PACS. 3 small rails with with Feedback Cascade sounds good. Would like to try packhounds, just don't think I can get into the whole powerplay thing.

edit - Just checked what materials I'll need for the rails, guess I won't be getting them any time soon.

Think you’re better off without packhounds on this build as they only come in size 2 - you wouldn’t be able to put them on your smalls.

 

[Troy_McClure]

:O Wow - for such an experienced player....those power priorities!!! [blah] Also, why when the Condas shields went down didn't you prioritise your seekers? After all that's what they're for!

But yeah, threat 4 can be anything from 4 Vultures / 3 Condas / 2 Condas + Cobra etc - with NPCs winged, you know they'll be equipped with gimbals & prob missiles, hence any hybrid will suffer from the long damage exposure time; SR will help with missile lock when shields drop, but against 3/4 high powered ships this is impossible to utilise effectively, hence chaff is essential along with a pdt or two.

I've read enough of your posts to know that you know all of this - so long & short of it is that your load-out isn't really suited to wings of AI - more of a shield tank will help with perhaps a SCB or two. The alternative is fight tactically, like you would in a CZ when multiple ships start focusing you when shields have dropped. ie time to get the hell out of dodge! I often do massacre missions at CZs in my bi-weave Vulture usually completing the 90 ships in one or two 'sittings'. The endemic problem with all tactical fights of course, is that you are in danger of slipping into a coma.

I recently completed 5 successive threat 4s in my Vulture with fixed efficient pulses (300 odd hits to take down each Conda x 3 / 200 odd per Vulture x 4 - obviously means my ship is exposed for relatively long periods of time) & my shields didn't drop once, even when my chaff & SCB had run out of ammo (after 3) by staying as evasive as poss, never allowing your target ship to add to the dps inflicted on you.

I'm what you'd call a casual player - a pretty good pilot, but not exceptional. 'Bottom line is my load-out & tactics suited these encounters.

 

[777Driver]

:O Wow - for such an experienced player....those power priorities!!! [blah] Also, why when the Condas shields went down didn't you prioritise your seekers? After all that's what they're for!

But yeah, threat 4 can be anything from 4 Vultures / 3 Condas / 2 Condas + Cobra etc - with NPCs winged, you know they'll be equipped with gimbals & prob missiles, hence any hybrid will suffer from the long damage exposure time; SR will help with missile lock when shields drop, but against 3/4 high powered ships this is impossible to utilise effectively, hence chaff is essential along with a pdt or two.

I've read enough of your posts to know that you know all of this - so long & short of it is that your load-out isn't really suited to wings of AI - more of a shield tank will help with perhaps a SCB or two. The alternative is fight tactically, like you would in a CZ when multiple ships start focusing you when shields have dropped. ie time to get the hell out of dodge! I often do massacre missions at CZs in my bi-weave Vulture usually completing the 90 ships in one or two 'sittings'. The endemic problem with all tactical fights of course, is that you are in danger of slipping into a coma.

I recently completed 5 successive threat 4s in my Vulture with fixed efficient pulses (300 odd hits to take down each Conda x 3 / 200 odd per Vulture x 4 - obviously means my ship is exposed for relatively long periods of time) & my shields didn't drop once, even when my chaff & SCB had run out of ammo (after 3) by staying as evasive as poss, never allowing your target ship to add to the dps inflicted on you.

I'm what you'd call a casual player - a pretty good pilot, but not exceptional. 'Bottom line is my load-out & tactics suited these encounters.

Cheers Troy, yeah my head definitely wasn't in the battle, I wasn't even planning on engaging those ships, then had a 'screw it' moment and decided to see how long I would last, more a test to see how much of a beating it could take.

The ship is built for smuggling and the occasional assassination, I'd stick with multi cannons and pulse if I was going for efficiency. This is the smuggling build in the vid - https://inara.cz/cmdr-fleet/9325/414428/

If I was building a pure combat build I wouldn't have an issue, the problem is the ship is built for a low heat sig, so the shields (5C) are low power/lo-draw hence why I am wondering if I really need them, no boosters because I need the heatsinks.

I was thinking remove the shields, fit a another MRP since the modules take a beating, the ship if flown correctly is manoeuvrable and fast enough to get out of most situations, perhaps fit a single point defence. Would like to go with triple feedback cascade rails, but I am guessing the WEP drain will be high. Anyway, am no expert on this ship, so any advice is appreciated.

Edit -regarding the seekers, lol mate I thought I had torps's installed (My assassination loadout) hence why I hardly used them until towards the end, was initially firing them like torps with space for the warhead to arm :-/

 

[nosleepdemon]

Keep the bi weave as it's a regenerating portion of your hp. The only reason to ditch shields is SR against players.

Don't FA-Off, yes yes I know MAH SKILLZ! But you need to maintain a tight orbit around your target or you will get melted by every gun. FA-Off makes jousting way more likely.

You really want feedback cascade somewhere in your weapon setup, just in case you meet the one NPC bell-end that chows down on SCBs all day.

APA and PACs in general are great as long as you don't miss, you could also try multicannons (I hear autoloader is the way to go) or even regular, run of the mill pulse lasers. I use regular PACs though, nothing like a good wallop to the face from a pair of those.

Unfortunately my Chief was in the middle of a renovation when I stopped playing, but IIRC I was using two PACs (focussed I think...) for the main damage, two LR feedback cascade rails to stop SCBs, a c1 turret pulse with scramble spectrum for the lulz and an OC corrosive fragment cannon for the c2 slot as I couldn't find my corrosive c2 multicannon.

 

[777Driver]

just in case you meet the one NPC bell-end that chows down on SCBs all day.

The one NPC? You mean any NPC above Dangerous rank. Looks like feedback cascade is the way to go. Regarding flight assist, honestly couldn't go back to flying with it on, nothing to do with skillz, it just feels like the computer is getting in the way when assist is ON, like drag in a dense atmosphere. I actually find it easier to hit with fix weapons FA-OFF, again nothing to do with skills, just how I am used to flying. I can keep the flying tighter with better thruster control, hence why I mentioned the flying was sloppy in the vid, am new to the ship, even my Viper feels heavier.

 

[GunnerBill]

The one NPC? You mean any NPC above Dangerous rank. Looks like feedback cascade is the way to go. Regarding flight assist, honestly couldn't go back to flying with it on, nothing to do with skillz, it just feels like the computer is getting in the way when assist is ON, like drag in a dense atmosphere. I actually find it easier to hit with fix weapons FA-OFF, again nothing to do with skills, just how I am used to flying. I can keep the flying tighter with better thruster control, hence why I mentioned the flying was sloppy in the vid, am new to the ship, even my Viper feels heavier.

Feedback cascade... I tried that too. Most NPC's leave it far too late before popping a SCB, you might as well just keep hammering them with Beams/etc while they're firing the SCB and most times you'll get the shields anyway or totally negate the SCB effect and drop them very soon after.

Maybe I'm not doing it right but I've never seen an overt advantage on a Feedback rail in PvE <- keep your thermal weps for shields and use the Feedback slots for something else. #oldfashioned

 

[Crank Larson]

3 small rails, everything else multicannon. I do use the biweave, though in practise it is down most of the time in fights. Still, I'd rather have something that can recharge than something that can't (like hull or module reinforcement). Everything else in my Chieftain is aimed at hull tanking, but the bi-weave does add a little protection (and more than an extra hull reinforcement does, I believe).

 

[dutchy2000]

My chieftan build:

2x fixed efficient beams with the heat applying special (specials on beams stink).
3x long range rails, 2x super penetrator, 1x plasma slug.
1x imperial hammer long range, with feedback cascade.

Then bi-weaves overcharge with the special that increase charge speed, I am at ~10/s combine that with the 700 or shields, and it takes about a minute to go from nearly dropped to full. IIRC resistances in the 40s across the board.

Its primary use is for CZ as I enjoy those the most. I can fire the beams endlessly with 2 pips to weapons. When a target attempts to pop a SCB, I switch to 4 pips to weapons and can fire 3 shots with all the rails before heat becomes an issue. In the meantime the heat from my beams will start to cook the opponent, especially when they attempt to pop an SCB. All of this is of course against NPEs, against real people the tissue paper shield would get eating so fast.

Its a quite enjoyable little ship IMO.

 

[Pville_Piper]

How'd it feel jumping into that ship after flying the T9 for so long? I jumped into my FAS after 2 weeks in the T9/10 and almost didn't make out of the slot due to pilot induced oscillations... [big grin]

 

[Chorda]

I tried Packhounds once in a Beta a while back and they literally set fire to my ship, never again! Maybe they're better now?

I run Packhounds on my Chieftain without heat issues.

 

[captainchubb]

Cheers Troy, yeah my head definitely wasn't in the battle, I wasn't even planning on engaging those ships, then had a 'screw it' moment and decided to see how long I would last, more a test to see how much of a beating it could take.

The ship is built for smuggling and the occasional assassination, I'd stick with multi cannons and pulse if I was going for efficiency. This is the smuggling build in the vid - https://inara.cz/cmdr-fleet/9325/414428/

If I was building a pure combat build I wouldn't have an issue, the problem is the ship is built for a low heat sig, so the shields (5C) are low power/lo-draw hence why I am wondering if I really need them, no boosters because I need the heatsinks.

I was thinking remove the shields, fit a another MRP since the modules take a beating, the ship if flown correctly is manoeuvrable and fast enough to get out of most situations, perhaps fit a single point defence. Would like to go with triple feedback cascade rails, but I am guessing the WEP drain will be high. Anyway, am no expert on this ship, so any advice is appreciated.

Edit -regarding the seekers, lol mate I thought I had torps's installed (My assassination loadout) hence why I hardly used them until towards the end, was initially firing them like torps with space for the warhead to arm :-/

Just wanted to say thanks for posting your build. Been playing with it for the last two days, after engineering it from scratch (a surprisingly enjoyable process).

It’s a beauty for mat gathering in a res. I put in two extra size 2 module reinforcement packs to replace the stuff you had in them. When I take on more than one ship at a time I tended to lose shield, some hull, then get disproportionate module problems, hence extra packs. It can certainly Hull tank once the shields go. I’ve not lost it yet.

The plasma accelerators are fantastic for sniping ships from a distance. Also the general acceleration and deceleration of the ship (I’ve gone G5 dirty) is out of this world.

Personally I wouldn’t use it to take on a bunch of Anacondas, it’s more of a 1v1 build with those 5C bi-weaves, but I admire you for trying!

 

[Siranui]

I love feedback cascade, but with three rails, I'd be tempted to run one with super pen. Just because.

In a similar frame, packhounds are hilarious. Super manga fun. They cook ships, but with a low temperature build, you might be fine. The ammunition does not last long, but my, is it spectacular.

There are many more sensible things to do, though.

 

[captainchubb]

I love feedback cascade, but with three rails, I'd be tempted to run one with super pen. Just because.

In a similar frame, packhounds are hilarious. Super manga fun. They cook ships, but with a low temperature build, you might be fine. The ammunition does not last long, but my, is it spectacular.

There are many more sensible things to do, though.

Are you doing packhounds on the Medium on the Chieftain? Only gives you one set, right? I guess you can always synthesise the ammo. Personally I’m finding an overcharged turret multi on the medium is taking care of most of my needs, but am always looking to try something better.

 

[C64Fan]

How'd it feel jumping into that ship after flying the T9 for so long? I jumped into my FAS after 2 weeks in the T9/10 and almost didn't make out of the slot due to pilot induced oscillations... [big grin]

LOL - I have tried that with the Chieftain, and when I landed later I smacked it into the ground like a hammer [squeeeee].

 

[CAPT. Ho Chi Minge]

2x APA's (mod of choice)in the large slots
3x Rails (feedback cascade) in small slots
1x Imperial Hammer (super pen) in the medium.

Found this setup to be pretty effective and the rails/hammer are good for fast movers too (usually 2 - 3 broadsides). The bi weaves i swapped out for a prismatic since once the shields go its a while for them to come back even with the bi weaves.

 

[777Driver]

2x APA's (mod of choice)in the large slots
3x Rails (feedback cascade) in small slots
1x Imperial Hammer (super pen) in the medium.

Found this setup to be pretty effective and the rails/hammer are good for fast movers too (usually 2 - 3 broadsides). The bi weaves i swapped out for a prismatic since once the shields go its a while for them to come back even with the bi weaves.

Went for the same thing except standard long range PA's, and a turreted MC on the nose. Kinda funny tho, the PA's are pretty much all I need. They are brutal once at G5