Cobra MkIII weapon loadout

[orfeboy]

Last night I 'upgraded' my weapons on my Cobra. I had a gimbled class 1 beam laser up front, a class 2 cannon upfront and two class 1 gimbled multicannons. I decided to have a go at another wanted cobra who also seemed to have a single beam laser. He completely kicked my ass! I found it very hard to damage his shields.

Later I had a go at a viper and could not even drop his shields. Strangely he never shot back and only kept passing me.

Now I know you might say well you need a second beam laser on your ship but my question is if I have to rig every ship out with two beam lasers or two burst lasers for them to be effective at all that means you only have two hard points left for other weapons. How are you supposed to implement special weapon types like missiles, torpedoes, cannons etc. when you still need to provide decent basic projectile fire from a multicannon aswell?

My thinking was if I bought a decent beam laser (and it cost me 74,000) it had 4 pips of damage. That is the equivalent of two basic pulse lasers hitting at the same time. It is a beam laser too so contact time is higher. This in theory should have freed up one of my hard points so I could fit my 'specialist weapon' - my big class 2 cannon which I have to say I like the look of!

Does anyone run a workable weapon loadout on the Cobra and if so what is it?

 

[Philip Coutts]

I'll need to have a look tonight and see what the classes are but I have 2 fixed pulse and 2 fixed cannons and it's pretty good. The only issue is the ammunition for the cannons is pretty expensive so I'm thinking of changing them for either multi-cannons or rails.
.
The other thing I would say is that you need to manage your power quite carefully so you don't overheat. When in a good firing position put all the power into weapons. When not throttle back to a more level power distribution.

 

[Mike Evans]

Projectile weapons are not very good at damaging shields. Class 1 weapons are only fully effective against ships like the Sidewinder, Hauler and Eagle. Larger ships like the Cobra are more resistant to them. Gimballed weapons don't do as much damage as there fixed counter parts. So taking all this into account the two class 1 gimballed multicannons won't be that good at dropping the shields due to their size and their type and the Class 2 weapons you have only one of them will be effective at dropping the shields.

 

[Philip Coutts]

Brilliant Mike, thanks for that. Yes I should have also added I use the lasers to take down shields and then a combination of lasers and cannon to take down the hull. The cannons are deadly against hulls. I rarely fire the cannons at shields.

 

[Mike Evans]

Brilliant Mike, thanks for that. Yes I should have also added I use the lasers to take down shields and then a combination of lasers and cannon to take down the hull. The cannons are deadly against hulls. I rarely fire the cannons at shields.

Well you're doing it right at least. We tweaked the resistance shields have to projectiles recently so you have to think twice about having an all projectile based build.

 

[orfeboy]

Well you're doing it right at least. We tweaked the resistance shields have to projectiles recently so you have to think twice about having an all projectile based build.

Well I am glad you said this because from looking at videos on youtube it would seem some of them were too powerful. There is a video of the Asp that demonstrates this: [video=youtube;_K1t91EO2g0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K1t91EO2g0[/video]

six multi cannons are insane!

So I might try putting a class 2 multicannon up front with my class 2 cannon and two class 1 gimbled burst lazers on the wings. You see if you need 2 class 2 pulse/burst lazers to do any damage to a bigger ships shields that means your other weapons can only be class 1 and need to be gimbled because out on the wings they are on the wide end of your reticle and will hit very little unless at close range. this leaves cannons out as they are fixed mounts. I fail to see how you can get a decent loadout on this ship

 

[inkmmo]

Upgraded Cobra with better shields, power plant, power distributor and shield cell bank can be real problem for enemy (mainly because I use that). Having better thruster is the cherry on top! And I spent 500K or 600K on upgrading my Cobra.

 

[Seboss]

My current loadout is:
2x Class 1 Gimballed Burst Laser
2x Class 2 Multi-cannons

Can't remember the exact ratings but I think they're all Ds. This loadout has proven very effective against NPCs.
Put 3 or 4 pips in weapons, fire the burst lasers continuously until shields drop. Switch energy to engine to keep up with the target (who usually tries to escape at that point) and blow up their hull with the multi-cannons.

 

[Saliddry]

2 overcharged gimballed class 1 beam lasers

and 2 class 3 kaidan multicannons (kaiden? well the named ones) there gimballed too


ITS VERY VERY GOOD

let me hold ya within 1km and every shield even the ASP - Dropship ones drop quite fast
and once there gone..... must i realy say how fast my 2 big multicannons will shred you?

had 1 pass on an dropship and it was left with 23% hull .. he wanted to escape und jump i got his sight again and he was gone

but well last time i checked the worth of my ship by going to shipyard and try to buy some other ship to see what i would get for me old ship it was

2.5 millions maybe its worth 3 by now

power distribution A
GOOD Powerplant
of cause other nice upgrades that dont fit to this topic

and i can fire my weapons without overheating or running out of weapon power just the 2 seconds reload of the multicannons ..if they have to reload before you are gone ...they have 90 round mags

EDIT:
1 thing i have to add caue im proud of ... unloaded i still have 15 ly jumprange and its a must have if ya ask me .. it just sucks when you have to go from star to star to star if you could overjump 2 or maybe even 3

 

[Godz]

not having much experience bounty hunting (only 80 npc kills so far) i found 4 fixed multi-cannons worked great on my cobra

 

[orfeboy]

My current loadout is:
2x Class 1 Gimballed Burst Laser
2x Class 2 Multi-cannons

Can't remember the exact ratings but I think they're all Ds. This loadout has proven very effective against NPCs.
Put 3 or 4 pips in weapons, fire the burst lasers continuously until shields drop. Switch energy to engine to keep up with the target (who usually tries to escape at that point) and blow up their hull with the multi-cannons.

Thanks for that. I was just thinking before I checked back on this post that maybe two class 1 gimbled beam lasers would do it on the wings and then my class 2 cannon and a class two multicannon up front for long and short range destruction

I don't much care for beam lasers though finding them a bit sloppy with small ships. I think I will go down your burst laser route. It sounds like a better idea.

 

[Red Kite]

2x Class 1 gimballed burst lasers
2x Class 1 gimballed multi-cannons

My tactics were as noted above: use the lasers on the shields and cannon on the hull. I used a similar loadout in my Eagle in Beta 2 and it worked really well, but I find my tactics changing a little in Beta 3 because cannon ammo is more expensive. I only use the cannons now on big targets where the bounty will easily offset the ammo cost. In the end I might sell the cannons and try some other weapons in the secondary hardpoints.

I know some commanders look down on gimballed weapons, but my reflexes are not as good as they were in the original Elite 30 years ago and I found fixed weapons too difficult. At my time of life I don't want to take months of practice to get good at using them. Burst lasers are a good compromise: they don't overload too quickly but do reasonable damage.

The Cobra is still my favourite ship and I love the idea of multiple ship ownership. Keep my beloved Mark III and still get to try the others!

 

[orfeboy]

2 overcharged gimballed class 1 beam lasers

and 2 class 3 kaidan multicannons (kaiden? well the named ones) there gimballed too


ITS VERY VERY GOOD

let me hold ya within 1km and every shield even the ASP - Dropship ones drop quite fast
and once there gone..... must i realy say how fast my 2 big multicannons will shred you?

had 1 pass on an dropship and it was left with 23% hull .. he wanted to escape und jump i got his sight again and he was gone

but well last time i checked the worth of my ship by going to shipyard and try to buy some other ship to see what i would get for me old ship it was

2.5 millions maybe its worth 3 by now

power distribution A
GOOD Powerplant
of cause other nice upgrades that dont fit to this topic

and i can fire my weapons without overheating or running out of weapon power just the 2 seconds reload of the multicannons ..if they have to reload before you are gone ...they have 90 round mags

How can you have two class 3 multicannons on a cobra? It has two class 1 and two class 2 hardpoints?

I also ugraded my power plant and distribution last night aswell. Not sure what grades they are but I do remember that I am getting 11.45MW output now and that weapons are recieving 12 I think. The single beam laser functioned very well from a heat point of view. Not sure how it would perform with two but we shall find out... I will try both beam and burst on the wings and see which I prefer

Thanks for the help.

 

[orfeboy]

Can anyone explain why when using the big cannons you have two reticles leading in front of the target? Is one of these for the multicannon and the other for the cannon?

 

[Saliddry]

How can you have two class 3 multicannons on a cobra? It has two class 1 and two class 2 hardpoints?

I also ugraded my power plant and distribution last night aswell. Not sure what grades they are but I do remember that I am getting 11.45MW output now and that weapons are recieving 12 I think. The single beam laser functioned very well from a heat point of view. Not sure how it would perform with two but we shall find out... I will try both beam and burst on the wings and see which I prefer

Thanks for the help.

nice to help and sorry in outfitt i just says kadan multicannons kl(class/klass).3
and the slot it is on says class 4 slot
that made my say its an class 3 multicannons

so it says my cobra has 2 class 2 hardpoints and 2 class 4 in outfitt

but the numbers say 2/2 and 1/1 so that are realy class 2 and clas 1 slots ...
maybe they have to fix it in the german translation

but whatever the power distributor i use has 24 weapon capacity and 3 weapon reload (wachting the stats in compare to other distributor) 3A 5 ton

just logged in to recheck the stats

 

[Unfluffydave]

Does anyone run a workable weapon loadout on the Cobra and if so what is it?

My loadout for my viper (same weapon mounts as a cobra, 2 medium, 2 small) is fixed medium pulse lasers and gimballed small, the fixed lasers are grouped as my main fire group for dealing the damage and shooting at long range and the gimbals as my secondary to keep the pressure on the shields of ships that are wiggling around alot. I went for pulse lasers because with that ship I am farming bounties at resource sites and there are often plenty of feds buzzing around trying to steal my kills and flying in front of my ship. With autocannons I was always getting assault bounties dropped on me because of gung-ho feds. With pulse lasers the damage is dealt straight away and I have to scoot off quickly to pay the bounty off far less.

Firing all 4 soon overheats them even with 4 pips but I only fire all 4 for a good burst of damage when a target presents a broadside angle to me.

 

[orfeboy]

Ok so I managed to get a class 4C shield generator last night and changed the gun layout so I now have two gimballed burst lasers on the wings and a class 2 cannon and a class two multicannon upfront.

Well what a difference! My firegroups are set up so I fire lasers off one button and the cannon off the other. My second fire group fires the lasers AND the multicannon off the first button and the big cannon off the second. I made mince meat out of three Eagles, two Cobras, two Sidewinders and an Asp in a row around the nav beacon at Freeport. I was doing great until I bit more off than I could chew by having a go at a Cobra who destroyed me with him beam lasers!

 

[elthrai]

Last night I 'upgraded' my weapons on my Cobra. I had a gimbled class 1 beam laser up front, a class 2 cannon upfront and two class 1 gimbled multicannons. I decided to have a go at another wanted cobra who also seemed to have a single beam laser. He completely kicked my ass! I found it very hard to damage his shields.
Can you tell me where I can buy gimballed multicannons for cobra?

 

[Hanson.dani]

I'm a huge fan of my current mostly A-kitted Cobra. Two Class 2 D Cannons (fixed) and two Class 1 Beam Lasers (gimbal). As far as countering chafe, well just untarget and they become fixed, for the 15 second or so chafe this is fine or you can just disengage and get a better position.

*edit* I've only been able to kill everything up to pythons, and I'm still wary of vipers. I'll try it next time I find an anaconda but recently I've only run into groups of 2-4 of those so no thanks.