Oh sure, if you pile Beams on a ship I guess the lower TV efficiency on, huh, Efficient beams won't matter that much.
But I don't think there's a ship with enough hardpoints for me to slap 4 Beams, the most I have is 3 on the Vette I bought recently, and I'm already thinking of throwing the Large one out and replace it with a Corrosive MC, and replace the 2 Small MCs (Emissive / Corrosive) with Rails.
I've had too many tanky ships wake on me in CZs with less than 10% hull, I always need something punchier than damn lasers
But I don't think there's a ship with enough hardpoints for me to slap 4 Beams, the most I have is 3 on the Vette I bought recently, and I'm already thinking of throwing the Large one out and replace it with a Corrosive MC, and replace the 2 Small MCs (Emissive / Corrosive) with Rails.
I've had too many tanky ships wake on me in CZs with less than 10% hull, I always need something punchier than damn lasers
Oh sure, if you pile Beams on a ship I guess the lower TV efficiency on, huh, Efficient beams won't matter that much.
But I don't think there's a ship with enough hardpoints for me to slap 4 Beams, the most I have is 3 on the Vette I bought recently, and I'm already thinking of throwing the Large one out and replace it with a Corrosive MC, and replace the 2 Small MCs (Emissive / Corrosive) with Rails.
I've had too many tanky ships wake on me in CZs with less than 10% hull, I always need something punchier than damn lasers
The reason for using Efficient in my build was to also lower the power draw. I could have used overcharged, but with effiicent I get both a lower draw, and a lower distributer draw, allowing me to hold down the trigger longer.
The thermal load isn't important at all to me, the vents will deal with that.
I do have a set of overcharged lasers as well, but I prefer the efficient ones, particularly for long excursions into a haz res. However that's just a preference, your mileage may vary and all that.
Efficient is Elite's most perfect mod, with zero drawbacks, aside from opportunity cost. It does indeed improve the weapons with a fairly small damage boost. But as Shadowhand touched on, the real beauty of this modification is the synergy with the rest of the build. The much lower power and heat profile has a knock-on effect throughout your build. It allows you to use other, hotter weapons, gives more power to play with, or allows a smaller power plant. It means you can go with higher draw mods on other modules. It gives you power overhead to use as you see fit elsewhere within your build. All of my beams use it. Pure damage is great, but it isn't everything.
I was talking Efficient + TV combo, not Efficient in itself, which is great that's true. But if you're looking to actively cool your ship including other sources of heat like SCBs or weapons that increase heat abruptly instead of over time (ie Rails), then Efficient starts to be a drawback.
On the other hand, I guess it should work sufficiently well if you're only using TV to keep you ship cool (to mess with the enemy's targeting) as long as you're not getting heat spikes from SCBs or other stuff.
On the other hand, I guess it should work sufficiently well if you're only using TV to keep you ship cool (to mess with the enemy's targeting) as long as you're not getting heat spikes from SCBs or other stuff.
Thermal vent is also built into a cool ship. The powerplant low emissions, the experimentals flow control and thermal spread. All contribute to a ship that can offset heat from other weps on board.
My fdl cruises at 12% temp.
Alot of my ships are designed around a core of low power low heat.
My fdl cruises at 12% temp.
Alot of my ships are designed around a core of low power low heat.
I know the title of the thread is for PvE. But FDLs are incredible and meta in PvP. It's my favorite ship. So here is a great beginner PvP build by the famous Dezpe. You can switch the Prismatic shield for a Bi weave. The multicannon reticle is on the same vector as the plasma accelerator reticle. Use the mc reticle to help your eye track the PA reticle.
[EDIT]: Get good with this ship and PvE will be ez.
[EDIT]: Get good with this ship and PvE will be ez.
Better use 4 MC on medium with mixed corrosive, OC, autoloader, etc, and in the huge an efficient beam with TV - you will kill your target a lot faster ; Beams are great at taking out shields, but against hull they struggle, when the MC does the job a lot faster. Put in a key for the beam, and other for the MC.s - cook the target with the Beam until you get the shields down, then use the 4 MC to crash the hull fast.
FDL cannot take to many hits, so your best interest is to kill FAST. For assassination missions when the target is protected by several other ships, the time to execute the kill is crucial.
If you hang there too much, you can get easy to rebuy screen...
Last edited:
Eh, this has worked fine for me for several years, I don't see any reason to change it now.
The huge overcharged multicannon with corrosive in the build I posted above takes care of killing the hull. The beams strip shields and do supplementary damage. I've... done several hundred assassination missions with it, but thanks for the advice I guess?