FAS Flight styles in combat

Aasgard

Aasgard
Hi Cmdrs, need your help on the FAS in combat...

I've been flying an FDL for a while and found it a bit too vanilla in combat. I wanted to go back to a fun to fly ship and for whatever reason chose an FAS (since I had the rank). The FAS looks like a 'demented shoebox' (words from another Cmdr) and flies like the Vulture so am enjoying it immensely.

Went into my first CZs last night and had an enormous amount of fun, am now wanted by one of my 'Friendly' factions [smile][smile][smile].

The thing that bothers me is that the lack of lateral gimbal on the top and bottom large hardpoints. Am using a medium turreted beam combo on the belly to strip shields and large multi-cannon duo on the top and bottom. It seems to need to fly nose-up at targets (this is well documented in other threads by more experienced combat vets) for the shield stripping and then have to do a mix of yaw and thrusters to keep the two large MC gimbals on target to shred the hull.

Is this correct or are there better WEPs for greater convergence?
 

Mohrgan

Mohrgan
I am a devoted FAS fan. I have found that splitting the weapons up by their location, rather than size, is more useful. I have all Beams on the underside, to strip shields and pop smaller ships. I put one large cannon on the top to add burst damage and snipe modules on larger targets. This way you can fly 'nose up' for the most part, and dip down to unload with your burst weapon of choice on top.

Although the MC's are fun and durable, the large size slows their tracking, and leaves you with nibbling away at larger ships. This is maddening to me, especially with the FAS' dubious shields. Replace your MC's with some high burst weapon, and I'm betting you will be rewarded.
 
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Aashenfox

Aashenfox
FAS is a fixed weapons platform if you ask me. That agility should be converted to damage. I don't care what you put in the large slots (but it should be PAs), but to put anything other than railguns in the mediums is a crime. And we know what all crime is punishable by in Elite... ;)
 

Alexander the Grape

Alexander the Grape
For the FAS, I recommend trying to transition away from gimbals. You have amazing pitch rates so it effectively is a gimbal.

Maybe try running a single Gimbal on top and then fixed on the bottom Hardpoints? I really recommend Gimbal/Fixed hybrids for learning Fixed targeting
 

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Aashenfox said:
FAS is a fixed weapons platform if you ask me. That agility should be converted to damage.
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I agree.

Aashenfox said:
I don't care what you put in the large slots (but it should be PAs), but to put anything other than railguns in the mediums is a crime. And we know what all crime is punishable by in Elite... ;)
Click to expand...

I disagree.
A FAS with 4 MCs is just too much fun, it would be a shame not to use it with 4 MCs.
And if you go PAs - a good choice - go all in with 4 PAs.

:)
 

Mohrgan

Mohrgan
There is such adulation for fixed weapons, I don;t get it. Time on target people. The FAS' agility is exactly why you want gimbals. You can fly in all six axis at once, avoiding turning the almost shieldless ship into a Face Tanking waste of some great flight characteristics. If you fly so a opponent can't hit you, with fixed weapons you can't hit them either. Use the ships agility to 'Corkscrew' towards your target, staying out of it's firing solutions, while having your gimballed weapons compensate for your evasive flying, and pop the .
 

UnhappyDev

UnhappyDev
Aashenfox said:
And we know what all crime is punishable by in Elite... ;)
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A slap on the wrist?

+1 For fixed weapons on the FAS though, it's a good ship to get started with. You don't need the meta build of 2 PAs and 2 Railguns for PVE. 2 fixed medium pulses and 2 fixed large multicannons/frags will do the job.

Mohrgan said:
There is such adulation for fixed weapons, I don;t get it.
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More DPS, more ammo, and (for me) more fun. Granted, gimbals are overly rewarded in ED, along with other aimbot weapons (seeker missiles, I'm looking at you).
 
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CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost

C
Mohrgan said:
There is such adulation for fixed weapons, I don;t get it. Time on target people. The FAS' agility is exactly why you want gimbals. You can fly in all six axis at once, avoiding turning the almost shieldless ship into a Face Tanking waste of some great flight characteristics. …
Click to expand...

The agility of the FAS is what makes fixed weapons on it so much fun without having to "face tank".
 

Maka Gucci

Maka Gucci
Yeah, the FAS' agility is everything. Twin large PA's, Target-lock Breaker and Dispersal Field, a long range Rail with Feedback Cascade for SCBs and sturdy drag munitions rack for those pesky SLFs.
 
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BradHann

BradHann
Haven't combatted in a while, but when I did, I used a Fabulous Assault Ship. Changed the paintjob, weapon and engine colours every time I took her out of the hangar. Who cares how many kills you get, so long as you do it in style.

Seriously though, the top and bottom hardpoints have difficulty converging on the target without bits of your own ship getting in the way, so divide your fire groups based on location. I have a gimballed beam on top and fixed multis on the bottom. I primarily went for fixed to try to git gud with aiming. FAS is so agile I usually overcompensate and turn too far. But it's a lot of fun to fly. I also noticed that NPCs won't drop chaff if you have at least one fixed weapon - whether you're firing it or not. Don't worry too much about shields, the FAS is a hull-tank ship. Get bi-weaves and enough engineered boosters to get decent resistances but concentrate more on filling your internals with HRPs and MRPs. From memory, I've got about 250ish shields with 30-50% resistances, and about 3,800 hull with ~50% resistances. Speed and agility aren't noticeably affected by all that extra weight, although jump range is - but jump range is piffle anyway so it's not worth worrying about.
 
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Knightshark

Knightshark
Mohrgan said:
There is such adulation for fixed weapons, I don;t get it. Time on target people. The FAS' agility is exactly why you want gimbals. You can fly in all six axis at once, avoiding turning the almost shieldless ship into a Face Tanking waste of some great flight characteristics. If you fly so a opponent can't hit you, with fixed weapons you can't hit them either. Use the ships agility to 'Corkscrew' towards your target, staying out of it's firing solutions, while having your gimballed weapons compensate for your evasive flying, and pop the .
Click to expand...

I guess it's a question of skill, right? A good pilot with fixed weapons has a advantage over a mediocre pilot with gimbals. You cannot press the trigger all the time anyway, even with 4 pip to WEP, which isn't the best tactic. I am just speculating here (not really into PvP) but i assume that with fixed weapons and good aiming skills you can deal the same damage that you could with gimbals and more time on target but maintain much better shields?
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
Mohrgan said:
There is such adulation for fixed weapons, I don;t get it. Time on target people.
Click to expand...

I think it depends heavily on your weapon preferences too. I like fixed burst weapons, so I don't need 100% time on target to achieve ideal, or near ideal, damage.

Those crazy people who run with fixed multicannons though... I don't know. :)

BradHann said:
I also noticed that NPCs won't drop chaff if you have at least one fixed weapon - whether you're firing it or not.
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I think you just ran into some chaffless NPC's. I was playing in my rails/plasma Viper IV yesterday, and they were chaffing all over the place.
 

GammaZ

G
For me on FAS it is 3 fixed beams on the underside and gimballed multicanon on top. Drawing various things on npc ship hulls with beams is so much fun, and MC is there for corrosive rounds, gimballed because otherwise it will be impossible to hit with it simultaneously with beams.
Was using 2 rails + 2 pulses too, it worked nice but i like beams more :)
 

Cmdr Tel

Cmdr Tel
Well to answer the OP, flight style, it is at its best being thrown around and using its agility.

As to weapons....Truesilver has a very nice argument for using gimballed and for the correct reasons, to maximize agility.

It is plenty agile enough to use fixed weapons and therefoye maximize damage.

I generally go full hull tank with a gimballed beam on top and fixed whatever on the bottom. I concentrate mainly on maneurvabiltity first and weapon load out secondary.

FAOff obviously also helps.

Enjoy this great ship.

07
 
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