Ship Builds & Load Outs FAS: PvE specialist combat build - advice sought

[sqzbox1]

I've been rambling around in my FAS shooting things from time to time (when I feel like a bit of combat). I like HazRes but got chased out of CZ's. I've engineered as best I could but to be honest I really am not understanding all the subtleties involved. And since 2.2.03 I somehow seem to be no better than when I was completely unengineered - seems a bit more squishy now. I wonder if you guys who are good at this stuff could offer some advice.

As for weapons, I like the pulse lasers and cannons - seems like the best combo for general combat, PP sniping and the like, and fits well within the power constraints - although I do seem to be heating up a whole lot more now.

Here's the build as it stands at the moment - https://eddp.co/u/tfRRe3eE

Notice that Coriolis says I have 1048 MJ of shields yet the defence screen in the game says different at 517. Have I updated Coriolis incorrectly? Or is this normal? Anyway, here's a shot of the aforementioned Defence screen.

 

[Ceekay]

I think you may have input the wrong multiplier on the shield engineering tab so the 517 is probably right, you might want to try some thermal resistant boosters as the shield thermal resistance (reduction of damage from laser strikes) is low ideally you'd want it to be 50 - 60 %, the FAS will never have an FDL level shield so you want something that will resist damage from the most frequently used attacking weapon (lasers) but still have decent kinetic and explosive resistances.

Could you list the type of shield and weapon mods used used as it's hard to tell from Coriolis, I use a bi weave + 2 resist aug and 1 x thermal resist booster on my FAS and at some point the shields will fail but you'll have enough armour to disengage if necessary.

A G5 rapid fire mod on the pulses is worth looking at, you've rolled one heck of a thruster mod but DDT mods will generate a fair bit of additional heat.

I'll have a look at my FAS build tomorrow and see how it compares but from memory it has about 250 MJ shields with balanced resistances, similar armour (heavy duty mod on stock alloy, HRP's and MRP's), question why so much additional fuel? why not fit a scoop and save some mass.

 

[Burlsol]

Being a Fed designed ship means that you aren't meant for shield tanking. You might get close using prismatic shields, but lose out on the regeneration rate. The FAS and FDS are mostly designed around the standpoint of quick hit and run techniques along with shield regeneration rate.

As far as heat goes, some of this can be adjusted with lucky rolls on your weapon engineering, but can also be adjusted by moving to medium lasers instead of large. Although you lose 10 dps by going down a size you will be able to maintain firing longer before running out of power or overheating so the difference is not that much in reality. Given that you are in a more maneuverable craft, you may even want to switch to fixed mounted cannons or dumbfire missiles since you usually need this punch for larger ships. Fixed mount means less power draw and less passive heat.

 

[sqzbox1]

Thanks guys. I'll try and correct the info on Coriolis as soon as I can get in to check the specs of the engineered mods. I'm still new at this and quite possibly have got it wrong - there is such a lot of numbers I've simply shut down. As for the fuel - well, I had a long way to go Prof Palin and when I put the hull reinforcement back on I found that that, and the module reinforcement, can go in the new mil slots so I haven't yet figured out how to balance the 2 empty slots yet - well, they will be empty when I get rid of the fuel tanks. I guess one can go for scoop for sure, but what about the other? Any ideas?

I put OC pulse because I figured that more damage is the whole point of a FAS really, but perhaps it would be better bursts? Although, rapid fire pulses might help mitigate the heat problem. The shields are standard shields by the way.

Anyway, I'll update soon and report back.

 

[Rocky-451]

Pulse is more suited for smaller ships with low power, I believe. With the FAS, you have enough power to use Burst or Beam which have greater DPS. I suggest 2xL Bursts + 2xM Multicannons, or 1xL Beam and the rest Multicannons. In CZ you aim to finish off ships which already have their shields taken down by friendlies, and 2 or 3 gimballed Multicannons are very effective at that job.

 

[Ozram]

Pulse is more suited for smaller ships with low power, I believe. With the FAS, you have enough power to use Burst or Beam which have greater DPS. I suggest 2xL Bursts + 2xM Multicannons, or 1xL Beam and the rest Multicannons. In CZ you aim to finish off ships which already have their shields taken down by friendlies, and 2 or 3 gimballed Multicannons are very effective at that job.

For pve I always preferred three pulses among the bottom and a single cannon or frag at the top.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

Being a Fed designed ship means that you aren't meant for shield tanking. You might get close using prismatic shields, but lose out on the regeneration rate. The FAS and FDS are mostly designed around the standpoint of quick hit and run techniques along with shield regeneration rate.

As far as heat goes, some of this can be adjusted with lucky rolls on your weapon engineering, but can also be adjusted by moving to medium lasers instead of large. Although you lose 10 dps by going down a size you will be able to maintain firing longer before running out of power or overheating so the difference is not that much in reality. Given that you are in a more maneuverable craft, you may even want to switch to fixed mounted cannons or dumbfire missiles since you usually need this punch for larger ships. Fixed mount means less power draw and less passive heat.

This!
Try to use Bi-Weaves instead with thermal resistance mod to avoid regenrating punishment.
Use for better DPS fixed weapons, damn you got a hell of an dirty drive roll. You should be able to strife other ships forever
Get rid of the shieldboosters and SCB. The boosters slow doen your regeneration rate on bi weaves and you need them only for short time. Get 2 MRP's and a working AFMU.
engage a ship, fire what you can and stay out of his gunfire. if shields drop, just ignore it. 25 seconds later they are back and all you need is your hull.
One resistance mod on the booster will be enough, just look that you don't increase recovery and recharge rate


https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/fed...304B2m932m72b6g0d2f.Iw18aQ==.EwBjYRhCaytCYog=.

 

[CMDR DAVID187]

I've been rambling around in my FAS shooting things from time to time (when I feel like a bit of combat). I like HazRes but got chased out of CZ's. I've engineered as best I could but to be honest I really am not understanding all the subtleties involved. And since 2.2.03 I somehow seem to be no better than when I was completely unengineered - seems a bit more squishy now. I wonder if you guys who are good at this stuff could offer some advice.

As for weapons, I like the pulse lasers and cannons - seems like the best combo for general combat, PP sniping and the like, and fits well within the power constraints - although I do seem to be heating up a whole lot more now.

Here's the build as it stands at the moment - https://eddp.co/u/tfRRe3eE

Notice that Coriolis says I have 1048 MJ of shields yet the defence screen in the game says different at 517. Have I updated Coriolis incorrectly? Or is this normal? Anyway, here's a shot of the aforementioned Defence screen.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/F1tik0N.jpg[/url]

Is a specialist build even necessary to kill npc's? Playing against npc's is just mundane. Get in open speak to some cmdrs, rebuy, edit build, speak to more cmdrs rebuy again, edit build again! You will soon git gud! It's got to be better than an npc saying he's going to boil you up hasn't it!!

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

Is a specialist build even necessary to kill npc's? Playing against npc's is just mundane. Get in open speak to some cmdrs, rebuy, edit build, speak to more cmdrs rebuy again, edit build again! You will soon git gud! It's got to be better than an npc saying he's going to boil you up hasn't it!!

Loadouts for PvE and PvP are completely different and this won't help him. For PvP ot would be already the wrong ship. He has asked for suggestions for a PvE build for his FAS and he has received some nice suggestions

 

[sqzbox1]

I fixed up the numbers on coriolis - agrees with the game now. https://eddp.co/u/tfRRe3eE

Cannons or Multi-cannons? I liked the cannons because of anaconda PP sniping. Do MC's do that as effectively as the cannons?

I'll replace one of the fuel tanks with a repair unit and the other with a scoop.

I think I'll try bursts in place of the pulses - overcharged or rapid fire?
Although - the idea of a single beam and 3 MC's appeals.

And change the boosters to thermal - maybe that will make up for the poor thermal resistance of the shields themselves. I try to keep shields up all the time - with good pip management and improved flying. But even with the DD5 it is still a heavy ship and lumbers around a bit. Any other ship with gimbals can keep hitting me without too much trouble, although I can avoid most missiles and PA's.

Oh, and what about armour? I currently have mirrored composite (engineered light). Am I better off with military - light?

Appreciate the feedback - thanks all.

 

[Burlsol]

Cannons or Multi-cannons? I liked the cannons because of anaconda PP sniping. Do MC's do that as effectively as the cannons?

Generally, cannons are better for module damage or when you're hitting above the size class for the hardpoint. Multi-cannons for hull damage or if you're hitting at or below the size class for the hardpoint. With medium multicannons you'll do good damage against anything in a similar range to a python but will do reduced damage to larger ships like an anaconda. A large or huge multi-cannon however will effectively do damage against large ships both to modules as well as hull. The advantage of a cannon however is having heavy single shot damage without the trickyness and thermal output of railguns or plasma.

What works best is ultimately about you, and what you are regularly encountering. How well you can maneuver and aim means you can move to fixed mounts instead of gimbaled. What kind of ships you're facing determines if you need to focus more on shield, hull, or module damage. How much time you plan to be out in the field between resupplys determines if weapons with lower ammo count makes sense (though to a much lower degree if you have spare materials). When in doubt, 2 lasers, 2 multi-cannons works well. Cannons instead of multi-cannons if you need more spike damage, railguns if you have the heat allowance and aiming, missiles if you like getting close. All are perfectly viable.

 

[sqzbox1]

You know what? I'm thinking MC's. I just looked at the damage tables. Taking class 2 gimbaled as an example. Cannons RoF is 0.5 so that is 1 shot every 2 seconds. But of course you fire the thing and release the trigger right? And then Fire again. Timing that to exactly 2 seconds apart for firing would be humanly impossible I would think so the implication is that you are never going to be able to fire the cannone every 2 seconds - it is always going to be longer between shots. DPS is 12.3 but probably less in reality due to the human factor.

Now consider the MC's. Their DPS is 12.6. So if you can keep the trigger on for 2 seconds then you are doing the same effective damage as 1 cannon shot. That should be easily possible - and chances are, you could be hitting the same spot (module) for longer at a time, since gimbals.

So I'm thinking that MC's will actually be likely to do more actual damage in reality than the equivalent cannon. But cannons do have a very satisfying noise!

 

[Burlsol]

You know what? I'm thinking MC's. I just looked at the damage tables. Taking class 2 gimbaled as an example. Cannons RoF is 0.5 so that is 1 shot every 2 seconds. But of course you fire the thing and release the trigger right? And then Fire again. Timing that to exactly 2 seconds apart for firing would be humanly impossible I would think so the implication is that you are never going to be able to fire the cannone every 2 seconds - it is always going to be longer between shots. DPS is 12.3 but probably less in reality due to the human factor.

Now consider the MC's. Their DPS is 12.6. So if you can keep the trigger on for 2 seconds then you are doing the same effective damage as 1 cannon shot. That should be easily possible - and chances are, you could be hitting the same spot (module) for longer at a time, since gimbals.

So I'm thinking that MC's will actually be likely to do more actual damage in reality than the equivalent cannon. But cannons do have a very satisfying noise!

Cannons are better on less nimble ships where you might only have the enemy in your sights for a second or two (particularly in the case of gimbaled cannons), or where you only have small/medium mounts available but are hitting mostly larger ships. The DPS calculations don't take into account the effect of size differences, it also doesn't take into consideration loading times or how many seconds you can keep firing before you run out of ammo. Cannons can also be fired continuously by holding the trigger down, you just rarely have a target that holds still long enough for it (unless you've done enough damage to a pp).

This is why it's more about how you fly and what you're fighting than any number values you might see on the screen.

 

[Innocentius]

FAS is my go-to ship when I train to use fixed weapons. I see very little other use for it even though I would love to fly it more. The shields are just so weak that no matter what I do the BH sessions (not to mention CZ) end up short with that ship compared to FDL sessions or any of the bigger ships. When training for fixed I normally put 3 fixed in bottom and 1 gimbaled or turret on the top to faster get those pesky eagles that escape my careful (and poor) aiming attempts.

 

[Innocentius]

I made a review of FAS in PvE HazRes environment. The review is a bit long, but it points out the weaknesses and strengths of FAS when fully engineered (with full laser loadout).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTfnV8doaCc