Both, are good ships and maneuverable, the FAS is a Better hull tank but larger, the vulture has power issues, you can't put shield boosters on it with lasers, you have to engineer the pp or give up damage or shield strength I'd go with the Fas
FAS vs Vulture for PVE?
- Thread starter CMDR Rhatigan
- Start date
Both are great, but the FAS has more guns, tougher armor, and fantastic handling for Its size. You can take on anything the game will throw at you, and come out on top, nearly every time.
I'd be cautious of a wing of three medium-large ships in the Vulture, but in an FAS, I wouldn't sweat it.
I'd be cautious of a wing of three medium-large ships in the Vulture, but in an FAS, I wouldn't sweat it.
FAS? Vulture?
Nah. For me FGS, MC fit with engineering. Check out the shield possibilities. Monster. DD% drives and you are freeeeee, freeeee i tell ya....
Nah. For me FGS, MC fit with engineering. Check out the shield possibilities. Monster. DD% drives and you are freeeeee, freeeee i tell ya....
Yep.
Fluffy currently has 2 Efficient Beams, 5A thrusters, a 5A shield, a 2A SCB and 3 x 0A Shield Boosters and the G3 overcharged PP is enough to keep it all running with no power management.
I could bung a 4th booster on with minimal power management but I like having a PD on my ships.
Alternatively, there's still quite a bit of scope for further PP mod's but I don't want to push it further than necessary and risk creating heat issues.
The Vulture is only starved of power in stock form. It was part of the fun of the ship, sadly, engineers has ruined (for me, anyway) that balancing act of "Speed, shields, firepower - pick two"
Regardless, I have both (I suspect in time, you will too). For pure combat, it is by far and away the best/most fun ship for me (including the FDL). It is one of the most agile ships int he game (only just pipped by the Eagle from memory), and has the firepower to take down the biggest ships int he game - although slowly if they spam SCB's.
The agility means you can stay out of the firing arc of the big guns, and the shields are strong enough to take a decent pounding from whatever turrets can hit you while you stick to their back sides.
Learning to fly FA Off is of serious benefit in a Vulture too - I'm still learning, but it makes a stupidly agile ship just insane.
I've used my PvE build in PvP in a few conflict zones again CMDR's in Corvettes, Pythons and Anacondas, I usually survive for quite a while, and end up having to bail due to the sheer number of SCB's they seem to pack. When you've gotten the shields to barely a ring the fifth time, and you have not used an SCB yourself and are low on your last ring, it's time to go. The speed then means you can escape.
My build is:
Overcharged powerplant (A grade)
5c bi weave with G5 heat resistance
1 x Gimbal Beam (G5 efficient with thermal vent - VERY useful if, like me, you don't pack heat sinks)
1 x Overcharged (G5) gimbal Multi-cannon with corrosive shell
G5 dirty drives
G5 Extended range FSD
4A fuel scoop
Kill Warrant Scanner (G5 speed)
Advanced Discovery Scanner (I think I did a lightweight mod on this)
4T Cargo
Hull re-inforcement package in the military slot, with G5 heavy duty armour mod.
2 x 0A Shield boosters (with G5 heavy duty mod)
Hull is the normal lightweight hull, with G5 heavy duty armour mod. This basically gives you the military armour with no weight penalties. It's there to keep the ship together when the shields go down if the whole opposing side in a CZ turns against you all at once (it does happen).
In a Vulture, once the shields go down, you should be boosting, stowing your weapons and spooling the FSD. The reason it is so good, though, is because it is hard to hit.
Now, the ADS and the fuel scoop may seem a bit oddball, it means that, fully loaded, I have about 21LY jump range and can get to a fair chunk of the bubble fairly quickly. Also, when I am doing assassination missions (or any missions where you may need to scan the nav beacon, I can just honk, and my target body in the system is marked.
If a CG, Engineer or whatever is beyond, say, 250LY away, I'll just take my 50LY Asp, and get the thing shipped, and will do some hauling/recovery missions with my Asp for a local faction while I wait.
Finally, I'd actually suggest a fixed beam, and a gimbal multi (I can never see how fixed beam and fixed multi can work, you can never really fire both at once without being on top of the target, though, with a Vulture this is fairly easy to achieve.
I'm currently using gimbal everything because I suck at FA off, and while I learn, I need all the help I can get keeping enemy ships on target.
Z...
Regardless, I have both (I suspect in time, you will too). For pure combat, it is by far and away the best/most fun ship for me (including the FDL). It is one of the most agile ships int he game (only just pipped by the Eagle from memory), and has the firepower to take down the biggest ships int he game - although slowly if they spam SCB's.
The agility means you can stay out of the firing arc of the big guns, and the shields are strong enough to take a decent pounding from whatever turrets can hit you while you stick to their back sides.
Learning to fly FA Off is of serious benefit in a Vulture too - I'm still learning, but it makes a stupidly agile ship just insane.
I've used my PvE build in PvP in a few conflict zones again CMDR's in Corvettes, Pythons and Anacondas, I usually survive for quite a while, and end up having to bail due to the sheer number of SCB's they seem to pack. When you've gotten the shields to barely a ring the fifth time, and you have not used an SCB yourself and are low on your last ring, it's time to go. The speed then means you can escape.
My build is:
Overcharged powerplant (A grade)
5c bi weave with G5 heat resistance
1 x Gimbal Beam (G5 efficient with thermal vent - VERY useful if, like me, you don't pack heat sinks)
1 x Overcharged (G5) gimbal Multi-cannon with corrosive shell
G5 dirty drives
G5 Extended range FSD
4A fuel scoop
Kill Warrant Scanner (G5 speed)
Advanced Discovery Scanner (I think I did a lightweight mod on this)
4T Cargo
Hull re-inforcement package in the military slot, with G5 heavy duty armour mod.
2 x 0A Shield boosters (with G5 heavy duty mod)
Hull is the normal lightweight hull, with G5 heavy duty armour mod. This basically gives you the military armour with no weight penalties. It's there to keep the ship together when the shields go down if the whole opposing side in a CZ turns against you all at once (it does happen).
In a Vulture, once the shields go down, you should be boosting, stowing your weapons and spooling the FSD. The reason it is so good, though, is because it is hard to hit.
Now, the ADS and the fuel scoop may seem a bit oddball, it means that, fully loaded, I have about 21LY jump range and can get to a fair chunk of the bubble fairly quickly. Also, when I am doing assassination missions (or any missions where you may need to scan the nav beacon, I can just honk, and my target body in the system is marked.
If a CG, Engineer or whatever is beyond, say, 250LY away, I'll just take my 50LY Asp, and get the thing shipped, and will do some hauling/recovery missions with my Asp for a local faction while I wait.
Finally, I'd actually suggest a fixed beam, and a gimbal multi (I can never see how fixed beam and fixed multi can work, you can never really fire both at once without being on top of the target, though, with a Vulture this is fairly easy to achieve.
I'm currently using gimbal everything because I suck at FA off, and while I learn, I need all the help I can get keeping enemy ships on target.
Z...
Last edited:
A bit OT but this is one of those things where ED confuses me...
I recently tested this on 4 ships, including my Vulture, and in every case I found that a G5 lightweight-modded military hull gave the best integrity AND yielded the longest jump-range - which, presumably, means it's the lightest and, thus best for agility too.
I upgraded lightweight alloy hulls with heavy-duty G5 mod's, I upgraded reinforced alloy hulls with heavy-duty G5 mod's and I upgraded military hulls with G5 lightweight mod's.
I didn't bother looking for "god-rolls" (cos I don't have an infinite supply of G5 mat's) but I did roll each one up to 5 or 6 times to get the best (and fairly similar) results.
I tried this on a DBX, a Vulture, an AspX and a Python.
In every case, a ship fitted with a G5 lightweight military hull had higher integrity and a better jump-range than the same ship fitted with the other 2, similarly modified, hulls.
Greetings Commanders,
Recently I've decided to go away from my Annie for a bit for some faster, riskier gameplay. I kitted out a few smaller ships for various purposes and originally chose the Vulture for combat. I'm almost done collecting the materials for engineering, but before committing to the Vulture, I wanted to ask everyone's opinion on the FAS instead of the Vulture? I've recently read some good things about it and heard its maneuverability is still pretty amazing and some have referred to ti as the Vulture's "big brother".
So, from those with experience, which would you recommend? The FAS or the Vulture? please add a reason or two as to 'why' as well please!
Thanks!
CMDR Rhatigan
The FAS is generally superior to the Vulture in almost all areas, other than being slightly (but only slightly) less maneuverable and a larger target, as well as having a lower shield strength although given the power reserve it can make up for this with shield boosters better than the Vulture can. There are very few cases where a Vulture would not be at a relative disadvantage compared to an FAS especially in PvE. The FAS has much more flexibility in builds in terms of weapons choice and hardpoint placement and the military slots allow it to carry more SCBs or HRPs. The Vulture can definitely be effective against small/medium ships but the dps and shield SCB reserve of the FAS are going to make it much easier to engage medium/large targets.
With that said, when I'm doing RES/CZ combat it's usually a choice between my Vulture or FDL. I haven't used my FAS in prolonged combat for a while although I have one fully Engineered. For me it comes down to risk/reward in terms of rebuy vs. combat effectiveness. The main advantage here is that the Vulture has a low rebuy relative to its capabilities and this can be useful for high-threat environments, i.e., combat in CZs at CG systems where the threat of greifing/ganking is high. If I'm going with a more expensive ship I might as well just bring out my FDL, which is a superior combat vessel but has an 8.8 mil rebuy vs. only 1.2 mil rebuy for my Vulture. My FAS with its 3.8 mil rebuy is a reasonable middle ground but in practice I'd rather go fully in one direction or the other in terms of cost effectiveness. I haven't taken my FAS out for RES/CZ combat since it got its military slots however and my opinion might change with all the SCBs I've got on it now. The FAS is also an excellent stepping stone between the Vulture and the more expensive ships and it's also a very easy upgrade from the Vulture in terms of flight model (it's very maneuverable with very little drift).
Last edited:
An important point.
Personally, I usually select a ship based on the value/importance of whatever I'm shooting at.
If I'm after a specific ship, to complete a high-paying mission, or I absolutely want to kill the other guy, I just pick the best ship possible.
For recreational fun & games in a RES, a CZ or at a CG, where the targets aren't likely to be hugely high-value, and/or where the risk of loss is high, the Vulture is a safer bet.
